An answer to those that say " I am Lucky I get to stay home"

I just read a great Post over at Clover Lane blog On this subject and I just wanted to pass it on and also keep it in my archive, because it was that good. Here is the Post.

I couldn't even count the times I get told how lucky I am to get to stay home with my kids. And it also rubs me the wrong way. Because I do drive the 11 year old van, shop the garage sales early Sat morning to clothe these kids on my budget of basically zero. I make every penny we have work very hard for us. We do without allot of things like , good t.v channels, two cars, date nights, I cannot even remember the last time we went to the movie theater, vacations, new clothes, new anything really. So that I get to stay home. It has nothing to do with Luck it is hard work for my husband and I both to make this lifestyle decision for our family. It is not a decision I regret for a moment, I have great kids, they are raised with our values , morals, rules. And that was our goal as parents when we started this adventure almost 20 years ago. An we have stuck to it .




One of those days we all have!

Bathroom slowly but surely

Does this look better? Does it look like fun?? You can't get true justice from this picture of the mess. This was terrible I had no idea what I was getting into. I simply went to strip off the border and in the process I was stripping off paint, wall texture, paint, border under it all. I guess at some point someone had a border left it on painted over it and put another border on. I then came in and textured, painted again and put another border on. ANYHOO! a big big mess. So I am stripping and retexturing the walls. So no not looking better.

How about this does this look pretty ? This is just primer so don't get to worried like I was when I was doing it. Thinking what did I do??


It is looking much better now. My dear Hubby has been
working on this with me. Originally I had the idea this
would be my project and I would do it all. Well I got over
that pretty quickly. Way to much work to do high up on
a ladder. I am not good at that. especially with kids under
my feet all day.
I am hoping to finish the bathroom today for the most
part so I can show you. I know you are waiting with
baited breath.

Part 1 bathroom makeover The before shots

This is my main bathroom in our house, (with 8 people). Don't think that you are just not seeing everything in the photo because you are. It is that small. But this is not about our tiny bathroom.
This is about a budget redo. This is a before photo .
Now don't go telling me how ugly it is because I did decorate it like this, kinda. The wood paneling was there, the sink, vanity was already there. I just repainted the walls did the plaster texture on the walls and added the border to the wall. The clock is new , my son did just buy that for me for my birthday, Which I love but I am very aware it is too small for that big wall ( it made me chuckle to write big wall, about this bathroom.) I redid this about 5 years ago, and trust me it is sooo much better then it was then.
Well now I am over the border and all the brown in there. Since it is soo small I thought it needed to be brighter and lighter. Also I wanted to tie into the laundry room that it is connected to so it would feel a bit bigger.








This is my very ugly vanity that I am planning a makeover on. It needs an extreme makeover.





This is a photo of a very tall
( 10ft tall ceilings)
wall. That shows off the start of a plan
last time I painted to make the ceiling feel lower. O.k That I never finished it. But the ceilings are so tall with the room so small nobody looks straight up to see.
But that is all about to change. I have
a new plan that everyone is sure to
notice. So I wanted to be sure and
show you what it looked like before so
you will be properly amazed by the after
haha. We hope it turns out better
then my last idea for the ceiling in
there.

So that is the before stay tuned for
a few during and then the After hopefully soon since this is the only real bathroom for us.

Staycation

( Here is part of the crew relaxing in the hot tub.)
We have been on Staycation this week, My dear sister went on her Real vacation for a week and a half. And we crashed at their house for a week, I mean we house sit there pool and dogs.
Thier house is like a hotel to us.
They have a pool, hot tub, good t.v, king size bed,
enough t.vs to make everyone happy, and a trampoline.
Its like a hotel a block away. So we staycationed there this last week.
We have watched WAY too much t.v , all of us. I usually never watch t.v and I have logged me some HGTV hours this week. And the kids have watched enough spongebob to last them .ok Me a life time . We don't have any cartoon channels at our house except good old PBS and those cartoons are over at noon. So non-stop cartoons is a Huge treat for the kiddos. Its been relaxing change of pace, even though I still have to clean house every day and cook, take care of a pool, and couple dogs. Its a different routine. That sometimes we all need. So we are so glad that my dear sister and brother in law and there kids can afford a real vacation so we can use there house for ours.

(Dad and the girls roasting marshmallows on grill after dad grilled dinner.)

My Frugal Decorating finds on the Hunt today.

This was a fun day to hit a "goodwill shop " goodwill meaning it is a ministry that uses the money to help people but it is not " goodwill" the chain of stores. We do not have one of those here in my little town. AnyHooo.
I was excited to find these 3 cylinder vases today There were 4 but I knew to rule of 3's in decorating but I keep wondering if I want the 4th to use somewhere else. They are crystal clear They just are dirty in the photo, do you really think I took the time to wash these goodies before I took a picture of my finds NAAAH! I am not sure where they are going or what will go in them first. I think it will be something that changes with the season like christmas balls, lemons, twigs. I don't know. the wheels are turning. Oh ya .25 a piece. Now you see why I had to have these dirty vases don't you.
The other glass thing is.... Well I don't know what it is really. It is upside down in the phots and the stem has a hole in it so its not really a handle. I kept looking at it. Then I seen this lovely little mirror I thought they would look lovely together I will show you soon what I was thinking. Trust me my family is not "getting" it either. And they were each .25 You will be amazed when I get done with them.. I hope. Well that is a chunk of what I found today, Fun day. I love finding junk I can turn into something I can use or love.
Tommorow is Garage sale day YA! I would love it if I could find a sink vanity top to replace the one my hubby broke this week to use in my Bathroom redo I am working on. I will post soon photos of my bathroom redo on the cheapest budget you have ever seen it will be a don't miss.

Sometimes getting the blues makes things so much prettier.

I love my blue crate I got at a garage sale , I actually got 2 of them for $6.50 for the pair. They are heavy ! They have metal bottoms. I didn't know what I would do with them when I bought them. I am not much of a blue person So they will probably get a paint job sometime soon.

Anyway... My great Idea for this crate I put my stacking letter trays in it, and I had room to put phone books and , our personal family phone book, and the kids chore binder in there also and it looks so nice and neat. This all sits out in the open on the window seat.

The red thing on top is a Photo file that I got at the dollar store and I use it for filing receipts, I just printed off the Monogram R on the computer and slipped into the front, it is the Monogram for our last name or it could stand for receipts. This works out well to slip receipts in easily and also looks o.k to have sitting out.

Now what to do with the other one of these lovely crates HMMMM.....

This is what it looked like before the
crate. Except that I also cleaned out a basket
that had the phone books in it .
I think it looks so much better, especially
from the front door.

glass makes ice cream even sweeter

I started to dish up the kids ice cream in regular plastic bowls last night and remembered my new ( to me, from a garage sale for .25 a piece, now that makes me smile) So I pulled them out and dished up the 4 glasses. I was ready for complaints from the kids that it wasn't very much ice cream and requests for more. Because they are not very big. So I called The 4 kids that were home down for ice cream. ( good thing only 4 were home because that would have caused trouble if everyone didn't get one, I have to find 4 more) The kids all said OOOOOOOOOOOOO fancy and were very excited about them no complaints about the small bowl or requests for more. I think the presentation took over, and they were smiling also.
I do need to find 4 more or 8 more so I still will have enough when they get broke. I am glad I bought them even though I knew I did not have room for them in my tiny kitchen. It was defiantly a lesson in " its all in the presentation."

So far I have been unsuccessful in convincing them that my small pretty white bowls are great for cereal. Or that the small glass juice glasses are great for juice. I guess in those cases bigger is better and trumps pretty or fancy.