Mom Gets To Breathe

For a little while anyway.  With school out for the summer break I usually tend to get a bit of a break of my own.  Not that I truly get to sit about with my feet up and take it easy, but the pace does tend to slow down some and I feel like I can catch my breath.

My girls are still busy as both of them have decided to do summer school, taking extra classes so they can jump ahead.  My oldest is working full time until the latter part of July as an intern and fortunately it is a paid internship so she can put away that money for college.  For that I am extremely grateful.  And I will be working full time, but also putting in a lot of overtime in June as our company completes a huge expansion project, our largest to date.  Along with that I have a project list as long as my arm that I will be working on until the end of the year and well into 2019.

Despite all of that I still feel like summertime offers me the opportunity to breathe.  The days are lighter longer, I'm outdoors more often.  We seem to spend more time with our friends and our neighbors.  The kids have more time to get their chores done and don't require my help.  They also have more time to take on some of mine.  We don't create as much laundry.  Our meals are lighter and easier to prepare most days too.  It's just a tad bit easier.

So I'll embrace these next 2 months and enjoy them for what they are.  Until the second week of August when band camp begins for my oldest and cheer camp begins for my youngest.  And then it all starts back up again.

I love summer.

Clearing Up A Lot Of Small Projects

Along with some of my bigger projects, like kitchen updates and painting cabinets and walls, the smaller projects that have needed my attention were beginning to pile up around here.  You know how those little things will just sit there and stare at you until you finally do something about it?  So I decided to spend an afternoon to tackle those and get them off my plate.

First up was the cabinet organizer I'd been moving around from place to place ever since we remodeled the kitchen cabinet.  I'm pretty sure I'd moved it at least two dozen times by that point so I decided to find it a new home or else get rid of it.  In less than two minutes I installed it on the cabinet door under the kitchen sink where it now holds all of my scrub sponges and magic erasers.

Then it was the mending pile that was stacking up on top of my sewing table.  First thing, I stitched the loose button back onto my youngest's "new" winter coat.  

Then I repaired a hole in my oldest's workout top and another one in one of her favorite sweaters.  Lastly I fixed the broken strap on one of her camisoles.

I cut the legs off of a pair of my oldest's blue jeans that were wearing out at the knees and hemmed them.  She now has another pair of shorts for summer.

Then!  I got to do the one projects I've been itching to do for quite some time.  I got out the piece of fabric I bought (I think I bought it three years ago) at Hobby Lobby and I finally got the new valance sewn for my kitchen window!  I was so happy to get to make that valance and hang it up on the window.

I reused one of the curtain rods I'd removed from Laverne when I started the "bedroom" remodel as I have different plans for window coverings up there.  It took me less than an hour and I was all done.  Love how nice this looks instead of just the plain white mini blind.

And of course I had to give that mini blind a bath and scrub it up.  I couldn't put up a dirty mini blind after all the cleaning and painting I'd been doing so I hauled it upstairs to the bathtub, sprayed it down with my Mean Green cleaner and then used a rag to wipe all the slats and give it a good rinse.  I hung it up outside to dry and an hour later it was back up in place.

I found these salt & pepper shakers at a thrift store

It felt so good to have all of these things completed.  Now onto the next project!

What About Laverne?

If I didn't have to work for a living I'd have a lot more time to do all of the projects I would much rather be working on!  But, since I wasn't born into a wealthy family I have to do what most of us have to do in order to finance these great projects.  I go to work and put in my 40 hours, sometimes more, and collect my paycheck so I can put it to good use. 😊

So what is going on with Laverne?  Not nearly as much as I would like.  This year she will sit in our driveway and wait for me, I'm afraid.  I'm itching to get back to my "bedroom" remodeling project and get that finished up, however there is a long list of other projects I need to work on too.  So for the time being she waits.

She got a fireplace for Christmas

I visit her regularly and she is ever present in my mind.  I've got a zillion ideas in my head and tons of places I want to take her.  My "To Do" list for her is growing with all the things I want to update and upgrade as well as the things I want to put inside of her to make our retirement goal a reality.  That in itself keeps me motivated and really helps propel me through my work day.  I'm keeping my eye on the prize.

Check this out!  My darling daughter made this for me.  Isn't she talented?  I was thrilled when she came home and gave it to me.  It is just beautiful.

My daughter made this sign for me to hang up in her

I do have some things to work on this summer and fall and once I am able to get back to working on her I'll be updating you with my progress.  I know that if I can get the projects on our house completed this year it will free up a whole lot more of my time to work on her going forward.  That thought makes me very happy and keeps me motivated to get stuff done around here.

Onward and upward.  We're making progress nonetheless. 

Last Week's Thrifty Moves

Sunday morning the girls and I finally got the garden put in.  Our schedules and the weather finally synched up and we were able to get it done.  How well it will do remains to be seen.  I didn't do so well with my seed starts I'm afraid.  But I planted my spindly tomato plants, an egg plant and some bell peppers and the rest was put in as seeds.  We shall see.

Monday was the quietest day of the week.  When I got home from work I spent two hours meal prepping for the week to come making four entrees and filling twelve of my Pyrex and Corning Ware food storage containers.

Tuesday was the busiest day of our week with my oldest beginning her first day of her summer internship.  After work I had to pick up the youngest and take her to the orthodontist and then pick up the oldest and take her to a robotics meeting.  In between I popped into Walmart and picked up some picnic foods to feed the girls (all those meals I'd prepped and no way to heat them up) which included a deli sub sandwich, chips and bottled water.  I grabbed a pitiful salad from their woeful selection or myself and made do.  I don't have plans to do that again soon, not very satisfying at all.  After dropping off the girl at robotics we cooled our heels at the local library.  I had taken my laptop so I could use their wifi.  I got our bills paid and watched a few YouTube videos there until it was time to pick up the oldest.  We got home shortly after 9:00 that night.  It was a crazy day.  

Wednesday was much better in that I got to go home right after work and stay there.  I baked up one of the fudge brownie mixes I got a while back on sale for 79¢ and took it into work the next day.  One of the managers I work with is a serious chocoholic so he was quite happy.  Always good to share a little love with your co-workers. 

Getting her Saturday chores done

Thursday I was right back at it, this time picking up the oldest after work and running her to the orthodontist to have her retainer checked, for the last time!  We were in and out in record time too.  At least I managed to get home at a decent time and we were all able to eat a good dinner together and at home too.  I think I now get a bit of a reprieve from all the busyness and running around for a little while.

Fred Meyer haul

Friday was a quiet evening spent at home and I breathed a big sigh of relief.  Saturday I was up bright and early as I had to take the oldest in to take the college ACT exam.  While I was out I stopped at Fred Meyer for groceries and the feed store and picked up a 50# bag of pellets for the hens.  

Markdowns!  A loaf of bread and two packages of english muffins for the girls
Loads of produce for salads and cooking

I did a small amount of grocery shopping .  Mainly, I did a produce run and scored some pretty fantastic deals with markdown items.  I also picked up a package of chicken breasts and some breakfast sausages on sale.

Chicken breasts $1.99 a pound and breakfast links 2/$5

Despite all the busyness I did manage to keep up on my 15 minute chores throughout the week as well as the watering.  No matter what time you manage to get home at night it is always nice to walk into a clean and tidy home and to know you have plenty of clean clothes to wear.

My Friday freebie items - two bottled waters and a pasta side dish

I composted coffee grounds, onion skins and eggs shells.  I gave our kitchen scraps to the chickens and picked them some more dandelion greens and milk weeds out of our yard.

How was your thrifty week?

Another Small Home Improvement - Kitchen Paint

My beloved kitchen has been in much need of a makeover for quite a few years now and this summer my goal was to make it happen.  In April I did a small renovation to one of the cabinets which allowed me to create a built in space for a microwave and get ours up and off the counter.  This opened up the area between the stove and refrigerator giving us some much desired counter space for baking and cooking.  We really love this!

We removed the switch plates and masked everything off

Last month the girls and I spent a solid weekend giving our kitchen cabinets a facelift with a couple good coats of gray satin paint, scrubbing all of the hinges and knobs and then putting things back together.  Having the cabinetry looking fresh, clean and new really made my heart sing.

Prime example of why you should take down your light fixtures
rather than to paint around them

I decided to take last Friday off of work and stay home so I could work on the final big part of the kitchen transformation which was to paint the walls and the ceiling.  The night before I got the room all prepped and ready.  I took everything off of the walls and countertops, removed some old curtain brackets and patched the holes.  Then I removed all of the switch covers and washed them.  Once that was done the girls and I taped everything off.  The next morning I was up early and ready to get painting.

I thought my kitchen was white until I started painting - huge difference!

I hate painting.  I'm not very good at it and I have really high expectations of perfection that are seldom realized.  But this time I think I nailed it.  I know some people paint the ceiling and then the walls, but I started in one corner and worked my way around the room, taking my time.

Getting behind the refrigerator
Look at the difference between the new white paint and the old!

It took me over three hours to paint my tiny kitchen.  I had to pull out the refrigerator and paint behind it and while I waited for the first coat to dry I cleaned the exterior of the refrigerator and mopped the floor.  Then a second coat of paint, let it dry and carefully pushed the fridge back into place.  I did the same with the stove.

All done! 

I chose Pure White Behr paint from Home Depot in their best wall paint.  It is a self priming semi gloss because I wanted it to cover really well, be durable and easy to wipe down.  It is a kitchen after all.  I gave both the walls and the ceiling two good coats of paint and only used half of the gallon.  I spent $32 on the paint, 99¢ on a sponge brush. $2.38 on a two pack of 3" roller refills (only used one) and $1.69 on a paint tray liner for this project.  I already had the painter's tape on hand from when we painted the house about 6 or 7 years ago.

I'm so happy to have a fresh coat of paint on everything

Because I took my time, didn't rush and did my prep ahead of time it turned out really well.  Once we removed the tape my oldest and I used artist brushes and some cabinet paint to do a little touch up where we had some bleed through under the tape and I got my perfect result.  Expectations were met and another project off my home improvement list.  I am so excited!

Now onto the next project!

Exploring Our Town - Mansion Walk

My favorite part of town is the historical area known as the North End and the most spectacular street, in my opinion, is Warm Springs Avenue.  It is lined with the most beautiful homes and mansions with their gorgeous architecture and finely sculpted landscaping.  It is simply breathtaking.

When we first moved to Boise in 1974 this house was covered in ivy.
The space was so overgrown it made it look like a haunted mansion.  I fell in love.

Want to see inside?  Of course you do!

On Sunday, over Memorial Day weekend, the girls and I packed a picnic lunch and then drove down and parked our car at Municipal Park, which happens to be my favorite park in Boise.  We walked a block up to Warm Springs Avenue to where my favorite mansion is located on that street.  It just so happens to be for sale for the first time in 175 years.  Sadly, I just don't happen to be in the market right now.

We walked all the way down to the end where the market is taking pictures and admiring these magnificent homes and the stunning foliage along the way.  Spring is the perfect time too as there are so many flowers and trees in bloom right now.  Definitely a happy walk.

Once we reached the market we went inside as the girls had never been in there.  Just a little supermarket that caters to the neighborhood.  Then we crossed the street and headed up the other side until we reached the Pioneer Cemetery.

Want to see inside?

Did you know Boise has its own castle?  Indeed it does and it just so happens to be for sale.

Here is this mini mansion which is a lot more my style

Back across the street and down until we reached my favorite mansion once again and were right back where we started.  I took in another gander at that beautiful brick home and then we walked back to the park.  

Along the way my youngest spotted an old water wheel working away in the irrigation ditch.  You just never know what you will find when you are out walking.

Can you see it?

Its a water wheel

We had lunch at the park before heading for home.  The weather was absolutely perfect, with sunshine and a light breeze.  A gorgeous day spent on a walking tour of one of the best streets you'll ever come across.  I'm ready to do it again!