The Stream

Friday, September 26, 2014

Life

We've had some quality family time since the house has settled down and school has been on a timely schedule.

Hiking is a lovely family activity

Untitled

image

image

Sisters chatting about a Utah salt dough map

image

My tomatoes have finally decided to come in and play.  Becket helped me pick them from our garden.

image

image

And--
I got the fundraiser done and over with! We were able to roll in over $20,000 grand for the school. I can't thank the ladies enough who stayed and helped me count the money and distribute prizes.

image

At the end of the day, we crash hard, but love each moment of our priceless time.

Micah turned down our bed and could hardly gather enough energy to find her own bed.

image

Friday, September 19, 2014

Kitchen Organization

When working in my kitchen, I like to have everything I need right at my fingertips, even if I have to double up (i.e I keep rags in two different places, cleaning sprays under each sink, salt in two places, garbage....) It's worth it to me to save time and the mess. I believe my cabinet guy said I was the most organized client that he had ever had and a little anal.  But! He backed it up with, I wish every client would think about their kitchen this way, instead of me doing it and then having to redo it.  I use my kitchen a lot and I think that is why I am functioning so well in it (minus learning my steam oven, still working on that one)

I grabbed these drawer organizers from IKEA and they happen to fit perfectly.  Here is our desk area and I have everything that I like to make notes, expo markers to write out daily jobs, postits, colored pens I love, cheap pens I hate and use for group games, mechanical pencils, sharpies, highlighters, rulers, scissors, and even floss.

image

Baking station: Making bread and waffles is a cinch! I've got all my baking products in one drawer and I have all my utensils up above.

image

image

I find I use the scissors the most in my kitchen.  I keep scissors in this drawer and over by my knives. Double up!  You can never have too many scissors.

image

Here's my prep station complete with cutting boards, fridge kiddy corner behind me, trashcan below me, prep sink to the left, and a workspace up above.

image

This speciality drawer is to the right of my stove.  I made it tall to fit my supersized oils and vinegars when cooking.

image

Another drawer that needed to be tall is our water bottle drawer. It's nice to have them organized and not floating around.

image

My blessed drink station. We must be extra thirsty around here! Harris drinks demand their own space.

image

Complete with blender below and tall canisters of hot chocolate above.

image

Kid snack and lunch station.  I found myself frustrated walking one place to get a spoon, another to get the bread, and another to get the spreads.  I'm old and I can barely remember to make their lunches in the morning! Now, it's all right here and very kid friendly if I forget to make their lunch. Wink. Wink.  The kids are completely capable now!

image

Lunch snacks to the left and spreads to the right.

image

Extra deep to fit my wire baskets. My baskets are like spanks, they keep it all together.

image

My coveted cereal drawer.  My cabinet guy thought I was crazy to dedicate a whole drawer to breakfast foods, but the foo' was wrong bro! I love it!! BAM! 7AM, breakfast is served.

image

All extra pantry items (since I no longer have a pantry) sit pretty on my buffet.

image

The rest of my pantry that I don't use as often, go here,  by my ovens.  This is where I keep the chocolate chips.  They are out of sight and somewhat out of mind, but not really.

image

Do you still have enough steam for the laundry room?  Okay.  Onto the laundry room. Laundry room is the dumping ground.

image

To keep myself organized, I tuck away major items I use on a daily basis.  These drawer banks are phenomenal.  Behind these drawer fronts you'll find filing drawers.  I've got one for each kid and myself. I got the idea from my friend Emily. The kids put anything they really worked hard on in school in their drawers, and the rest gets round filed in the garbage under the sink.

image

On the upper right side drawer, I keep stuff to get the kids ready and out the door to the bus.  Pens to sign folders, a hair brush, a toothbrush, gel, you name it, it's in here.  On the drawer to the left, I keep first aid kind of things.  If a kid gets cut open and happens to be bleeding, I am taking that person to the mudroom for emergency surgery (not through my front door across my rug).  There is a sink, rags, bandages, even stitching material, all snug in that drawer.

image

Whew! I feel like I just maneuvered a colonoscopy camera through my kitchen. So much exposure to the insides of my world.

Thursday, September 18, 2014

Finishing Touches

We've been waiting a good 6wks for these last few things to get completed in the kitchen. I finally sent a text to our cabinet guy to tell him that I was growing old.  He said he laughed about it for days and he came the next week.  I wish I would have sent him the text 6 wks ago then.  It is true about the squeaky wheel thing, you can't just rely on esp. Here's what got touched up:

The dishwasher panel didn't line up

image

And now it does.

image

I had 4 big pieces of glass being made to go on the back of the island.  When they were delivered to the cabinet shop, they were dropped, cracking all four corners of the tempered glass. The pieces have now been remade and placed onto the back of our island.

Fabuloso!

Before

House remodel


During

image



image

After

image

We even got the under cabinet and island lights installed.

image

Love it--they light up my starburst chairs so nicely!

image

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Lots to See Here

Lots going on these days so it is no wonder that I'm exhausted (probably why I haven't posted)

Family Life

Gretchen got a pocket knife for her birthday and she was so excited to use it at the family property just Southeast of Parowan.

image

It made her instantly needed at camp to sharpen sticks and to carve in rightful claims.

image

It's so beautiful and peaceful at the property.  It's also great family time on the mountain when you're the only humans for miles.


image

image

image

One day Mat and Becket disappeared out of the blue leaving us girls curious.  They came back with Becket's early birthday present: A bike

We figured he couldn't ride it around his cold Fall birthday in November, so we  he gave it to him early. He's been an animal and down right tenacious with it. I'm glad he's been using it.

image

There are a lot more family bike rides now

image


and Father and son time

image

image

image

image

image

I've also been hosting our annual block party with my cute neighbors

image

image

image

Running the fundraiser for the school

image

And squeezing in my activity day girls (suturing chicken skin with Dr. Harris)

image

And trying to pull off the primary program that all of a sudden got bumped to 5 weeks early!  I know right--believe me I tried to reason with the stake, but they said it was mandatory that we have it by October. Well, alright, but ain't going to be pretty.

image

This week I have been dragging.  I feel like a tumor must be growing on my thyroid or brain.  I hope not, but that's how much I want to crawl into bed and sleep for hours. Everyday sleep for hours.  I don't feel my normal self.