7 things that MY kids will know.

while i was busy last week wrangling a wild group of 4-5 year olds while simultaneously attempting to teach them something about Jesus at Action Camp, i couldn't help but notice that some of the things they were saying just seemed a little... off. which got me thinking about MY future kids, and what perfect little angels they will be. so i thought i would just go ahead and share a few reasons why MY kids will be smarter, faster, stronger, and better behaved than YOUR kids.

1. MY kids will know the difference between animate and inanimate objects.

Kid: (chattering about something)
Teacher: oh yeah, and then what?
Kid: (turns to look at teacher) I was just talking to the wall. and then i thought the wall was talking back to me. but it was you!


2. MY kids will know to only say appropriate, non-terrifying things, and only at appropriate times.

Teacher: who knows what deep means?
Kid: like in my pool... there's the deep end... and my dad says that if i go in there... that... that i... that i'll DIE.


3. MY kids will understand the general concept of TMI.

Kid: (overheard from the boy's bathroom) HEY! you have the same underwear as me!


4. MY kids will know that movies dont reflect reality.

Teacher: (reading the story of Jonah) "...but Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep..."
Kid: and then he met a worm! and they made him walk the plank!


5. MY kids will think I am the best mommy ever.

Teacher: has anyone ever been mean to you?
Kid: sometimes my mommy spanks me!


6. MY kids will know what sound a pig makes.

(Teacher is giving piggy back rides. Kid is following, making a noise that sounds like a dying goose trying to yell for help while being strangled by a rabid warthog)
Teacher: why are you making that noise?
Kid: i'm helping you be the pig!


7. MY kids will come to know and love Jesus.

Kid: before i came here, i didn't really know Jesus. but now, i love him, because he's changing me.
(best. quote. ever.)

at least, that's what i'm praying for them.


(note: still NOT pregnant. sorry if all the talk about my kids got your hopes up.)

meal plan monday: aug 13.

another week. another menu. my brain is having trouble coming up with any sort of more interesting commentary at the moment. i don't think i've quite recovered from staying up WAY too late on saturday night at the O's game. it was so late that we left the game early and still didnt make it home until 1am. yeah. so when i found out that they were actually going to be playing baseball after sitting through 3 hours of rain delay, i was feeling pretty much like this:

but since that kind of an attitude is no fun for anyone, and since i love my husband a whole lot more than i like baseball, (and also because i wasn't in charge of the car keys) i decided to at least pretend to be a good sport about it all and put on a happy face:

that level of fakery is exhausting at any time of day. but especially at 1am. (insert transition here) so this is what we'll be eating this week:

Monday: leftovers.
Tuesday: cucumber tomato salad with grilled chicken. (recipe)
Wednesday: chicken gyros. (recipe)
Thursday: buffalo chicken pizza. (recipe)
Friday: tilapia with cucumber salad.
Saturday: grilled cheese sandwiches.
Sunday: pancakes.

thing of the week.

my new hanging wine rack. i bought it as a present for myself. for no particular reason at all. just because i liked it and i wanted it and it was a wednesday.

Mark hung it last weekend at the same time that he hung the mirror. it hangs in the corner of the breakfast nook and, when paired with the bar cart (which is slated to begin the refinishing process soon!), helps make our house one step closer to looking like people really live here.



have a happy weekend y'all!

i can't stop painting things.

the latest thing on my painting to-do list (along with the mirror, the bar cart, and my sisters shoes) is our guest bathroom.  this room has been in need of some serious help for a seriously long time. just ask my sister, who recently declared that she is never showering at my house again. yeah, it's bad. we have done a grand total of pretty much nothing with this room since we moved into this house TWO YEARS ago. dont believe me? check out these pictures we took right after we got the keys to the place:

and compare them to these pictures that i just took last week:

can you spot the differences? there's not many. basically we've taken down the wallpaper, changed the lightbulbs, added a shower curtain and a trash can, gotten a better camera, and that's about it. i am so over this room. it is all beige: floor, walls, trim, toilet, tub, EVERYTHING. its no fun, it looks disgusting even when its clean, and i find myself apologizing to guests whenever they have to use it. its about time we tackled this room.

while we would LOVE to do a complete gut-job on this bad boy, i think for the time being we're going to have to be ok with just some minor tweaks: some paint, a new shower curtain, a new light fixture, and a new exhaust fan. this is what is currently floating around in my head:

i have a bunch of paint swatches taped to the bathroom wall, which means i still haven't picked the exact paint color i like the best, but these are my two favorites as of right now. and yes, i know they're super similar and will most likely look exactly the same once they're on the wall, but i still waver back and forth as to which one is The One. I also can't decide which shower curtain is my favorite. the owls are adorable and colorful. the white ruffled one is clean, classic, and ruffly. i like them both. i am a terrible decision maker. the word art was a free printable i found online. i already printed it. its just waiting on a frame, and for me to make a few more decisions.

so there you have it: the beginnings of a plan. and also the first paint post in a while where i'm not actively looking for you to make a decision for me. although if you'd like to voice your opinion you are more than welcome to do so.

mirror, mirror on the wall.

i had a great weekend, filled with a little bit of everything: a little bit of laundry, a few dishes, some much-needed cleaning of the bathrooms, a saturday morning workout, a liberal dose of spraypaint, several good meals with great friends, a couple hours just chilling in front of the olympics, a new wine rack, a little shopping, a little crafting, and one great yardsale find:

that, my friends, is one GIANT mirror. like 3x4 FEET giant. and i am in love. i have been unofficially hunting for the past couple weeks for a big mirror for my dining room. and suddenly, at the ONE yardsale i randomly decided to stop at on Saturday, there he was. (yes, the mirror is a he.) so after handing over my hard-bartered $20 bill that i had taken out of my husbands wallet that morning, he was in my car and on his way home with me.

Mark was totally excited about the mirror, and simultaneously on a 'let's hang things on the wall!' kick, so by the end of the day that bad boy was hung on the wall. he's got a couple nicks and scratches around the edges, but its nothing a little paint can't fix. which leads me to my favorite dilemma: picking a paint color.

so for the sake of reference for you all to make an informed opinions, here is a picture of the mirror in his current and natural state: (and also a rare sighting of the hubs in his natural state of being a goofball)

my first thought was to paint him white to match the rest of the trim in the house, which would make him look kind of like this:

Mark is kind of partial to the mirror's current black finish, as he thinks the contrast of the dark color against the lighter bright green walls gives him a greater visual prescence in the room. but since the black doesn't quite match the rest of the room, my second thought is to paint him brown to match the stripes under the chair rail:

and then my right-brain got a little bored with the safe, neutral colors that my left-brain was considering, and interjected a bit of color into my decision-making. which brings me to my third thought, which not surprisingly also happens to be my current favorite accent color, turquoise:

this mirror makes me giddy-happy. like stand-in-front-of-the-mirror-grinning-and-giggling-like-a-twitterpated-teenage-girl happy. so i can only imagine how insane-o thrilled i'll be once he's all freshly painted and dapper-looking. but i must ask you all: which color will make him look the most dapper?

meal plan monday: aug 6.

this week is going to be an atypical week around here. and by here i mean my house, my life, and my meal planning, not necesssarily here as in my blog, because there is nothing at all typical about this space.

you see, my church is hosting Action Camp (the event formerly known as VBS) in the evenings, and i am going to be a helper with the preschool group. i spent most of the day yesterday helping to transform our entire church into part submarine and part ocean, so i'm really excited about the week; it should be a ton of fun.

it's not too late to register!

because Action Camp is held in the evenings, they serve dinner to all the kids and helpers as part of the program, which means that i dont have to worry about what i'm going to be eating this week for dinner. but since Mark isn't able to help this year (his commute is too long and unpredictable) he's still going to need something to eat every day. so my general game plan is to fill the week with meals that are easy, can be made ahead of time, provide leftovers for lunch, or some combination of all of the above. let's see how this goes.

Monday: frozen raviolis.
Tuesday: crock pot roast.
Wednesday: lazy lasagna.
Thursday: breakfast for dinner.
Friday: leftovers.
Saturday: chicken salad with fries.
Sunday: buffalo chicken pizza.

politics and chickens.

i am not an inherently political person. i dabbled with it a few years ago, but mostly, i just stay away. i dont like watching any sort of election-related anything on tv, i steer clear of political conversations at parties, and if i do happen to get trapped in one, i rarely say anything. i have a few basic opinions of what i believe is important and right, and i try to make informed decisions based on those beliefs before heading out on election day to vote for one candidate over another. the thing is, for the most part i just prefer to keep these opinions to myself, especially on the internet.

so now that you have that background information, i want to tell you that i did a mildly political thing today: i went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch. this in itself is no big deal, really. i've eaten a lot of Chick-Fil-A over the years, ever since i got my first high school job there. but since this particular restaurant has found itself in the middle of a ridiculous political sh*tstorm, suddenly my chicken was making a statement today. and it was a statement i was happy to make.

but for clarity's sake, i'm just going to throw a few things out there.
i do not support: hate, discrimination, or bigotry of any kind.
i support: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, ethcial business practices, Biblical family values, and tasty chicken.