Drea Wood

Category Archives: house keeping

Half the House

Written on 05/09/2013 by Dreawood in house keeping

Well, I finally got around to taking a few pictures of our house.
Its been a busy month and the house is far from finished… but we’ve made good head way… so here is a 1st glimpse for you all to see.

Also be sure to read our Journey to our Home HERE.

I’ll start in the basement.

That is our boys “toy room” but it also will second as a guestroom.
The toy room also is connected to a full bath and deck. Which will be nice for guest.

The sofa in the toy room is a sleeper sofa, so when guest come we will just pull that out.

I love being able to have a space to shove all the boys toys… it has really helped with night time clean up and not having to deal with “toys throughout” the home… one place for all that is so much better!

The room had built in shelves in a closet as well as on one wall, which was perfect!

This is the back deck that leads out from the toy room….

It has a ramp that leads down to stairs, that then takes you to the backyard.

Our backyard is almost an acre, maybe less? we aren’t 100% sure hah…

Behind the tree’s is a wonderful creek that our boys adore!

Ok, back inside, the toy room leads to this room…

Our packed full office/photo editing/sewing room.

Can you tell my husband loves books? We built that shelf out of plain pieces of wood and cement blocks.

When you go upstairs from the basement you will enter our living room space.

The painting on the mantel is from the very talented Melissa Payne Baker.
I just got it and I am in love with it. She is a friend/client of mine and painted it just for me.

It represents our old COR home’s view. Which we so miss!

The living room opens up into our very spacious and much loved kitchen.

The kitchen has a walk in pantry, which is awesome!

and as you can see, lots of great window light…

The dining room where we eat as a family is connected with a hall way, close by the kitchen.

Across the hall from the dining room is our school room.

It is still being organized… we have some book shelves in the works for it.

Also there is a HUGE hammond organ left from the previous owners.
We plan to sell it :) – since its big and a bit in the way.

The chalk board was also left by the previous owners ;-) its the real deal too!

Here is a glimpse back towards the dining room.

and…. for now, thats all I got :) – I will take some photos upstairs once that is “cleaner” LOL – its still a wreck!

10 Comments - comment {love}

Multi-tasking without a doubt

Written on 02/28/2013 by Dreawood in home school, house keeping, motherhood, photography

The last few weeks I feel as if I am multi-tasking to the extreme. I have realized its an art or possibly a slight obsession that I am good at? None the less, I can tell a huge difference in my ability to “keep up” when I leave my husband home with the children haha… Don’t get me wrong, Travis is an amazing husband and father… and does more than most men would ever think to do! I think as a woman though I am just wired differently and because of this, I am able to do things a lot different…. and in short, a little bit more affectively? :) I guess that is the only way I can put it, if I am being frank.

Life as a mother of 4 boys, is go go go and while I do have mornings, a lot lately honestly… where I sleep in til 9am… (yes, it does happen!), I find once I am up, I am always doing something, from cooking a meal, tidying a kitchen, wiping a kids butt, catch up on emails (never ending, its kinda like laundry?), disciplining a kid, prepping my calendar for upcoming shoots, organizing school work, checking school work… getting ready to relaunch She {hearts} It and preparing my new business Lace Lane Wedding’s. It makes me tired to think about :)

One thing though that I am so thankful for, is the ability to do any of it…. and while there are many days I would rather sit on my couch and play the Wii with my children without any other care… and possibly a butler or maid to serve me food and clean my house… I know, in the end, I am one blessed lady!!

& the Wii days do happen some times… minus the butler or maid ;-) – unless you count my children? Its called “teaching them to serve?” ;D

I will admit I am struggling with something though, and that is sleep. For some reason I cant sleep very sound…. I think it is a combination of my anticipating Reed waking up between 2-5am… or possibly the long to-do list constantly going through my mind. The two combined make for some long nights lately.

Any how. Thats life as of right now :)

Busy…

But good.

With the busy, comes my lack of camera use :) – I miss my camera! It has only been used on Sunday’s lately, capturing our Church baptisms…. something Ive tried to help with lately when I can. I do have a fun Boba session this sunday though and am excited about that… especially since its with one of my favorite clients. ;-)

So, since the camera is hard to find time for lately… here is a wrap up with some instagram’s ;-) – what would we do without instagram!? seriously.

Below is Taite’s Cursive. Taite just turned five late Dec. He impresses me daily!

The Pink Bumbo isn’t mine ;-) – belongs to Candra from Curious Georgi.
We’ve gone to her house a few times the last few weeks. Her baby Heaven is only a day older than Reed.
She also has 3 other children, ALL BOYS. So our crew meshes well.

Have I mentioned Owen is a slight addict of Temple Run?

To prove it, check out this video I snagged of him playing it the other night…
Please disregard the screaming 6 year old in the background…. Im not sure what his deal was.

I did manage this photo, BEFORE church Sunday. I had the cam then for baptism ;-)

Lil’ Reed-er (reeder has become his nick name as of late), is still precious as always.

I decided to try something I saw on pinterest…. This was the result :)

Hilariously ugly – but cute in a way ;-) and my boys, loved them.

I also pampered myself recently and got some peek-a-boo color in my hair. Its fun, yet not to much.
I also had 3 inches cut off… 3 inches of major split ends! Thats what a year 1/2 with no cut will do.

& for those who think my house is always clean ;-) here is some evidence it is not.

4 Comments - comment {love}

2 houses, 2 weeks

Written on 01/31/2013 by Dreawood in house keeping

Well, I must say we are probably one of few who can say they purchased two houses in two weeks :) – obviously we didnt have to pay for both haha.. and really haven’t paid for either yet… but today we placed a bid on another house, since the 1st one did not work out… and to our surprise our offer was accepted!! even tho we offered 5,000 less than asking price. Im going to share more once our inspection goes through and we know for sure its ours… but I am super excited about this one, even more so than the other one.

I think our excitement to finally purchasing a home got away from us :) – and the adorableness of the last house over took the real practicality of it. A household full of boys really does require some space… not just outside. :)

The house we placed the bid on is 5 bedroom… and by a creek…. the creek warmed my heart, esp. since I grew up by a creek myself! Some of my best memories are of my brother and I playing by the creek… so if this is the house for us, I know our boys will have such fond memories of the creek behind their house. :)

With the house stuff in the works… I have been browsing pinterest for some ideas on how to decorate! I cant wait to make this home a bit more personal than previous homes we’ve lived in. This will be the 1st house I can really do what I want with it, since its ours.

Here are some of my ideas:

A center piece for above our fire place.
My friend Leah actually made the one below:

Source: leahandkyleg.blogspot.com via Andrea on Pinterest

I know I have boys but I am so digging this ruffle shower curtain.

Source: thebeautifulsoup.com via Andrea on Pinterest

Laundry room organization? :)

Source: lucyinteriordesign.com via Andrea on Pinterest

Walk-in Pantry organization!

Source: snippetsofdesign.com via Andrea on Pinterest

A romantic and warm Master Bedroom

Source: houseofroseblog.com via Andrea on Pinterest

A chalk wall in our school room.

Source: pinterest.com via Andrea on Pinterest

and the fun of decorating boy rooms :) – I hope to incorporate Maps

Source: abodelive.com.au via Andrea on Pinterest

Source: emilyaclark.blogspot.com via Andrea on Pinterest

4 Comments - comment {love}

Today I

Written on 05/24/2012 by Dreawood in home school, house keeping, motherhood, struggles

Today was a total fail day.
I am ending week 2 of being a SAHM full time again – with a husband who is working a full time job. We had thought he would only work til 3pm to start… but that has turned out not to be true. He gets home most days 15 til 5… which isn’t SO bad, could be worse… but either way its a HUGE adjustment for me. Going from unemployment for 10 months – to prior to that 8 1/2 years of being a Pastors Wife… let me just say, being a Pastors wife stinks in many ways, its hard… people expect perfection, they judge your family… and you feel as if you live in this big bubble with lots of eyes waiting for you to screw up. However, a BIG perk to ministry is your husbands schedule is pretty flexible… which I miss, greatly.

All that being said.. I felt I have held it together pretty well.
UNTIL today.

I don’t know if it was because I felt bad physically.

Nearing the 20 week mark – I suppose things are settling with me and the baby… and I just felt so tired. I was out of breath after 4 trips up the steps in our home (note to self: if we purchase a home, I think I want a ranch hah)… I could not for the life of me get Owen to stop begging for something, may it be milk, juice, GUM (kid is obsessed with gum!), cereal, you name it, he had something he wanted, at all times. While this would be fine if I was just being a mom entertaining kids… it is not fine when you are trying to teach a child phonics or work with your other child on arithmetic.

After about 45 minutes of chaos this morning – I just got up… told the kids “Mommy is DONE” – stuck Owen in his room, with the door totally shut… and went to my room to collect some sanity.

All the while Owen is hyper ventilating (not really but he sure wasn’t happy)… banging on the door…. I cared… but then again I didn’t…. and really did need that moment without anyone near me to collect myself.

After 5 minutes – maybe just 2… – 2 = 5 in mommy time… I got Owen out of his room… told him he had to go play by himself, because Mommy had work to do… I doubt at age 2 – with his speech delays this made sense… but it was worth a try… I then take him down stairs, with his boogered face from his crying – blanket in hand… and hope for the best. Holding Owen btw is sweet to me. I love when he just lays his head on me… I sat with him for a moment on the sofa just to love on him – after his 2 minute ‘alone moment’ in his room… and then sat him down – and directed him to some board books… I then go back to the school table….

Where I find my 7 year old teaching my 5 year old his math.

It actually brought me to tears. I just hate that after about 5 minutes of peace – while they finished up some seat work together… the chaos began again.

So I called it quits for the morning… grabbed the diaper bag and we made our way to the store… I had to pick up a few things… so it was a good excuse to leave the house.

However the trip posed to be draining… and by the time I got home I was literally shaking – and realized at that moment, close to noon… that I had not drunk anything all day except for 1 glass of tea that morning at 7am… I knew I was dehydrated… so I chugged 2 big glasses of gatorade (should of been water, but I just grabbed what I saw) – and the shaking did finally stop.

I nuked some corn dogs (oh yes for healthy choices right? HAh….) – and by 12:30 – I had Owen in bed…. and hoped for some rest.

But really… it didn’t happen. I laid down for maybe an hour – but felt just as exhausted as I did when I laid down.

I just felt like a failure today.

With moments where I would just tell my kids “stop talking” – After the 15th story about star wars… and COUNT DOOKOOO whoever he is… I just couldn’t stand to listen to anything else my children had to say.

My heart def. was not where it should have been.

I love my kids talking to me.

Its just today… I felt very overwhelmed about all the responsibilities I had.

I just want to be able to enjoy my kids… and sometimes I feel like I cant, because we have so much we have to get done. Stuff that really does HAVE to be completed… but really, does it? Does it matter if Caleb does ALL his writing assignments? am I a bad teacher if I neglect to do his reading for the day? Can we have a 3 day weekend every week and still educate them? :) – I know with this schedule being A REALITY and something that WILL NOT CHANGE – that something has to change on my part.

I have to find a new routine that works for our family.

That may be ditching school during the morning hours… and just going out and having some fun.

It may mean schooling during Owen’s nap – my ONLY FREE TIME… but at least its uninterrupted… right?

It may mean now showering for many days HAHAHAHA – or leaving the laundry in the hall way for an entire week.

I may have to learn to give up some of my other responsibilities…

… blogging :-\
… reviewing
… sponsored post
… photography
… the perfect house
… facebook – and oh my word… do not even get me started on this.
I came across a post today that made me so mad I felt my blood boil. It just fed my anger – and I know if seeing that sort of stuff will do that to me – that I should just refrain from it totally. I am just surprised some people can be so insensitive towards others. I wont say anything else tho… cause, well… I don’t want too :)

Ok… 10:05… time to wrap this up.

Today was a fail.

Tomorrow. I pray wont be.

I pray not only myself but my boys can have gracious spirits… and be kind to one another.

Have I mentioned I feel like I haven’t seen my husband all week.

But if Im REALLY honest… I find it so hard to find the time right not to spend with him. When I feel pulled in so many directions. It makes me just want to curl up at night and veg – the idea of doing much more is out the window right now. I hate that.

So… yea.. Lifes got to change – in ways.
Heres to figuring out methods to make this all work.

Note: I think this post has lots of typos. But. I really… don’t care :)

10 Comments - comment {love}

Taking time to Train

Written on 02/20/2012 by Dreawood in caleb, house keeping, motherhood, Owen, Taite

The other day I was at my friend’s house… and saw her 7 year old little girl sweeping the kitchen floor. She was doing a great job too! Even got the corners :) It reminded me how slack I had been on enforcing more chores with our boys… Ever since the move really. I guess maybe because I wanted it done a certain way & since this is such a nice home and not ours forever… I want it kept up really well. So I’ve been doing the brunt of the work as far as house hold chores go.

Obviously my boys are still young… they are however smart… and totally capable to do certain task. My expecting perfection is doing no one any good…

A few new chores I’ve recently added are.

Sweeping

Emptying the Dish Washer

(The boys IMO do not wash well enough with their hands :-\ – and since I cook most of our meals, I do rely on a dish washer right now… its an amazing blessing – since I am the sole washer otherwise. They can however EMPTY a dishwasher full of clean dishes.)

Add this to our normal few & I think we’re doing pretty good!

Clearing off the Table

Emptying the trash cans in all 3 bathrooms.

Taking recyclables out

Daily pick up of toys/clothes.

They put away their own laundry (I fold it as of now – placing it into baskets for each of them)

Making Beds

Now all this being said. Taite needs help sometimes with certain task. He did just turn 5. For him making a bed is really hard some times, esp. if he sleeps wildly :) – during those times I encourage Caleb to help.

Also Taite I do not trust with putting away glass cups or bowls. So we leave that to Caleb.

Sweeping also is really hard for Taite. I think its a height thing ;-) – he needs a shorter broom hah…

So Caleb as of now really does get more of the chores… but Taites catching up… and it really is all about training… something we have to put time into.

The other day Travis told me “you should teach Caleb to do that” – referring to something I was dreading… and I told him “It seems like such effort teach him some times… Id almost rather just do it.” He then said “Thats why its called training” :)

Its work.

But worth doing.

… and really is a good teaching tool.

Our boys as of now do not get rewarded for doing chores. One day we may pay allowance. For now, fresh baked cookies and breads from me is reward enough ;-) – at least I think so, HEHE. Not to mention TV privileges and ipad time. :-D

3 Comments - comment {love}