Our retreat

Several months ago I was at my talented friend Kelly's house admiring a new space she created in her bedroom with two chairs, a table, a shelf, and some beautiful decorations. It was a sitting area for her and her husband to escape to after a long day.

We were talking about the struggles we both had at night shutting down and relaxing in the living spaces of our home. Many times as Jake and I would be reading or watching TV on the couch in our family room, I'd start to notice things that needed to be done.

Crumbs on the floor. Fingerprints on the window. Bills in the box. A sock under the chair. It made it hard for me to be done with the chores of the day and relax.

After seeing her lovely space, I wanted to create something similar in our bedroom. Thankfully, Kelly offered to help and give me some direction. Both Jake and I already had comfortable rocking/reclining chairs and a huge bedroom, so with some tweaking and moving of our other furniture we got to work.

We are in love with the finished product.

This sitting area is our favorite spot. Once we get the kids to bed and load the dishes, we often retreat to our chairs and spend the evening reading, talking, and just relaxing. Doing this has helped us go to bed earlier and given us time to have some heartfelt conversations.

We had the basics in our room, the furniture, white bedding, rug, lamps, curtains, and pale blue walls, but made a few tweaks to update them. Kelly suggested the addition of mustard yellow as an accent color and it is the perfect pop to our blue walls. Jake raised the drapes to the ceiling and that made a huge difference in creating a finished look. I found this awesome sunburst mirror and with a few pillows and lampshades the wall was complete.

The wall opposite our bed is our bathroom and new gallery wall. A kind friend made us vinyl lettering that says "Why not us?" and hangs on the bathroom mirror. 




We filled the framed with pictures of places that are meaningful to us. Magnolia flowers from our trip to the South. Ocean waves from a California beach. The cityscape of London along the Themes. A cactus in the Saguaro desert. Snow covered Mount Timpanogos that buttresses our growing up town in Utah. Waimea falls from our vacation to Hawaii. And the underside of "the Bean" statue in Millennium Park in Chicago. These pictures remind us of trips we've loved and time we've spent together in wonderful places.

In our bathroom we have a little corner dedicated to Spain. Jacob served his LDS mission there from 1998-2000 and we were able to go back together and visit in 2011.  We walked the streets where he served, visited the Madrid temple, and spent a night in Cuenca, a city he loves. We bought this tile and the vases on our trip, and added these pictures to help us remember that time.

Jake has a little corner of his own to one side of our bedroom closet. He hung the Father's Day pictures our girls made him at church, a framed picture of cougar stadium, has his guitar on a rack, has a table, chair and work area, and a few BYU mementos on his shelf.

My dresser is on the other side of our closet displaying my jewelry, a plant stand belonging to my great grandmother, and a framed picture of the Savior.  My sister gave it to us shortly after Jake's diagnosis and it is a comforting reminder that He alone knows what we are going through.

I am so grateful for the chance I had to work on our room for the last few months. It was a labor of love that brought me a lot of joy. I've always loved this talk by President Uchtdorf and wanted to end with a few thoughts he shared.

          "The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul. No matter our talents, education, backgrounds, or abilities, we each have an inherent wish to create something that did not exist before.

           Everyone can create. You don’t need money, position, or influence in order to create something of substance or beauty.

          Creation brings deep satisfaction and fulfillment. We develop ourselves and others when we take unorganized matter into our hands and mold it into something of beauty... Creation means bringing into existence something that did not exist before—colorful gardens, harmonious homes, family memories, flowing laughter.

           Nearly a century and a half ago, President Brigham Young spoke to the Saints of his day. “There is a great work for the Saints to do,” he said. “Progress, and improve upon and make beautiful everything around you. Cultivate the earth, and cultivate your minds. Build cities, adorn your habitations, make gardens, orchards, and vineyards, and render the earth so pleasant that when you look upon your labors you may do so with pleasure, and that angels may delight to come and visit your beautiful locations. In the mean time continually seek to adorn your minds with all the graces of the Spirit of Christ.”

My buddy and me

Our big girls have officially been in school for a month.

August flew by!

Ellie has full day kindergarten so that means Ada and I spend all day together.



It has been an adjustment for both of us. She is so used to having a playmate that the hours sometimes seem to stretch on. I'm used to having her entertained by her sisters and have had to up my game a bit.

We're both getting excited for the arrival of our new little guy, but until then are making the most of our time together.

30 weeks

Ada is a great little shopper and enjoys being my errand helper. We've spent at least one afternoon each week at school helping out the teachers and she's learning the ins and outs of the school copier. We've had some fun playdates with her little friends, and outing to the Children's museum and Gymnastics center, and even water aerobics in our pool. 

 







I'm grateful for this little butty of mine and for her engaging personality. We converse a lot during the day and I've gained a new view into her developing mind. She is very willing to help me with chores and projects, but has been patient as I've napped on the couch a time or two.

I love my little Ada and am grateful that she's still around to keep me company. It would definitely be lonely without her.

An empty pool is an excuse to play

I love things that are unusual, out of the ordinary, or provide a change of pace. When we found a section of our pool that needed work, it provided a great day of play in an empty pool. It hadn't been emptied since Lauren was 2 and we loved eating lunch, sliding, relaxing, climbing, and suiting up to play in it. Because after all, a pool is really just a big hole in your yard.

 

When pigs fly...

You'll have a hailstorm in sunny Ariz*na!



It will hail so much that the street, sidewalks, rooftops and grass will be covered in white {snow}.



You can even collect hail on a cookie sheet to save for a later date.



People get pretty excited during a hail storm.





 

 

Wet heavy hail translates easily into packing material, and before you know it you'll end up building a snowman.

 

 

The next morning the sun will come up and you'll pose for pictures with your snowman one more time.

Because in the sun he will melt, 

  and melt,

 and melt small, small, small.

Cleaning your appliances

Over labor day weekend we finished the deep cleaning!

Deep cleaning is a horrible process of systematically going through every room, closet, and space in my house, taking everything out, organizing, and cleaning floor to ceiling. 

This year I worked on it from May - September and it seemed to never end.

But, on the flip side the results of deep cleaning are amazing! Living in an orgainzed space, getting rid of clutter, knowing that my walls are free of scum, etc. is a great feeling that is the main motivator to keep going.

One of my favorite things to clean is our appliances. 



Who would have thought that cleaning your appliances- the major things that do the cleaning for you- could be so fun! I love the result of having a clean fridge, dishwasher, oven, washer, and dryer. It feels like I got all new appliances after the scum, smears, and messes are washed away.



So here's to an enjoyable fall with no more deep cleaning checklist looming over my shoulder.

What project to tackle next..... 

Laboring on labor day

  

Hope you had a good one too!

Chore charts

Since school started I'm trying to get back to helping the girls do daily chores.

Not going to lie...I'm not so good at it.

It's usually easier to just pick things up myself while they're playing somewhere else.

Or else I remember chores for a few days, and then fall off the wagon by the end of the week.

Let's be honest people- getting your kids to help is work!

But I believe that chores are important.  Really important.

Doing chores teaches kids how to work, to be responsible for themselves and their things, and trains them in basic house care.

So I'm back on track with our newest chore chart.

I've made several versions to help them (and me) stay energized about contributing to take care of our home.

I always put the chore charts on the outside of our pantry door, because everyone opens it daily. 

This was our 1st chart.



It had each girls name and a list of chores for the day.

I bought sticky velcro to apply to each chore as well as the back of the door.

Once they finished their chores they ripped off the picture of what they did and put it in a bin.




When all their pictures were gone the chores were done!

This was our 2nd chore chart.



This one had rotational chores each girl had for the week.

Unload dishes, clear table, and Mom's/Dad's choice- that was my favorite because I had the discretion to have them help me with whatever I needed most that day.

If they did the chore they got to put a sticker up on a sticker chart and at the end of the week we'd go out for a treat.

This one is our current chart.



Each girl has two pockets for chore cards: the To Do pocket and the Done pocket.

I have a pile of different chores that I put into the pockets each morning and then by dinner they do their chore and move the card to the other pocket.



This one is nice because I can vary the chore that they do depending on what needs to be done and can give more to some kids or less to others based on their needs/abilities.

I've always laminated the chore charts too which has helped them last through all time.

Now it's time to get to work girls!

It's all good until

the ceiling comes crashing down.



J opened the garage Wednesday morning and a huge hunk of drywall came falling down on my car. Good thing no one was hurt.



 At least we can now put that tax refund to good use. [Right, just what we wanted to do].

Almost there...

It has been deep cleaning time again. I've been wiping down, vacuuming up, taking out, and organizing in the contents of my house full time for the last two weeks. We accumulated 10 bags of trash, 6 boxes of donations, and 2 full vacuum bags of dirt. After making a DI trip and finishing the laundry room I can officially be DONE. I wish I could say I loved to clean. I don't. But I do love the end result and that gives me enough motivation to do it.