Life as we go it

I've been totally slacking in the taking-photos-of-the-kiddos Department. Life has been so busy.

We've been doing lots of fun stuff. In the past few weeks we've:
Attended two weddings.
Taken a trip to our cabin.
Spent a day at the zoo.
Enjoyed Bookworm Gardens twice.
Have been harvesting tomatoes from our garden.
Matt's been canning dilly beans and making homemade salsa.
Liam has done countless experiments with paint & glitter glue & play dough.
We've taken trips to the farmer's market.
Started potty training Liam.
Started giving Chloe cereal.

But it's really the daily to-do list that's been keeping us busy:
It's the laundry.
And the dishes.
And the constant layer of crumbs and stickiness on the kitchen floor.
The picking up of toys & socks & books & random everything.
The mowing of the law, de-weeding the garden, watering the flowers, etc.
Paying bills and getting rid of piles of junk mail.
Keeping the refrigerator stocked and the diaper baskets full.
Hosting friends and family at our house.
Double bath times. Double story times. Double put-downs-to-bed.

I've been struggling during the day with how to manage the routine stuff while also making time for fun and caring for two little kids. As soon as I think I've figured it all out, something changes or goes haywire. Luckily, when Matt's done with work for the day, he's an enormous help! When he's with the kids and I things are so much easier.

We have 2 kids and I get stressed out. My Grandma Bieniek had 8 kids and my Grandma Judnic had 9 kids!! HOW DID THEY DO IT ALL?

I've been super complain-y and crabby lately (I'm so sorry Matt) but I truly feel blessed to be busy and tired and surrounded by chaos sometimes. I would rather be busy than bored!

And so we truck on...
...trying to find a balance between fun and the day-to-day....

This is where we do dishes...

Our home is around 120 years old. When we moved into our house 4 1/2 years ago the kitchen was the one room that we said we'd like to re-do eventually. It was very functional the way it was (great appliances, plenty of storage space, heated floors, under cabinet lighting, etc.) but it just wasn't our style. It had orange textured ceramic floor tiles, late 80's-esk cupboards and counter tops and a Spanish-style back splash. It definitely did not mesh well with the style of a 120-year old house.

So around 2 1/2 years ago Matt & I took the plunge and started remodeling the kitchen! Matt & I and some family & friends did all of the demolition. We saved the appliances because they were totally fine and donated the cabinetry to our local Restore. We did all of the wall and trim painting ourselves. My uncle added more lighting in the ceiling and installed new cupboards. We splurged on custom granite counter tops from a place in Milwaukee and hired a local carpenter to install a new wood floor and legs on the kitchen island. Matt and his uncle installed new floor & window trim and window ledges. We hired another local carpenter to make custom open shelving in two areas. As for the decorating, that has been a long process done by me. Some day I will show photos of the rest of the kitchen....

We finally got a new tile back splash installed last week. It's amazing how different the kitchen looks with a new back splash! It really pulls all of the elements of the room together and finishes it nicely.

We picked out a really simple, small subway tile. Our cabinetry and flooring is quite simple, yet our granite counter top is detailed, so we wanted something simple that wouldn't take away from the beauty of the granite. And we got the tile on super sale at Menards which makes it even sweeter!

Here are some before photos of our back splash area, without tile:

The grout we chose is called "Mushroom."

S bought old frames at a thrift store. Then she primed and painted them white. We had the option of "shabby chic-ing" the frames with sandpaper if we wanted. I chose to do it and I love how it turned out. 











Every year when I decorate for Fall I'll see this craft and remember the great time I had with my crafty ladies :)

Do you have any cool Fall or Halloween crafts in the works? I'd love to hear about them

He was pretty serious today...

...until he stuck his tongue out!