DIY magnetic spice rack

Hello sisters/world,

As some of you have seen from another post, I (Esther) love to decorate. Combine that with Marcus’ love of organizing (he spent several hours separating screws by size today…), and my husband and I spend most weekends cleaning, organizing, rearranging, or making stuff. One nifty project was making a magnetic spice rack! We have a small kitchen, so being able to attach our spice rack to the side of the fridge is an excellent feature of a magnetic spice rack.

Jewel was the original magnetic-spice-rack-maker. We are both here to tell you how it went and what we love/don’t love about it!

Jewel here: I was the first to go for magnetic ball jar spice holders and it’s something that is always commented on when people visit. It’s a lovely way to store spices: you can see them, they’re so handy, they don’t take up counter or drawer space. It’s basically a win win. This was the post that inspired me:

sister love

Hi sisters.

I have a quick photo to share with you today, courtesy of Miriam.

Raising kids is a lot of work, and most of it feels like drudgery much of the time. So many dishes, so much laundry. Lots of cleaning. Ungrateful children who don’t eat the food you make for them and won’t help around the house. Lots of sleepless nights, doctor’s appointments, packing school lunches, etc. Every once in awhile, though, I get a little reward that keeps me going. Just last week I was putting Eve down for a nap and she was resisting (as she often does). Miriam came in the room with a painting she had been working on. And there it was, just a simple message but one that gave me hope for these kids I am raising:

Isn’t that great? I’m happy that she feels that way. These two, they will always have each other just like we have each other.

Sending my love to you all,

Rachel

Christmas 2015: A Look Back

Dear sisters,

It’s only been a few weeks since Christmas, but our trip back East felt so momentous that I had to document it here on the blog. Here’s the headline I give when talking about our trip:

We drove about 55 hours over 16 days and went through 10 states to visit both of our families. On our first day we decided to drive over 1000 miles to get to Alfred, NY. Calvin was pretty much an angel baby in the car and handled the whole trip with minimal fussing (though it helped that I could nurse him in his car seat and sat and read many books to him when he got bored, I’m so thankful that books hold his attention for awhile).

Welcoming 2016

Hi sisters.

People have been asking me how my holidays went. It’s a common small talk question, and one that probably I should just answer with a quick “fine” or “wonderful, how about yours?” But I have been feeling like being honest, so I say, well, my grandmother died two days after Christmas, and I went to her funeral on New Year’s Day. That same day I also got news that Eve’s daycare temporarily closed for a few weeks. So it’s been a bit of a roller coaster.

Grandma gave this to Eve when she was at our house for Eve’s one year birthday party in November. It will probably stay on our fridge for awhile.

Throwback Thursday: CHRISTMAS!

Dear sisters,

Every time the holiday season comes around Kevin and I are hit hard with a big dose of nostalgia and sentimentality. Decorations, Christmas music, eggnog, cookies and treats; they’re all very welcome guests in our house! If you added up all of my childhood memories I think at least 50% of them would be from Christmastime. It’s such a vivid time of year with excitement and anticipation galore, a perfect recipe for lasting memories.

My first Christmas!

Calvin’s first Christmas! I see a bit of family resemblance :-).

The birth of Thaddeus

Dear sisters,

Here’s the facts: We were delivered of a baby boy on Tuesday, the 16 of June 2015, on my second day of maternity leave.  I was 39 weeks pregnant.  Thaddeus joined the world at 11:55 PM, born into an inflatable pool of warm water in the kitchen, where the table usually rests, while his older brother and sister slept upstairs in their bedroom.  When Archer was born, one of the first things I noticed his cleft chin.  With Era, I noticed her cheek dimple.  With Thaddeus, the first thing we said was ‘Look at his hair!’  And LOOK AT IT!  What a glorious head of hair he has.  I have to say, that the whole heartburn / hair old wives’ tale checks out this time around.

House tour part one

Hi sisters,

So we bought a house a few months ago. I am just getting around to sharing some photos of it with you all! It’s been a crazy few months. I still feel like many rooms in the house aren’t finished enough to share with you. But I’m getting used to the idea that being a homeowner means that the work on the house is never finished.

The first Sunday in October, we had a group of friends over for a potluck. We worked pretty hard to get the house in good shape for company. I like how having friends over gives me the needed motivation to clean! This house cleans up nicely, so it was a good opportunity to take a few photos. It was a beautiful sunny October day which was good for outside photos too! You will notice there are no photos of the kitchen (which was piled high with dishes as we were cooking soup and bread for the masses), the dining room, Eve’s room (full of boxes and not painted yet), our bedroom and the office. Those rooms will be featured in a later post.

what you see from the driveway

Weekly Rituals

Looking at what my hubby & I do week by week, I’ve come to realize that we have several quirky occurrences that we essentially cannot go a week without doing! So I present to you our Weekly Rituals:

Weekly Ritual #1. Both of us sleeping on the couch… for the entire night

This one still doesn’t make complete sense to me. We bought a lovely, comfortable, new, king-sized bed last year. With the recent development of an L-shaped couch that we purchased, somehow the couch takes precedence over the bed at least once a week! It’s even gone so far that we brought out an extension cord to make plugging our phones in more convenient when we sleep on the couch, and we each have designated positions and blankets that get used during this weekly (at a minimum) ritual. Sometimes the cats join in too, although the image is from a nap not a night of sleep 🙂

coming up for air

Dear sisters,

Today I have a few moments to myself to sit and write. Finally! I have missed sharing the details of our summer and life in our new home. Things have been so very busy and overwhelming, but I’m beginning to see glimmers of normalcy again. Our new house has boxes everywhere but at least all the appliances are functioning now. The first few weeks here we had issues with the hot water heater, fridge and stove, and it was a lot to handle. Thankfully that is all behind us. (Knock on wood…what appliance do you think will fail next?) We replaced the hot water heater and the stove and fixed the fridge. I can cook! And store food safely! And take a shower! And do laundry! All necessary things in a house with kids.

Let me tell you all of my secrets

Dear sisters,

Whenever I think about secrets I sing that little refrain from Snow White in my head.