February Goals

January was such a nice change of pace for me. Less editing work means more time to focus on things I've been putting off for months and months, and let me tell you that getting big, daunting work finished (or even started) feels good! I hope you all had a productive and healthy start to your new year too!

February is more of the same for me. Continuing work on big projects, reading a LOT and making plenty of time to visit with family and friends.

February Goals

• Read three books (Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee, The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective by Richard Rohr and Hope by Amanda Berry and Gina DeJesus)
• De-clutter our "reading room" (really our catch-all room that happens to house our bookshelf, which makes it our reading room)
• Redo my website (eek! This is a scary one, but I think I can make this happen)
• Complete our travel wall(s) in our dining room
• Sell my Mamiya 645 AFD! (if you want it, make me an offer ;) )
• Decide on and order my 2016 wedding packaging
• Decide on a software management system
• Review all the items in my closet and make sure they still have purpose (oops, didn't do this last month)
• Go on at least one winter hike with Nathan
• Get a new phone!

Megan & Pete | Chagrin Falls Ohio Engagement

Pete is a riot. Megan laughs. A lot. Win, win. Win. :D

Braden | 1 Year

It's always incredible to me to see the similarities between a newborn baby and their toddler self. I guess it makes sense—a kid should resemble his baby photos!—but we spend so much time wondering what babies will look like before they're born … and then there they are in front of us! And they're giving us hints as to how they will develop and which parts of their newborn selves will stay and which will features will morph into something just a little different.

I don't have any kids of my own yet, but I love having friends that do because I can witness these amazing changes firsthand. Braden's smile is the sweetest thing, and you can see that in his newborn photos! It's the craziest thing that that little peanut is this walking, talking 1+-year-old right now.

I spent the day with Braden a couple weeks ago, and he's even happier and friendlier than he was on his first birthday, which I didn't think was possible. He's really good at sharing, especially when he finds treasures in the kitchen, and he can repeat most anything you say. Plus, he knows how to throw stuff away, which is extremely helpful in my opinion. :)

The Finished Product | Kitchen Nook

Nathan and I laugh all the time (really, we crack ourselves up) about how when we bought our house at the end of 2011, we thought we'd have it furnished, painted, decorated and certain parts remodeled all within a year. Oh, we were so naive. Minus the fact that all that stuff takes a lot of money and we tend to be a little frugal with our bank account, it also takes a ton of time. Duh. But we've been having a lot of fun the last few years as we slowly work through our house room by room.

We recently tackled this funny little space off our kitchen. We call it the nook, well, because it is. It sat empty for so long and finally we figured we should probably have a kitchen table. We painted the space white (the top part was green) and added a little crown molding. Nathan built the shelves and we quickly filled them with stuff we already had. Easy!

We're still thinking about getting a rug for the space, but I'm little wishy-washy about that one. The fact is that the floor is incredibly cold in the winter because this space was an add on and there's nothing below it. But it also seems like a lot of work to keep a rug clean beneath a kitchen table. Any thoughts? Wishful thinking is that there's a rug out there that's equally cozy but easy to keep clean. Does that exist?

Aren't these produce prints adorable? They came from Lucile's Kitchen on Etsy!

The view from inside our (much darker) kitchen.