Happy Father's Day!

Peter is a great husband.  And a great son, a great friend, a great employee.  He really is great at all those things and I love him for it.

But he is an AMAZING Daddy.  Amazing.

He changes diapers, takes pacifier duty at night, plays board games, wears our boys out with wrestling and chasing, reads countless books.  He intentionally slows our pace of life down enough so our boys can take time to throw rocks in the water, stop and enjoy the airplanes in the sky, or get one more tickle fest in before bedtime.  He is so patient in his discipline.  He gives the best hugs.  He takes the time to explain and teach so many things so our boys are always learning.  He is goofy and silly.  He takes his role as Daddy so seriously and I know he prays often for his boys.  I'm not sure who has more of a sparkle in their eye when they are with each other, Peter or his boys.

I always knew he would be a good Daddy, and yet it still seems even better than I imagined to watch.  I get a front row seat to see the man I love mold and shape the two boys we have together.  I can only hope they grow up to be just like him.  Benjamin is pretty much his twin and Jonah has his um, distinctive, ears :-)  They both have his smile.  And they both have a huge spot in their Daddy's heart.

So thanks Peter for being a Daddy that is such a gift to our family.  Our boys absolutely adore you and I know how blessed I am to be your partner in this parenting craziness.  We sure make cute kiddos :-)

 Happy Father's Day 2012

Our Kitchen

I'm a little late getting this up, but today I am linking up with Kelly @ Kelly's Korner again for her home tour.  It's so fun to "look" into other people's homes and I think it will be so fun to look back at this post in 20 years and be able to remember our first home. 

Here's a peak into our small, but well-used kitchen!

this is the view if you are standing in the living room.  I'm a pretty conservative/traditional decorator so the blue walls is a bolder color choice for me.  It is Denim by Sherwin Williams

the dried flowers are from Pike Place Market in Seattle, and the moveable kitchen cart was bought off craigslist and provides nice storage and extra "counter space" when needed

we bought our table from World Market during their huge furniture sale a few years back.  The placemats came from Wal-Mart.  We love that the bench can fit a lot of kids, scrunched together sitting on their knees :-)

We don't have a lot of counterspace but it is really functional and useable for a couple people.  The color of the cabinets isn't my favorite but they are in good shape.  I've considered painting them white, but can't decide.  My biggest hesitation is probably that I know that's such a huge job.

(by the way, ignore the dishes I didn't have time to put away yet and the crockpot cooking pulled pork.  It makes it look more cluttered but I guess it's more of a real life picture.)

the hallway off the kitchen leads to the garage (middle door) a half bath (door on the left) and washer and dryer (doors on the right)  The closest door on the right is our pantry.

It's so nice to have this extra space.  I painted the inside of the door with chalkboard paint so I can write ingredients I run out of and need to remember when I grocey shop next!

I do love having a window over the sink, but I still need to put up curtains.  I like the idea of a printed fabric but will probably end up with a simple white valance to balance the blue walls.  I need help in this department.

I've only recently put decor on top of the cabinets.  The picture is Target clearance that I had originally had in the living room.  The wood flowers were 50 cents at a garage sale that I repainted to match my decor, the basket was one I had in storage.

We'd love to put a tile mosaic backsplace underneath the cabinets but will probably only do it if we ever find a steal of a deal on materials like we did for our entry way and fireplace in our living room.

I found this frame at a garage sale and it sits in the hallway to hang my keys on just outside the garage

a Christmas gift from my sister-in-law from an artist in Ohio

the first picture we bought for our home as a married couple.  I really liked it and Peter went to buy it and surprised me with it.  I love its simplicity.

I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with our floors.  I love the look of the darker wood vinyl, but they also show every bit of dust/food/footprints/etc.  It seems nearly impossible to keep them consistently clean.  If it wouldn't cost me my son's college fund, I would love to put tile in the kitchen.

So, that's it.  It's certainly not big or perfect by any means, but we love our kitchen because we love to eat.  We really value our time around the table together as a family and are grateful for a wonderful space to do so.

Other rooms on Show Us Your Life:

Living Room



I made my own laundry detergent

I do a lot of laundry.  It is a constant thing in my house.  And at the end of the day I sometimes want to cry a little when I see Peter's socks and shirt from the day laying in my previously empty laundry basket and realize that you are never, ever, fully caught up.  Anyway.  I'm always trying to find ways to save our family money and since the extreme couponing thing is kinda crazy and a bit too time consuming, I thought I'd try another tactic.....take a hint from the Duggar's and make my own laundry soap.

Once I realized how simple it was, I was sold and decided to try it out.  The cast of characters to make your own is super easy:
*  Borax
*  Washing Soda
*  soap bar
*  hot water
*  5 gallon tub

The Borax and Washing Soda is found in your Wal-Mart laundry section and is pretty cheap, you can also find the bar of soap there (I used Fels-Naptha like the recipe calls for, but I think you can also use Ivory)  The 5 gallon bucket was 50 cents at a local resale store, but you could also buy new at Home Depot/Lowes.

You can find the Duggar family recipe HERE, it's the one I used.

 you grate the soap (used a cheese grater) and melt it on the stove with warm tap water

 measure out and add the washing soda & borax

 combine all ingredients thoroughly in your bucket

 cover & let sit overnight.  The next day stir it well because it will have "gelled" somewhat

I used a funnel and filled an old, empty laundry detergent dispenser with my new homemade detergent.  This makes it super easy to use....just make sure you shake it a bit before each use

I used the laundry detergent today and so far, so good.  The clothes are nice and clean, and smell good.  And the recipe makes a ton of detergent so I'm set for awhile.  And I still have tons of leftover washing soda & borax for the next batch.  I'll just have to buy another bar of soap (I think it was $1?) 

If you do a lot of laundry or just want to try to find a way to stretch your household budget, you should give this a try.  Believe me, if I can do it, you can do it.  Thanks Duggars for sharing your recipe, it was fun to make and I sure do love saving a buck!



Weekend Mishmash

First of all, is mishmash even a word?  I'm not sure, but it sounds cool.  We enjoyed a nice weekend but I really wish we could have 2 more days, it just seems to fly by.  I watched my friend's kiddos on Friday because she wasn't feeling well, and that evening we went to our friend Elijah's baseball game.  Benjamin had reeeaaallly been wanting to go and it was extra perfect because our friends, the Schumachers, were in town from Portland and were going to be there too!  I love any chance to get to talk to Heather and see her adorable family (I'm still kinda mad at you for moving Heather!)  :-) 

Anyway, we had a picnic for dinner, watched Elijah win his game and ended the evening loading up the kiddos into the car after being dumped on with rain while they were playing on the playground.  The weather was so weird that day.  I'm also weird because I left my camera in the car and didn't get a picture, argh!

Saturday morning I made waffles and we were lazy until we packed up to go watch our town's Strawberry Parade.  Not the most exciting parade in the world that's for sure, but Benjamin was pumped.  He hated the noisy firetruck sirens in his face, but looooved the tubas and trumpets in the marching bands.  That and the candy they threw at him. 

The afternoon was spent with the usual combo of Wal-Mart trips, laziness, and a bit of productivity in there.  You know how it goes...Peter cleans on the fridge, I make a cheesecake, we give the boys a bath....typical Saturday. 

 I realized the boys were both in blue sweats and white shirts

 Jonah's first time in the big tub

 Peter got to cuddle with a very tired Jonah

and I got to cuddle with a sweet Benjamin while watching Thomas

Today was church in the morning, leftovers for lunch, and a hodgepodge of playing with the kids, cleaning out the garage, and giving Benjamin a haircut.  I hate to pay to get his haircut but he is SO wiggly, it almost makes me want to cough up the $12.  In order to get him to cooperate we put on a DVD on the floor so he looks down when we need him to.  He is getting so big by the way, I really want him to stop growing up, I just adore this age and want time to freeze even if he is a stinker.

Jonah is just growing and developing like crazy too, its so fun to watch.  What's not so fun?  Getting up multiple times at night because he's in the middle of what I think is his 4 month growth spurt.  Sleep really is completely off my radar and its kind of depressing.  But he's cute, and I love him....even at 3am, and again at 5:30am.

It's going to be a full week so I'm trying to enjoy the last bit of weekend.  But Monday is a'comin whether I like it or not so here's to having a slice of cheesecake and some cuddle time with the hubby.

Our Living Room

Today I'm linking up with Kelly @ Kelly's Korner for her Show Us Your Life series.  This week we're sharing our living rooms so here's a peak into ours....

This is the view when you come in the front door

Now, first of all, my living room is rarely this clean.  I have a 2 year old and a 4 month old....enough said right?

This is looking at our entry way standing in our living room...

our "shoe rack" is a shelf from World Market

This is our entry way a few years ago before Peter redid the tile and cut the baseboards.  Our house was a foreclosure that needed everything painted, new carpets, new everything so it's been a bit of work.

 the tile was kind of generic and off white so when we found a great deal, we decided to switch it out (and by "we" I mean Peter)  :-)

this is a close-up of the new tile

We also used the same time around the fireplace and made a built-in bookcase where there was this crazy long hole to the left of the fireplace.  Peter did an awesome job, I love it!

This is a picture of the weird hole next to the fireplace, the old tile surround, with no mantle....

and now it looks like this...

I've recently made a few DIY changes to my artwork and pillows...

details for these changes can be found on this post HERE

The kitchen is right off of our living room, and there's a staircase on the leftside leading upstairs.

This is our living room from the kitchen...

I still want to make a few little changes here and there to freshen things up, and it's certainly not fancy, but it's cozy and comfortable and we're so grateful for our home.  Imagine it with lots of toys and puzzles scattered around, with a few raisins and a sippy of milk on the floor and that's what it reeeaaally looks like :-)

Thanks for looking, I love seeing everyone's homes!