{The End Of Summer...}

It feels like it's almost here, the end of Summer. Sigh.

Around here school is in full swing, we have started our third week and just as we would expect, this week is some of the hottest weather we have had in a while- Which is not great when you are on the third floor of an old school that is only partly air-conditioned! Luckily both of my kids' classrooms have air though...It's miserable to sit in class sweating with no air moving, I remember those days well and I went to an elementary school that was only one floor.

We know this hotter weather won't last long though because we are already seeing a few leaves fall from one of the trees in our backyard. How can it be this time already? It seems like we just got in to a good Summer vacation groove...and now it's over and we are back for another year of school.

We are swimming as much as we can and trying to enjoy the time before all of the evening and after- school activities really get going. I love this time and dread it at the same time. I love watching Wyatt play soccer and I am glad he enjoys it-yet I miss the days of coming home from work and having absolutely nothing to do all evening.

As soon as school starts again, I am forced, FORCED, to become more organized which is a good thing- it doesn't come super naturally to me. We are packing lunches the night before and laying clothes out, the alarm is set much earlier. I crave the routine, I like it and think it is good for all of us(at times) and especially good for me, but I miss the lazy Summer days already and am thinking(dreading) of the weather to come in the next few months.

Earlier nights and busier days, that's what the end of Summer and the almost-beginning of Fall feels like to me. I am almost ready for Fall, just about there... it is definitely one of my favorite times of the year. But I am going to enjoy these last few days of Summer the best I can and not rush or wish this time away, looking ahead to the next thing. That's not always so easy, but I am working on it.

Hope you all have a great week!

Taking Action + Slow Sundays

Action. 
That's the word I chose for this year.
{I talked more about that here}
I went back and forth between intention/intentional and action... and back and forth some more before I landed on action and stayed there.
Intentional would have worked too because they have similar meanings to me but action felt right.

Let me explain why.
One of what I consider my biggest flaws(just one!) is my lack of action, or inaction when it comes
to all the things I want to do... And not just do, But do/learn/make/build/go/accomplish/experience.
I often feel like there are so many things in my head that I want to do that it just becomes overwhelming
and I don't do them... or I start them and don't finish them.
Often before I get started on something I talk myself out of it by telling myself why it won't work, why I will never get there and how I will probably not follow-through anyway, so why even start?
Geeez.... great attitude there, Amy. I know, I know.

Enter: Slow Sundays.

This is just one teeny tiny thing in a list of a million things that I want to start doing and this one is really important to me.

We are not great over here about family dinners, which is something we always did growing up.

When I lived at home my mom fixed dinner every night and we all ate together at the dinner table.

Because of work schedules and habits we have never been great at this and it's something I want to change at home.

So we will work on the dinner thing for sure and have also started Slow Sunday breakfasts, which we have really been trying to do for a while now.

Weekends are sometimes easier, so Sunday or even Saturday breakfasts, are very do-able for us.

There is more time, less rush and there is time to prepare, clean up and enjoy a big meal without rushing to clean up, have showers, do homework/study spelling words, etc. that we have during the typical school week.

I am excited to try some new breakfast casserole recipes and homemade cinnamon rolls is on my long list of things to try.

The kids love breakfast food and I think I will be getting far fewer complaints than at dinner time, which is a huge motivator for me. 

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This is just one of the many things on my never-ending list of things I want to change in the new 

year and continue to work on.

You will hear me talk a lot about my one little word this year- how I am doing, what it means to me and what areas of my life need the most work and how this one little word applies to these areas.

It is already the last day of January and I am feeling pretty good about this month, often I am disappointed in myself and the lack of progress I have made at this point, or disgusted that I have already completely lost all momentum and don't even remember what in the hell my word for the year is supposed to be.

Is there something you are currently working on? Any big or little goals or things on your mental to-do list? How was January for you?

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend! 

{Virtual Coffee}

Hey there.
Good morning to you + Happy Thursday.
This morning is my early morning, one of the days that my "early to rise"  mission worked.
Hooray for me!
I am batting about every other day so far, not including weekends, and my goal is to eventually wake up early every morning Monday-Friday.
And my ultimate goal is for it to become completely natural.... and for me to LOVE it, every day.
I'm not there yet... but it's a good goal to have.
I love getting the day started slowly, quietly, alone... And in order for those things to happen I need
to be up a minimum of one hour before the kids are up.
Preferably an hour and a half before the kids are awake, really.

I will get there one day, I am not giving up on my dream of becoming an early riser! 

But anyway.
I am up early and having my morning on the couch under a quilt, which is probably the best place
to have it, besides somewhere with friends.
When I am up before everyone else the couch is where I almost always have my coffee, sometimes my
office in warmer weather but in the Winter it's pretty cold in the mornings in there.
How about you? Couch? Kitchen table? Office?
One of the things I really miss since I started working is meeting friends for coffee or having them
come over in the nice weather and sit on the patio and have coffee.
s  i  g  h. 

So... if you were really over chatting with me over coffee this morning we would have to talk about my bright white fancy new living room.
Okay, so it's not fancy at all... but it is bright white.
We painted it white about two weeks ago and man, it is WHITE.
The change is really growing on me though and it just make the space look bigger, more open
and cleaner.
I know that's actually because it is cleaner though, too... there has been a lot of purging and organizing going on here as well.
I am really loving not only the white, but just the act of slowly putting things back up/out and knowing that it's okay to not put everything back out and to get rid of things or put them in storage for now.
It's a process and the hardest part about painting a room to me is that I then want everything new
in the room.
Couches, rugs, curtains, lamps! All the furniture needs a fresh coat of paint!
Everything needs to be new!

{These are just quick pictures I snapped with my iphone, I will take better pictures and share the whole room soon! }

After about two weeks back in school now, after the longest Christmas break in the history of man,
I think we are finally getting back into a routine around here... Finally.
Things are more normal now-- even though Wyatt has had not one, but two rounds of pink eye,
and with all of the sickness going around I am just holding my breath until Spring.
I need to completely stop reading/watching the news because all the sickness and flu and crazy
things happening gives me way too much anxiety.
Yikes.
Around here we have been daydreaming about a Summer vacation and Spring plans and wishing
it was Soccer season already, while still trying to enjoy the season we are in.

It's almost the end of January and I actually feel a lot better about it than I normally do....
Usually by the end of January I feel like I have accomplished absolutely nothing. Nothing.
This month I have made some goals and lists and have actually accomplished a few things I really wanted
to. Wow.
It feels really good for a change.

What is going on in your life? How has the first month of this year been for you so far?
Tell me what you're drinking this morning and where and anything else you'd like to share so I 
can pretend I am not having my morning coffee alone! 

Happy Thursday... Just one day until Friday, y'all!

:::::::::::::::::::::

Feeling A Little Christmasy

See... I'm not a total Grinch, I am writing a Christmasy post this morning.
I thought I would share a few of my favorite Christmasy things around the house today, and really just a few
because I didn't go all kinds of crazy with getting all of my decorations out this year...
There is a lot I didn't bother to unpack because we got our tree later than usual this year.
There's always next year though, right? And yeah, I do pretty much say that every year. Ha!

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That's Kringle the elf taking pictures out the front window.
Yes, we do the whole Elf on The Shelf(a pretty laid back version) and no, I am not losing sleep
over it and no, I don't think I am ruining my kids over it either.
There are many, many other ways I am quite sure I am ruining my kids though.  ;)
He's not the most creative Elf but he gets the job done for the most part-- we are not winning any awards for his adventures
though, that's for damn sure.

The holly/mistletoe mug was my grandma's and so was one of the Santa mugs, 

the rest were thrift store/antique store finds.

The green polka dot napkins that match an adorable vintagey flowered

 tablecloth and were all made by Eric's grandma.

I love using my vintage glass ornaments on the tree, in bowls and jars and they look 

extra pretty with the white twinkly lights around them I think. 

I have had some of these glass ornaments passed down to me and one year I scored about

 5 boxes for dirt cheap at a rummage sale. True story. 

I am talking like twenty-five cents and fifty cents per box.

We love our little light up churches and buildings that sit on top of the piano.

One year these were like 75% off at Target after Christmas and my mom bought

 them all for me and saved them as a birthday present for my birthday the next August.

I think they ended up being $5 each.

Handmade glittery pine cone ornament made by Wyatt.

All of the boxes I got from the rummage sale and are in their original boxes.

Love that! 

Ignore all the things the kids crammed under our tree, below. 

This is the thinnest tree we have ever had, ours are usually much more round and full,

but it's kinda pretty and it smells good I think. 

We really didn't take a whole lot of time choosing this year, if you wanna know the truth.

I have to say that even during the years when I am not super into Christmas I love

 seeing ornaments form years passed, favorite Christmas books from my own childhood and

 all of the handmade ornaments from my own kids.

That can't help but get ya a little bit more in the Christmas mood, huh?

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Happy Wednesday, friends. 

Good Lord. Christmas Eve is exactly ONE WEEK from today, you guys.
Eeeeek!

Succulents + Thrifted Cup = Happiness

I bought a set of these little tea cups about 2 years ago at a thrift store(I think) and they have  just been sitting in my
china cabinet waiting to be used. 

I think I finally found the perfect use! 

Don't you ?

So, so cute. 

And a new use for a favorite birdy mug, a terra cotta pot one of the kids painted and a vintage bright blue coffee can.

Happy. 

Sometimes the littlest, simplest things make me so happy. 

Now to fill the rest of my little tea cups and gaze at this little backyard corner... 

Have a happy day. 

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Holiday Home :: A Vintage + Eclectic Mix

Hello there.
Welcome to my little home,  all decorated up for the Holidays.
I don't go overboard with the Christmas decorations... I like a little but not so much that I have to do any major rearranging...

My approach to decorating for Christmas is using what I have, keeping it simple and of course adding little thrifty finds I pick up throughout the year.
And the one thing I won't compromise on is having a REAL, fresh Christmas tree every year.
I love the smell, I love the tradition and I just love how pretty they are.

Come on in....

One of my favorite more recent finds are these pastel light-up Churches(above) I got at Target a few years ago after Christmas for 75% off.
I think they ended up costing me $5 each.

Below is our little Christmas Countdown that hangs across the windows in the dining room.
I made it from a couple of falling apart vintage children's books a few years ago; I just cut the pages, folded and glued them to make little pockets
and then punched holes in them and hung them with red + white twine.
I cut the numbers from magazine pages.

At my house you WON'T find anything matchy-matchy... or even matching a little bit.
The only presents you'll find under the tree this early is the pictures and little things Charlotte has been making and wrapping herself for all of us.
Mine will be under the tree and wrapped on Christmas Eve.... very late on Christmas Eve, I might add.
Some years I do more and better with decorating and sometimes I just don't.
The older I get and the busier everything becomes the less pressure I put on myself....  the holidays are crazy enough and I'm not going to make it crazier if I can help it.

So there are some of my favorite little corners of our home right now.
Just think... this will all be down soon and it will all seem so empty again!
So I'm enjoying it for another week and a half or so.... and then in January I'm going to have to put up a bunch of twinkly lights because
I get so used to them in December.

Happy, happy Wednesday!

Christmas is ONE WEEK from today you guys.... YIKES!