project kitchen clean up.

So, I have hated my kitchen ever since we moved into our home five years ago. It's my fault, really, because the layout of my kitchen is actually pretty awesome. I just hate the color I painted it. {DARK navy blue.} I knew that I hated it the minute it was up, but we had just finished remodeling and repainting a 2000 square foot house, and we were all painted/funded out.



So, it has stayed that way for five years while I have loathed it, and "intended" to change it, but never taken action. Well, that has FINALLY ended. Woo-hoo! I decided to tackle phase one of "project kitchen clean up."

Here is my action plan:
PHASE ONE: New paint
PHASE TWO: Art Work/Decorations
PHASE THREE: Curtains {When I find the perfect fabric}
PHASE FOUR: New counter tops and tile {When I find a great deal on the tile I want}
PHASE FIVE: Appliances

I woke up the other morning and said: "Today is the day!"

The hubs looked at me like I was nutty. {And in his defense, I am.}
I pulled some gray "Home Depot Reject" paint {that I'd been saving for a special purpose such as this} out of the garage, and wiped the walls down while Tens scooted along the kitchen floor and raided the Tupperware cupboard.

Then I put Tens down for his morning nap, PRAYED that it would be a long one, and went to work.

Kort was {mercifully!} invited to go to Seven Peaks with my dear, dear neighbor friend, so he was outta the way too!

{The stars were aligning.}

But what, you may ask, is a mother to do when she still isn't finished painting when her lil' dude arises from a THREE hour nap? {Yeah, that's right. A three hour nap. Isn't he a peach?}

Well, here was my solution.

Naked baby + Swimming Pool + A lil bit O warm water = Supervised-Corralled-Toddlerness

 

{Told you I was nutty.}

Phase One complete! 

Can't wait to share what's next. 

A major master-piece-y work of art is in the works.

Wish me luck!

Re-excited {not a word}

So, I have recently started reading the book "Pillars of the Earth"

{My good buddy Oprah said it was awe-to-the-some, so I figured I couldn't go wrong.}
I'm a couple hundred pages in {not saying much since this whopper comes in at just under a thousand pages}and I am enjoying it...sort of. {It's a little harsh in spots, harsh but realistic, so I can't really fault him there.}

It's about a monk {well, a prior} who is passionate about building a beautiful cathedral to God.
He believes that a monk shows his love for God outwardly through the way that he cares for God's buildings, namely the small - very run down/neglected- monastery in which he is made prior.  When he arrives at his new post, he is furious with the other monk's laziness and quickly whips the monastery into shape.

As I've read about his devotion to the place he calls home, it has caused for a lot of reflection about the care of my own home and the day-to-day life I lead here.

And it has inspired me anew to get to work!
And I am really excited about it.

Creating a beautiful, clean, and orderly space is honestly the most important task I have in this phase of my life {and probably in every phase of life, really}. This is the place where I'll raise my children. The place where all of their memories will be made. The place where my husband comes to relax at the end of a long day. The place where my children will learn and grow and form life-long sibling relationships. And I want it to be a good great place for them to do all of those things.

I also want it to be a space that makes me smile when I enter it.
A space where I can relax, do the things I love to do, and regenerate day after day.

I think that I have gotten into a rut again where I am choosing to do "other things" {reading, prepping the tv segment, running errands, working on craft projects...}BEFORE I do the essential things that will make our home a happy, organized place to be.

Don't get me wrong. My kids aren't living in a pile of filth and wondering where their next meal is going to come from or anything nutsie like that. I just know that our day-to-day existences could just be that much brighter. More meaningful. More beautiful. A better outward expression of our love for God and the joy that this love infuses into every facet of the way we live our lives.

So, I'm HOPING {fingers crossed!} that I can start blogging about our daily progress and sharing small successes with you. I want to do the following:

*Make our home more beautiful by decorating it with things that we love, things that have meaning, and things that make us smile.
*Clean more and more regularly. Try to find a system that works for me - something that I can stick with.
*Go to bed early and get up early and stop taking naps when Tentens does. {He's almost one and is sleeping through the night for crying out loud! I think the good old "Sleep when the baby sleeps." adage has officially hit it's deadline! Darn.}
*Keep spending quality time with the boys each day. Today we painted a painting to hang in the kitchen. Kort had so much fun, and we had such a good talk, and if I could regularly create moments like that, our home couldn't be anything other than heavenly {even if it was "technically" a mess}.
* Go from room to room and make a list of all of the small repairs or decorating issues that need to be tackled, then make a conscious effort to check those things off. {slowly but surely}
*Go through all of the closets and drawers in my house {one by one, baby steps, of course} and purge, purge, purge!!

I am working on some really fun organizational and decorating projects that I am really excited to share. {In true Laura fashion, they are all about 50% done... heaven forbid I start and finish one thing at a time! That would like, make sense or something!}

Pudding Paint.

I decided to go all sorts of old schoolwith my kiddos and bust out some pudding paints. {a.k.a. 3 packages of powdered vanilla pudding mixed with milk, separated into several bowls, and then colored with different food coloring.}

After my anal Easter Egg Dying Tyrade last month, I felt it important to have a therapeutic crafting evening where anything goes!



And if I had a quarter for every time Kort gasped and said "Ooops! I just got some on the wall..." OR "Sorry, I just smeared it on the floor.." I would be one VERY ashamed millionaire! Oi.

I had to keep reassuring him.

"That's okay bud!
We're just having fun.
No, really, it's okay.
That's okay too.
...annnnd, that's okay.
Just have FUN!"

And I was SO SAD to realize that I had done this to my child.

He was so concerned about
"these things"
and
"those things"
and
"that thing"
and I thought - since WHEN did I start {unwittingly} teaching my children that "things" were anything more than just, well, THINGS?!

It was a wonderful learning experience.

It also put a microscope up to my perceptions of the kind of mother that I like to think that I am, and made me reflect on how I might make those {admittedly flattering} visions of myself manifest more readily in the here and now.

{Did that even make sense? It's getting late...}

One great example was Tennyson.

He was totally stressed, holding his pudding-dipped leg up in the air lest it drop down, touch MORE pudding, and therefore become even further pudding-dipped. {Which, would like, be a total nightmare, right?}

And I thought:

I want him to experience the sensations of cool pudding on warm fingers... and love it.

I want him to be able to play in the mud,

and to fearlessly tear into his birthday cake come August 13th.

I want him to have spaghetti in his hair and happy in his heart.

I want him to tread {dare I say it?} recklessly through the tactile parts of much of the world and feel and do and be as freely as other animals feel and do and be.

Without guilt.
Without fear.
Without over-thinking every gosh darn aspect of his
over-stressed/over-planned/much too restrictive life!

And I can help him do this by letting go.

Kort used to experience life this way,
and listening to him apologize for
every minuscule smudge
made me want to slap myself silly and scream
"What have you done to him?
Where is my wiley, silly, care-free boy?"



And I've decided that I want my children to live in a home full of joy rather than eggshells.

I want them to know that they are more important than the couches, the floors, the carpet, or any other THING furnishing the place.

But the best news?

Kids are resilient.

They bounce back.
They forget.
They live in the present.

And after ten minutes of
"It's okay's!" and "Just have funs."
They were both up to their eyeballs in
hideously unnatural shades of vanilla pudding.



And man, it tasted good.



The girls at communal global want to know what YOUR today looks like. Link up and share!

feeling springy.

It just takes one beautiful spring day to get my happy going.
That, combined with a visit to the Springville Reams grocery store,
{in jelly sandals, no less}
and I was high as a kite.
Ah, and how I love their gorgeous produce.
In the interest of full-disclosure,
I don't get free things or money from Reams for saying that.
{I wish!} 

I DO, however, get the royal treatment every time I go there.
As for this time?
Yeah, um, pretty sure that right as I came through the front doors,
there was a bag boy standing there.

{I don't like to call Reams bag boys
"bag boys" though.
I prefer to call them:
customer-service-specialist-executives/wonderful-chipper-and oh so helpful manchildren...
It's simply just more fitting.}

and what did the CSSEWCHMC say to me?

"Welcome, to Reams.
Can I wipe down a cart for you?"

You heard me right.
He offered to CLEAN my shopping cart for me.
 Yep. Totally happened.
Eat your heart out, Kate Middleton.
You're officially no longer the only princess on the block!

{Isn't this purple-y garlic gorge?
I know, I know, I totally took pictures of garlic... nerd---y.

But I was just so darn tickled with them... Pretty, pretty.}

Amidst all of the cold storminess that IS April in Utah, I have been craving hot chocolate, spice cakes, creamy potato soups, and all sorts of fall-ish foods. But today, my cravings were influenced by blue skies, 70 degree temperatures, and the promise of a much anticipated spring.

I sliced up fresh zucchini and yellow squash
and sauteed it in butter and fresh garlic,
then I sauteed some chicken breasts in
garlic, olive oil, and Italian seasonings.

Then we melted fresh Parmesan Cheese on the top, and voila!
A light, simple, summery meal.



We spent the rest of the evening sitting on a blanket in the backyard
eating Smoked Gouda and Ritz crackers,
while I read "The Boxcar Children" aloud to my boys.

Kort threw a toy airplane around the yard while our
neurotic Border Collie harassed the neighbor dogs
through cracks in our 20-year-old fence
and Tennyson squealed with delight at
all of the various antics. 

Now the wind is throwing branches against the side of our house
and rain is tinkling on the tin roof that hangs over our back deck.
Yep. My blue skies are already a thing of the past as
another wet April storm gets set to come barreling through.
It's a little depressing,
but I can't help but lay in bed tonight and smile.
Because those summer days are drawing ever nearer.
So close I can taste it.

morning.

Wake to the happy sounds of an 8 month old chatting away in his crib.
Look at the clock.

6:45 a.m.

Think to self: I'll get get a few more z's while he plays in his crib.

Wake again.

It's 7:15

Look at baby monitor and see that a 7 year old has now
climbed into the crib and is playing peek-a-boo with baby.
Baby is giggling.
Think to self: I'll just get a feeeew MORE z's while they play together.

Wake again to a cold little finger poking my bare arm.

It's the seven year old.
He is holding a big soggy diaper.
"Baby's diaper was REALLY big," he says.
"He needed a new one, so I took this one off,
but now I can't get a new one on.
I need your help."

Leap out of bed.

Hurry into the nursery.
Find a half-naked baby,
still perfectly content,
kicking and squealing
in a huge puddle of fresh pee.

But wait, there's more...

Pee on the walls.
Pee dripping from the crib bars.
Pee soaked into his jammies.

Laugh out loud.
Did I really think that those extra minutes of sleep
wouldn't come at a price?
{Answer: no.}

Seven year old says:
"Oh wow, sorry mom."

Laugh even louder.
"That's okay, bud.
It was time to change Ten's sheets anyway.

{We don't call him Catalyst Kortland for nothing.}

It's so nice having a big helper around.

Get baby cleaned up.

Put baby into his high chair.
Dump a generous helping of Cinnamon Burst Cheerios onto his tray.

Make breakfast burritos.

Serve breakfast burritos.
Talk at the breakfast table.
Try to deliver believable laughs as 7 year old tells bad jokes.

Ask seven year old to please stop kicking his chair.
Ask seven year old to please stop tapping his foot.

Ask seven year old to please stop clinking his glass.
Ask seven year old to please stop slapping the table top.

Seven year old starts asking:
"Can I tap like this?"

No.

"Can I tap like this?"

I'd rather you didn't.

"Can I tap like this?"

Ignore him.

"Can I tap like....this?"

Keep ignoring him.

"Mom? Mom? Mom? Mom?
Momomomomomomomomomomom
momomomomomomomomomomom?"

"Kortland James Dugovic, you'd better watch it."

Seven year old laughs.
So glad SOMEONE thinks his is fun.
I threaten to ground said seven year old.

Go to the bathroom.
Comb his hair.
Coat, backpack, kisses, prayers.

Remind him to be good for his teacher.
Send him out the door.

Rinse.
Repeat.

{Sans the free-for-all-peeing and incessant pestering, yes?}

Yes.


How was YOUR morning?

neurotic.

I noticed that I was a WHOLE lotta fun to dye Easter eggs with the other day. So I thought I would share the parental wisdom gleaned from our little dye sesh so all of y'all can be a fun mom like me. So, without further ado, I give to you:

Ten things 

you can say to your child 

to help make egg-dye-ing 

much less fun.

"Hold on bud, it's not ready yet."

{Because kids love to wait.}

"Not yet.... Not yet..."

{More waiting. JUST what a seven year old wants to do!}

"Wait! Not like that!"

{Because there is only ONE way to dye an Easter egg. Obviously.
Besides, art should be restrictive and anal...didn't you know?}

"You're dyeing your fingers. Put on these gloves."

{Because, yeah, purple-y blue fingers practically ='s end of the world. Who's with me?}

"You're dripping! You're dripping everywhere!"

{Again, end of the world. You have to... *gasp* ....wipe. drips. up.... and stuff!}

"Don't mix the colors."

{Cause kids shouldn't make their own colors... heavens no.}

"Be patient. Just let it soak in there for a minute"

{Cause arts and crafts time? ALL about micromanagement. That's what makes it creative... and fun.}

"It's getting all over the table."

{If you care so darn much about the table, then maybe you should have put newspapers down on said table. It is a table, woman. A TABLE!!}

"Don't get it on your clothes!"

{Maybe you should have had him change into clothes that could get messy. Just a thought.}

"If you keep dropping them in all of the different colors, your eggs are just going to be poop brown."

{So?}

"Hold on. I need to wipe this up."

{Yes. Right now. In the MIDDLE of our project, I need to wipe this up. Who cares that it will just get dirty again? Who cares that there are at least a million more drips to come before this egg dye-ing process is complete? I sensed that you were having fun for too many consecutive minutes and might even be getting into some sort of happy groove. So we need to pause and get the table all sorts of spotless before you continue to make your mess.}



Yeah, we ONLY like the good CLEAN kind of fun at our house.
{Does clean fun constitute an oxymoron? Perhaps.}

I think we need a do over.
Yep.

So, this weekend,
I'm gonna take a xanax,
and we're gonna try this again.

And I'm gonna let that kid
take a gall dern BATH
in egg dye if he wants to.

Because I'm a fun mom, dang it!
A FUN MOM!!!!

easter nests

I was looking for something fun and Easter-y to do with Kort this afternoon,
and turned to the trusty Miss Nigela Lawson.
I wasn't disappointed.
{Neither was he.}
These were so much fun to make.
All you need is this:

1. Shredded Wheat. I LOVED going to the supermarket and locating the big biscuit versions of these. The nostalgia was all but overwhelming. I was instantly 8 years old again and transported back to my grandparent's home in Marysvale, Utah. I remember Papa {my grandfather} eating them for breakfast. I also remember ME eating them for breakfast because I wanted to be grown up, and sophisticated like Papa was. Mine, however, had about 4 tablespoons of sugar sprinkled on top to make those icky biscuits palatable.

So, I guess I wasn't so distinguished after all.

Flash forward twenty-two years later and you'll find, I'm not much better! Now, instead of a few spoonfuls of table sugar, I'm saturating them in milk chocolate.

2. Milk chocolate chips. {Of course, you can go with semi-sweet or bitter if you're all grown up and such, but as for me - I like my chocolate as sweet as it can get!}

3. Cadbury's Chocolate Eggs.
{Oh be still my heart, how I love those little pastel delights.}

Okay, listen up, this is where it gets complicated...or not so much:

1. Melt the chips {via microwave or stove top, whatever floats your boat.}
2. Smush up the shredded wheat biscuits and sprinkle them into the chocolate. {I used a bag of choc. chips and three biscuits, but you can just play around until it's the consistency you prefer. Not a big fan of rules up in here.}
3. Stir.
4. Plop by the spoonful onto parchment and shape into little nests.
5. Decorate with lil' eggs {Having tried your darndest not to have eaten all of them already by this point.}

I think they are just so darn kitschy and charming.


These were so easy and rewarding, but I gotta be honest.
Chocolate? Not my fave.
So we decided to play around with some other options.

Like peanut butter. 

Mmmmmmm.

So we took these:

1. Chow mein noodles

2. Peanut butter chips

3. Cadbury eggs.

and made these:


The peanut butter melts kinda funny.
You have to just let it sit in the pot
{on low, low heat}
and NOT stir and just let it melt.

Strange.




Then I dumped in some chow mein noodles
{totally just eyeballed it}
and stirred.

These were a little more dry and crumbly,

but man are they delicious.

{Says the peanut butter lover}.

I am going to try a different peanut butter recipe that I have used for peanut butter rice crispy treats, and see if those aren't a little more gooey and mold-able. I will let you know if I try...and if they are... and such...

And finally, for my absolute favorite of the nesty test kitchen experiments,
My own personal Arc Du Triumph....



Pretzels with white chocolate and cinnamon!!!!




These make the most chunky, random nests of the bunch, but they are also the yummiest. I crushed some of the pretzels and left others whole to give it some different textures, and sprinkled a cinnamon/sugar mixture into the pot as I stirred.

These are sinful.

I ate almost all of them all by my lone.

Aren't they just so twiggy looking?
Kinda fun.



So anyway, it was fun to try some new spins on an old favorite.
Let me know if you make them with your kiddos!

If you liked this article or found it fun or helpful in any way, please pass it along by sharing it on facebook, twitter, or even your own blog! {The tools to share are right below.} Thanks!