A Little Reminder to Myself

Yesterday I was getting the kids in the car in the walmart parking lot and grace asked "So, how DOES God know how many hairs are on my head?" we talked most of the way home.

Today at lunch she wanted to know what "beckons at the window pane" (a line from a poem we've been reading) meant. We got to go through the passage and talk about it.

These are just two little things that I wanted to jot down. I want to remember how thankful I am that I'm with her and able to answer her questions all day. I'm so thankful I get to play and go on walks and fix and eat lunches and put up laundry and give noon time baths after Popsicles after busted lips after indoor picnics after hide and seek. I'm extra thankful when it feels like everyone else is sad because summer is ending and they have less time with family now. Maybe it's just a new house high I'm on but I'm just happy that the weather may cool down a bit (eventually) and I get to start work on teaching the kids new things and planning more scheduled play-dates and making our new house a home this year. I am so very thankful that the Lord has provided for us the way he has and that he has made a way for me to be at home taking care of my family all day. It is such a joy and blessing to do this work! I pray I don't take a moment for granted!

Marilynn's Place

So after living in north Louisiana for a year we finally found a place that serves south Louisiana po-boys! And it's less than a mile from our new house to boot! Can I get an amen? It's called Marilynn's Place and it's fantastic. They even serve beignets and community coffee for breakfast. And in the parking lot is also a sno ball stand. We took the family last weekend and Grace pretty well summed it up upon the arrival of her red dessert, "This place just keeps on getting better!" Haha!

Melt my mommy heart, little one.





You know it's legit if there's a spoon straw involved.






Cherry mouth!!!



I guess i should also note that we let the kids eat a slab of bread pudding at the same time as the sno-balls. The grandparents were in town, you know. Good food is a good thing. And if you want to come for a visit we can now take you for a poboy.

Does Your Cowboy Cook?

Mine does. :-)

A Good Day To Meet The Neighbors

Can you see what's happening across the street today?

It's like a mini- water park over there! Grace decided today might be a good day to introduce ourselves. Haha!

We have met SO many people in our neighborhood already. I'm really excited about this. There are lots of young kids on our street and a few streets around us. One of the reasons we wanted to move to this location was because we already knew 4 families with young kids here! I love that when we look out the window during meal time or sit on the porch or walk our sidewalked and curb cut streets we see friends!

Fresh Cut Flowers

My mom usually picked up fresh flowers at the grocery store every week. She would definitely get some if we expected company. She always put them in a glass pitcher on the kitchen counter. I don't know why that always made my home feel extra "homey" to me growing up but it did. I guess it was just a little extra that made for a special day... And we usually had lemonade too.

Although we still have piles of boxes to unpack, and although our budget is not going to allow for fresh flowers each week I decided it was time for some fresh flowers around the house today!

The kids and I had to pick up rice and salad stuff at the store today and so I let Grace help choose some flowers as well.

Some for the kitchen...

And some for the living room...


It's feeling more like home already!

Anybody wanna sign me up for the flower of the month club?!?!

Playing Dress Up

I unpacked a few boxes of pre- Jack clothes today... All of them fit again! Wahooooooo!!!!! I have a closet to myself (after sharing with both kids for a year) and a "new" wardrobe that includes shorts and pants that won't be constantly falling down!!! Jack found this jacket and wore it around the house for a good 30 minutes until I made him take it off so we could run to the store. This kiddo has been too cute lately. His personality is just showing up in so many new ways since his vocabulary is expanding so much.

And Grace has been wonderful as well. I just had to make sure I noted that. She is SO sweet and kind. Last week was kind of hard for her because of the move and VBS, but she has really really adjusted well over the past few days. She really always brightens our days with her sweet comments and funny sayings. The Lord had truly blessed us beyond measure!!!

This Week...

My big girl went to Vacation Bible School at Broadmoor Baptist Church. They had a special preschool VBS! She went with a friend from our church, Ella, and had another friend, Claire, that we knew in her class as well. She never wanted to go each morning, but seemed to have a lot of fun each day while she was there. Can you believe how big she is?!?

And my big boy seriously loved his mama time while sister was gone. He had been needing some extra special attention with all of the working and moving business going on. And he got it this week! He even helped me unpack some boxes... And found sisters pink Minnie Mouse sunglasses to boot!



I surely am a blessed mama.

Good Night, George

So I've been laying in bed catching up on some reading and when I went to roll over I noticed this situation right next to me...

How did I not realize I was sharing the bed with George! Hmmm. I must be exhausted from having a Curious George loving preschooler and her brother in the house.

Today Jack Said:

Well, really he sang (to the tune of "hush little baby" while rocking a baby):

Hush, widduw puppy, don't say wud. Jack buy you. Hush, widduw puppy, don't say wud. Jack buy you.

It was SO sweet. Made my heart skip a beat.

Also he saw a little spider one day. He started calling out "Widduw Bug! Widduw Bug! Widduw Bug!" until I came and smashed it. Now he does the same thing in regards to even a tiny speck of dirt on the floor. Again, SO SUPER CUTE.

And one more for you.

He loves the "My Go To Bed Book" just like Grace did at his age. The first page says, "look at the clock. What does it say?" Jack always responds with "clock, clock". As if the clock says "clock, clock" instead of "tick tock". Haha! He is such a fun boy!

Today Grace Said:

It sure is fun being Grace!

I'm glad she thinks so.

Story Time With Friends

Stuffed animals have never had a better librarian.

Beautiful

"When I stand before the throne Dressed in beauty not my own; When I see thee as thou art, Love thee with unsinning heart; Then, Lord, shall I fully know-- Not till then--how much I owe."

Home Improvements Week 3: Let the Moving Begin!

The kids and I went to Arkansas to see my parents AND aunt MA and Cliff for the fourth of July. Jonathan didn't get to come because he can't take off at work yet. Maybe next year?!?!

Anyway, it was great to see my sister, but I've got to admit that until we are settled in our house and the paid workers are outta there and not finding more ways to spend my money, I think I'm going to be a little preoccupied if you know what I mean.

Week three was very important because we started moving in!!!! Yay!!!! All of our belongings are scattered here and there across the south so we started collecting our things and bringing them home.

Mom and Dad were seriously SO MUCH HELP. My parents are by far the absolute hardest working people I have ever met in my life. If you've met them then you know what I mean. We do not have a work ethic problem around here. ;) We loaded up a U-Haul and brought the stuff that was stored in Arkansas down and then moved stuff from our two storage rooms and jonathans parents house. Then we went by Goodwill and my parents took a few things home. We had so much help from friends and family and we could not have done it without y'all! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

The kiddos really wanted to ride with paw paw.

There she is!!! At home at last! We have a lot of hand me downs and flea market finds etc for furniture. This piano may be my favorite piece. It was given to my mom by her grandmother so she could learn to play the piano. It's the same piano I learned to play on, and now it's ready for Grace and Jack! I think my great grandmother would be happy to know so many little fingers have learned to play hymns on these keys and that they are still used regularly. I know most kids don't know how to read music or sing parts or even know hymns any more. But mark my word. The Nida kids will know full well all of the above if I have anything to say about it. (and luckily I do!) I just don't know of a much more intimate time with the Lord than playing and singing and thinking through all the good old hymns (cause there are some not so theologically sound ones out there). What an encouragement to think of all the generations who have sung the same words together over the world over the years. I surely do hope we don't neglect teaching our children this part of our history and heritage. Ok. Ending soap box now.


Jonathan also buffed the front room floors while we were gone! And by buffed I mean vacuumed, mopped twice with vinegar and water, mopped and scrubbed with the buffer once, waxed and scrubbed with the buffer once, waxed again and polished with the buffer again. I did two bedrooms last week, and let me tell you, It is a chore to get the floors healthy again. But they look FABULOUS!


He also painted the dining room!


And the electricians took out our fuse box and put in a whole new breaker box, weather head, circuits and wiring etc... Whew! This is the one bill that has me a little on edge. There is just No WAY they are coming in on budget. I can just feel it. No matter how much they reassure me it's going to be ok. I just have a bad feeling about it... But it has to be done, so it has to be done.
And something definitely has to be done with the siding now.


On a happier note...

Jack has a big boy bed!!! But he will be in his crib for a while longer.


And Grace has a big girl bed! And her own room!!!!


And we also unpacked one box of toys... And the kids played with them for over an hour... I'm thinking this is going to be like constant Christmas for all of us!!!


I'm so excited for week four. The plan is to be moving our family in!!! YAY!!! I'll keep you posted. :)

A Boy And A Bulldozer...

Enjoying the cooler weather and sprinkles!

Butterfly Bingo

I've been a bit MIA lately with the whole moving thing to coordinate. So every couple of nights I've been letting G stay up late and we spend some one on one time together. Jack gets plenty of one on one in the early morning hours cause he's an early riser and Grace is not so much so. Tonight we read two books instead of one. And last night we played Butterfly Bingo and Operation. I must say that the Butterfly Bingo game is one of my favorites! Grace likes it too. And she ALWAYS happens to win.

A Garden Full of Ripe Tomatos

Means a dinner of shrimp creole and tomato and cucumber salad.

Deeeeeelish!

It sure is nice to have a paw paw who gardens and some grand kids who like to help!

Home Improvements Week 2: the Tree

We bought a house with a nice shady back yard and last week we got a surprise when swepco came out and CUT DOWN OUR ENTIRE TREE WITHOUT TELLING US!!! And then told us they were instructed to "CUT AND LEAVE"... Leave a cut down tree in our yard. A whole tree. In the yard. "for our use". A tree.

I'm not gonna lie. I cried some. Okay, I cried a lot. But I guess now we have a nice spot for a garden? It's one less tree we have to worry about vetting cut down. This is good since we also found out this week that we need to take down a tree.

And I'm happy to report that after some serious business conversations with some swepco guys the tree has been completely removed from our yard and I was left completely drained.

In the words of my sweet grace: "those guys really don't like trees. Do they?"

Home Improvements Week 2: The Kitchen

I think it's safe to say that the kitchen may be what brought our house into our price range. :) I am loving it though and slowly but surely I know we will be able to turn it into a beautiful work space! So here's the lay of the land in the before pictures:

Walking through the Dining room into the kitchen. The washer/dryer hook ups are to the right and the units stick out into the kitchen when installed. Then there is a broken refrigerator which doesn't really fit the spot. Next the pantry that only has one shelf. Followed by a gas stove (woo-hoo!) that has about 16 inches of counter space on either side finished in super blue Formica.

To the left when you walk into the kitchen from the dining room: a nice sized breakfast nook followed by not quite super top of the line (but solid real wood) replacement cabinets and a single bowl sink w/ a huge drain board and some very unfortunate finish choices on all the window trim.


View of the breakfast area:


Now the progress begins!

Washer/dryer hook ups before:



The closet lined hall behind the kitchen:



My new laundry room/ pantry! Yay! So many problems were solved by just taking down a non load baring wall between a closet and the old wash nook. We are now on our way to having plenty of space for a nice large stackable washer and dryer and plenty of storage for all of the things that I would rather have out of site in my kitchen. We even had extra circuits run to the pantry so we could plug in a microwave and coffee pot and toaster etc in there and have my counters clear for cooking.



You can see where the wall was by the different flooring.



And now we have new pluming lines and exhaust lines run too.


We even found this great wall paper behind the knotty pine paneling!


And can I just comment again on the craziness that is our wall construction. Thank you. I think I will.


And just so you have the big picture in your head here is the kitchen renovation that I hope will take place over the next 30 years or so:
1. Put in pantry/laundry room. (I can give this a half check now) stay tuned for more updates coming soon.
2. Build new shelves in old pantry. (I'm hoping to do this before we move in)
3. Paint all the cabinets white and all the Wallpaper/appliance sections of room (will do before we move if all goes according to plan)
4. Sew a lot of curtains (I've got the material!)
5. Lay black and white (or perhaps yellow and cream?) tile on a diagonal throughout the kitchen. I'm thinking VCT because it looks so much like the original asbestos tile that was probably here to begin with but is cheaper than the marmoleum.
6. Install beadboard on the ceiling and new moldings and light fixtures.
7. Replace the countertops (this should not be too expensive since we don't have much!) and sink with an undermount so I have at least one nice long area to work on.
8. Replace the cabinets with new more traditional ones that extend from floor to ceiling utilizing that 9+ feet of space we have! (this is a little dreamy, I know, but I'm just throwing it out there).

So we have started our transformation! Yay!

Home Improvements Week 2: Living Spaces

We have been so busy that I have done a bad job of documenting the progress over the past two weeks. In the second week of our home ownership endeavors we focused on the living areas. We took down all the dirty curtains and painted the sun room and living room and half of the trim in the den.

Front of sun room with the lime green curtains!

Lime green, y'all...


Now without. It's so much better. Now I just need ideas for really cheap and easy window coverings. Anybody have suggestions?


The other end of the sun room. Getting ready for my PIANO! YAY!


Living room with curtains:


Without:


Looking from sunroom through living room to dining room.


I don't have any after pictures, but we painted it all a much more warm neutral color than the cold beige that is there now.