Presto Chango!

And here are the dining room pics. I know most of you have seen the "new" dining room, but here is a before shot! Remember when it used to look like this?


And then while I was 5 or 6 months pregnant, I began major nesting-mode and painted this room "Belgian Waffle" (another olympic paint color I believe) and bought that $100 painting (talked them down from $130 or $160- yay haggling!) from the art store in the Roanoke Mall. Christian and I spent 3 hours of our lives installing that $60 light fixture we bought with a Lowe's gift card. Curtains are from Target, candle sconces are from Pier 1 ($20 ea), Table Cloth from Bed bath and Beyond (also $20) and the vase in the middle of the table was $6 at Ross. Excuse the Christmas cards in the foreground :)


This picture below is probably showing the most true to life color.

Changing the orientation of the table and chairs really increased the flow and allowed room for a high chair to go in the back right corner (not pictured).

And I almost forgot about those little stools I also found at Ross!! ($11.99 each). There is a second one under the other candle sconce and they serve as extra seating around our table when needed. I am proud to say that we once fit seven grown adults around that table at one time for several meals/days in a row (including me while I was pregnant). We can also pull the stools into the living room to use as seating or a place to put food while we watch TV.

Thanks for joining me on my tour of our tiny dining room! :)

Living Room Transformation

2 posts in one day. I know, I am insane :) I got bit by the blogging bug I guess. Feel free to comment on either one.

I think every woman has a little bit of DIY in them. I am responsible for every painted wall in our house. (I heart painting!)

I stumbled across some "before" photos of our living room and dining room in our house, so I thought I would share a big reveal. (Big reveals are my favorite!) I did these rooms quite awhile ago (while I was pregnant with Melody). But I thought it would be fun to share anyway. Here is the living room!

before
it looks nice and clean but, oh the terrible nothing but white, white, white everywhere!


after
the color is Olympic Paint "Blue Persuasion"
btw: not sure why there is a dark red throw on the couch- it definitely
doesn't go with the room and does not live in our living room currently! also the color isn't great because these pictures are taken at night,
during the day it is so bright and nice!




before
White walls, white furniture, white carpet- ack!!!


after
chairs are from TJ Maxx (and the sewing machine
doesn't usually live in the living room either :) ).



here is a close up of the bookshelf



before

To live in this much non-color drained the life out of you!


Here is the much better "after"!!
we don't have a coat closet in our living room,
so I made a functional entry way!
the coat rack and basket are from TJMaxx
The dresser is from my bedroom in my parents house
The art on the wall is from Christian's grandmother
The mirror is from Ross




I love using dressers in entryways!
So functional and beautiful!


Do you love to decorate and paint rooms as much as I do?
Do you have a favorite room you have done or re-done?

No Sugar For You!

Imagine that title in the Seinfeld Soup Nazi voice. This is my current "diet". No sugar.

Let me clarify, I still eat bread, carbs, etc. When I say no sugar I mean no "treats". No ho-ho's, no pop-tarts, no coke, no ice cream, no homemade dark chocolate chip cookies, no candy bars, no sweet treats.

If you know me well, you know that I love me some chocolate! By cutting out sweets, I am basically cutting out one of my food groups! Which is why, of course, I had to do it.

For my birthday Christian gave me a book called Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst. The book is about how we often go to food (or other things, but she talks about food) when what we really need is comfort from God, rest or even to celebrate! Food is wrapped totally around how we women deal with our emotions. I don't know about you, but this is totally true for me. Terkeurst says that her book is not about a specific diet necessarily, but that if you are trying to conquer food battles her book is an enocuraging "companion" for you on your journey.

To be honest, I started out wanting to cut out sweet treats, chips and fast food (all of my emotional foods). That worked for about a month, but that was very, very hard. I have regressed to making sure there are no sweet treats in my life for the time being and that is challenging enough. Sweets are my biggest battle.

Some of the things that have happened to me as a result of this "sweets-fast" so to speak are:

* I have lost about 9 pounds!
* My taste buds are changing to prefer less sweet foods.
* I drink way too much diet soda now (which I know is also not good for you).
* I drink my coffee and tea with milk only.
* I have discovered that with the exception of diet coke or diet pepsi, I really don't like sugar substitutes. I would rather it just not be sweet (like tea and coffee).
* I have maintained a steady weight for about a month now (the first time since I've been married that my weight hasn't gone steadily up.)
* I realize now that when I'm tired, my body is craving sleep or protein- NOT sugar.
* I am more aware of my emotions and can work on identifying and fixing whatever is upsetting me instead of "treating myself" to a better mood.

My proudest no sugar moment:

It has definitely been a struggle to say no to sweets while everyone else partakes (Christian has started buying ice cream to eat as a treat for himself for example). And I have had some serious dialogues in my head in moments of temptation, but my hardest one was at a baby shower I threw for a friend a few weeks ago. Someone had made this beautiful, amazing homemade chocolate cake. It looked delicious. I kept telling myself things like "This would be the perfect occasion to just have half a piece and then be really conscious of your choice by eating really well the rest of the week. You'd prove to yourself that you're really able to handle eating some sweet things." But finally my inner strength won and I was able to say "no" to the piece of cake. While everyone else (and I mean every one) enjoyed a piece of the chocolate cake, I ate a plate full of watermelon. And it was good. :)

Do you have a food battle? What things have helped you overcome it?

“Everything is permissible for me”—but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”—but I will not be mastered by anything. 1 Corinthians 6:12

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

Birthday Money

Alright, so this is going to be a very random post. A few weeks ago, I received an awesome birthday gift from my parents-birthday money! Money is always a great gift, but I am completely frozen with indecision about what to use it for!

Thankfully, we don't need it for groceries or anything, but every time I receive $ that is supposed to be 'just for me' it is SO hard to spend it on myself without thinking there is a 'right' way to spend the money. This is especially difficult when there are things you wind up needing as a family (new car seats for instance) that aren't necessarily budgeted for on a regular basis.

I do great coming up with ideas for what to use this gift for, it's just the making a final decision part that is tough. So here are the ideas I have come up with so far.

#1. Turning our guest bedroom into a playroom. A new coat of paint, new curtains, repainting some furniture would help me reserve my living room for more adult use and keep the toys out of sight and out of mind. :)

#2. New clothes. It has been a year since I had Melody and I am still not into those pre-pregnancy clothes. Maybe it is time for some new ones? Summer is coming up and I have very little that I can wear!

#3. Decorating the kitchen. Our kitchen is sad. White and off-white, nothing on the walls, clutter everywhere. Our kitchen could use some serious love in the color, decor and organization department. It is seriously depressing in there.





#4. New car seat. As I mentioned last week, car seat recommendations are changing. We are keeping the forward facing seat we already bought since it will fit Melody up to 100 lbs, in a 5 point harness for a long time and functions as a booster after that. But now she will likely have an interim where she won't fit the infant seat nor will she be ready to be forward facing. We are looking at this one.

#5. Registration for a conference for my business. It is an awesome training opportunity and very motivational. My business can obviously cover this expense, but if I went ahead and paid for it now with my birthday moo-lah, I wouldn't have to worry about making enough this month to cover it and I could focus on earning for the plane ticket, hotel cost, etc. (If you are interested, check out my business website here.)

So there are lots of options. Let me say that I know for many people these are difficult economic times, so I am thankful for this gift from my parents. Having extra money is definitely a good problem to have, and one that not many people get to enjoy right at the moment.

But just for the fun of it, here's my question this week.

If you had extra money this month, what would you spend it on?

Thanks for reading again this week!

Love, Rachel

8 Hours Update

So here is a quick update to the "8 hours a week" post!

This past week I didn't manage to clean 8 hours- I only managed about 3! However, that has left me with a pretty clean kitchen and a fairly tidy dining room, also a clean bathtub. Other than that though, most things are still pretty crazy around my house. Thanks for all the tips though, and I will definitely be continuing to shoot for that goal of 8 hours a week! I will keep you updated next week about how it goes!

Forgetting to Eat and New Car Seat Recommendations

One of my best friends (I won't say names, but it rhymes with Rikel Rak) is notorious for getting so busy that she forgets to eat. I can't tell you how many times as teenagers hanging out at her house or going shopping I would be thinking "When are we going to eat lunch? I don't want to be rude, but how can she possibly not be starving right now?" And I would wait without saying anything until she finally realized how hungry she was and confess, "Good! I'm starving too!"

Well, un-named friend (*wink*), I am right there with you these days! With a baby, a job, a house to clean, my own business and a church to volunteer for I am constantly forgetting to eat. But it looks a little different than my super-productive best friend. What happens to me is that I gradually start moving slower in the day and suddenly while Melody is napping I find myself sitting at the computer browsing and thinking "I should be doing something right now. I should wash dishes or fold laundry, but I just feel so tired... Why do I feel so tired? Oh yeah! I haven't eaten lunch!" Sometimes then I will get up and eat something, but sometimes I get distracted in my over-tired and hungry state and forget to eat again.

There is a lesson to be learned here. No lunch = tired, distracted mommy! :)

Now, on to the more serious stuff... For all my mommy friends out there, have your heard about the new car seat recommendations?

The AAP is now recommending that infants stay in rear facing car seats until 2 years old or until they outgrow the height and weight guidelines for the seat. They are encouraging parents to use rear facing seats (such as a convertible car seat) that will hold larger children up to 35 or 40lbs in the rear facing position.

Being unaware of these new guidelines, Christian installed and I excitedly watched as Melody got to ride for the first time in her new forward facing car seat last Saturday.


Isn't she adorable?!

Then my sister let me know about the new rules. (Thank you, Renee!) Luckily, our old car seat is approved for children up to 30 lbs which I chose knowing that I would probably have a larger baby. Melody is currently 21.6 lbs according to my digital scale at home and is now one year old. That puts her right on the cusp of being ready for a forward facing car seat by the old standards. We had made the decision to switch her since the straps on her old car seat were becoming so snug they were making her uncomfortable while riding in the car. After reading the new info though (which can be found here and here), Christian found a way to lengthen the straps on our current car seat, so that Melody can stay rear facing for several more months.

So I guess she will continue to look like this for awhile longer... only bigger of course!




So what about you? Do these new recommendations effect your child? Will you be following them?