(More) Life Lately

I forgot to include some of the pictures I meant to so I decided to update this post!

Things have finally settled down around here. At 4 months we turned the corner. Anna has completely adjusted to her sister. She no longer throw fits, and we haven't had any behavior episodes in weeks. She is as sweet and loving as can be, and so happy!  The baby is more calm and sleeping well. She takes fewer naps and I am able to get out of the house more. I am getting the hang of going out with the two of them- to the park, the store (occasionally), and to friends' houses. I will probably never brave an entire grocery shopping trip with the two of them, however :)

Instead of being in survival mode, I am really enjoying the two girls. The weather is great and we are having a blast!

Eating lots of meals outside.



Rice Krispy treat-meaking



Best friends

Butterball. 4 months.

Long trips to Florida

Grandma and "Pi"

Feeding the fish



Reading to Rosie

Pigtails

Bloodwork allergy testing. Bandaid. Not happy.

Frog bouncing on cow.

Chillin.

 

 

Mother's Day

Sweet girl.

 

Who's Southern?

Lately I've been getting a lot of "Where are you from?" questions. I'm not really sure why. Maybe the blog gods want to give me something to write about.  I usually pause when I'm asked where I'm from, like I have to think about it. It's a difficult question for me, because technically, I am from New York state. I grew up in a small town in what is called "upstate New York", about three hours from the city (and nowhere near Rochester or Buffalo, because apparently those are the only two cities people know of in New York outside of NYC).


When I was 18 I left New York to attend the University of Georgia. During the first year, I really struggled. I hated the culture. I didn't feel like I fit in with the people around me, people who were mostly from suburbs of Atlanta. I had pretty negative first impressions of my new location. First off, I had never heard of a subdivision before. All we had were houses on a regular street, that all looked different. The idea that someone had a lakehouse was completely foreign to me. People came from huge schools where they had been on different 'tracks' (like honors) and entered college with a full semester of credits under their belt. Huh? We had one school in our town that offered two AP courses and everyone was on the same 'track'!  Why did racial groups seem so separated and have their own subcultures? Why was interracial marriage taboo? And what was Chic-fil-A and why was everyone SO shocked to hear that I had never eaten there? Speaking of food, where were all the corner Italian places? Why were there a million boring Mexican joints instead? Why did all the guys wear tucked-in polo shirts, short shorts, and boat shoes? Why did all the women look like models, have long, shiny blond hair, and always have their nails done? What was Cotillion? Why was everyone in a sorority and what the heck was this crazy rush thing? Why did people prefer watching football over basketball? It was so boring! Oh, and I had never seen so many churches in my life! There was one on every corner. And what was a campus ministry or youth group? I never heard of these. The food was different, the dress was different, the language was different, the attitudes were different (note: some of these cultural differences were also from going small town to 'bigger town').


I felt like I was in culture shock. I talked about transferring- maybe to Virginia (like it would be much less southern or something, ha). But a funny thing happened the following year. I found a group of friends I fit in with. I started to enjoy living in Georgia. I started to accept, then LIKE, the culture. Fast forward ten years later, and I can't imagine living anywhere else. I love the South. Sure, I definitely don't love everything about it and some things still drive me crazy. Sure, there are a few things I miss about living in New York (ok not that many). But I consider myself southern. Not a born and raised Southern Belle, mind you, but someone who loves and belongs in the South.

My parents retired to north Florida several years after I left New York. So apart from a few family members, most of our family has somehow migrated to the Florida-Georgia area. Therefore, when people ask me the question "Where are you from?" part of me wants to say Georgia, part of me wants to say New York, and then part of me thinks that when I go "home" (or to my parents') it's in Florida.


My identify crisis has sparked my thinking about the ways that I consider myself Southern and the ways I consider myself Northern. I had some fun with this, and maybe even got some of my identify figured out!


(Forgive me for my stereotypes)

Ways I consider myself Northern (and/or small town):

I don't wear dresses to football games.
I cannot stand the humidity. Or bugs.
Cockroaches are EVIL and FREAK ME OUT!
I don't own anything Polo.
I use terms like soda and sneakers instead of soft drink and tennis shoes.
I can't stomach collard greens or grits.
I love the North's long, crisp fall season with pants and light jackets.
All Christmases are meant to be white.
I'm always in a hurry.
I don't dress my girls in smocks or monogrammed clothes, except for rare occasions. It's not really my style.
I love authentic takeout Italian, I just can't find any (Olive Garden does not count).
On that note, I do not like Monterrey's, Mexicali, Vallerta's, Salsa's, or any of the million-and-a-half Tex-Mex restaurants.
Interracial marriage isn't taboo to me. Two of my best friends (a friend from college and an older couple) are in interracial marriages.
My social and table manners are not that great (maybe I should go to adult cotillion?!)
I don't own a gun and never want to. On that note, I don't hunt and never want to.
I tried out a social sorority and hated it. Big time. Ditto for rush.
I'm anti-death penalty and still can't believe we execute people instead of letting God be the final judge.



Ways I consider myself Southern (and/or 'bigger town'):

Sweet tea is the drink of choice. Unsweetened tea is gross.
I cannot stand the cold weather.
I plan on teaching my daughters good 'ol fashioned social and table manners (once I learn them myself ;) . It's good for them.
The only way to refer to a group of people is ya'll.
I love almost all southern food (see above exceptions).
I smile at people I walk by.
I have conversations with the bus driver, the cashier, the waitress- everyone! One of my favorite things about the South is that people are so warm and friendly.
I live in a subdivision, albeit a very small one.
Church is one of the biggest parts of my life.
I believe Chic-fil-A is God's gift to fast food.
Football season is by far the best sports season of the year.
I believe in less government, fewer entitlements, and more states' rights.
Admittedly, I have a (slight) Southern accent.



All that said, I love living in the South and wouldn't have it any other way. Ideally, I would like to live a little further north where the weather was more mild and there were more mountains, like North Carolina. I don't know if that will actually ever happen, but if it doesn't, I'd be happy staying here in Georgia.  I like it here. I love my born-and-raised southern friends, even if we are a little different.

I'm a Northerner-turned-Southerner.

And I kind of like having one foot in both worlds.

Home Makeover: Bedroom

 

 

Let's see, so far I've posted the kitchen and dining room, right? This bedroom has been done for a while now, but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures. Side Note about these posts: I enjoy decorating. I know some people think it's materialistic, but I beg to differ. For people that love beauty and artsy things, it can be a real joy to make their living space relaxing and pleasing to their eye. I think the materialistic part comes in when you spend time or money you don't have to make that happen, or when you don't take the time to be creative and use what you already have (or can afford). I spent less than $50 on this room and I love it!

 

The bedroom is currently being used as a guest room. All our family live out of town (boo!) so it was important to us to have a place where people could stay (unfortunately it's right next to the girls' room and sound travels a little in a small home!). In the future this room could be turned into a kid's bedroom if we had a third child or if it wasn't working for the girls to share a room.

 

I love the outdoors and gardens so I wanted to make this room feel garden-y. We had to pick and choose which rooms to paint, so we left this one its original color. I would have preferred a lighter, more subtle green, but oh well :) Greens/ivory/white were also the colors of our wedding so my plan was to repurpose some things from that.

 

 

 

Before:

 

 

After:



 

 

I couldn't get the whole room in one picture. This was the best I could do. Like all the rooms in the house, the bedroom is on the smaller side. It's a 12x12 square. The bed and bedding was a wedding gift. It's a beautiful bed but really big. It kind of overpowers the room, but it's super comfortable and there was no justifiable reason to get rid of it, so I tried to keep the rest of the room de-cluttered. I was always taught to put the bed on the wall farthest from the door as you walk in because beds are usually the focal point of the room.

 

 I found this wreath at the Christmas Tree Shop (my favorite secret store).

 

 

It's hard to see what it really looks like but it has all these pretty details:

 

 

 

We hung a white curtain rod and some linen curtains ($20 from Ikea). The garland of flowers was from our old room. I think I got them from Bed Bath and Beyond or something.

 

 



 

Pictures of the girls. These frames were handed down to me from my mother. They once held pictures of our family in them :)

 

 

 

Those floating planters on the left are from Ikea. We had them in our old bathroom holding odds and ends, and I thought they would look nice in the bedroom. I bought a bundle of hydrangea from Hobby Lobby to fill them. The wicker chair is a thrift store find. I recovered it with a $5 piece of fabric from Hobby Lobby. The pillow cover was brought home from our trip to India. The basket was from our wedding- I used it to hold an extra blanket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you open the door there is a little cubby wall to the left where I hung our framed wedding invitation. You can't really see it- how does one take pictures of glass without a glare anyway?

 

 

Lastly, I had these two old windows that were salvaged from a store by my sister-in-law. I hung them with French cleats.

 

 

 

 

Chair fabric: $5
Curtains: $20
Bed and bedding: gift
Wreath: $15
Windows: salvaged
Furniture: already had
Prints: $5
Frames: already had
Hydrangea: $3


“Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”

-William Morris

My Heart

   

(apologies for my horrible singing voice)

"Newborn" (or not) pictures

I've never gotten around to having real newborn pictures taken. The girls' pictures have both been taken around three months of age. I kind of like it that way, though. A lot of newborns look the same to me. There's something I like about seeing more of the baby's expressiveness and personality, which really starts to blossom around 3-4 months.

A friend of a friend took these shots. They ended up being family pictures- I think there were more taken of Anna than of Kimberly even :)