2013!!!

Well, 2013 is well upon us now and I am right in the middle of it all.the.time. I was looking back at my 12 Twelves of 2012 goals and had to laugh a little. The best part of that post is that my "word" for the year was "simplicity" and I think my life really was anything but! There were lots of really wonderful things about 2012 that I thoroughly enjoyed...some other things though that make me glad that year is now in the past. I thought it would be fun to review my goals from last year and then let you know what I am up to this year. Even though I wasn't a complete "success" last year I have added to the list and it is now 13 Thirteens of 2013...I can't stop myself! Also, I obviously didn't really grasp the concept of "simplicity" so that continues to be my motto for the year.

A Year in Review:

#1-Read 12 books. Done and done. This really wasn't hard at all...

#2-Complete a 12 mile run/walk...yeah about that. Did not happen. That seems soooo far to me and I just couldn't get the proper motivation last year. Someday soon though!

#3-12 minutes of personal study per day. If I were grading myself I would probably end up with a "C" average on this one. It really didn't happen every day, but most of the time.

#4-Go on all 12 daytz. I would say done. One month we did end up doing something completely different, but we did go on a dayt!

#5-Blog at least 12 times a month. I was thisclose but in December I only have 10 posts for the month. I have since caught up, but if you want to get technical...

#6-Memorize the 12 scriptures and themes from the primary outline. Full disclosure: did not do this once. I fully intended to, but last year was a hard year for me in primary. I love love love serving in primary and I really love and enjoy the children, but there were some aspects of being in the primary presidency that were just overwhelming and hard. The end.

#7-12 day trips over the summer. Pretty sure this was done and easily surpassed if you were following along on our Summer Bucket list at all!

#8-Lose 12 pounds. DONE! This one has been an ongoing battle, but isn't that always the case with weightloss? When I had the ectopic pregnancy at the beginning of the year I gained rather than lost...but, once I had the go ahead (months later) and was finally allowed to work out I was all over it. I started out slow and lost a few pounds, but then I happened to join a Biggest Loser competition at work and actually won! From May 15-August 7 I lost 15.4 pounds. Since then I have lost about 5 more and I'm down about 25 pounds overall!

#9-Bed before 12. Hahaha! I so funny. Most nights this happened, but c'mon I am a nightowl.

#10-Participate in 12 acts of service. I knew this would easily happen and more, but I just wanted to challenge myself to be focused on charity more in my life and I think it is working!

#11-At least 12 temple trips. I wish I could say I did, but not quite. I'm a work in progress:)

#12-12 DIY projects around the house:

1. Coat closet turned mudroom

2. Finish the trim (hey, it's all installed now...paint schmaint)

3. Paint the kitchen and the cupboards

4. Built-in beds in boys' room

5. Boys closet turned office

6. IKEA closet system in master closet (not exactly their full system, but it has stayed organized since I last cleaned it out. No shoes on the floor people!)

7. Build stands for the washer and dryer

8. Finish landscaping the yard (don't make me laugh)

9. Purge junk and organize garage (don't look in there now though...)

10. Built in book cases in the living room

11. Build a mantel

12. Redo Reagan's closet

And now I am tired all over again. Although I didn't do every little thing on my list I did a lot of them and a lot more too so I don't feel like any sort of failure at all. 

Now for 2013. I decided that my list for last year was really more than 12 since #12 was insane;) But here I go again!

Drum roll please.....

13 Thirteens of 2013!

#1- 13 minutes of "me" time a day to study the scriptures/gospel.

#2- Give 13 minutes of "me" time to my children every day. (I know I am with them most of the day, but I want to spend some time each day in one-on-one interaction with each child...with 4 that adds up!)

#3- 13 Random Acts of Kindness throughout the year.

#4- Read 13 books for fun!

#5- Learn 13 new songs on the piano. (I really should be practicing more...)

#6- Scrapbook at least 13 pages (I really love scrapbooking and I have a ton of stuff to do it with that is just waiting to be used! Time to do it again!!)

#7- Read the Book of Mormon again in 13 weeks or less.

#8- Have 13 adventures this summer!

#9- 13 DIY projects around the house. (My list is in progress...there are a lot more than 13 so I just hope to get at least 13 done.)

#10- Actually do/make/use 13 of my pins on pinterest.

#11- Declutter 13 areas of my house: Book cases, craft desk, craft cupboard, recipe/cookbook area, awkward kitchen cabinet, hall closet, mud closet, master bath, main bath, master closet/bedroom, boys' room, Reagan's room, and laundry room. (I've already been making some really good progress on these!)

#12- Lose 13 pounds. I don't find it a coincidence that I happen to be 13 pounds away from my goal weight. I think it means I am meant to finally lose them!

#13- I was going to say participate in a half marathon (13.1 miles...) and then I remembered that I would never do that! So instead, I want to run at least 13 5Ks this year (not necessarily official races though).

My real goal is start living life and not just thinking about living it. I guess what I mean is that there are a lot of things to be done and learning to prioritize into what matters most and what I really want to be doing or have done and then do it! Okay 2013--it's on!!

Master Closet Project

A couple of years ago I thought that I did a pretty decent job cleaning out and organizing the master closet.  Well, I now know that it wasn't as amazing as I once thought!  Slowly over time it lost control and needed help.  The biggest problem for me was the fact that our closet is sooooo cold that it makes it really hard to spend any amount of time in it during the winter months.  What ended up happening was that we were both just sort of chucking and stacking all our stuff in there with no rhyme or reason.  Recipe for chaos.
Before:

Not too bad, but Reagan is blocking most of the shoes....

oh, there you go.

shelves of stuff that I was sick to death of looking at.  Stuff that we "can't get rid of" and that needs to be enclosed.

Oh, and under that pile of clothes is a stack of 13+ textbooks and other school paraphernalia courtesy of my other half.   I can't seem to remember what the floor looked like in here...

I challenged myself with this project to spend little to no money.  I wanted to see if I could make do with what we had instead of buying the closet system I really want.  It's from Ikea, it's awesome, and it's not cheap so it's not coming home with me anytime soon:(
In the end I decided to move all the shirts, slacks, and uniforms to the lower bar and put the shoes above.

 

You'll notice I also managed to convince my hubby to pick up some more trofast containers at Ikea...I'm a teensy bit in love with these containers.

I got rid of a ton of clothes and finally moved the totes of maternity clothes out of the closet.  This made room for moving one of the dressers in here so we could bring the spin bike into our room for more regular use!

What?!  Is that the floor I see?  LOVE IT!

 

But, even more I love the fact that all of that stuff on the shelves is pretty much hidden!

Recap/Verdict: Project Boys' Room

Do they like their new room?  Why don't you tell me;)
 

 

 

And now for those before and after pictures I promised you:

#1- The beds

#2- The dressers

#3- The closet

 

I hope that you have enjoyed this little tour of our project!  Some days I like to go and sit in this room and just stare at all that we've done and smile.  This house may not be perfect, but we are working hard to have it be the best home for our family's needs.  It feels so good to have another project crossed off the list!

Project Boys' Room Part 3: The Afters!

I know I have kept you all in suspense for days;)  Thanks to scheduled posts on blogger I could totally do it, too!

Let me take you on a tour of the "new" bedroom:

Tah-dah!

At this point we have not built side rails on the beds.  The platforms extend beyond the mattresses and I found a tip on pinterest to help out!  If you notice a ridge at the edge of the mattress that would be a pool noodle under the sheets.  It keeps the kids from rolling off the bed!

 

Last spring we were counseled by the Prophet to hang pictures of the temple in each bedroom.  I also got an idea from a speaker at Time Out for Women about hanging pictures of Christ in your children's rooms/home that represent each family members' testimony of the Savior.  I added to that idea and every new year we are going to record our testimonies and then keep them in the back of the frame.  This way the kids can see how their testimonies grow!  Andrew thinks that it is awesome that all these pictures hang on the wall that says "may the force be with you."  I thought that was pretty cool, too.  Jonathan's picture is still hanging in the other bedroom...I'll get around to moving it eventually!

Since my pet peeve with the dressers was that the kids would put their crap on top of them all the time I was ecstatic when I found this system at Ikea:

(Notice no "top" to put crap on?!)  All of their shoes are in the bottom drawers and the rest of their clothes fit nicely in the remaining drawers.  Since the only things that my boys hang up are coats and church clothes we decided that we would just move that stuff to the closet in Reagan's room.  It won't kill them to go in there once a week!

The biggest obsession that the boys have is Legos.  I saw an idea on a blog (Iheartorganizing) that used the ikea trofast system to organize legos.  The drawers are sorted by color!  My OCD loves this for sure.  It was a must have for this area is dedicated to legos:

For Christmas I made a lego table for them out of a side table I got for free.  A little bit of spray paint, a lego base plate, and some e6000 and you get this:

The "big" gift the boys got for Christmas was the Lego Millennium Falcon.  It now has a home here:

The shelf above the trofast is now for things to be displayed:

The rule is that if the legos are put together and they don't want to take them apart then they can display them.  "In progress" work goes in the drawer of the lego table.  Everything else gets put away.  It has been a few weeks now and they are sticking to it!

My current favorite is the closet:

We built book shelves that the books actually fit on, added a desk, and some trofast bins to organize all the stuff that was on the shelves.  I used the same gray paint from our mudroom closet makeover and we framed out the door way so that it looked finished.  This whole closet makeover was covered by the money we made from selling the bed Jonathan used to sleep on.  Andrew liked that it was "budget neutral."

And finally, the wall of Star Wars crap memorabilia.

(Please ignore the white circle on the wall, it is the door stop and I do intend to eventually paint it the same color as the wall...)

There are a few things left to do to truly call this room "finished:" touch up the paint on the walls, caulk the trim, and apply vinyl labels to all the drawers/bins.  I am still thinking about painting the beds, but I am really liking the natural wood look to them for now, so at this point I am considering them done.

Stay tuned for some before and after pictures that will knock your socks off;)

Interim Chaos

 

By the way this is what the rest of the room looked like for a few days...you may notice a few changes from the before pics.  It's like "Where's Waldo?"

Project Boys' Room Part 2: The Bunk Beds

My original vision for the beds looked like this:

But, wouldn't you know it?  That stupid room has one wall that is long enough for a twin bed.  ONE.  I've said it before, but I'll say it again.  This house is retarded.

Next vision:

How cool would this room be?!  I sat on this idea for months wondering how we could even begin to come up with it.  Then one happy day in blogland I stumbled upon this:

And wouldn't you know it? She got her idea from the same blog that I found the previous picture!  Biggest difference: this blogger posted the how to with step-by-step instructions.

Now, we were still limited to having ONE wall to work with so we still had to adjust and rethink things.  In the end we decided to build two bunks and have a pull out bed for the third one.

Andrew got his wish and now has a chop saw!  This made the project so much quicker;)
Jonathan thought that he was our best helper:

Reagan tried to join in as well:

By far the hardest part was screwing the lag bolts into the wall.  Such a workout!  My little brother, Noah, stopped by to offer his wood shop expertise and add a little muscle to the project:

Reagan guarded the drill bits:

Jonathan held the screws for daddy:

Here we are mid-way!  The top bunk frame was installed at this point and somewhat supported by those 2x4s at the corner:

I honestly used to be intimidated by power tools, but after this project I am all over it!  On the last day Andrew had to work so I finished installing all the last 2x4 slats and sanded it down.  Jonathan was so excited!  He wanted to jump on it:

Good news is the bed supports the weight of all 3 boys:

After I sanded it down I added a coat of clear poly to seal it and we put the pull out bed underneath:

 

One important lesson learned is that using kiln dried wood would be best...but, if you are cheap like me then you can make do with green wood.  Heavy, but it works.  The wood has been drying out pretty well, but at first I was really nervous about the dampness in the room.  I did end up laying some plastic down on the wood under the mattresses.  I clean and check it regularly and so far I haven't found any problems.  Fingers crossed!

Are you totally curious about the rest of the room?  Stay tuned!

Project: Boys' Room

For many moons I have desperately wanted to do something about the bedroom our boys share.  A couple years ago I painted the room and made curtains and pillows.  Added a little vinyl flare to really complete the Star Wars feel, but it has always been lacking something.  I have been pouring over blogs, pinterest, and anything else I could find to get ideas.  I dreamed of coordinated, organized goodness.  But most of the time I saw $$$ that I didn't have or want to spend.  So we made do.  Finally I found the solutions that would work for our budget and worked to get Andrew on board.
Here is what we started with:

1) Bunk bed: technically the bottom bunk should be for a futon, but I took that part out and stacked some mattresses in an effort to make the lower bed take up less space...most of the time the room looked like this.  

2) On one wall there was this dresser...

3) and on the other was this one.  Along with a book shelf that really didn't hold all the books.  My pet peeve: when "cleaning" the boys typically just would put everything on top of their dressers.  Stacks of crap;)

 

4) The closet.  Oh, the closet.  A long time ago we took off the doors because I was sick of constantly having to rehang those dang sliders.  The result was less rehanging, but this ugly eyesore.  Not my proudest of spaces in the house!

5) Mid concept move--Jonathan joins the room!

Are you anxious to see what we did??!!  Here are some clues: 48 2x4s, some lag bolts, melamine and other wood, two trips to Home Depot and two trips to Ikea were in the future!

Stay tuned!!!

The Closet is Done!

Remember that closet project that we busted out a couple months ago?  The one where I was so anxious to share it that I hadn't painted yet?  Well, I finally painted the walls!  I went with a shade of gray that I loved instantly: Elephant Gray (by color place and totally got it at walmart...don't hate!)  I love the way that it finished off our closet.  I loved it so much that I couldn't put the paint brushes away and ended up painting the wall across from the closet.  Then I may have gone around the corner and painted the kitchen, too!  I love the way that the gray has worked to brighten up the space and goes with my current decorating style;)

Jonathan still harbors a desire to have this be his own room (at least he did until I finished the beds yesterday in the boys' room!)

The hallway wall across from the closet has had a photo collage of family pictures, but I have always been bugged by the random layout I had lazily put together.  I took this opportunity to rehang them in a more organized fashion;)

Ahh, beautiful gray wall:)

Have I mentioned that I love the runner I got for this hallway?!

Reagan loves the closet, too:

She believes that the purpose of the cubbies is specifically for her to hide in them.

 

Boo!

(To date my only complaint is that the bench is slowly becoming the landing zone for everyone's crap that they are too lazy to put away....)