Toddler Girl and Toddler Boy Bedrooms

Yesterday I deep cleaned my kids bedrooms. Washed all the bedding, curtains, wiped down baseboards, walls, dusted, put a fresh coat of paint on my daughters nightstand...next on the list is update photos, touch up paint and clean the windows (we have old wood windows so you have to wait until outside temp is just right otherwise you get condensation and streaking). 

Anyways, since everything is looking fresh, I thought I'd share some of the details. Their rooms are always evolving as they grow and have new interests, which honestly, any chance to redecorate, move furniture, etc, and I'm all in! But so much of their stuff has been gathered over time to stay budget friendly. I usually have Pinterest boards dedicated to each room, these serve as rough design boards, but I do love the "Shop" feature because it allows me to add specific things I can buy directly when we have some budget flexibility. 

First up is my daughters room. She just turned 5! She loves pink, dinosaurs, babies, barbies, unicorns, books, and she recently got to have her very own pet in her room! 

Both kids beds have these guardrails from Amazon that are breathable mesh and can fold down when you want to make the bed.

Bed frame is Crate and Kids Jenny Lind Platform bed

Dinosaur sheets - Pillowfort from Target

Comforter - Bare Home from Target.

Pink Blanket - Bare Home from Walmart

Curtains - Pillowfort from Target

Table is thrifted and painted in chalk paint

Rainbow pillow - H&M

Unicorn head - Target

Grandma rocking chair - FB Marketplace

Wool ball garland - Crate and Kids

Horse canvas - Hobby Lobby

Dinosaur head - H&M

Rug - Wayfair (Brandt collection)

Wall color is Sea Cove by Valspar - it's the faintest minty green.

And this little guy is a Halfmoon Double Tail Betta fish. My daughter named him Unicorni

The dresser is favorite find from FB Marketplace. She has a massive walk-in closet with open shelving and drawers, so we use this dresser for toy storage.

We love using our essential oils for sleep support.

Rainbow light and Star light are from Target

Belle' dress in shadowbox was handmade by her Nonna for her first Halloween because her FAVORITE movie at the time was Beauty and the Beast.

Next up in my sons bedroom. He recently turned 3 and loves dinosaurs, monster trucks, tractors, Paw Patrol, etc, etc, etc. I would love any combination of kids, but I do love having one of each because it allows me to decorate their rooms very differently. 

Dinosaur head - H&M

Wool ball garlands - World Market

Fun fact - the white stuffed dog was my favorite lovey when I was little.

Don't wake the Bear sign - Hobby Lobby

Bed frame - Wayfair

Curtains - Pillowfort from Target

Dinosaur sheets - Pillowfort from Target

Comforter - Bare Home from Target

Green blanket - Bare Home from Walmart

Bear head - Target

Toy storage - Target

Dinosaur light - Target

Hopefully we are redoing the plank wall and using bead board. The wall underneath was damaged by bookshelves the previous owners basically had glued to the wall. So rather than re-drywalling, we quickly made this a plank accent wall. The problem is that it's bowing badly.

Wall colors are Celebration Blue and City Storm - Valspar 

His room is just so cozy to me. We love to all snuggle up in this chair and read before bed. My husband and I both love Star Wars..so you'll notice a slight Star Wars theme in both rooms on top of the things they love.

Dinosaur blanket - Little Unicorn

His favorite movie is The Lion King so I had a friend make that Mufasa art out of wool (her specialty- she has a business called All Wooled Up - she makes all kinds of unique things!) I still need to put it in a shadowbox...

So many of the items on their shelves have been passed down from great grandparents; the ducks, tractors, princess figurines, seashells collected from vacations...everything has it's own special meaning. 

That's it! Luckily they both have very nice size closets...because there are more toys in them...they have a lot of grandparents who love to spoil them! 😊💗

Homeschool - Preschool

     Hey friends!! Ok so I'm getting this out a lot later than I had planned, but, hopefully you'll still find it helpful. A few weeks ago I pulled all of our craft and homeschool supplies out, trashed a bunch of things and started organizing. Organizing honestly is not one of my gifts. And this job was especially challenging since our craft/school space is also our dining room. 

     If you're in the same boat, here's a few tips I can give you that has helped keep our space functional and pretty. 

     Don't assume that because it's going to be used as a space for kids, that you have to use plastic bright colored furniture and storage. Our dining room is the first thing we see when we come in the house so I really want it to look like a dining room, not a playroom. I love using antique furniture in our house, I feel like it gives spaces so much extra character. Since having kids, I'm always on the lookout for pieces that are pretty, but pack a strong storage punch. This hutch holds all our family games in the bottom portion. They're easy to access, but hidden! Ideally I'd love for the top part to be solid rather than glass, but this was a gift...and also it's important to remember, kids DO live here...and they can see this stuff all the time and it actually encourages them to want to craft and color more. You know the saying "out of sight, out of mind"...well I don't want aaallll the supplies that inspire creativity to be out of sight. 

Bouquets of freshly sharpened pencils...name that movie!

     Repurpose things like glass jars. I use spaghetti, jelly, salsa, you name it. Peal the label off (I use Young Living Lemon essential oil to get the glue off!) and there you have a "free" storage container to help sort all of your supplies. It helps so much to be able to see what's inside rather than having to pull everything out every time you're looking for something.

     I also love using baskets. These baskets have my "mom/teacher" supplies. 

My daughter loves collecting acorns out of the yard. We use them for math.

Here are the main things we use for curriculum. So far I love The Good and the Beautiful. The lessons are very short and we can easily supplement with these workbooks if she wants to do more. 

My daughter is 4 and we're doing Pre-K but my son is 2 and so I wanted to share some things I have for him. I LOVE these Usborne books!! The best part is my daughter loves to sit down and play teacher with my son and she will help him with these books. Honestly I think he learns more/better from her.

These are perfect for fine motor skills. I found them on Amazon.

I put together a fun little basket of things to work on specifically. 

Here's another antique piece. It holds all sorts of things. Puzzles for my daughter (4) on the right and for my son (2) on the left. The drawers hold Paint, playdough, all the messy stuff. Since it's an antique, they don't open easily...so I can control when those items are brought out. 

Last year I decided to paint a magnetic chalkboard wall. You can get magnetic primer paint from Amazon or Lowes. Chalk paint as well. We use sidewalk chalk. It's never cleaned off for more than a few seconds. They spend so much time here. The magnetic part is great for those lightweight ABC/123 magnets...which really come in handy for preschool lessons.

Lastly, we read A LOT. We have books all over the house. But this Spring I transformed part of our kitchen nook into a reading nook. We put some of our favorite books out here and snuggle up...a lot of times I find these two snuggled up together "reading". It's one of our favorite spaces in the house.

     I'm learning that homeschooling these two doesn't have to be hard. They learn best when I mix learning with playing. I try to keep things simple and follow their lead. I use other resources from Home and Haven Community, The Vanilla Tulip Farmhouse , This Little Home of Mine Blog , Arrows and Applesauce and Christian Book when I'm looking for something more specific. They also offer tons of homeschool freebies which feels like Christmas to a homeschool mom.

I really hope showing you our space and what we're using, is helpful!! ❤

July Garden Update

        Aahhh, the garden. To be honest I had very low expectations. In the past, I've only had raised beds with store bought organic compost/soil. When designing this garden, I knew I wanted to try and work with what we had. That meant planting directly into the dirt we have. We ended being able to get some horse manure from someone so we tilled that into the dirt before planting. Mix that with all the heat, humidity and massive amount of rain, and we have a pretty successful (so far) garden. Albeit, very overgrown with weeds...

Romaine Lettuce

   

Beans 

(we will have enough beans to last a lifetime if I can get rid of the japanese bettles)

Green Peppers (getting bigger every day!)

Banana Peppers

Cherry Tomatoes

These are called Summer Sandwich tomatoes. I got the plant from Lowes mainly bc I was curious.

Beefsteak Tomatoes

Cucumbers

I only planted one cucumber plant this year but it's looking like I'll be able to feed an army with them...

Next year I will give the cucumbers more support and space. I used three metal stakes and some fencing for them to climb, but I didn't make it high enough or wide enough. Hopefully what I have for now will still be able to continue to support the plant as it grows and produces.

Potatoes! They're starting to flower. In the future I will build them some sort of support system to keep the leaves off the ground. This year I'm just praying they don't all rot underground.

Carrots. I desperately need to be able to get out here and clean up this bed and thin these out...

Pumpkin Patch...ugh. The grass is so out of control. I'm honestly not sure how to redo this for next year. But for now, as soon as we have a dry day I am going to try and trim the grass around the pumpkin leaves and then cut garden fabric to put on top. It's a Band-Aid, but hopefully and effective one.

How crazy is it that this was just a few weeks ago?!?!?!

Next year -

1. Box in each bed so there's some separation between the plants, and pathways.

2. Possibly expand the width of the entire garden. The alternative to this would be moving the pumpkin patch to a different part of the property.

3. Build stronger supports 

Here's the garden today. It has rained so much our whole property is sloshy. Mowing, weeding, etc is out of the question. I pulled a big weed out of the lettuce bed earlier and unearthed a bunch of roots. The ground is just too soft to be messed with right now.

Another thing I'd love to do is plant flowers the same depth as the arbor. And eventually we will do more permanent fencing. We just left it like this for now to see if this was going to be the size we like.

Well that's it. All of my garden knowledge has come from trial and error and google. I see these GORGEOUS gardens on Pinterest and Instagram and it isn't hard to feel like a failure. BUT, I keep reminding myself that it doesn't have to look beautiful to produce. 💖 

Mother's Day Gift Guide

 Ok friends. Who needs some last minute ideas on Mother's Day gifts? Either for your own mom or to send to your kids/husbands? I've got you covered! I'm going to give you five things moms really want for Mother's Day.

1. SOMETHING TO PLANT

 Flowers, trees, etc. Hanging flower baskets are always a great idea this time of year. They make any space look instantly more beautiful. Or maybe there's a special tree or bush she's been talking about planting. Japanese Maple, Cherry blossom, Lilac bush, Azaleas...if you're not sure, plan a little trip to the local nursery and let her pick something out...or hack her Pinterest account and see what she's been saving. I'm telling you, you CANNOT go wrong with some sort of flower gift.

2. A DAY AT THE SPA Or part of a day...moms work harder than most people realize. We also tend to put ourselves last. Which is why it's so nice to receive a gift that recognizes our desire to be taken care of occasionally. 

Maybe right now your mom isn't comfortable going to a spa. Or maybe you live long distance. No problem! Hop on Amazon and snag her this massager! I actually ordered this for my husband for Christmas and I use it just as much as, if not more, than he does. 

3. YOUNG LIVING PREMIUM STARTER KIT

Essential Oils are all the rage right now. I personally only use Young Living due to them being the best quality I've found because of their Seed to Seal standard. This kit makes you a Young Living member which means you get 24% off all their products. No monthly fee!! We use their plant based cleaning supplies, personal care products, supplements, and obviously the oils. You don't have to sell (you can if you want but it doesn't affect your membership if you don't). In fact I don't really do the business side, we just use the products. but you're still welcome to sign up through me if you don't know anyone else. I have an amazing team I'm part of that will help you learn all about the products.

• Desert Mist™ Diffuser
• Premium essential oils collection:
• Frankincense, 5 ml Lavender, 5 ml
• Lemon Vitality™, 5 ml
• Peppermint Vitality™, 5 ml
• Citrus Fresh™ Vitality, 5 ml
• DiGize™ Vitality™, 5 ml
• PanAway®, 5 ml
• Peace & Calming®, 5 ml
• Raven™, 5 ml
• Stress Away™, 5 ml
• Thieves® Vitality™, 5 ml
• Valor®, 5 ml
• AromaGlide™ Roller Fitments, 2 ct.
• NingXia Red® 2 oz. samples, 2 ct.
• Thieves® Spray, 1 oz.
• Thieves® Waterless Hand Sanitizer, 1 oz.
• Essential oil display tray
• Essential Oils at a Glance brochure
• Essential Edge News
• Essential Oils magazine
• Product Guide

4. YOUR TIME

Seriously! Make dinner or help in the garden or around the house without complaining. Smaller kids spend time making a special craft. Whatever giving your time looks like in your life and family, do it, she's appreciate it!

5. TIME TO HERSELF

Dads, grab the kids and head to grandma's for a while. Or kick mom out the door for some time outside the house by herself. Ask her which she would prefer!! Emphasis on asking. Sometimes we want time alone to read or watch a show uninterrupted and sometimes we need to go explore the stores alone. 

BONUS

All moms really want is to feel seen. Many of the day to day things we do aren't noticeable and that's ok. We do them out of love not need for recognition. But Mother's Day is a great time to remind the moms in your life that you see them and are thankful for them.  

-buy her those cute pajamas she's been talking about

-plan a get together with her friends she keeps saying she misses

-book a photographer for updated family photos she keeps saying you need

-take her to get a pedicure - sandal season is upon us

-write her a sweet note or handmade card

-help her with a project she keeps saying she wants to do

Don't overthink it. it doesn't have to be hard or expensive. Just from the heart. ❤