Help me with my windows!

I've gotten a lot of requests for pictures of the new house and it's not that I don't want to share them, but I'm waiting on blinds to be delivered...and installed...and the friendly Lowe's people to call me back to tell me when that might happen.

Window treatments to me are like mascara...which is pretty funny, considering that I rarely wear mascara, with one child pulling all the contents out of my vanity drawers and the other latched firmly around my ankle.  Maybe one day I'll get back to it...sort of like plucking my eyebrows...

But I digress.

So I hate to put up pictures of the house until it's finished.  Still, I am at a standstill on what I want to do with my front windows and I need your help. 

To fill you in, we ordered thick white blinds to go on all the windows.  I'm not sure if you would call these plantation or not, but I believe they are about an inch thick.  Keep that in mind when looking at the pictures.

Here is the subject at hand.  I'm not sure if you would call this an official bay window, but it is curved and I took the picture from a distance so you couldn't see the snot and hand prints from my lovely little children, looking for their daddy to come home.  That both irritates my Windex toting side yet pulls so hard at my heart strings that I normally don't care. 

Another angle...

Let me show you the rest of the room so you get an idea.

Couch, complete with the Princess and the Frog Seek and Find book that Rachel was attempting to rip to shreds earlier in the day.

I love this blue behind-the-couch-table and was thinking of looking for curtains that carried the dark brown of the leather with the blue of the couch.  My children have really gotten into playing, "Go to Sleep" - which is why there are blankets all over.  They take turns laying down and kissing and hugging each other and their stuffed animals goodnight.  This is especially funny considering that it has become quite the daunting task to get Elizabeth to go to bed lately.  It also normally winds up in a battle for one of the blankets.

And Rachel has obviously found the canning jar grabber thing.  Sigh...

And my oldest is reading and playing the princess piano book with her feet.  I swear, never the dull moment around here!  But back to the windows. 

I'm concerned about the curtain rods.  I liked this article and woman's idea from A Little of This - A Little of that.  She spray painted and used PVC pipe instead of expensive curtain rods and I think that looks nice, but do you think it would work on this window?

I also liked these curtains from The Yellow Cape Cod.

http://www.theyellowcapecod.com/2011/01/bold-striped-diy-drapes.html

But do you think that would be too bold for the brown and the blue?  Also, do you think two curtains on each end or I was kind of thinking of putting two panels on each window.

Sort of like this...

http://www.bhg.com/home-improvement/windows/window-buying-guide/bay-windows/#page=4

So really, tell me what you think.  I can't wait for them to be done because I think it'll help complete the room and also give us privacy from the road.

Thanks for your help!  And of course, I'll give you pictures through the process!

It looks like spaghetti...sort of...

I still remember the first time my grandma fixed us spaghetti squash.  My sisters and I loved spaghetti and it really didn't taste that much different in a meat sauce, so we gobbled it up and sang the praises.

My children, however, are suspicious of everything.  If it is unrecognizable, they won't touch it...especially Elizabeth.  Just last night, I made potato salad that she refused to touch and then I caught her putting dirt in her mouth during our walk...

Makes me real confident in my cooking, people.  Real confident...

So you would imagine my surprise when I made spaghetti squash last week and both children ate almost an entire plate.  If you're watching your carbs, or counting your veggies, it really doesn't get much better than this.  I can't credit the recipe, since we saw it on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, but I did add a few tweaks. 

One side note, if you have any tricks in cutting your squash in half, please let me know.  I swear, I almost went out to find the chainsaw, this puppy was so hard!

Start a pot of water with some salt and drop in your squash, cut in half.  For my family, I actually used two spaghetti squashes (what in the world is the plural of squash??  Squashes...squashi...)

Boil for 15 minutes - now, I have always baked my squash, but this was quicker and gave it a little different taste.  Depending on the size of your squash, you may need to go 20 minutes. 

I chopped up some Italian sausage and began browning it in a pan.  Once it's ready, add a jar of your favorite sauce and heat through.  You could also do browned hamburger or turkey.

At the same time, cut up your veggies and heat up a large saute pan with some olive oil.  Here's where you can choose...but I added onion, green pepper, carrots, celery, broccoli and asparagus.  I cooked them until the onions went clear, but the broccoli and asparagus were still crunchy. 

Then add in your sauce. 

Once the squash is cooked, remove it and spoon out the seeds and innards.  Then, take a fork and scrape out the "spaghetti."  

Combine spaghetti and sauce with vegetables in a 9x13 casserole dish and top with mozzerella.  Bake at 350 for 15 minutes until gooey...

mmmmm...

The TV show didn't add the meat, but I thought that really gave it a good flavor...especially since it's all vegetables.  I would show you a picture of my children, but trust me...it wasn't pretty.  Spaghetti never is in our house.

Case in point...

Day 2 leftovers were phenomenal...enjoy!

Daddy Rollercoaster

 In case you need an extra dose of cuteness today...

I was on my way outside to grill potatoes for our Independence Day potato salad (which turned out WONDERFUL!) when I heard the girls squealing with delight.  They had been outside playing for a little while with their daddy and I had lost track of them in my preparation.  I'm not sure how many sprints Scott ended up doing in the backyard, but he said it was enough to make his hamstrings and calves sore!

Mom found this wagon by the side of the road and grabbed it up for us...I would say it's still in top condition after this test!  

Independence Day Kettlebell Workout

As I said before, I've been strictly running in survival mode when it comes to my workouts.  Lifting here and there...running a little...reading my magazines...cruising, if you will.

So today was as good a day as ever to jump back into things with a partner workout with my husband.  Although, I have to admit, I regretted it a little bit in the beginning, since he has not taken any sort of break and is stronger than ever.  He had the day off for the 4th and we decided to run to the Y for workout and then take a quick dip in the pool with the girls.  

The workout was one Scott found on You Tube and it's with kettlebells.  I had never used them before and my jury is still out.  It was tough for me to find a good weight and I didn't like them banging against my wrist.  Scott is trying to sell me on the advantages it would be for a pitcher...and I'm with him a little...but still deciding. 

We warmed up on the big Stair masters...have you seen them?  You literally climb revolving stairs.  We hit them for 5 minutes and then went into the workout.

Here it is...the 300 Kettlebell Meltdown Workout.  We didn't do it for time - which is a good thing since I almost died on the burpies.  

We finished by alternating 3 minute go's with one person on the Versa Climber and the other jumping rope for 2 minutes and holding a plank for the final minute.  We did this three times. 

Then we grabbed our babies and held their hands as they jumped off the side of the pool for an entire 45 minutes. 

Thank you, Lord for this life, country and the wonderful men and women who have (and are currently) fighting to keep us free.  Happy 4th of July!

Catching you up...

I'm hoping that this is the week things get back to normal in our world...

bahahahahahahahaha!!!

But just a quick catch up for you of odds and ends.  I promise to one day get back to writing about working out and things of the like...but to be honest with you, I've just been scrimping by in that category and using my workouts more to cope with stress than to train.  Maybe you've been there?  Yesterday, I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical and read my new Better Homes and Gardens cover to cover.

And it.was.wonderful.  ha!

Luckily, our diet has been fairly clean, because (wait for it...) we live less than 5 miles from an awesome farmer's market now!  I KNOW!  I love all things farmer's market and this one doesn't disappoint.  Lots of local representation, live music, flowers and people.  So we are there almost every week.  Here was our haul last Saturday...

We got all this, plus a huge bunch of basil for under $20.  Which came in handy for our slight addiction for grilled vegetables and anything with pesto sauce. 

mmm...pesto and a protein shake...

During the middle of the week, the girls and I traveled back to SC to attempt to clean up our little house there that is looking for a new tenant / owner.  It was a humbling experience, as I hadn't been back in our house since we left and I didn't realize how much work needed to be done - especially to the landscape.  I am completely indebted to my friends who came to help, watched the girls, and let us crash their homes.  

But of course we can't go on a trip without the hula hoop...  or "hu-wa hoo" as Elizabeth calls it.

Here is Rachel and Donna, enjoying the front porch swing.  If you look over their shoulder, you can see Gary and his dad hossing termite-infested wood into the woods.  It was stacked against our shed (also made of wood) for over two years.  I feared the worst when I saw it...it was so bad that you could see where the termites had been from a distance and it almost crumbled in your hands when you picked it up.  

Wanna hear the awesome, only something God could do, part?  When the exterminator got there and looked at it, he said we had a bad ant problem...so bad that the ants had EATEN the termites, saving the shed and possibly the house.  I had never heard of such a thing. 

Anyway, we got back to town and Scott made the trip up to Ohio to pay honor to his best friend from college's dad, who passed away last week due to Alzheimers.    Just five years ago, Jack and Marsha had made the trip south to honor us at our wedding and I had just met them the one time. 

This article was published in their local paper and it is just a wonderful testament to a man's commitment to life, sports and his family. 

Of course, our 5th anniversary was last Friday and just served as a reminder to how blessed I am to be married to such a wonderful husband and father.

With daddy away, the girls and I went for walks and caught up with laundry and went to the pool and just enjoyed being back home.

I love this picture...I call it Walking on Sunshine.

So with all this behind us, maybe we can get back to our normal life soon...whatever that is...HA!  I hope you're all well...one more thing to share with you.  We've been visiting a new church that just has incredible worship.  Matthew West sang this morning and did this song and I thought it was just incredible.  In case you need some encouragement (and who doesn't?!)...enjoy!

Because sometimes you just need breakfast for dinner...

My kids are starving.

Since snacks, we rode bikes (or argued about who was going to ride what and took turns pushing each other off and screaming), took a walk (or got spanked as we ran into various neighbor's yards), played hide and seek in the backyard and just ran around the house like normal banshees.

And now they're famished.

We've been eating pretty clean (more on that later) so most dinners this week have resulted in my children devouring whatever carb they could find on the table and leaving the meat and vegetables on their plates.  Looking at the leftovers in the fridge, I knew I would have a battle on my hands.

And my husband is going to be home late.  

And I just have no more fight left in me.

So I fixed cheesy eggs and toast for dinner...

And there was much rejoicing!

Happy Thursday!

Seriously...

She doesn't get this from me...

And yes, your eyes aren't deceiving you...that's the kiddie table in the kitchen (thank you to Ms. Susan's generosity...our wonderful Realtor...who also gave us this house, according to Elizabeth).  I figure this way, they can sit in here and have snacks and color and play while I work.  Well, and dance, I guess...ha!