Our Summer

It's been a crazy few months around here. I went back to work in April, I thought it was a good decision, but it turned out to be a little too crazy! Or maybe I'm just lazy... Anyway, I'm counting down the days until my contract is up!!

We were still able to have some fun times this summer:

We kicked off the summer with a trip to Galveston for Memorial Day with Sarah and Sean and their kids. It was Jules's first time at the beach! When we first got there, I set her down in ankle deep water, and immediately a wave came and knocked her down. She was NOT happy about that... It took another hour or so to get her back in the water, but by the end of the day she was loving it! Jules and Anna are finally able to do stuff together, I'm excited for them to be BFFs! As the only two girls in the family, they need to stick together!

In June Auntie Manda came home from her mission! Jules went on her 5th airplane ride. This time was more fun, because she actually knew what an airplane was, but it was also harder, because she could run around! I didn't get any pictures of Manda in the airport, I was too busy crying and giving hugs, but trust me, it was a good time! While we were home Jules became better friends with Yaneli. Yaneli is the only person that she would let do her hair! Thankfully, she started letting me do it a few weeks ago, it was getting pretty crazy! It was so fun to spend time with everyone, even though we really missed Adam and Amy and the boys. 

Later in June Cayden and Courtney came with Grandma and Auntie Manda. I can't believe this is the only picture I took! The girls are so much fun, and it's so nice having them around! I tried to convince them to stay with me, but apparently the would miss their mom or something... Maybe next time! Jules and Courtney are soul mates, they have been besties since the first time they met! I'm already planning all of the fun things they're going to do together every summer!

For the fourth of July we went up to Vanessa's for the weekend, and Jules got to spend some more time with Anna! It was SO HOT, but we still managed to have a great time! Jules is obsessed with fireworks now, she talks about them all the time!

 Later in July we went to Georgia to see Adam and Amy! We had so much fun! The week went by WAY too quickly. Jules got to play with the boys, and even made friends with the dog! We ate way too much, and I finally got to see Savannah! It was everything I imagined it would be! It was a long trip, but I'm SO glad we did it. Jules has asked a couple of times to go to Zaiden and Brian's house. She was pretty sad when I told her it was too far.

Other than that, we've just been hanging out at home, going to the zoo and Six Flags and trying not to melt!

Jules has started only wanting to wear dresses. We had to go buy her a few more so she would have enough to last a week! She is also talking up a storm, and is almost ready to start potty training! (Actually, she's probably already ready, but I want to wait until I stop working to start).

She also go her second hair cut!

It's been an eventful summer, we can't wait to see what happens next!

Getting Started with Composting

I have always loved the idea of compost. Ok, maybe ALWAYS is an exaggeration... But since gardening has been on my radar, I've loved the idea of compost. You throw garbage into a pile, and it turns into dirt! Amazing, rich dirt! When we moved into our house I just assumed that we would have a compost pile to feed our amazing garden. A girl can dream right?

When we started the garden I started researching composting, and the information made my head spin. You had to have the right ratio of greens to browns. You could add worms, or not. You could have a bin, or open air, or covered. It should be moist, but not too moist. It should be warm, but not too warm. So overwhelming! So my overwhelm turned into procrastination, which turned into nothing, especially not a compost pile!

Then I read a great article (I wish I could remember where it was so I could link to it) that was so straightforward it made me wonder why I hadn't thought of it before! It said that the ratios and temperatures and blah blah blahs were important, but you didn't really need to worry about it. Basically, just put some leaves and lawn clippings and fruit peels in a pile, and eventually nature would do its thing. Worst case scenario, nothing happens and you have to throw some stuff away that you would have thrown away anyway.

So we started. Steve raked leaves into a pile, and we started adding vegetable and fruit peels and rinsed egg shells to it. I didn't pay much attention to it, every once in a while I put some leaves on top of it if the fruit flies started to get bad. I would spray some water on it if I remembered, but mostly I just left it there.

Last week I put in our Spring garden, and I decided to see what was going on under all the leaves. And look!! Compost!!! Only the bottom two thirds of the pile had composted, but I was able to flip it over and add some rich soil to our little raised bed. I underestimated how much we would need, so I'm not sure if it really helped, but it was so exciting to see!

I also realized that composting has become such a habit for me. We ate at McDonalds on our way to Arizona a few weeks ago, and Jules got an orange with her kids meal. As we were cleaning up I realied I was saving her peel to compost! As "healthy" as McDonalds is becoming, they still didn't have a compost pile out back, and I'm not crazy enough (yet) to put all of our compostable trash into a bag to bring home.

If you've ever wanted to compost, but didn't know where to start, this is my advice: Just start throwing things in a pile, maybe something will happen.

Two Years!

Two years ago today Juliana was born and totally turned our lives inside out! I may not get as much sleep as I used to, but she makes up for it in other ways!

She loves her daddy, eating chocolate and cheese (sometimes together!), wearing Mommy's shoes, singing, dancing, and drawing on any available surface (including a brand new cookbook, and her rocking chair!).

Happy Birthday Juliana!!

Throwing Away All the Things!

I get into moods where I just want to throw everything away. Since Steve is a serial keeper, and I am a serial throw away-er, I try (try!) to stay away from his stuff. One place that I'm always trying to keep streamlined is my closet. I have 40 of those fancy hangers in my closet, and I try to keep my entire wardrobe fitting on those. (other than sweaters, which are folded on a shelf, and pjs/workout clothes/socks which are in drawers) Which means when I buy something new, something else has got to go! I'm ruthless. If something isn't working for me, or I haven't worn it for a while, it goes into the donate bag. (I should state here that I don't really have Winter/Summer clothes. I live in Texas... I have one long sleeved shirt... Obviously this would be harder if I had two separate wardrobes to deal with.)

Buuuut...

I am a scarf junkie. I love scarves, even if I don't really get a chance to wear them a lot in the Texas heat! When I find a vintage scarf I love for a good price, you better believe I am getting it. I tried to declutter my scarves, but I couldn't do it. I even have a few that I have only worn once, but I just can't get rid of them.

I used to think I was just being silly. After all, ALL the articles on decluttering say to get rid of things you don't use! And I love throwing things away! And think how much cleaner my scarf hangers would look!

But then I decided, forget the experts! I like scarves. They don't take up much room, and looking at them makes me happy.

So I made a new #1 rule of decluttering. If you aren't using something, but you like it, and don't want to throw it away, keep it!

So Cloche!

I haven't done a lot of yard sale-ing since I moved to Texas. Maybe it's the heat? But I saw a sale being advertised in our neighborhood this weekend, so Jules and I walked over to check it out.

I found a few pairs of shoes for Jules, and also a cloche! I've been wanting one for a while, but I'm cheap, and paying $15 or more for one just wasn't going to happen! But $3 seemed right! The lady selling it was so excited that I wanted it, she said she loved the bird pattern. I didn't have the heart to tell her I was going to paint it... 

I looked up some tips for painting over ceramic, but there was way too much information, so I ended up just jumping in. I had some white and grey acrylic paint in my craft stash, so I started out with that. I figured if it didn't work I could go spend some money on the right stuff. First I sanded it a bit to rough up the finish. The first coat of white looked bad. Really bad...

But I let it dry for a few minutes and added another coat. And another one. And another one. It finally started to look good!

After it was pretty well covered, I started with the grey. It looks green in this picture, but it's grey, I promise.

After three coats of grey:

I roughed it up with some sandpaper to let some of the white show through. The sandpaper I had wasn't fine enough to get it just like I wanted it, but I didn't want to go buy some (I'm cheap, remember??) so I left it.

 Nothing like a good before and after! I'm so excited with how it turned out! Not to bad for $3 and some elbow grease!

30 for 30

To celebrate my 30th birthday, I decided to throw away 30 things. Because, obviously, I know how to party it up!

I decided to start with the bathroom cupboards. Jules has been loving taking everything out of the cupboards while I get ready in the mornings, and having to put it all back every day was driving me nuts. Please tell me I'm not the only one that hoards old beauty products. Because you never know when you're going to need the last bit of that scrub, or the eye shadow you wore once and it made you look mostly dead (which is slightly alive), right?? I was ruthless. It all got thrown away. I even made room to move some of my makeup that I don't use every day, but still use, into the drawer. Ah. I'm feeling better already. And I threw away 18 things! (I counted a lot of the old make up as one thing, otherwise it would have been way over 30 already!)

Next I moved into the kitchen. Another spot in the house that always seems to attract clutter. It's funny what you see when you are really wanting to throw stuff away. I found three empty boxes, just sitting on top of the toaster oven since who knows when... 19, 20 and 21, in the trash! Actually, the recycle bin. I'm 30 now, remember? I can't go totally crazy. A plastic frog from Easter (22), an old wedding announcement (23), and two old (and empty) cans of wheat (24 and 25). I'm starting to feel young again!

Next comes the living room. I found a gold mine of trash sitting on the organ. Three grocery receipts (26), a stack of old Primary lessons and coloring sheets (27), and a few business cards (28). On the piano there was some junk mail (29).

I decided number 30 better be big. Something that would really make a difference. Then I spotted the three diaper boxes in the hall that I had put out last week to help me remember to enter the Pampers rewards numbers (it didn't work, obviously, and I had been walking around the boxes for a week, why do I do this??). So I entered the points (it took two minutes, why did I put it off??) and the boxes got put in the recycle bin!

Ahhh. I love the feel of open empty spaces. Happy birthday to me!

Gardening!!

After almost two years if being in this house, I finally started a garden!! And I haven't killed anything yet!!

We didn't plant much this year, just two tomato plants, pickling cucumbers and green beans. I didn't want to buy a bunch of plants, kill them all off and then hate myself for spending the money! But so far, so good!

Future tomatoes! 

 A tiny cucumber!

Future green beans!

Steve did an awesome job building the raised bed. He also went to the brush recycling center to get mulch, and went to home depot a million times for things I kept forgetting... I'm so glad he puts up with me!! The bed is 18 inches by 14 feet, so we have plenty of space for more stuff next year!