Easter Lovelies

The weather outside is dreadful. We have had one of the rainiest months in over 30 years. In the past two days we have had over 6 inches of rain. There has been hardly a moment when the heavens aren't pouring. It is a little depressing. Hopefully, since we have had our April showers a month early maybe the May flowers will make an early appearance. Severe flooding has affected some local areas. Many homes have four feet or more of water. We are blessed to only have a little bit of water coming into our basement. Many roads are closed due to flooding. Homes have been evacuated. The new huskies are not very happy these last couple of days. They are happy just running around in the rain, puddles and mud but they get a bit too messy. We had an almost an hour of no rain and the dogs were thrilled to run around.

Been wanting to bring some sunshine into our home. We are promised some sunshine and a gorgeous Easter weekend. I have been slowly adding some Easter lovelies throughout the house.

Robins Eggs that I painted and speckled. They are from the Dollar Tree. I love how they turned out. They look sweet in the Dollar Tree glass jar that I added to the dollar candlestick.

Bright and cheerful Easter eggs

Easter Eggs tucked in here and there

Found this bit of lace in my craft room. Love it.

Love the little birds with some more Dollar Tree eggs.

I found this great cloche while we were away. It was on clearance and I was thrilled to find it. It needs a good cleaning. I love it and have looked for one for some time. Eager to add some lovelies to it.

Just a bit of sunshine to brighten our days while the rain pours outside.

It's All Coming Together

We are back from our much needed vacation. The r & r was just what the doctor ordered for our family. Since my brother in law's sudden death in December things have been so unsettled here for more reasons than I could begin to explain here. We spent a lot of time at our timeshare, resting, watching movies, reading, laying around, enjoying each other's company and quite a bit of eating too.

We were equally as excited to come home. Before we left the fencing was completed and the shed that would house the dogs was installed. We knew that we would be bringing them to live with us as soon as we returned.

The shed installation was amazing. It is prefabricated. Bringing all the pieces from the truck to the correct spot in the yard was one of the longest tasks.

The next step was building the floor/foundation. It was a bit time consuming. They were very careful to be sure that everything was level.

Once they began putting up the walls, things went in a flash. They were almost working faster than I could snap pictures.

The stood each of the walls up and then screwed them all together.

The roof went up just as quickly.

Covering it up.

Time for shingles

Here it is completed~all of the fencing is up. I took some time and laid peel and stick vinyl tiles on the floor. It makes it more homey and easier to clean up. We purchased a futon for them to share as a bed. They love to sprawl out together.

Here they are home with us. This is one of their favorite spots to sit in the yard. They actually carry their food bowls out of the house to where they like to sit.

They are a mom and son. Skylar, the black and white, is the mom and Petie, brown and white, is the son. He is much bigger than his ma.

We are thrilled to finally have them here with us.

Spring Treasures

In the midst of all the chaos in the last couple of weeks I was able to add some spring touches to our home.

With a little bit of this

And these two beauties purchased at the Dollar Tree

I made this

I love how it came out. I have painted some Dollar Tree eggs to look like robin's eggs. They are my favorites. I saw the idea here. I love how this blogger used the ideas here. The springy ideas caught my eye. I purchased a sweet little nest and added it to the jar above. Painted the eggs robin's egg blue and speckled them with some brown and black. Then they were added to the nest.

Pictures of the final product coming soon. They are all in the camera right now. When will there be time to upload them?!!

Exciting Changes

These last two weeks have been a whirlwind. Things are moving so quickly. All good things!!

1. The shed was installed this week. It looks great. I have hundreds of pictures but no time to upload them to the computer. It looks wonderful. Our neighbors already want to stay in. It's that cute.

2. The fencing for the yard is being completed tomorrow.

3. I spent some time yesterday and today installing some flooring in the shed.

4. The dogs are used to laying on the couch at home so to make them comfy and keep them off the floor we purchased a futon for them to relax in.

5. Busy packing for a week of rest away with my family.

6. Keeping busy with schooling. The kids have been working so hard and we have some exciting projects under way.

7. I am still working out. I have purchased Jillian Michael's Yoga dvd. It is fun but challenging.

It doesn't seem like so much listed here but with additional appointments, regular daily activities, keeping the house, and laundry things have been hectic. We've had crews working here off and on. We will enjoy a time of rest next week. I can't wait to share the pictures with you when we return.

We have been enjoying some fantastic spring weather. The sun has been shining, temps in the 60's and today it was 70. We will be sad to see them go. There will be cooler days and more rain on the way. This spectacular spring preview has spoiled us and left us wanting nothing else. When we return, we will be bringing the dogs to live with us in our new home. We are all so excited to have them join our family.

A Girl Can Dream

My kitchen is a room that we have not improved since we have moved in. We know what we would like to do but can't seem to get started on it. The back door opens up to our kitchen and this entry way gets very messy with the dog, shoes, mail, and a few extras we can't quite remember how they got there.

As many times as we have considered what we would do to the kitchen we didn't know how to address the area at the back door. I have seen some beautiful entry ways but this area in our home has three doors-the back door, the door to the basement and a small pantry. We do not have room for a bench and hooks and all the other beautiful things that I have found.

I borrowed this great book from the library and fell in love with all the innovative and creative ideas in it. I was totally in love.

My absolute favorite and an answer to our backdoor problem was right there in the middle of this beautiful book.

Isn't it perfect??!!

This was a cabinet that was purchased and the bottom shoe rack was built onto it.
I am hoping to find a cabinet that is similar and will work in our entryway. Sometimes all it takes is one perfect piece to get you on a roll to a perfect room redo.

The List~

In November I participated with Chrissie Grace making a list of things we would like to accomplish. My list was 39 things to do before 39. Saturday I celebrated my birthday but have only turned 38. I had many things on my list that I knew I could not accomplish in such a short time so I planned to give myself an extra year. In hindsight, I am glad I did because of the recent events in our lives have changed many things here.

Usually my husband loves to celebrate my birthday with much fanfare. He starts to make plans shortly after Christmas. Now mind you that he does not wish me to do the same for his birthday. This year has been a bit harder for him. We are currently working on setting up our home and yard to bring my brother in law's two huskies to live with us. You can see them here. We are all anxious for them to be here but we know that we need to have the proper arrangements for them. Usually our weekends have consisted of going to visit the dogs and taking them for walks. They get so excited when they see my husband now. Dh had a cap installed on his truck and we are able to bring them on field trips to our house. They seem to love that time. Why all this run-on about the dogs in the middle of this post? That is what we spent our weekend working on. My husband was beside himself because I had set up the appointment for the fencing company on Saturday, we had a flat trailer coming to pick up the rest of our swing set and bringing it to my sister's house and we needed to go out and put in the final order for their shed.

Hubby did not think that this was an appropriate birthday celebration but I was so pleased to see things finally underway and knowing that work will be starting and hopefully complete within a couple of weeks. It has also been difficult for hubby to arrange any plans or fanfare because he is commuting to Boston daily by train. This make for 13-14 hours day beginning with a 5 o'clock wake up call.

Now that this recent birthday is past I have had some time to reflect on the list I made. I was glad to find that there have been some accomplishments, no matter how small.

Crossing things off the list:

1. Get a daily exercise routine and stick to it. - The number one thing on my list was exercise. It thrills me to know that I have accomplished this. I am still working out three to four days a week, completing the exercise dvd each time. This is huge for me because I have started so many times and always quit. YEAH !!!!!!!!!!

8. Take more pictures, capture more moments, have my camera with me always. - I still have a lot to learn here but I have started. I find myself reaching for the camera more often.

17. Read the classics. ~ From Dickens to Austen and anything in between. - I have been reading quite a bit more. Right now I have two books I'm reading- Pride and Prejudice and Milton's Paradise Lost.

21. Start planning our weekly menus.- I have started this and do forget sometimes but am trying to keep at it. It makes it so much easier when it's dinner time. It is one thing I have always wanted to do but many times forget to do.

23. Have enough market bags to do away with plastic shopping bags.- I have our bags in the car now so they are always there when I am out.

27. Go out with hubby alone and not worry about the kids. - We have had some nice times and it is great to be able to sit and talk to each other without interruptions or wandering if there are other ears listening.

This is only a start and I have a long way to go but I am glad that I can cross some things and now that I am on my way.

Friendships

There will be many friendships

along life's road.

Some will last

Others will be for a short while...

Some of the most important ones

will be with those whom you spend

most of your days.

These are the ones you must remember

to nurture.

Life hurries us along and we forget

or take for granted those who mean

the most to us.

Stop and take the time to nurture

those relationships nearest

and dearest to your heart.

We try to remind our children of this simple thing~

Simple in words but more difficult to put into action.

We love to see them

together

smiling

making each other laugh~

Some already know~

This past December my husband

lost his brother.

They were very close~

He was an important part of all of our lives.

We must appreciate and cherish every

moment we have together.

Joining with Patti at Blessed Moon.

Turn The Page Tuesday

Adrienne at http://someofakind.blogspot.com/ hosts Turn the Page Tuesday. I love going over her recent reads and choosing which I would like to add to my future to read list. This month I really had my heart set on reading a book Adrienne reviewed here. The book that caught my attention in that post was Letters of a Portuguese Nun. It has been on hold on my library card for a couple of weeks now but I still do not have it. It was very disappointing but I hope to read it soon. I love history and I am Portuguese. Two of the reasons why I look forward to reading it.

This month has been a busy one and I have had a lot of reading and preparing to do for homeschool. This has left me with somewhat less time than I like for some pleasure reading. This past month I have been reading Going Rogue by Sarah Palin. I admit that in the beginning I didn't know if I would be able to make it through the book. It seemed to be missing Sarah's personality. It was a bit dry and almost forced. Once I got past the first 100 pages or so I did begin to enjoy it more. At this part the book was more of what I expected for it. She is a truly strong and passionate person. She was thrust into the presidential campaign to breath new life into it but then was stifled every time she tried. She, along with her family and friends, were ruthlessly criticized by the media. Never given a chance to truly defend themselves because of an agenda that was to be fulfilled.

Reading the book solidified what I already knew: There are big problems in our political system. The attacks made against a person are only to detract from what a potentially excellent candidate he/she may be if only given the chance.

I enjoyed learning more about Sarah and her family and hearing her side of the story without a media spin on it.