This is too cute not to post!

Bathroom Makeover

We've been very busy this weekend with a bathroom project. Our master bath used to look like this:

 

(Clearly this photo was taken BEFORE we moved in. Nate wanted me to make sure you didn't assume WE had a shiny gold free standing toilet paper holder or a fluffy toilet seat cover.)

 

New hardware, paint, lights, mirrors, towel ring and toilet paper holder helped spiff up what used to be a stuck-in-the-ninety’s style bathroom and gave it a calm, modern feel. Eventually we’d like to lay tile- but not this weekend. :) Here are a few photos.

 

That is a new light fixture. I wish we had a photo of the old one. I’ll give you a description: shiny, gold, ruffled frosted glass.

  

NOW:

New robe hooks:

 

And the finished product:

And here’s what else we’ve been up to:

 

Saying farewell to some dear friends, Levi and Courtney, who now live in D.C.

Snuggling with Charlie.

LOTS of baking.

My class playing math BINGO with my para.

Birthday breakfast with a few great friends. Here’s a fun game: spot James in every picture.

A Lincoln STARS hockey game.

A theme party for the LOST season premier. Even Charlie sported some Dharma gear. He is, after all, named after Charles Widmore.

New fabric for my next craft project.

Pink pancakes for Valentine’s Day. They were from one of my first graders, the box said "just add water", and they were terrible.

Our only photo of the evening after the other 4 guests had already gone home- Valentine’s Day dinner with Jay & Liz.

And finally, one of my1st graders signing his book to “RuthE” the school service dog.

 

Have a great week, friends!!!

Demolition Day

Well, not really demolition per say....but we're redoing our master bathroom today. Nate's in there trimming and I'm waiting my turn to attack with the roller. Our color is "sage wood"- it's really pretty. I'll post before and after pictures as soon as we're done.

We're tearing out some old tri-fold medicine cabinets, switching out all of the shiny gold light fixtures and bringing in some brushed nickel details. Out with the GOLD, in with the new!!!

I've also been perusing ETSY a lot lately and it's totally inspiring me to create some "vondaful" things. Can't wait to show you!

1st grade poetry

We just started poetry last week. Here are a few gems from one of my 1st graders.

Hamburger
I'm hot and tasty
on a bed of bread
covered with yellow and red
sitting on pickles
make sad
eat me all gone.

Spider
Crawl up rooms
doing a wacky dance
in the spotlight

Vacuum
Eat up dirt
yum yum yum

Mrs. Eigsti
Got treats
birthday breakfast
got treats
eat pancakes
have pop tarts
have cereal

Scratch
Scratch on my face
scratch right there
eye scratched
little tree makes
my face bleed

School Bus
Ride the bus
a bus
in my seat
the radio is all gone.



I'm guessing that the school bus was too noisy so the driver turned the music off. :) I'll post some more soon. These poems make my world a little more delightful- one line at a time!

Happy Thursday, everyone!

NEW LOOK!

Nate the GREAT updated the look of my blog- SUPER cute! The bad thing is, I lost all my "followers" in the process. If you were a follower, will you follow again? And if you never were, please help yourself!

This Moment

(This is not intended to be depressing. Just stay with me.)

Last night after an hour of tossing, I counted backwards from 300 by 3's and still couldn't sleep, so I was thinking about life.

It started with a comment I made to my mother a few months ago- one she probably doesn't even remember. I said, "When are you moving here?", insinuating that I missed them so much that they should pick up their lives and move 2 hours to a new city to be closer to me. (Completely selfish). Mom knew I was joking and we shared a laugh. And last night, for whatever reason, that came back to me and I realized that I don't want them to move here -simply because I don't want to ever "lose" my home. My parents moved into their current house when I was 3 and that's all I've ever known of "going home". Then the thought occurred to me that one day my parents won't live there anymore. One day another family will move into that house, paint over my mother's boarders and wall colors. And their furniture and nick-knacks and family paintings and photos of us growing up, old toys from my childhood, and blankets we've worn the fuzz down on....they'll all be somewhere else.

When we grow up, parents die. We clean out their homes. We go through things that once had so much meaning, and I don't ever want to get to that point in my life.

Right now, Nate and I have all of our parents. We have all of our siblings. I have every grandparent I've ever known still on this Earth. I have never had to witness the death of someone close to me. Our families are healthy, happy, and extremely blessed and I don't want anything to change. I wish that we could, for as long as we wanted, push a pause button on life. Say, "Lord, you've blessed me immeasurably. Everyone I love is here with me. Let's just not change any of it, OK?"

Wouldn't that be nice?

But here comes the part where I learn to trust God's plan for my life. Here's where I see that He has provided more than I ever deserved and I enjoy this moment. I live today knowing that my job here is to further the kingdom, and that He's given me an incredible support system to do so.

"I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow!" John 15:11

"Whatever is good...comes to us from God above". James 1:17

"Those who trust in the Lord will never lack any good thing" Psalm 34:10

"God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God" Romans 8:28

Today I am not sad. I am not depressed about the way things will eventually be. Today I love my family. I celebrate that we can laugh, cook together, hang out for holidays, call each other whenever we want, send cards to grandparents, visit relatives who live far away, and know that everyone is OK. I look forward to the times we have ahead and know that eventually we will get to spend eternity together. Now that is something to look forward to!

Croutons?

I've mentioned that I recieved a bread maker for Christmas. Well, with all the snow days from school I've been....do I dare say it?.....baking TOO much. !!! We can't keep up. The joy of cooking and baking for me is the actual, you said it, cooking and baking part. Don't get me wrong, I love food- but I'm not one to love eating the same thing for days on end. I like it once, maybe twice and then I'm bored and ready to make something different. So, being able to make food FOR people....now that's what I love!

Anyway, we had some whole wheat bread that had been around for a good week and a half- no mold, so I decided to dice it up and make croutons. Last night I cut the leftover 1/2 loaf into 1-inch cubes (roughly). I spread them out on a baking sheet overnight- mostly because I didn't feel like baking them last night. And this afternoon, I tossed them in 1/8 cup canola oil and 2 teaspoons "Mama Mullen's Seasoning Mix"- you could use any spices you want- combo of 2 teaspoons of garlic powder, salt, pepper, cumin, cayenne, etc. Whatever you want, really. Then I baked them for 15 min at 350. I pulled them out halfway through and mixed them up a little. And when they came out, they were DE-LISH! Charlie loved the two that fell on the floor in the transfer to the container.

Anyway, super easy. Yummy. Healthy. Do it.