Instagramming

Just wanted to put up my Instagram shots from last week, seeing as how this week is almost over now... :)

Life is good, though sometimes it sure doesn't feel like it. I am so grateful for my life, for all that I have been given, and there are moments every once in a while where I hear about someone with a terrible disease, or someone who was diagnosed with something terminal and had to face death--and my perspective does a 180. In that moment, all I can do is say a prayer in my head, thanking God for
giving me my health and everything else, and I see how good I have it. The sad part is that it's so easy to go back to making your problems larger than life in your head again, and that feeling is lost. Gratitute is such a good thing to cultivate, and I'm working on it as I speak.

1. We love our cherry tomatoes the most. They are the easiest to pop in your mouth with no mess, easy to pack in lunches, and they are the sweetest. We gobble them.
2. New project alert--painting the kitchen, and still not done.
3. A Boise house in the latest Dwell issue.
4. Riding with this little guy behind me. Didn't get a shot of the other three kids.
5. Waking up slowly with Pero in bed.
6. Hanging in my breakfast area.
7. Every Saturday we are at one field or another, usually both.
8. The weirdest tomato I've ever seen. It really wanted a nose.

xoxo,
Tanya

It's a floral cloud

No, I didn't make the sock monkey--I made the cloud pillow behind it. He just happened to be in the room, and it looked like he wanted to join the party. So I let him.

I posted a couple days ago how I was itching to make a cloud pillow, and make a cloud pillow I did! It was pretty gratifying to be able to make something fairly quickly and it was pretty foolproof, too. I am a beginner sewer and have lots to learn, but good thing I didn't have to learn anything for this one (or you could count me out). I stuffed it with bamboo stuffing to make it super natural and healthy for the kids' beds, and stitched up the hole by hand. The best part--I had everything on hand. No prep, no fuss--my kind of project.

The girls took all my scraps and thoroughly enjoyed themselves cutting it up into "mountains" as I worked (short attention spans). :) Those fabric scissors cut fabric like butter!

Don't mind the fact that my bed is unmade. And yes, that is my lovely orthopeadic pillow (how I hate it). I'm old...

I had to make the bed to get a cute shot of this pillow in all its glory. It just wouldn't have been the same without those shaggy beauties in the background, right? The cloud found a home on Mila's bed, and she now has to have it by her side as she falls asleep. So now I have to make Olivia one, and they have both requested heart pillows as well. Now I just need to think of what I can come up with for Ben's bed.

xoxo,
Tanya

Being a parent is hard sometimes

Date night

We often don't have babysitting for the weekends, so we 1) haven't been going out on dates much or 2) take the kids. Sometimes I'm tired and it's not worth the effort to arrange anything, which I figure is bad (keep your marriage alive! you need to be alone! right?), but it's been working for us lately.

This date night was actually a week and a half ago now, but I'm just getting around to posting it. We had a good time as a family, and that's what matters. I want my kids to remember a fun childhood, where their parents took them places and spent time all together, as a unit. We started off with dinner at a local pizza place (I love a good pizza), then ended up at the park, which was supposed to be a quick thing before we headed home. Well, when we were driving up to it, we noticed people everywhere, then booths, then vendors, then the park, which was completely filled with tents, and we realized some kind of fair was going on. Lots of earthy, health-conscious people. :) We played on the playground as it was getting dark, looked around, and each of us (the kids and I) got to pick a rock out to take home. I got a cool one cut in a tower--don't really know what to call it, but I like it! You should have seen me asking B to buy me a rock, and the vendor is looking on the whole time. "Please, can I have this rock? Look, it's a really cool one. I love rocks..." Ha ha! Then he started going on with some guy how wives want the weirdest things. Good thing he bought me the rock.

We ended the night with a stop for frozen yogurt (I got the tart flavor with berries and nuts on top--don't worry, no sugar!), one of our favorite things to do as a family, then off to bed. Such a good date.

xoxo,
Tanya

I've been pinning

I've been looking at beautiful spaces online lately, and here are some I've pinned. I love that there are so many different types and styles of homes out there, with all kinds of people living in them, and they are all unique because of the infinate ways you can fill a home up with things. I never get tired of it. (A little bit of philosophy for you there...)



No. 1 / No. 2 / No. 3 / No. 4 / No. 5 / No. 6 / No. 7 / No. 8 / No. 9 / No. 10 / No. 11 / No. 12 / No. 13 / No. 14

 

xoxo,

Tanya

Stickers never get old

These kids are always pulling out a piece of paper to draw on, paint on, cut, or cover with stickers when they need something to do. I have an endless supply of paper and craft supplies, so it works out well. I especially love how Olivia will go in the dining room and start creating something on her own, and she'll sit there in her own little world for a long time, so quiet that I forget she's even there.

This day Noah was over for the afternoon, and I just couldn't get the kids to stop fighting, so I called them downstairs, pulled out a bunch of stickers (and coloring books) and let them go to town. And no, I don't spend a fortune on stickers--most of these are from the dollar store and the WalMart birthday section.

Ahhh, peace and quiet.

xoxo,
Tanya