Insta-Friday! {Independence Day}

Hope you've had a great 4th of July! My husband is off again today, so we decided last-minute to go to Missouri to see Gary's parents!

Let's back up though and go through the week chronologically.

On Friday we grilled pizza. Quintessentially summer!

 On Sabbath we visited a small-town church in Galion, OH.

On Sunday Gary and the boys picked wild berries that grow around the school property where we live. They found mostly blackberries but also a few mulberries and raspberries. I made a berry crisp that we enjoyed with fresh vanilla ice cream from the local dairy. Yum!

The boys wrapped up their swim lessons this week. Here's Jonathan jumping in! He had so much fun.

Jared did better this week. We asked his teacher to go in shallower water and Jared was much more willing to put his face in the water and interact with the teacher then. Josiah (still not officially part of the class but allowed in during the 10-minute free swim time) loves to splash and jump and isn't at all afraid of the water.

Tuesday was our 7th Anniversary! We took our sweeties into Columbus where we enjoyed a meal and a treat at the Cheesecake Factory. It wasn't particularly relaxing or romantic, but it was true to our current situation in life and we adore our boys, so what do ya do?!

On Wednesday we packed up and drove to Missouri. It's a long way, but the drive went well. Apparently I didn't feel like posting anything about in to Instagram, so there are no pictures.

We had a nice 4th of July. We ate lunch at the church, relaxed in the afternoon and had s'mores and fireworks in the evening.

Today the boys are enjoying the great outdoors! It's not as hot as in other years.

 Jon and Helen have a lovely garden. I always enjoy it!

We picked some raspberries and enjoyed them in a smoothie last night and on our pancakes this morning.

One regret about our place in Ohio is that there's no where for our dog. An inside dog, yes, but our Australian Shepherd, Jude, has always had the freedom to run around, eat and drink, sleep and play when he wants. I'm not thrilled with the idea of an inside dog and the added house-cleaning, so here Jude stays.

 

I love this picture of Josiah and his grandma. He's a sweetie, always ready with a hug or kiss. So cute!

Gary's grandma continues to hang on. Hospice helps Jon and Helen care for her, but she's not aware of much anymore. She doesn't know who we are and is content to sit and look out her window. We never know if the visit is the last one.

And on that note, I'll wish you a great weekend! I'd be happy to follow you on Instagram--leave me a comment with your information!

Red, White and Blue

Wishing you sunshine and stars, good food, friends and family, fast cars, cute kids, beautiful decor, fun DIY projects to tackle, pretty party decorations and more!

Happy Fourth of July from me and my Pinterest boards!

Pinterest

Stairwell Gallery Wall

I love my boys. Obviously. I love pictures of them too.

I also love gallery walls. I think anything that looks great--like nicely framed pictures of my three favorite little guys--in small numbers looks better en masse. 

Since I haven't had the boys' pictures taken in a year and haven't had a real family picture done since Jared was making me look like I swallowed a watermelon, and since there are very few pictures of Josiah, I left some frames blank as well as some places to add more. 

I added my collection of frames to our stairwell. It's a pretty ugly part of our rental house. Old carpet, funny angles, poorly framed window, weird banister, crooked walls... Definitely helped things out to have a gallery wall to focus on! Besides, then you'll analyze if the frames are straight, not the walls!

Before we left our home in Iowa, I had created a little gallery wall in our striped hallway. I'd also added some colored mats (spray painted by me) to several black frames (also spray painted by me) that were in our living room there. So it worked out perfectly to have black frames, some white and some blue mats, mostly colored portraits but some black-and-white pictures too. I love how it turned out.

I don't have a method for hanging pictures in groups. I've found that the gut-and-eyeball method works best for me. I'm sure that's a professional term! I pick a large picture, stick it where I think it looks good, flip it over and eyeball where the nail should go. Only on this wall I have to use screws because of what the wall is made out of. I forget what it's made from, but I have to use super-sharp screws and a drill to get anything hung. 

Anyway, I try to keep the spacing between pictures to be relatively uniform. I like to line up corners to make things look even. I don't have any tricks, but this haphazard method works for me!

I included this oval frame with our family initial done with scrapbook paper. I like that it stands out among all the rectangular frames.

I liked so many of these pictures from this portrait session when Jonathan was 3 and Jared was 1! I used smaller pictures and laid them out like a scrapbook page. I added a ribbon and a cute label and really like how it turned out! There's another picture from this series of them with their Grandma Joycie. It's framed separately in the boys' room.

 This "LOVE" series was done by our friend Noelle. She took care of Jonathan and Jared the day Josiah was born. This is one of the activities they did that day. Later she gave it to us as a gift. Adorable!

Gary and I didn't make it anywhere else in the gallery, so I tacked up this little snapshot of us when we were dating. So happy together...

For Father's Day right after Josiah was born, I copied this Pinterest idea of each of our hands cut out of coordinating scrapbook paper. It's still one of my favorites.

And just to show you that nothing is ever truly finished around here, there are a few holes I'm planning to fill besides the obvious empty frames. I'd like to add a 5 somewhere, another G in there (added by photo edits in a couple pictures) and fill a couple empty spaces with another frame or two. So yeah, it will probably be done about the time I need to take these off the wall and start filling holes!

You know I'll keep you posted.

Do you have a gallery wall? Do you add to it? Change the pictures and leave the frames? Is it one color or a collection? Do you like to plan it out in advance and carefully mark the wall or just start pounding holes?

A Love Story

Seven years ago today, this happened.

We don't have a typical love story, so I thought it would be fun to share it with you today. I've shared it before, but it still makes me smile, so here it is again, in honor of our 7th Anniversary!

*****

It was August 2005. I was 29. I was teaching Kindergarten at a private church school in Las Vegas, about to begin my 7th year. Another teacher at our small, private school was one of my closest friends. 

Wintress and me on a cruise, shortly before this story takes place.

Wintress had been pestering me for several months about her single brother-in-law. I was in Nevada, he was in Iowa, I was sorta dating someone, he was just out of a serious, long-term relationship.

 

 I wasn't interested.

 

One day she looked at me and said, "You're not happy. You need to do something about it. Make some changes in your life!"

 

We all need friends like that, don't we?

I finally agreed to let Wintress give my email address to her husband so he could give it to his brother, the single guy. I did it to get her to stop bugging me about him, certain it would never work out. Since then, I've learned I wasn't the only one feeling extremely awkward in the situation!

A day or two later, I got an email from Gary, my friend's single brother-in-law. It was basically, hi-my-name-is-Gary-and-this-is-weird; tell-me-about-yourself. Still feeling the need to fulfill my agreement with Wintress to at least get to know Gary a little bit, I replied. And he replied. And about that time, the angels started singing and everything started looking all sunshiny and rainbow-colored.

The emails continued through the first week, then we started instant-messaging on our computers which lead to a real phone call (for HOURS) which lead to Gary buying a cell phone package with the same provider I had so we could have anytime minutes. 

16 days from our first awkward email, he was in his truck driving south to St. Louis and I was in a plane flying east. 

An Allegiant airliner with The Strip and Mt. Charleston.

Ok, let me add a couple details that might make you feel a little better. First of all, I had known Wintress for several years and trusted her implicitly. We weren't just work friends. She had been part of Gary's extended family for 15 years and had spent many holidays with him. I had seen the family albums, heard the family drama, read the family Christmas letter. Second, we all belong to the same church. Not a specific building, but an organized Christian denomination with churches around the world. It's a sub-culture. Families have similar goals, individuals have similar morals, people have similar backgrounds, etc. Third, Gary and I had logged countless hours on emails and phone calls. I really felt like I knew him. Fourth, we had separate rooms, thank you. So yeah, it could have the potential to be dangerous, but I guess I was willing to take the risk. All in the name of love. Or glittery rainbows.

Waiting to board that plane to St. Louis was about the scariest thing I've ever done! Right next to walking off the plane and looking for a man I'd only seen in pictures and on Yahoo Instant Messenger. The worst part was the fear of "us" not working out! What if he walked funny and had weird mannerisms? What if he had chronic halitosis? What if we just didn't click?

Well, my wobbly- kneed, sweaty-palmed, thundering-hearted self made it to the main section of the airport. And there was Gary with roses and a huge grin. We fell into each other's arms and walked into the sunset.

Or not.

That first evening was AWKWARD. We were nervous and ill-at-ease, me far worse than him. I was having the hardest time matching the person with the emailing/phone-calling voice I knew. We started and stopped random topics. We would bring something up and realize that the stranger walking beside you already knew that story! Strange!

The next day was much better. We got out of the hotel and saw some sights. Finally got comfortable enough to talk! We had our first real date that night--dressing up, reservations, linens, candles, fancy courses... It was amazing. Then we went up in the Gateway Arch!

And then we walked into the sunset!

Well, kinda. :) But that's where I'm ending the story for now!

 

*****

 

Happy 7th Anniversary, Sweetheart! I'm so glad we were willing to take risks to find each other. I l love you to the sky and back!

Moodboard Collections: Kitchen and Dining

It's Monday! And it's July! How did that happen?! My boys are in week 2 of their swim lessons, so that means we'll be busy-busy again! We had a nice weekend that was pretty low-key. We got to grill twice--and both times it rained! Speaking of which, we've been getting SO much rain lately. I like rain, but we've discovered a couple leaks in our rental house and I'd just like to dry out for awhile. Guess it's good prep for going to Scotland or Ireland next year! And, at the risk of rambling, I'm grateful that we're dealing with rain and cooler temps rather than so many of my California and Nevada friends and family that are baking lately. Ouch! Sorry guys!

I try to post a moodboard on Mondays, just to have something predictable to take out the guess work on what to blog about. I thought I'd repost a favorite moodboard--those are some of my most popular posts--but I couldn't narrow down the field and I decided to post a theme instead. So here's a look at several different kitchens and dining rooms I've put together over the last year.

I know we don't all get to change up our whole kitchen or dining room very often, but maybe you'll be inspired to change one thing, just for a fresh summer look. 

Hope your Monday is a good one!

Summer Days {Insta-Friday}

Dude. Where did this week go? We've been super busy, but I'm not sure what we got accomplished! Ever have weeks like that? I do know I eliminated the final stack of boxes from our move! I'm super excited about that. Now I just need to have a yard sale and get all the extra junk out of the basement. Ah....

Sidetracked! This is supposed to be about what made it to Instagram this week. Let me tell you, when life is normal, Instagram is forgotten around here. I guess that's a good thing, right?

These roses were so vivid and smelled so delicious!

Yeah, X 3 around here! It's a good thing too, because in the last two weeks there have been two "learning opportunities" for our older two. It takes patience and creativity and discipline to be a parent, lemme tell ya. In addition to that, we decided to switch the boys' living quarters around, so this chalkboard is now in Jonathan's room. I'll take pictures and post about it next week.

This was part of Jonathan's learning opportunity. We were including him in our landscaping efforts because, well, that's how we roll as a family and because he had UNdone some landscaping elsewhere. Now I think he appreciates more how hard people work to make their yards look nice.

This was another part of the learning experience. Apologizing. In person. And a peace offering. No cookies could be eaten by little boys before they made the cookies, delivered them and apologized. Sweet littles won't be undoing anymore landscaping efforts.

This guy. He's growing up too fast! Mimics his big brothers in everything and is absolutely out-of-control cute!!! I love being his mommy!

Jared spends an hour of quiet time on my bed because he doesn't have to sleep and Josiah does and that just doesn't add up in a shared bedroom. I let the older boys play quietly. This magnetic set is one of Jared's favorite quiet time toys.

We've spent a lot of time at the pool this week. How is it that a 45-minute class can take up the whole day? Jared is intimidated by the amount of people and the newness of the experience, so he has yet to willingly get in the pool. There are 3-4 lifeguards to 8 or so kids and they're really good about making sure he's included yet not forced to do things. I don't let him sit with me but I don't make him participate either. Every day he makes a little progress. I remember being stubborn and upset at things like that. I hated getting my picture taken because, well, because I hated it. I just did. I got over it, and I think Jared will be in the pool with the kids and lifeguards by the end of class next week.

Funny kid--he loves free time after the lesson! The lifeguards and kids are spread out and he's in shallower water and he's having so much fun!

Jonathan is doing a great job learning how to swim! I'm so glad we've been able to do this this year. It's the first time it's all worked out, what with Josiah and moving and all. He loves it!!!

Uh-oh, how'd he get in there?! Josiah wants to take lessons so badly! He sits by Jared on the edge and kicks and splashes. They let him play around in the pool during free time.

 These little guys... This play equipment has one of those buckets that fills up with water and dumps it out every minute or two. They yell and scream ... and go back for more. Love them!

Well, my goal for tomorrow is to get out my camera and take pictures of all the stuff I got done this week. Two more areas of my house exhibit my OCD, while my bedroom is empty of all packing boxes! I switched one boy into a different room, which led to art being hung in different places and while the drill was out, I finally got my collage wall up in the stairwell. Oh, and I organized the upstairs half-bath! Aaaand, I made a permanent place for my sewing machine and supplies as this house isn't big enough for Grandma's sewing table to be set up properly.

100 bonus points if you're still reading! Have a great weekend!

Beachy Blue Living Room {Moodboard}

I first posted this beachy blue living room mood board last October. Since summer is officially here and we're all thinking beaches and swimming and cool, clean living spaces, I thought I'd re-post it for you to enjoy today. What a great place to kick back after a long day, or escape the heat with an icy drink and your favorite magazine!

Start with hardwood floors, add board and batten to the walls and paint the top part gray-blue. Add breezy white curtains, a white sectional, blue print slipper chairs and a few side tables. Add a careful selection of beach finds and you have a beautiful yet cozy place to enjoy when you can't be at the beach! 

Hope your first official week of summer is off to a great start! I'm taking my boys to swim lessons this week. They're so excited!