Father's Day 2014

We had an awesome Father's Day this year. My husband had to work all weekend, but we were able to celebrate on Saturday night with the kid's first mini-golf trip, and on Sunday with a surprise visit to his store. The mini golf went over fabulously for both my husband and the kids - McNugget even got a hole in one her first time mini-golfing!! (I did to, just to prove that the girls can golf better than the boys!)

When we visited his store for a surprise on Sunday (again, a dream come true for both the husband and the kids) we gave him this to hang in his office. He had only seen the first year (top row). He hadn't seen rows 3-4 yet and didn't know I had been keeping up with it:

My first (treadmill) 10k

Today I ran 6.5 miles. It's snowing out so I went to the gym at lunch with my friend. I started with a 1.3 mile warm-up, then stretched, then ran another 5.2 miles. I've never run that far in my life. 

I used to be the kid who walked the mile test at school! I hardly recognize myself between the Insanity workouts and the running. Now (because 2014 is my year of 'having fun') I said yes to participating in a tough mudder next month (which totally freaks me out) and I'm in training mode. After today I believe I've got this!! 

Spare time

One of the things I promised myself in 2014 was to have more fun. While I hope this year has an exciting adventure or two, part of having fun is a desire to relax and just enjoy what I have right now... whether that is reading, organizing my home, spending time with friends, or clearing my head. 

One of my friends started selling jamberry nails this year, and praised them. While it reeks of frivolousness I thought it would be fun to try it out. Decorated nails is something I've never done before- but I want to be that person!  I ordered four sets, including one for my girl. 

I tried out the mint colored chevron last night. It was a little time consuming my first try, figuring out sizes, getting all my manicure tools in the same place, learning how to handle them... But it was also really easy. Each kit covers at least 2 applications for both your toes and hands, and can last on your fingers for about 2 weeks. At $16 per sheet, getting me 2 "manicures" and 2 "pedicures" applications each sheet, they suddenly don't seem so frivolous anymore.

Overall I really like them. They feel a little like window clings that you decorate with at Easter, which I'm still not used to. I'm waiting to see if they are as durable as they claim to be (and if I correctly applied them!)

 

DIY Basement Racking

On Saturday I picked up a great racking system for $60 so I could move our Christmas decorations to the dirty basement. The rack is ~45" wide, 72" tall and 18" deep. Each shelf can hold 350 lbs.

On Sunday while my mom watched the kids I assembled the racking myself in about 30 minutes, and then hauled the rest of our stuff up and down the stairs. 

Before:

After:

(I couldn't pick up the big air conditioner by myself to get it out of the picture and off the floor.)

I love the result, and am probably going to get another rack or two- one for the craft room to handle all the kids clothes and my fabric supplies, and the other for our basement coolers / tools / odds and ends. When we move, they'll be perfect for a basement pantry or garage storage. I really can't believe I didn't do this sooner! 

We already had the book shelf that is now under the stairs (a freebee from my aunt) it fit perfectly, and while I had planned on using it at my moms for some toy storage, it fit so well here I couldn't find something better. 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

On Saturday, while the kids were napping and the husband was dutifully in his role of daddy-daycare, I popped out to check out our local Habitat ReStore. There was a clinic there and I had missed the last few I had heard about.  I wish the clinic had hands-on exercises - but overall the ReStore was great! I usually shop for furniture at another local shop that has decent prices, but I could see how much more reasonable the prices here were! And they had a very similar mix of quality pieces that the other thrift store does. They also had a huge number of old window panes, used doors, lighting fixtures and the typical books / decor / pictures. Needless to say I was very excited. 

My husband would hate if I brought home another project I didn't finish or have a purpose for.  On our third floor, we have two large totes next to our guest bed that are filled with my husband's sports jerseys and other clothes. Those ugly totes are covered with another ugly sheet. I started looking for something that could replace them. 

While I was there, I ran into an antique sewing machine desk which was calling my name for $40 (can't believe I forgot to take a photo!).  It had five skinny drawers on the right, and what looked like two large doors on the left.  Those two large cabinet style drawers were actually a disguised pull out chair! If I were in a bigger house or knew someone else who would love it as a gift I would have walked away with it in an instant.  However, I knew I already had a craft table and a regular desk upstairs that don't get enough use, so I sadly walked away.  And then I came up to the piece I ended up buying: a metal dresser. Its metal - as in filing cabinet metal (so very heavy) - with a few paint drips on it and a two-inch diameter circle where the paint had been worn off to the original metal finish. It was different enough and fit the space I wanted.  Refinishing this was not only easy, but also would help me get rid of the totes!!

The dresser was originally $40, and they had a 25% off sale for the St. Paddy's day holiday - coming down to $30. Before I got home I stopped at Lowes and bought three cans of spray paint - two of Valspar's Luscious Green and 1 of Cobalt Cannon. The total project cost came back up to $40.  My husband sanded it down and my daughter helped me with the clean up and taking off the handles.

(the handles before)

I had previously pinned a photo of a green cabinet I liked on Pinterest from Apartment Therapy (http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/carly-chips-home-house-tour-165184#gallery/35554/24) and thought this would be the perfect opportunity to do something similar.  It was also a fun way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day!  I spray painted (on a very windy day, I wouldn't recommend that!) the dresser green and the handles grey.  I'm really, really terrible at spray painting, though I love the way it turned out. 

This is a photo of it in our kitchen - not in its new permanent home upstairs.  I can see using this nearly anywhere in our house if I designed around it- a kids room, a future man cave, even in a dining room or study; but for now it will house those jerseys and rid me of the terrible totes. 

 

I'm still considering some things for a future iteration of this dresser: the first is clear coating the top to protect it from scratches... it chipped really easily when I was scratched it putting on one of the handles.  The second is putting some of those vinyl wall decals on it for a sports room or something funky like an octopus or maybe a giant anchor. I just went to one of those house parties for the vinyl decals and have so many ideas of projects to do running through my head now. One thing at a time I suppose! 

2014 Recommittment

I miss blogging. I miss my alone time, my memory sharing, my sense of accomplishment that comes with capturing my exciting projects, random thoughts and all the weekly attempts at improving my life. 

I've done a lot over the past three years that I haven't captured here since I have had my kids. Sure they're on Facebook or on my camera, but they're not surrounded by my thoughts and the trials that went with them. Much of the past three years has been dedicated to finding the new balance of becoming a mom of two while still improving my existence as a full time working woman, a wife, a friend, a daughter, and a sister.  Much of the remaining time has been spent on myself: reading, exercising, showering (people with my full-time-work, full-time-mom situation know what I'm talking about) watching tv, praying,  learning to cook, praying more as I learn how to cook, thrift store shopping, painting furniture and painting my nails, and on the rare occasion lighting candles and relaxing with a glass of wine. Unfortunately somewhere along the way I cut out the bloging I love to do, and I'm sorry for that.

I know I've made this resolution before, but just for myself I want to make it again now: I will go back and blog regularly. I'll be back here doing what I love, making time for myself again. 

Thanks for the encouragement from my friends who've told me they miss this blog. 

Pancakes

Two years ago for Lent I gave up processed foods. It was then that I really started looking at labels on food products. I'm still getting to know what's really in my food, but a big change was buying real maple syrup. I didn't know that the log cabin I grew up on and loved had no actual syrup in it!!  

Next, they stopped selling our favorite box pancakes, and the others just didn't taste as good to us. We went through a lot of different from scratch pancake recipes, but this one has to be our favorite. 

http://pocketchangegourmet.com/old-fashioned-homemade-pancakes/ 

My husband always doubles the recipe, and adds a tough of vanilla extract to the batter. It takes maybe 30 seconds longer than the original box recipe. I love knowing exactly what's in everything!! 

Lastly, what really changed our weekend routine was the electric griddle my mom got my husband for Christmas. For the first time, pancakes are done before the first ones are cooled! He also makes bacon, sausage, eggs, and French toast on it. It's a little bulky, but it is THE BEST if you like any of those things. We now eat a hot homemade breakfast most days throughout the week with the leftovers. 

Energizing my spirit

I don't usually write about my job in communications, but I'm trying to get back to my love of blogging in 2014, and this is what's on my mind right now. 

I've held the same position for about 5 years now, and while people around me, and our organizational structure has changed, my role has stayed much the same. We don't have a lot of people at my company who do what I do, which is hard for development and idea sharing, but I've made it work, and for the most part have enjoyed honing my skills on my own accord. And with the craziness of my own personal life, I was feeling like just paying the bills and doing my job to the best of my ability at that moment was enough. However, in 2013, as I finally settled into the routine of being a working mother of two, I've began to feel the itch to grow more at work. We read Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In (which I enjoyed much more than I thought) and I did some soul searching on wanting to do more in my work path than I've done. I've talked to my manager, and manager's manager. I've talked to friends, coworkers, and read about things online. The work is enjoyable, but not really challenging. 

That's why, last Monday, after really coming back to work after such a lovely long holiday break, I was really not feeling the excitement of being at work. I wanted to want to be here - and didn't mind the task of actually coming to work - but there hasn't been anything really exciting and new to do. Unfortunately I'm one of those "you can read it on my face" kind of people, so the week didn't start out really well for me. Then a few things hit home for me, and left my week ending much better than it started: 

1) I can seriously do anything I want to do - Towards the end of last year, I participated in a workplace contest on innovation, and my idea came in tied for second place. I thought it was over, until the patent attorney contacted me and asked me for more information. I humbly explained that I was no engineer, and thought he was required to contact me for paperwork reasons, so I emailed some more of the details on my ideas for a product I know very little about. Apparently I knew enough though, because he replied back with "Your ideas are definitely patentable... You could easily be an engineer if you wanted to." Now I've been to college, and may go back for a higher degree at some point, but I had not thought that it was in the realm of possibilities... until now. I probably won't go back for an engineering degree - but that actually made me realize that I can still do anything I want to do. 

2) I may actually be overqualified for what I do now- Supporting the first point, at the end of the week a visiting coworker and I got into one of those "how's it going" conversations that end up in hushed whispers in an unused corner of our building. In our sharing, she came out and told me that she, for a long time, had felt I was overqualified for my job. Plain and simple. This person has never once placated me, in fact I was previously of the opinion that she maybe didn't like me all that much. That simple line gave me all the validation I didn't even know I needed so badly. I had been doubting myself for so long! My hard work had not gone unnoticed! I WAS doing a good job - and should never have doubted myself. I first felt these types of revelations in Sandberg's Lean In, and I'd heard compliments like this before from a few others, but doubt still lingered. Now I knew I had to claim that compliment - even if I choose to stay where I am. 

3) I'm choosing to stay in the maze - Last week I had a conversation with someone close to me who is currently out of work, and we've had our share of heart-to-hearts on the matter. Yet this week in one of our longest conversations on the subject, I talked her through the following: "Think of your job search as a maze. You think there is only one exit, but in reality there are a thousand exits. You could look further away from your home... which you don't want to do, so you choose to stay in the maze. You could move and find a job... again you don't want to do that, so you stay and close off those exits. You could take a role in some other industry doing something other than what you were doing. You're self-eliminating those exits that exist all around you." I recognize that I'm staying in my own maze, idling in my job, by choice.  I have to own that. 

4) Fulfillment doesn't have to come from work- In this same conversation, I shared that I have been praying for her nightly asking God to help her find a role that meets her financial needs while ideally also providing her personal fulfillment. Meeting the first is easier than the second; that's why people will often work two or three jobs. Having A job and not THE job may not be the big dollars, but it would help her stay where she's at. And unfortunately, many people don't have jobs that meet the second point of being the dream job or even just fulfilling them.  While I recognize that lots of people choose to leave jobs that don't fulfill them (hence choosing to go back in the maze), sometimes just getting out of the maze is better than staying in it. For her position, a job that required a lot of paperwork and excel spreadsheets, there is superficial fulfillment there. I know for a fact that she has done a lot more fulfilling work in her life than excel spreadsheets, especially while volunteering. If she's open to it, she could do a lot of good in this world, even if it wasn't through work. I know I need to heed my own advice on that one. 

5) "The smallest good deed is greater than the grandest intention" (unknown)- Over the past year - maybe longer, I've struggled a lot with finding the ideal intention. To find that show-stopping way I can give back.  I didn't just want to find a charity, I wanted to figure out my purpose, my great gift to this world. I want to help everyone, yet I seem to have too little money, too little time, or only small ways to help that would be unmemorable tomorrow.  So I did nothing.  And finally, this year when I realized there were situations when I couldn't do anything for the cause even if I had all the money in the world, so I took the chance to pray for an intervention. To my amazement, it seems that actually praying - and I mean on my knees, tears on my face praying, has helped on several occasions. So as I posted last week, I have begun to try and do a little more with small gifts of charity. These aren't the types of gifts that would be impressive to anyone really, $25 here, $50 there, a bag of donations when it made sense. Yet doing something - even if it is small - feels better than doing nothing and just waiting for answers. Maybe I need to apply that to my career and to finding my path to personal fulfillment. The grand plan doesn't have to be figured out yet - just moving a little feels better. 

With these revelations, my week ended on a high note. I feel energized and looking forward to what lies ahead. I'm going to claim responsibility for my career and for my path outside of work. I'm going to try and not doubt myself as much. I'm going to continue to pray and still do small things, even if they are forgettable tomorrow. 

Giving Back: December 2013 and January 2014

With all the generosity that Christmas brings from others to our family, as well as the gift of his promotion in September, my husband and I have decided to pick a charity for giving each month in 2014. I have been feeling guilty about the limited time and funds we've given in the past - especially with how good God has taken care of us. It's been a little here or there, but not enough for me to feel sated. Maybe writing it down this year will help.

We actually started right away by giving in December, where we gave a small donation to a fellow blogger who was raising funds to purchase new infant equipment for a local children's hospital they visited. Since its not a non-profit status, but was just a fund raiser, we weren't able to match the gift through our company, but we did see the photos of all the new baby rockers and chairs purchased, which should make anyone stay a little more comfortable.

In addition, we donated to our church, canned goods to two food drives, and a car-load of clothes and house hold items to two local thrift stores (local ones, not a large Goodwill / Salvation Army) that directly benefits other charities we have supported in our town. Lastly, we cleaned out some of our own baby-swings, seats and play mats and gave them to a teenager-pregnancy support group.

Now that it's January, we were blessed to give another $50 (which this time we can match 100% through my company) to our local food pantry / soup kitchen. I've volunteered there once before stocking food in the pantry, organizing their cold storage and vegetable donations and ladling food to the hungry. If they had more open hours outside of my work schedule, I'd volunteer there every month. Happily, my mom has also been donating to the same pantry once a year for a few years now. We're all so glad to have full refrigerators and heat, it felt very good to give to others. As a bonus, I'm scheduled to give blood to the red cross next week.

I'm still looking for a charity to focus on as our "premier" charity, but at least we're finally acting on our desire to give back.