I was at my laptop looking at emails when I glanced over and saw this really sweet moment between my children. My heart swelled and I had to get a photo of them playing quietly together.

I am so thankful for my family and feel very blessed to have a loving husband and three amazing children.

Hubby has been working hard in our garden this year and his green bean plants has produced quite a few green beans. He steamed a batch and they were so tasty! I’ll have to go out and get photos of our plants as well as his flowers/bulbs he has planted. Here is a nice big batch of green beans he recently picked.

A couple of weeks ago, it was Teacher’s Appreciation Week. Sugarpop’s kindergarten teacher is very sweet and has been great with her this year. She filled out a survey of what her favorite snacks and drinks are. Water and any kind of fruit. The school had it divided up to bring something different each day–a note, favorite drink, favorite candy, favorite snack, and something else special. We had a super busy week that week so I went out to Walmart and purchased some bottles of water, fruit, and a basket. I came home and put it together and on Friday I delivered to her teacher. She was out that day, but on Monday Sugarpop told me that she enjoyed it. Sugarpop made a card for her and I put it in the basket. Here is basket filled with bananas, kiwi, pears, apples and water.

Over spring break I had the urge to paint one wall and turn it into a chalkboard wall. I imagined the kids happily drawing pictures and what nots. They have had some interest in drawing pictures and I’m looking into getting some dustless chalk. I’m sure one day, Sugarpop and her friends will be writing “cool” messages to each other. I will do a wall for my boys in the near future. I must say the paint color and chalkboard color looks great together.

That’s the name of the turquoise blue and the room is now painted. I have a smidgen of the closet left to paint and I’ll paint the trim when the old carpet is ripped out, but the walls are done. I still have to swap out the kids’ furniture and maybe I’ll get that done either this week or the weekend. Slowly, Sugarpop’s room is slowly coming along.

The brown curtains came from my room. I’m trying to repurpose whenever I can to keep the budget down.

Unfortunately, I heard from my cousins and they won’t be able to come and visit on Memorial weekend like we had planned. We are hoping that she and her daughter will be able to visit later in the year. We were really looking forward to their visit! We will still go to the beach as planned and enjoy our weekend with family. I had a list of things I wanted to get done before they came and now I don’t have to rush to get it all done. But, knowing myself, I’ll still try to get most of it completed by the holiday weekend. The idea of having a nice, freshly spring cleaned, and somewhat organized, home will always motivate me to get projects done.

Remember this list?

• Finish painting kitchen cabinets
• Get the butcher block counter done and installed in the kids’ bathroom
• Replace faucet in the kids’ bathroom
• Frame and hang up mirror in kids’ bathroom
• Finish painting kids’ bathroom door
• Paint Sugarpop’s new room
• Paint the boys’ room and possibly do a chalkboard wall
• Install butcher block (after we get it cut, sanded, and waterloxed–still on order)
• Install  beadboard backplash and chair rail
• Install butcher block counter in master bathroom

I have gotten about a quarter of this list done. Hubby has started on the butcher block for the remainder of the kitchen. He may or may not be done with it by the holiday–the process of Waterlox’ing the counters take a long time since you have to wait 24 hours in between coats. I hope to finish the bathroom stuff and definitely have the painting done. But we’ll see. Hopefully, this week I will have Sugarpop’ s room completely painted and put back together. I still will need to decorate too. Sigh. Now, I am pressuring myself to get so much done. :/ Back to work!

This is currently Sugarpop’s room, but soon to be the boys’ room. I am going to be painting their room, and adding a chalkboard wall. Also paint inside the closet and get it nice and organized as well as accessorized. This ,like all of my other ongoing projects, takes time and money. First, I will paint the room and then get it in an organized manner and slowly I’ll accessorize. I have lots of fun ideas for this room. Eventually Sugarbaby will be joining big brother and I’ll put putting crib in here. Hubby plans on building two twin sized beds for their room and I’ve talked him into building Sugarpop’s bed frame. I have way too many projects!! Okay, first things first. Paint/spring clean-declutter-organize. Hopefully, I’ll have an in progress photos of both rooms soon. Here are the befores:

The butcher block that I ordered from Lumber Liquidators is finally here! I ordered one 8 foot piece and two 12 foot pieces over a month ago. We got the 8 foot piece about 2 weeks after I ordered it and now finally have the other two pieces. Hubby has been working on the 8 foot piece for the kids’ bathroom countertop and it is finished. Now he’ll be able to get working on the rest of the kitchen  counters and after that do our master bath counters and we’ll be done with the butcher block project. It is definitely time consuming, but once done it is absolutely gorgeous. After pics to come soon!!

I’ve got plans for this porch and front yard. We need to replace the wood rot, repaint the columns, and repaint the floor. I want to get new hardware for the front door, possibly replace the ceiling fans with new ceiling fans/lights, and add more decorative finishes to the front porch. I also want to border the front and side beds with either pavers or something natural like monkey grass. I definitely want a nice walkway that goes up to the front porch. I also want to slowly add more Perennial bulbs, but for now hubby has washed the front of the house and porch, planted new flowers, and hung up the ferns. It looks so much more warm and inviting. The dead ferns that were there before simply wasn’t going to cut it. We waited until the pollen was finished falling before washing everything down. The flowers that were planted were Begonias, Star Gazer Lily (Perennials), and ferns.   Here are the befores:

Ahhh! much better

This is just the first coat. I still have to do one more coat and then the walls should be done. Next will be fresh coat of paint in the closet, window sill, and touch up the trim. I also want to paint the door. Here it is for now:

The color is beautiful and as I envisioned it. I can’t wait to get the room completely done. And yes, that blue carpet will be replaced at some point. I hope to get a final photo of the room after I get it painted, and accessorized. I have to wait to get more cash for accessorizing the room so I may get another photo after everything is painted and room is put together.