Wow This Blog for Keeps? For Keeps.

Wow this blog is still here. I mean, I know it's still here but it's a little sad. I was GungHo about it when I first started it and had every intention of really making it work and well... darnit I just didn't.

 

I'm sitting here eating my oatmeal and drinking my iced coffee and it has been almost 6 months to the day that I typed up my last post. It's okay though. Life gets busy and it has been very busy the past couple of years. Well I'll post when I can. Until then what is it you wish for? I wish for good health, peace, happiness, love.

 

 

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas! Lots of LOVE! 

Stepping Stones

Howdy! How's it going? I'm sitting here "breaking my fast" this morning and just thinking... I already ate the blueberries on my plate by the way! :) I LOVE early mornings! Waking up early is awesome because you can get so much done before everyone else is up!

So I'm working on a project that is taking me a while because of the steps-I'm refinishing my son's dresser! As soon as I'm finished with it I'll post it on here. I am hoping to have it completed tomorrow night! I'm so tired of having rooms all out of whack!

Since I don't want to post pictures of it yet I will post pics of an older project! A couple months ago I installed three stepping stones that were extra finds next to our patio. Instead of disposing of them we're using them.

You see, I had buried one of the stepping stones and had two left to do for over a year. The mower would get hung up on it and I was afraid someone was going to get hurt tripping over it.

These aren't pretty pictures but it's something I've been putting off for a while/ I'm so happy I finally got this completed. AHHHH! What projects are you putting off?
Happy Day!

KISY

Hello Summer!

Hi, just wanted to say hello because it has been a while. It's summertime now, my favorite time of year! 

I'm holding off on some house decorating and updoing right now in order to get my kids on a good summer schedule. Working on meals and plans to have fun and things like that. Hope you are doing well.

KISY
XOXO 

Laundry - A Load A Day So I Can Keep Up With It!

Hi Everybody! How are things going? Hopefully good. It's late at night and I'm trying to do a clean sweep of things before tomorrow. I got off track after last weekend because of our yard sale. It took a lot out of me and afterwards it's always a lot of work to try and figure out what to do with everything. 

Sooooo. Laundry... I DETEST folding laundry! Can't stand it. I'd rather mow the yard than fold laundry. I'd rather dig in the dirt than fold laundry. It's such a pain in the butt... LAUNDRY!

BUT I think I have found a system to help with that one awful chore! I've switched from doing laundry one time a week to doing one load a day. It's quick, it dries faster and it's pretty simple and a lot less to fold and put away at one time. I make sure I start the load and finish and put away one load a day. I'm pretty excited about it. It's like this secret a lot of moms have but really it's so simple and I'm so dumb for not realizing this much longer ago! I typically do 7-8 loads when I do it one time a week so it's not so bad!

These IKEA bags used to be my laundry system. I'd do laundry for an entire day or two then separate each person's clothes into one bag then do towels and sheets in one. UGGH The bags just cluttered up the laundry room and the floor while I was filling them up, waiting on laundry to finish. Plus some times it would take one to two days to get it all put away.

Now I just do the laundry and carry it up by hand. I think I'm going to get one rectangular laundry basket to carry the one load up in.

I did try to also do one load a day and batch it so that it I am doing similar fabrics together. It worked out well too but I found that I would have a bit of a larger load in one day but then again it could save me from having to do a load every single day. I'm going to play with it for a while and figure out the best strategy.

How do you do your laundry? I'd love to hear!

KISY

The Neverending Leaf Pile!

Oh goodness! We had never-ending leaves in our back yard for MONTHS! Last week I was finally able to rake them all up and bag them and get them to the curb! WOO-HOO! I spent two days working on this project and now it is DONE! Another Spring project I can mark off the list. 

What's on your list?

Back Yard

Front Yard For Pick-Up!

Beachy Peachy

Happy Hump Day! I had a horror-flick style vomit session late Friday night accompanied by good old diahrea. How's that for a lovely description of TMI on a home decorating bloggety blog?!?! Oh my gosh it was awful. I was in bed the entire weekend quarantined from the rest of the family just in case it was a contagious stomach bug. I wasn't sure if it might have been food poisoning but NOPE, a big, fat N-O-P-E! Both my kids are home today puking so I have my answer! Praying the hubs doesn't get it because if he gets it, oh I won't go in detail but it won't be fun! LOL

SOOOOO I've been having fun redecorating the house. I've been working on it a lot to make it more of a vacation feeling so we enjoy it like when we go on our beach vacations and enjoy those!

I told you I would share some of the beachy decorations and here are some! I love them! The clothes pin-I've got to find a cute picture of the family from one of our vacations to add to it. :-)

What do you think? Well I've got laundry to do, dishes to put away and some leaves to rake up today for the trash pickup tomorrow.  Have a great day! Love ya!

KISY

Guess What I'm Doing!

The annual yard sale! YES! This one should be the biggest one yet too. Lots of furniture... LOTS of furniture! Lots of kids stuff! Lots of Stuff! We've been hanging on to so much of this stuff tagged as yard sale things for months and it's cluttering up our home. Can't wait to unload it all soon. 

Below is the sign I just made to laminate and hang on our mailbox. Can't wait!

A lot of people don't enjoy yard sales but I really do. I kinda like the prep work and the day of meeting and getting to talk to lots of people. It's fun! I'll let you know how it goes and next post I'll show you some other projects I did over Spring Break! Have a great rest of your weekend.

I think Trading Spaces reboot is tonight. If I'm wrong, I apologize but if I'm right, I'm all eyes tonight. Can't wait to see how they reboot it.

See ya Later!

KISY

Freshly Painted Dining Room

Happy Hump Day! Spring Break was awesome last week because I got a lotta lotta done! Woot Woot!

Our dining room which was probably the last room to need a repaint got done! It took me forever and a day to get to it. I prepped it a couple weeks ago and finally got to it. We LOVE the new color! About ten years ago I painted the room a clay/coffee color. We are trying to transform the house into a beach vacation feel and so we went with a darker blue/gray!

I just love the contrast of the wall color and the floor color. The red color seemed libraryish and much more formal, where this color is soothing and casual! I'll show you some of the small decorations I've added later! 

Happy Friday! Hope you have a wonderful day!

New Years List Updated!

1. Get computer organized
2. Organize phone
3. Pull out new dishes and organize them
4. Brush our cat daily! he's long haired :)
5. New curtains for our living room
6. Tackle kitchen table
7. Think about kitchen cabinets - do I want to paint or stain them?
8. Touch up paint spots around the house
9. Clean / paint baseboards
10. Clean / paint back door
11. Catch up on all the blog posts I've meant to post that I haven't. Sigh! We did a lot of things in 2017 and in years past to the house
12. Painted Dining Room - I'll share the new dining room soon!
13. Kitchen Cabinets - I want to stain them!

File Cabinet Redo

Hello! Happy Spring Break! Hope all is well! 

I have a stress fracture I'm trying to recover from but it can take anywhere from six months to a year. Sooooo I'm home for Spring Break. I really wanted to travel but I can't without a lot of pain. Don't want any setbacks. During our staycation I've been busting my butt to get some projects done that I've wanted to do for a while! I'm so excited too. I'll share those later.

This one is one I did a couple months ago and am so psyched. I didn't take a before picture but it was "U-G-L-Y! it aint got no alibi T'was UGLY"! yeah yeah it was UGLY! 

My husband got this old beat up filing cabinet 20 years ago and I've always disliked the look of it though it has come in very handy. It had dents and scratches and a really ugly silver drawer pull too. I've been wanting to redo it for a loooong time and I finally did! I had to order the drawer pull bc the screw holes were an odd distance apart but it worked. 

I used a simple gray chalk paint that I've had for a while. I sealed it and then distressed it with a dark antiquing wax. I love it! 

Yay for a good makeover!

Minimalism

Minimalism - I used to hear it as a term used in college Art classes, yes I was an Art major in college. Minimalism was a type of Art. Now I hear it as a movement towards creating a simpler life. Minimalism is something I would LOVE to achieve and in a lot ways I have achieved it widdling down possessions. We still own a lot of things but it's an achievement I would love to acquire. I don't like the complexity of owning a lot of things. It's too much to keep up with for sanity. I keep thinking if we just owned less we would be happier.

Hmm. It's wild to see all the reasons people are trying to work towards a minimalistic approach. "Things" don't make us happy. Purchases give us a little bit of a high but accruing things adds more stress. Getting rid of things simplifies life. Less to have to keep up with, less to clean = less stress in general.

Going to my weekly Bible study and learning more on the Beatitudes as a way to live the way Jesus did, I'm getting to know more people at church and it feels so good. I'm getting to know a couple of the nuns better and I love them. They are so warm and welcoming and genuinely happy. They are striving for the same thing I'm striving for- Jesus. God. Heaven. Getting to know these women I'm learning more about their lives and I find it fascinating. They take vows of poverty and rid themselves of all possessions. In so much reading and watching youtube videos about becoming minimalists, I see some about what it does for ones faith. Anyway, no matter what we do- collect, dispose of, weed through, donate-God wants us to pray. Prayer is the one thing we can do that will bring us closer to God. I'm rambling I guess but the act of living a minimalistic lifestyle should (in my mind) mean more about giving up on possessions and living to serve God. Living with less gives more time to pray, volunteer, do more things to please our Father in Heaven.

Maybe it's also more about my own priorities. I worry too much about the unimportant and need to shift my focus on what is really important.

Anyway, Peace out! 

KISY
Keep It Simple Yay   

No More Excess

I just went to the opening class of a new Bible Study this week and we are studying the Beatitudes, the eight "Blessed Be" statements Jesus gave us at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.  

Tonight we studied and discussed the first Beatitude - Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit For Theirs Is The Kingdom Of God. In discussion we talked about our possessions. We talked about our country and how it is less Christian than Africa and why. We discussed what it means to be poor in spirit and to humble yourself.

We as Americans live in excess. We have too much stuff. Everywhere you look is an advertisement for why you need a product. It's really ridiculous. It's everywhere and I am certainly guilty of it. When you are faced with losing a loved one it smacks you right in the nose because then you have to deal with getting rid of your loved one's belongings. It can be overwhelming.

It smacks me in the face every day. We are so spoiled to have things to make life easier. When I think of this blog and all the silly little things I do around our house that are fluff and so not necessity, I get very agitated and angered with myself and feel like I am not living like Jesus would. 

It doesn't mean getting rid of every single possession but definitely it means living a richer life in faith, in your heart, and in doing for others. Lightening the load doesn't just mean getting rid of your crap. It means you fulfill your heart doing things for people, by prayer and love for one another.

I can certainly stand to rid of some things and it does make me freer to lighten the load physically but what I'm learning is that getting rid of all the unnecessary in our house and all the extra fluff and ideas of you have to have the best of the best is not Jesus-like. It's more than just a fad of minimalism. It's to live a more fulfilling life because that is what God wants. God is calling all of us. Instead of talking we need to listen. I am one who needs to listen. Well, I'll jump off my pedestal but I hope you have a happy week and I'll be working on my vocation as a wife and mother.

I've got a little sickie who is home all week with the flu and he needs to be fed lunch. 

Happy Wednesday. Wash your hands lots!

Keep It Simple YAY!

KISY for short :)

Snowmagedden 2018

Snow! SNOW!!!! Woot Woot! We got snow

We love it! We've been snowed in half the week. We were out on Monday, went to school Tuesday then it snowed early Tuesday morning and school was cancelled yesterday and today. 

It has been nice though I'm not spending much time in it with my injury but it is nice to relax! I've got a lot of hobbies I've been enjoying and the kids have been in and out playing and warming up. Check out all the snow we got! It's beautiful and lovely! Where are you? Have you seen any white flakes this year where you are?

New Roof! YES!

We've been in our house for eleven and a half years and it is our home. We love it. There are so many things we have done to it to make it home -wallpaper and border removal, changed out light fixtures, ceiling fans, insulated and dry-walled(did I make a new word?) our garage, replaced the garage door, added a glass door, a fence, framed bathroom mirrors, flooring, interior and exterior paint, landscaping, etc.

We chose this house because at the time we wanted a clean house and a floorplan that had enough rooms for kids and to change things up if we needed to. So far we have changed rooms around quite a bit to make room for different activities. After eleven and a half years we still love it!

One of our big purchases/redos in 2017 was our roof! A roof sounds so boring but we were ecstatic to finally be able to get a new roof. We filed a claim with our insurance company more than eight years ago due to hail damage because almost every other house on our street had their roof replaced from hail. We were denied though we were told by three roofing companies we had a lot of hail damage, not to mention the sludge that was flowing out of our downspouts. After that our insurance rates were jacked up because of everyone else who got new roofs. We jumped ship from that insurance company.

After eleven years we had a storm blow off a shingle that was nearly disintegrated and deformed. We finally got the courage to file a new claim and were excited to be approved and got a new roof. YeeHaw! 

Here is the day before installation.

Our old roof was gray and nineteen years old. 

Here is the new roof after installation.

We chose a dark architectural shingle. 

We love it and are so proud of the way

our house looks now! It feels COMPLETE. What is your roof like? Anyone had a similar experience?

Keep It Simple YAY!

KISY Smooches

2018 Stuff!

Hope this finds everyone doing well. I'm doing pretty good on this end. It's 2018 and I'm ready for new beginnings. This year has had its ups and downs and I'm finally on the upswing from the downs working to rehab myself from a leg injury. I've been through months of medical testing to try and figure out a lot of different symptoms. Finally I'm rehabbing my leg back into shape so I can do all the normal things I like to do. It's been quite the journey and I'm so thankful to have medical answers and a solid plan to build my strength back. It's been a mental and physical struggle for more than half a year. The physical pain has been excrutiating and debilitating so I'm very happy to get help. YAY for 2018!

On top of my physical goals I've got some house goals for the new year. I don't plan on starting them today though because I'm cold(I'm always cold), want to get under my electric blanket to read, and I've spent half the day at two car dealerships handling maintenance issues for my car and my husband's. Do you have any goals for the new year? I've got a silly little list of things for 2018. Here goes!

1. Get computer organized
2. Organize phone
3. Pull out new dishes and organize them
4. Brush our cat daily! he's long haired :)
5. New curtains for our living room
6. Tackle kitchen table
7. Think about kitchen cabinets - do I want to paint or stain them?
8. Touch up paint spots around the house
9. Clean / paint baseboards
10. Clean / paint back door
11. Catch up on all the blog posts I've meant to post that I haven't. Sigh! We did a lot of things in 2017 and in years past to the house.

I think that is a pretty good list. It's long enough anyway! So what are you up to? Do you have any big plans for your home? I'm signing off but hope you have a wonderful day. Happy Almost weekend!

Keep It Simple Yay!

KISY Smooches