Our Weekend the first of January

Christmas Break is officially over for Thomas, he heads back to work today so it's back to me and the kids holding up the fort.  Ellie was supposed to go back to school today as well, but we had a HUGE windstorm on Saturday night and many of the schools in the district are without power so they cancelled school for today.  Hooray!!! We get an extra day with Ellie!

Last weekend Thomas and the girls were over the mountains at Nanny and Papas.  So to pass the time I started a project that has been on the list for years. Refinishing the kitchen cabinets.  Thomas originally painted them back in December 2010 when I was recovering from my first ectopic pregnancy.  He didn't prep them appropriately or do any sanding so they've had a bit of a rough and tacky feeling ever since.  So I took off all the hardware, all of the doors and took out the drawers.  I've sanded, painted, sanded, painted and sanded again! Because my work space is limited this project took longer than a weekend (and I'm really trying to let the pieces dry between sandings).  This weekend I finished up all the drawers and am just working on the uppers doors.  They have been sanded and painted on the inside, flipped and sanded and painted.  They're going to need at least one more coat and then our kitchen can be put back together.

I also painted our hardware an oil rubbed bronze instead of the brushed nickel they used to be.  So far it's been a pretty low cost project since I already had the paint and decided to reuse the hardware.  All I needed to buy was new sandpaper!  Got to love projects like that!

 

Even though items were only displaced for a few days at a time, I can now fully understand how discombobulating a kitchen remodel is!  I have hopes of actually doing a real remodel of ours but just am not sure if my dream layout will be feasible...so we might just need to keep the current one.  Regardless I'm sure that when we decide to sell a 2019+ kitchen will be preferred over a 1989 one 😂

 

On Friday Thomas got the snip and I cannot tell you how big of a difference this is going to make in our lives.  Even though we've clearly had infertility issues (hello resorting to IVF for Séamus) I've also experienced my fair share of ectopic pregnancies and that really takes a toll on your mental space with your spouse.  Plus as crazy as it sounds out of an Infertile's mouth...I have NO interest in a surprise, we still have 5 embryo's in the freezer should we decide to expand our family (which is 99% unlikely).  I have heard from several friends the great peace of mind they had after their husbands got snipped.  While he was getting his procedure done I took the kids to Chick-fil-A for some lunch and play time. So our weekend comprised of Thomas trying to recover while I was preoccupied with my kitchen project.

On Saturday we did venture out for Chinese, Finnley ate rice 👏 and Ellie ate all that we served her.  We also had to grab some of Cooper's diabetic approved dog food.  After that it was recovery time for Thomas and playing for the girls.

Saturday night there was a huge windstorm, it took our trampoline four properties away...which is over 300 feet.  The trampoline got bent and broken, so it's going to the metal recycle and it damaged some of our neighbor's gutter and tore a window screen.  So many of our friends lost power, we were lucky to keep ours.  Thomas was able to pull the broken trampoline to the road and break it down to fit into our truck.  We stayed home the rest of the day, with me working on putting the kitchen back together, organizing all the drawers and eliminating a bunch of items and papers we don't need.  I did copious amounts of vacuuming, nursing Séamus, getting him to nap, and watching Finnley and Ellie run laps around the dining room.  Ellie requested Hot Dogs for dinner "because they're easy" according to her and she is so right!

Other things to note:  Thomas and I have been watching Mountain Home on HGTV and now we're back to looking at the housing market.  Our checklist is very precise so we have to find just the right place to get us to move...but it's fun to look.  I binge watched The Art of Tidying on Netflix and that along with joining the January Cure and my obsession with listening to Minimalism Podcasts just makes me want to get rid of all the things!!  I also had a business Zoom call with my team and am so excited for all the classes we have coming up and to keep on working towards my goals and helping my team build their businesses!!

Happy Monday!!

♥ Ashley