Back to work

If you are friends with me on Facebook or Instagram, then you already know I went back to work about a month ago :) I spent the end of my summer soaking up time with my babies and didn't worry about blogging. Clearly.

I went back to work at a large bank here in town and I'm enjoying it so far. It's been a huge adjustment for my family. Bigger than I expected it to be, honestly. Hollin has had some pretty major separation anxiety in the mornings when I leave and it breaks my heart. I know it will get better!! We've been spending a little extra time with her to help. She went with us on date night :)

{Yes, Jimmy shaved the beard!!}

Harper is a champ and rocks it out in second grade every day. Hollin has just started her last year of preschool. It's the first time that all four of us go in separate directions every day and it's taken some getting used to! We are making all of this work with the help of my mom and a nanny who share picks-ups/drop-offs and entertaining the kids after school until one of us gets home.

I forgot how quickly the weekends go by when you work 8-5! :) They are a tricky balance of spending time with my family and getting things done around the house. Remember the post about mold?  Yeah, we're still working on putting the kitchen back together.

Overall, it's going pretty well. Getting in there and learning a new job is always challenging. I'm mentally exhausted by the time I get home and then it's time for dinner/bed/bath time routine. We have been pretty unorganized with dinners and have had to eat out and order in more than I would like to. I'd like to think we can get better with that soon but the truth of the matter is that October is CRAZY for our family and it may not happen.

It's not perfect and it hasn't gone perfectly but that's when I remember...

Happy Sunday!

Things I'm loving right now

L'ANZA Healing Strength Shampoo and Conditioner

The lovely lady that did my hair for so long moved away and after she did, I got lazy about hair products. I started using really cheap things from the drug store and ya'll it destroyed my hair. I had breakage, crunchiness, it was just awful. There isn't much that I splurge on at all but I have started using these again and it makes a world of difference. If you color-treat or heat style your hair, give these a try for 30 days. You can find them on Amazon. :)

Ponds Moisturizing Cream

I am still using this years and years after I started. I've tried tons of things in between but there is nothing like this moisturizer.

Benefit Hoola Bronzer 

In a very rare trip to Ulta, I decided to try the much hyped-about Hoola bronzer. They sell it in a super small .14 oz size which cut the price in half. I finally get the hype. This stuff seriously gives you a healthy glow without any orange streakiness. It's great!

BBW Candles

I've been a long time fan of these candles but I went out on a limb awhile back and finally tried the Mahogany Teakwood scent. I thought it was way too manly for the longest time. As it turns out my husband really likes this scent and asks for it when he knows I'm getting more. He says it reminds him of a "sophisticated NY apartment." Hahah. It really does!!

Happy Tuesday!!

The plan for Kitchen Renovation

Well with our current kitchen situation, I've been a crazy woman on Pinterest and I've lost a little bit of sleeping mulling this over at night. The upside is that I get a new kitchen out of this ordeal!

We know that we want something dark on the bottom cabinets and most likely white on top. Stark white cabinets on the bottom wouldnt last more than a year around here. We love the whole Fixer Upper look these days - to a POINT. Some things are a little too farmhouse for me but I like rustic touches balanced out with modern things. We love subway tile and light countertops. Our whole downstairs is Silver Cloud by Glidden and we will most likely use that in the kitchen as well. It's gray but still very light and airy.

We are also going to take this opportunity to reconfigure the space just a little bit. It's been a really tight squeeze in there for awhile with tables, eat in areas, random jut-outs and kid stuff. Once we are finished it will feel like the kitchen can breathe :)

We are going to rebuild the window seat and kick out the old cushion that went with it. Gone will be the days of it slipping on the floor and never feeling or looking clean. We're going to do a nice solid piece of wood. Boom. Clean.

I know we can do this. Bit by bit! :)

Mold. Lots of mold in our kitchen.

Part of the reason I blog is to document our tortoise-slow progress on renovating our home. When we bought this house we knew it was a project. Jimmy and I absolutely love tackling these things together because I have the vision and he has the ability. We're a great team I think :)

We knew that a kitchen renovation would need to happen eventually but there were so many other things that needed fixing before we could even think about it. And let's be honest. A kitchen reno falls on the higher end of expensive projects.

Fast forward to over a year ago. I started noticing a really strong smell coming from the kitchen somewhere. It was especially strong around the sink and disposal. I tried everything to clean it out. I had even gotten to the point where I was pouring fresh coffee grounds in there to help neutralize the odor. Nothing worked.

We needed to see what we were dealing with so I convinced Jimmy to tear out the bottom of the cabinet underneath our sink.

There it was: black mold. We discovered that there was a leak in our main drain. Each time we turned on the faucet, water poured in from the drywall and down onto the floor.

We had no choice but to close it up and leave it like that for a few weeks and talk about our plan of action. A kitchen tear-out was nowhere near our present thought or budget. We talked about all kinds of potential fixes but nothing that could be immediate.

We called our insurance company and they came out twice. They will not cover this because it's not a catastrophic event. Slow leaks are not covered.

We didn't know anything about this problem through our inspection. It was never mentioned, so we were unaware of anything like this.

The smell kept getting worse until I caved. I couldn't keep putting my family at risk. We spent this past weekend tearing into one half of our kitchen.

We lost our window seat area due to the water seeping under it. 

{old picture}

We ended up tearing out all of the beadboard since it was so poorly done anyway. We found some old paint swatches from the former owner :) 

This is what I'm working with currently. I've lost my dishwasher, tons of cabinet space, lots of hardwoods and my window seat. The white stuff is Kilz. We probably over-did it in the "abatement" process but I'm certain we took care of the mold. I can still smell the bleach in my nose :) Any black on the floor is the paper that was under the hardwoods.

This is honestly a real-life nightmare as far as house problems go. Jimmy's schedule is already so full that this will have to be tackled in between his two job schedules. It's overwhelming to say the least. I'm TRYING to stay positive but the thought of living like this for months on end is daunting.

Here's praying we can get this done within a reasonable timeframe!!

Five on Friday!

We are two weeks in of all being home from school and there has been some adjusting going on, but we are surviving! In a moment of weakness, I looked up what day school goes back. August 29th people. I have two full months left. {screams.}

1// We made a last minute decision a few weeks ago to take a day trip to Raleigh to visit Marbles Museum. The heat index was 100 degrees and we wanted to do something indoors.

The kids LOVED it!!!

2// We have been struggling in the sunscreen department. I must have accidentally used some awhile back that was expired and we all got burnt to a crisp. I tried the Target brand for Banana Boat and it worked well but it was so thick it would not rub in for the life.  I know there are so many opinions about sunscreen and what to use but this stuff has worked really well for us!! It smells really nice and we've not had any issues at all.

3// I'm in the process of selling my two-year-old couch on Craigslist. I had a fit to have a new one a few years ago and within a few months, it was ruined. I got so tired of stressing over having to cover it in blankets constantly. I moved an old olive green one we had in another room to replace it and eventually it's getting a gray slipcover. I can't handle the stains and mess anymore. Give me ALL THE GRAY. I'm also eyeing a huge gray carpet remnant.  Here are some of my inspo pics.

4// My family recently went candy-free and it was one of the best decisions we've ever made. That doesn't mean that we don't have sugar in the house, but it is significantly reduced. It had gotten to the point where my Hollin became obsessed with candy and trying to "earn" candy as a reward for things. She also was learning how to completely wear me down by asking for it 20 billion times to the point where I'd give in. We threw our accumulated candy in the trash and asked grandparents to join our team. I can always tell now when she has had sugar. (Harper doesn't seem to be as affected by it.)

5//  I have been toying with the idea of chopping a few inches off my hair but I'm so hesitant! It took me years to get it this long. I can't decide!!

Happy Friday!!

Summer Break Schedule

I decided before school ended this year that I would try a set routine with my kids each day during Summer Break. We all function best with a schedule and I don't see that changing any time soon. This is my disclaimer that we don't follow this to a T, but it's here as a fall-back every day!

In years past I always tried to sleep in later and then have a "lazy day" but my kids don't know how to be lazy :) I've realized that it's better to get up relatively early, get started with our day and by evening we're all tired and still going to bed at the same time as the school year. Mommy has wised up.

8:15 - Everyone Up! Make coffee, breakfast. Turn on the Today show and patrol what they are allowed to see {yikes.}

9:30 - Morning work. This is where Harper does one page from this book and I work with Hollin on shapes, colors, ABC's and counting. Believe me, this does not happen without complaint. I have to remind Harper especially that he does way, WAY more work at school.

10:15 - Morning snack.

10:30 -  Morning activity. We usually head out to the backyard pool.

12:00 - Lunch.

1:00-2:00 -  Quiet time. This is when we all head upstairs to our bedrooms. The kiddos are allowed to watch their kid videos/games/play Barbies for an hour. They may not ask me for any snacks, drinks, any questions and if they do, I add 5 minutes to quiet time. I know it may sound a little extreme, but this is so that we all get a good break from each other. At 7 and 4 1/2, they are perfectly capable of getting their cups from the fridge and snacks from the pantry. And let me tell you, they actually LOVE it. It's worked really well!!

2:30 - Afternoon activity. This is sometimes the pool again, library, playground, etc.

4:00-4:30 - Inside "cool down" time. They watch TV for a bit and literally cool down from being outside in the 90 degree weather!

5:30 - Dinner. Hang out with daddy for awhile.

6:30 - Bath

7:30 - Milk, brush teeth.

8:00 - Bedtime!

We are only one full week in on this schedule but so far it's working really well for us. It definitely helps the time pass faster for me now that every day is not a big free-for-all. There will be times when this whole thing will get thrown out the window for a day or two for other things, but we like what we've got here :)

Happy Friday!

Hollin's last day of Preschool {for now}

Hollin's first year of Preschool went really well, even though she got off to a bit of a rough start :) Her teachers were telling me within two months that she is "strong willed." Um, yes, you are correct.

She had the best teachers and grew so much!

Her last day was so precious but made even better by being able to babysit for a friend's brand new baby boy!

Even when she was supposed to be eating her lunch, she held off all other kids and stayed with him. Look at that face!

After C went home, we celebrated her year with ice cream. 

I am so proud of her. She knows all of her ABC's and can count to 29 and then says "20-30." She can write and spell out her name aloud. She knows all of her colors and some shapes. She worked so hard this year. Now it's time to enjoy the summer!!

Catching up {again!}

Baseball season is FINALLY over!! 

Baseball is really tiring!

  

They both did a really great job this year. Harper was so hesitant about machine pitch but he did really well considering. Hollin did a great job too! She was always proud as a peacock to get a hit and  get to first base.

What mom doesn't take her baby to watch her play?

The end of the school year is always so crazy but fun! We've done birthday parties...

Beach days..

Went over Hollin's end of year school work. I don't know where she gets some of this stuff.

{No, this is not an announcement.}

We went to Harper's end of year parade at school..

Started our official popsicle season..

Baby-sat for a little 6 week old..

And celebrated Hollin's last day!

Harper's last day is June 9th. We are a couple of parties away from summer! 

whew.