What did I do today again?

Quite often, 5PM rolls around and I can't help but think to myself, "What the hell did I do all day??" Each day is such a whirlwind of schedules and errands and activities, I usually don't have more than one hour between tasks. 

This was not the case last Monday. I had 100% irrefutable, irrevocable evidence that I did something that day besides watch an entire season of Downton Abbey on Hulu.

My laundry room at 8:00AM

My laundry room at 4:00PM.

Thank you. Thank you.

You can contact my manager, Liam Adams, for autographs.

we bought a house!

we signed the purchase contract for our very first home purchase last saturday! yippee skippee! we are really excited for more space for the boys and the boys are just excited to have stairs. that was their sole request for our new home - too funny.

as excited as we are, this will be a true test of patience because the house is still being built. it's not scheduled to be complete until september 25. so for now, all i can do is drive by and gawk at it every few days until it's done. that is, until the construction workers call the cops on me for stalking them.

this picture was taken when we found out that the house was reserved for us. june 30, 2012.

this one was taken the day we signed the papers. july 7, 2012. 

i also took some pictures of the model home, so i could share what the house will look like when completed! {{{{{squeal}}}}}

the exterior of the house. 

it will be the same color scheme and the same elevation, which is basically just what the house will look like from the outside. ours will have the stone at the bottom of the pillars and the shutters on the windows. our particular house is also a corner lot, so it will have a wrap-around porch.

view of the formal living room and dining room from the top of the stairs. i've already told the boys that they aren't allowed in this area. hahaha

the stairs feed into the kitchen.

and here is the kitchen, the most important part of the house, in my opinion. :) 

i spend a ton of time in the kitchen - prepping, cooking, baking for bake sales, making lunches, blah blah blah. i'm SUPER excited for all the space and the kitchen island. and that door on the left? a WALK-IN pantry. lord knows we need it, for all the food these four boys consume.

my favorite part of the house, and also what drew me to this floor plan, is how open the kitchen is to the family room.

it is, literally, one big great room. the kitchen and family room are the two rooms where our lives are lived, so lots of space in those areas is really important to me. i can't wait to fill it with big comfy couches for the boys to lounge around in.

now, i'm trying to wrap my head around paint colors for the bedrooms. it feels like choosing a color is harder  than choosing the house i wanted! insane...

i heart craigslist

today's awesome craigslist find - an old school desk with lift top for $20. the best part was that it was in the next neighborhood from my own, so i didn't even have to go very far to get it. this is going to be perfect for the boys' study/play room. i'm thinking I will paint the lift top in chalkboard paint and the rest of it in distressed white. can't wait!

thift store find

I paid a visit to my favorite thrift store last weekend and scored these adorable end tables. They are a matching set with so much character - I couldn't resist them. The best part is their price: $7.96 for both! With just a little paint and tlc, these will be a lovely addition to our home.

house hunting

tomorrow, we are officially starting our search for a home!!! this has been a long time coming and i can hardly believe we are finally ready. it is a huge chapter of our lives and i plan to document the journey here on my blog. i read somewhere that there are three major life events in a person's life: a wedding, having a children and buying a house. well, we skipped the wedding and eloped. we've done the baby thing a few times. now, we just need to buy our first home to complete the combo and then we can die tomorrow. hahah we are suuuuuper excited!

the mister connected with a real estate agent this weekend and he basically told her, "contact my wife and see when she is available to look at houses with you. i'm sure i will be deferring to her judgement so she might as well be the one you take to tour homes with." umm, seriously? then he said to me later, "you choose which house you want as long as it's in our budget. i want you to be happy." umm, really? can you be any more perfect? i love you, husband. big time. but you know that already....

so tomorrow morning, i get to tour three different houses. this is seriously going to be so much fun!!!  we may not even decide on one for a few months just so i can prolong the experience. we are in no rush, by any means at all, so we plan on taking our sweet time and finding the perfect fit for our family.

we haven't looked at a single house yet but i already have visions of farmhouse dining tables and southern-style living rooms dancing in my head. thanks to pinterest. 

this *ahem* my kitchen. that sink...{{swoon}}

Source: georgianadesign.tumblr.com via Katrina on Pinterest

and can you just picture that kitchen feeding into this family room. so perfectly lovely. 

Source: wonderwomanwannabe.com via Katrina on Pinterest

but i guess these visions of sugarplum fairies will just be staying in my head since it's highly unlikely that the kitchen i get will look like that! but a girl can dream, right??

spring break in paris

no, that's not a title to a sappy, first-date movie.

apparently, my mother-in-law loves me to pieces because she is taking me on a paris trip in april for spring break {which also happens to fall around my birthday}. unless, of course, she's planning to take me then leave me there. but, even if that were the case, i'd still be eternally grateful because i imagine paris would be one of the most pleasurable places to be abandoned. as long as i double-check the final destination on my plane ticket before we leave, i think i'll be safe regardless of the outcome.

she's been planning this trip for some time now, and i don't think it has really sunk in that i'm going. until now. it's finally 2012 and the trip is less than three months away and i'm starting to get all giddy. i went to the library today and borrowed some paris guide books...i'm excited for some quiet time later today so i can start flipping through these.

i'm bursting at my seams with anticipation!

now, i need to start a training plan for the mister, who is taking time off from work to be home with all four kids for the entire week.

some of the key points in his training plan:

• how to use the washer/dryer
• how to use a vacuum
• how to read a calendar and follow a schedule
• how to operate the hot/cold knobs on the kids' shower/bathtub
• show him where the broom and dustpan are kept

i'll keep you all posted on how that goes! :)

ways we save money

saving money. i believe that as a homemaker, it's a huge part of my job to find all of the possible ways to save money. the mister works hard, day and in and day out, to provide for us, so it's my job to stretch our money as far as i possibly can. these are some of the ways i do it.

1. buy bulk. and i'm not talking about bulk at whole foods, because that is just more expensive then buying packaged. i'm talking about bulk at your discount grocery store. our local discount store is winco. i buy inexpensive and appropriate storage containers for cereal, flour, etc, and just keep refilling them with bulk product. super cheap-o.




2. i make my own dishwasher soap. all it takes is mixing equal parts of borax and baking soda. about tablespoons of this into your dishwasher's soap dispenser and you are good to go. vinegar in the rinse compartment also helps dishes to rinse clean. clean dishes for an itty bitty fraction of what it costs to wash with some fancy soap that has all kinds of nasty things in it that i'm sure could be bad for you and the kids. you eat off of your dishes, people. think about it.


3. i make my own all-purpose cleaner. the recipe? 1/4 cup vinegar in a quart spray bottle and top off with water. i use this to clean bathroom sinks, floors and glass shower door. i also use this to clean windows and mirrors. the best part - it's all-natural! i used to spend so much money buying those "green" brands - seventh generation, method, etc. - which seems so crazy when i look back at it now. make it yourself! and no. it doesn't leave your house smelling like vinegar. once it all dries, the smell is gone, too.


4. i cloth diaper. liam is almost three and has autism so the harsh reality is i have no idea when he will be potty trained. wyatt is not even a year old, so i imagine he has about another two years in diapers. i invested in their cloth diaper "wardrobe" last year and have been using it since. i'm sure i'll have to buy a few replacements here and there...but for the most part, it costs me nothing. maybe a little extra effort because i can't just roll them up and throw them in the trash. but again...this is my job.


5. rags and cloth napkins. there are still some things that we use paper towels for, but we don't use nearly as much as we used to. i have stopped buying paper napkins altogether. i use rags for all of my cleaning. we use cloths napkins at every single meal.


6. i meal plan for two weeks at a time. and i usually plan meals around what meat is on sale. once i know what meat is on sale, i figure out what other "stuff" i need to make meals for the next two weeks. this means i do one "large" grocery trip every other week where i buy bulk meat, freezable items, canned goods, bulk items and other non-perishables. then i go on one "small" grocery trip every other week to replenish perishables like milk, eggs, bread, etc. this means very few trips to the grocery store, which eliminates wasting money on impulse purchases. think about it. every time you go to the grocery store you probably leave with way more than you came for. weekends are pretty hard to plan for because we are always out and about, so meals on the weekends usually consist of leftovers from the week, or sandwiches or whatever we can put together with what's in the fridge and pantry.


7. i budget $200 every two weeks on food. $200 to feed six people breakfast, lunch and dinner for fourteen days. that's $14.28 per day which is $2.38 per day per person. does that sound crazy? i think it does. but it can be done and i've been doing it for a while now. it took some time to tweak the process and finally get it right, but i now have it down to a science. and my kids eat GOOD. they eat fresh, they eat healthy.

8. thrift shop and hand-me-downs. i am the queen of both. i recently bought isaiah some new soccer cleats at a thrift store. i lucked out when i found his size for a whopping $2.98, but they had the previous owner's name written on the heels. they still do. isaiah didn't seem to notice and for a few hours each week, his name is "Eli W." oh, well!

i've come to learn that saving money isn't just something you do here and there, every once in a while. saving money is a lifestyle. i'm learning to let go of convenience for the sake of practicality and frugality. and i think the trade-off is well worth it.

i'd love to hear some ways you help save money!

linking up with the girls at j&m's eye candy....

hello, spring!

i love spring. really. i've probably said before that i hate spring because isaiah and i suffer badly from allergies. but i didn't really mean it. i've figured out how to keep us medicated and as long as i wear my glasses all season, we're fine. so...i go back to loving spring, especially the month of april. why, you ask?  because there's my birthday, our wedding anniversary and easter, all jam-packed into one super fun (and super expensive, for the mister) month. yay.

with spring here (or kind of here, since we are expecting rain at the end of the week again) i felt the need for a springy wreath for my front door. this was easy peasy, because i had a wreath and fabric flowers that i made months ago, just sitting around and waiting to be put together. that i did, and here is my adorable new wreath that is now hanging on my front door. whoohoo.

i had all the materials for this cute little thing on hand. the wreath is from the dollar store. the yellow polka dot fabric is just scrap from scrap. like, literally. i bought a fat quarter of it from the scrap section at wal-mart. i used it for whatever it was i had planned for it, then the scraps from that project are what turned into these fabric flowers. and the tan, linen fabric is from an old square pillow case. isaiah and mikey were wrestling and mikey ended up with a bloody nose and bled on my pillow. darn kids! we can't have anything nice in this house, can we?! (i find myself saying that quite frequently.) i couldn't get the stain off, so i just cut it out and saved the fabric for projects. waste not, want not, people! 

are you lighting it up blue?

april is autism awareness month and april 2 has been proclaimed world autism awareness day by president barack obama.

why should you care, you ask? because autism affects 1 in 91 children. the numbers are astonishing and are only getting bigger. at this rate, you will know someone with autism, if you don't already.

and although i can think up a million and a half stories about how wonderful and amazing liam is, it doesn't make our journey through autism any less lonely. friends and family will retreat because they don't know how to help. i'd rather spend our days at home than deal with the stares from judgmental strangers when liam has one of his meltdowns in the grocery store or at a restaurant.

we are fortunate to have our village that helps us get through the tough moments and celebrate the joys and milestones. but i'm sure there are many others out there that may not have found their village and cry themselves to sleep every night. i know i did before i found mine.

take this month to make yourself a little more aware and not be one of those people that make a family's journey through autism harder than it already is. one day, you will need to be that mother, father, sister, brother, or friend that understands. get yourself ready.

embrace the camera - march 31

today, i'm embracing one of my dear, dear friends. she is one of the first people i met when we moved here to our town two years ago. since then, she and her family have been a constant, and very welcome, presence in our lives. i feel so grateful and fortunate the she has become part of my "village". she is an amazing mommy to three beautiful kids: joelle 4, jaden 3, and julian 1. {follow the adventures of the abris 5!} the two of us could laugh and share stories about our crazy under-4's for hours and hours and never tire.

she's always there for me. always just a phone call, e-mail or facebook message away, when i need her. she's my lactation consultant, therapist, fellow sinigang lover, crafting buddy, emergency babysitter, as well as my emergency roadside service, among countless other things.

she's always willing to just listen and i'm thankful for the unending love, support and encouragement that flows from her. she is an amazing person and mother, and if more people could be like her, the world would instantly become a better place.

anne, i hope you know how much you are appreciated and loved by the adams six-pack! :)


sorry for this horrible picture taken with my phone, but you get the idea.

anne's joelle and jaden, and my isaiah and mikey

i have a secret

i'm a sneaky mommy and i sneak the 'good stuff' into anything the boys will consume at any chance i get. i haven't gone so far as sneaking spinach into the brownies, but i'm getting there. just call me 'the nutrition ninja'.

we recently started a new ritual around these here parts so that i can practice my ninja skills. every afternoon, after we pick isaiah up from school, we bust out the blender and concoct a round of super yummy berry smoothies. the boys suck these down like there is no tomorrow, so i had to jump on the opportunity to sneak in some good stuff.

so delicious and very unassuming, right? {insert sinister laugh here}










the boys also get a kick out of 'helping' with making their smoothies, so that's always a plus. we don't follow a recipe and pretty much just throw in whatever we have; usually strawberries, blueberries, bananas, plain yogurt, and apple juice to thin it down. and every cup gets 1/4 tsp of probiotics, 2 tbsp of ground flaxseed and 1 tsp of fish oil.

the nutrition ninja strikes again.

sunday fun day

today was one of those days that are few and far between where we had absolutely nothing to do. no errands, no parties, no appointments. i wish we had more of these days. hanging out and having fun...just the six of us.

we sat around in our pajamas all morning until about 1 o'clock, when we decided to head to the park. it was the first day without rain in about a week, so we made sure to enjoy the sunshine. and the bikes got their first tune-up since summer. whoohoo! spring is here! {kind of}

our doggy, cooper, also loves the park. particularly, the swings. and tubby little wyatt needed to get out for a minute. otherwise, he would still be eating and getting tubbier by the minute.

we came home from the park just to play out front some more! the sound of squeals and giggles of our sweet little boys filled the air...the afternoon was absolutely perfect. well, almost perfect. the ice cream truck didn't drive by. boo hoo.

there was a lot of wagon pulling action. lots of playing catch. frisbee tossing. parachute play. biking. scooting. you name it. the boys even decided to extend their outdoor play area into our neighbor's lawn and driveway. good thing we have nice neighbors.

we even took inventory of our spring/summer toys. yup, we still have that t-shirt/floatie combo thing. fabulous. i wonder if they make anything like that in adult sizes. that would be h.o.t.

with a house full of boys obsessed with mixed martial arts, it was only appropriate that the garage be outfitted with a 12x12 wrestling mat and equipped with punching bags and gloves of all sorts and sizes. this is the man/boy cave. i need a mom cave. seriously.

liam enjoyed his time in the garage with his daddy.

after the kiddos went to bed, i snuck out to wal-mart and picked up some fabric i needed for a couple crafty  projects i hope to complete this week. my sewing machine and i will be spending a lot of time together while i try to make some bandana bibs for wyatt and reusable sandwich and snack bags for the boys' lunches. wish me luck! if you don't see a post later this week, that means they were a complete and utter fail!

embrace the camera - march 24

here's a typical friday night in the adams house.

the mister and i are made for each other, wouldn't you agree?

and some cuddle action with my sweet little man.

this is also a typical of a night in our house. 

the family band cranking out some fresh beats.

i love raising boys!

between jam sessions, the boys love to skype with their grandpa.

their funniest conversations happen via internet and camera.

i'm doing really horrible with blogging. i need to step it up and get back to it.

it's not like i have anything better to do.

geez. i'm such a lazy bum.

the valley

we were driving through the valley and stopped for a moment to take some pictures of our beautiful surroundings. even though we are just a short 50 miles away from the big city of san francisco, life seems to move at a completely different pace out here. i'm falling more and more in love every day with the simple beauties that surround us.

at this time of the year, the almond tree orchards are in full bloom and absolutely gorgeous.

miles and miles of open fields with a gorgeous view of the horizon all around.

in our own front yard, the cherry blossom tree is in full bloom. 

spring is definitely in the air! flip flops, dresses and long walks around the 'hood. i can't wait!