{phone dump friday}

We had a few rainy days so I whipped up a fun staple in our house - shaving cream paint! I first made this for Asher about a year ago and he still loves it every time we paint.

Except now it's less painting and more just a mess. :-)

We stopped by the $1 store the other day and A got to pick out a balloon. He loves balloons and I love that these several week long lasting Mylar ones are only a buck! Sadly, Elmo got himself in a predicament at home. We have many ceiling fans in our house = dangerous ground for a floating balloon. He's still ok, but I was just waiting for disaster to strike him! Ha!

Drew and I took our first trip to the local Farmer's Market last weekend. They had so much great produce and baked goods - it was hard to know what to choose. Asher liked seeing the dogs people brought with them. We stopped by the market restaurant for a good ole Southern breakfast.

...but had them hold the grits and sausage gravy - we're still shaking off the Yankee.

After our string of rainy days Asher got really used to wearing his duck boots and insisted on wearing them every time we left the house. The first time he tried he was able to put them on all by himself and was SO proud! I didn't have the heart to switch them to the right feet. :-)

Happy weekend, y'all!

{see. I'm southern now}

 

reviewing my pins

I don't know about you, but every time I pin something part of me wonders..."will this really work/taste good/be easy/save me time?"

Recently I've tried a bunch of pinned items and meals and wanted to let you all know how they came out so you can try it yourself {or avoid it completely...}

First up, a couple recipes. I've been pretty bored with our usual go-to meals and decided to try a few new ones from my now we're cookin' board.

Blackened Chicken and Cilantro Lime Quinoa

{photo source}

This was so great! It was really easy to put together and I loved that it involved a dry rub, rather than a marinade. All too often time gets away from me and I forget to get the meat marinating in time for dinner. This needs no lead time. We didn't find it to be too spicy at all, so I didn't bother making the cream sauce for on top. Even Asher liked it and that's really saying something.

Buffalo Chicken Tacos

{photo source}

Yummm - I've been having major buffalo chicken cravings and this totally satisfied me and baby. Really easy, really tasty - another winner. Make it, you won't regret it.

Honey-Lime Chicken Skewers

{photo source}

I'm sensing a chicken theme here - oh well. This one, too, was delicious! It does involve a marinade, but I managed to get it on in time to let the chicken pieces soak it all up before grilling. I cut up the chicken into skewer sized pieces before plunking them in the marinade and I think that really helped the flavor soak in.

Blueberry Baked Oatmeal

{photo source}

Hey, it's not a chicken dish! I actually posted about this awhile back when I first made it. It's delicious, but lasted us nowhere close to the week that the original author mentions - we loved it too much! It is also a little too much work for me on a busy morning, but on a Saturday it would be great.

Bacon Ranch Slow Cooker Chicken

{photo source}

This one I'm going to have to give a "just ok". The flavor was nice, but despite following her alternative directions to avoid the yogurt curdling in the sauce mine still did and that was a major turn off. Not awful, but I probably won't make it again so I guess that makes it a deal breaker in my book.

We've been trying to eat healthier, so I actually haven't tried many of the desserts I've pinned. Fear not - we won't be able to hold out much longer.

I have also tried out a few cleaning tips.

Towel Refresh

{1} wash towels in hot water with 1C vinegar
{2} wash again in hot water with 1/2 C baking soda

Either my towels weren't that bad or this just doesn't make a huge difference because I really didn't notice much change. Maybe someone else had more luck? It certainly didn't hurt them!

Shower Cleaner

1 part Dawn dish detergent + 1 part vinegar in a spray bottle

I used this on my shower walls and especially on the glass surround. It worked great! I will say however, that a little goes a looong way. Dawn is super sudsy and the first time I really doused everything and it took me forever to rinse away. The vinegar smells a little, but once it's rinsed the smell left immediately. I give this one an A+. It will be a new bathroom staple for me.

Do you have any pins that are amazing {or lackluster?} - I'd love to know about them!

 

wordless wednesday {big mountain}

On nice evenings, Asher and I will often take a walk through our neighborhood after dinner. The 1 block circuit takes us approximately 45 minutes. There are a lot of rocks to pick up, dirt piles to kick, dogs to wave at, and cars to point out. And since this is a growing development there are also a lot of construction sites to appreciate.

Today Asher stopped at this available home site and told me no less than 50 times:

"Whoa. Big mountain. No diggers, no bull-doughbers"

I'm sure you'll agree - this is our Everest, right here in NC.

I assured him that once they start building a house the diggers and bulldozers will come. We go back every day to check - just in case. :-)

 

making a joyful noise

Asher has started singing all the time recently and it is a-d-o-r-a-b-l-e {if I do say so myself}.

If you need a smile today, take a quick watch. :-)

Pony Boy...

 


Itsy-Bitsy Spider...

 


Jesus Loves Me...

 

{phone dump friday}

Yesterday Asher and I took a trip to his new school to see the classroom and meet his teacher. It was wonderful! Ash ran right in and started playing without so much as a backward glance to me. His teacher answered all of my questions and offered lots of information about the school, their lessons, comfort techniques they use on these little guys, etc...

Several times I almost started crying {enter: pregnancy hormones} from relief and excitement for Asher. I'm sure we'll have some hard days those first weeks - especially once there are lots of other kids there too and he's apart from me for 3 hours at a time - but I know he'll get used to it and thrive. I don't know how else to say it other than, this is right for us. And I'm excited for him!

Once we got home the boy was especially thirsty {hungry??} and requested a cup of crushed ice. I don't know if it's because he sees me chewing on ice all the time, but he loves it! Is this weird? It seems strange to me that a 2 year old would like ice, but ok. :-)

Exciting times in our mailbox - a necklace I ordered a few weeks ago finally arrived! I've been wanting something fun to add a little pizazz to my typical uniform of t-shirt and capri pants, so when I saw this for a steal on Very Jane I ordered one. I love it!

I made a cute shirt for a toddler friend of ours yesterday. His mom is a friend of mine from college and actually - get this - paid me to make it. Ha ha! I'm NOT in business, so I suggested doing it for the cost of the materials and shipping. Basically a win-win for both of us! She picked the fabric and lettering, I just put it together. I hope you love it, Luke!

{just to clarify - even though it looks really orange through my phone camera, but it's actually a vibrant red on the thread and fabric stripes in person. Crazy lighting...}

Asher and I had some errands to run the other morning and realized once we got there that the store didn't open until 10. What's with that? We're ready for adventures looong before 10.  :-)  Since we had some time to kill we hit the nearby Starbucks for a special treat. I haven't had a latte in so long - it was pretty awesome.

They had this sign displayed and it cracked me up. There must be a ton of people who ask if they make a special sign and countdown. Although I love me some pumpkin spice latte I'm really glad they don't bust it out too early. It is still August, after all.

Ladybug is ready for her weekly PDF appearance. This time she was chilling at the park while big brother ran around like a banshee. Good times.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! I have baking on my horizon - can't wait! YUM. :-)

home tour {come on in}

Ever since we got our last box unpacked I've been meaning to do a home tour of sorts on here. I always love to see where other people live and get ideas from the ways they decorate. Plus, several of you have asked to see more of our home, so this is for you. :-)

Let me start by saying that this truly is our dream home. Drew and I feel so blessed to have a home - any home - let alone one that suits our family's needs and desires so fully. We love it here!

Last spring when we were first looking to move we saw this house and were unsure about it because, well, there wasn't much to see! It was still in the process of being built which made it a lot harder to visualize the final product. Luckily for us the builder had built a home with an identical floor plan that was for sale in a neighboring community so we were able to tour that one and get a sense of how the rooms would be scaled and arranged. It also gave us a nice sense of the quality of the builder. We loved the house, but also really loved the first neighborhood, so Drew and I decided to go ahead and move forward on the home that was only partially finished.

This ended up being a great decision because we were able to pick out a lot of the finishes inside and out! It's fun to pick these things, but it's so easy to get overwhelmed when you're outfitting an entire house. I love the parts we chose, though, and am thrilled we had the chance to make the house a little bit more our own before we even moved in.

Welcome to our home!

I love that our front door is mostly glass and lets in a lot of light. I would like to find a sheer curtain or something to cover it for a bit more privacy - the UPS man has terrified me more than once when he suddenly appeared in my door, ha! Anyone know where you can get a curtain/rod to cover an arched top like this door has?? Pretty, but very hard to work with...

As you walk in the front door, Drew's home office is on the left.

 

Drew works from home occasionally so these French doors that close work out well {although the glass is constantly covered with tiny hand prints and face smudges from someone who likes to watch "Daddy woo-king." :-) }

Opposite the office is the dining room.

I'm a little embarrassed to be showing you this room at all because we have done nothing in here decoration-wise. There isn't even a tablecloth on the table, for goodness sake.

I'm planning to recover the dining room chairs at some point and hope to build the rest of the room around whatever colors are in the fabric I choose for that project. Until then, bare it remains. The walls look very pink in these photos, but they are actually a very nice greige {"Perfect Greige" - SW, to be exact}.

Leading off of the dining room is a small hallway that has a butler's pantry/bar area. We added in the "beverage center" refrigerator and it. is. awesome. I love having all of our drinks in one place - and not in my main fridge - ha ha!

 

Thanks for coming over to visit - the tour continues soon!

 

wordless wednesday {rewind}

I love looking back at what Asher was doing a year or two ago.  He changes so, so quickly - I can't believe this tiny guy is the same Asher I know today! 

Two years ago, this cutie pie was celebrating his 8 month birthday...

Love him!

bugaboo {30 weeks}

Only 10 weeks to go now...my oh my. I'm getting excited to meet this little lady!

Remember a few weeks ago when I mentioned the midwife I saw, but didn't really, um, mesh with so well? Lucky me got to see her again at my appointment on Friday! Honestly it wasn't bad and I think if we see each other on D-day everything will be just fine. She remembered me, but clearly didn't remember the stern warning she gave me about "watching my weight gain" because this time she commented on how I'd lost a pound since my last appointment and should "make sure I'm getting enough to eat." ha ha - can't win here!

All in all things have been going along pretty well. I have the usual aches, poor sleep, tiredness, and hunger that all 3rd trimester mamas go through. Nothing too bad, certainly. This ladybug is a very active kiddo and moves/kicks/punches constantly. I might just be forgetting, but I'm pretty sure Asher never moved this much. We'll see if she ends up being more active on the outside too!

This week bug is about 2.5-3.8 pounds and the size of a cucumber.

How far along: 30 weeks

Net weight gain/loss: 14 pounds

Maternity clothes: some of each

Stretch marks: no

Belly button: out and loud

Sleep: finding it really hard to get and stay comfortable

Baby movement: oh yes - she's very busy.

Gender: ladybug

Food cravings: blueberry muffins and mint cookie ice cream

Food aversions: meat. gross.

What I miss: not much this week!

Looking forward to: getting the rest of the nursery furniture delivered...someday.

Best moment this week: a great report from the OB

Milestones: baby is now strong enough to grasp a finger

 

cookie monster

Asher loves to help me bake and I love having his help! His enthusiasm makes dealing with the extra toddler cooking messes well worth it. :-) The other day we made some cookie bars to surprise Daddy!

My sous chef is a big fan of "Asher dumps" the ingredients into the bowl.

That job sometimes gets him a little closer than I'd like to the spinning beater. oh my.

Once every thing gets mixed together A switches roles to be our chief of quality control.

As soon as the pan comes out of the oven Asher asks to " 'mell? 'mell?" ha ha - I love the way he says stuff.

Even though we were going to have these as dessert that night we had to try one right away.

Yummy!!

{phone dump friday}

Thank you all for your sweet and supportive comments and emails on my school post yesterday. I know this is the right choice for us and I'm really excited to see how Asher grows and develops in this new environment! I feel so, so blessed to be able to stay home with him full-time, but I know there's a lot out in the world I can't offer him by myself.

In the meantime I've decided to ignore my nervous feelings about the whole thing and focus on the fun parts of starting preschool - like 1st day of school shirts! I fired up my embroidery machine yesterday to make Asher a little number to sport on his first day. Would you like a peek? Oh, ok. :-)

appliqué found here

embroidery font found here

Asher is pretty excited by the new step stool we found for him at HomeGoods this week. I've been searching for a stool like this for awhile and had a really hard time finding a stool with 2 steps. These tall vanities make it hard for little ones to reach their toothbrushes!

 

It's been blazing hot around here so we've spent some fun time at the pool trying - in vain - to stay cool. I love that they make hooded beach towels for kids. Keeps him from looking too grown up. :-)

 

I've been trying to teach Asher that if he eats his veggies first they will be gone and out of the way, but he doesn't buy it. That makes the end of dinner a fun battle we all look forward to.

 

I was opening new vitamins the other day and noticed their title. It struck me as pretty funny that the manufacturer finds it necessary to specify that these are women's prenatal vitamins. Um, what's the other option? ha ha!

 

All in all a pretty slow week for the old phone cam. Hope you all have a great weekend!

 

on starting school

I mentioned in passing yesterday that Asher is starting preschool in 2 weeks. This is something that weighs pretty deeply on my heart so I wanted to talk about it a little. If you had told me 2.5 years ago that this September I'd be sending my little guy to school I would have seriously doubted it.

As his mom, I consider it my job to teach him basic knowledge {colors, letters, left and right}, to train him in manners and social skills, and to shepherd his heart towards love and obedience to God. I always assumed Asher would attend preschool as a 4 year old - hey, it didn't seem fair to expect him to go from full-time at home to all day school cold turkey - but that was still a few years away.

Then he got his evaluation from Early Intervention last fall and started speech and occupational therapy. I haven't mentioned it recently because, since our move, we stopped receiving services. Asher has been doing SO much better with his speech. He's a true parrot these days, repeating everything we say and using it on his own later. His motor skills are still a little lagging, and that's part of why Drew and I thought it would be good for him to have consistent time with kids his own age each week. I think it will help him to be around 2 year olds that do some things he can't {or won't}. Hopefully the desire to play with them will spur him towards doing more climbing, more running, more everything that he avoids now.

Our move was another big factor that I wasn't anticipating a few years ago. Asher is at such a critical age for social development and since we moved to another state we left all of our friends behind. It takes times to grow a new circle and I really worry about A regressing into a secluded guy in the meantime.

We've found a new church we love and have been attending there for the past month or so. Each Sunday Asher goes in the 2 year old classroom while Drew and I attend the worship service. Of course, he cried at first, but now he loves it. Several times throughout the week he'll randomly ask me, "Have church? Play kids?". He wants to go! He wants to play with the other kids! I think he's ready to get a lot out of school and will definitely love the social aspect.

Then, of course, there's the ladybug. :-)

Ah, sweet bug. I know she'll be a wonderful addition to our family, but let's face it - her arrival will seriously rock our world. I think it will be a nice security for Asher to have a few things in his life that remain unchanged once the baby is born. Going to school from 9-12 on Tuesdays and Thursdays can be one of those things. I'm hoping it will be "his time" to be with friends, enjoy a little independence from me, and do big boy stuff that babies can't be a part of.

Despite all of these great reasons I still worry because he's my baby and I love him - what if one of the other kids is mean? What if he just can't keep up and gets left behind? What if he cries for me everyday and hates it?

I'm 100% sure that I'm over thinking the whole situation, but sending a part of yourself out into the world, even for just 6 hours a week {at a church. with trained teachers.} is hard to do.

I mean, how is it possible that this little guy is ready for school already?  

This very wordy post isn't meant as a defense to our decision or as a judgement towards others who make a different choice. As always, this blog is here to record our life - and my thoughts. I'm sure that in a few weeks' time I'll be able to share with you all that Asher is thriving in school - that he has friends, has learned new songs and stories, and can't wait to wave goodbye to me from the doorway.

Let's be honest - like most things involving our kids, I'm sure this will be harder for me than it is for him. :-)