summer4life

1. I noticed a lot of people e-yearning for fall today this past week on Instagram and wondered if there was something official about the week of July 23rd being the acceptable time to start wishing away summer? As far as I'm concerned the summer is still in the raging stage and our cardigans (of which I am a proud connoisseur! but all in good time!) and steaming + seasonally flavored lattes can hold their hot little horses. If this plants me firmly in crotchety old lady camp complete with permafrown ... then so be it. Summer -- play on, player.

2. I feel like I will be able to type a, "still so much to do!!" paragraph about the house from here till Christmas. Of 2020. But, it'll be the truth. We're still slowly making headway while dealing with contractor delays and/or no shows which is par for the course but a tiny bit disappointing. In the mean time if you have a paint color suggestion for a bathroom that will be bright white tile from about 1/2 way up the wall down to the ground - I'm all ears. We've stayed pretty light and neutral with paint colors so far so I'm thinking it might be fun to go a little bold for the master bathroom? Look at me - living on the wild side ... old lady camp and all.   

3. Here we have one room that is finally painted and + appropriately furnished. 

laugh - laugh - laugh. 

It does tend to be the room we all congregate (probably because Abe can be safely blockaded from the stairs we haven't found a unicorn gate for yet) so it's nice all the chairs in the whole house seem to reside in here. This room hasn't been painted either but all in good time!

4. I'm about to catch up on this weeks Bachelorette but I saw all the buzz about Jason maybe being the bachelor and I'm not an advocate. I'd rather have round two of Ben H. -- maybe that's an unpopular opinion though. 

5. I'll eat my words after saying I thought Summer Wives would be my favorite book of the summer (thus far!) and it's been a slow and depressing start. I'm not making quick headway but I'm determined to get through it this week. I'll give you my final verdict next week. I can hear the collective baiting of multiple breaths as I type. 

6. I did something I thought I'd never do but I'm not sure I can ever go back (when school starts! I almost swear!) and I ordered Costco to be delivered this week. While the delivery fee did give me pause I think I ultimately saved money by avoiding any and all impulse purchase temptation and I could map out the coupons with one click of my thumb. #notsponsored #justexcited

7. Despite still being in full on summer mode I will admit that I've started to think about doing some back-to-school shopping for the kids if only to take advantage of some of the stellar sales. I'm starting easy with shoes (much fewer shoe restrictions at their new school - and they are pumped) but do have a cart full of uniforms over at Old Navy because everything is discounted to the max ($6 pants!) at the moment. Simon has me on the hunt for some work appropriate pants that aren't scrubs and J.Crew Factory has yet to let me down. I got a pair of my favorite running shorts for my birthday this past week (my old ones were covered in paint - my fault) and I've been living in them ever since.

Alright, happy weekend! 

Hello from the other side

1. YIKES. I didn't mean to let so much time slip by without a riveting update a la blog but ... here we are. 

Fourth of July photo fashionably late and all. But, we're back! You won't get rid of us that easily. Just remind me to never ever move again. I'd like to report that we're all moved in! Settled! Every little thing put in its pretty little place but that is far from the truth. The boys dresser is still stuffed with glassware wrapped in towels and blankets, our room looks like we moved in 3 hours ago, and poor Phoebe STILL can't find her prized Cinderella doll that she's been looking for for almost three weeks. While I don't think it's possible for me to love a house more than I love our new house it needs (ahem - Simon would disagree with the word, "needs") quite a bit of paint and a few minor updates that have the unpacking process stalled for now.

2. The house is a breath (2 years - same as a breath, right?) away from celebrating her 100th birthday and has all the character to show for it complete with stained glass, wallpaper, and glass doors that Simon is sure the kids are going to destroy any second (he's not wrong - I'm just being uncharacteristically optimistic for once in my life). I just need to cool my, "lets get it all painted now!" jets. I will. I hope.

3. Anyway, there hasn't seemed to be any transitional period for the kids as they've jumped right into life with cousins and second cousins in the neighborhood along with uncles and aunts galore. We'll see how they take the beginning of the school year at a new school but my guess is they'll be just fine. Phoebe attended VBS with the big kids this week and told me, "I didn't miss you at all but I still love you" after her first day. So! Get thee to the full time classroom, P.

4. Believe it or not - we've been so consumed with general move in and figuring things out around the house and painting after the kids go down that I fell pretty behind on Becca's season for a minute there. I know - I didn't even know who I was either. But, I'm almost caught up and am still a big Blake fan. If he doesn't end up with Becca I'm hoping he's the bachelor though it seems like there's Colton bachelor buzz? Thanks but no thanks from me but ... we'll see.

5. On the book front - I'm trying to read Anna Karenina at an impossible pace (wellllll - I'm semi-cheating by listening but it's still time consuming) for a book club here but still managing to imprudently squeeze in some other books that a few of my favorite authors released in the past few months. I should've paced myself but I couldn't help it staying up way too late reading The Perfect Couple (entertaining but not my favorite of hers!), All We Ever Wanted (another page turner but ended kind of abruptly, I felt?), and I'm only about 14% into The Summer Wives but it seems the most promising thus far.

6. Did you score anything great on Prime Day? I was completely overwhelmed and really wished I'd just bitten the Roomba and TV (actually their are both still decent deals ...) bullets but ended up with a bottle of topcoat and an electric razor for Simon. I did take advantage of Target's version of Prime Day and snagged some furniture which I'm not sure is a step or down from our IKEA stuff ... ??? Don't answer that.

7. And I've haven't done any sort of deep dive into the ubiquitous sale that's taken over IG but I do have my eye on these perfect cross between wedges and heels - although I need to be careful now we're back in the land of four seasons and not go crazy with the summery sandals. They will always be my weakness. I was too slow to grab this cute pair of denim and am trying super hard to steer clear of the cardigans because that's really the last thing I need.

I have a million other updates and will be sure to drone on and on about the 89 shades of white I've been studying (Benjamin Moore's Cloud White is the pick du jour) along with a few photos of undramatic transformations here and there.