Friday Find: Play Outdoors!

I'm drooling over this swing set.  And so is my almost three year old!  Yes, Yes, Yes, Please!!

This set was built by a sweet blogger's dad.  Unfortunately there aren't too many details on how to construct this yourself, but it looks like just enough inspiration to make your own plans.  What do you say, dear husband?

You can find her blog Here!

On a separate note, my little brother is turning 23 today!  I don't know how that is possible.  Happy Birthday, Eric!  I'm looking forward to spending some quality time with him and the rest of my family this weekend.  Hope everyone enjoys their weekend, too!

-Janice

[MORE] Homemade Baby Food

My baby boy loves to eat.  Whoa, does he love to eat!  Luckily, he's not even picky!  In fact, I'm not sure if there has ever been anything he has turned down. (Lucky Momma!)  That really does make my job so much easier!

Jarred baby food is great.  GREAT, people. Not only is it healthy and nutritious but it's just so darn convenient!  Unfortunately, my little man would end up eating me out of house and home if I tried to feed him only jarred food.  That stuff adds up!  So, whenever I can, I like to make big batches of baby food to be able to freeze.  My guy is almost one... so I'm thinking this should be my last batch I'll have to make!

This time around, I made some interesting combinations just to keep things interesting for both him, and I!  Here is the list of what I came up with this time around:

Remember Those Chairs?

Well, just to refresh your memory, our neighbor found these wonderful little folding chairs for our kiddos!  How sweet was that?  Well, the chairs were in pretty good shape, but purple just wasn't our thing.  So what's a mom to do?!

Front Porch Eye Candy

I've been looking for flower pots for our front porch for a couple years now.  The thing about getting these flower pots, was I didn't want to spend a fortune.  It seemed like anywhere I looked, the size I needed was at least $100, sometimes more!  Yeah, I don't think so!  Well, I was in Jo-Ann's looking for some durable fabric for another project and I saw the perfect flower pots!  Regularly $59.99 but they had them 50% off.  I still didn't bring them to the register because I just really wanted a better deal.  (I'm sounding so cheap right now)... Well, I asked the wonderful woman at the register when they'd be sending out coupons for discounts off of an entire purchase to include sale and clearance.  She, of course, didn't know, but she told me to text 56266 (Joann) and type in CREATE for the message.  Immediately that sent me a coupon for 20% off my entire purchase!  She then typed in the special code and I was able to save a little extra!  If you plan to do this, be sure you're making a trip to Jo-Ann's soon because the code expired after just a couple days.

Home of the Free

Happy Memorial Day! I whipped up this sign for practically pennies to use for my mantle.  This took me just two evenings to make but if you were really dedicated, you could make it in one, I'm pretty confident in you!

Say it or Spray it!

It was spray painting day around here.  I try to group some of my projects together.  It not only keeps me on task better, but reduces the prep and clean up time, too!

Lots of projects getting started around here which means a few more crafty type blog posts to come!  I just wish there were more hours in the day!

First Haircut Last Night

Like so many things around here, we like to do things ourselves.  Haircuts are no exception (don't expect for my hair to get cut at home though! haha)  Our little girl is a few weeks from turning three and still hasn't had a trim or a haircut.  She was long overdue.  Now that's it's trimmed up, I'm regretting not doing this sooner.  She's so sassy and cute now!

Any other cuties getting haircuts in your house?

Mother's Day

This Mother's Day was very unique for me.  It was my third official Mother's Day to our two beautiful children, it was my first as a mother to our son, and it was the first as a Godmother!  Our Godson was dedicated on Sunday.  What a special day.  I couldn't have been more proud.

It is not unusual for me to be emotional while I'm sitting through a church service.  So much of it reminds me deeply of my grandmother (Nani) who passed away almost 3 years ago.  Growing up, there were so many weekends where I would spend the night with them and they'd drag me to church with them.  I enjoyed spending time with my grandparents (especially the breakfast they'd treat me to afterwards) but I didn't truly cherish that time and the memories until more recently.

Something that almost always turns on the waterworks for me are some of the Holy Sacraments... Baptisms, Communion, Confirmation, Marriage.  It doesn't matter if I know the person or not, I almost always tear up.  It certainly wasn't different with my Godson.  I'm so glad I was able to tuck back behind a lot of family because I wasn't able to hold back all of my happy tears.  It fills my heart with such warmth from my Nani.

The memories I have with her and my grandfather (Papa) are priceless and although I may have dragged my feet and secretly despised having to go to Mass at the time (and wearing ridiculous outfits to make her happy, belts trimmed down from old ones that she used to wear, and having my hair styled in a lot of bizarre ways), I am so thankful they were able to instill the love of God into my life.  To this day, I'm not sure I "love" going to church... but I go because it's where I feel closest to her.

Talk about a bitter-sweet blog post!  Mothers (especially my amazing mom!), soon to be mothers, women who are trying desperately to become mothers, mothers who have lost a child, step-mothers, grandmothers, Godmothers, and anyone else who plays a "mothering role" to a child, I hold you in the highest regard.  Make memories with those little kiddos because I'm not entirely convinced "we" are the important ones on Mother's day;  It's the little gremlins that make the day worth while for me.

Happy Mother's Day to all and to all a good night.

Friday Find

This "Friday Find" isn't artsy, homey, creative, or shiny... It's just so true.  I swear I do this every night as I am going to bed and trying to guess what time the kiddos will wake me up.

I know I'm not the only one who has been doing this since grade school!
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!

Janice

Queen Anne's Lace: Not Just a Weed?

Yard work, mowing, weeds, watering, growing grass, and little baby vegetable plants are consuming all of my time.  It feels so good to be outside but my fingers hurt from pulling so many weeds!

Speaking of which, did you know that you can buy Queen Anne's Lace?!  I love this... plant? flower? weed?  But only because of sentimental reasons.

Check out all of that Queen Anne's Lace in the background! It has since become "our flower".  Every time we see it, (which is often since it's everywhere) we point it out to each other or think about one another.  

What to do with those Derby Hats

I went to a fabulous Kentucky Derby Party this past weekend hosted by our good friends, Natalie and Craig.  They served Mint Juleps, had more food than anyone could ever possibly consume, and enough laughter to fill their home.  It was a perfect party.

Do you see how amazing Natalie's hat turned out?!  I just love those giant pink flowers as well as the purple and black feathers!  It was tough getting a good shot of us since we couldn't stop laughing.  Those crazy hats were in the way the entire time!  I can only imagining how frustrating some of the hats at the actual derby must have been.  They were some HUGE hats there!

Gotta Get It In The Ground

"Gotta get it in the ground before the rain comes down!" That's a line my husband has been throwing around a lot recently from a country song he heard on the radio.  It's even cuter hearing our almost three year old say it!

Unfortunately, it started raining AS I was planting everything but I didn't let that stop me.  The rain felt strangely refreshing as I was digging in the ground.  

I picked up 7 different types of tomato plants (two of which are cherry tomatoes), 2 different cucumbers, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, red, yellow, orange, and green bell peppers, romaine, red romaine, spinach, and a few herbs.  I am really hopeful that we'll have quite the crop this summer.

Friday Find

As I prepare to get some vegetables in the ground, I'm trying to do my homework.  Gardening does not come naturally to me.  I wish it did, but it's really like an overwhelming foreign language.  I'd much rather pick a paint color, put it on the wall, and say, "Yup... that's what I expected to happen."  With gardening, there are too many variables.  Soil condition, weather, plants, bugs, diseases...  I guess it's going to have to just be a trial and error process.

Well, in my search for vegetable garden information, I came across this set of charts that break down which vegetables do best hanging out next to each other.  I'm going to attempt to plant my veggies as close to this chart that I can, but I'm not making any promises.  Who knows what's going to happen once I start digging around in that dirt.

Download the full Companion Planting Chart Here by My Square Foot Garden

Do you try to plant your vegetables with companions?  Do you notice any differences?  What's your favorite combination?

Janice

Building a Vegetable Garden

Just checking in really quick to let you know that we've been taking advantage of this beautiful weather by being outside the entire day.  It's been wonderful.  My little brother came over to help me with a little yard work.  He did a great job getting this stubborn fire started and keeping it going all day to burn more tree stumps.