Lighten up, Dude!!

(I love that line from Disney's "Hercules". Now I totally have that song in my head. Maybe you do, too!)

 

So, in my quest to catch up here on this blog, here's a fun moment in our lives that makes me smile ABSOLUTELY EVERY TIME I think about it.

 

Like, really really big smiles.  :-D

 

So, this is our living room:

 

 

We've had the furniture for a good 12+ years. And the piano for even longer.

 

 

When we bought it, I really loved that the colors were updated, and it looked so very dark & rich and sophisticated. The sofa and loveseat have loose pillows in different patterns, which makes them feel more like a designer did it. I've even used the loveseat when we would set up our store display at the Home and Garden Show, because it helped our fireplace booth look more "homey", and people loved it. The chair fabric wears like IRON (when no children have taken scissors to it) , and always makes me feel like they're from a library.

 

Now, to be fair, you must understand that I really cleaned up this space before snapping these photos. Usually, we're not perfect-looking. There's shoes in the doorway, homework and school papers lying around, and the constant Seminary Preparation Pile. So this is a very "picked-up" look. Something you might see if you were coming over to visit.

 

Honestly, if it weren't for having people coming over, I wonder if my house would ever be really picked up and clean!!

 

(if you look closely, you can see some of my lantern collection in there)

 

After a while--several years, Dark and Rich and Sophisticated started translating to Dated and Heavy and Super-Dark.

 

While the furniture has held up pretty well, it does have more of a Sinking Feeling when you sit in it now. When the guests need a hand up to get out of your sofa, you know it has lost it. The sofa actually broke once, and Todd had taken it, ripped the bottom off, and replaced one of the major frame pieces in it. A word to the wise, teach your children NOT to flop on the furniture!

 

And the designer-type pillow back on the sofa and loveseat were getting harder to sit against -- always having to reposition the pillows, and often removing them altogether. I will say, that the sofa made a really great napping spot, though!

 

The wingback chairs are actually recliners, and the footrest on one of them had also gotten broken.... again, probably from a child flopping on them.

 

And as much as we'd loved our furniture, we decided that it was finally time. Time for new furniture.

 

(Pardon me while I squeal in delight!!  YAYYY!!!!)

 

Growing up, I only remember my frugal and not-well-off parents getting new furniture ONCE. And when we did, I remember my mother asking my teenage self [several times] what my opinion was, and what I thought about it. Looking back, I'm rather impressed that my mom valued my opinion that much. Maybe she was unsure about her decision?

 

As we shopped, we found it was easier to eliminate things we didn't like, and harder to identify things we did like. We did a lot of sofa-sitting. A LOT!! We actually ended up special ordering our chairs and waiting an extra 6 weeks for them to arrive.

 

Pretty excited when Delivery Day came!!

 

 

Are you ready for the Big Reveal??

 

Our goal here was to definitely go lighter. Lighter in looks, lighter in color, lighter in feel, lighter and brighter. More updated, but with classic lines and very comfortable. Season-less. Timeless. You might remember that I am a big fan of Sarah Richardson's designs, so I'm sure that was kind of in the back of my head as we shopped. I'm still drooling over her Summer House rooms, that I shared with you way back HERE.

 

We were not going for wild colors. I figure when I'm ready for color, I will add it with pillows and accessories. Right now, I want peaceful, relaxing, and not so much on the vibrant side.

  

Worth. It.

 

We kept the tables & bookcase, and just changed the upholstered pieces.

So. Deep breath.

 

HERE YOU GO!!

 

 

 

We absolutely LOVE this!!

 

And yes. Those chairs are pretty light. We may regret our choice of linen-colored chairs at some later date. We had them apply fabric protector to all the pieces. I smiled when the guy told us, "I gave the chairs extra spray. There's so much on there, they're probably waterproof now." Hahahaha!!!

 

You may notice that our Easter bunnies are decorating up the piano, tables, shelves -- year. That's what you get at this time of year!

 

We do have a newly-renewed "no food in the living room" rule again -- despite the fabric protector. No surprise there. (Watch for an upcoming post on why we're spending a lot of time in the kitchen-dining rooms now!! Can't wait to share that with you, too.)

 

If you're looking closely, you may also notice that in addition to the sofas and chairs, the lamps have also been replaced. (We totally needed new lamps in the family room, so the living room lamps migrated down there.) And I want you to be impressed when I tell you that I had nothing to do with the choice of lamps -- it was all Todd's doing. And he did pretty darn good!

 

I'll wait while you scroll back to look at them.

 

Ok, you're back? So, here's what kind of made me smile. Right about the time that he ordered the new lamps, by coincidence, there was a recent issue of Better Homes and Gardens magazine that showed a living room on the cover that has similar coloring to our new furniture. They put a lamp in there that..... well, see for yourself:

 

I thought it had a remarkable similarity to the new lamps that Todd ordered!

 

(Pretty sure that Todd wasn't trying to match the lamps, but I wonder if there were some subliminal memory of them when he did select our new ones?)

 

Doesn't matter -- the new lamps go great in the living room!

 

Our next step in this room is to remove the popcorn ceiling and get a new updated ceiling fan in there. That's a project that's still on the edges of our radar. For now, we are basking in the greatness of our "new" room!!

 

Happy Saturday!!

 

Pruning

"Pruning is a horticultural practice involving the selective removal of parts of a plant, such as branches or buds. Reasons to prune plants include deadwood removal, shaping (by controlling or directing growth), improving health, reducing risk from falling branches, and both harvesting and increasing the yield or quality of flowers and fruits."

 

"Pruning is a horticultural practice that alters the form and growth of a plant."

 

"Proper pruning enhances the beauty of almost any landscape tree and shrub..."

 

 

So, our fruit trees here at The Haven were overdue to be pruned, and it became quite the big task when we tackled it.

 

 

That's our cherry tree on the right. The weird one in the middle was a volunteer cherry tree. (It's finally gone, now -- it was growing in the fence.) The big one on the left is an apple tree. And there's actually one more apple tree behind the little shed, too. Oh, and two smaller peach and nectarine trees to the right, out of camera range.

 

It took more than one day to do it. But this day was pretty gray, windy, and cold ....

 

 

Maybe that's why my mind wandered to the bigger picture. I started thinking about it, and how our Heavenly Father guides our lives. He is always pruning us -- altering our form and our growth. Shaping us by our experiences. Enhancing our beauty. And increasing the yield of our fruits.

 

Sometimes, the cuts He makes are small.

 

But sometimes, the cuts are bigger, or more painful.

 

 

Even if it hurts, He is doing it to encourage our growth. New growth.

 

 

If we look back, and look hard enough, we can probably see that he has pruned us quite a bit over the course of our lives.

 

 

 

And some of those prunings are going to be quite large. (Some of our largest branches were actually taller than our smaller trees.)

 

And when the storms pass, there are always blue skies to follow.

 

 

Matthew 7:20 "Wherefore, by their fruits, ye shall know them."

 

 

 

What are your fruits?

 

 



Empty Calendar, Full Days

(Don't you just hate it when you have half of your blog post [or email] written and somehow you've leaned against some key that instantly highlights the entire post and then deletes it before you have a chance to say, "Wait!!!")

So, as usual, I know life is busy because my calendar is blank. One of these days, I will learn to keep writing things on the calendar, even though I think I'm too busy to write it down. I will learn to not only depend on my phone's reminders and my chalkboard, but also on the "real" calendar.

I have not entirely intentionally neglected this blog.

Well, .... I have not posted some of our latest updates because A) they're not complete yet, and B) we were trying to surprise our adult children.

Having said that, I concede that there are probably things I might have posted, but just didn't get done. So, all things in their own time, ok? I promise, I'll show you what we've been up to.

In the mean time, here's a few little (and not-so-little) gems for you:

First, some Emma-stuff:

Kite-flying in March -- we managed not to damage the kite and had plenty of wind. Emma was thrilled! Those pictures are only on my phone (and Facebook), so I'm not adding them here. So shoot me.

She still loves doing sidewalk chalk. You can tell that Darcie is the artist in the family:

 

Sometimes busy days wear a girl out ....

 

 

This year, Emma has embraced [in a huge way] wearing dresses daily. Jeans and leggings (and shorts, now that the weather is warmer) .... are not even on her radar.  So she has some "play dresses" that are more casual than her "Sunday dresses". Here are a few shots from a warm March day.

 

No, she doesn't take dance lessons.

Yes, I should probably enroll her in dance or gymnastics or something like that.

That's forsythia blooming in the background.

The high school softball season started for Darcie, -- her first season without Alyssa there pitching to her.

I have to smile and tell a quick story on her. As a catcher, her coach always has a "courtesy runner" come in for her after she hits and makes it safely on base. If you're unfamiliar with softball, the runner will run the remainder of the bases instead of Darcie, which is designed to a) give a pitcher or a catcher a break, since a catcher/pitcher is working so hard throughout the game, and b) gives another player a chance to be IN the game, instead of sitting the bench, and c) gives your catcher a chance to get all her gear back on before the inning change -- keeping things moving and without delays.

So, the other day, while we were playing an away game in Coeur d'Alene, apparently the behind-the-plate umpire really thought that our Darcie is a pretty great player. In fact, he said that she was one of the best catchers he'd seen. (heart thumps of joy for this momma!) During that particular game, our school's head coach had to be absent, and the assistant coach ran things. She didn't always remember right away about Darcie's courtesy runner. But the umpire remembered.

He remembered so well that after one of her at-bats, as she made it to first base safely, he called "time". And then he turned to our assistant coach and asked, "15 for 21?" -- the uniform numbers of Darcie and her runner who would exchange places. Not only did he totally remember and knew that Darcie had a courtesy runner coming in, but he knew the numbers (probably had written them in his notebook) and actually initiated/reminded our coach about the substitution himself! Wow!

Darcie is the kind of player who consistently hits the ball pretty well, and gets herself on base. Although there was the game when she got hit by the ball in 2 different at-bats........
We were pretty excited for her last Wednesday, when she nailed a 3-run home run against the #1 team in our district, though!! Nice shot, Darcie!! If only we had been there to see it, because our schedules didn't stretch to let us make the 2-hour drive to the game that day. Hopefully there will be other home runs we can watch.

I can tell you that lots more has been happening around here. If it weren't for the photos I've taken, I'd probably forget at least half of what's been going on.

Watch for a few upcoming posts: thought-provoking, home décor, and home improvement.

Spring Cleaning, and a Blog in Progress

Spring Cleaning?

My Grandma Duerden (read more about her HERE and HERE), was a great one for doing a big "Spring Cleaning" every year. I suspect she was raised that way, and being the active person she was, she really went for it.

Every. Single. Year. I'm talking about a huge, knock-down, drag-out, Spring Cleaning here.

And I remember my mom also tending towards Spring Cleaning. I distinctly recall the smell of Pine-Sol as figuring strongly in the house when my mom cleaned. To this day, the smell of Pine-Sol means "clean" to me!

It wasn't until I was about a teenager that I realized what was actually happening behind the scenes. Grandma would get started on her Spring Cleaning, and then she would call my mom from Idaho, and start into a litany of the things that she had accomplished in the previous several days. Grandma was all about recalling her achievements. It might have been just so she could remember them herself, because I don't think she meant to use it as a "dig" at my mom. We didn't even live in the same state, so I'm sure Grandma had no idea about how clean our house was. Which it was.

But I remember my mom getting off the phone with Grandma, and feeling frustrated. With all of us young, active kids around, she couldn't accomplish nearly as much as Grandma did, but nevertheless, she sure tried. Without meaning to,  Grandma really guilted Mom into doing her Spring Cleaning. Because after the groans, growls and sighs, Mom would launch into her own version of Spring Cleaning. Somehow that always included "washing the walls and the woodwork". I used to think that walls and woodwork always went together in a sentence. Like flotsam and jetsam. To and fro. Kith and kin. You never hear one without the other.

(I believe washing walls and woodwork actually hails from a time when homes in most of the country were heated with coal. By the end of a winter with coal heat, there would be soot on all the walls in the house. Spring cleaning literally meant washing the walls to get that soot off. But I digress.)

I'd love to get my house deep-cleaned all at once. But it never seems to happen that way. I usually just deep-clean a certain area at whatever time I decide to tackle it. Spring is a good time, right?

Spring just happens to be the season when I decided to do a bit of Spring Cleaning on this blog. A bit of a cleanup. Maybe you've noticed we're sporting a bit of a different look here for the last few days. I'm still playing around with it, and I don't have it the way I want it. But I'm getting closer.

You can probably see that the background is much cleaner, and the posts are wider. Upcoming posts will have larger photos now, because now they'll fit.

Let me know what you think of it, both pros and cons -- like I said, it's not really done yet.

It's kind of like spring cleaning at my house: it never gets deep cleaned all at once! But thanks for noticing!

Bad Hair Day?

 

This morning's hair is brought to you by Yesterday's Hairstyle.

A good mom would have taken out the 15 rubber bands last night. Instead, we woke up with the hair messy, but intact. So, after removing those rubber bands, this is the look we had this morning:

 

 

It suits, her, don't you think?

 

Things were so crazy, she wanted to share a foot shot:

 

And a talent she has that I do not have:

 

And finally, a scary shot that I can't believe I'm including here. Turnabout is fair play, I suppose, and Emma likes taking pictures just as much as she likes being in them. And she wasn't the only one with crazy hair this morning.

 

The "no makeup" look went right along with it. So yes, this is how scary I look in the mornings, before getting "all done up". You can see why I don't ever skip the makeup step in the morning!

 

Day to Day.... (Of Diaries, Grandma, and Life)

This afternoon, I was thinking about my Grandma Duerden. I told you a little about her way back HERE. Here are a couple of other photos with her. This first one has Grandma (Nola Goff Duerden) in the dark blue dress on the far left. She's standing with Aunt Anna, my mom (Joan), and my sister Karen in the back row, and then my brother, Sterling, and myself in front.  Yes, that's me at 3 years old! Squinting at the camera, as usual.

This next photo is an older one of Grandma with my dad -- her son -- Leland Clarence Duerden:

 



 

Don't you just love the look on her face?! It is so typical of her. She is the grandma that I probably knew the best, because she lived the longest of my grandparents -- outliving the others by about 6 years or more.

 

And the whole reason I was thinking about her, was because I remember some journals that she used to keep. And "journal" isn't quite an accurate term, because they were more like diary entries in these hardcover books. Grandma would write things like the weather that day, and she would list out things that she had accomplished, or places she had gone, but not much on thoughts or feelings, and not usually long entries. I think she kept them more as a record for herself to remember than as something that she thought her posterity might be interested in.

 

I haven't seen those journals in years. Though my mother had them after Grandma passed on, I think they are now in my uncle's care. I never got to sit down and read them, but I did glance over them at one time. I would love to get them and transcribe them for my kids and my cousins' families to be able to all have them. Grandma's sense of humor was unique, and it comes through in her writing.

 

My day-to-day life isn't often interesting. But there are moments. So, along the lines of day-to-day life, and with Grandma's record books in mind, .... here's a snapshot of life at my house lately, ....

 

• Emma fell out of bed last night. This rarely happens, and I couldn't figure out what the noise was.... but she climbed back in on her own, and couldn't remember a thing about it this morning.
• Emma also has latched onto the LDS Apostle Song, and now has it memorized.
• This morning, I went downstairs to get some frozen orange juice, and discovered that the downstairs refrigerator door was left open. All. Night. Long.       ...... yeah. A good 12 hours of not-cold.  Ugh.
• I accidently bumped a button on the blender this morning. And then I jumped out of my skin when it started up, right next to me, spewing Orange Julius ingredients all over. (the lid was not on) Mopping the floor just made it on the To-Do List.
• High School Softball has started up for Darcie -- of course, it's still cold, and the fields are in awful condition, but at least there's no snow on the ground, right?
• Small repairs around the house are kind of keeping us from bigger projects. And the outdoor projects are set to begin, too, as we gear up for spring to come. Weather permitting, I think we'll be outdoors tomorrow, getting some of the winter cleanup done.
• I really love my bed. I mean, A LOT. I love climbing into it -- and it's a climb, because it's very tall -- when the sheets are warmed by the heated mattress pad, and the soft, fluffy comforter surrounds me up to my ears. Of course, I'm always dead tired when I hit the sheets, so I usually go directly from snuggly comfort to flat-out snoring almost immediately (only sometimes snoring!). I have a hard time identifying with insomniacs, because it is never EVER a problem for me.
• I miss my college kids. The house is so much quieter and empty-feeling with them all gone.
• By the end of each day, I'm ready to pay good money for a foot massage. I have bunions, and I'm starting to think it's about time to have them removed .... this means surgery. Must investigate that further.

And finally, ...

• Note to self: when purging the young child's artwork, Happy Meal Toys, outgrown items, or seasonal décor, .... make SURE that the child does not see her precious stuff in the garbage or the fireplace. At all.

 

Forecast: Chili Today!

I spent this morning in my kitchen. This is not a death sentence, it was a slice of paradise. I don't often get a few hours at a time to play in there, so it was wonderful! Saturdays have become the only day of the week when I have the time to cook a hot breakfast for the family anymore. So today it was bacon and eggs and our Orange Julius. And I also had signed up to bring dinner rolls to a lunch meeting at church today, so I popped all the ingredients in the breadmaker and let it do its thing, then shaped & baked them just before walking out the door with them. Mmmm, hot rolls are YUM. I am such a sucker for carbs.

And, I made dinner in the crockpot. The best thing about cooking in the crock is that I know that dinner is not only taken care of, but it's ready at the drop of a hat, or even at different times for different people. It makes me feel so much more organized than I really am.

This is not a gourmet recipe, but it is easy, and it is good. In fact, the only person around here that doesn't like it, is Emma. And that's just because she's the world's pickiest eater. But once again, for my other kids who someday might want their old mom's recipe -- here you go ...

 

Chili

 

1 1/2-2 pounds ground beef

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

3 cans kidney beans

3 cans tomato sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

2-3 tablespoons chili powder

2 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

Salt & Pepper

 

 

I know -- it's a lot of cans, right? Hence, the "easy" descriptor!

 

Cooking the onion first is kind of optional, but I like the flavor. So cook the onion in a little butter or olive oil. Today, since I happened to have made bacon for breakfast, I cooked the onion in some of the bacon grease. Brown the hamburger in the same skillet, until it's cooked through, and season with salt and pepper. (I push the onions to the edges, and just keep them in the same pan while the hamburger cooks.)

 

Rinse and drain the kidney beans. You could definitely use pinto beans, if you want. And then put everything into a crock pot.

 

 

Use the liquid that's in the tomatoes, too. Stir it all up and cook on low for 6-8 hours, or on high for 4 hours.

 

 

I've also made this in a big pot on the stovetop. Because it's all cooked before you start, it really just needs to be heated through. But the longer it simmers, the more the flavors meld together, and the better the chili. (Also, if you cook it on the stovetop, then cooking the onion is not optional anymore. Cook it for sure.)

 

We always serve it with shredded cheese on top. The hot chili melts the cheese and it is so yummy!

 

 

Also when we serve chili, I love having it with warm cornbread and honey. So, here's the two-for-one bonus recipe ...

 

Cornbread

 

My favorite way to make cornbread is a method I learned from a friend several years ago, and it's pretty darn simple. I didn't photograph it with this chili, because I ended up doing something different today. (And -- it was a colossal disappointment, and I'm resolved to go back to this, my tried-and-true recipe friend.)

 

So, all you do is combine a basic cornbread mix (I use the little boxes of Jiffy mix), and a box of yellow cake mix. Then, you add all the ingredients that each box of mix calls for. So, for example, your ingredients would look something like this:

 

1 box Jiffy Cornbread Mix

1 box yellow cake mix

4 eggs (3 from the cake mix box, and 1 from the cornbread box)

1/3 cup milk

1 cup water

1/3 cup oil.

 

Stir it all together and pour it immediately into a greased pan. If you wait to pour it, it will start rising in the bowl, and then will lose some of that as you transfer it to the pan. So don't wait! I prefer to make cornbread in a cast iron pan, and I either use a 12" Dutch oven, or my big cast iron skillet. I spray it well with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes or so, -- test for doneness with a toothpick.

 

I also use a plastic knife to cut the cornbread in the pan, and a rubber spatula to serve, because they  don't scratch through the "seasoning" layer of the cast iron. This is a sweeter, moister cornbread, as well as taller -- it rises more than average cornbread. Sometimes, I've combined the dry mixes, then divided them in half, and only made half a recipe at a time.

 

Despite being the beginning of March, it snowed a bit last night and today. The chili was the perfect dinner to go along with that. And as much as I like winter, I'm ready for Spring by the time March hits. I hope Mother Nature cooperates.