All in Household
We have wanted a nice coffee bar for some time. And once we bought our current house, we had the perfect spot. However, we just couldn’t find the perfect one for the right price. One trip at Hobby Lobby, I saw one I loved. Brad and I measured it, and it would fit perfectly in our kitchen space, After drop off one day, Brad and I headed to Hobby Lobby and bought it!
Back in August, a friend of mine introduced me to EveryPlate. You may remember last year I tried Green Chef. I loved the idea and concept, but the cost was not worth it, the produce was inconsistently bad, and the food itself was too flavorful. Normally flavor is good, but it was sometimes not the best. However, the friend of my was introduced to EveryPlate and raved about it. The cost was reasonable, the produce and meat were always good, the delivery days were great and reliable, and the taste was great.
This summer, I struggled with keeping the house cleaned. I did have somewhat of a cleaning schedule from last school year that I attempted to carry into the summer. One week I would do a “big” clean. This included changing sheets, cleaning upstairs (rarely used), removing all things on tables to dust, and removing all the things in our tub and shower to clean it. The next week was a “small” week. This was just the basics: wiped around things without removing, wiped down the tub and shower, all simple things. This worked during the school year, but I struggled with this during the summer. So I decided to come up with a better routine. I am only a month in, but it seems to really work. It does put me cleaning daily (which I was afraid I would hate), but I built it so that it could take me less than 30 minutes or an hour. It really depended on my capacity that day.
I try and clean our washing machine itself once a month. I sometimes do it more in the summer when Brad mows because grass can build up in it. So I will clean it every time I wash his outside clothes. I have used a variety of cleaners, but I did want to share my latest cleaning experience.
Back in early 2021, we renovated our kitchen. We added a backsplash, lowered the bar counter, got a new sink and faucet, and added under cabinet lighting. We knew we would eventually need new appliances, but we were not in a rush to get them. However, we were having some small issues with our dishwasher, and I was desperate for a fridge with a water dispenser. After the stimulus check back in March of 2021, we decided to start researching new appliances.
Last year, I bought three Simplified monthly planners. I gave one as a gift to Melody’s teacher. I used one to help keep up with Melody. Then I used the third to keep track of all the things I do around the house. This lets me have an easy way to look back and see when the last time I did something such as change my contacts or clean our backsplash without hoping I remember.
On January 2nd, we had the unthinkable happen…it snowed! And it was a fairly heavy, wet snow. Now the surprisingly part is that on January 1st, it was in the 70s, and we were having tornados. Alabama weather is purely insane.
I told myself over the last few years we would never get one of those elves. It was too much work and I was not a fan. But I gave in very last minute this year. Literally I found an elf at Target that was a girl with blue eyes on December 1st. I actually ended up having a lot of fun with our elf. There were a few days she was forgotten by me, but thankfully Brad would remember. She was touched, but we recovered. Check out her shenanigans below.
Christmas is always so much fun. It can be so magical to see it all through Melody’s eyes. Now it can also be super stressful. This year I made sure to finish my Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving. Most was done before November. We also cut back on our traveling this year because we wanted some time at home because Brad’s work travel will pick by up in 2022. But we kept busy, and I decided to just throw all of the fun in one post!
For Halloween, Melody wanted to go as characters from Butterbean’s Cafe. She wanted to be Butterbean, Brad went as Jasper, and I went as Poppy. This was definitely one of the more DIY Halloweens, so I thought I would share most of what I did to make our costumes.
Back in April, Simplified released monthly planners. Ironically a few months prior, I started keep my own monthly calendars with all of my household tasks. I plan to speak to that later however. When they were released, I decide to buy a couple. I bought one for the household tasks I was already doing. Then I bought two for back to school teacher gifts. I was not sure if Melody would have just one teacher or a teacher aid/assistant too. Once school began, we found out Melody only had the one teacher. So I had an extra monthly planner. I went back and forth and in many different directions on how to use this extra planner. I already had a meal planner, and I didn’t think a workout planner would be useful. After talking with my best friend, Emily, I decided to make it a planner all about Melody. It can help me just keep track of all the things going on with Melody beyond just going to school. Check it out below.
I have wanted to try a meal delivery service for quite some time. My problem has been the overall cost, lack meal options that both Brad and I both like, and delivery day. Ideally I would like something that could delivery on a Monday so we can eat on it all week, but that has been near impossible to find. One day while listening to a podcast, I heard about Green Chef. The meal option sounded good, and they delivered on Wednesdays. Price was not great, but I did have a decent discount to at least make it reasonable to try.
My mother in law gave me a candlestick holder for our dining room a few months ago. We have been looking for a piece for our dining room table, so this was perfect. However, I could not get the candlesticks to stand up straight to save my life. After a lot of googling, I came up with a solution that worked!
At the beginning of the summer, we made a bucket list of items we wanted to try and accomplish during Melody’s last summer before kindergarten. I wanted to share an update to how much we really accomplished before she started school earlier this month!
This year I opted to still use a Simplified Planner, but I went with a DapperDesk instead of the daily planner. I really loved the idea of having full pages for the weekends, and it also was really, really pretty. I am only about two weeks in, but I do like it a lot. There are a few kinks I am still working out, but having the weekends has been totally worth it!
Something we have struggled with in both of our homes is our lack of attic space. More specifically our lack of storage space. And while we actually have tons of attic space in our current house, it is not super or easily accessible. One space that was extremely accessible was a space off of Brad’s office. There was a lot of space, but it just wasn’t utilized very well. There were no floors, and it would get really, really hot in there. So after some talk with my dad, we decided to convert that space into a storage closet that has heating and cooling. It took us almost four months, but we now have a great space to store those things we do not want to get too cold or too hot.
Projects are never ending in our house. We literally finish one thing to start another. Most of the time we are planning our next project while working on the current one. Well our most recent completed project was Melody’s bathroom. It was actually our quickest and easiest project. It didn’t require a whole lot of work, so that helped. And we let Melody get super involved which she loved. It also ended up being the most Melody bathroom there is, ha.
So we decided to keep Easter low key this year. I also scheduled my second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine the day before, so we couldn’t travel. My dad worked as well. So we ended up visiting my parents after my vaccine appointment, and we spent Easter at home. Emily, Justin, and the kids came over that evening for dinner and an egg hunt. Low key and relaxing. I even got a nap in on Easter Day!
I totally meant to share these pictures yesterday, but life has happened, and I have been busy. I am hoping to get back to blogging more though! So we had these pictures taken by my aunt a few weeks ago. It took Melody a bit to warm up, but she did so well in the end!
I made an Easter Storage Basket for all of my holiday things just like I did for Valentine’s Day! I included Easter plates, Easter napkins, and Easter cupcake liners. I used the same pink bread basket.
