That Darn Kitchen

Ever since we moved into this house 5 1/2 years ago, we've been slowly changing, updating and making things our own. The kitchen was the biggest eye sore...and the one that's taken the longest--and most money--to remedy. And it's still not done. But, we're getting there.

First off, it was wall-papered in that 1979 vinyl stuff specifically for kitchens. It's great because it's waterproof. It's horrible because...it's waterproof. So I have to painstakingly peel tiny bits of vinyl off before I even get to the paper part that water and other solutions will soften in order to be removed. The entire kitchen was covered in it, from the half-wall above the table, to the walls on each side, the soffets above the cupboards and the back splash area. It's still covered in much more than I care to admit or look at. But it takes time, time I rarely have.

So we've done quicker fix things. Like replacing light fixtures, painting where the paper has been peeled, replacing every appliance (not all at once, thankfully) putting down wood floors over the scarred linoleum, removing the doors on our peninsula cupboards to allow light into the main kitchen area, window mis-treatments, etc. It's still a work in progress, but we've come a long way, no?

Before

After

After that

And after that (though we've since replaced that light fixture)

You can see the semi-peeled paper in the back splash area. That will hopefully be fully peeled soon, or covered up with a back splash. We also need a new range-hood. And eventually, I want new counter tops. We bought a new pendant light to put above the sink, but the current light that's hidden behind the trim piece is a square cut into the drywall, while the pendant hangs from a circular base. So Andy has some work to do before it gets put up. But nothing big, and the changes are quite dramatic if you look at the initial before photo.

Then there's the eating area. It's a nice area, but it has a railing down to the family room and a half wall on the upper half. The wall is quite a large expanse and when we first moved in, it needed something but I didn't have much. So I stuck these postage stamps there to fill a little bit of space (after, of course, we peeled and painted).

Okay, so they aren't really postage stamps, but it looks like it, right? Shortly after this picture was taken I found a beautiful print that had my basic kitchen color scheme and hung that in the middle with the small rooster prints on the sides. It stayed like that for a long time, though I was never really happy with it. Then I started reading The Nester and The Lettered Cottage, which are both fantastic home blogs. The Nester encourages everyone that their house doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful. And that sometimes, you have to do something and live with it for awhile to be sure if you really do, or don't, like it. Layla at The Lettered Cottage is documenting her entire house remodel and decorating, flaws and all, while throwing in fantastic decorating tips and tricks for the average person. Both women concentrate on using things that you already have, re-purposing, being thrifty for those things you don't have and thinking a little outside the box. In other words, they bring decorating down to something the average mom and wife can do.

Layla showed a picture on her blog once that really caught my eye. She had done a virtual design for someone and put EAT on their wall in big, black cut-out letters. I couldn't get it out of my mind and thought it would be great for our wall above the table. But in our house, and our family, things are a little better if left rustic. So one day, I went out to the garage and dug up some of Andy's scrap pieces of wood. I hauled out the circular saw and eyeballed my measurements, cutting the pieces to approximate lengths. The lengths are close, but not exact, the wood isn't sanded, some pieces have knots, some have nicks. I didn't care. I glued and screwed them together and put them on the wall the next day. They aren't perfect, and at first I didn't like it much. But I listened to The Nester's advice and left it up there to see if it would grow on me. And it did. Now I like it. A lot. And I get a lot of compliments on it, too.



I haven't decided yet if I need something more on the sides or not. But this is perfect for our family--simple, strong, a little rustic, a little odd. It works for us.

BTW: I've been doing some blog-keeping today, so be sure to check below for horsey and Easter posts of the girls!

Farewell to Summer

We go camping every Memorial, July 4th and Labor Day weekend, as most of you know. This past weekend was the last planned family camp of the season. We have a blast and always look forward to every weekend, so Labor Day is always bittersweet. It signifies the end of summer, the end of camping, the end of these planned get-togethers for quite some time.

Now, I'm not the neatest person ever. My house gets messy, my floors sometimes go a day or two without being swept, and my laundry has been known to sit folded on the living room couch for days. But one thing that drives me nuts is when my kids get super nasty dirty. Well, if you read the paragraph above, it's hard to combine camping with clean kids. But I try. And sometimes, I fail or I just give up and let them be kids.

The other afternoon, we did s'mores with the kids. Mikayla was so excited and chowed into hers like there was no tomorrow. My neat-kid side was screaming, but I let her be and allowed her to just enjoy it. After the first s'more was eaten by a misunderstanding lug of a puppy, who thought Mikayla was offering her the s'more instead of just showing it to her, I even made her another and let her go to town. It almost killed me, but she just loves her s'mores and I just love how happy they make her. And it makes for a cute picture, too...

Today is Tuesday and Emily over at Chatting at the Sky has restarted Tuesdays Unwrapped, which are all about being and seeing the bigger picture of things, or maybe the tiniest moment of peace in a stressful day, or letting something go that's not that important anyway. If you'd like, please visit her blog. She rocks.

How's that feel?

I loved my previous blog design, but lately I've been working on decluttering things and keeping it fresh. I decided that it was time to do that to the blog as well. Time to take away the glitz and glitter and let the clean, sharp lines shine through. And who knows, I may change my mind in a few weeks and go completely over the top. I'm a woman, so I can change my mind without justification. But in the meantime, it's going to be like this. And I think I like it. I hope I'm not throwing anyone for a loop here. It's not my intention. I just wanted a change for the clean and fresh. And I think that's how it feels now.

I Heart The Nester

Do you all know who The Nester is? She's an incredibly talented and funny lady who has a blog called The Nesting Place. Yup, the one over there on my sidebar. Her blog is all about how to find great deals and apply them in your home with minimal money or experience needed. Her entire motto is "It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful." Seriously, if you need some ideas for your house or office, check this chick out. She's fantastical.


Since I've been visiting her blog regularly for a few months, I've been getting ideas. This past week I finally put them into action (hence some of the blog hiatus this past week...Sorry!) One of The Nester's biggest things is doing "mistreatments" on windows. We all know how expensive window treatments can get. She shows her readers how to do the treatments themselves for little money. So here's what I've done...


See these?



Yeah, I know the picture's hard to see in detail. The curtains are beige with brown and maroon stripes in them. Not bad, but not what I wanted to stay in this room. They work, but aren't the best. So I put them here:


They work and are MUCH better than these:

Please don't look at the mess. This is from over a year ago and I still had a small infant then. Look at the arrow. Those verticals were cursed every day. They were stained, smelly, stiff and broken. Seriously, that's the most they would close and some of the slats were missing. Ugh. They were awful. So I replaced them with the curtains from upstairs. I would have liked something new, but when you have 2 huge 7' windows in your house, you re-purpose when you can. Unless you are made of millions.

So what did I do in the living room? So glad you asked! I made me up some mistreatments!

I just bought some fabric and cut it to size, hot-glued a fancy fringe to the inside edges, hung them with ring clips and put them to the window. No sewing, no lining, no nothing. It was incredibly easy and I think as a whole, the room has a lot more personality. And it helps tremendously that when Andy saw them, he got The Look on his face and said "How much did those cost?" Made my day.

I also did a mistreatment above my kitchen window. I was sick of the stiff lace curtain that was there when we moved in. I don't have a Before picture in this post, but you can see what I'm talking about in the post below this one. Here's what I did:

I bought the fabric, folded it in half and put it up with thumb tacks. Yup, that's right. No curtain rod, no clips, just a few thumb tacks. As for the fabric, I have a slight chicken/rooster theme in my kitchen. It's nothing too imposing...a set of framed pictures near the kitchen table, another cute pic above the sink, a canister set and now this curtain. I don't like when people go overboard and have their entire kitchen covered in something. But that's just me and this is my house. And for the record, I don't like chickens except to eat. And help decorate my kitchen.

The Nester has helped me with one other thing, too. I have always wanted a buffet table or something similar to help fill a wall in my living room. It's a big white wall that had a picture of my horse hanging on it (a friend painted it for me years ago) and I couldn't find the right piece to go under the picture. I called and e-mailed friends, I combed garage sale and auction ads, I searched on CraigsList. Finally, I found the table that would be perfect...but it was yellow. I don't think there is anything more than a tiny stripe or patch of yellow anywhere in my house. But thanks to The Nester, I thought, "I could paint it!" Never before has painting furniture even crossed my mind. If something wasn't right the way it was, it was all wrong. Not any more! So here's how the table was when I bought it.

Pretty on it's own accord, but not right for my house. I actually thought of my friend Jill because that's the perfect shade of yellow for HER house. But then I remembered paint. So I bought the table, headed to Home Depot for advice and drove home to get down to business. Here it is now:



I likey. I likey a lot. And if you want or need to, please ignore the deer skull on the bottom shelf. My husband lives here, too, and his friend did this for him from the buck Andy shot a few years ago. It's not my favorite thing by any means, but I can tolerate it and Andy wanted it displayed somehow. I thought this was better than hanging it on the wall.

So just for fun, here are some pictures of the living room, since I've done so much to it lately and it's my blog, so I can put what I want on here.




**I posted again, so look below...

One more thing

Since I haven't been around here, I also haven't been reading my normal blogs. I just read the Lawrenson blog and things aren't sounding too good at the moment. Little Gwyneth is doing well and growing like a champ. She's back on a little bit of oxygen while at home, but that's only because her body is growing more quickly than her lungs. In time, this should all fix itself.

Tricia has been diagnosed with mono and while that's not anything too serious, they found something else that is. She is showing signs of a growth on her lungs that could be signaling a form of post-transplant cancer. She is having a surgical biopsy done today to determine if it is indeed cancer. Again, I'm not relaying all the details or even close to it. If you want more info, please go to their blog at http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/. And again, if you get a chance, please say a prayer for Tricia, Gwyneth and Nate.

Nate, Tricia and Gwyneth

It's been a while since I've updated on the Lawrenson family and boy oh boy, do I have an update!

Let's see...Tricia had her double lung transplant and went through the required PT to be discharged from the hospital about 3 weeks ago! She since has had her trach removed. Her appts continue to go well and the docs are all glad to report that as of now, she's showing no signs of infection or rejection! She is enjoying being back in real life and has been loving her gelato, according to Nate.

Gwyneth continues to grow and do so well! She had her feeding tube removed and is eating from a bottle 100% now. She is also over 4 1/2 pounds. The combination of those two things (bottle eating and her weight) as well as many other smaller ones has led to her discharge from the hospital!!!! She was discharged yesterday and is now the sole responsibility of Nate and Tricia!

All of this has risen from such dire predictions only a few short months ago, when the chances of both Tricia and Gwyneth surviving was small. With the help of a wonderful hospital staff, the love of family and friends, and TONS of prayers from people all over the globe, these two are happy and healthy. Just goes to show the power of prayer. Pretty cool, huh?

Update on Tricia

I have been meaning to update about Tricia and her transplant surgery but have had a very busy weekend. In case you all are wondering and haven't peeked at their blog, she did indeed have the surgery and is doing very well! She's still in ICU, but they have had her up and walking and yesterday walked without any breathing support at all! That's amazing, as she hasn't been without breathing support since Oct. She still has a long road ahead of her, but she is doing great. Thank you for the prayers you sent up on her behalf. I can only imagine how much it means to them to literally have thousands and thousands of people praying for their family.

Little Gwyneth is doing well, too! She's eating from a bottle every other feeding and the nurses are amazed at her strength. She over 2 lbs 10 oz and really starting to fill out. Keep praying, as those prayers are being heard and answered!

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/

Say a prayer if you get a chance...

Tricia has received a call that there is a possible match for her double-lung transplant. They don't know a lot of details, but it does sound promising. They should know more this afternoon and she could possibly be in surgery as soon as tonight if it all works out! AND it's Nathan's birthday, so what a gift that would be-a chance at a longer life with his beautiful wife!

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/

UPDATE: It's a go! She should be in surgery any time now, if she's not already there. There is a small chance that even in the operating room, they could find it's not a match, but that doesn't sound like it's common at all. Please join so many of us in prayer for this family, that Tricia does well with the surgery and recovery; that her doctors, nurses and support staff are skilled and do their job well; and that the rest of Nathan and Tricia's family and friends have comfort and peace from our Father. I'll update again when I know more, but it will most likely be in the morning.

For Tricia...

Several moms who read Nate, Tricia and Gwyneth's blog have put lists on their own blogs of things they can't wait for Tricia to experience as a mother. I thought this was a great idea, so here's my list. (There may be some repeats as I haven't read the other hundreds of lists.)

Tricia, I can't wait until you can experience...

• The joy of snuggling your child close, skin to skin, without gloves and masks and sterile gowns.
• Open-mouthed, slobbery baby kisses.
• That first real smile, when it's all because she sees Mommy.
• Having her sneeze right after a full mouth of peas, and having those peas spray across yourself, the kitchen, the dog and anything else within 20'.
• The giggle that will come after those peas shoot across the room.
• Seeing the pride Gwyneth has in herself when she first rolls over, sits up, pulls up, takes a step...
• Feeling the pride you also have when she does all of the above things.
• Being at Wal-Mart or Target and having her do a complete blow-out, then realize that you forgot the diaper bag or you forgot to put a clean outfit in the diaper bag.
• Seeing your "baby" get up and sing in front of the entire congregation for the first time.
• Getting Gwyneth all dressed up in a cute little outfit, then the next time you go to put it on her she's already outgrown it.
• Putting her on the school bus for the first time, or walking her to that first classroom and having to leave her there.
• When she repeats something that you shouldn't have said, or says something completely embarrassing, at just the "right" time.

Tricia, someday you WILL get to experience all of those things and so many more! Good luck with everything and we continue to keep you all in our prayers!

**Keep reading, I've done a few updates in the last 2 days**

An Update

Remember when I posted a few weeks ago, asking for prayer for a family that was in some pretty dire straits? Their story is incredible and a true sign that miracles can happen and prayers do get answered.

As a quick recap, the blog is written by Nathan and was meant to journal his wife's journey through a double-lung transplant because of her Cystic Fybrosis. Just as she was going to be added to the transplant list, they found out Tricia was pregnant. The pregnancy was very high risk, obviously, and their beautiful little girl Gwyneth was born around 25 weeks gestation on January 8. There have been some amazing ups and downs with both Gwyneth and Tricia, but the ups are SOOOO much more than the downs.

Just in the past two days, Nathan has been able to hold his precious daughter for the first time. They are doing what is called Kangaroo Care, where he holds her against his bare chest. This is amazing enough, but they have pictures on the blog and they will bring tears to your eyes. Little Gwyneth is still only slightly larger than her father's hand. And the look on Nathan's face is too much for words.

The other major miracle is that Tricia has been re-approved and will be placed on the transplant list, possibly as soon as Monday! This is huge, as it will mean a chance for her life to continue much longer than without the transplant. Yes, things could go wrong, but it's a chance for more life and time with her husband and daughter. This is also huge because they weren't sure after the delivery of Gwyneth if she'd ever be strong enough again to get on the list. She was basically in a coma for several days after the delivery.

I'm only telling part of the story, so if anyone is interested in the whole thing from their own perspective (plus pics of all three of them) then I encourage you to read their blog at http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/ or I have it linked on my sidebar. I am warning you though, you may not want to read this blog while at school or work. As my mom put it, you don't want to be "a blubbering mess" while at your desk.

Perspectives

Last night, I was awake for over an hour in the middle of the night. Mikayla has a bit of a cold and was coughing periodically-not enough that it woke her up, but enough that it woke me up and kept me awake. And while I was lying there at 1am, all I could think was Thank God that she was healthy and able to cough. That she wasn't in a hospital bed somewhere, or something much worse. Morbid? Maybe. But I couldn't help but say a prayer of thanks for my healthy, beautiful, wonderful girls and family.

Funny how your perspective of things can change. Before yesterday, I still would have thought those things, but not so intently or gratefully. But I also haven't been able to think about much else than the story of Nathan, Tricia and Gwyneth since reading their blog yesterday. It really put things into perspective. That family is dealing with SO much right now. One of their instances is more than most of us can imagine, but they are dealing with 2-3 life-threatening events all at once. And their faith and spirit and humor are not failing. Even during their intense time of trial, they are asking for prayers for others who are in need that they meet during their journey.

So all I ask is this...No matter how bad things may seem, please remember that unfortunately, they can always get worse. That doesn't mean you can't complain or vent or whine about it a little bit-we are human after all. But take a moment to reflect on the wonderful things you do have. Take a deep breath and refocus on the good things in your life. Then try to remain positive and see where that takes you. I'm sure it will take you a lot farther than you think.

Please pray for this family

While reading the blog Keeping Awake I was asked to please pray for Nathan, Tricia and little Gwyneth. Something moved me to check out their blog and I'm so glad that I did. I found myself reading from the very first post this past fall all the way to now-crying, smiling, laughing and praying for them all. Their story is one that is uplifting, terrifying, rejoiceful and so many other things. Please read their blog if you get a chance and say a prayer for this family.

http://cfhusband.blogspot.com/