A Kitchen That Needs Help

I have a tiny kitchen.... tiny.....

That is pretty much the whole thing....

We put our house on the market in June 2015 and It came off the market in May 2016 after not selling.  We have over 100 scheduled viewings and only one offer that didn't pan out.  I think a big reason for not selling is this kitchen.

So with the blessing.... kinda.... of my hubby I am starting to look at redoing the kitchen.  I am thinking the cabinets will all be replaced with white... counter top... well I would love butcher box type the cost and or effort are looking to be like more than we can probably handle... but I am working on that idea with the hubby.

As you can see that wall had a "chair rail" and above it is plaster walls and below is some kind of fake tile wall over plaster.  This has to go.

I should also say we are a tight budget with this project.  So I am thinking wall repair, and paint... this means the window frames are going and the door to the basement will have to be refinished... oh joy.
What color counter top if not wood.... and what backsplash??  I am lost on this right now.  I will be digging through online photos and DIY websites for weeks... Just another fun thing going on at our house!

Much Love,
Kim

MIA

I go missing from time to time which probably isn't good.  But here is what my summer looks like.

Up at 4:20am M-F gym, then work.
M-F clean house, do laundry
Friday get everyone in the car after work and drive to 1000 Islands.
Enjoy Saturday
Sunday, clean up the River house and pack again.  Drive home.
Monday.... repeat.

So most weeks are like this with odd ball weekend home now and then.  So basically we are at full speed all week to get the weekend to do it all over again.  I kinda love it, but it takes time away from other things in our life.  Hence no posting for a few weeks.  I hope to be able to write my post while riding up on Friday nights if I can't get to it in the week day hours.  We shall see how that goes. 

Other updates... I need to eat better.  I don't do horrible but I don't do great either... gotta fix that. 

My oldest will be 3 weeks which is crazy.  So we will take his Birthday off and spend it with him and the activity of his choice... this year... a BIG Zoo!  That will be fun.

I gave up sweets for the month of June and lost on day 4 when I pooped some M&Ms at my son's birthday party... WTF!!!!!!!!

Otherwise same old same old!

Much love,
Kim

Crazy Things Kids Do

As you may know I have two littles.  Currently my oldest is about to turn 3 in June.  He is thoughtful and loving.  He looks after his little brother and is crazy smart.

 

However he also does crazy things that make me wonder about him... then I remember he is just about to turn 3, not 25.

• "Mommy I used my pee like paint. Here here and here. It is all dry now and like new."  Said after finger painting with pee all over this bedroom... we are debating removing the training from his room, even if he is great about getting up to use it in the middle of the night.
• "I don't know."  The answer he gave his father when a few days after ^^ he put is head in the potty and liked his pee.
• "Will the spider be in there?"  This is what he asked me this weekend when going into a farmer's market we went to in the fall to buy pumpkins.  In the fall they were decorated for Halloween.
• "Mommy you said a bad word!  You said hate.  That is a bad word."  I was schooled by his last night in the care because I did say hate.... then he schooled his dad 2 min later for saying stupid.... my little sponge. 
• One of the neighbor kids jump the fence the other day and came over to the boys.  I told them to say their names.  Little Little doesn't talk clearly yet, so Big says "I Holden, and this is Connor James, he my brother."  He put his arm around his brother and I almost cried on the spot.
• Also.... 9 nights out of 10 my big guy sleeps on his floor not his bed.
  

This all happened in the last week!  So I am going to have start writing these things down because they crack me up.  He also says the most random but true things.  He remembers everything and will pull it out and throw it back at you all the time. 

My other little is 19 months.  He is also loving, but bull headed in a way that the first one was not.  He will yell and stomp his feet when he doesn't get his way, and doesn't really care about being told no. 

He deals with a lot.  He has had teeth marks for the big one on his arm for a week recently.  Good thing it happened at Daycare as I would have lost it on the big..... that is a big no no.  Little deals with his big brother being rough and mean sometimes.  He also gets loving attention from his brother.  He will call for Aldoe (Holden) in the morning before Mommy or Daddy sometimes and big walks in and says "Hi Connor, I right here."  I enjoy the love they show each other already.  I know someday Little with be able to beat the snot out of big as he is already almost the same weight and only a couple inches shorter with only 16 months between them.  Little takes after me and is full of fight and wants what he wants period.

• "Marmollow"  This is how little asks for a marshmallow and it so cute you pretty have to say yes.
• He dances to Barney's I love you song and runs over to hug you and kiss you when the song says to.
• If you say no he screams like you cut off his arm.
• He hands you his plate when he is done eating.... and says done... so cute.
• He loves the "weeee" aka the slide at our house.
• He will plug his nose and tell you he is stinky when he needs a change.  (potty training soon)
• He loves to play with the little girl next door but totally grabbed her butt this past weekend.

So these kids are so cute and so full of life.  It takes a lot to keep up with them but we do it.  It means we ignore some items that should be done and we play with them or take them on hike, but I think that is ok.  They are only little once and this is the time we need to enjoy.

Until next time!
Much love,
~Kim

Mother's Day

Hey guess what????  Mother's Day is this Sunday!

So go get mom something nice... or even better get her something she wants and then spend the day with her and do something fun or worth the time.

I have a few different things to say about Mother's day.....
1.  If you know someone going through infertility, just call them this Mother's day and give them some support.  It is a freaking shitty day for those people.  They hate it and hate everything around it.  So call and say "Hey today sucks and I love you.  Want me to stop by with Ice Cream?"  Just show them you are there for them.
2.  Sometimes your "mom" isn't related to you.  I have 3 moms in my life.  My mom mom that gave birth to me and that I grew up with, my stepmom who has been in my life since my early 20s, and my mother-in-law.  They are all special in their own ways.  But let's talk about other moms in your life.  Your daycare providers that spent a ton of time with you growing up, your friend's moms that were there for you, and all those other wonderful people that have been a mom for you.  Those people are all important.

So this year, celebrate with your mom or moms and maybe send a card or email to those other "moms" in your life.  Let them know they are important too.  We all needed someone growing up, and maybe they need to know how much you appreciated them.

Much love,
~Kim

What is keeping me busy right now?

So I am going to take a few minutes and talk about what I am currently doing outside of work and my boys that is keeping me busy.  I am focused on a couple things, reducing the "crap" in my house, spending less money on daily items, better health and living with essential oils, and weight loss.  All sound fun right??

Reducing crap…. So our house has been for sale for 10months.  Which is a really freaking long time when you have 2 toddlers.  So it comes off the market this week and we will try again in a couple years.  No big deal I guess.  Anyway these ten months have made me really look at what stuff I really need and want in my house.  We have a whole storage unit of stuff to bring home and I don’t want to bring much of it home…. We don’t really need it.  However some stuff we do need and do want back.  I just want to reduce the crap around home and make room for space…. I just want some space that isn’t cluttered.  I sound like my stepmom but that is totally ok.

Spending less on daily items…. So I started to coupon more and focus on sales to buy things.  I also upped my game with more Wal-Mart shopping and plan to hit Aldi more as well.  I also am now making my own homemade fabric softener (it really works) and soon my own laundry soap.  I am giving up on drier bars and have moved to wood balls in the drier.  I will update you all on the soap thing when I finally try it.  I am also going to start making my own hand soap…. At some point. 

Essential oils… I started working with Young Living and using oils for all kinds of things.  I make a kick butt sore muscle rub, stretch mark cream, vapor rub for the kids, and I use it diffused every day.  My stretch marks have gone from red to normal skin color in a month!  The sore muscle rub is such a hit my friends are asking me to make it for them…. And my son wants his vapor rub even when not sick.  I also have an allergy roller that I love when my allergies are bugging me.  The uses are endless honestly and I am freaking in love.  If you want to join my team or get more information check it out!  Kim's Young Living 

Weight loss…. I am doing weight watchers through my work and so far I am down 22 pounds.  The last 3 weeks have been hard.  I am fighting a few pounds weekly to make them run of the hills.  But let me put it into perspective…

22 of those is no joke, but I still have a lot to go.  It is work every day and making the right choices along with working out.  I just added Monday to my work out days.  I now do 30 min of gym time M-F… Weekends I have 30 minutes of kids and running around and everything else.  The weekends derail my eating.  I really have to start working on that doing better.  All the crappy choices I make over a weekend can add up to a failure of a week for me.  So that has to stop.  The goal is 100 pounds down…. So focus is gonna be needed.

So I guess that is what is keeping me busy right now.  We didn’t even go into planning a garden, getting storage set up at home, getting a swing set ready or any of that… needless to say life is busy and I like it that way!!

Much Love,

~Kim

Workout?? I do, let's talk about it.

Good morning everyone!!!!

So I don't know if I have told you all but I work out.... yep I do.  At 4:30-4:45am 4 days a week.  Well today I decided that next week will mark the first week of 5 days a week.  Why you wonder??  Because Mondays suck.  I know everyone agrees with this, but for me it is a totally different reason.  Mondays suck because I drag but and feel like poo.  So I just have to get up and get the workout done so that I feel less like poo.  End of story.

So why do I get up before the sun and get my workout in?  Well I have two toddlers that are awesome and busy... like the kind of busy that makes you want to take a nap just from watching.  So... going to gym after they go to bed is joke.  Big fat joke.  My hubby can get a run in after they go to bed but for the life of me I don't know how.  I can't do it.  I just can't.  I know this and I made adjustments.  I get up, I go to the gym, I come home, shower and then get everyone else ready as well.  It works for us.

So now that we are talking about working out... let's talk about why I workout.... well it is for my kids in a way.  I was sick of being out of breath and not wanting to run around and be crazy with them.  I was 255 pounds as my highest non-prego weight.  I had enough of it and said I had to make change.  I started with the working out and trying to do C25k, then C210k, but running has caused me some serious hip pain.  Now I am still working out but cut the running a lot.  I am going to see an ortho guy about the hip in May to hopefully get it all set to run again.  Either way my goal was lose 100 pounds.  The weight wasn't moving with just working out.  So I started Weight Watchers in January as well.  I am knocking on 25 pounds down, but can't seem to get the scale to agree to 25, just 24.2 for a couple weeks.  I am working on it.  So the goal is 150-155ish.  This was my last attempt before I gave serious thought to gastric bypass.

The goals are really easy to understand, be healthy and have the energy to play with my kids.  Simple, but it is taking a lot of work and dedication.  I give myself some props for getting up and hitting the gym 4 days a week all winter... I started before Thanksgiving in 2015 and have missed only one day due to my kids being sick and up all night.  Missing sucked, I just didn't have the same get up and go that I do when I go to the gym.

So that is my deal with working out and trying to eat healthy... what are you doing?  Are you trying to start, started, maintaining??  Whatever you are doing I am glad you are doing it.  We should all try and be active so that we can stay healthy.

Much love!
~Kim

Weekend.... what weekend.......

So I love my weekends with my kids... I really do, but sometimes we just don't actual have a weekend.....

Saturday morning we had a house showing (we have had our house on the market almost 10 months) so we had to be out of the house by 9:30am.  So I plan to go to a few stops to pick up clothes for my oldest.  (Mommy groups on FB have great deals on clothes.)  So we go to the first house and get the shirts, then we go to the second house and get pants.  I told them to just let me know if had more 3T and I would be happy to come get them.  Well the second house did.... big score for around $50!!!  I was thrilled.  By then it was time to go meet the family for my grandma's 95th Birthday!!!!  We had a good time taking her out to lunch.  Her favorite restaurant.... Denny's for a waffle.... yep she loves it.  After that we took a quick trip to my sister's new place to check it out... then back in the car for a "car nap" for the boys.  I drove around for over an hour to make sure they got sleep, then over to my dad's house for Pizza with my cousin that was in town for the big Birthday.  By the time we got home it was bed time for the boys... and I wasn't far behind.

Sunday we had less going on in the morning so the boys got to play at home for awhile.  We had to have a lunch a little early so that we could have a house showing at 4pm.  So lunch at 11:30am, naps and the hubby was out running 17 miles after.  So I was picking up the house and cleaning for the showing.  The oldest woke up and we watched a movie for a little, then the little one got up and we started getting ready to go... we had to be out of the house by 3:30 to make it to out 4pm haircuts... or at least by 3:45... Hubby was still not home from the run... I texted him that I was going to the bank with the boys and that we would be back to get him.  When we got home to get hubby he was showering.  My agent called saying that the lock boxes weren't working and could I leave a door open?, sure!  Also can they be there in 10 min..??  No!  Hubby is in the shower.  Ok say 15?  Sure!  I got out of the car ran inside and told him to hurry.  By the time I made it up the stairs the showing was in our driveway..... 25 min early...... I was not happy.  Hurry hubby hurry....  We got out of the house and got to haircuts (for the boys) on time.  Both boys got cute cuts and then it was time to run to the store..... not too late so we hit Tops and then decided to hit Walmart.  Well that took longer than planned... Home by 6:25... dinner is normally at 5:30..... do a quick dinner and get the boys in the bath and then to bed...... again, we weren't far behind.  However before I could go to bed I wanted to give making my own Fabric Softener a go... it was super easy to make.... 1 cup hair conditioner, 3 Cups warm water and 1.5 Cups Vinegar.  I will review it in another post after I use it.

Monday at 5:15am... Alarm rings and it is time to get ready for work!!!

This Krazy Mama needs a nap and it isn't even 11am on Monday!

So that was my Krazy weekend.  I hope you all had fun if not busy weekends.

~Kim