Buffet

A few weeks ago I made my very first craigslist buy!! I purchased this buffet table for our kitchen... I've had this itch to buy furniture to fill up our big farm house ever since we moved in in November. This particular space in our kitchen is somewhat awkward because of the window sill/counter area so this buffet works perfect!

I love my buffet and I love craigslist!!

I Finally Have a Hobby!

Maybe some of you moms are in the same boat I was. I never really had anything I did just for me that I enjoyed doing... you know, like a hobby! Sometimes it feels like everything I do is for my kids or my husband... and while I do enjoy doing things for them I never quite know what to do for myself when given the opportunity. I am a big fan of yard work and having a nice looking yard, and though Thaddeus gives me grief for it I do take pride in my yard and the time and effort I put into it. My new hobby, aside from yard work is gardening (or planting flowers)... someday I hope to have a vegetable garden when we own our own home, but until then I will plant flowers! I love adding color to my yard and adding pretty flowers to look at and take care of! I am new to everything so we'll see soon enough if I know what I'm doing! (I'm crossing my fingers that my flowers won't die!) I already killed 2 hostas that I had replanted... I moved them from mostly shade to mostly sunny without thinking about how the plants would react! So today I dug those out and replaced them with some Lilium 'Tiny Orange Sensation'... I also added some Spreading Petunia's (pink and purple one's!) and a few Yarrow.

Here is lilium and the spreading petunia's.

Another view showing the yarrow

And here is what I am most proud of! I wanted to plant the extra's in a container but am too cheap to pay for one... so using my creative side I found an old wastebasket from IKEA and cut a hole in the bottom for drainage and tada! We'll see if the plants like it!

The Pick-Up

As a stay at home mom I am always looking for new ideas and ways to keep my home clean and organized, or at least appear that way! I am currently reading a book by Claudine Wolk called "It gets easier!... And other lies we tell new mothers". I was so excited when I read this section on the art of the pick-up. It is something that I try to do (my home is not always clean, nor does it appear this way) but, when I follow the pick-up rule I found that my home is a little bit cleaner and my head is a little clearer... something about having a messy home makes me want to just shut down sometimes! "The first rule of housekeeping and the most helpful one is the art of the pick-up. Through the years I've actually encountered women who appear to have a perpetually clean house. Eventually I had to ask them how they do it, and they revealed their secret. The secret is that their houses are not always truly clean. The fact that the house looks clean is just an illusion. Quite simply, if you keep your house picked up at all times, it looks clean, even if it isn't. The added bonus of the picked-up house is that when you finally have time to clean something, you can get right down to the cleaning without having to do the hour-long pick-up first! Picking-up is always the best place to start, too. Just start putting things away. The more organized an area is, the clearer your head becomes and the more ready you will be to deal with the tasks at hand." Having three kids means that my house has toys spread out everywhere pretty much all of the time... this becomes overwhelming to me sometimes! But, by picking things up throughout the day I can at least feel like I have done some sort of house work for the day and feel good about the state of my home. I usually try and pick-up during nap time, before Thaddeus comes home from work, and at bedtime. Hope this gives you some ideas on how to maintain a cleaner home and a clearer head! What are some ways you keep your home clean?

Play-Doh

This morning the boys and I played with Play-Doh for the very first time... it was a hit!