Carrots for Michaelmas: Musings of a Catholic Wife, Mother, and Occasional Redhead

I finally took some pictures of our living room the other day. Daniel agreed to part with an old armchair that was making things feel cramped. My view was that the chair was looking pretty shabby and nasty after sitting in storage for a few weeks last summer when we were waiting to close on our house…and that’s after it was moved four times in Waco…and that’s after it was bought used for $25 over 5 years ago. It had a good run. Daniel view was that it was super comfortable and generally awesome and still had years of enjoyable usefulness. But he loves me more than the armchair and with nary a grumble, took it to the curb.

Here’s our new armchair, which is actually a hand-me-down from my sweet sister-in-law.

Here’s the view into the kitchen from the front door side of the room. The couch (one of two) used to belong to my grandparents and was previously at my brother’s house. I asked my mom when her parents bought them and she said she can’t remember a time when they didn’t have them when she was growing up. Who knows how old they are! But i LOVE them. The coffee table was a wedding gift from my dear friend Claire.

Couch number two, front door, and key holder from Texas (obvi). The rocking chair was a birthday gift a couple of years ago from dear friend John, Kate, and Luke in Waco. Why is this picture so dark? Oops. I promise that my house isn’t this dark.

View into the dining room. Little writing desk is a hand-me-down from Daniel’s grandma.

I think I removed 8 coats/sweatshirts and 5 bags from that thing before taking this picture.

And because he’s cute:

I’ve been doing some serious nesting. I was up at 5:20 while Daniel was doing his Holy Hour in the Chapel. After he got home at 6am, I made French Toast and Coffee and finished tidying up our bedroom/Lucy’s room. Then I swept, mopped, dusted, cleaned the baseboards, and even cleaned the blinds. I’m not sure when the last time was that I cleaned baseboards and blinds (my mother is cringing). It is hardly a common occurrence in our house. Yeah, gross, I know. But it’s clean now! I went to Mass at 8am then came back to clean some more. There’s still several projects and spaces in our bedroom that we want to fix/liven up but this is about as clean as it will be so it seemed like the right time to post some pictures.

This is Lucy and my closet. The bedroom has these awesome built-ins just like The Library and Benjamin’s Room.

Here’s Daniel’s tiny closet and the spot he set up for me to put on my makeup and get ready…now that our one bathroom is shared by 4 adults and 1 (soon to be 2!) little one. Amazingly…it’s never really a problem. Not even inconvenient, but we do have the world’s best housemates so…that probably has something to do with how easily it works.

Here’s Lucy’s co-sleeper on the right, next to the bedside table Daniel made me when I was pregnant with Benjamin.

Skills!

Here’s Lucy’s changing table on the left (modified and painted by Daniel). We hung up the precious Growth Chart that my sweet sister-in-law gave us when Benjamin was born to make Lucy’s changing nook a little more lively. It’s too far away to see them but I even filled up little spray bottles with homemade baby wipe solution*** during last night’s nesting craze. And I put ribbons on the spray bottles. That’s how crazy I’m getting! For those of you who don’t know me very well….I’m not exactly a model housekeeper. And I definitely don’t do ribbons on things. My mother is laughing at me. She does ribbons. She is the model housekeeper.

Now it’s noon on a rainy Sunday and I’m going to make a grilled cheese and then take a nap in case I go into labor soonish. I’ve had some contractions but they still feel more like Braxton-Hicks. I’m not too impatient about labor now. I’m in that late pregnancy insanity where I think I’m going to be pregnant forever. FOREVER.

***Quick note regarding homemade cloth wipe solution. With Benjamin I soaked the wipes in the solution; however, they would start to get moldy really quickly so this time around I’m just gonna use a spray bottle to moisten the cloth wipes.

It’s been months since I posted any pictures of our new house for our Texas friends who haven’t seen it yet. Since the Dining Room was relatively clean and I actually cleaned the little toddler handprints off of the windows (a rare occurence), it seemed like an opportune time for a post.

My parents got us the pie safe and the wooden high chair, both of which I love. The pie safe was built by sharecroppers at the turn of the century and can fold in half for easy transport.

Looking out on the back porch and shed. The shed is a forbidden place for Benjamin and therefore enticing beyond words…

So I waited for a day when the kitchen was somewhat tidy to take some pictures. This post is primarily an attempt to make John, one of our previous housemates, jealous and convince him to move with his lovely wife to Tallahassee and come cook with us. We miss you, Sterchis!

Our house was built in the 40s but the kitchen was recently renovated and we adore it. This door opens into the laundry room. The other side of the kitchen is open into the dining room.

I love the stainless steel appliances, the oak cabinets, and the original pine floors. Don’t you want to come visit, John?

There is tons of counter space to store yummy veggies from our CSA or our garden!

Gas stove, John! Buy your ticket, already! Make us a lemon souffle! Of note: the bottom cabinet to the right is empty and Benjamin has claimed it as his own. He likes to climb in, close the door, and pop out with a sneaky grim.

I love cooking in this kitchen. It’s really where we spend most of our time. And it will be even more fun to hang out there when the weather turns cool and the warmth of the oven is enjoyable instead of oppressive. Are you sold, John? When shall we expect you?

There are no pictures of the sink and opposite countertops because I was too lazy to dry the dishes and put them away. Sad, but true.