Category Archives: Make Stuff

3 year live-a-versary!

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3 years ago today, WonderGIRL and WonderBOY got to come home with us. The first couple of days were a lovey, chaotic blur. Interested in the whole story? Click here to relive that weekend.

Saying yes to “an short term” emergency weekend stay for the Wonders was preceeded by an activity inspired by a church sermon at Cornwall, encouraging us to surrender our plans and our control to God. These paintings were an artistic outlet for me in processing that message and making it apply to my life. Little did I know that three days later, I would be asked to surrender in a HUGE way and then be rewarded in an even GREATER way than I could have imagined. (Also surrendered in the process – sleep, scrapbooking, my sanity, faith in my abilities to keep a kiddo with trauma safe, time to get ready, and date nights but who’s keeping track). We have created so many fun memories together on our “live-a-versary” celebrations (monthly for the first year and now annually) – the following pictures are from our secret weekend field trip from last year to Seattle. The year before that, we traveled to Friday Harbor, a favorite date spot of Scott and I.This year, we will have a quiet celebration at home followed by a bigger celebration this coming weekend as we get to celebrate our official adoption and welcoming our loved ones to our new home.

Funny story – I’ve been trying to plan our adoption party for quite a few months now…..venues and dates just never seemed to work out for all sorts of silly reasons. In hindsight, I attribute this to another reminder that God is in true control as now we have the perfect “party house” for the perfect “party” reason on the anniversary weekend of what turned out to be the perfect way for us to start our forever family – all which were causing my constant need for control personality quite a bit of anxiety. Perhaps I need to listen to that “I surrender” message a few more times…..

On my favorite ornaments….

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For the past three years, I’ve added a photo ornament to my Christmas cards order from Tiny Prints and I love giving them away to grandparents and adding them to our ornament collections. This one was from the “just married” collection but I think it pertains to our first Christmas as a forever family as well.WonderBOY coming home from school with these adorable handmade ornaments are dang precious….this year, he chose to gift his to special Uncle Jake which makes my heart a teeny sad, but happy that he is spreading the handmade love around.This was our version of a  “baby’s first christmas” ornament by gluing sweet pictures of the kiddos to snowflakes and writing on the back. It will be fun to look back on these in years to come and remember their sweet faces the first couple of months they lived with us.

Another Tiny Prints ornament from our first crazy and lovey year together in 2014.

This was a very PIN-spired ornament I made the first year we lived in our home. I love the imprint of our key (although it’s ironic because I don’t think I’ve used that key even one time since I’ve lived here). Our address is hiding under that green star. 

Once my first niece was born, I thought it would be cute to document her adorable little hand as a Christmas ornament. Now that my brother has three adorable little ladies, these are some of my favorite ornaments to unpack.And last but not least, one of my childhood bests, Taryn, made this for me in high school and I love love love it. So creative even before Pinterest Tare!!!

Tonight is our annual sleepover and movie marathon sleeping around the Christmas tree where I can’t wait to admire all of this cuteness!

Add this to your wish list

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I passed up the amazing Amazon primeday deal and then regretted it when I saw all my blogging friends and insta-friends raving about all of the things they were creating in very little time (my dream cooking situation), so when Black Friday came around and the Instant Pot was on sale again, I couldn’t pass it up. And although it’s back up to it’s normal price now, I would say it is so worth the money (but will probably go back down in price at some point before Christmas). Sorry to all of my work friends when I come in waving my homemade soup or other Instant Pot concoction excitedly at lunchtime……it’s not often anything from the kitchen makes me excited so this is a rare phase in my life I’m sure.

Hard-boiled eggs in 7 minutes??? Spaghetti squash in 20??? Scott and I are already loving the possibilities to still get a good dinner on the table after arriving home close to 5 with our kiddos after school. If you have any yummy Instant Pot recipes you’d like to share, please do in the comments!!!

And our November in video….(only one month left until we get an entire year’s worth of second snippets all together in one video – so excited!!!):

Happy December!!!! We started our favorite DIY advent calendar today and the kiddos are so excited for the activities/missions listed inside! It is such a blessing to repeat traditions with our little wonders and to know that we get to continue them for so many more years…..JOY.

Camping Prep Party!

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Although I like to complain to others about my hubby working a 48-hour shift right before we leave to camping, I actually kind of like the camping prep stage (and I like doing it on my own with complete control too – don’t tell Scott). Being creative with meals, squeezing a lot of tent equipment into little spaces, and planning out fun activities for the kiddos feels creative and exciting to me. Here are a few hacks I’ve learned along the way to make things easier and less stressful when out in the wild Chelan city park.

THE FOOD –
I love all the camping food hacks and ideas that are out there and am excited to try a few this year. I prepped the Shrimp Boil Packets and think they’re going to taste so good with minimal effort to put them together.
Breakfast burritos are a must for us adults while the kiddos are enjoying their Cheerios and oatmeal – I like to put instant mashed potatoes with sausage, eggs, and cilantro in ours and then I add salsa when it’s done cooking over our morning fire.
Dinty Moore stew is a MUST for this girl – as a tradition from my childhood camping trips, I look forward to this tasty dinner served with cold milk and bread. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it anywhere on our shopping excursions (4 different stores until this happy scene – I had tricked my littles into thinking that if we didn’t find it, we couldn’t go camping….I may feel minimal guilt about that little story).

THE PACKING –
In order for us to spend a week in a tent, I like to bring along lots of comfy bedding to make it feel like home to all of us. However, this takes up sooooo much room in our truck that we don’t have a lot of room for now that our little wonders are in the back and need space to move/sleep/entertain themselves. This year, I’m trying out vacuum seal bags to decrease the amount of space needed for these items. What you see in the photo below is ALL of our bedding – including pillows, comforters, AND all of our towels for the beach and showers. I am hoping that by the end of the trip we can use our air mattress pump to suck the air out but that could be a gamble so we’ll see what happens!

You know I can’t go anywhere without my oils. Last year, these came in handy for all the little bumps and bruises that come along with playing hard all day in the sun and water and now that I’ve condensed this little first aid kit into a small package, we can pack even more in!OTHER HACKS I’m trying this year –
Shoe Organizer in our Kitchen/Canopy area
Hand Washing Station at our table
Freezing water bottles and other items to keep the cooler going on a long, hot drive to Chelan

Do you have any genius tent camping ideas? I’d love to hear them and log them into my brain for our next trip!!!! Happy August everyone!

WonderGIRL turns 14 – the party details

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Since WonderGIRL loves ANYTHING red, white and blue (“birthday colors” she calls them) this was the perfect theme for her birthday party we held at our house yesterday. That and everything red, white, and blue was 50% off at Michaels (winning!!!) Here are some details we/she/I loved (also might be perfect for a 4th of July party tomorrow):

THE FOOD –
Had to create the fruit flag (perfect for an 8 year old begging to help project), plus I saw this “firecracker hot dog” video right before my trip to the grocery store for party prepping – good timing!!! My favorite food was the firecracker popcorn and was quite a hit at the party (a good excuse for adults to consume pop rocks and not be judged!!!).

THE SELFIE STATION –
Since WG is loving her phone and especially the camera function, we created this selfie station to capture all of her loved ones with her at the party. They all turned out so cute!!! We’ll have to practice getting the selfie stick OUT of the shot on our next round.

We can always count on Uncle BJ to liven up our photoshoots.

THE DECOR –

Those jars are filled with rice colored with food coloring – again, another project great for “helpful” kiddos during the party prep stage.
I knew I wanted to create a special video of WG popping this amazing confetti-filled ginormous balloon from Spruce (one of my favorite Bellingham shops) and the video happened and was awesome….but I still can’t get it to load on here so check out the instagram post instead.

Also, the outfit (all Target) was a combination of workout leggings, a tutu and the festive tank. She was also treated to a birthday party manicure so even her fingernails match her outfit/party – how cute!!! Thank you to everyone that came and celebrated one of the bravest dinosaurs (teen-o-saur?) in our crazy little bunch – we are so proud of her growth, especially in this last year of life and will love her to pieces forever and ever.

on creative “cooking”…

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As many of you know, my skills and knowledge around a kitchen and cooking are limited. I am, however, pretty great at PREPARING foods that come to me in an easily accessed pouch or mix. When it’s my turn to prepare dinner, I like to be creative with what we have around the house. One of my favorite things to do, especially to help our wonders with foods we tend to have over and over is to create “cupcake” creations. These BBQ bacon cupcakes are some of our favorites!

For this recipe, I used the following ingredients/mixes:
Honest Earth Creamy Mashed Potatoes (Instant) – 1 package (seriously, pick this up on your next Costco trip….so delicious for instant potatoes and obviously, very easy to prepare)
Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits – yes you can make these yourself but again, the mix is where it’s at for me and my skills
Bacon
BBQ sauce

After preparing, combine these ingredients (bacon sprinkles are always a crowd pleaser) into a delightful “cupcake” formation and everyone in your family will enjoy (I’m pretty sure Scott had 6 cupcakes…..comfort food!). What types of cupcakes can you create with your dinner tonight?

Intentional Summer 2k16

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We are heading into summer #3 with our wonders this year and after a lot of trial and error with what worked for our family and our children, we are excited to put some different things in place this year to set us ALL up for success and restoration. My wonders feel very threatened by unpredictability…..one of the many reasons that they both feel safe and secure during structured and predictable school days. During the summer, all I want to do is NOT have a schedule so that I can repair my soul and build my energy back up before the Fall. And therein lies the dilemma we have hit in the past.

After attending a workshop hosted by my friend Elizabeth McKinley, inspiring many families to not let summer pass us by, we got to draft what our INTENTIONAL summers will look like on these great posters. The kiddos and I enjoyed drafting out 2.5 months of fun adventures on the big calendar and getting excited about all that we get to do in our time off together.To help with our dilemma of structure vs. free-time, I decided to come up with a daily schedule for the days where we are at home for a majority of the day with nothing on the big calendar. We drafted time slots for different tasks we want done each day. This includes time for our modified home-summer school time and independent time (both wonders need practice at entertaining themselves and playing alone without adult direction). And then we leave the afternoons for getting out of the house for different activities. Free bowling, Trampoline Zone memberships, and the great parks around our county will be filling up our weeks and I know the kids will be excited no matter which option we choose!The nice part about this schedule for ME is that I know which times of our days I will have for my own restorative needs like reading, scrapbooking, or blogging and can plan accordingly while the kids are fulfilling their scheduled duties. I can also plan meet ups with friends and family around this schedule in my beloved new planner.

If your kiddos have a hard time with unstructured days….this scheduling system might be a good experiment to try! As a small sidenote, I am a firm believer to not structure my wonders’ PLAY (what we call independent time)….we tell them often that “boredom is a choice” and I want them to problem solve and be creative on their own. But that doesn’t mean I can’t provide predictability in the times when they will get to make those free choices and the times when we will adventure out as a family unit.

If you are interested in more inspirational content around keeping your family healthy and happy inside and out, please consider following me on Instagram under the username ROOTEDWELL.

A few things I’m loving….

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Since I gave up wine for my 30-day detox cleanse, I’ve been missing my glass of red wine each night. I’ve been finding some comfort (and some relief from bloating) with this little “tea” I concocted:
1 cup apple cider
2 tbl. apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
1 drop on guard or cinnamon 
I’ve been disliking my bathroom counter top lately so I asked my crafty husband to do a reclaimed wood shelf and I am loving a little farmhouse feel in our very newly built (aka very vanilla) house.
As a Mother’s Day present to my Mother-in-Law Lori, I crafted a special planner with small pictures of her family members on their birthdays. I liked the idea so much that I used it to decorate my new planner and I love peeking through all the months and seeing so many smiling faces that I love so much.
My new favorite app straight from Shark Tank…..Felt! This app has amazingly cute card designs but then you can customize them and add your own handwriting (using your touch screen) for a handmade look. Plus, I only pay $5 per month and get to send 3 cards as part of the subscription plan (which I already used in the first day I had the app – oops).And just because I love how my little WonderBOY texts – a screen shot between him and Scott. I’m not sure what I was “letting him do because he is cute” but whatever it is, I am fully guilty of and for his exact reasons…..I better work on that before he uses that excuse for more than just staying up an extra 5 minutes or eating popcorn in the living room.

Planner switch-up

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Throughout the year I hem and haw over planners and who has what and what I like about each one and then each May I panic!!! Which one will I commit too? None of them have exactly what I want/need (very similar to house hunting btw)….grr! Why are they so darn expensive? See one of my first posts about my love of planners here!

I have been stalking the Inkwell Press planner and thought I was in to commit to this one for my planner this year. But when I ordered it and got it in my hands – it didn’t spark much excitement even though it was gorgeous without a doubt. Even with the chevron + wood grain cover (aka Patti’s dream design) – I couldn’t bring myself to write in it. Apparently I have strong planner intuition. ?

I remembered making my mother-in-law a special personalized planner for Mothers Day and I really liked the “Happy Planners” from Michaels (like couldn’t stop thinking about them and yes, I know that’s weird)….and double bonus that you can add in bonuses for what you need. For me, this meant extra notes pages, a post-it dashboard, and folders to keep goodies. And I also have a weird complex about crafty anything from Michaels but I decided to put that leftover Treasury of Memories mentality aside for a bit and lean into my planner wants and needs. Here are a few pics of my treasures:

 The monthly dividers are my favorite!!!

Using coupons, I got ALL of this for under $50 which is about half of what I usually spend. Woot woot – now how to carve out some me time to start filling all those pretty pages up!

Carrot Cake Protein Bites

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These little bites of heaven don’t last too long in our fridge – and I’m totally okay with that. They are stuffed with protein and carrots and great for on-the-go breakfast and snack needs (an everyday need in our house with a “so not a morning person” mama).

img_4179 Easy to make too!

Yield: 18-20 balls

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups rolled oats img_4178
(no oats? no problem! sub for some of these you may have lying around the kitchen)

 

1 cup shredded carrots, packed
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/3 cup craisins (always on hand from our ginormous bag from Costco)
1/3 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground ginger

Optional: 1 tbl golden flax meal (or other flaxseed product for digestive help)

Instructions

In a large bowl, stir together all of the ingredients until well mixed. Using your hands, shape into 1-inch balls. P.S. Washing your hands during this process is like a hand scrub at the spa – enjoy delightfully soft hands after!

Refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve cold. Store in refrigerator for up to 5 days.

Source: Adapted from original recipe on Two Bite Club