...day in the life

At times I have struggled to keep my house organized and all the members informed of various events/activities happening in our family. As our kids get older and grow in their reading abilities, we have taken to having a chalkboard in the kitchen with a bible verse or bit of knowledge to help us as we go through our days. I happened to be visiting with a friend a few weeks ago and noticed she had painted a chalkboard on the side of a wall in her kitchen. On her board, she had some educational tools for her kids (like the date and day of the week, current weather etc), emergency contact information for mom/dad, and her kids chore charts. I really liked her idea! My sister-in-law Jessica had given me a peel and stick chalkboard last year for Christmas. I finally found the perfect use for it!

I decided to put the weekly menu for our house as well as any family events happening this week. We will see if this is a helpful tool in our house.

My husband and I try to plan our menus each week based on our evening commitments, available food in the fridge/freezer and weekly sales. I will admit we are better at it some weeks than others. Especially depending on our respective work schedules! I find having a menu written out takes much of the evening stress off my shoulders. I appreciate having this line up and knowing that today is Taco Tuesday!

Below the chalkboard is the kids chore charts.  I have found these to be quite helpful in managing their duties around the house.  And they are more inclined to help when I have "cool" stickers to place in the boxes!

This past weekend was a 4 day weekend for the kids and we lived it up!  Friday was a bit gloomy, so we watched movies and made popcorn on the stove.  We were able to hang out in our jammie's and relax, which is just what we needed. 



The kids at the dinner table - having an intense conversation!



We took a day trip Saturday to see Papa Doc in Gainesville.

It was nice to have such a relaxing weekend together!  I am looking forward to Easter Break and the time at home as a family. 

...project

When we bought our new house, Rob and I decided we would “re-do” one room a year.  When we moved into the house, we immediately gutted the kitchen and den.  That was a MAJOR undertaking but our kitchen is exactly the way we want it.  This was the first big project we did together and I think it was pretty successful! 

Original kitchen - looking in from the dining room

down to the studs...looking in from the den

look Ma, new walls!  Looking in from the den.

Cabinets and furniture.  Looking in from the den.

Finished project.  The white door on the left is the
orange door by the ovens in the first picture. 

We have tried to go room by room based on our family needs. Rob is definitely a better visionary that I am. He can really see the potential in each room and how to best improve it to reflect our style.  My strengths lie in putting everything back in order.  And vacuuming. I am a champ at that! 

One of the things Rob had mentioned was to carpet the bedrooms and place the same wood floors we had in the living area of the house down the bedroom hallway. So these past few weeks have been a bit of an upheaval in our house while these projects have come to life! 

bedroom 1

bedroom 2/nursery

bedroom 2/nursery

Master bedroom

master closets

bedroom hall

I have to admit, I was a little hesitant at first of adding carpet to the bedrooms.  I have always liked hardwood floors and didn't mind the parkay floors we had.  But, it was a great decision to add carpet to the bedrooms and I LOVE the new look!  We also purchased new furniture for bedroom 2/nursery.  Since there will be 4 kiddo's in the house, we added a set of bunk beds to the bedroom. 

bedroom 1

bedroom 2/nursery

bedroom 2/nursery

master bedroom

master closets

a view down the hall

the beautiful new carpet, wood floors and baseboards. 

I absolutely LOVE the new look this has given our bedroom end.   I am so grateful for my wonderful husband and his vision for our house!   I am truly amazed at all the blessings in our life (including new carpet)!