The Inspired Housewife

I realized that with the holidays and all, I never really got done walking you all thru my new house. Actually the way I change things around I could do a home tour every couple of months…lol

One thing that I LOVE in my new house is my kitchen.

I love just about everything about it. I love white kitchens. They just make me smile.

I love my 4 x 7 island. It is just the right size.Originally I wanted the island to look more like this…

Then I began imagining grandkids climbing under there and then I wondered what I would put under there that they wouldn’t destroy.

I suppose if I had a long clear view of my island I still would want it open, but I love the storage that mine provides.

I have never had two sinks in a kitchen and I can tell you that I love it!

I love everything about my sinks. In our old home our laundry room was right off the kitchen, so when you had that big pan you couldn’t really fit in the kitchen sink you just threw it in the laundry sink and washed it there. That was not an option this time, so I decided to go with a large deep sink with no partition. It works wonderful! I had considered going with a farm sink, but I was afraid that those might soon become a thing of the past. I don’t know if that is true or not but I do know I love my choice.

I had a terrible time picking out a faucet for my sinks. First of all do you have any idea how expensive these things can be? I would be like …that ones ok …then I would see the price tag…$700 for ok?! I was not doing that! I did not think I wanted a faucet spray nozzle combo. I had never had one and the idea just seemed weird to me. I ended up with one just because of price and being able to find a matching smaller one for the other sink and I have to tell you…I love it!

Check out my garbage disposal button.

Isn’t that just too cool? I had never seen anything like it before, but my builder suggested it. I love it! No more dripping wet  hands across the counter to turn on a switch.

Now I want to show you the coolest thing in my kitchen…

You know those dead kitchen corner cabinets? In my last house I had a lazy susan. It was nice but I still felt like I had to climb in there sometimes to get things out. My cabinet guy showed me this and I knew right away I wanted it.

I can store so much! (OOPS do not look at the messy drawers.) It has to be one of my favorite things in this kitchen….the drawers, not the mess..lol

Another thing I love about my kitchen….my windows.

All the windows in the house are single hung windows. The problem is, I’m short. The more I thought about it the more I worried that I would never be able to lean over the kitchen sink and open those windows.

I am so glad I changed them to crank outs. My builder told me that it would look fine being different than all the other windows but I will tell you I stressed a lot about it. He was right.

I guess that is my advice. Great design is nice but we also must remember to think about how we live. Our homes are not a magazine prop. They are a place for us to de- stress from the day. A place where we can entertain our friends and family with ease. A place where we want to be able to go about our little daily routines with a smile on our face.

What is your favorite thing about your kitchen?

We had an amazing Valentines. I hope you did too.

I told you before that I had decided to start a new tradition of spending Valentines with the grandkids. I wasn’t sure what that was going to look like but I knew I wanted it to feel like a party.

Mr. Amazing suggested that we make it a tradition of all going to a park for Valentines Day. His suggestion went something like this. What if we make Parks the Valentine theme. This year we could go to the park with a playground ….another year we could take the kids to an amusement park and then when they are older we could take them shopping on Park Avenue. LOL I’m not to sure about that but I did think that we could do the playground this year. We have a ton of parks within walking distance to our house so it seemed like a natural idea….until it rained.

Time to punt!

Remember …the kids are 22 months and 2 months old. I was going to have to be creative.

My granddaughter came all decked out for the holiday

I had made my grandson a t- shirt for today.

First order of business…turn the dining room table into a tent.

What is a party without a marching band?

And if you want fun at any age….bring a balloon!

I hope your day was full of smiles and giggles like mine was

I wrote this post a couple of years ago but it is still true….He is the love of my life…Happy Valentines Day sweetheart!

This is Mr. Amazing as a little boy…

ISN’T HE ADORABLE!?!?!

And he is still just as adorable playing with his tools all these years later.

He is the love of my life.

Not just because he is “amazing”…which of course he is…hence the name…but because he makes me feel amazing.

Happy Valentine’s Day to each and everyone of you…

Funny how God has a way of teaching you things you didn’t really think you needed to know.

I was a stay at home mom. I loved being at home with my kids. In fact I have to admit that I got a bit prideful (is that a word?)  about it. I  didn’t think I was, but if a mom told me that she “had” to work I would think to myself…you wouldn’t have to if you were willing to give up that manicure of yours.

Being a stay at home mom was my destiny….it was what God wanted me to do. But now I wonder…does God have the same path for everyones’ life? I never really thought about the fact that maybe…just maybe, God wants some moms to work.

I now have one daughter that is a stay at home mom and one that is a working mom. I am so proud of them both. Why? Because they are both doing what they feel God wants them to do with their life.

I know that being a stay at home mom can be hard. It’s hard to be with working people and feeling like you have nothing to talk about but the new strides they are making in disposable diapers. I know how temptation can enter your thoughts when your are lonely…I know how hard it is to stay interesting to your husband. I know how hard it is to take care of your children when you are sick because you don’t have a daycare to send them to.

I now know how hard it is for the working mom. I now realize that they have that manicure because without it people see you as a mom that is trying to work rather than the professional you are. I now know that you have to go to work when you are sick so you can save your sick days for when your child is sick.

I now know how hurtful I must have been to those working moms. Moms that were tired, stressed, doing the best they could with what God had instructed them to do.

I now see women differently than I did….Now I just want to encourage them to be what God put them on this earth to be. I want us as women to stop trying to build ourselves up by trying to tear down others. I want us to help each other. Maybe I can take your kid to basketball practice for you but maybe you are the woman doctor I want for my daughter when she needs one. Maybe I can bake cookies for the class party so you can be my child’s teacher.

I’m sorry to any working mom out there that I ever laid a layer of guilt on.

My daughter is the director of a non profit….she talks daily with your girls that are struggling with life. Girls that don’t need guilt laid on them, just love. Aren’t you glad that there are women like my daughter that are willing to listen to the call of God over their own desires?

Pray for the working moms you know…pray for the stay at home moms you know…God has mighty things that he wants to do in both of their lives….Forgive me Lord for not seeing that sooner.

We had a garage sale this weekend. I didn’t know we were going to have it, it just kind of happened. When we moved out of our old house, there were things that I wasn’t really sure if I would want in the new place. Especially since I hadn’t even designed it yet. I had a few sets of beds…remember I came from a four bedroom house but I ended up building a 2 bedroom, so it was time to let them go.

My husband manages a storage company, so I just told him to put everything in there while I figured it all out.

Then we moved into our new home….and around and around the furniture went from room to room while I tried to figure out what I wanted to keep….but knowing me, this game could go on forever.

In Florida you want to make sure that you have your garage sale if at all possible when all the tourists are here. You would be really surprised how many garage sale happen while they are here.

We found out that a local church was going to be having a sale in two weeks, and that they would be willing to pick up any of our leftovers. Hmmmm two weeks? Can I do that?

I call the troops…my daughters.

What do you all think? Can we make this happen?

I guess this is when I should explain to you that when it comes to garage sales, everyone in the family pitches in. The benefit for doing this? You can have whatever you want that someone puts out. In reality, it really just becomes the great American swap meet.

We find that we love each others junk…lol

Okay, so back to the two weeks….my daughter found out that her neighborhood was having a big sale THIS weekend. hmmmmm…that means lots of shoppers…can we do it?

Oh and remember…I’m still not suppose to lift more than 25 pounds.

Sure we can!

With the help of an 11 week old and a 20 month old of course…lol

I found this blog that I wrote a while back giving you all kinds of great advice on how to put on a successful garage sale.

http://www.theinspiredhousewife.com/2011/03/how-to-have-a-successful-garage-sale/

Check out my neat kitchenware table. I love a neat garage sale!

This weekends garage sale looked nothing like this! We just dragged everything out…trying to pull things out of boxes when we could. Most of the big things got marked, but that was about it.

What I learned is…..some people will dig thru boxes but not too many.

…….The pricing thing didn’t seem to bother people. They held it up and I shouted out a price.

…… I do think we had a lot more drive bys because from the road our stuff didn’t look that good.

Did we make a lot of money ? I think so. Could we have done better? probably. Am I glad we went for it and now all of that stuff is gone? YEP!

On top of that, we had another day that we got to spend as a family just hanging out….

PRICELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love decorating. I like staring at a space for a long time thinking of all the possibilities that could go there. Yet I don’t tend to  decorate for all the holidays like some people do.

In fact I don’t really celebrate many of the holidays at all. I’m not really sure why. Maybe because my mother never really did.

But this year is going to be different. I have decided that I am going to grab ahold of  Valentines day.

As my facebook friends know, I have been using the Valentines decorations that I see everywhere to remind me to pray for the heart of my children. It is my prayer that they would desire the things of God.

Now I have come up with another Valentine idea.

Since my husband and I have no traditions for this day, I have decided to start one….it’s never to late to start a tradition right?

I want Valentines Day to be a time that my grandchildren remember spending with their grandparents. We will be having our first annual Valentines Day party at our house this year. No parents invited!

I am so excited. Yes I can basically have these two grandbabies anytime I want them.

But I want them to always remember how loved they felt on this day. I want them to have all kinds of great memories of all the fun we had together year after year.

I am not really sure what we will be doing….if you have any ideas for a 20 month old and a 2 month old please pass it on. I just know I want it to be different than any other time. It has to feel like a party.

What plans do you have for Valentines Day? Do you tend to decorate for it?

Coffee tables are hard for me….I’m not really sure why, but I have a hard time coming up with the perfect coffee table.

Here is my old familyroom.

I liked this coffee table, but when I moved I thought I would like something different. I found this table  at a thrift store and something about it said that it had potential.

I think I liked it because it reminded me of my chairs…

http://www.theinspiredhousewife.com/2011/02/i-love-thrift-shopping/

In an ugly kind of way, lol.

I love the size of the table, but I have not been able to come up with what color to paint it.

Then came my daughter’s coffee table. She just moved into a new apartment and doesn’t have any room for this rather large coffee table.

Once again I like the size of the table but do I paint it? I think I would like it better if it was white, but then part of me wonders if I then have to many circles going on with my little side tables.

Any thoughts? I can’t just keep hoarding coffee tables. One of these days I am going to come up with a plan.

If you follow me on facebook then you know that too much sitting can cause me to want to start moving things around. I had surgery two weeks ago and I am not suppose to do anything for another four.  My husband so sweetly asked me what I wanted to do the other day and my eyes lit up. I’m not sure he will be asking that again….hehehhee.

Here is my what my living room has looked like.

It has been nice, but for some reason it just hasn’t felt user friendly. Whenever you wanted to go to the kitchen you had quite the hike to just get around the couch.

So I had him spin the furniture

Now when someone walks in the house or up the stairs, you can see them…

It has also visually opened up the dining room and kitchen.

The room still needs some decorating tweeking, but so far I am really liking it.

Do you have a living room that says “come on in?”…..or one that says “come over here in this cozy spot?”

Have you ever considered spinning your room around? You might be surprised how different it can make your whole house look.

I grew up listening to my grandfather pray. I can still close my eyes and hear those prayers if I try. Grandpa didn’t just talk to God….he pleaded with God.

There are times in my life that I have pleaded with God…times that I asked with every fiber of my being for the hand of God to do mighty things, but do I do that every day? No.

Why? My  Grandpa prayed for your sick child as hard as he prayed for his own. It was nothing for him to spend an hour on his knees before the throne of God.

Me. I kind of talk to God when I’m stuck in traffic… Or doing dishes. More of a multi tasking kind of prayer I guess. Is my style wrong? I think God likes us to talk to him throughout our day. I Thessalonians 5:17 says to pray continually.

But Jesus prayed in the garden so hard that blood poured from his sweat.

Luke 22:44 “And being in anguish he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

WOW! Now that is some serious praying.

What if I started to pray…really pray. Where I would take my heart’s desires before the all mighty God. What if I came boldly stating my heart’s desire?

Now think about your kids…What if they asked you for something so hard that blood was dropping from their brow…I think I be much more likely to give them the desires of their heart than if they just kind of used me as a vending machine of wants whenever they walked past.

God is the same yesterday, today and forever….That means that the same God that parted the Red Sea is the one I’m praying to. Would he have parted the sea with my simple…please God? Or do great miracles require great prayers?

Now my Grandpa would tell you that times of illness is not the only time we are looking for great miracles. Isn’t it worth a serious talk with God about the future spouse of your child? Most of our pleads are serious…maybe we should start acting like it.

So here is what I’m trying to do to become a great prayer warrior…

Get on my knees every day….yes really on my knees…I saw my grandfather do that up into his 90′s…I think I can too.

Speak out loud. I find I can easily get distracted when my prayers are just floating around my head.

Pick a time of day that really works…I think morning is best for me. But I have to remember to turn off my phone.

I am so blessed to have had a Grandpa that pleaded with his God to watch over me. I want my grandchildren to feel that same blessing.

I am sitting here thinking….

A dangerous past time I know…Anyone know what movie that quote is from? The answer will be at the end of the post…no cheating.

So here I am a few days post surgery and all I can do is wonder if I have lost any weight. Isn’t that terrible? Why would I think I had? Yes I had a very large uterus removed but do I really think that weighed enough to show up on the scale?

Lucky for me my scale is upstairs and I am not ready to venture there just yet.

But it got me thinking about how many times in life we are disappointed because of our expectations.

Didn’t inherit as much money as your thought you would? Why did you think you would get anything at all?

Kids don’t call as much as you would of thought they would? Why not focus on the fact that they call at all.

Thought your husband might have the house clean when you got home? Once again, disappointed because we expect things.

I remember one year my young nephew thought he was getting a special backpack…he didn’t, and because of it he had a miserable Christmas. No matter what, that kid wasn’t going to be happy. At the time I thought…what a brat…but now I look back and think of all the times I have done the same thing. I set my sights on what I think a situation will be like and then when it doesn’t turn out that way, I am upset. I’m upset not because someone told me they were going to do something and didn’t, I’m just upset because I came up with a scenario in my head of how I thought a situation was going to look and it didn’t.

As I go into this phase of being a mother in law and grandmother I am trying to learn that I don’t DESERVE anything. Life is a gift and every gift of kindness that is given to me is also a gift.

Expect nothing, but be thrilled with everything you are given…this is a trait I see in older people that are happy.

Now if I could just learn how to do this when it comes to the scale…

But the way, the quote is from Beauty and the Beast.