Step-by-Step Guide to Landscaping with Small Children

This tutorial will give you a step-by-step outline for how to complete a landscaping project while managing small children. These tried and true methods are certain to help any parent complete a simple project in just a few hours (or days). 

1. Put together your plans for the project. You will need to complete this task between the hours of 10pm-1am because this is the only quiet time in your house. Order all necessary plants online because 1) there is no way you could successfully bring your children to a nursery and actually make a knowledgeable purchase while simultaneously screaming at them to stop running out into traffic and 2) they are much less expensive online and your credit card is still licking its wounds after registering four kids for Summer camps. Don't be alarmed when your "tree" arrives looking more like a stick. You get what you pay for, after all!

2. Set your kids up in front of the tv, feed dog and put her in her cage. Pull out all necessary tools. This includes a shovel, rake and gardening gloves. Donn your gardening attire and get started!

3. Dig two shovelfuls worth of dirt up. The kids have now discovered that you are outside and want to "help," so drop everything and help them put on jackets, shoes, gardening gloves (painstakingly sticking each finger into each finger hole), hat and sunglasses. Pull out shovels and rakes for the kids and get started!

4. Dig two shovelfuls worth of dirt up while one child tries to simultaneously dig the same pile of dirt and yells at you for taking it from him and the other child throws your previously dug dirt and rocks back into the hole. Repeat this task for approximately 5-15 minutes depending on the moods of the children, making sure to stop every 1-2 minutes to assist children in putting gardening gloves, hats, sunglasses and shoes back on because they decided that they wanted to take them off but now want them back on.

5. Kid #1 needs to pee, so race into the house, tracking mud across the kitchen in order to avoid an accident.

6. Resume digging. The kids have now decided that they are done "helping," and will now begin dragging every toy they own out of the garage so that you can put it away later.

7. In approximately 20 minutes, drop everything again because Kid #2 needs to poop. Rush into the house again, dragging more mud across the kitchen. False alarm. Return to digging.

8. 10 minutes later, Kid #2 comes walking outside with no clothes on and muttering something about meatballs. Drop everything and head inside to clean up his poop and put on all new clothes, now tracking mud upstairs. Realize that the kids have let the dog out of the cage and she has now dug a hole in your carpet and pooped on the floor. Clean up poop, put dog back in cage and head back outside.

9. Resume digging. At this point the kids are now screaming for food because, apparently, you have not fed them in at least two weeks. Dish out snacks, then head back out to resume digging. After about 20 minutes, drop everything and give into your horrible Mom-guilt and the pleas for a trip to the playground. The big kids arrive home from school and are eating a snack so, of course, the little ones are starving again so you will need to dish out more snacks.

10. At this point you will continue with your project for about 1 hour, with regular interruptions to resolve fighting between the unsupervised children in the house. Ignore all noises and keep working so you can finish this project before the screaming for dinner begins! It is very likely that the kids will be coming out on regular intervals to talk to you and/or play outside. Every time this happens, you will need to drop everything to assist the 2 year-old with putting his shoes, jacket and gardening gloves back on - which will all be taken off within 5 minutes.

11. Step back and admire your work. Immediately enter the amount of time you were gardening into your fitness app so that you can calculate how many extra wine calories your earned for tonight (hey, everything counts, right??). No time to rest just yet though. Time to clean-up the 8 million toys that are scattered in the yard and street, then clean-up the mud tracked through the house, take the dog for a walk, help with homework, cook dinner and drive kids to evening activities.

Once the kids are in bed it is finally time to kick your feet up and enjoy that extra big glass of wine! That Charlie Brown Christmas Tree is going to look pretty damn fantastic in about 10 years:)

Find Your Inspiration

It is Snow Day #89, I think. So I am doing what every responsible, excellent Mother would be doing - hiding in my study and quietly busying myself with unnecessary tasks while hoping that the kids don't find me. Hey, don't judge. At least I'm downstairs and not hiding in a closet like I was doing the other day:)

Today let's talk a little more about finding your inspiration. I've mentioned this idea in previous posts and want to reiterate it again. Although you may be anxious to get started with decorating a space, don't begin the project until you have found your inspiration. Once you find that inspiration, build around it.

When looking for a new house, one of my "must haves" was a mudroom. With four boys, this is an absolute necessity for my sanity. I wasn't sure what route I wanted to go with this mudroom. It felt very dark and cave-like, so originally I was thinking that I wanted to do something to brighten it up, but just couldn't come up with the right colors.

My mudroom inspiration:

One of the boys decided to decorate my wall. Notentirely sure he thought the idea completely through when he later tried to deny that it was his work;)

But, this did offer me the inspiration that I needed to begin the project. Although I had originally planned to brighten this space, a chalkboard wall just seemed to be what I was looking for. I've always wanted to put one in somewhere, but it didn't quite work in my other spaces. Because this area is essentially separate from the main living areas, I felt like I could treat it a bit differently and give it more of an individual personality. One of my big pet peeves with a chalkboard wall is the chalk dust collecting on the ground and baseboards. We tried to assist a bit with this issue by putting a small piece of trim along the bottom to catch the dust.

I'm kind of obsessed with organization and all things Pottery Barn, so I had to make my calendar a big part of this decor. It is strategically located as you exit the house so that my husband knows what we are up to that day since he never really pays attention when I tell him;)

I think one of the more important items to have in a mudroom is a table to place keys, mail and other items as you are walking in the door. I found a small table on Amazon for relatively inexpensive that works well because it is not very deep, therefore not getting in the way too much as you are walking in.

This space is quite narrow, so I wanted to add visual space to it by emphasizing the high ceilings. I purchased inexpensive wood frames from Michaels, painted them in a variety of colors, and hung them nice and high to draw the eyes upward.

In this mudroom we were lucky enough to have a little alcove already built into it. In the model home and many others, people have had Pottery Barn inspired built-in lockers created in this space. I love the look of these and they are absolutely gorgeous, but not quite in my price range right now. Instead I decided to re-use the cubbies that we had built years ago for use in our old garage because we didn't have a mudroom. My husband built these for me with my design created from the preschool cubbies at my children's school. They have turned out to be quite functional although as the kids get bigger, I'm finding that we are going to be running out of space in them pretty soon.

I couldn't handle the super boring, builder-grade white flushmount that came with the house, so a fun upgrade from Lowes was a necessity to complete the look.

 I stumbled across this large letter "L" at Michaels and decided that I just had to have it for the house. With a bright red for a pop of color, it worked perfectly in this space!

And there you have it - a completed mudroom! With the fun pops of color, the darkness of this room doesn't bother me too much. And it offers me a place to leave necessary messages for my more forgetful child as he is getting ready for school:)

Upcycle Your Furniture to Create Style While Saving $

As I've mentioned in my introduction post, I want a champagne house but on a beer budget. I love to decorate, but have had to become more creative in order to achieve my desired effect while remembering that I will soon have four teenage boys that will need braces, lots and lots of food, and money for college (sigh...can't they just stay babies??).

So along comes furniture upcycling. This trend seems to be on the upswing with many new shows such as Salvage Dawgs, and incorporated into existing shows such as Rehab Addict.

upcycle: (verb) reuse (discarded objects or material) in such a way as to create a product of a higher quality or value than the original.

I wouldn't necessarily say that upcycling gives the product higher quality or value than the original, but more like it gives it higher quality or value than the state in which it was found. My family lives on the edge of an area where Antique shops can be found all over the place. I used to look at these stores with rusted and broken furniture laying all of the lawn and think, "ugh, who would buy this junk?" Now that I've taken to upcycling, I have definitely gained a new appreciation for these items. Although, I find that many of these shops offer these items for a hefty price too, all for the label of "Antique". So why would I want to spend a lot of money on an old item, then more money and time to refinish it? Then I stumbled upon the goldmine which is Craigslist and Facebook yard sale sites. I have come across many furniture items that are deeply discounted mostly for the fact that these people want to get rid of it quickly. But again, I'm still spending money to buy old furniture.

And then along comes the dumpster diving (hanging head in shame...:)). Okay, not literally dumpster diving. But have you ever driven along a dirt road and saw an old pallet lying in the woods and thought, "hmm, I bet that doesn't belong to anyone, I could probably make something cool with it." No? Um, yeah, neither have I...;) Freecycle offers a more respectable form of dumpster diving. You have to be on top of your game to get the good stuff before others grab it, but you would be surprised at how many gently used items are given away for free. And that was how my garage and dining room filled up with dusty, broken "junk" and my husband began eyeing me as a crazy hoarder.



So the first item that I upcycled was one piece of an old media cabinet. I actually obtained this item from a friend who was given it by a friend who found it being thrown out. There were actually three pieces that were supposed to be stacked on top of each other to create a monster media cabinet meant for an old-style tube television. I decided to take one of the sections, add legs to it, and turn it into a buffet for my covered deck. It is amazing how perfect this ended up working for me. It is very long, but not very deep, so created a nice accent piece on the deck with functional space, but still leaving plenty of room for my table. I decided on Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Emperor's Silk to create a bold accent piece. Because chalk paint isn't necessarily meant for outdoor use when finished with wax, a local stockist recommended that I create a dark wax wash instead with a mixture of dark wax and mineral spirits. So far it has held up okay, but I'm interested to see how it is looking at the end of this Winter and Spring. I am still undecided about whether to put a more protective coat on the outside of it.

Before, with legs added

After

After a great response to how this piece turned out, I took another section of it from my friend to create a buffet for another friend's house. She actually decided to cut the legs a little shorter and is now using it as a sofa table. I love how this piece looks in her house and how your eyes are really drawn to it as you walk in.

The third section was kept by my friend and she did a similar upcycle of it to turn it into a media cabinet to sit under her mounted flat screen. Even her skeptical husband has agreed that it looks good and it has really transformed her space and given her a launching point from which to begin decorating the rest of the room, not to mention storage for media components, DVDs, toys and blankets.

I think the biggest piece of advice to take away from this article is to try and think outside of the box. Don't walk into a shop, fall in love with an amazing piece of distressed furniture and spend a fortune on it. Take a picture of it, then brainstorm how you can re-create it:) With a bit of creativity and elbow grease, you could easily stumble upon a free or very inexpensive item that can be turned into a one-of-a-kind statement piece for your home.

Eh, Good Enough!

Today's post is less about ideas and more just some ramblings. I noticed that I hadn't posted on my blog in awhile, and honestly, I had just lost the motivation. The holidays can become overwhelming between parties, school events, shopping, decorating, traditions, etc. I do love the holidays, but my goal this year was to cut back and keep it simple.

I think it is easy to look at others and think, "I wish my house was that clean," or "I wish I could decorate my house like that," or "I wish I could eat healthy and stay in shape like them." With Facebook, Pinterest and just the internet in general, it seems that our society is in a constant state of feeling like they aren't good enough. And I think perception is a big part of it. I've had so many people say things like this with regards to me and I think, "uh, what?" They can't possibly be calling my house clean considering the bathrooms have about 2 months worth of number 1 AND number 2 smeared all over them (did we all forget that I have 4 boys??). And hopefully they don't actually touch my kitchen counters. Because the granite design does a great job in hiding the couple weeks worth of dirt and grime on them. They can't possibly be calling me healthy considering I just hid in the pantry to eat a few pieces of chocolate after breakfast so my kids wouldn't see me and ask for some.

I feel like I am constantly battling off similar thoughts about everyone else. How come they all have children happily participating in the soccer game and mine is in the corner picking his nose or running across the parking lot? Why do I cringe when my kids ask to paint knowing that it will be a hassle to clean-up afterwards even though I know a "good" mom would encourage crafts (I just tell them that art class in school is a better resource for these things, lol)? When we were having the 2nd oldest evaluated by the Speech Therapist, she remarked that it was amazing how advanced his vocabulary was. I was like, "oh, he learned that from Little Einsteins." Let me just put it out there - my kids watch a LOT of tv and are obsessed with video games. Mother of the Year over here:) They are ridiculously smart because of it, but I know that I should limit their screen time...sigh. Yet, I don't. I accomplish a heck of a lot more when they are in electronic comas and frankly, my house is just so much more peaceful. Yeah, yeah, I know, Mother of the Year.

My point here is that we all need to give ourselves a break. Instead of trying to be perfect at everything, just pick a couple of things to work on. Everything else? Let's just aim for "just good enough." Back when I had only one child, my house was very clean and freshly baked goods were coming out of the oven when I hosted playgroup, often with a craft or activity all planned out. Now with 4 kids at home, today I tossed enough toys in the bins so that the babies wouldn't trip, grabbed some store made bakery items at Teeter last night during my son's Tae Kwon Do practice (forgetting juice boxes and deciding that the kids would be happier with water anyways!) and just managed to clean the toddler and puppy pee and poop off the floor before people arrived (we're potty training this week!). I had meant to scrub down the Powder Room as well since I like to have a clean bathroom for guests to use, but I just ran out of time. So I wiped off the nutella finger prints on the toilet that looked an awful lot like poop and then said, "eh, good enough" and shut the door:)

Basement cleaning? That is SO 4 years ago. Now I just make sure there aren't toys on the stairs so kids don't trip. And then I encourage the parents to stay upstairs so that they can't see that the basement hasn't been picked up since I hosted playgroup 2 months ago and that the colony of stink bugs have already had about 7 generations of babies and have all died in the corners of my basement. Heading out to the store in the middle of winter? My kids are wearing shorts, one sock, mismatched shoes and no coat. But they are clothed and in the car - "eh, good enough." The dish I'm baking for a party burns a little? I just cut off that piece and put it on a pretty plate - "eh, good enough." I forgot to sign-up to bring something to the class party? Well, I still showed up, even if I spent most of the time chasing down the screaming, half-naked toddler - "eh, good enough."

You get my point, right? OF COURSE mine and the lives of everyone else look perfect. Why would I post pictures of my dirty toilets on Facebook? Instead I will post my picture perfect photos of all of the boys sitting nicely together and smiling - definitely not the one of them wiping boogers on each other and throwing a tempter tantrum in the middle of oncoming traffic. And I won't be posting status updates about that 1/4 of a cake that I just pounded down before my kids could ask me to share with them. Instead I will be posting pictures of my stats as I'm out running. So choose your battles. No one here is perfect. The trick is to not let those imperfections get under your skin. Embrace and excel in what you can and to the rest just say, "eh, good enough" and move on.

Just finished my first half marathon! Feeling great!

(this is what you will see me post on Facebook)

In reality: I decided to train for this race so that I would have a good excuse to take a few days away from my kids:) - just add that one to my Mother of the Year application!