Author: Liz Braithwaite

Snow

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It’s snowed. A lot. Most people love it or hate it. I could get annoyed at the slippery ice, dangerous roads, and the need to bundle up if I go somewhere.

But there is quiet and white and beauty and I choose to love it. I love going out, often in the dark, when the snow is lightly coming down and covering everything with a blanket. Everything is still, movement is slow, soft. It is peaceful, clean. I love to shovel snow, for the opportunity to work outside even when there is no gardening to do.

The kids love it too. They bundle on snow gear, or ignore the fact that it is freezing and go outside without coats on. They’ve shoveled paths through the yard, come in crying because they have snow down their coat only to shortly go back outside. We’ve sled down hills together, and even Henry was crying when it was time to go home. Even though he was cold, he wanted to sled down the hill one more time, and faster was better. SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESSAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESSAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURESSAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Coats

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We keep all the coats, backpacks, etc in the kitchen. It was messy, hard to find anything, and it didn’t look great.

before

I had thrown up some coat racks and shelves without any real thought. There was a lot of room for improvement. First step was to get rid of all the mess.

And take down all the stuff that wasn’t working.

After brainstorming for awhile, I decided to use premade crates that are available at craft stores. The kids and I painted them with paint I had on hand. It was a good project for the kdis because I wanted a rough finish paint job anyway. I sanded it a bit after. We hung up the crates and I added some coat hooks.

Looks great, but will it effectively hold all our junk… during winter, when we all have multiple coats, etc?

It’s doing a pretty good job. Every person has their own crate, with one extra that is mostly used as a charging station. I think it looks great and more importantly it is doing a much better job at organizing all our junk. Not bad for a project that cost about $60 and only took 2-3 hours.

Santa

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PB loves Santa this year. He didn’t ask for much, but he is so excited that he can get candy and presents for Christmas. C doesn’t care much, and H is oblivious.

I remember being told outright that Santa wasn’t real when I was about eight, and I don’t enjoy the memory. So with my kids, I don’t ever say Santa is real or even fake. I let them decide. For instance, if PB asks a question about Santa I’ll turn the question back to him,  just say it’s magic, use terms like, “I like to think so,” or even “pretend” when they ask hard questions. I think kids want to pretend it’s real. As a parent, I want to allow them that opportunity. But I also think kids never really completely believe. I don’t want to ever outright lie to my children and I’m not going out of way to convince them that something that is not real actually is. 

Christmas Decoration

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The only holiday I decorate for is Christmas, and even then I don’t do very much. I do love the few things I have. It’s fun to slightly change my home just for one month.

We have this nativity my mother-in-law crocheted.

The Christmas tree, with the bottom part purposefully cut off because I have a newly walking baby and it’s always a mess down there.

These candy chains are my favorite. One chocolate kiss per day between now and Christmas Eve. Unless you are three year old and lack impulse control and had to have your candy chain taken down because you ate half of it.

To make these chain, just hot glue the candy onto the ribbon. It’s really easy, and they are a lot of fun. Who doesn’t want a piece of chocolate everyday?

Thanksgiving

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On Thanksgiving I thought of my home, filled with things I love. My greatest blessing is my family. I never get bored, I’m never lonely and I almost always feel very loved.

Besides my family, I have a beautiful (or working to be beautiful) spacious home, a garden, chickens, healthy food. My husband has great employment close to our home, I get to be home with my children, and we are all healthy.

 

 

Bathroom

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The bathroom is done! This wasn’t a major remodel, but the bathroom had some issues we needed to address.SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

First off, it was tiny. There wasn’t even enough room for a regular door to open. When we moved in, there was a bi-fold closet door on the bathroom. Not ideal, even less so when my kids kept smashing their fingers in it. I took it off and put up a curtain. That’s probably even less  ideal, but at least the kids weren’t getting their fingers smashed.

Our solution was to extend the bathroom into the hall. The old hall only went to the bathroom anyway. I gained a spot to put in a vanity area and significantly increased the size of the bathroom. And we could put in a door. That closes. And locks. (Because of duct-work, the door has to swing outwards, but it’s not a big deal.)

vanity

Besides moving the doorway, we also re-did the flooring. I think the easiest way to make flooring look cheap is to put in stick-on tiles poorly. Which is what we had.

So we tore them up to the concrete.concrete

And we refinished the concrete.

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I really love it and the plan is to finish the concrete this way in other parts of the basement as well.  It’s not perfect: this was my first time doing the concrete that way, and I made a few mistakes. I went ahead and started small, so I can now do the rest of the concrete better.

We finished the concrete by using a black concrete stain, putting on grey decorative flakes, and a couple coats of wet-look concrete sealer. (All Behr products from Home Depot.) It was an inexpensive flooring option, we always have the option to go back and put different flooring on if it doesn’t wear well. So far so good though.

Walking

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henry2

Henry is getting all grown up! He’s up and down stairs, and walking around, saying little words and giving raspberry kisses. He’s the earliest walker out of all the brothers, he won’t be a year old for a few more weeks.

He still adores nursing and won’t sleep through the night, so I still have my baby too.

Fall Hike

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We went on a small hike in the hills above our house.

fallhike2

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I love this picture. I look good. No one else does.

PB doesn’t hate school anymore. C is almost potty trained. And H actually slept through the night last night. There is nothing to complain about in life really. Hey, I even lost 20 pounds without trying. (I actually didn’t think I needed to lose weight. It just kinda happened, I think mostly because I like to exercise and eat healthy.)

Fall Leaves

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I don’t have any large deciduous trees on my property, so fall leaf clean-up isn’t an issue for me. But I wish it was. Leaves are valuable! I cringe when I see leaves thrown away in regular garbage (green waste is okay if you have to). Why? Well, because they are free organic matter. And organic matter is key to good soils and gardens.

How to you transform fall leaves into good soil? Here are some ideas for using them:

1)Mow. The year I did landscaping for a condo HOA, I raked only a small section of leaves. For the most part, I’d shred them up with the mower and leave them. I did it about three different times, so I never had over a couple of inches of leaves on the ground at any one time. The leaves nicely decomposed in the ground. It was super easy. This works really well for fine leaved trees like honeylocust (sometimes you don’t even have to mow those), but will also work with the thicker leaves like maples as long as you don’t let the leaves get too thick.

2)Mulch. This year, I piled the leaves nice and high around some spireas. I needed mulch there, and fall leaves are free. About any landscape area can use a good helping of leaves. Shredding the leaves will help them decompose faster, if that’s what you want. Leaving them large can work as a good weed deterrent.

leaves

3)Compost. Leaves are great in a compost pile. They are a good high-carbon material. I put a video below that talks more about composting with leaves.

4)Annual Garden. This is probably the most common use I see: adding a nice layer of leaves to the garden. Most people till it in, either in the spring or fall. I don’t like tilling, and instead just leaving the leaves on top and using them as mulch in the spring.

One of my actual fears in life is at some point I’m going to have a lot of leaves and some kind person will feel the need to rake them up and haul them away for me. I’ve worked on service projects where we raked up all the lovely organic matter out of landscape beds and hauled it away.  I love leaves and firmly believe that they are far too valuable to end up in the trash!

Here’s someone else who loves leaves:

Wanting to Believe

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I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints I cannot say with absolute certainly that I know the church is true. I doubt I ever will. My faith is based on intangible proof. All faith is, that is why it is faith. I do have had experiences, feelings, and life that has led me to believe it is true and the right church for me.

My faith is not infallible. A while ago, I stumbled across some information that really made me question my faith. In just moments a lifetime of belief can be brought into question and even discarded. It was a little scary for me. And it led me to a lot of soul searching.

I remembered watching Life of Pi. At the end, what I took out of it, is that we are free to choose our beliefs. And life is better with God. Do we want stories of animals, tigers, and surprising adventure or stories of death and hardship?

I can choose what I believe. There is always evidence for both sides in matters of faith. I looked at the evidence before me, and realized I didn’t care about it. I wanted to believe in the faith I grew up with. I felt like all my faith had been taken away, and all I had left was a little kernel, just a simple desire that I wanted it to be true.

I wondered if that was enough. Do I need a strong, firm testimony, or is it enough to simply want to believe? The answer came in the following weeks as the faith I had developed in my life was restored, I had questions answered, and other questions that no longer mattered as much. My little seed of faith grew. It did not stay small for long. It was enough to simply want to believe, but God does not let faith stay that small for long.

There is still so much out that that could make me question again. I don’t care about it much anymore. I choose to believe, to have faith regardless of what is out there. Faith is not a matter of finding out what is 100% correct, but choosing that path that has God in it. When my life has God, it can be hard, but it is always beautiful.

Further Reading:

  • LIfe of Pi (I liked the movie better than the book).
  • Matthew 17:20
  • Matthew 24:24
  • Alma 32