Home is where you hang your mini jacket

We moved into our current house just one year ago today, and it has been a bit of a troubled journey making it our own.  If you remember, we had some home problems including several mouse incidents (refer to posts: “The mouse incident” and “The mouse incident, part two”), a roof to replace unexpectedly, a pool that wasn’t closed properly before an extremely cold winter, among some other small troubles.  The upside to our new nest is that we were able to spend the year making it our own.  And while we aren’t done, we have made a nice little abode here, complete with a newborn.

The easiest changes that you can make to your home to change the look without major remodeling include two big things: paint and fixtures.  Here’s what we did:

• Paint every room in the house, including ceilings and trim.  In this case, our house had original dark brown espresso trim, windows and doors.  We updated this look to white trim.
• Replace door handles.  Our espresso colored doors (now white) were complete with some old and outdated gold-ish round knobs.  Since we were taking doors off of hinges and repainting, it seemed a waste to put them back on with the old hardware, so we updated with brushed nickel hinges and lever handles.  We have a lot of doors, so this made an incredible difference in the look of the house.
• Update light fixtures and cabinet hardware.  We updated some light fixtures (e.g., nursery), salvaged some light fixtures with a little paint or rewiring, and changed cabinet hardware in key places (e.g., bathroom).

Nursery - before:

Nursery - after:

Guest bedroom - before:

Guest bedroom - after:

Master bedroom - before:

Master bedroom - after:

Bathroom - before:

Bathroom - after:

I am so happy to have a house we can call a home for our little family of three.  I look at our house as the first makings of the background of so many family memories.  This is the house that our kid(s?) will remember fondly as the cool house they grew up in.  It will be in the background of so many family photos, and has plenty of memorable spaces.  Home is where you hang your mini jacket.

Moms are the best.

Shirley MacLaine and her daughter, 1959 - Photo by Allen Grant via the LIFE Picture Collections

I think we all had been there at one point in our lives where we were a little concerned that me might turn into our mothers.  I remember a moment in time where I was feeling there was no way around a future life of caring about drink coaster on wooden tables (my mom) and always forgetting to put the rolls on the table for holiday dinners (my grandma).  Now that I am older and arguably wiser, I realize that we should all be so lucky.  I mean honestly, now that I can afford to buy a table not made out of veneer fake wood, use a coaster.

Over the last several years, I have continued to grow in respect for moms everywhere as I have had the privilege watching my friends and sisters have children and raise fantastic kids, and as I have watched my lifetime moms become grandmas.  To all of my people, your kids are amazing.  They are funny, smart, and the weirdest little combinations of you and their dads.  You have done it with grace (but not too much so that it isn't real), humor (probably not without a few times yelling at Target), and you make parenting look good.

This year my respect for moms has grown even more as I have grown my own bun in the oven and experience the strange wonder that is being a mom.  So far, I am batting a thousand as I haven't screwed up any of my children yet as far as I can tell.  And while I haven't had to do much parenting for the 4-month old nugget in the belly, I have already found myself driving more cautiously though intersections and considering organic cucumbers.  Parenting win.

My mom in particular is something special, as all of our moms are to us.  As an adult I continue to grow in appreciation for all of the things that I really didn't realize as a child that I picked up from my mom.  I am also so thankful for the mom that she is today; she is non-judgmental, considerate of those around her, thoughtful at every holiday, willing to listen when I vent, gives advice only when it is needed or solicited, and even-keel, among all of the other thousands of reasons why she is the right mom for me.  Of course she is the right mom for me, she made me.

We are lucky too to sometimes have other moms in our lives that make an impact, like step moms, moms of our friends, and those co-workers or neighbors that take good care of us.  We will always have nice memories of the neighbor we stayed with for a few hours while our parents were away, or the lady at work that made sure to remind me to eat lunch when I was busy enough to forget.  Your awesomeness did not go unnoticed either.

So thank you, ladies, to all of the inspiring moms around me.  I have been watching carefully and making mental notes of how awesome you are at being moms so I can pay it forward.  The fact that your kids wear Spiderman costumes most days of the week and that you take the BEST Instagram photos of your kids makes my day and I can't wait to join the club.

Nailed it.

One of my favorite memories of my dad as a kid was Sunday mornings.  These mornings generally meant one of two things: either my dad would go out golfing early and bring back doughnuts as if to pay the fee to his daughters for letting him golf, or there were bunny pancakes.  Yes, that hot mess of a pile of pancake batter pictured above is the making of a bunny pancake.  I need more practice.

I love bunny pancakes.  I am practicing them now because it is important to have memory-making skills.  To me, bunny pancakes represent some of the best childhood moments.  Not only did my dad cause me an unhealthy appreciation for carbohydrates, he showed that he cared through hand-crafted flapjacks.  Occasionally, he even went for the retro square-shaped waffle iron, and to this day I refuse to eat waffles that aren't square.

 This one turned out a little better:

 At any rate, I am pleased to make Sunday morning pancakes (or, as an alternative, square waffles) a tradition in our house.  In the tradition started by my dad, I of course need to make enough pancakes to feed me and twenty of my closest friends.  That way, I can eat pancakes for days after.  I have been eating one long meal of pancakes going on 48 hours now.

Happy memory making... Dads, start practicing your bunny pancakes.  Your daughters might blog about it some day.