let's talk about it Tuesday

 

Happy Tuesday, friends! Before I even start, I have to brag on myself that I got all of those things done yesterday that I didn't think I'd get done even in a week! I guess I felt pretty bad when I went to the dentist and I immediately felt so much better afterward, that I came home and got busy. He told me I couldn't eat for a couple of hours and I was hungry so I got to work, trying to fill some time. Also, about the dentist, it was an old filling that had come out and lodged sideways in my tooth. It probably got loose a couple of weeks ago, and when I ate some cheese-its Thursday night, that was when the big unlodging happened. He put some temporary filling in and will do the new filling in a few weeks. I am so grateful he was able to fit me on on short notice! And I'm SO EXCITED that I got all of those things done! (Edited to say that I went back and read that post and realized that I also mentioned the kitchen cabinets—I did not get those done, but stay tuned.) 

It feels so good to be productive! Thanks for humoring me, it's not often that I tackle a to-do list with such gusto and success. Here are a couple more areas that I worked on yesterday. I'll explain with the pictures.

Remember this picture below from yesterday? It was taken in 2020. The one above is from yesterday and trust me when I say that it looked NOTHING like this when I started. The leaf was in the table, there was no tablecloth, and the top of the hutch was not even decorated. All I saw when I looked in this room was wood, wood, wood and more wood. The cloth on the table definitely breaks it all up and though I'd love a different set of chairs for this table and a longer, shorter sideboard as a hutch, that's not realistic and I can live with it how it looks right now, thanks to my deep cleaning and re-purposing yesterday.

I still don't love what's hanging on the walls by the hutch, but for now I'm living with it and I'll decide on what to replace it with later. I have some ideas in my mind about what I'd like, but I'll probably save the ideas for closer to my birthday or Christmas. 

Alright, friends. I'm "letting you in" to an area of our home that I've not shown you in quite some time, if ever. When I say that I need to finish painting, this is the space I'm talking about. This is the foyer and behind the coat tree are some doors that lead into the hall where our tornado closet is. I used to keep the doors open and the coat tree was where the front door would hide it, when it was open. Needless to say, with all of us in our home and any who are in and out, this tree gets used a LOT. It became cramped by the front door, so I moved it here and shut the doors going into the hall. I don't miss them being open, even though it definitely shuts the space off, but our home is older and a closed concept anyway, so what does it matter? Nothing, in my opinion. It just works for us better this way and it kind of hides the hall I'm about to show you.

I need to paint this hall as well and though this peg rack doesn't work quite as well as it did when the boys were younger, it's okay for now. I'd love to clear off the shelves (I made a dent yesterday!) and take them down and keep them down, or maybe just use one. Also, what in the world do you do with all your old DVD's? I don't know that we'll ever watch some of these again, but I can't seem to make myself get rid of them. Do you see the writing on the door that's open? This is the door to the tornado closet and it's where we kept track of the boys height over the years. I love it there and it's a testament to the eighteen years we've lived here bringing up boys.

I was going to show you a picture of the tornado closet, but Todd would kill me because of the first thing you'd see, so never mind. You're not missing much there, though, trust me. That's kind of the command central of our home and there are tons of wires and such in there for our Wi-Fi, tv, surround sound and other devices that make our home a smart home. It kind of stresses me out even opening the door to that closet, because it's a hot mess, but I even straightened up in there yesterday. All the indoor tools stay in there on the shelves, along with some of the boys' artwork from elementary school, board games and other odds and ends that make sense staying in there.

Looking out from the closet is the hall where the downstairs bathroom is and that leads into our kitchen, an area that was painted when I first started the project in 2019. I haVe great intentions, friends, but very poor follow through and almost killed both my arms when Jonah and I painted the stairwell walls that are like 20 feet high. I may be exaggerating, but I may not be. They're tall, trust me.

Everything on this board means something to me. I love all the little trinkets, pictures, notes and invitations that are hanging there. The door with the cross hanging on it is the half bathroom that's downstairs. 

All the while I was working on this, I was also cleaning and vacuuming as I went. On today's agenda is tackling the kitchen cabinets. They're in desperate need of a good cleaning and purging. I'm sad I finished The Home Edit, but I may start all over. I liked the second season so much better than the first, because it shows you their friendship, which reminds me a lot of me and my best friend. Also, it motivates me in a major way to get up and get moving. 

I didn't actually mean for today's blog post to be all about that I shared, but it kind of flowed into that. This is where you come in—first, if you spend your days alone like me, what do you do all day? I'd love to hear a breakdown on how you spend your time. Secondly, how do you organize or keep the flow of your home going to best suit your family? Whether it's just you and your husband or a family with kids still at home, I'd love to hear what works for you. If you have any suggestions for that hallway area that I showed you a picture of, I'd love to hear them. I don't like how it looks in that picture, but we keep it that way out of necessity and it's convenient to have bags hanging there, like their lunch boxes that they all take to work. 

Help a sister out! Thanks for reading my blog, friends. Love to all!