Long weekend, followed by. . . summer? Please!?

Well-it's 60 degrees and cloudy here in the good old Twin Cities area. I think part of what has made this the most difficult year is because of the weather. I'm finding it so difficult motivate myself. During winter, I often enter a state of hibernation. . You know- like bears. I put on my winter layer and become globula-like to fight off the cold (or at least that's what I tell myself). So along with the everlasting winter, goes my desire to venture out. Every nice day we have had, I have been outside. I got a topsy turvy tomato plant hung (which a storm has since mutilated), and a bleeding heart planted, which serves as a memorial for all we have lost this year. . Sidebar, thanks to my amazing parents for the plant. Its beauutiful!

We have a long weekend this weekend, and I have been repeatedly asked, What are you guys doing this weekend? I'm finding that apparently Luke and I are the only 2 people on earth without defined plans. I greatly appreciate the free time that we have in our lives, because it ALWAYS seems like we have something to do and somewhere to be. Although it causes me a bit of anxiety, I don't mind flying by the seat of our pants every now and then. Getting past the fact that its crappy outside and that we may never see the beautiful consistent sun of summer, I am hoping to spend time outside, go for a run, weed, and maybe re-construct our topsy turvy- or return it for a more stable plant structure. I also don't know how I feel about starting with seeds. I think that because the weather has been so unpredictable, it'd be best to start with little plants. We shall see.

So I started this post yesterday and believe it or not- the sun has begun to peek out today. Maybe my weeding will get accomplished!

Happy 3 day weekend, ya'll- Talk soon :)

Inspiration

Lately, I have found that in all the sadness in our lives, we have really begun focusing on the positives. I, specifically, have found myself noticing that certain little things truly make the world a more beautiful place. For example, the trees our blooming in our neighborhood, and since we moved into our house in the dead of winter, we've never seen it in all of it's glory. Definitely not something to take for granted. I have also found that in my last blog post, people read our story, became my followers and really supported me. Another truly beautiful thing. Complete strangers being brought together by the internet to experience, learn from one another, and become inspired. I've started finding inspiration (both musically and just in life in general) in different places. Music, of course, has always been a creative outlet for me. Whether it's finding inspiration in other artist's lyrics, melodies or being inspired by their talent to write my music, I've found myself reaching for my recorder even more frequently lately. I also think this blog serves as a good stress reliever and support system for me. I am able to, not only, share my home improvement projects with everyone, but also my emotions and life events as a young, married couple. I was very skeptical to write about these things, but I think this is the best decision I have ever made.

Thank you to everyone who has inspired me!

. . . Coping

So. . .
I'm sure you've noticed that my blogging has, yet again, ceased to exist. I hate to admit that the reason for this was, yet again, a tragic and troubling event that has occurred in our lives. My family. My loving, amazing, beautiful, poor, poor family. I've decided to just start writing; without hitting delete, share my feelings about this experience:

This past week was spent grieving, crying, and mourning the unexpected loss of my husband and my 20 month old god-son and nephew. The day after Mother's day we were awoken with a rather shocking phone call informing us of the devastation. The rest is a complete blur. It seems like time elapsed so quickly I can't even recall its events. Its difficult to cope,and to mourn the loss of such innocence, because there is just no explanation or justification. I have seen so many things this past week. I have seen pain in peoples eyes greater than anything I've ever experienced; I've seen hurt, anger, frustration, and SHOCK. I was in shock. We see the news, we see the movies, we hear of people who have experienced this sort of pain, but somehow we can just so casually move on, thanking everything that it is not US.

. . . What happens when it is us? What happens when our closest loved ones are the ones experiencing this pain, and we are, first hand having to cope with the anger associated with such loss? How do we explain? How do we justify? How do we move on?

I found it very therapeutic to write about my previous loss, but I feel like I had just reached a state of recovery when this devastating news reached our family. I just wish I could have done something! I saw the tears and tried to be strong. I tried to just BE. Be there for those who needed a hug, a hand, a heart, or just my presence. If anything positive this week, I saw the way my in-laws, and my immediate family came together to support one another. I saw the love I am surrounded by on a daily basis. I received phone calls, e-mails, text messages, and gifts from people who were thinking, and praying for us. People who care so much about my family and I, that our hurt was their hurt; our tears were there tears. It was so heartwarming. Everyone held one another, told one another how much they meant to us, how much we loved them, because we immediately had a new appreciation for life, and family, and love.

I don't really know what I'm trying to accomplish with this post, if anything. But I just really needed to say these things before I could go on. I feel like writing the words actually makes them real, and enables me to cope. I hope everyone who reads this post can learn and somehow feel, for a moment, exactly what it feels like.

In loving memory of: Silas Luke Meyer

Wine, momma's day and gardening fun

Phew!
It's 8 o'clock on Sunday and I could absolutely go to bed right now. We've been asking for nice weather and boy oh' boy did we get it this weekend. Friday, Luke and I headed out to a bonfire with some friends- BBQing and bonfire was the perfect way to end a long week. Saturday morning, we ran some errands and took a trip out to Stillwater for the day. It was 70 degrees and sunny and we had bought a gift certificate to a wine tasting and tour at this winery in Stillwater for our parents so we made it a full family affair :) The wine tour ended up not being a tour at all. Well they explained it as a 'tour' of the wines not of the actual winery. And although I got a little angered, it was sunny and I was surrounded by people I love so it absolutely did not ruin our day. We finished it off with a late lunch at a restaurant right on the river and walked around at some cute little shops downtown.

Saturday was gone before we knew it and we were up bright and early prepping for Mother's day lunch at our house. Luke and I were both extremely nervous to fit 15 people in our home, but it turned out the open layout is really suited for entertaining guests. Lots of food and family made a perfect day. And as surprising as it is, there were still some people that hadn't seen our house since we moved in. Some of these included my aunt and uncle. They entered with a very thoughtful housewarming gift:

GARDENING TOOLS, SEEDS, and a little gardening roller thing! Now I have NO excuse not to start a garden. We had been talking a couple weeks ago about how I really wanted to plant some veggies, but was a little scared because I didn't know where to start. Well so far I still don't really know where to start, but I think I'm close with having the gardening tools :) The plan so far is to make somewhat of a raised planters bed with the veggies. Something like this that I found on the Home Depot website: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202102095/h_d2/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053. Does anyone have gardening tips they'd like to share?

Happy Mother's day, to all the momma's out there!

Finished product

Well, despite my presumption, my husband got the shelves completed in approximately 20 minutes. Apparently I nagged more than I needed to, but I am so unbelievably happy with the way it opens up the hall way and provides so much more space.

I like being able to keep the toiletries and towels available but not completely in-your face.

Again, hard to imagine this is once how we were storing this stuff:

Phew! Those days are no more. Again, I am amazed at what $25 spent at Home Depot can do to transform a house. We maaaay be shelving experts- what to tackle next!?

Lack of linen space

I found it to be incredibly odd that when we moved in to our current home, we had a cute little bathroom that completely lacked a linen closet. As previously mentioned, we don't have much storage space in our home so when we came up with the idea to transform a little nook we had in the hallway outside our bathroom into a linen closet, I was all for it!

Here's what the 'nook' looked like naked:

I think it is a great improvement from the bookshelf we were using before to hold out towels and other random items

So, we tripped it on out to Home Depot, and found some shelving that fit width wide, and were able to use their lumber services to cut them to length. We also scored some white finished trim to use as bracing for the shelves to sit on

The nails will need some putty and painting and the ends that were cut will also need a quick paint job, but I think its turned out pretty darn nice :)

Final pictures to come soon! And by soon, I mean in the next day or 2. . No more of this taking a couple week break to blog!