Refresh

During the last school year while all the children were off at school, I painted most of our home. The house was previously painted white inside with what I think was actually primer. Yikes. After two years living here, it was looking pretty gross.

I chose Ancient Stone by Valspar for the paint color, It is my go to neutral because it looks good with everything and is warm feeling without being brown. I need a neutral in almost every room because I have all of my dad's fantastic art to showcase. It has plenty of color and I want it to be the focus in a room. I also painted the top of our dining table a cream color because it was in such bad shape and because we have so much dark brown in this room. It may get a turquoise makeover, though?

In our dining room, I added some sparkly throw pillows to my favorite Craigslist couch and put some flowers in a mason jar so I could snap some pictures. We live in a split level home from the 1980's. It is a new era of home and new floor plan to figure out for me. So, yay! Progress!

Here is a "before" shot, of sorts. Nothing heinous but what do you think? Are you still loving the all white trend? Painted anything lately? Am I stuck with dirt colored walls while my sons still live at home? 

master chef

Here is a fun thing we did this last year with homeschool. Our very own Master Chef mystery box challenge. I gave the 3 oldest boys a plate full of the same ingredients and Matt, Collin, and I judged their creations on presentation, taste, and creativity. I gave them angel hair pasta, sausage, parsley, shallots, heavy cream, pizza dough, romano cheese, artichoke hearts, lemon, and a very limited pantry. Most of the items did not have labels so they had to smell or taste or just ignore it if they did know what it was. They did not have to use everything and they had a small bit of help with the stove and blenders and such.

I was blown away! They did so great and got really into it, not to mention the food was really good. Aden made his own marinara and added carrots for presentation. (I thought this would be gross but the carrots were really good with it.)

Collin was very articulate and tried everything, giving feedback to each dish and writing down his score.

Kaleb opted for the pizza rather than pasta and it was delicious.

Parker did a pasta dish with lemon and even used the lemon peel in the boiling water for the noodles, very smart!

As for the scoring, each judge could give up to 10 points for the three separate categories and in the end a dish could earn a maximum 90 points. (up to 30 from each judge.)

Aden had the best looking dish in our opinion, not as creative but the taste was surprising and real good. He earned 79 points total.

Kaleb's pizza won us over in the taste category, we all finished every bite. He came in with 79 points as well.

Parker was the most creative, we thought. He used more sophisticated flavors and Collin hated it. In the final tally he earned 76 points.

Everyone was happy though. For about $30 in groceries, it was enough for 3 meals. It was cheap and fun and I love that these guys are developing this skill. Collin has already said we need to find another judge because he wants in on it next time.

easter

Fun time celebrating Easter this year with boys and bow ties and bunnies.

My mom's family sold my grandparents home this year. As they were cleaning out the closets they found a box with four bow ties in it. I grabbed them up and boom! Grandpa Chuck's stylish legacy lives on.

The rest was all heading to worship, egg hunts, cascarones fun, and talking through Aunt Lindsay's set of resurrection eggs from 20 years ago.

paint the town red

 Or maybe just the back door. Last month I took a Sunday morning Matt had to work for another type of worship: Boring back door redemption.

 Here she is , your basic, beat up back door. Before the $2.50 can of red paint from the clearance bin worked it's magic.

 And after! God really is in those details. The paint matches our patio cushions perfectly at certain times of the day.

Hurray for small wonders. Any home redemption going on for y'all? Or has the heat zapped everyone?

hunger games

Lately I have been going through photos on the computer. I am estimating half of the recent snaps are of food. So many! I guess it makes sense because it is a huge part of every day. The boys are all (every last one) eating like grown men. Usually Parker can out-eat Matt. (Oh golly, we will never have any money.) This means I am at the grocery store almost every day. So naturally I started taking pictures there too. Welcome to my world, blog friends.

 Trader Joes! Clever.

 When the boys are at school, Matt and I eat like grown ups.( And apparently don't bother to properly chop up the bacon.) The secret to brussel sprouts, IMHO, is a splash of apple cider vinegar and bacon. Always with the bacon.

 Have you seen all the commercials for the new Lay's potato chips flavors? We had our own little taste test. Between Chicken and Waffles, Siracha, and Cheesy Garlic Bread, we most enjoyed Chicken and Waffles.

 Kale. Matt's convinced we can work this super food into every meal. I swear we are all turning green but he LOVES it.

 Yep, there is kale in there, too. Here's a handy tip; if you get a big arse cup from Baja Fresh, save the straw for smoothies. I am expanding my hoarding tendencies to eating out now.

 My mom and Ken bought us a panini maker for Christmas. It is awesome, thanks for buying us the best gift we never knew we wanted! This one was a lasagna panini with tomatoes and ricotta cheese and Italian seasoning.

 If it is not kale around here, it is beets. I am not complaining, just in shock of how my husband has changed his diet over the years. Most of the boys will get on board with these veggies as well. (Maybe they are just shoveling it in too fast to notice what it is?)

I found a recipe for caramel corn that did not require corn syrup. Hooray! This recipe is a favorite now. I add in Chinese five spice at the end and it is divine.

Okay, back to the kitchen because someone is undoubtedly hungry.