Master.

This weekend I used my Saturday to finish two Pinterest projects for our master bedroom. Let me first say that they are by no means impressive or difficult, but just the fact that I completed something that I started is somewhat noteworthy and, according to my personality, usually all but impossible. I realized that I never did a room-by-room blog post with pictures of our house, so this is me catching up.

When we moved to our new house last spring, our goal was to simplify. You can tell in the decor of our home. I tried gaudy on for size once, but it just didn't fit. I like it clean. I like it simple. A muted palette is a soothing one and with our busy lives, I'm all about creating a calm environment in my home. And an awesome chunky frame on clearance from Hobby Lobby and some spray-painted letters are right up my alley.

The "J K" stands for our initials, not "just kidding". :)

For the other half of our room, I cut some leaves out of scrapbook paper and decoupaged them onto white canvases. I didn't have a particular pattern I was going for and I'm happy with how they turned out. The glider is in our room for Lydia's impending arrival. These windows face most of our land and I love the view. This room is always bright.

Now I can rest a little easier until our lives take on a whole new dimension in a few weeks.

Have a lovely day!

Wordless Wednesday: I Love Fall Mornings.

The Front Living Room.

After receiving two atrocious (horrific, terrifying, half-of-what-we-pay-for-our-mortgage) electric bills in a row this summer, we decided it was time to cover the windows in the formal living room, which is the room you see first when you walk in our front door past our entryway. I had left the windows uncovered because the light! The beautiful light! was gorgeous and I loved how it streamed through onto the floor.

I did not, however, like how it helped keep our house at oven temps.

So, after tearing open one of the atrocious electric bills, I hopped in the minivan and sped to Hobby Lobby. I purchased lots of fabric, some curtain clips, a curtain rod, and sped home. I did a really terrible job installing the curtain rods (can we say crazy-lady-stripped-screws?) but by the end of the evening, we had curtains (read: strips of fabric).

I liked how tall they were, how they touched the molding and pooled on the floor, accentuating the eight-foot ceilings. However, the color was always a bit ... dark, clashing with the muted green walls, and I quickly discovered that curtains that pool on the floor become instant targets to two toddlers who like to wrap themselves in fabric. One of the brackets pulled loose and dangled precariously for a few days (eh, remember the stripped screws?) before I finally decided that the blazing days of summer were over, the cool days of fall were beginning to make their appearance, and, thusly, it was time to brighten up the room again.

I bought some sheer curtains, a new curtain rod, and with renewed ambition, I took down the old rod and brackets, filled in the gaping holes (eh, remember the stripped screws?) with spackle and touched them up with paint, and installed this new rod with more precision and, now, expertise.

(Note: tapping a nail and then removing it in the place where you intend to put a screw is a handy way to help the screws go in like butter, especially when you are standing on a step ladder, pregnant, while holding a power tool.)

The room instantly lightened.

The curtains touch the bottom of the window sill (the windows are especially low in this room, so I think it looks fine ... and is much, eh, safer with the kiddos) and while they don't reach as high as the others did, I think this looks more proportionate. I like.

As the days grow chilly, I know I'll appreciate the sunny patch on the floor, keeping the house warm. And bright.

Ta-Da!

Have a lovely day.

Startled.

On Sunday afternoon, I settled happily onto our couch for a much-anticipated nap. Naomi was napping, my husband was at the store, and Caleb was spending the afternoon with his grandparents, so I stretched out on the cool leather, let my eyes flicker shut, and bam. I was out.

I'm not sure how long I was asleep, but at some point I began to hear a screeching and squawking in my dream. I drifted in that weird in-between stage of sleep and wakefulness before realizing that I was actually hearing screeching and squawking. My eyes popped open as I heard what I'm sure was every one of our chickens, crying and crowing in the backyard. I leapt off the couch, flung the back door open, and beheld a frenzied sight. The chickens were running in circles in a panic. In my just-woke-up stupor I looked back and forth to see what could have startled them. A hawk? A dog? I couldn't see anything, but boy, the girls were freaked out.

As they ran in circles before me, one of the especially ambitious hens took off in a dead sprint, flapped her wings, and shot straight in the air. I followed her with my eyes and saw her determined self flap forward for about three feet, stop, and drop.

Right into our above-ground pool.

My jaw dropped open and I charged towards the pool. Remember, our stairs are not attached for the safety of the kiddos, so I had to hoist my (pregnant) self (in a dress) onto the deck to save the chicken. I frantically looked over the edge to see the poor panicked poultry hysterically flapping, yet floating.

Who knew chickens could float? Hmm.

Anyway. I knew she wouldn't last long in there, so I reached in, swiped her out of the water, tucked her under my arm, and scooted off of the deck. She flew out of my arms and made a beeline for the coop.

Now. Let's just remember that at this point I've been awake for maybe a total of 45 seconds. There was still a small part of me that wondered if perhaps I was dreaming all of this...I mean, they've never acted this way before! But, I shook my head, shrugged my shoulders, walked back inside, and shut the door behind me.

And saw this:

Oh geez.

I did a double-take before realizing I had left the back door open when I ran outside. This smart chicky must have felt a waft of cool air from the house and decided to check it out, and, once inside, decided the cool granite was the perfect place to perch.

Oy.

After much chasing and clucking, the hen ended up back outside, and my exhausted self ended up back on the couch. And then I laughed. Really hard.

Oh, the joys of country living, friends. Oh the joys.

Have a lovely day!

Before and After: Guest Bathroom!

We've been in the house for a few months now and I'm finally over the moving funk, ready to stretch my wings and start taking ownership of decorating this house and making it our home.

My first little project was the guest bathroom. Behold, the guest bedroom:

While the walls remain blank (and I don't really mind) and the bed needs some pillows (they'll come eventually), you can see the overall mood we're going for here: Calm, clean, and peaceful. Our guests have a quaint window seat that overlooks the front lawn and the pond, and the white Shabby Chic bedding is begging for someone to climb beneath its fluffy folds. The suitcase side-table emphasizes our rest-for-the-weary-traveler theme, and overall I love this room.

Then there's the bathroom.

The sink and cupboards are just fine ...

(Sorry the picture is dark, I took these with my phone!) I love the white cabinets, the neutral walls, the silver fittings ... it matches the quaintness of the bedroom well.

Then. Then there's this:

This gem of a mistake was hanging over the toilet. I'm not sure what the previous homeowners were thinking with this last-minute addition, but not only is the color terribly wrong from the wood stain to the gold fixtures (gah), but they also hung it UPSIDE DOWN. Last I checked, the arches on cabinet doors are traditionally at the top (this is the kind of stuff that my Dad, a private contractor, embedded into my brain as an INEXCUSABLE MISTAKE). Our cupboard looked like an unfortunate mismatched piece of laziness adorned with two very pronounced "U"'s.

I tried to take it off of the wall so I could paint it and hang it properly, but this beauty was stuck tight. So, I taped around it and painted it right where it was, using a dry-brush technique to give it an aged look. I removed the cabinet doors, bought new silver hinges and sparkly clear knobs (note the rings on the shower curtain, continuing the Shabby Chic/New Romanticism theme I'm in love with), and with the help of my Dad, Humpty Dumpty was put back together again.

Back, and better than ever. :)

One project to check off the list! The den is our next endeavor ... stay tuned!

Have a lovely day.

Wednesday With A Few Words: Party Pictures From My Phone.

(Maybe it was more than ten boxes.)

(You can see the second flag in the background.)

(Yummy Marshmallow Pops! I found the idea here, but omitted the peanut butter and used white chocolate instead.)

(It was quite toasty outside.)

(Part of the group!)

Have a lovely day!

A Happy Fourth.

Ten boxes of fireworks

+

Sixty-five guests

+

Kiddos splashing in the pool

+

A ferocious game of backyard volleyball

+

Lots of laughing and chatting with friends and family

+

A few children's tears from the fireworks' BOOM!

+

Lawn chairs

+

A table filled edge-to-edge with pies, cookies, cake, chips, deviled eggs, cobbler, and homemade ice cream

+

Disc golf and Bocce Ball in the front yard

+

Tiki torches

+

Flags and sparklers

+

Bug spray

=

One heck of a Fourth of July.

(And two very, very exhausted hosts. YAY for coffee.)

(And yay for a home where we can do stuff like this--a dream come true for us. Exhaustion is a bit more tolerable when it's accompanied by joy. What fun memories were made!)

I hope your Fourth was a good one!

Have a lovely day.

A Few More Questions ... :)

I received these questions via a Facebook message, because the comments weren't posting. Weird. I'm sorry! Here you go:

What is a typical day like now with 2 kiddos?

I usually wake up before the kids and start a pot of coffee. If I'm on the ball, I read my devotion and post what I'm thankful for on Facebook. Then I start breakfast and the kiddos wake up. We eat breakfast together which is all kinds of a hilarious mess, and then we sing a song or two at the table. The kids play while I load the dishwasher, and then Caleb gets dressed (Naomi takes a morning nap still, so I keep her in her pj's). We go outside to feed the chickens and then Naomi goes down for her morning nap.

While she's sleeping, Caleb and I do "school" together using this curriculum. I know, the website looks a little cheesy, but trust me, the curriculum is great. We choose a few of the activities and work on our letter and number of the week, read the Bible story for the week, and do a craft or dramatic play. It all takes about twenty minutes. Then we read books and play puzzles, and I try to sneak in a shower while Caleb plays in his room.

When Naomi wakes up, we either eat a quick lunch or head out to run errands. This is my "window" between Naomi's two naps and before Cub's afternoon nap. We run errands and sometimes grab lunch. Once we make it home, we eat lunch and the kids go down for their naps. During this time I give myself thirty minutes to nap and then I try to be productive the rest of the time (this doesn't always happen ... but I try!). When the kids wake up, we go outside and play and I'll leave the door open when I come in to make dinner while the kids stay outside. Then Dadda comes home, we eat, play more, and then it's bath and bed! Then my husband and I hang out and have our time.

Having two little ones is a lot of fun, but it does take a little extra planning. Remember the "window" of time? I know that's the prime time to get things done because both kids are awake and happy. If I cut it too close to nap time, then YIKES. Two cranky little ones out running errands can go downhill quickly. It's all in the timing and it took me about seven months to figure out how to do it with both! We're pretty consistent every day so the kids know what to expect, which really helps. But, don't get me wrong--sometimes the days seem to be destined disasters from the moment we wake up, and nothing goes as planned. Sometimes Naomi doesn't want to take her first nap. Sometimes Cub is extra cranky. But, that's why I write what I'm thankful for every morning on Facebook--it's hard to have a bad attitude when you realize how you are blessed. I'm thankful for my children, no matter what. Even if our days look a little more like a hodge-podge of randomness rather than a seamless stream of productivity, I'm still thankful for them. These days are precious and go by way too quickly!

I know several people have asked, but your loyal readers are dying to get a peek of your new home.... or better yet a vlog post :)

Ha ha, a vlog post! :) Thank you for wanting to see our house! I haven't really shown any pictures because the decorating process has been slow-going. We're busy here at Footy Pajamas! I guess it doesn't matter if there are things on the wall or not. I have my decorating budget, but actually going out and finding what I want takes time. I don't want to fill the house simply to fill it--I'm not personally a fan of decor for the sake of decor--so I want the money to be spent intentionally and thoughtfully. Unfortunately, finding that kind of time can be tricky! I will happily do a post once things are a bit more to my liking--but they will probably come one at a time.

For now, here is our playroom/schoolroom/reading room/etc. room. This was the formal dining room, but we knew we wouldn't use it as such at this point in our lives, so it sat empty for a bit. It has columns and is open to the entryway, so I was worried about making it a play room since it is the first room people see when they walk in the house. Then I realized ... who cares? The people that walk into our house are either our friends or family, both of whom wouldn't mind one bit how we chose to utilize the room! Now it's the coziest room in the house and I love piling the kids in the chair and reading together.

More pictures will come, when I get to it, I promise!

Have a lovely day.

Chickens and Questions.

My blogger friend Whitney recently opened up her blog for questions and with the long weekend and busy week ahead, I decided I would do the same. I've done this before, so perhaps I've already answered everything you can think to ask. Or, perhaps I am not interesting enough to warrant questions. Either way, if you have a question about my little corner of the world, feel free to ask it. If I have zero comments at the end of it all, that's fine, too. I won't take it personally--I realize I'm a bit of an open book on this blog, so there isn't much to guess!

Also, yesterday we opened up the coop for the first time to let the chickens run around. They are able to scoot down their ramp and free range in the grass, but we've never opened the door to let them outside the confines of their coop. Once we did, it was nothing short of amazing to see these little fluffs of feathers become big brave birds as they stepped to the edge of the coop, looked down, and took a leap of faith to the grass below.

Who knew chickens could be so inspiring. :)

Have a lovely weekend, friends. Happy Memorial Day.

Wordless Wednesday: A Lovely Day.

Movin' On Up!

Today the chickens left their home in the garage ...

... traveled across the lawn ...

... and were introduced to their new and permanent home:

The coop.

(Nevermind the box of oil in the garage with a fried chicken on it. Tacky, I know.)

(Also, note that there are only three chickens in the box in the garage. That is because most of the chickens had already decided the box was too small for them, and they ran around the garage instead. Crazy chickens! Now all of them are safely in the coop.)

We ordered the coop from a lady who has lots of chickens and has a self-proclaimed proven approach to chicken coop design. It has wheels so we can lift it and move it around the yard to keep it evenly fertilized, but it's very heavy, which should help to keep it from tipping in this crazy Oklahoma wind. While I understood the necessity of keeping the chickies in the garage as babies, I'm quite happy for them to have their own home!

Welcome to the coop, chickens.

To Get To The Other Side.

We are adjusting to life well here. Most of the boxes in the house are unpacked, although there remains a small mountain in our garage of unpacked boxes from storage that have yet to be pilfered through. The kids' rooms are organized--not painted or decorated or cutesy, but they're organized and arranged, with toys in their boxes and sheets on their beds and clothes in their dressers. The kitchen now houses our appliances and silverware and cookie sheets and such, with a place for everything and everything in its place. And just when I took a sigh of relief, a blessed feeling of SEMI-COMPLETION, my husband decides we need to shake things up a bit.

After all, we are country folk now, so chickens are the natural next step, right? Our front lawn just wouldn't be complete without a few hens pecking their way around our grass, consuming bugs, scratching dirt ... getting eaten by predators ... you know. Chicken stuff.

We had discussed the option of purchasing some birds of the poultry persuasion when we first put an offer on this house. Of course, the "plan" was to purchase them sometime later, as in, say, next year. However, my husband got it in his mind that this year was just as good as next year and why wait? This is why we moved here, right? To do country-ish things?

So, we loaded up the kids (and my Dad, bless his heart, who happened to be visiting that day) and my husband took us to a remote town down a remote road to a remote farm. And there we picked out our chickens: Seven Ameraucanas and six Cochins. Did you see that? Did you see how I typed those breeds as if I know what I'm talking about? Please also see this:

This is me typing this post with a website found via Google on how one spells "Ameraucana". I thought it was just "Americana", like folk and rock and roll. Apparently not. It's fancier. Anyway. The Ameracaunas are black, medium-sized, and will lay blueish eggs, which is all kinds of fun. The Cochins are broody little bantys that are more for show and fun because they are little and poofy with fluffy feet. They may lay some, but (from what I've read), their eggs and small and make an appearance rarely.

I took a poll on Facebook on whether or not we should purchase chickens and the most comical were the replies that encouraged the purchasing of chicks if only to read about it on my blog. Because they WANT TO SEE THE TRAIN WRECK. We know nothing of chickens, but we like to eat eggs, especially of the free-range variety. This is our best attempt at country living. Shoot fire.

So, yay for you, dear Readership, for reveling in the pure joy of watching my country living attempts result in an epic fail in some way, whether it be a raid on the coop by a secretive group of malicious possums or my right eyeball being scratched out by a particularly moody hen. Either way, it's surely to make some good blog fodder. And, the little dears have grown on me.

The chickies currently reside in a tupperware box in our laundry room and their coop will be here Saturday.

Yeehaw!

Have a lovely day.

About The House.

The boxes are unpacked (mostly) and the furniture is (somewhat) situated. I still can't believe we're here, that we're actually here, in this house, the house we've stealthily driven by for the past six weeks, trying to and not trying to imagine what our lives would look like in this place; in this yard, in this house.

The house is a 4 bedroom/3 bathroom ranch-style and sits on five acres. Its long gravel driveway leads to a rarely-used street and most of the acreage falls to the front and side of the house. A third of the land is fenced off as pasture, where the pond is situated. When we initially began our house-search, we thought that maybe a little land would be nice, thinking two acres at the most. We chose to look at this house just for kicks and I'm very glad we did. The five acres is beautiful and sprawling. Every house on this street sits on at least five acres (leaving room for one neighbor on each side), making the land feel vast and open.

We've officially "gone country" and already our short time here has confirmed that we made the best choice for us. Every morning we awaken to the sound of birds singing, which is new for us! There is typically a small flock of Canadian geese in the front yard enjoying the morning mist and a white crane has declared the pond as its home. A distant neighbor owns a donkey which we hear braying at intervals throughout the day (quiet enough to not be a bother) and when you drive to our street you pass cows and horses. We've seen a snake, which I'm certain will be the first of many, and a spider or two, which confirms that we are, in fact, rural folk now!

But not too rural. Target is about ten minutes away and the grocery store is about eight. We were blessed to find what we consider to be a good amount of land so close to town. Close enough for convenience, but far enough for peace and quiet.

And oh, the quiet.

It's palpable. I hadn't realized the impact of the street noise from our first home until we moved to a place that has none. At night, when the birds are quiet and the donkey is parked in his stall, it is silent. It's a silence that was almost unnerving the first night, but one that we've welcomed ever since. And it's dark. Our previous corner lot saw two street lights situated on each side of the house that caused the house to glow at night. Now there is simply darkness. I could tell the darkness scared Cub a little (he was used to one of the street lights being close to his window), so we put a little night light in his room. I wasn't sure of his fear of the dark until I asked him if he wanted the light on or off and he answered firmly, "ON." Besides the dark nights, the kids are having a blast here. Cub loves to play outside and throw rocks in the pond and Naomi has eaten her fair share of grass.

The house herself is a beauty. It was a custom build for the previous owners and they didn't paint very much. The house sits like a blank canvas, awaiting a little extra love that we can't wait to give. Every day we remark on the light of the rooms--the windows paired with the high ceilings of the entryway make the house bright and cheery. There is a formal dining room separated by columns into an open hallway and formal living room when you walk through the front door. Through a doorway in the formal living room you walk into the kitchen which is open to a breakfast nook and den. I am excited to claim these spaces as our own. If you know us, then "formal" isn't exactly a word you would probably choose, and I can't wait to turn the formal dining room into a cozy reading nook and the formal living room into a relaxed space to chat with friends.

(Dining Room)

(Living Room)

(Kitchen)

(Den)

The kids' rooms are on their own end of the house with their own bathroom, while the guest room and bathroom and the master bedroom and bathroom are situated on the other end.

(Guest Bedroom)

When I sit in the dining room (it has my favorite old yellow chair in it now) in the morning and watch the mist hover over the pond, my heart moves from satisfied to overflowing. This place, this precious place, is now our home. We bless God's Name and praise Him in the hard times as well as in the good, and we dedicate this home to Him, thanking Him for His gracious kindness. I hope we can use it to bless others, the way it is already blessing us, and I pray that we won't miss those opportunities when they come.

(We very much look forward to housing guests.)

Have a lovely day.