Last Christmas

This Christmas week, has been very merry indeed. Its been filled with family, friends, food, laughter, presents and love. But, its also been bitter sweet.

I've spent nearly 30 Christmas' in this home, and this year is the last one I ever will. My parents are retiring in 2015, and they are moving to another town to be closer to family, which is wonderful and exciting. But these past few days, as we've helped my parents clean out the attic and sort through the stuff, there have been moments where I felt nearly paralyzed with sadness as I was overcome with memories and emotions. 

My parents close on their new house on January 9th, but won't retire until the summer. But, that weekend in January, they plan to begin moving things to their new house each month, to make the final move easier. The next time I step foot in this home, there will not be a bed in my room, or things in my closet. The end is very near. 

Last night, Christmas eve, we went to our final Christmas service at church. The church were I was baptized, where I met Jesus, and went to Sunday school. The church where I made friends, played on the lawn, spent countless hours. During our final song, I stood quietly looking at the alter, taking it all in, just wanting to remember the church, because its been exactly the same since I was a child. 

And last night, I woke up after everyone went to bed, and wondered the quite rooms of this house.  A lot of life happened between these four walls. Good things and bad. Memories and moments that we treasure, and a million others that we have long since forgotten. Dreams came true, hearts were broken, fights and make up's occurred. First kisses, slow dances, parties. They all happened here. It is just a house, just brick and drywall, but somewhere along the way, it became home. A refuge from the storm, a place where love always prevailed. 

We leave tomorrow afternoon to head back to Dallas. So this, my final night, in my home before everything changes, before everything is different, before normal is no more, I will take a moment to thank this house. Thank it for always being warm and inviting. For always keeping me safe from the storm, and for being more than just a house. 

In these last few hours and days of the only "normal" I've ever known, I'm reminded of the quote by Steven Rogers. "Beginnings are usually scary, endings are usually sad, but its whats in the middle that counts. So when you find yourself at the beginning, just give hope a chance to float up. And it will."

Healthy Shepherds Pie: A Recipe. (And Ido am terrible at taking photos of food)

I know many of you have been experiencing fall like weather for a few weeks now. For us in Texas, it was in the 90's last week. But, the temperature has finally dropped for us. Now that its getting colder, I thought it was time to bring out the crock pot and make one of our favorite meals, Shepherd's Pie. 

This is not my recipe, but I have been making it for years. (I cannot remember where I found it either)

This is a great meal, its healthy, easy, and delicious! 

Ingredients:
Ground Bison (Can substitute group turkey or chicken)
1/2 Onion
3 cloves minced garlic
2 sweet potatoes
1 bag frozen vegetables
Garlic power
Onion powder
Salt Pepper 
Beef Broth

1.Soften the sweet potatoes. This can be done either by boiling them in water for about 15 minutes or steaming them. 
2.While the sweet potatoes are softening brown your meat in a hot skillet. Once browned, drain any excess liquid, and set aside. 
3. In the skillet cook the onions until translucent then add the garlic. Cook for 2 minutes. 
4. Add your protein back to the skillet and season to taste and mix well.
5. Transfer everything to the crockpot. 
6. Next, add your bag of mixed veggies. No need to defrost them. Once you add them to the crockpot the heat from the protein will do that for you. Mix everything well. 

7. Add your beef broth to the mixture. Add only enough to fill the crock pot just below the food line. Don't over fill because it will get soupy. 
8.At this point, the sweet potatoes should be soft enough to put in your food processor. Give them a whirl until they are fully creamed. 
9. Using a spatula, spread the whipped sweet potatoes over the meat and veggies. 

10. Turn on the crock pot and let it cook.
11. Take the lid off for the last 30 minutes of cooking to allow the top layer of the potatoes to crisp up slightly. 
12. Eat and enjoy!

We eat this meal at least twice a month every winter. Its healthy, filling, and we love it! 

Hope y'all like it too! 

Around the House--The Back Bedroom

These past few weeks, we have been working hard on our back bedroom. We have lived in our house for 2 years now, and this is the only room that we have never done anything to.

When we moved in, the room looked like this.

The lighting in this room is not great, and it is hard to tell, but it was a weird mint green color.

First, we put up crown molding. We found this particular molding at a builder supply store for about $.80 cents, a foot, so we were able to install crown molding in the entire room for less than $40.00, including caulking, primer, and paint. 

Next, we began painting the wall. 

The main wall color is Behr's Revere Pewter, which is a soft grey. (thank you Pinterest for the suggestion)

Next, we painted the back wall with stripes. Again, Revere Pewter is the softer color, and Behr's Rockport is the darker contrasting grey. 

Finally, we painted the ceiling a bright white, and now, it looks so much cleaner and crisp than it did before. 

We have a few more minor adjustments to make. We need to hang curtains and then get to work on the closet. We plan to install some shelving units and create some better storage areas. For whatever reason, this closet is the largest in the house, so we want to make most of the space we have.

This has now become my favorite room in the house! I have some furniture that I am working on refinishing because I want to have all white furniture in this room. I'll show y'all that once I am finished!

What do you think, do you like it? Any projects going on at your house? 

Around the House: In the Yard

These past few weeks, my husband and I have been putting in a lot of time and effort (and budgeted money) working around our house.

The first project we took on was repurposing an old door into a trestles for our two of our rose bushes. The rose bushes need something to climb on, and rather than purchase something, we just repurposed what we had.

The next project we tackled was the hardest. We have a small strip between our house and driveway that we have never known what to do with. The people who we purchased our house from filled it with lava rock. 

I've never like the lava rock. It looked bad, attracted dirt, leaves, and trash.  

We ended up shoveling up all of the rock, and cleaned the bed.

Then, we ended up purchasing grey Mexican river rock from a whole seller. Below is what we ended up with. 

We also spent a good amount of time cleaning up the yard, and our garden area. Earlier this year, we shortened our deck and planted new sod in its place to open up the yard. We also cleared the area of the yard that we once used as a compost area. We didn't put the time or effort into composting like we should, so we ended up cleaning that area up as well. 

We have had a lot of fun this summer working on the yard, cleaning everything up, and making our home look good.

What summer projects have you tackled?

Before and After---Springtime Backyard Clean Up

Spring has sprung! You know what that means--its time to clean up and clean out. Its time to get rid of the old and in with the new, fresh, and clean.

These past few weeks, P and I have spent a lot of time cleaning up, cleaning out, and sprucing things up around the house.

This past weekend, we were outside as much as possible. It was sunny, warm, and perfect.

First up, the area next to our a/c unit. We have tried for 2 years to get something to grow in this area, and nothing will. The guy at the plant store thinks there may have been some oil or chemicals spilled in the area from the original unit years ago, and that the soil is contaminated. Once contaminated, nothing will grow there. So we decided to do a "California garden" and now it is just rocks and a pot with some plants.

Next, we began to clean up the small area under our kitchen window. We have done plants here twice, and each year, they last for a little while, then they die off. This year we decided to plant jasmine, let it take over the area, and provide a clean look for years to come. 

Finally, we spent the rest of our time removing 3 feet of our deck. We wanted to make the most of the yard space we have. After removing the deck, we planted 3 feet of grass in its place.

Clearly, the dogs are enjoying the new grass.

Next weekend, we plan to use a power washer to remove all the old paint from the deck, then stain it, so it all looks fresh and new.

A few bucks, a little elbow grease, and a lot of sweat later---we like the look of the yard updates!

Have you been doing any spring clean up or clean outs?

A Pinterest Success

Hey gang. It's been a few weeks.

Moving on from my radio silence........

I have not blogged much these past few weeks because I have been traveling, doing some home improvement projects, and taking care of some really serious business like watching all the seasons of Pretty Little Liars on Netflix. I am totally hooked, and am dying to find out who A is. Don't tell me if you know.

One major mile stone that we have reached during the 1st quarter of the year....I have finally had a Pinterest success! Well, not so much me, but P.

I saw this pinned this ages ago, and I thought it was beautiful.

I showed it to P sauce and asked him to make one for me. So he did.

First, we went to Home Depot to look at 5 panel doors, and they were pretty expensive, and we didn't want to spend that much money on the project. After doing some research, we found a scrap yard on the South side of Dallas, and we stopped by one early Saturday morning. We asked if they had any doors on sight, and the guy running the shop laughed. He said, "Yea, we have about 3,000."

Awesome.

After door hunting, and some negotiations, we were able to get this beauty for $45.00

As you can see, we may have gone a bit overboard an purchased a few doors. Now, we are those weird people in the neighborhood with a lot of doors.

At one point P suggested hanging them around the house like art. I suggested we not do that.

That door had 8 layers of paint on there, all different colors. We went through containers and containers of stripper, trying to remove all the old gunk. It took days to work through each layer, peeling and scraping one area at a time.

After getting all of the main layers off, it was time to start working on the panels and in the corners. The detail work.

At this point, one of us got bored and stopped working on the door. I'll give you a hint, there was a certain handsome gentleman working on the door way past midnight one night to finish, while the other gentlewoman was snuggling with the dogs, passed out on the couch.

Finally, we got the door stripped, sanded, and ready to paint.

The real delay started here. P left the color selection up to me, and for some reason I was dead set on teal. Even though teal goes with nothing in our room, I wanted teal. I bought teal, painted a portion teal, hated the teal, and declared that this thing would never be finished.

A little about me, I don't do well when I have a lot of options. Have you ever looked at paint samples? There are around 86,000 colors to choose from, and each is slightly different from the next. And once you chose the color you have to choose the finish, gloss, high gloss, matte.....Are you going to distress it. You know who was distressed, me.

Lots of really tough first world problems I was facing.

Finally, I was able to move from my paint induced paralyzed state, I chose a color from the 18 sample bottles I purchased from the Home Depot. (I wish I was inflating this number.)

I picked, I painted, and here is what we were left with.

Our lovely headboard.

Please excuse the sloppily made bed.

Thanks to Pinterest and P, I think it looks awesome!!!

Any Pinterest successes recently?

Hitting the Brakes

These past few months, I have been researching real estate. I have been looking at home/condos/apartments for sale in our area. I have been researching the cost to build an apartment over the garage to rent out. I have been watching a ton of HGTV (Scientific, I know).

I have been so ready to hit the gas and move forward. I want to move forward, dive into the real estate market, and make some money. I know that real estate has a great return on investment. I know that you can make money on real estate. I know that there are opportunities out there for people with money to invest. 

But, I have also known that if we were to invest in real estate, it would mean taking out a loan. And, I would be lying if I said, I had not at least considered it. 

Did you notice what is missing from above? How about the We.

See, these were plans I was drawing up in my head. I was ready to take my knowledge, my research, and move forward in my direction.

It was not until one day as we were driving around looking at houses, that P said "Babe, I feel like we are going 40 mph, and thats a good speed for us, but it seems like we are suddenly trying to go 70, and I am not sure we are ready for that speed."

That kind of took the wind out of my sails, but it was something I needed to hear. We have been walking along the Dave Ramsey baby steps, and things are going really well. We are on Step 6, paying off the house early.  The great thing about the Dave Ramsey baby steps is that they are small, attainable goals. The negative side to the Dave Ramsey baby steps is that they are small, and often slow moving. 

It really comes down to being content where we are. We ARE doing the right things financially. We ARE moving at a great speed. We ARE making progress on our goals. We ARE living frugally. There are so many things I want for us, but we believe that you have to walk before you can run, and we believe in a set of principals that teach us that "the borrower is slave to the lender." Proverbs 22:7

We worked really hard to get out of debt, to build our emergency fund, and to pay cash for everything we own. The only debt we have is the mortgage, and we are working really hard to knock it out in a few years. 

For me, I really need to look at where we are and where we came from. I need to realize that its a process, and we are working hard to build a strong foundation for tomorrow, and the many tomorrows after that. In finance, some people gamble, and win big, and many others gamble and lose their pants. They play a high risk game, and for every winner there are a dozen losers who wish they would have done it differently. The way we handle our money is not right for everyone, and I am ok with that. I also need to be accepting of where we are, its the tortoise that wins the race. 

That man of mine is wise, and a great partner for me. He listens, lets me dream, lets me fantasize, but then will bring me back to reality.

Have you ever made a risky financial move? How did you fare?

My obsessions

These past few weeks, I have become obsessed with one topic, real estate. I told you about my idea a few weeks ago.

This dream, this desire to diversify our financies is like an itch I cannot scratch. I think about it all the time. I am doing more and more research on properties, and I keep getting more and more excited. 

There is one obstacle standing in our way, its kind of a big one.....MONEY.

Specifically, our mortgage. We are Dave Ramsey followers to the max. We drank the Koolaid. We are on board, on the Dave train, and are following the baby steps. 

We are at the point where our only remaining debt is our home. We are trying to pay this sucker off early. We want out from underneight this load. 

We are making bimonthly payments, and an additional payment at the end of the month once we reconcile our account.

Our mortgage is still in the mid six digits. XXX,XXX. Thats a lot of digits. But still, I WANT THIS SUCKER GONE!

I even went so far as to buy a cheap frame, and hang it in P's closet so that every time we open the doors, we see it hanging in the closet every day. Written with a dry erase marker that I swiped from the office, written in my messy handwriting, I track our mortgage balance. I have been updating the frame 3x a month. Each time our mortgage goes through and with every additional payment I update it.

I have been playing with a lot of scenarios on some online calculators. I have been looking at refinancing to a 15 year, 20 year, with lower interest rates. I have been playing with additional payment calculators seeing how much time and interest we will save. I have probably run 100 different scenarios, just manipulating the numbers in as many different ways as possible. 

The other factor that is pushing me is listening to the Dave Ramsey show. At least once a day a couple that is our age, making the typical money gets to brag about having their home paid off. They are so happy and excited, and Dave is so excited, and I want to be one of those couples. I asked P if we could go to Nashville to Financial Peace Plaza to scream we are debt free when we pay off our house. He said yes, but reminded me that it will be a few years. 

Every time I hear someone pay off their house, I get tears in my eyes. I get so excited for them, and they push me even harder to squeeze a bit harder, to coupon a little bit more, to eat in another night, to really go for it. 

The thought of owing nothing, to being completely free gives me chills. In this economic environment, where our politicians, our elected leaders are monkeying around with our money, with our future scares me. And, it makes me angry. Both sides are out of control. They are messing with our lives. I want to do as much as I can to make sure we are secure, and take as much control and influence of our lives out of the hands of the government. 

I'm psyched, I'm obsessed, and I'm ready to get this done. 

How are you doing on your debt pay down? Anyone out there have the mortgage paid off?

Yard Update

This past weekend was glorious. Saturday morning P and I looked at each other, and I think we just knew it was going to be one of those weekends that we turned off the t.v. and basically lived outside.
We tended the garden, planted some roses, added some pavers, and tended the grass. At 6pm on Sunday, I realized I had not gone to the store, I had not cleaned the house, and I still had a ton of laundry to do, but friends, I didn't even care.

Grow grow grow!!

                                                                 This is the herb garden I
                                                                 planted a few months ago,
                                                                 and it is exploding!!!

                                                          This is the grass we planted back
                                                          in February, and it is growing
                                                          so well. I love that we replaced the
                                                          dirt and pebbles with this grass.

                                                        P wanted to start a rose garden
                                                        and I think they look beautiful!

                                                        Tomatoes for canning

                                                         Looking good, just grow grow grow

                                                         Veggies to eat!!

                                                         Another herb garden

A panoramic view of the yard.

 

How is your garden doing this year? 

Are we ready? Part 1.

There are no words that I have for those runners in Boston. I sat and watched the news in pure shock. How could this have happened? All of the runners and spectators who were there are in my thoughts and prayers, constantly.
There are no words to describe the pure and utter sadness of this event. This is a world wide event, and it is full of people who worked hard to get there, people who sacrificed so much to push their limits, and someone who hates us chipped away at our naivete.

Then the news cuts to the terrifying situation on the Korean Peninsula. Threats of bombings. Vows to destroy us. Desire to throw the world into chaos.

What is happening? What can we do? How do we respond to this?

The past few weeks, P and I have had some serious discussions, asking if we are ready if a terrorist attack occurred, or a major natural disaster, what would we do? How would we respond? Do we have the necessary means to care for ourselves for a few hours, a few days, or even weeks? Where do we go? How do we contact each other?

Over the course of the next few weeks, I think we need to have this conversation. How do we prepare for an emergency and how do we respond in that event?

Tomorrow I will start outlining our emergency preparedness plan. I will show you what we have done and what steps we have taken to prepare for an emergency.

Do you have a plan in place? Are there any precautions you have taken?

Growing grass, just not the smoking kind

 

Just call P and I the Yard Dawgs, whoof whoof.

 

For the second weekend in a row, P and I have been out in the back yard working out buns off.

 

This little patch of land has been the bane of my existence since we moved into our house last summer. This patch of our yard is ugly, dirty, and every time it rains, the dirt spreads to our driveway. We also have two dogs who seem to revel in that area of our yard, especially when it rains, or right after I mop the kitchen floor.

 

P and I decided we were going to do something about it this past weekend.

 

For less than $100.00 and a lot of sweat equity, we transformed this part of the yard.

Dirty Dirt Dirty

We were fortunate that we decided to plant the grass on a day when a major rainstorm was moving through town. It took about four hours total to buy the grass, pick up some compost/manure mixture, and lay the grass. Those four hours flew.

We finished up the last 1/2 of the project in the rain, but we didn't care. We wanted it done, and we wanted it to look good, and I think it does!

While P was finishing up the final touches, I reworked the stone garden around the base of the tree, and I think it looks so much better than it did before.

The best part of all these projects that P and I are doing is that its money we have been setting aside all year long. Each month we budget some money to our house fund or improvements and projects.

It is so much fun to do work at a home that is yours. We lived in an apartment for two years, and we always talked about how much fun it would be to work on our own home, to do improvements and to fix the house just the way we wanted.

How was your weekend?

Mary Mary Quite Contrary

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockleshells

And pretty maids all in a row.

I have no clue what that means, do you?

This past weekend P and I decided to plant our first garden in 3 years. Back when we lived in central Texas, we had a huge garden. We had 3 9X9 plots that we fertilized with goat poo from our neighbors. The soil was amazing.

Now that we live in the middle of Dallas, those 9x9 plots at our small house in the country are gone, but that does not mean we can't bring some country into the city.

We started out Saturday morning with a small plot of land that looked like this.

 We started out cleaning up the plot. We removed the trash, the dog poo, and leaves. We tilled the soil by hand for a bit, then realized we needed some help.

 I went to Home Depot and rented this guy for a few hours. This tiller was fast.

 (Vroom, Vroom, Vroom, I love using powerful machines.)

 After cleaning everything up, tilling the land, and leveling the space, we started planting. We planted spinach, ice burg lettuce, onions, tomatoes, squash, jalapenos, and bell peppers.

 The final product.

 The thing that I loved about the entire process was not necessarily the planting, it was being outside with P, it was starting a project, and finishing it. It was the dirt under my nails, the sun on my skin, and the satisfaction that I accomplished something that I started.

It was a break from the norm. It was something different than usual. So much of my weekends are spent "prepping" for the next week. I run the the store, I spend hours in the kitchen chopping, dicing, and sauteing. I do the laundry, clean the house, clip my coupons. This weekend, I did some of that, but not everything. We ate out 4 times this weekend because we were too busy doing the garden to cook. I did not prep a single meal for the week. Sunday night at 7:00, my floors were dirty, the laundry was not done, and I was scrambling to figure out what to eat for lunch on Monday.

And guess what, I figured out what to eat, I did a few loads of laundry so far this week, my floors are filthy, but the world did not end because everything in the house is not perfect. In fact, its been a pretty good week so far.

I started thinking that I really need to give my to do lists a break, especially on the weekends. Its ok for me to unwind, enjoy my time off, and not spend half of my 48 hours off thinking about the week ahead.

It felt great to spend all day outside. It was so nice to turn off the t.v. We blasted Zac Brown on the radio, and worked.

This was one of the best weekends I have had in ages.

When was last time you took a break from the norm?

Are you a gardener?