In case you missed it, I took the entire month of August off from blogging. However, after I announced I was taking a full month off, I found it interesting that MANY other bloggers emailed me asking more about why I took a break, how I decided on a month, and if I would share some of my thoughts once I returned.
I figured that was a reasonable request — so today I’m sharing my thoughts and answering a few questions I got over and over again.
It’s no secret that I love planning ahead, stocking up, and being prepared. Our freezer and pantry are full, our bank account has plenty, and we have an almost endless supply of diapers and toilet paper!
But recently, I’ve been thinking about the principle of scarcity and how much less likely we are to waste a resource if it’s scarce. Not that I’m a wasteful person; it’s just a lot easier to inadvertently waste when you have plenty. Don’t you think?
After showing pictures of our new garage makeover last week, I got an insane number of questions about the garage floor coating. I totally understand why — Dave and I are thrilled with the results. So I decided to send your questions directly to the Monkey Bar expert.
Today’s post has their answers mixed with my comments and photos — and seriously, this floor is amazing!
As I’ve mentioned before, we are BIG potato-lovers over here. Because of this, I’m always on the look out for quick and simple potato recipes to add to our weekly menus.
Today’s recipe most definitely fits my “quick” and “simple” week-day meal requirements, but is delicious enough to serve for a more lavish weekend dinner with company… and yes, Nora likes them 🙂
Life with Nora has been a struggle for me from the first moment she was born… and after 17 long months, we finally started to realize some of the reasons Nora is so difficult.
Not only is she way too smart for her own good, she’s extremely high needs and has severe sensory issues — all of which make it almost impossible to parent her like a “normal” child. But we’re slowly figuring her out…
Last week, I shared how we were able to fully transform our garage from drab to fab in about a week… and I don’t think I need to convince anyone how much we love our new space.
Today, I’m sharing the final pictures of ALL our stuff organized with the new Monkey Bars system. Let’s just say that even I was impressed with how much stuff we could fit in such a small space!
If you’ve never tasted home-canned foods, you don’t know what you are missing. However, unless you intend to start canning, I wouldn’t recommend trying home-canned food… because once you do, it will be REALLY hard to go back to the store bought stuff 🙂
Today, I’m sharing a few reasons why I love canning jam — as well as a bunch of helpful jam-making tips and resources.
As I mentioned on Tuesday, Dave and I have been working on a whole bunch of projects this summer.
The next project on our list is renovating our upstairs bedrooms. We weren’t necessarily planning to tackle this project for another year or so, but due to a recent and unexpected change of events, we’ll be needing the extra space in approximately 25 weeks 🙂
When we first moved into our house 3 years ago, we shoved everything that didn’t have a designated home into the garage. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but then we realized we wanted our garage back.
So thanks to some DIY efforts and the amazing Monkey Bars garage storage system, we now have a super functional, super organized, and super good-looking garage!
As many of you probably realized by now, I took the entire month of August off from blogging — not because I was burnt out or feeling totally overwhelmed — but simply because I could.
We accomplished a lot AND we relaxed a lot over the past couple of months — and today, I’m sharing a bunch of the things we did while I was away.
I was actually planning to do a post about canning today, but over the past week since the big Royal Birth, I’ve read and heard more than a few snide comments about the use of pain medication and childbirth.
So while I never expected to write anything like this on my blog, I’m sharing my thoughts — from someone who did NOT use pain medication but has no issue with those who do.
If Dave and I had our way, peanut butter and peanuts would be a food group all on their own. Seriously, we can’t get enough! So when I was contacted by Biscoff to try their peanut-free spread, I was a bit skeptical.
However, after thoroughly testing it on toast, sandwiches, with apple slices, and in a variety of baked goods, I can confidently say that Dave and I BOTH give it 2 thumbs up!
What’s on the inside of your kitchen cabinet doors? If you answered “nothing”, my goal is to change that by the end of this post!
We use the inside of our kitchen (and laundry room) cabinet doors to store and organize all sorts of information — which means it’s always accessible and easy to find, but NEVER sitting out on the counters. Win-Win!
For those of you who don’t understand Nora talk, the title of this post should read “Our Vacation at the Cottage”. We spent all of last week lounging and lazing around at a cottage on Lake Michigan with Dave’s immediate family — it was glorious!
Now we’re back to laundry, and cooking, and yard work, and grocery shopping — but we feel refreshed after a lovely week away from our routine (and I’m sharing pictures today!)
Most people I know have somewhat fixed amounts of time, money, energy, etc. — and it’s our job to then allocate these resources the best we can.
Sometimes, the decisions are no-brainers and easy to make. However, many times, it can be quite difficult to know the best way to allocate our many resources. And just when you think you’ve figured out the best solution, things change. You enter a new season of life and you need to figure things out all over again!
A few months after Nora was born, I was given the highchair my great-grandma used as a baby. I didn’t want to use it as Nora’s actual highchair, but I had a few ideas for what I could do with the chair, so I hung onto it.
Then, a couple weeks ago, I brought the chair up from the basement and decided it was time to transform it into a useable, functional piece of furniture for our home — what a transformation it was!
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