Summer List of Things to Do

Now that I'm finished with my internship (WHAT?!?!) I can focus on doing some serious organizing around the house this summer!

I made a list of projects/wish-list purchases that we'd like to get done or buy this summer.  This list is probably not all inclusive, but I would like to challenge myself to see how many things I can knock off this list by early August.

• White curtains in dining room (right now I have black-out curtains in a chocolate brown shade, and even though I have them pulled to the side, it still darkens the room more than I'd like)
• New dining room chairs.  (the ones we have are this wicker/rattan material.  My mother-in-law gave them to us when she gave us our dining room table when she moved into her new house and purchased a different table and chairs.  The table is great-- I love it.  It's a big long rectangle and I can sit a lot of people around it.  The chairs, however, aren't my favorite. They're big and bulky and I cannot strap a booster seat to them-- which meant I had to hang onto two of my older dining room chairs so that my boys could have booster seats a few years ago.  Now that they're out of booster seats, Avery is just getting to the age where she can sit in a booster seat rather than a high chair.  I'd like to give Aaron's dad the original dining chairs (since he has the other four, plus our old dining table), but I need to keep at least one of these chairs for Avery. The boys aren't quite strong enough to maneuver the wicker chairs, so I'd like to get something a little more streamlined that they can scoot in and out easily.  And the biggest reason of all is that the wicker chairs are hard to clean.  A few weeks ago, Avery was sitting in my lap at the table when she suddenly got sick and vomited everywhere, to include the dining chair.  I could not, for the life of me, get all of the curdled milk out of the intricacies of the wicker chair.  Gross, I know. I'd like to have something smaller, more streamlined, and easier to clean!)
• Canvas of Avery for the dining room.  I currently have a canvas of both boys, and now that Avery is nearly two I suppose I should start putting up some nice photos of her around the house too.  Can you tell I've been busy lately?  Now that I have extra time to evaluate some things, I'm trying to make sure I hit all the "mom" items on my list. 
• Bunk beds for boys. (This is still up in the air.  Part of me wants them to have bunk beds so that they have extra space to play in their room-- our rooms are quite small.  But part of me doesn't want to deal with teaching them to make the bed from bunk beds, and I also have a sneaky suspicion that if I put bunk beds in their room that they would suddenly feel like they were world-class stunt doubles and attempt triple salchows from the top bunk.)
• Dresser for Noah. (Sweet little Noah.  He's been using half of the top drawer and the full bottom drawer for all of his clothes for five years now.  When he was born, I combined his clothes into Michael's four-drawer dresser.  Now that they're bigger and their clothes are bigger, it's about time both of them have their own full dressers to use.  This is also a case for getting bunk beds so I'd actually have space for a dresser in their room.  Currently, their single dresser is in the closet.)
• TV & TV stand. (When we bought our TV eight years ago, I assumed it could hang on the wall.  We bought an entertainment center shortly before buying the TV, so we didn't need to hang the TV on the wall, but I always assumed we could if we wanted.  I was wrong. The boys didn't mess with the TV while growing up, but Avery is another story.  I'm so worried that she'll knock it onto herself and I mentioned hanging it from the wall a month or so ago and that's when Aaron broke the news that it isn't capable of being hung on the wall.  We've toyed with the idea of getting a TV, but we've resisted since we don't technically need one. This would be a purchase justified for safety reasons, but we know we can put it off for a while too.  The TV stand is showing wear-and-tear now that it's eight years old and wasn't the most expensive purchase at the time.  One of the drawers was dropped when we moved into this house three years ago, which is fine with me.  I can get past cosmetic issues.  One of the glass cabinet doors randomly fell off about a year ago.  That was annoying since it closed off the DVDs, and Avery started making a game of opening every box and throwing DVD discs on the living room floor.  So now I have the DVDs on some of the side shelves, (which means I can't see any of my knick knacks) but she's tall enough enough now that she can pull them off of there, too, which also causes a mess and will cause a bigger mess if she pulls the glass shelf down too.)
• Office clean out.  We actually did most of this one this past week!  We cleared out all of the random boxes on the floor and actually have space in here again!  I have some work to do on the bookshelf in here, and I really prefer a nearly empty desk and right now it's covered with some of my internship binders and paperwork that I no longer need. 
• Garage clean out.  We get a styrofoam cooler each time we have insulin delivered to the house, so we have approximately 758 coolers and we don't actually have a need for these-- at least not all of them.  I'm going to take my Popa's advice and take some to Goodwill.  Now that I have free time, I can do that this week!  Noah and my mother-in-law were regularly going to the recycling place in a nearby city and they'd take some cardboard boxes with them, but they stopped going during the winter.  Now that I'm off, I can make a couple trips with Noah and get our cardboard box collection under control again.  We have a shelf unit in the garage and it's kind of full of things we don't need/use.  Aaron and I need to take a weekend and really sort through it.  That'll probably happen in the next couple weeks now that Upwards will be over and he won't be spending half his Saturdays refereeing soccer games. 
• Shrubbery outside of the house.  Avery had this tea tree or something outside of her window and it got out of control and was soon taller than the house and would scratch her window like Nightmare on Elm Street-- not that I would really know, but it sounded creepy nonetheless.  Aaron cut back the tree a couple weekends ago.  We have plans to trim back or tear out most of the bushes in front of the house and replace them with gravel and some smaller flowering bushes. 
• Deck stairs and pressure washing.  One set of our deck stairs was built right up against the side of the house, which doesn't allow rain water to drain well, so it stays on the cinder blocks and looks dingy.  We can borrow my father-in-law's pressure washer and clean off that area, and when we redo the deck boards that need fixing, we'll replace the stairs and leave about an inch of space between the stairs and the house. 
• Roof.  Our house is 19 years old, so it's nearly due time for a roof.  It seems about half of the houses in our neighborhood have been roofed in the past year, so we have plenty of neighbors to get recommendations from!
• Shop clean out. We have a barn/shop/storage building in our backyard and I have lots of photography things left in there that I need to tackle this summer and organize. 
• Linen closet clean out-- also known as diabetes supply closet.  I need to organize all of the supplies and arrange them in order of expiration date. 
• Master closet clean out.  Did anyone else save every wedding and anniversary card?  No?  Just me then?  That being said, I need to clean out the closet and examine if I actually need to save everything.  
• Boys closet clean out. (Their closet is full of bins of clothes they've outgrown.  Some of these we will give to Aaron's stepsister and her baby boy when they visit this summer.  Others we'll probably end up just donating.  I've been holding onto stuff to consign, but it just becomes too much and I don't like clutter). 
• Avery closet clean out.  See a theme? (Her closet is full of clothes that one day she'll fit into, and clothes she's outgrown.  Some of these we'll send to a cousin in Washington who just had a baby girl, and some we'll consign, and some I just need to donate). 
• Bathroom reno.  We're deciding how long we'll be in this home.  Eventually, we'd like to buy 15+ acres and build a home, but we know we're not there yet.  We don't plan to look for land until I get my tenure from teaching, which will be three years in the same district. So until then, we're trying to make our home comfortable for us while we're here.  We've had plans to reno our bathroom since before we got pregnant with Avery.  We'd like to convert our tub into a tiled shower and take out our shower-insert and install floating wood shelves instead. I don't think this is something we'll do this summer, but I figured I'd write it down anyway. 
• Paint kitchen areas.  Yes, I still have two upper corners of my kitchen (and behind my fridge) that are not painted. This frustrates me so much.  I just need to take care of this. 

Whew!  I'm happy to challenge myself this summer and try to get most of these things done!  

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Easter Weekend

I had Good Friday off for the first time since completing my undergrad degree in 2009.  It was a fantastic day off with the kids.  Aaron's company gives that day off too, so that made it super sweet.  We had some storms roll through the night before, but nothing that made us get up in the middle of the night.  That morning, we did some brief shopping for what we planned to make for Sunday morning breakfast at church.  That afternoon, I went with my mom to our local pop-up consignment shop because it was a 50% off day. We ended that day by going to my parents' house for dinner.


On Saturday, Aaron went to help set up inflatables for our church's combined Easter egg hunt with another nearby church.  Afterwards, we got ready to go to our friend's birthday party for her three year old little girl. The kids LOVE going to her house because she has a lot of land and her husband will bring in a truck-load of dirt/sand and dump it in the front yard for the kids to play in. All three of mine were covered in dirt from head to toe!  A real testament to a good time!



We went home and got them cleaned up (read: dumped about a pound of sand out of their shoes).  Aaron headed over to his mom's house while Avery napped.  Once Avery was up, I loaded up all three kids and headed there as well.  Aaron's brother and his family were in town so we went over to Aaron's mom's house for a family dinner and Easter egg hunt.  My parents and Aaron's dad and stepmom all joined us.  The kiddos (all 7) had a blast blowing bubbles and searching for eggs (or chocolate bunnies for the older ones).  Aaron had to swing by the store on the way home because we realized we bought nothing for Easter meals the next day.

On Sunday, I went to Sonrise Service at church and Aaron brought all three kids in time for the church-wide breakfast. Afterwards, Aaron spent the day fishing with my dad and brother and I hung out at home with my little ones and ended up making the entire Easter dinner by myself since fishing took longer than anyone was expecting (and it was my mom's weekend to work). That evening, we had my parents and younger brother over for dinner and then tried out the massive bubble maker outside!  Overall, it was a super fun weekend with the right balance of busy and rest!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Cold Brew Coffee

In the mornings on weekdays, Aaron and I are in the kitchen by 5:40am-- usually much earlier. One of the best parts about my day is getting my first cup of coffee.  That sounds so cliche, but it's really not.  Several months ago, Aaron decided to try cold brewing our coffee.  I didn't fully join him in using this type of coffee until recently (read: I ran out of my Costco-sized Folger's coffee that I would put in my reusable K-cups, and he offered a cup of cold brew instead).

Aaron found a brand of coffee to order from the internet, and he put us on auto-shipments so we'll never run out.  The company is Black Rifle Coffee Company and it's run by Veterans.  Each month, they send us three bags of ground coffee, all varying in flavor and depth of roast.  I think we've tried nearly all of the flavors now and none of them disappoint.  Aaron can tell the difference between each flavor, but most of them taste very similar to me.

He uses a cold brew system that he found on Amazon. It came with two types of filters-- a round disk filter and a bag-type filter. We prefer the bag filters because some of the coffee is so finely ground that it won't allow water to pass through it when the disk filter is used.  We've reordered bag filters on Amazon only once so far.

The system is a glass caraffe with a plastic lid.  This is where the coffee is stored in the fridge once it's made. When it's time to brew, we place a plastic tub with a rubber stopper in place over the lid of the empty glass caraffe and we put the filter in, then 12 ounces of coffee grounds and a few cups of water.  We leave it like this overnight. The rubber stopper keeps the grounds and water in the plastic tub to brew overnight (or for twelve hours).  In the morning, we unplug the tub and the coffee drips through the filter into the glass caraffe.

Now, cold brew coffee is highly concentrated, so I only pour about a quarter inch of coffee into a mug, then I take it to the Keurig where I just add hot water and it makes the perfect cup of coffee.  I drink it black with no cream or sugar and it's delightful.  Aaron, on the other hand, pours some concentrate into a BlenderBottle or stainless travel mug, then adds water to make about 16 ounces of coffee, then puts in cream and sugar and ice cubes to make an iced coffee.

This system really works well for us and because the coffee is cold-brewed, we eliminate the acidic edge that hot-brewed coffee can develop.



Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Nordstrom Spring Sale Favorites

Hey there!  I hope you're having a fabulous Good Friday!  This is the first year as an adult that I've actually gotten this day off of work.  I'm finishing up my internship for my Master's degree and that comes with all the perks of being on a school schedule!  So today I'm off with my kiddos and husband and am excited to bring to you some of my favorite finds from the springtime Nordstrom sale.  This sale lasts until the 22nd, so if you see something you like, jump on it fast!  

First, this Iridescent Sequin Accent Pillow:

                                                

When I was substitute teaching for an elementary teacher in the fall, I noticed that she had a couple of these sequin pillows in her classroom.  The students told me that these were for them to hug or play with when they needed a few seconds to calm down if their feelings were hurt or if they were frustrated about a certain concept.  I thought this was a fantastic idea!  I have debated getting a few of these to put on my kids' beds so that they have something tangible to work out their feelings with.



Next is a lattice knit accent pillow:

                                                       

I love all home decor things that look like a chunky knit sweater and this pillow is no exception!  The neutral color would complement any decor, and it just gives off that cozy vibe that I feel makes a house a home.


Now, I'm no gardener and don't even pretend to have a green thumb, but there are always certain pretty things that inspire me to try again!  This watering can is one of those.  Don't we all just feel like using a pretty item will make us better at something?!? No? Just me then.

                                                           

The peplum shirt trend has been around for a few years now and doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon, so if you've been on the fence about trying out a clothing item in this trend, there's no better time than now.  This peplum tee by Caslon is subtle enough to not look maternity, but is defined enough to signify that it's peplum.


                                                         

This shirt comes in three colorways: black, white, and a black/white stripe.  I recommend the black or the white as those two colors look slimmer on the torso.  The stripe, to me, looks a bit wide.  I have a very long torso and wide cuts don't appear flattering on me, so this is just my take on the color options available with this tee.


I saw an Insta-story from one of my favorite accounts to follow (@calliedauler) and she talked about these Sam Edelman pumps. They fade from sparkle to black and are so cute!  She said that she could wear them around work and her feet didn't hurt, which to me is a gold-star review!  These pumps are so unique in their ombre color-scheme and they could easily be worn to work or a date night!  They're pricey for my budget, but if you were going to get them then 30% off is actually a really great deal!




                                               

For the tech-savvy finds, this phone charger is so neat because it can accommodate Android and Apple products!  This is a gem in our house since Michael uses an older iPhone for his CGM, and Aaron and I both have Android devices.  It would be nice to have one charger be able to fit a variety of brands!  It's under $20 too, which is a major plus!

                                                          




For displaying dyed Easter eggs, this bunny-theme egg holder is so cute!  It's the perfect size to display just a few of the colorful eggs without overwhelming the table-scape.



                                                   

I LOVE a good themed dish towel!  This one comes in a pack of two and the little pom-pom trim is on trend and so fun!

                                              



I'm always thinking of gifts that we could give to teachers or nurses at the end of the school year or even for Christmas!  This three-pack of journals is a great deal because you can split them up and add a journal to three separate gifts.

                                                     


These are just some of the hundreds of sale items in Nordstrom's springtime sale.  Take a look around and see if you find some good deals for yourself and your family this weekend!



Tomorrow, we're heading to the birthday party of a family friend (complete with Easter egg hunt), then we will have a family dinner at my in-laws (with another Easter egg hunt).  On Sunday, we'll wake up early, I'll go to the Sonrise service at church and Aaron & the kids will come a little later for a churchwide breakfast.  Aaron & I plan to bake a ham that afternoon and have my parents over, and we'll probably do one more Easter egg hunt around the backyard for our own kids.  We're remembering the true meaning of this weekend and the holiday-- that Jesus died in place of our sins, then rose again on Easter Sunday showing that He has defeated death and has made a way for us to experience salvation.



Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba


Linking up with Andrea at Momfessionals for Friday Favorites!

Pony Tail Style

Avery's hair has really grown since her birthday in August.  She still refuses to wear hairbands, but sometimes she'll wear hair clips or the occasional ponytail holder to create a Pebbles hairdo. This usually lasts for a couple hours until she pulls out the ponytail holder.

Her hair is not very thick, but it's getting pretty long, so I've tried pulling it into a regular ponytail. She'll leave it alone for about 30 minutes, but it's so cute while it lasts!

This doesn't keep her hair out of her eyes though. But I know eventually, her hair will either get long enough to tuck behind her ears or she'll get to where she leaves hairbows alone or she'll figure out how to brush it out of her eyes.

Here's some photos of her ponytails!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Easter Basket Ideas

Easter is my favorite holiday.  We always have a ham dinner around Easter-- either at one set of parents' homes or our own. This year, we're not hosting Easter dinner but we do plan to bake our own ham simply for the benefit of having leftovers!

Only within the past two years have I actually put together an assortment of gifts for my kids on Easter morning. I had one Easter basket while growing up--a church member had given one to my brothers and me.  I remember mine had a purple Pocahontas coloring book and I thought it was the greatest thing.  Aaron got Easter baskets every year.  We decided to start doing an "Easter bundle" for our kids a couple of years ago.  Of course, they love every excuse to get presents, so they're all for it!  We do not tell them that the goodies came from the Easter bunny.  We don't really spark belief in the Easter bunny here, because we want our kids to trust in the true story of Easter.  We don't bring up the Easter bunny a whole lot, though, because we don't necessarily want our kids spoiling that belief for other kids who choose to believe in it, or whose parents tell them that's where their baskets come from. We don't even do "baskets" on Easter morning.  I just pile up the goodies on the couch into individualized sections for each kids, then a combined goodies section in the middle.

This year, so far, I have a "make your own comic book" for Michael. He is very much into drawing comics and writing little stories, so I know he will LOVE this!  I chose a version that did not already include thought bubbles because, well, that's just kind of awkward. The book arrived on Saturday and I'm super pumped! It'll be hard to refrain from giving him this gift early!

I also bought these bubble wands that are supposed to make humongous bubbles.  I'm hoping they live up to the hype!  I also got some "just add water" bubble solution for them. I'm anxious to see how well that works. The bubbles are for the enjoyment of all three kids (plus Aaron and myself!).

Noah loves all things garbage trucks and police, but already has so many toys in those categories. I thought about getting him a Play-doh garbage truck due to his latest bout of playing with Play-doh, but instead I'm going to get him a few new Play-doh colors to replace ones that have dried and I ordered him these police car & badge cookie cutters and construction vehicle cookie cutters (one is a dump truck and we can pretend it's a garbage truck).  He can use the cookie cutters to make shapes in the Play-doh.

I'll probably get Avery some pretend food for make-believe play. Easter would be the perfect time to stock up on bows, but she doesn't keep them in her hair, so that would be a waste of money over here. She has recently begun playing with the tiny toy kitchen that the boys got for Christmas a few years ago.  In fact, she learned how to open doors and would sneak into their room to play with it so I moved it into her own room.  It might be fun for her to have some pretend food for her to play with.

I'm not planning to have any candy in their Easter bundle-- mainly because they didn't finish their candy from Valentine's Day and they don't need candy.  Instead, I'm hoping that they will find things to do that will make them engage in imaginative play and limit screen time.

Lately, Michael and Noah have opted to play together rather than watch shows (or play video games in Michael's case). They get along so much better when the TV is off and when they're using their imaginations. Sure they still squabble, but it's few and far between now. Their Easter bundle will give them ample opportunities to play on their own and together, without screens.

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba

Denim Jacket

I'm probably the last to jump aboard the denim jacket campaign, but better late than never!  This spring, I am completing my internship at a high school and wear business or business casual clothes everyday. The classroom I'm in can fluctuate in temperature several times during a class period and I learned early on to always wear a sweater. However, my only sweaters are a deep pink color and a printed blue sweater. These color combos only go so far.

Since the weather down here in the South is flirting with summer temperatures, I have shopped my closet to find dresses to wear to school.  To be school appropriate, the dress cannot rise more than 6 inches above my knee-- with short legs, this is fairly simple to abide by.  So most of my dresses are long enough for the dress code, but they are sleeveless.  These dresses also don't go very well with a pink or blue sweater. I searched for a while for a denim jacket to help out with this.  I have a very tight budget right now since the internship is unpaid, so I couldn't shell out $70 for a jacket.

I turned to my budget friendly places like Target and Walmart. Although I found options at both, I ended up ordering this jacket online from Walmart. It was the color scheme I wanted (normal denim blue as opposed to light or dark wash), it wasn't cropped or distressed, it didn't have weird silhouettes on the buttons, and it was under $20!

I chose the "ship to store" option, and it arrived to the store in 2 days with no shipping charge. I downloaded the Walmart app so I could alert them when I was en route, and they had the jacket ready for me when I arrived.

If I just hold up the jacket, it feels heavy, but it doesn't feel heavy when I'm actually wearing it. It has a bit of stretch in it which I appreciate in a jacket.  It's not stiff, which is also a major plus.  I roll the sleeves once to create a 3/4 sleeve and it's perfect for keeping me warm in class and also providing a great neutral cover up for my sleeveless dresses!

Today, I even wore it with a blue blouse and printed maxi skirt. It serves the purpose of adding an extra later to my outfits while bringing in a slightly casual element to my clothes. I'm really glad I finally jumped on the denim jacket trend!

Until Next Time,
Much love, Reba