What's Cooking? ... Part II

I really, really, really wish that I had all sorts of "After" photos for you... or even a few of the middle photos for you...
But I don't.

I did find this treasured picture of what the kitchen looked like when we bought our house 2 years ago!  Could it be any more drab or icky feeling?  I find it sterile while dirty at the same time.  I'm not a big fan of wall cabinets to begin with and being surrounded by them makes me want to give up and throw on a straight jacket! Yes, I feel that strongly about it.

Fortunately, I hardly remember it looking like this at all!

If you look at the super fuzzy photo that Hotsauce says he took ... though I think my mom took it... but that's neither here nor there... anywho... on the left side of the photo where there should be a stove, that wall is no longer there.  Opposite that wall was another smaller kitchen that had fabulous green ivy wall paper (you know you've seen that wall paper other places... ughsauce), but that room is now the room we call "the-room-with-no-name"... no joke, that's what we call it.  It will one day house a wood burning stove.  That's all we know about that room at this time!  Maybe an eat in kitchen area.  Maybe a very large mudroom with lockers.  Maybe a home school room.  Maybe an arcade.  Maybe a multimedia room with stadium seating.  Maybe the hot tub room.  Who knows?  Okay, I know the last three were made up, but we have no idea what's going on in that room that I can't even begin to describe what may be and I should really figure out the details of the current project I'm on before even trying to figure that project out!  You guys really need to keep me on track!

We returned the "Brickberry" aka salmony, organey, brownish, kinda reddish paint tonight and to the credit of the fine folks at Menards we received a full refund for both gallons of paint, even the one that I had opened!  I went in on the hunt for "Red Barn" from Sherwin Williams as suggested by a friend, but called it "Barn Red" and they couldn't do a color match for me.  Seems like a bit of a repeat of looking for "Cinnabark" and I was at a total loss.  Ben looks at me and says, "I'm not returning any more paint," in a very man-like voice and starts pulling out red paint swatches like a kid in a candy store... or better yet, like a cop in a donut shop :).  After eliminating several of his choices without really even looking at them he huffs out, "Where's the red? Really, where's the swatch that says 'red'?"  This made me giggle and lightened the mood my attitude considerably.  I finally choose "Red Gumball" from Pittsburgh Paints.  Do not attempt to look it up online.  I did this, showed it to Ben, and almost had a panic attack.

Photo from Dutch Boy's Website

Speaking of not looking things up online, I need to stop trying to find inspiration online!  I just found this picture and now wonder if I should paint the cabinets red and Ben is shaking his head no at me... I love the yellow and red together, how cheery is that?  But, red cabinets would really be hard to come back from if I didn't like it.  Oh, kitchen remodel, how you keep me up at night!



My goal for tomorrow is to get one wall painted... just one and see how brilliant I am!  Pictures coming soon... I hope!  For now, to bed with me!

Random side note: I overuse ... these wonderful dots (elipse? no, that's not right...) in everything I type.  As a matter of fact only half of them make the final draft and there are still far too many of them!  Oh well... ;)

Don't know much about economics...

My husband works 40 hours a week, every week. Since we've been married (almost 10 years now) he's only been unemployed for 2 days.  As in, his last day of work was on Friday of his last job and he started his job with the D.O.T. the following Monday.

I haven't worked in a little over 6 years... We sold the newspaper when I got pregnant with #3 and I haven't been "gainfully employed" since. We wanted to raise our children and not have a daycare provider raise them.  It was a personal choice that we knew would greatly effect our standard of living.  Oh my word, we had no idea!

We don't get to take fancy vacations.  85% of our clothes come from friends, neighbors and family. We don't eat out every week.  We don't have a flat screen TV, as a matter of fact we have rabbit ears on our TV, because we don't have a dish or cable.  Our newest vehicle is from 1997.  I haven't had my hair cut in 6 months.  Our children don't have IPods or smart phones, heck Hotsauce and I don't have IPods or smart phones.  I shop at garage sales, thrift shops and Goodwill... not always because I'm a pinterest freak, but usually out of necessity.

So here's my question... who among you will give a percentage of your income to help raise our five beautiful babies and fill our lives with stuff??

Of course if you have less money than me, I don't expect anything from you... and I'm not willing to give you anything that I have.  I just mean those of you who are better off than me.  I don't think it's fair that you have more.  Let's make things more fair.  You earn your money, make sacrifices, work hard... and now it's time for you to give it to me.

Does that sound fair?

Correction!

When Benjamin memorizes verses for Awana he will frequently quote verses from his favorite book of the Bible, Colatians.  It's a mix of Colossians and Galatians.  Both written by Paul so what's the big deal, right?  I frequently wonder where in the world he gets this from.

Well, apparently he gets it from his mama.

If you read my "I resolve to resolute" blog... you may have noticed that I also don't know the difference between Colossians and Galatians.

In our reading plan I said that we would be reading Colossians from June to December.  Which of course could be done, until you get to November and have been assigned to read Colossians 5.  Hmmm, Colossians only has 4 chapters. This is problematic.

Ugh. Someday I'll find my brain. For now, I'll edit my original post and use my Jedi mind tricks to make you all forget that I made the mistake in the first place!!

This year I resolved to resolute... er something like that!

I almost never make New Year's resolutions.  Because I know one very true thing about myself... I'm a great "idea" person with very little discipline to follow through. I can think of a hundred things that I started and never had the gumption to finish.  Like, basketball, softball, volleyball, college, books (both reading and writing)... just to name a few. But, this year is going to be the year! I am going to follow through on this, or go down swinging!

Here's the deal. Last year I enlisted the help of my very good friend Julayne to help keep me accountable for reading my Bible.  And she really sucked at it. As in, she asked me every.single.day. Sometimes I didn't do it and had to tell her that no, I hadn't read. And this is where she really started to get irritating. She never.missed.a.single.day! Are you serious? Not once? Oh, no, not even once! Picture me rolling my eyes at the thought of this, because that's exactly what I just did.

She resolved last year to read her Bible everyday and that's what she did. Please, be disgusted that she not only made a resolution, but she kept it. Because, if you're disgusted then somehow I'm justified in my disgust... more at myself really, then at her... but we won't tell her that.

So as you may have guessed the first part of my resolution is to read my Bible everyday. Every.single.day. There really is no reason "good" enough to justify missing a day.

And here's the really encouraging part. I learned that while it wasn't pleasant to tell Miss Perfect Attendance that I had missed a day, that I needed more people looking out for me.  Not only that I heard too many of my friends saying my same excuses, "I just don't have time." or simply saying, "I'm not as good at reading my Bible as I should be." or even some who said, "I don't even remember the last time that I read my Bible."  Oh, and I can put myself in each of those quotes as being the one who echoed those very words.  So, while you're thinking, "She said this is the really encouraging part?" ... here's the thing. I resolved to make a resolution for my friends as well (isn't that wonderful of me?). We're not going to go at this alone and we're certainly not going to settle for this mediocre Christian walk.

Hotsauce has been reading Ephesians 5 with something like 10 other men from our church, all friends of ours, who decided that they were going to keep each other accountable.  And while at first I thought it would be nice to do that with some of my friends, I didn't want to be a copy cat.  Didn't want to step on the menfolks toes or anything ridiculous like that.   As if it would be super offensive to read our Bibles everyday and become more Christlike and thereby becoming better wives and mothers.  Who.do.I.think.I.am??

Obviously with Ben's blessing, I developed this plan. Over the course of the year I would invite my friends to read Ephesians and Galatians.  Here's our reading plan.
January: Read Eph. 1 everyday
Feb.: Read Eph. 2 everyday
March: Read Eph. 3 everyday
April: Read Eph. 4 everyday
May: Read Eph. 5 everyday
June: Read Eph. 6 everyday
July: Read Gal. 1 everyday
Aug.: Read Gal. 2 everyday
Sept.: Read Gal. 3 everyday
Oct.: Read Gal. 4 everyday
Nov.: Read Gal. 5 everyday
Dec.: Read Gal. 6 everyday

After we are finished reading we send everyone a text that says, "Done." That way everyone knows who has done it and who may need a gentle reminder! Plus if you have 13 women and 3 girls waiting to know if you've read, that is some serious motivation for not slacking!  Did you read that 3 girls are doing it too? *squeal*
Three daughters are joining their mamas in this year long Bible reading journey.  Can you think of a better way to encourage/train/motivate your child to develop the discipline of being in God's Word then having her come along side of you! When Hannah "joined the ranks" it probably made me cry, but you will have to determine if that could possibly be true or not.  By the end of the year we will have read through 2 books and should have a pretty good handle on them! So exciting!

The next resolution I made came from the inspiration of my wonderful friend, Bethany.  Out of a labor of love Bethany made a prayer guide for women wanting to pray for their husbands! And since I have one of those who needs lots of prayer ;) I couldn't wait to get started. The guide maps out areas of life that our husbands need prayer in, such as, his integrity, his work, his finances, his obedience, his walk, his priorities, his fatherhood, his marriage, his trials... just to name a few!  Each area of life has Scripture that is to be used to pray specifically for our husbands.  What I love about that is that when I pray Scripture for Hotsauce it takes my selfish motivations out of the prayer and inserts God's intentions for him. Oh, and sometimes as I'm praying for Ben I actually call him "Hotsauce" in the prayer and I think God chuckles.  Another thing that I love about the guide is that it also calls for me to pray for myself and my attitude and responses to Ben as the leader in our marriage. Perhaps the most convicting prayer that I've ever prayed for myself is that I would be "swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger" (James 1:9). I told Ben the other day that sometimes I pray that one 3 times in a single prayer because I don't feel like it's "taking" yet! I'm sure he thinks, "Only 3 times??" :)

So those are my two resolutions for 2012. Spend everyday in God's word and pray for my Hotsauce everyday. No excuses. No holding back.

By the way, it's not to late to join in the reading plan with us, just give me a heads up if you'd like to get started. Or if you're not from around these parts, get this going with your circle of friends! :)

What's Cooking?

Has it really been since October since I last blogged? I would never make it as a professional blogger!
I feel like there should be all sorts of news worthy of blogging... but I have been having some serious writer's block!
I cannot wait to show off all the work that has been going on in our kitchen! But, it's not done yet and so I'm holding off as long as possible.  I can tell you that I've been painting and painting and painting and we haven't even touched a roller to the drywall yet! We have two tall cabinets that have been sanded, painted an Ivory color, painted again, and again, then sanded and distressed and then stained. They are nearly complete, just waiting on Ben to drill some holes for some fabulous glass knobs! They make me squeal when I look at them! Of course (as there always is) there have been some naysayers and rude rudeness about them... but hey, they make me giddy and like the rest of the house I'm not looking for some cookie cutter cabinetry. Ben loves them too, though I have yet to hear any squealing from him! To give you an idea of what they look like I will post this picture that inspired me, it's from Pinterest, of course! These are not my cabinets, mine are even better! ;)

photo credit http://pinterest.com/pin/117515871496427512/

This past summer Ben found a bench at a garage sale that almost made him squeal like a school girl he really liked for only $10. It was re-purposed from an old queen size bed frame.  The former owners used it in their garden, but we decided it needed to be IN the house.  But, where? This is no small bench, but kinda chunky and slightly overwhelming in a way. It's been pushed aside with no real purpose and I'm excited to announce that with the kitchen remodel we have moved some cabinets to make a peninsula that we have space for it in the kitchen.  It will sit near the back door and will be a great place to put on and take off shoes.  The plan is to have Hotsauce (aka Ben) put in a box for storage under the seat... perhaps even tomorrow! It has a new paint job as well and went from a very dark stain wood to gray with a black glaze.  In true Kelly fashion I have distressed it and some days I love it and others I think... well, I don't know what to think.  I believe when the whole thing is put back together that I will love it. At least I hope I love it!

I also searched and searched for the perfect neutral color for the walls.  If you know who Thrifty Decor Chick is... I greatly desired her Cinnabark walls from her dining room.  She informed me that Behr paint has two different colors of Cinnabark and of course I could only find the "wrong" Cinnabark. So I stood at the paint sample area FOR.EV.ER. It was here that Ben asked me if I truly wanted the perfect neutral color (aka tan) in the kitchen since I frequently comment that there's too much brown (insert gasp here) in the house as it is.  A light bulb started to flicker. But, if not the perfect neutral color then what?  A whole world of color stood before me and I almost panicked. We are talking color anxiety attack. Just as the first bead of sweat began to form on my brow Julayne comes to the rescue with one simple statement, "Haven't you always wanted a red kitchen?"  With the light bulb, in full 100 watt goodness, finally turned on and I was inspired! I want red. Not neutral. But, red in all of its glorious redness. Right? Yet, as I thumb through the samples I backed off of my vision a bit and pick a color called Brickberry. Something, red, but not particularly flashy. Perhaps a more neutral version of red, like a boring cousin of red in all of its glorious redness.
In my excitement to try out Brickberry and determine if I had indeed picked the perfect neutral red I found a scrap piece of drywall and try it out... and you may have guessed by now... it was ugh. And not just a little ugh, but ugh-ly! It faded into the wood colors and looked almost pinkish orangeish salmonish!
It was U-G-L-Y, you ain't got no alibi, you ugly, yay, yay you ugly!

Photo credit

I want a red that's going to pop... like these shutters...
These shutters make me happy. Almost squeal worthy really! And that's the color I want my walls to be! I deserve to be happy in the kitchen when I'm loading the dishwasher for the 4th time and sweeping for the 400th time! Don't I?  Besides, my dad will like this color, though he will ask where the sunshine blinding yellow cabinets to go with them are...but you can't please everyone!

So these are a few glimpses into my inspirations for what will be a wonderfully remodeled kitchen. And if it ever gets complete I will post a million pictures! In the meantime, pray that Ben will heal from a sprained wrist so that we (translated, he) can get some more work done in our (translated, my) kitchen! :)