Seriously, my mind was completely blown away by how much there is to know about the color grey. And apparently, based on its popularity on Pintrest, it has a big fan club.
Earlier this fall I convinced my dear husband that we needed to paint our family room and kitchen. The early 90s decor of peach sponge paint and light oak cabinets just needed to go. It's amazing how a good coat of paint can brighten and cheer up a space.
It turned out beautiful (after finally coming to a decision on white! Yes, apparently there is more than one white too.....)
Now that we are coming up on four years in this house, and coming out of the fog and chaos of babies and toddlers, I have a renewed passion and vision for updating my home. I think I'm nesting again; I have this intense desire to create an even more warm, nourishing place, one project at a time.
So... after the paint job, I hinted at getting a new couch in the living room.
John agreed, and we found "the one" at an after Christmas sale at Dania. We purchased a nice, mid-century tope couch, a couch that really didn't go with the flesh colored walls in this room. WELL...suddenly I found myself again on Benjamin Moore and Sherwin Williams websites, analyzing which colors actually would go well with this couch....for the future.....when we decided we wanted to paint this room...
Well, my friend painted her interior light grey and as I marveled at what an improvement it made in her house, she casually passed along her painter's number....for the future....when we decided to paint again....
The couch is lovely, but the curtains really aren't doing it or the room any favors...but the paint needs to be in place before I figure that piece out....
sooo, that is when I went to the paint store and that is when I called the painter and got a reasonable quote...
and while he was here, he might as well quote our bathroom cabinets, which are chipping...
and our laundry room cabinets have never even seen paint...
and then the laundry room walls...yikes.
"Let's just see what it would be.."
And so, this is what began the crazy quest for the perfect grey...the perfect colors...and eighteen samples later, I've arrived at what will make our dwelling beautiful.
And now, I sit in my living room, with painted walls, and new couch, two new accent chairs...about 10 different colored pillows (I need to figure out which ones go with everything else!) and a coffee table on the way.
.....Still got to figure out those curtains.....Good thing I found the right grey.
This, my friends, is just one of the projects I've been attempting as I try to juggle my nest full of children. And this project is a perfect metaphor for my life.
Simple sounding things usually turn into a big messy ordeal, more complicated and intense than originally planned.
It's hard to fit ANYTHING else into my life except keeping kids alive and relatively happy.
But I do try.
The first sixty days of 2018 have been filled with some really good things. And some really not so great things; but nonetheless, things that make life LIFE.
Here is a quick recap:
Hot Cocoa Stand:
In January, Evie's Awanas group focused on raising money to send Bibles to Uganda. Evie, by her own efforts, set up a hot cocoa stand at the end of our driveway and sold hot chocolate for four hours one Saturday, raising $30.00. I was truly blown away by her determination and enthusiasm, and the generosity of our neighbors.
HSP: Caleb came screaming down the stairs one afternoon, pulling up his pant legs, exposing the most horrific looking rash I've ever seen. I thought for sure it was Chicken Pox, but then I knew he had his vaccination....I took him in to the doctors and after some urine and blood testing, it was determined to be Henoch-Schoenlein Purpura,which is a rare autoimmune disease. He got progressively worse, his joints becoming so swollen and painful that he couldn't walk; his kidneys so tender he couldn't lay down. There was nothing I could do except keep him on a regiment of pain medicine and steroids. Luckily, my mom and grandma came into town for a visit during this exact week. This couldn't have been better timing because Caleb needed a whole person for his own.
Mom and GG visit: My Mom and Grandma stayed with us for 10 days, spending time with the kids and helping me around my house. They always leave my home clean and orderly. It's nice to have them here. They lighten the daily burden I feel with caring for whining, needy little humans. I have some space to breath a bit as they take over fulfilling those needs. I know it's really hard work, but I love that breathing room. We even got a few hours together without children, enjoying a leisurely breakfast while they were all in school.
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| GG and Birthday Boy #1 |
Boys Turned 4!: Perhaps the biggest milestone we've reached this month is my boys turning FOUR years old. The Winter Olympics reminded me of four years ago; they were born during the 2014 Olympics. I remember thinking as I sat watching the events, bottle feeding them, "In four years when there is another winter Olympics, they will be four!"
The thought was unfathomable, completely absurd and unattainable. BUT, here we are, our family snuggled together on the couch, watching the Olympics together, commenting on the skating and skiing.
I feel like FOUR is such a milestone. In my mind, we are exiting the really grueling baby/toddler stage. They even got big beds for their birthdays.
My mom commented that "The worst is behind us," :) and I couldn't agree more.
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| Birthday Boys at school! |
We celebrated with Grandparents at Red Robin, enjoying hamburgers and embarrassing birthday songs....
BUT, we ended the night in the ER with Caleb, (he experienced some intense stomach pain we attributed to a dangerous HSP side effect...turned out it was probably due to eating too much raw birthday cake batter)
The boys also had a birthday party which included all their friends! This is the first year they had a list of people they wanted to celebrate with and were genuinely excited by their presence. I'm all about outsourcing birthday parities, and this one was outsourced to McDonalds Playland, complete with Happy Meals and overly frosted birthday cake. The boys really couldn't have celebrated a better way.
Sweet Big Sister Evie even woke up early to make them a special birthday breakfast and decorate the kitchen.
And that's all I have time to write in this moment. ;)
