Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Lots Of Work We Do!!!!!

Well, the project has officially begun!!!
Here, is my sweet husband beginning the tear out of the carpet that has been in our living room for a total of 15 years. My Dr. had asked that we consider ridding our home of carpet to help with my asthma issues and soooooooooooooooooooooooo......

We had kept the carpet in good shape, clean and not bad for the most part. But really, after 15 years, any ones carpet should be replaced!











And here we are! Solid flooring, after HOURS of nailing (praise the Lord for air nailers!!) the tedious part was the edge of the room, which requires hand nailing, ugh!

Obviously, we do not have the trim up, the floor actually clean, nor do we have the new stacked stone work done on the hearth, but we were in desperate need of a relax on the couch, so it was moved back in last night.

Only two more rooms to go!!! But those will wait until after vacation!!!

Have an amazing Tuesday!!!

Just some herbs, flowers & a box.....

Just a few pictures of some herbs that I am growing....some from seed, others from plants that were purchased.

Flowers anyone???? Mine are again a mixture of plants purchased and some started from seed.

And the beginning of my small lettuce box.And just for good measure, a picture of the fresh organic pico de gallo that I made for dinner last night...makes me hungry just looking at it!!

Have an amazing Memorial Weekend, and thank you to all those who have and do so selflessly protect our freedom.

Longings....

I am having a longing today. For a time away. A time of relaxing, calmness, laughter, joy, peace, fun food and long walks. Doesn't that sound simply amazing!!!
Well, soon (10 days to be exact) my husband, daughter and son-in-law will load up in our car, and the four of us will leave our small town to go to alot of other VERY small towns! Door County WI. is our destination (with a short stop at the home of the world champion Green Bay Packers Lambeau Field for lunch and a tour) and I could not be more ready.
We will stroll along the beaches, watch the sail boats, with leisure we will find hidden treasures in lots of antique shops and eat amazing food at fun places like "The Wild Tomato"!
My mind is already there....just waiting for my body to catch up!

In the days leading up to our leaving, we have several grad. open houses to attend and a few projects to complete. One of them being a planter box for lettuce....one that is right outside my living room window, just steps off the deck.....should be a miniature of this one, and hopefully in the same wonderful color! I will be sure to take pictures of the start to finish for you!

Family, Fun, Food!!!

Strange food for us "northerners", but oh, so, much, fun!!!

We enjoyed a full blow, authentic, Payne Family Craw Fish Boil...

although I will never understand why they call them crawFISH, as they are far from fish and much more like tiny lobsters...oh well, all had fun, too much food, and many tried them for the first time ever in their lives. My father in law is 72 years of age and had his first taste of the little bugs.

Along with he boil, we had Gulf oysters and Jambalaya (authentic New Orleans of coarse!

We laughed, ALOT. We talked, ALOT. We ate, ALOT. We enjoyed each other A WHOLE LOT!!!

Life gets to crazy in this day and age and I think that there are times that we just don't carve out he time to laugh, love and simply enjoy our family, our life and our Lord.

We enjoyed all of it.

Thank you Lord.

I'm So Excited...And I Just Can't Hide It!!!!

As Jaque said to Gus Gus in Cinderella, "Visitors! Visitors!"
Just for a couple of days, but we will soak up all that we can! God is so good to our family. He has grown it in ways that I would never have thought of when my husband and I started out 30 years ago.
Life is never easy, always un-predictable, and full of love. Sweet love. We are showered with it from our Heavenly Father, wrapped in it between each other and basking in it with our children.
Life is good.....very good.

What Once Was Lost......

Now is found!!!!!!!!!! Yaaaaahooooooo! My poor lost card from my camera was found neatly tucked away in the depths of our passenger side seat in our car! Yep! It was there all the time, probably laughing at my anguish over having "miss placed" it. Did you know that inanimate objects are capable of laughing? But only at the owners of said objects, so the rest of you are safe from my laughing media card.

Mothers Day is 8 days past, our Children's Choir Musical performance is one day past, and in 3 days we will have approx. 50 people in our back yard for our annual craw fish boil! Crazy life that I have....and loving every moment of it!!! Thankfully, there is a short vacation looming on the horizon, ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Leaving you today with the once lost photos of the 5 mommies that attended our big Italian feast, and also a shot of one of the table settings....partly my Mother's wedding china & part a few antique dishes that my Mother had collected over the years.

Have an amazing Monday!!

Let Them Eat Cake!

Since this is an incredibly busy day for me (don't ask!) I thought that I would again share a link with you from Real Simple. I fell in love with this picture and the information that they share is very good advice!
So, let your family eat cake....and a beautiful one never hurts!!!!






http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/desserts/delicious-cake-00000000056583/index.html?xid=weeklynews-05-11-2011

Frustration and a Link...

First, I hope that all Mom's had an amazing Mother's Day!!! I had a wonderful weekend, filled with food, family, fun and more food! I promised you pics of the table, and of course, all I got was a table setting picture! Forgetful Momma Here!!

The table was so precious to me, as I used my Mother's wedding china as the main focal point, and color scheme of the night. Pink and Grey....totally cool!

Pictures you ask???? Hmmmmmmmmmmm, well, that is my frustration....I took the card out of my camera to down load the pictures here and, wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll, shall we just say that I cannot find the silly card!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I will be crushed if I cannot find that thing! Pictures so precious to me, hopefully only temporarily gone.

Well, in spite of my frustration, I am leaving you with a link to centsational girl and the amazing job that she did in making a media center for under $60!!! Yes, you read that correctly, less than sixty dollars!

http://www.centsationalgirl.com/

Have an amazing Tuesday!!! I plan on putting in the garden this afternoon....hopefully!

Table Re-do...

Hi there!! Sorry for the sabbatical, this is the busiest 4 weeks of the spring for me! Easter (oh wait, I promised table pictures!....can do!) then two weeks later, Mother's Day! yay! and then one week later is our big spring production for our Children's Choir....which means Saturday rehearsal next week and Sunday night performance...they are ready tho!!!!! I love being a leader for our Children's Choir....the hugs and smiles are the best!!! (and the ones from the children are pretty sweet too!! hhehehehehe, Love my fellow leaders, can you tell?)

Ok, in the midst of all of the overwhelming busyness of life in our home, I got the idea that my end tables were on my list for a much needed makeover! They were worn to the wood, too light for my liking and would just plain look better with our new flooring that will soon be going in if I updated them! Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo....

Here is a couple of before pics,As you can see, they are standard oak, shaker style end tables. You can see in the top picture that the tops of the tables were quite worn from years of use. And not a great color for me any longer.

They are sturdy and solid wood, so my frugal heart could not bear to garage sale them or donate them, so of course, I decided to sand, paint, stain, urethane and make myself sore from the many, many trips up and down the basement stairs!!!!

But victory was to be had! I sanded (alot!) the tops, and painted the leg portion of the table a light gray, and I LOVE the outcome!

And on another note: my Easter Table!

Hoping you all have a most wonderful weekend!!!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's out there!!!!

I will post a few pics next week on our Italian feast that we will be blessing our Mother's, Aunts and Grandmothers with at our home this weekend!

Kiss Your Momma!!!!! Let her know how loved she is!!