The Kitchen Mini Renovation + Painting Tile

Happy Monday, friends.  I hope it was a fun and productive weekend for you and yours.  In our neck of the woods, this kitchen mini-renovation came to fruition, and I'm so happy that we went for it! When we were looking to buy a home a year ago, we were in a bit of a time crunch, so we were really happy when we found one that was move-in ready and seemed to fit so many of our likes.  It was all around a great fit for us and still is for the time being.  With that being said, there were/are a few small changes that I've wanted to make to help it feel a bit more like the home I would have built if I had my way with all the knobs and paints, etc. We aren't looking to pour too much money/time into changes because we aren't sure if this is our forever home, but a few small changes are feeling pretty good.  
The major component of this mini-renovation was changing the grey subway tile to white.  Not looking to put in all new tile, I started researching the painting option, and let me tell you, there aren't a lot of positive stories out there.  BUT I found this one (and one is all you need-right?), and I dove in.  I applied a good bonding primer and a leveling paint in super thin coats over the course of a couple days. Then, I took a very small paintbrush and painted the grout grey.  Now THAT task was as you might imagine, super tedious, like applying liquid eye liner for hours. Partyyy. After painting, we replaced the knobs and added pulls to the drawers and VOILA, a new kitchen for all my seven course meal prep. Anyone want some spaghetti?    

Oh Britey

It's 9:15 am and a not a creature is stirring, not even a Brite.  So, I am looking at pictures. This one here, what a slice of human heaven.  I tucked her in between me and Andy last night, her four month shots making her groggy and sore, and there in her tired, fussy stupor, she cracked a smile. She is pure joy, just a bunch of roly poly joy. She's the one big sister nicknamed Britey. She's the one the doctor said might need to cut back on the mama milk. She is the one who smiles at everyone and loves life (sans carseat). She is the one the three of us needed all along. And in that little baby mind, I'm just sure she is thinking of flower fields and magic carpet rides, oh, and milk of course.

Happy Friday, everyone! 

32 looks like...

32 looks like...

5 1/2 years of marriage.

Our second year in our first home.

A baby girl on each hip.

3 am nursing.

Spaghetti, taco chili, and crock pot meals.

Grey roots and blonde tips.

Five extra pounds of baby weight.

A cup of caffeinated and a cup decaf each morning.

French toast on the weekends.

Lessons learned about being okay with all the imperfect and unfinished things...my house, my goals, me.

Trying to document everything about them.  Trying to remember it all.

Real Housewives, HGTV, How to Get Away with Murder, Peter Rabbit, Peppa Pig.

6 am reading and writing.

Jesus Calling by Sarah Young and Savor by Shauna Niequist

A clean kitchen before bed each night.

Learning how to correct and guide a little soul with love and kindness.

Living with screaming the entire car ride.

Church on Sundays.

White couches, white subway tile, white shiplap, industrial chairs and knobs.

Play dates, play grounds, playing pretend.

El Jinete on Friday nights.

$150.00 dollar grocery budget each week.

My camera, my computer, my phone.

Three beach trips.

A precious new nephew.

Andy home by 6:00.

Hair up and work out clothes.

Dreams about a third little one.

A Love Story

Brite peed through her diaper at 4 am this morning. Her jammies were soaked and my side of the bed had a nice sized pee spot. I tucked her bare tummy next to Andy's back while I went to fumble through the load of laundry I had left on the couch. I found the last remaining clean onesie and pulled it over her head while simultaneously shooshing. She slept on. I threw a hand towel over the pee spot and nuzzled in which seems a lot more gross in the morning light and one cup of coffee later.

Andy's alarm went off somewhere around 6:00.  He got ready, kissed my sleepy face and was out the door before I got up. I walked out to a kitchen that smelled like coffee. He had brewed our last remaining keurig cup and left it for me.   

I could narrate our evening before it happens.

Tonight, he'll walk in after an hour long drive. He'll smile as he walks through the door, even though he is exhausted. His three girls will cheer and give him hugs or we'll hide. We'll follow him into the closet; he'll change into a v-neck while we talk about a big meeting he had or how I was thinking about painting the tile in our kitchen.

 I will finish making dinner, or he will finish making dinner. Marin will use choppy toddler English to tell him about her day with lots of stuttering "ummms." I'll clean up the kitchen while he sits in Marin's room with her and makes conversation between her stuffed animals. The elephant will ask the fox what his favorite color is. I'll feed Brite or rock her or fan her with palm leaves so she maintains the lifestyle to which she has become accustomed. We'll all go for a walk and check the mail. We might go to the pool. We might pile in the car to go get ice cream. 

Marin will want pink ice cream, but she will prefer my chocolate. We will take turns eating mine, reinforcing "please" even in the face of ICE CREAM. Brite will start crying when I drive over a speed bump or the railroad tracks. We will drive home, me ice cream-less. He will hold my hand. We will start chatting about bath time. We will talk about watching a movie together after the kids fall asleep. Marin will say she doesn't want to get in the bath. Andy will wrangle her in while I get Brite ready for bed. Marin will say she doesn't want to get out of the bath. Andy will wrangle her out. He will cradle her and they will pretend she is a baby again. She will beam with the attention. I will put Brite down while Andy reads books and says prayers with Marin. Through the baby monitor I will hear those two watching a Peter Rabbit episode on Andy's phone. Once they finish, Andy will stay by her side until she falls asleep.

He and I will share a couple minutes of quiet in the house. We will be too tired for a movie.  We will remember we are in the season where we pour ourselves out changing diapers, cleaning messes, rocking a baby, reiterating kindness, applying sunscreen.  And we will remember these are the days that make our love story, every patience testing minute of them. We will be tired. We will use our last remaining energy to talk or look at our phones together in bed. We will say "I love you" and "goodnight." 

We will never want it any other way. 

Black and White Toddler Wear + A Growing Girl

 

   1/2/3/4/5/6

 Somewhere smack dab in the middle of July, Marin jumped to size 4T clothes and size 9 shoes, leaving us with a bit of a wardrobe conundrum.  Since Summer's end is quickly approaching, I don't have any plans on restocking her closet, but I also don't want the poor girl to walk around waiting for the flood to come in either.  Here are a couple black and white pieces that I'm eyeing for her right now, just a few things that will carry her to the end of our warm Georgia days. I hope you and yours are having a good week! 

ROY G BIV (Toddler Activities)

Last week I wrote this post about trying to be more intentional about my time with Marin. I wrote about how I've been feeling like she is getting too many mom leftovers and TV time lately, so we've been doing more activities that help the day and our time together feel a bit more well-rounded. Some of the activities end in meltdowns, messes, and sweat, but we're giving it our best shot, and I think that's all that matters with this sorta stuff. This week we worked with COLORS. Here are some of the color activities we had fun doing.

Rainbow Popsicles.

While Andy watched the girls, I puréed various fruits that Marin likes. Once I had all the fruits nice and mushy, I asked Marin to come help spoon the fruit into the popsicle molds. The next day we got to eat and enjoy what we made. I'm learning that any activity that involves a big reveal is well worth the effort. You should have seen her face when we whipped those out! Also, all of the day's fruit servings in one popsicle? Win.

Rainbow Soup

My good friend Erin, an amazing and engaging mama of four, gave me this idea and it was a total hit. We used food coloring to make primary colored ice cubes then mixed them together to see what colors we could make. Marin LOVED this. It was such a hit. We even got Uncle Ross and Miss Kelly in on the experiment when they came to visit. Ross is working on his PhD and finding cures for Ebola (no, really) so we appreciated his scholarly presence in our rainbow soup shenanigans. Oh, and I think I should mention, the next time we do this I'm going to use Jello or something that Marin can eat/drink afterward. Poor girl wanted to eat her rainbow soup so badly, and I don't blame her. Ha.

Sorting colors.

I had another old science board in the craft closet, so I used it to make a color sorting station. I can’t sing the praises of this little activity enough! Just roll construction paper into tubes then tape them to the science board. I did two tubes of each color but one would work just fine too. If you want to make the tubes a bit more durable, you can paint or color paper towel rolls. It was about 20 minute prep time but time WELL spent.  This activity is a keeper. 

Painting the roses red.

We added food coloring to small vases and talked about how flowers and plants drink water. Again, any activity that involves a big reveal is well worth it. Marin woke up to her white roses turned colorful, so cool.

Rainbow bowling pins.

And last but definitely not least, this rainbow bowling set that cost me a mere $3.00 at Target. We are talking hours of entertainment here! Such a good buy.

Have a great week, mamacitas!

Summer Bucket List

How is it already the middle of August?! Life is moving way too quickly, and for lack of a better cliche, I feel like Summer is slipping through my fingertips.  I know that while they’ve been super sweltering days, we will miss them come winter. For that reason, there needed to be a list made.  This here is a list of all that I am going to make sure happens before pumpkin spice lattes make their debut.  I/we will...

    

Take the girls to the beach one more time. We have a trip to Santa Rosa planned for September, so it looks like we're already cooking with gas here.

Have a picnic.

Swim in a pool with this.

Get my twin brother a really great birthday present. Maybe something like this.

Sit and look at the stars with Andy one night. Scratch that. Make it two nights.

Complete the kitchen project I have in mind, making it look more like this.

Throw an outdoor dinner party for some of our neighbors. I'm picturing this.

Lighten my hair.  The postpartum bald spots are making a comeback, so I think I’m going to get to the salon while they have something to work with.  I’m pretty set on something like this.

Make popsicles with Marin. These look really fun.

I think that about sums it up.  I’ll keep you posted as we make these fleeting days count.