Happy Thanksgiving!

     Thanksgiving is officially here, and therefore so is the start of this years' Christmas Season!  It really is my favorite time of year!  Thanksgiving and Christmas seem like completely separate holidays, but are they really?  Sure the origination of them have completely different roots.  But is it just a coincidence in time that the holiday we spend being grateful for all of our blessings comes just before the holiday where we celebrate the biggest blessing we've all ever been given?  I don't think it is.  Every year at our family's Thanksgiving dinner we all go around taking turns saying what we are thankful for this year.  I love this tradition, especially when the year has been an especially difficult one.  It's nice to remind ourselves that despite what life throws at us we really do have a lot to be thankful for.  So to start off this Thanksgiving Day and holiday season here is my list....

I am thankful.......

• For my husband, my children, and all of my crazy disfunctional family.
• For my wonderful friends
• That my parents taught me about God, without Him I surely would have been committed by now.
• That my husband and I both have work, and a home and means to take care of our family.
• That I have a job I love, that I truly enjoying doing, even if it is only part time and seasonal.
• Despite all of the health concerns for several people, and accidents, all of our family is still here with us to celebrate another Thanksgiving.
• That I have been blessed with 3 strong and healthy children.
• That my husband and I were finally able to have our marriage validated after 5 years. 
• That the Church placed some rediculous requirements to achieve that goal.  God must have known that I would only do it if forced to and that I was really going to need that this year.
• That my dad is still with us.
• That my friends in Michigan weren't physically harmed by that crazy shooter!
• That I'm fortunate enough to be able to stay home with the twins while they are little.  I wish I could have had that with my daughter.
• That what started out as an excuse to get out of the house, Lia Sophia, has given me some absolutely amazing friendships with some of the most beautiful women.

     This list certainly isn't exhaustive, but it's a start!  What are you thankful for?

More Cheap and Easy Holiday Decor

     Is it really that time of year again?  Well, I can't complain because Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, and also my favorite time to decorate too!  Thanksgiving is just a couple of days away and I always put my Christmas decor out the day after.  That's right, no shopping for me!!  I'd much rather be in my warm cozy home listening to Christmas music and hanging garland!

At last, my mudroom reveal!!

     Well, what I thought was a project that would only take a few weeks to complete ended up ultimately taking me months.  Not because we've been working on it all this time.  But because my wonderful hubby refused to install anything until my floors were finished.  Just in case you didn't see them, you can check out my new brown paper floors here. 

     I started this project because in the cooler months my lovely family of 5 is always leaving coats and shoes all over the place.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just as guilty as the rest of them, but, it was driving me crazy.  We needed an easy way to corale the clutter.  David and I had been to a few home and garden tours and some of those homes featured adorable mudrooms, with locker-style built-ins. So....out came the sawzall, down went a wall, and several months later here is my mudroom:

 

 

 

Now as you can see there are just a couple little touchups we still need to complete, but I didn't want to wait any longer to show everyone the finished result!  It was a pretty tight fit getting the bench and cubbies installed.  Apparently our builders didn't know how to install a straight wall!!  So we have to touch up the paint a little and get new baseboards.  Nonetheless, it is finished, and functional, and as you can see, giving us our money's worth!

 

Speaking of money, I think all in all we had about $200 in this small remodel project.  The higher quality plywood and the drywall were our biggest expenses for this project. 

My husband built the lockers himself, following these free plans from Ana White.  I have to just say that I love her website and we are planning to make many more things using her super simple plans!

If you would like to go back and see the details of this project from start to finish.  You can link to those posts below:

Demolition Therapy

Mudroom Update