May!!

Wow, it's May!

May is one of my most favorite months of the year and not just because my birthday is in May. But I love Spring, the end of the school year, warmer temperatures, and flowering shrubs and trees. My favorite flowers are the flowers of this time of year too.....daffodils (although I think they're a little late this year), tulips, and lilacs.

I chose to add a bunch of lilacs to the calendar this month.

Our family's calendar has already gotten pretty full for this month. Mother's Day, a special dinner at our church that both Hubster and I are involved in planning, baseball games, birthdays, end of the school year activities, a band concert, and Memorial Day. I will also be accompanying my son and his class on their 8th grade class trip to Washington, D.C. during the last week of May. Phew....it makes me tired just thinking about it!

 

 

Yes, it's a busy time. But it is also an opportunity to make so many memories with our children or grandchildren. I'm ready to dive in....how 'bout you?

 

 

 

 

Is your calendar filling up too?

 

What are your plans?



Easter Weekend Wrap-Up

Happy Monday!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter! We enjoyed ours immensely!

Fortunately, Hubster had the day off on Good Friday. That afternoon, we celebrated Easter with his family so that his sister who lives out of state and her family could be with us. We enjoyed a good meal and then headed outside for the annual Easter egg hunt for the kids.

I must say that the weather this weekend was just gorgeous. It was so nice to be outside in the sunshine and not have to be all bundled up. After this winter, I was just thanking the Lord all weekend for such glorious weather.

The kids love the egg hunt. It's been tradition at Nana and Grandpa's house since they were very little. All the grandkids are growing up though, and so the egg hunt's years are numbered I'm afraid to say.

Our Saturday began with Easter baskets at home. Yes, on Saturday. This has become our tradition over the years. It really began because honestly, we were usually so busy on Easter Sunday that we didn't really have time for baskets. It has worked out well though because now our Easter is more focused on Jesus instead of the Easter Bunny.

 

We never made a huge deal about the Easter Bunny when the kids were little (most of that kind of stuff entered their lives via school.) One of the first years we did baskets on Saturday, they were so excited about the Easter Bunny coming to our house. but we told them he wouldn't come unless they took a bath. So they all got in the tub and while Hubster was giving baths, I hid the baskets. For a couple years after that they thought that the Easter Bunny only came while they were in the tub. Worked out great for us! Ha!

Now they know it's just Mom and Dad hiding the baskets and so they huddle in one bedroom while we hide them and then come out and search. We don't have many great hiding spots in our house, so the search is very short. But it's tradition.

 

 

(I'm such a bad blogger. For the rest of the weekend the camera was pretty much forgotten about.)

 

The remainder of Saturday was spent getting the house ready for our guests for Easter dinner the next day. My sweet Hubster even went out and bought some flowers to plant outside by the door to welcome everyone. 

 

Easter Sunday started early for us. At our church, the youth plan the early service (formerly known as the Sunrise Service). Since two of our kiddos were involved in that this year, they had to be at church especially early. Hubster drove over with the kids while I came a little later to do a few last minute things at home.

 

The kids and our Youth Director did a great job. It always feels so right to start out the day joyously celebrating that Jesus is risen.

 

That service is followed by Easter Breakfast....scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, muffins, fruit, juice, and this year, a French Toast casserole....YUM!

 

Next came our main service. The choir sang in this service and my parents, long-time choir members, recruited our middle guy to sing in the choir for Easter. How sweet it was to see his face buried in his music trying his hardest to follow along. I also had to privilege to be part of the worship team this morning. It's always wonderful to be able to lead people to worship Jesus, but it was even more so on the day when we celebrate the Resurrection.

 

After church, we headed home for lunch. (Don't know how we had any room for lunch, but we managed. Ha!) What a fun time we had around the table. We always do. Mom, Sal, and I had all contributed to the meal and everything was delicious. Here's our menu in case you missed it.

 

We finally relaxed after lunch by all sitting around and watching Frozen. Yes, all eleven of us! Those of us who had seen it a time or two or more sang along. Fun times!

 

Shortly after that the party broke up. Hubster and I cleaned up, put the kids to bed, and collapsed in front of the TV to watch the Amazing Race. 

 

Our weekend was full. But these are the times when I look back and realize how full our life is....kids, family, church, home, friends.....and even more important things like love, hope, and the Giver of it all.

 

I hope your Easter weekend was blessed as well!

 

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Before I go, I want to tell you about a great giveaway that Sal is having over at Drinking From My Saucer. She's talking about Spring and mason jars today and has a set of green Heritage Ball jars to give away. So if your house is still needing a little Spring in it, head on over and you could win a set of those beautiful green jars!

 

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A Table For Easter

 

I'll be hosting my family for Easter dinner this year. When I'm having company, I always like to do a "dress rehearsal" of my table. I pick out my tablecloth, dishes, napkins, serving pieces, and put together a centerpiece. I like having it all figured out ahead of time so I'm not pulling things together at the last minute. Much less stress that way.

So here's what I came up with for Easter this year.

 

 

C'mon over and take a closer look!

 

 



I had a hard time deciding on dishes. It was between our original Pfaltzgraff Garden Party or the new Asiatic Pheasant. The Garden Party dishes are very Spring-like with their tulips and violets, but in the end the new dishes won out.

 

 

I made cloth napkins out of this bright yellow fabric that I found in fat quarters at WalMart. Making my own was much less expensive that buying cloth napkins and I hadn't found any I like anyway. The fat quarters were almost the perfect size (18x21 in.) and I just had to cut off a little to make them square. I'm so glad I went this route. If I had bought fabric off the bolt, there would've been a lot more measuring and cutting....and the cost was about the same.

 

Since I don't have a sewing machine, I decided to fringe the edges instead of hemming them. I learned this from my mom. When we got married, she made cloth napkins to go under the centerpieces on all the tables at our reception. Mom helped me fringe the Easter napkins too. It's very easy to do, but fringing twelve napkins wound up being more time consuming than I thought it would be. Thanks Mom!

 

 

 

 

For the centerpiece, I used all my latest ironstone finds and filled them with pretty purple and yellow Violas. I love how it looks.

 

 

 

 

I also used a couple small metal planters that I found in The Spot at Target. I filled them with Easter basket grass and some yummy chocolate eggs for [hopefully] AFTER dinner.

 

 

 

 

So there's how our Easter table will be set. Our menu is set as well!

 

 

Ham

 

Sal's Killer Hash Brown Potatoes

 

Cinnamon Applesauce Jello Salad

 

Green Peas

 

Easter Eggs

(hard-boiled)

 

Cheesy Garlic Biscuits

 

and

 

Chocolate Éclair Dessert

 



 

 

 

So now that the plans are made for our Easter Dinner, it's time to clean the house a bit!

 

Are you hosting an Easter Dinner at your house? What are your plans?

 

 

 



 







Welcome To April!

April is upon us and that means a new calendar up on the chalkboard.

 

 

I couldn't resist adding a couple pretty daffodils. Hopefully they will be showing themselves around here soon.

 

 

 

So did you survive April Fool's Day? Hubster woke our oldest son up at 2AM and told him it was time to get up and get ready for school. He had adjusted his clock the night before. It's a good thing our son is such a good sport. I don't think I would have been so kind at 2 in the morning.

 

 

 

 

April 1st is actually the anniversary of when Hubster and I got engaged. Seriously. He asked me to marry him on April Fool's Day. He had purchased a ring and it was burning a hole in his pocket. He couldn't wait so he asked me to marry him on April 1st. True story!

 

I hope this new month is starting out well for you!

Sharing A Little Spring With You



Yesterday when I was at the grocery store, these tulips called out my name.

I gave in and bought them because, wow, aren't they beautiful? And besides, who couldn't use a little dose of Spring right about now?

And they've been making me smile ever since I brought them home yesterday, so I thought I would share them with you.

Enjoy!

The March Chalkboard Calendar

It's time for the March calendar!

I know....I'm a little late. What's new?

Funny story.....

The other day my son asked my when I was going to do the March calendar.

He said, "It won't be hard this month. You just have to add a couple numbers."

I was like....huh?

"What do 'ya mean? I have to re-do the name of the month and then I have to erase all the numbers and start all over again for a new month!"

"No you don't! You just have to add 29, 30, and 31!"

All of the sudden it finally hit me. He was right! February and March always start on the same day of the week....except in Leap Year.

"My son," I said, "I love you and you are the smartest boy in the whole world!"

I would have been SO kicking myself if I had erased that whole calendar!

And that's my boy, always thinking, especially when it has to do with numbers.

So, the month of March has arrived! Home to the first official day of Spring (even if it doesn't look like it outside!), Spring Break, and March Madness. (I never knew what March Madness was until I lived in Indiana. Those Hoosiers LOVE their basketball!)





Do you have big plans this month? I hope your March is off to a good start!



** If you'd like to see our chalkboard calendar from other months, you can click on the Our Monthly Chalkboard button over here in the sidebar.**  -------->

Trying To Find Some Inspiration

I'm here!

Here I am!

Just in case you were worried I fell off the side of the earth....nope. I'm still here.

I hate to admit it, but I think I've just been trying to survive February. At least as far as this blog goes. I haven't felt too inspired. I mean between sickness, snow days, Hubster traveling, and the Polar Vortex, I've just been trying to keep warm and make it through, 'ya know? I think my lack of inspiration kept me from taking photos. No photos....no blog post.

As I said, Hubster was traveling last week...to Sweden. Yep, SVEEEEden. When he left, I jokingly said, "Bring me back something from Ikea!"

Well, he did even better than that. The day after he got home, while the kids were in school, we went on a little road trip to the closest Ikea...about a two hour drive...and I got to have a little shopping spree!

Talk about inspiration! Have you been to an Ikea before? It's almost inspiration overload. But what fun!

So the last couple days I've been at it again. I've been moving, switching around, and inserting new things into our decor. And I've added a little "early Spring" too. Nothing crazy. Just enough green to give some hope that Spring really will be coming this year. (Although the weatherman said yesterday this may be one of those years we go from Winter straight into Summer. Hmm.)

So at Ikea I found some great little faux plants and metal containers to put them in along with this round woven placemat and made a new little arrangement on the coffee table.

Once I got the coffee table figured out, my creative juices got flowing for the rest of the living room.

 I tend to put our some more "girly" things out for Spring, like a little lace and some of my tea cup collection. Under the glass cloche I have a cup and saucer from each of my grandmothers. And if you think things look girly all the time, you ain't seen nothin'! In our old house, our living room was painted pink. Hubster affectionately called it "Pigtail Pink." True story.

All the Valentine red is pretty much gone. In the basket on the TV cabinet I exchanged spools of twine and red ribbon for some eggs.

I love this sweet little Blue Jay. He was a Hobby Lobby find a couple years ago.

I've been wanting for some time to replace the frames that the kids portraits were in. The were blue, leftover from my country blue period....which coincided with the pink living room. (Yikes!) I wanted something more simple and classic and I found these great frames at Ikea for only 7.99 each. I thought that was an excellent price. They are a very basic frame, but much better quality that the ones  I had (which I believe were from WalMart several years ago.)

I kind of like the way they look just leaning against the wall for now, but I think I will eventually hang them over the piano.

So finally, some inspiration to keep me going through this Winter. All it took was a short road trip to Ikea to get me jump-started. And I did get a couple little things for the kitchen too, which I will show you at some point.

I have to say though that the best thing about our spontaneous road trip was getting to hang out with my Hubster for the day, just the two of us. It's a rare thing and we had a lot of fun.

Linking up to The Scoop at Stone Gable.