Notefull Living

Staying Home – For longer then expected

Sounds like people are needing to stay home for longer then they expect lately. If your not sick and bored, I’m sharing some ways I make the most of my time at home.

No, seriously, You can only binge your shows and social media for so long and your gonna need to do something to pass the time.

Since I’ve been in the “Staying Home” for my everyday living for the last 6 years I feel like I’ve gotten good at making the most of it. This is just a small sample of what I do.

Update Decor

Being a Home and Garden blogger I get the opportunity to share about our home. Home for me as a kid was growing up in a true FARMHOUSE. Not a modern home with some country farm accents.

But, now that’s me living in a 40 year old home adding Farmhouse accents.

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I need to update the winter photo on my wall. Something I can do online from home without going out in public is ordering new a new picture to update that frame. I will be putting in the Mexican sunrise. Not a lot of money to do a simple update.

I got out my simple Spring Decor the other day and put out my upcycled table runner from trimming my bedroom curtains. I still need to sew the one straight edge and it’s done.

Deep Cleaning

Once the flu hits your house at any time of the year we all hit cleaning mode. It’s not just the “hey, we are getting company” kinda clean.

I mean lets dust and move furniture around and DEEP clean. I’ve been doing my oven, fridge, kids toys, borrowing a carpet shampooer.

My intense Carpet cleaning MIGHT have something to do with our new family addition. Thankfully Potty training accidents are far and few between now. We made sure our carpet cleaner was specifically the kind that helps them not pee again and again in the same area. Only happened twice that she went in the same spot.

Purging and Organizing

If you follow me on Instagram I’ve been getting into my closest and putting away the winter gear. There’s been thrift store drop offs and recycling. I think you get the drift. You know your home and what needs to be done. If not there’s tons of great organizing videos online to get you motivated.

Anyone else binge watch organizing videos?

Yard Work

Something I’ve noticed is lots of new houses they do now is properties with less maintenance. Not our place. I’ve been out in our yard getting it cleaned up since early February. I’ve made a HUGE dent and got our kids toys cleaned up so our puppy doesn’t get into something she shouldn’t. Plus it looks so much better having a cleaned up backyard.

It looks SUPER different now. Wait for the after photo…coming soon this spring.

Baking

I’m a big homebody and making homemade food, especially if I have time is well appreciated.

BUT….

Then baking goes sideways and I burnt the cookies.

The upside to the burnt cookie moment. Life was super busy at that moment. I came home for a girls night to find my husband rolling cookies and making them BETTER then I ever have. I had too bake for 2 classes for the next day and when I burnt the cookies it derailed my day.

I’m not perfect and neither is our home. I can share all the lovely photos I want. Sometimes we burn the cookies.

Last but not least. I still attempt to make time for…

DIY

I sew or make home decor whenever I can get a free moment. Which almost feels like never. BUT, just like many other people in the world…We are supposed to be in social isolation. That means, my sewing machine is coming out. So is my paint brush. I can’t wait to share more about that in upcoming posts.

Oh yes, can’t forget about Gardening. But that’s gets it’s own posts on my blog. More to come about that here soon.

How do you spend your days at home?

Easy DIY Dog Crate Bed

Easy DIY I have to pause from the Gardening posts. I recently shared that we got a new puppy. You can see my Picking a puppy post here. Sometimes I share Kona on my Instagram.

Truth is, owning a dog is expensive and my frugal side of who I am has gone full board since we got her. We were super blessed a friend had an extra large crate for her and gave it to us. I knew right away I needed to get her a bed for it.

Every time I saw them at the store my DIY brain was like “I can make that”. I have everything at home. These also fit in a crate super well. I had everything on hand so it was just my time.

Easy DIY Dog Crate Bed

This made 2 Beds: W26″ x L48″

Here’s what you need:

1 double sided blanket. Mine was a wedding gift from Costco that I had grown tired of. Got a new blanket for Christmas.
Scissors
Body pillow or pillows or stuffing. I used old pillows we didn’t use anymore.
Sewing machine – If you can thread a machine and sew in a straight line, your good to go.
Seam Ripper.

Step 1:

Fold double sided blanket in HALF and CUT the FOLDED side.

It should look like this once you cut it. The double sided blanket now splits apart.

I had to use the seam ripper for my blanket as it had an extra stitch a couple inches in.

Step 2:

Stuff it with the pillows or stuffing. Which ever option your going to fill it with.

Step 3:

Fold the cut edge IN and pin it. Then Sew away! Your only sewing ONE edge.

This blanket made 2 dog beds. Now we have 2 crates for her in the house and both crates have a bed. Or the crate has a bed and she has a bed by the fireplace.

She wasn’t too sure about me taking pictures while she was in the crate.

This is the second bed I just made. If you look you can see the 3 pillows it to make this one. Kona is not full size and expected to be roughly 60lbs. So she still has lots of growing to do and needs what would be considered an Extra Large bed once fully grown.

Here she is again on the first dog bed I made for her. She was so small. This one has a body pillow and quilt batting I had in the house.

If you have the supplies, go for it. I grew up with a country dog, she lived outside. Dog’s are definitely pampered more now then when we had a dog as a kid. Life is expensive and we have a young family. Anyway to save money I will.

Have you ever made your own dog bed?

What this helpful?

Comment below if you plan to make one of your own.

Vegetable Gardening

Vegetable Gardening It’s March, the official day of spring is coming up very soon. I hope my posts about my gardening is helpful to you in your own gardening projects. As going into this new direction with my blog with my niche of Home and Garden I have so much to catch up on it feels like.

Vegetable Gardening!

Best part about growing your own Vegetable Garden is eating FRESH food! Here’s a picture of our own green beans and the lovely pork chops from the pig we bought this past year.

However, if there is something that I share and post that you want me to expand on please comment below so I can get that information on my blog and share it with others.

Vegetable gardening is something my family and my husbands family for years. My mom is known for her front yard garden. I hear about it lots from people who know my parents. Lots of what I have comes from my family and my mother in law.

If you saw my Garden/Backyard Planning post you will see what used to be on our yard.

Before the Raised Garden beds went in last spring this was what my garden used to look like before I harvested in August.

This was a lot of work to maintain. I love how this looks, especially with the arch from our wedding. I updated it and painted it years ago. It got twisted up in a storm and I had to get rid of it sadly.

I mentioned in my Raised Garden Beds post about one negative and that is not being able to grow squash. In the picture above you can see how big the plants are in this picture.

I had an amazing harvest this particular year and plan to grow another squash garden again. If your starting out vegetable gardening this is one easy vegetable to grow.

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For more ideas on easy vegetables to grow, check out Tara’s blog on 8 Easy Vegetables to grow. Thanks Tara for including me.

Here’s what I grow in my Garden:

Pole Beans – Family Favorite – Using seeds from my grandparents.
Snap Peas – Our kids eat these off the vine for a snack
Kale – Again – seeds I get from my mom.
Zucchini
Rhubarb
Herbs – Maggie, Chives, Parsley, Basil etc…
Radishes
Garlic
White onion

I mentioned failing at things. When we bought our place I got to take on the harvest of the previous owner. She had LOADS of tomatoes in the greenhouse. I got, potatoes and so much more. I was so overwhelmed with unpacking I gave LOTS away.

I worked in a vegetable farm after high school and I knew right away these tomatoes never had their suckers pinched.

Since this abundant time I have only used this as a started house. We have changed out the soil and I need to test it to find out what’s wrong with the soil. I can only grow stuff in pots at this point.

Again, as I embark on this new direction as a Home and Garden Blogger, please let me know what you would like me to write more about. Comment below

Raised Garden Beds

If your considering Raised Garden Beds click on this post to see how we made ours and the how they work for our Garden.

Raised Garden Beds In my last post I shared about Garden/Backyard Planning. I mentioned how it takes time.

Planning also has to do with learning what works for your yard and how you want to do things.

I had a big problem on my hands. I tried growing a garden the traditional way with just rotter tiling a section of our yard. We had issue after issue with doing this. Yes, I borrowed my parents machine from their acreage.

I was HOPING have the dirt rotated with a good machine would help. It didn’t.

My husband and I like to keep things fairly neat, tidy and organized. I will admit not everything is, but when it came to the outside having clean lines it looks great. Considering invasive plants, potatoes growing rampant and loads of rocks we decided last year to put in Raised Garden Beds.

Worth all the hard work that went into making them.

Here’s a snapshot of the garden BEFORE we did the Raised Garden Beds.

I shudder looking back at this. You can see if you zoom in, I have a few things planted BUT, the weeds and such would not stop persisting.

This decision was the best one we made for this area of our city lot.

Here’s the beginnings of the Raised Garden Beds.

These did not take long to make. Our middle son jumped right into it and helped us out. I have to admit, my husband did most of the work. I helped load the wood. I don’t have the dimensions at this moment, I’ll edit this post and add it back in later.

2 truck loads of a Garden Blend, filled the boxes up just right. I was off the start my planting for the season.

This was one project we didn’t research, and just went with it. Here’s a recap of how our Raised Garden did last year.

Here’s the list of positives for having Raised Beds:

Required less work – Beds has less weeds and where easy to reach to get the ones that did grow.
Needed less watering – They act like GIANT flower pots. I noticed our water bill went DOWN during the summer. Saving money and growing our own food, yes please.
Easy to mow around – My husband loved this.
Look Great – Nice simple lines and when they were ready for harvest the looked full and amazing.
Kids didn’t run through and destroy the plants – this happened in the previous garden LOTS. Now we have a puppy to train to just go into the boxes.

Negative:

It is great for just about all our growing needs for a Garden. BUT, not running plants like zucchini or squash.
I missed growing certain plants that didn’t “fit” this style of gardening.

I’m excited for another year with my Raised Garden Beds. Hoping the deer stay away from my pole beans. I think our Dog might help keep them away this year. I don’t like planting them 3 times. Somehow I need to keep the animals away from my strawberries too.

I honestly feel like I’m still a beginner gardener and have lots to learn. I hope seeing that we built was helpful for your garden. If you have any questions on what I shared feel free to comment below.

Happy Gardening.

Garden/Backyard Planning

Garden_Backyard Planning Today I want to share with you about Garden/Backyard Planning. We bought our home in 2014. This is our journey snapshot of what we started with and where we are now.

If there is something you see that you want me to go deeper into explaining please comment below.

Here I’m going to show you how our gardening/backyard planning took shape. It would be great if we could have changed it all within that first year. BUT that costs A LOT of money.

To create a garden/backyard of your dreams it needs TIME.

When we bought this place we had one kid, now we have 3 and a puppy. Lots of changes. The most reno work we have done has been to the outside.

The previous owner had a GREAT garden already going. However things seemed to be in odd places and we had to re-work the yard how it fit for our dream for the property.

2014

Here’s the LARGE garden box and a side garden. This garden where the trees are was super overgrown and I’m still fighting an aggressive plant in that area.

Here’s the Greenhouse and the worn out old fence. I got to get a LOT of tomatoes out of that greenhouse. Sadly I still have lots of learning to do and how to grow plants in there. So far it’s been a starter house for me.

We redid the fence, it was awful.

Remember I mentioned Garden Planning taking time?

Summer 2019

The Wood was JUST getting weathered.

For our Daughters first birthday last year I tried doing a photo shoot. It shows the new fence and memorial garden that I added.

I really need to print and frame this one!

Here’s the current look at the Green House update we did. My husband broke one of the windows with the lawnmower and we didn’t want to keep replacing the glass so we worked hard to make it more user friendly and to save money.

PLUS everything we did here was re-purposed.

As you can see, we use it more for storage now. It’s tucked behind the house.

We still have more Garden/Backyard Planning to do. It takes time as I mentioned. The kids get right into it as well.

I know I didn’t share any tips on this post, but I hope seeing the before and after it gives you some inspiration to work on your own garden and backyard.

One last photo from last year. There’s a HUGE Reno, that is still happening. I’m hoping we get it DONE within the next 6 weeks and show you the reveal. It’s a huge change for us, We LOVE to entertain. This was when we served guests last year “in the garden”. That gives you a hint.

Have a great day and I would love to hear about your garden projects.

Finding my blogging ‘Niche’

Home and Garden Niche Ok Ok, one rookie mistake I’ve made and it hasn’t really been helping grow my blog is actually focus on a ‘niche’. I have no shame in sharing this, I thought my blog would be bigger by now.

For those not into the in’s and outs of blogging lingo there’s a thing you need to do and that is find your ‘niche’. Your area of expertise, or the thing that your passionate about. I honestly couldn’t find something that really suited what I wanted to share as my “expertise” for this little blog on the internet.

I guess going on a much needed break on our Mexican Vacation from my home did I not see this blog in a different light.

My blogging “Niche” was already coming through on it’s own: Home and Garden

I got some posts out that I do like to share my advice about, but they don’t relate to Home and Garden. They got barely any views.

Views do make a difference when you working to make an income from blogging. Since this blog is a fun creative outlet for me from my busy life being a stay at home mom views are great but I don’t go crazy about how many I get.

With a few tweaks of using the right hashtags and sharing more about our home and garden, my blog will grow. I’ve been WAITING to share more about our home, just life has gotten in the way to do that, like water leaks for example on an area I was ready to do the final photography on and well… I still have holes in my walls at the moment.

I look forward to giving this blog the direction it needs in expanding with the Home and Garden niche.

Notefull Living (2) I’m just someone who loves decorating our home. We live in the Fraser Valley, basically the Suburbs of Vancouver. I’m a big home body. Plus when the weather is good I’m outside. My husband and I already have a home we renovated and sold and the fun we had flipping that one. I’ll have that post up soon.

Speaking of Gardening, it didn’t take long for me to connect with other bloggers in this niche to find me. For those that have and read my blog, thanks for seeking me out.

The topics I was writing about on my blog was Faith, Family and Music. These are all things that are hugely important to me. I like sharing little bits of my Faith here and there on the blog.

In regards to Family, I sometimes share the odd picture without my kids faces showing for their privacy. I strongly believe in children’s privacy especially when it comes to the internet. Theresa Lynn Photography 023-21 Lastly, I’ve got my music. It’s tough to keep up with it with my family so young but I’m not giving up on it and already getting clients for my piano tuning, plus other things.

So If your a fellow Home and Garden enthusiast like I am, come along and SUBSCRIBE.

I honestly don’t feel like I’m a pro in any of these areas, just enjoy the journey of creating a lovely home for our family and an amazing time in the outdoors in my garden.

Carrie

Family trip to Mexico

Mexico If it seems like I was on a Vacation from blogging. That’s because I was just in Mexico with our whole family. This time last week we were heading back to the airport in Cancun to come back home to our very cold northern home in the Fraser Valley in Canada. It so happened to snow the week we got back.

This trip was a big first for me, I was just as nervous and excited as the kids.

So…Traveling with our family to Mexico. Well this actually included my husbands WHOLE family. Yup, it was a big trip. Lots of people.

Our family researched the trip from the beginning. Once the resort was picked out we found travel vloggers videos and watched all what we could find out. We were traveling with our kids and I wanted to be prepared.

The flight there was fine, getting to the resort was really good. No crazy driving or people hounding us at the airport which was surprising. We had lots of people warn us.

Getting to our room was good and even though there was a time difference we settled in pretty quickly. We got there in time for the buffet for dinner. We really tried not to buy the airplane bistro food, knowing we were headed to an all inclusive was worth the wait for food.

It’s pretty easy to fall in love with the atmosphere there. I loved the scenery, the pools and especially the beach. We didn’t clue in to wake up in time to catch the sunrise until our last day there. This was what we caught just before the sun broke through the clouds.

The Gardner in me wants to find out what this plant is? I absolutely LOVE the bright pink. The grounds where something else with all the tropical plants everyone. Plus the resident iguana that lived by our door.

Our second child was quick to comment his friends needed to come to mexico and visit us here. Although at the end of the week he was getting homesick.

Our family loved the ocean. Our boys were in and out of the water. We got our oldest for his birthday an underwater camera and we got some neat video of the fish in the ocean. My husband went snorkeling and got some video of the fish at the reef.

Our youngest didn’t know any different. It was challenging to deal with naps. She lived off watermelon and french fries at the buffet. I was excited to get this sweet picture with her by the ocean.

I learned a lot about going on a trip like this. My husband and I haven’t ever saved to go on one like this. We have focused and worked hard at buying a good family home in the Fraser Valley. Luxury trips like this weren’t an option.

IMG_0557 (1) There’s many stories and much more that I would share. There’s a more important post I will be doing about this trip once we get closer to summer.

Hope you enjoyed some of these shots of our trip. The resort was definitely nice. For me, it’s the scenery and the ocean that got me more excited then the luxury lifestyle the resort offered to give.

Yes, no cooking, cleaning, making beds for a week was nice, but it’s also great to be home.

Any suggestions as to where my husband and I should go for our 15th Wedding Anniversary?

Picking a Puppy

notefull living Blog

It’s happened! We officially own a puppy. If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen her in my stories.

My husband and I have wanted a dog for many years. We thought about having one before we had kids and then decided against it. We had a cat before kids and she just attacked all our company. So once we got pregnant we had to re-home her.

Here’s our experience of Picking a Puppy.

1: Research

I can’t stress this enough. We spent close to a year spending time researching different breeds and watching lots of videos of dog trainers and their advice online about picking a puppy and what to expect.

I grew up with a dog, where my husband didn’t. So I have some experience with having a dog. Difference is, I grew up in the country. Living in town with a dog is a bit different.

We chatted with lots of friends who had dogs and chatted with lots of dog owners in our neighborhood or whenever it was possible in public. Most dog owners love chatting about their dogs.

Don’t buy a dog on a whim, take your time.

2: Preparing the Family

We have 3 kids, ages 7, 4 and 20 months. Something my husband and I do as parents when we are introducing something new to our kids is talk about it a lot. Give lots of info about whatever adventure we plan to go on and the expectations when we are there.

60BF3F2E-C36D-4EC8-BE11-84FC4B6BC1E1 We let our kids know a year ahead of time this was going to happen. My husband and I had agreed 2020 was the year to get a dog.

Our kids aren’t exactly used to pets as they aren’t around them a lot. Plus most of our friends over the years didn’t have any pets.

We got them around dogs a LOT. The more comfortable they got around them we started searching for a local breeder.

3: Finding a Breeder

This part was interesting. We were given lots of suggestions of places where people bought their dogs. Most them were out of town. These were dogs that we met and loved their temperament. The other thing we noticed…$$$ very expensive.

We did find a breeder in our neighborhood, again her price was more then we wanted to spend. My husband and I agreed we would feel more comfortable with getting a mixed breed and if possible from someone we knew.

We happened to go hiking with a friend and her dog was along. Remember I talked about introducing our kids to lots of dogs. With my friends dog our kids were super calm and not scared around. It just so happened her dog had a litter that next week.

The mom is a Shepherd/Lab.

4: Picking a Puppy

For us lots needed to happen before we even got to pick the puppy. Which means we are near the end of our journey of picking one and bringing one home.

We are an active family, we get out whenever we can. The yearly planning I talked about in my last blog post about scheduling plays into that. We knew we wanted a puppy that would be both calm and well mannered yet want to keep up with our busy family.

One of the best advice we got was to get out and meet the litter and just see them first. Plus, we got to meet each puppy one on one and that helped us narrow it down. Our boys each had a favorite which made the process a bit interesting. Thankful our boys are maturing and we were able to talk them through it.

We happened to find the runt of the litter, she was calm, listened super well and was well tempered. Plus her markings were super adorable, that made picking her extra helpful.

5: Picking a Name

Since we had talked about getting a puppy for so long we had a running list of boy and girls names going. One of our names was “techie”, picked out by the boys.

We ended up going off popular dog name websites and just running down the list of names.

The name we picked is “Kona”. This way the family she was with could start calling her by her name.

6: Taking her Home:

Kona has been with us for a few days now. It’s been a bit of an adjustment, mostly for the kids.

Night time has been challenging as most people warned us and we read up about that fact. Our oldest admitted putting his pillow over his head the first night.

It’s a learning curve for everyone. I’m liking watching our kids adjust to her and play with her.

A tired dog is a good dog. Here’s she’s chilling on the DIY Dog Bed I made for her. The boys sure have fun taking her outside and playing in the backyard with her. Right now we have snow, makes for it being extra fun.

We can’t wait for summer when we go camping and most of the “puppy” stage will be passed and she will be we will all be well adjusted to each other.

Hope sharing our experience was helpful. Do you have a dog?

Are you planning on getting one?

If you came just for the puppy spam, your welcome.

Schedules, and staying Organized

how to schdeule (1) Living a scheduled life is something I’ve learned the hard way is something we can all improve on and be better at.

I’ve always considered myself an organized person. Along comes our 3 kids and technology explosion and I was pulling my hair out. I wasn’t as organized as I thought I was. I was missing IMPORTANT doctor appointments and missing key scheduled things in our kids life and so forth.

I looked back and had to ask myself where am I going wrong. Why am I messing up so bad, what was working and what wasn’t?

I’ve written some basic tips that helped me, bonus I added a DIY!

There’s a TON of organization gurus out there. They offer great advice. Yet, we are all made differently and have to figure out what works best for us.

I tried for over a year to keep up with switching to the free google calendar. It’s free right, boy was a wrong. I guess the writer in me needs to write it down. I had a bit of a meltdown last year realizing my loath for technology wasn’t helping trying to stay organized using something online.

1: Get a GOOD planner:

After posting a desperate outcry to friends on Facebook I was reminded of my other writing friends to use a teacher planner.

I got one and it’s made a big difference.

Having this cute spot in our kitchen with the writing desk makes it easy to layout. The planner fits so perfectly. As much as I love beautiful detailed planners and paper products, I got mine from staples and it’s made by Emily Ley

My Husbands work uses the Google Calender so I still sometimes add things or he adds them. It’s still kinda used, I’m still trying to adapt. But for my sanity I went back to a paper planner.

2: DIY a Picture frame for Days of the Week:

Ready for an upcycle and a DIY? I love a good repurpose project that’s fast and easy.

I originally made this for meal planning. The paper planner I bought already has a slot for meal planning. This DIY became a “week at a glance” for the whole family and it’s been hugely helpful.

What you need:

Paper (larger needed if you have a bigger frame)
Permanent Marker
Ruler
Picture Frame
Paint

Paint the frame with 2 coats. Let it fully dry. Measure out your day slots and an extra space to write the month on top. Use your marker to mark out your lines. Then put the frame back together. Hang and use dry erase markers and your done!

I use different color dry erase for different members of the family. Or different events we have going on. I update this every Saturday night.

I have it hanging in a central part of our home so we see it everyday.

3: Use a 12 month Calendar

I got this idea from Jordan Page at Fun Cheap or Free. She uses google calendar, however I’ve already established that doesn’t work for me. Since I’m a visual person, we opted to buy a bigger white erase 12 month calendar. We hung it up in our bedroom.

This huge visual aid has all our core things that need to be on here. All my husbands work schedule, on call and paydays. Our holidays are on this calendar and most importantly birthdays. Kids school breaks and so forth. I think you get the drift.

We seem to get caught off guard when birthdays come around or holidays sneak up and we didn’t budget. Sharing that to let you know we aren’t perfect.

Having a visual aid like this is already helping us budget and plan better. Now we can plan those “last minute” camping trips or what weekends are best to hammer out a much needed reno.

Here’s to a better planned, scheduled and organized 2020.

Hope these tips are helpful, they are for our family.

What are things you do to keep organized?

Ending 2019 on a High Note

It’s almost 2020, Here’s my last blog post for the year! Thanks for you support and have a great night!

I love writing these posts. I’m starting to enjoy this side of blogging where I can look back and see which posts were my top posts. Having an overview look at how much things have changed, mostly for the better.

How was 2019 for YOU?

This year has been intense. That’s how I can describe it. To only give a small look at the intensity it had to do with the following: 2 Family Deaths, 2 Plumbing issues, unexpected electrical inspection, Financial tests like we have never experienced and much much more.

My husband and I both lost Grandparents. Truth is both Grandparents had long lost their spouses and have suffered with physical pain and I’m thankful they are relieved of that now.

There’s no amount of pictures or special videos that you can make in today’s day to capture the last moment I had with my Grandfather and my daughter as he was in Hospice. He turned with the little strength he had left and gave his youngest family member the biggest grin and she smiled back.

What a legacy both of these people leave behind for my husband and I.

I don’t believe in coincidences, my BIGGEST blog post of the year had to do with my own personal Grief.

Read it here: Surviving my Pregnancy Loss

I guess there’s something about sharing a testimony of a difficult part of my life to give YOU who read my blog a real “Heart to Heart”.

You all LOVED it. I suppose my approach to not be a “selling” blog means something still.

This biggest thing I’ve learned from being knocked down is to just get right back up.

Remember, I said this year was intense.

I will confess I was up to 4 cups of coffee a day and pretty much consumed a full Costco bag of chocolate chips in a month this past fall. Not ashamed to share my stressful glutenous outbursts.

This all still didn’t stop me for writing and creating content for here on the blog. I had big blog posts planned relating to our house for 2019. Considering a big water leak was involved in that area of our home…that post is still yet to come.

Instead I began a journey in our home to be more “Homemade and Local”. These were some of my favorite posts to write.

Oh! I almost forgot I started adding FREE printable for you! Check out: Creating a Homemade Home to get yours. Yes, the plates are something from my Grandparents. There is something “home style” about hanging old plates.

How am I ending 2019 on a High Note. My husband and I suspected at the beginning of the year that one of us would possibly loose a grandparent. We didn’t expect us both.

Our BIG RENO project is still in “Reno mode”, and the storage room reveal needed to get re-opened again.

Here’s what I told myself…

“No matter what hurdles keep me from doing what I need to get done,

I’ll not let that slow me down”.

I had hoped 2019 was the year I launched my piano tuning business officially. N.O.P.E. But, I’m playing my nicely tuned piano again as I finally overcame all this years DRAMA FEST, which I didn’t add on my list from above.

Since November, I’m down to one cup of coffee a day (not 4). Today I’m removing sugar from my day to day food that I consume. Our boys actually passed swimming lessons recently and our youngest finally started walking last week. I actually did a workout today, been trying to fit that in also since November.

Me and 3 kids doing a workout video with Jillian Micheal is a site to see. I personally don’t post my kids for their privacy. If you have kids and have tried fitting a workout into your day and are too cheap to bother going to the gym it’s entertaining.

One last High Note (aside from a nicely tuned piano in my home), my most liked Instagram post was my wedding photo.

Wedding Sept 12 374

Love this Man and the life we have, it is worth all the storms that we face together.

If 2019 was intense for you, especially if it comes an important thing like your marriage. I don’t know your story but know this, whatever storm your facing you can overcome it.

Just like the example set before my husband and I with our grandparents and our parents, it’s not worth holding grudges or being bitter, but forgiveness and working together that counts.

Our marriage is built around our relationship with Jesus Christ. Not everyone agrees with that choice that we made. Not sure what life would look like without that important relationship that my husband and I hold with HIM.

Update Decor

Deep Cleaning

Purging and Organizing

Yard Work

Baking

DIY

How do you spend your days at home?

Easy DIY Dog Crate Bed

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Have you ever made your own dog bed?

What this helpful?

Comment below if you plan to make one of your own.

Vegetable Gardening!

2014

Summer 2019

I honestly don’t feel like I’m a pro in any of these areas, just enjoy the journey of creating a lovely home for our family and an amazing time in the outdoors in my garden.

1: Research

2: Preparing the Family

3: Finding a Breeder

4: Picking a Puppy

5: Picking a Name

6: Taking her Home:

Hope sharing our experience was helpful. Do you have a dog?

Are you planning on getting one?

If you came just for the puppy spam, your welcome.

1: Get a GOOD planner:

2: DIY a Picture frame for Days of the Week:

3: Use a 12 month Calendar

Here’s to a better planned, scheduled and organized 2020.

Hope these tips are helpful, they are for our family.

What are things you do to keep organized?

Thanks for your support this year and taking time to read and comment on my blog.