Back to School and Back to Healthy

Mamma's School Supplies

I can't wait for New Years and resolutions, it is time to turn this crazy year around! The Bigs start school Monday and I start getting healthy. It has been nearly a year since we moved back and it has been a year of upheaval and inconsistency. I need to face the fact that I am not in college anymore, I can't eat whatever, whenever, and I have to be intentional about exercising because apparently chasing a 2 year old just isn't enough to keep my body from feeling twice its age! Whew, I'm ready, lets do this!

Chicken Fever

Look out house projects you're about to get the shove, it's time to get ready for our first little flock of backyard chickens! After months of reading, looking and pining I finally decided it was time to just jump so last week I ordered 11 chicks from Meyer Hatchery.

I'm now alternating between excitement that reaches Christmas Eve as a kid proportions and full on panic. When we started thinking about chickens my idea of enough was 3, but the more I researched the larger that number got. That cute little dog house I got off Craig's List a few months ago, that would have housed 3 beautifully with a few modifications, is now going to need major modifications...like a full on addition. Luckily a friend has offered up her now unneeded coop. Oof. I feel another adventure coming on!

Restoration Phase 2: Bathrooms

 It took me so long to decide on what we'd do in the bathrooms but I finally decided on all this. The top vanity and tile are for the front bathroom with a similar faucet. The bottom tile and vanity are for the master bath. Love it all and am so excited to see how it looks when it's in place!

We've been moved back into our house for about a week, if you can call the way we're living moved in. Looks like we are probably going to move back out in a few days for the next phase. The wood floors are wonderful but the laundry room that we thought would be complete hasn't even been touched. We also thought the boys' room would be started by now. Tuesday they are supposed to start in on both bathrooms, they suffered damage from the non-stop leaky toilets that the tenant didn't let us know about or fix. I'm pretty excited about this redo, shopping for it was stressful and fun! New tile and sub-floor, and we decided to go ahead and do the vanities while they're ripping it all out anyway. We don't know insurance will cover their replacement but it's clear by their strong, mildew smell they have suffered and need replaced. The adventure continues!

Getting Floored III: Hotel Living

 Ooh, ahhh! On the left is the damaged wood, right is the new oak floor with natural finish

We moved out of our construction zone/home about 5 days ago and into a wonderful extended stay hotel that we're really happy with, it's more like a little apartment. The charms of continental breakfast and indoor, heated swimming pool seem to be wearing off for the boys though. Yesterday Mr. Golden Curls said he misses our house and Spitfire agreed. This has been a very unstable couple of months in their lives. First the process of having the other house on the market and The Bohemian moving. Then we move into a house and move back out. New school, new church...whew and we thought we were settling for good this time! But at the end of all the construction will be a cute little, new and improved, healthy, pretty house for us to settle into and start up our little backyard farm in!

the Little Mister ready to go poolside

Silly Golden Curls aka Puss in Boots

Handsome Spitfire with that mischevious smile

Getting Floored: Part II

On the left is our house with majorly water damaged floors. It doesn't look so bad compared to the picture on the right, which is the same spot after it has been demoed and had all the rotten stuff removed.

 

What a mess! I have more sympathy for people who complain about the hassles of renovations. I think I'll spare the details of how much of a pain this has all been and just show some pictures of the progress that has been made so far. I will say that we have been pleased as punch with the insurance company (Nationwide) and the company doing the renovations (Restore It). Everyone we've dealt with has been 100% helpful and pleasant and that makes all the difference in a stressful situation like this.

Before demo on left after demo on the right

More of the same in the hallway

Yay for new wood! In these pics it is still unfinished but oooh aahhh. Looks good and no mildew smell! Even though this is all a pain and was an unexpected turn of events, I've always wanted to renovate a home and it is fun to see it all happen and not have to do the work myself.

We've been dining picnic style for a few days now so we can keep from messing up the unprotected wood. It will definitely be nice to be set up in the hotel!

Autumn Coffee Break

 What a wonderful place for a coffee break, and it's right out my front door! Change in seasons always make me happy.

 I absolutely love that this is my front yard! The table is under the biggest old tree and all of the fall colors are coming out across the street. And even better, across the street is really far away!

Our cute little house. The weather has been so beautiful, I'm soaking it all in because I know it will be winter eventually and I'll want to stay all bundled up inside.

Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

These are my spicy pumpkin seeds I mentioned in yesterday's post. The only time we make these is when we carve our jack-o-lanterns and that just makes them an extra special delicacy at our house. The kids like them too, which always surprises me, and this year even the Little Mister ate some and kept coming back for more. It's a recipe I found a million years ago on the Martha Stewart Living website. Such a simple recipe and so good.

Martha Stewart's Spicy Pumpkin Seeds

Ingredients

1 cup pumpkin seeds

(From the two pumpkins we carved this year we got 3 cups of seeds)

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a medium bowl, combine all ingredients

 toss to coat 

Spread on a rimmed baking sheet

 bake until puffed and browned, about 10 minutes.

NOTE: I totally disagree with this 10 min thing, it takes me much longer but every 10min I'll give them a stir.