Summer projects

I've been trying to write this blog post for weeks now.  Life feels so busy all the time and unfortunately, a lot of things I love, like blogging and house projects, have taken to the back burner.  Some days this really gets me down and I feel like I will never have time for these things EVER again ( I can be a bit dramatic!).  But, I've said it many times before that I will never get these times back, when the kids are young.  So, even though that means we've had to endure 5am wake-ups and dinners that are anything but peaceful, I am doing my best to cherish these times.  I mean, just look at these 2.  Persepctive, it's all about perspective.

Brady does have a diaper on, I promise.  He's just so fat he looks naked.

Ok, back to my post...

I love summer.  It is hands down my favorite time of year.  I love the warm weather.  I love the long days.  I love going on vacation and I love coming home.

Last summer was super busy.  With the anticipated arrival of Brady and numerous vacations, it felt like we didn't have a lot of relaxing time at home.  We spent a lot of time working on the third floor with the boy's room and I still can't believe we got everything done in time for Brady.

Even though that was a fun, big project, I am looking forward to working on some smaller projects around here this year, and having some more time enjoying our home. 

Rob and I sat down a couple weeks ago and went over things that we want to put our time and money into around the house this summer.  There are some things outside that Rob is working on.  One, which he worked on last week:

A "tree"house for Aiden.  To say Aiden is excited about this is a huge understatement.  Rob found that slide in someone's trash.  It just needs a good cleaning and to be attached and then it will be ready to go.  

We talked about how we want to spend a lot of time in our yard this summer.  So, doing some things to make that space nicer is a priority.  Rob's already done a lot of clean up in the yard and is of course hard at work in the garden.  I have some little projects for out there too; making a tablecloth, cushions for the bench.   We're having some family over on Sunday so I will try and remember to take some pictures of it looking spruced up.

Inside I have quite a few sewing projects I want to do.  I spent a lot of time  looking at fabrics, figuring out yardage, etc.  Here's my pile of fabric just waiting to be made into something.

One project I am super excited about is this floor cusion from pinterest:

Aiden is always wanting to put the pillows on the floor, which I'm not a huge fan of.  So, I'm hoping this will make him happy.  

We have one major project inside that we are going to do, and I'm super excited about it.  We need some closed storage in the living room for all the kid's toys, games, etc.  We love the shelves we have now because they work well in a small space.  But, with an almost-crawling-into-everything baby plus lots of kid stuff, we need closed storage, end of story.

Rob had this idea, it's on quite a few blogs, but I like this one the best from The Brick House.  I like the clean look, and I like the white with the wood.  It's also budget friendly considering how much storage it will provide.

Rob spent time doing lots of research and pricing things out.  We just need to sit down and find a few days on the calendar to work on this as we'll probably need to have the kids out of the house to get this done.

So, that should keep us busy for now.  I feel like my mind is always full of ideas and an endless list of things we want to do around here.  But, I am really going to do my best to enjoy our home this summer and not always feel like I need to get something done.

Happy Summer!