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Showing posts from April, 2016

How We Painted Our Cabinets {and Totally Transformed Our Kitchen}

About 9 months ago I took the plunge and painted our kitchen cabinets. I feel like this is the DIY project that most people are afraid to tackle because, hello! It is the kitchen. So much time is spent in the kitchen and it really is the focal point of the home – if it’s done sloppy, wrong or doesn’t turn out as expected it would be a huge headache and a lot of money to fix. However, this is probably the best DIY project our family has done. Not only did it make a HUGE impact on our home and main living space but it was extremely cost effective at only $150. Once upon a time, our kitchen looked like this: Now it looks like this: It was pretty yellow before. Maple was everywhere. Maple cabinets, maple floors. I walked in this room and it felt like it was constantly glowing (even after I painted the walls a beautiful shade of “perfect greige”). Anyhoo, I knew I wanted a white kitchen. I feel like white cabinets appear decade after decade. They are timeless and cla

Favorite Things & 25 Weeks

  Weeks along: 25 Baby Size: 13.5 inches Symptoms: Heartburn, sleeping REALLY well, hungry ALL. THE. TIME., lots of BH contractions Cravings: (my sweet tooth arrived) Poptarts, Peanut Butter Protein Balls, Burgers, Sweet Potatoes, sweet tea, coconut water. Movement: Love her baby kicks! How her movements change week to week remind me daily of how much she's growing. I can sort of distinguish body parts now. Just yesterday my MIL was able to feel her booty followed by a kick. Pretty special. News this week: I passed the glucose test with flying colors but I am slightly anemic (first time for me) so I'm now on an iron supplement.     Here are some of my Favorite Things this week: SWEET TEA. With the beautiful weather that has arrived I've been loving me some sweet tea. How many days does it take a pregnant lady to drink 2 gallons of it? Answer: 3. It's that good!   Recipe: 6 regular tea bags (decaf) in a large pitcher with 1/2 cup -

It Gets Easier

The first time Isaiah ever had a stomach bug he was almost two. Maci was 3 months old and Darren worked swing shift - which quite honestly felt like he was barely home. Isaiah threw up all over the car on the way home from my parents' house, all over the car and car seat. We got home, changed, and he threw up all over the couch and floor. Stay asleep, Maci, stay asleep is what I remember thinking while I scrubbed the car, floors, couch and literally cut off the car seat cover to throw it in the wash (Who in the name designs these car seats??? Certainly not mothers. A car seat pad/cover should be removable. Hello.) Then he threw up again, Maci woke up to nurse, and I cried. And I called my mom because that's what you do when you don't know what to do. I remember feeling alone, exhausted, and thinking maybe I'm not cut out to take care of babies. I am not qualified. I can't do it. I was dreadfully surprised by the hardness of it and of the inadequacy and he

A Humble Encourager

"Going from 2 to the 3 was the absolute hardest ," say so many mamas to the mama pregnant with her third baby with a plastered smile on her face. And it makes sense - you go from man-to-man defense to zone-defense. You run out of hands that can grab on to kids. The parents are officially outnumbered. I get it. It's a fair warning. I don't mind people telling me this because I think it's probably true. I don't think people purposely say it to instill fear or anxiety but sometimes I think people (myself included) can get so hung up on the hard, worn-out and exhausting parts that we forget to glorify the good stuff and give credit to God. Last week I was reading Titus. It is a tiny book squished in the middle of the New Testament. Chapter 2 is about teaching and it breaks it down into groups: older and younger men, and older and younger women. Verses 2:7-8 says: "In your teaching show integrity, seriousness, and soundness of speech that cannot be cond

14 Meals for less than $100

I didn't want to do very many meals this round. Mostly because I still have a few left from my last round and I wanted to get it all done in less than an hour. My goal was 10. But apparently, I don't know how to do only 10 meals at a time though. So for this round I did only 14 and it cost me less than $100 including tax. Menu | Pulled Pork on Pretzel Rolls (2) Pork Carnitas (2) White Chicken Enchiladas Sausage Bake Dirty Rice Chicken Pad Thai Simple Spaghetti Meatballs Italian Turkey Meatloaf Caribbean Jerk Chicken on Pub Rolls Mango Salsa Chicken Lemon Pepper Chicken Orange Chicken Shopping List | Meat: 2 5 lb. pork loins 2 bags frozen chicken breasts 1 smoked sausage link (I buy Hillshire) 3 lbs. ground turkey 1 bag meatballs (26 count) 1 bag popcorn chicken Frozen Goods: 2 bags frozen broccoli florets Canned Goods: 1 can cream of chicken 1 can green chilis 1 bottle fish sauce 1 bottle rice vinegar 2 jars marinara 1 bottle orange sauce

Salad Love

I have been so hungry lately. And I don't know about you but my eyes and appetite are always so much bigger than my squished stomach when I'm pregnant. Salads tend to be some of my very favorite things to eat because they aren't heavy and don't make me feel sick afterward. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites. Each of these can easily turn into a hardy dinner too. (Just throw on some grilled chicken or steak with a side of garlic bread. Because bread.) Sweet Bacon Salad I love this salad. A family friend made it at a lake house get-together and I had to know what the secret ingredient was- COCONUT! I don't even like coconut and I make this all the time now. Delicious and easy.   1-2 heads of romaine lettuce finely chopped or shredded 1 package of cooked and crumbled bacon Sprinkle in some parmesan cheese Sprinkle in some shredded coconut Drizzle Italian dressing [Toss]     Sun-dried Tomato Salad with Balsamic I concoct this ev