Travel: West Point Military Academy
Yes, a military college is a tourist attraction. Judging by the number of tour buses in the parking lot, West Point Military Academy is a VERY popular attraction! Who knew? FIRST, A BIT OF HISTORY Before West Point was a military academy, its location played a pivotal role in America’s Revolutionary War. George Washington considered this area along New York’s Hudson River to be the most important strategic position in the fight against the British. In 1778, soldiers built fortifications to defend the area and also ran a 150-ton iron chain across the Hudson River to control river traffic. Their plan worked. After the war ended, the country’s founders became…
Happy List: #83
I don’t want to jinx it, but I have to say it feels glorious to go an entire seven days with no website glitches! Living the dream over here, folks. Living the dream. I really hope I didn’t just jinx it. This week I wrote about my chair makeover with fabric tape and a few books my kids and I read this summer. Even if you aren’t into reading children’s books, I pulled out some inspirational quotes from a few of the books that are sure to give your soul a boost. You know what else might give your soul a boost? The Happy List. (Did I oversell it? Just…
Books My Kids Are Reading Part 9
It’s been awhile since I updated you on what my kids and I have been reading together. How have you survived without this list?! My dad is out there right now saying, “I survived just fine!” Hahahaha! Before I get to the book list, I want to share my library receipt with you. I promise this is interesting. Our library recently started indicating on the receipt how much you saved by checking books out instead of buying them. On this trip we saved $262! Isn’t that a clever marketing idea? Alright, onto the good stuff. Our summer schedule has been pretty loosey-goosey and I felt like we haven’t been reading…
Wood Dining Chair Makeover With Fabric Tape
A new dining table calls for new dining chairs. It’s a law or something, right? Shhh. That’s what I told Handy Husband. I wanted something completely different from what I’ve been sitting on for the past 15 years. FIFTEEN! It seemed like a good time to mix things up. I really wanted these chairs, but they wouldn’t push under my new table and space is at a premium in my dining nook. Instead, I found a similar style with a higher back. It’s the TMS Angelo Home Hermosa Dining Chair from Wayfair. I loved the blue color, but not the yellow. At least, not for my space. I bought the…
Happy List: #82 What I Learned from Hackers
I learned something very important about myself this week. We have been dealing with a series of escalating website issues for quite awhile now and it all came to a head earlier this week. The website was having memory issues, which we originally attributed to sharing our server with the kids’ Minecraft server. That didn’t help the problem, but it wasn’t the root of the problem. The root of the problem was that we were under a systematic DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack by a hacker(s). It’s a malicious attempt to overwhelm your server to either slow your website down so much that it might as well be offline…
Would I Make It Again: Balsamic Glaze VS. Regular Balsamic Vinegar
A new friend who has been absolutely so kind in welcoming us to the neighborhood texted on a Saturday morning to see if we could come over for an impromptu BBQ that night. My thoughts, all in the course of about 3.2 seconds, were as follows. Uhhh, I was planning on curling up in my bed with a book tonight. We have friends! Woohoo! And they invited us to dinner! That’s so nice! But my bed… The kids would have a lot of fun swimming with her kids! But my bed… Handy Husband would have a lot of fun hanging out with the neighbors! But my bed… I wouldn’t have…
Not Your Usual Teacher Gift Ideas
My feelings on school starting ping back and forth at least 400 times an hour. Summer is the best. Why does it have to end? HOW long until summer ends? Lazy summer days are amazing. Crud. It’s only 8:07 A.M.! 11 hours and 53 minutes until bedtime. I’m soaking up every moment with my babies. You JUST had a snack! And so on and so forth. The one feeling that remains constant is my profound appreciation for the teachers and support staff who teach, nurture, protect and inspire my children. At some point in the year, I know I will be giving a teacher gift or participating in a classroom gift…
Happy List: #81
Hey, hey! Funny how we all keep showing up back here. I know it’s a bright spot in my day! I hope it is in yours too. On Monday I shared pictures of our backyard and the $16 bright orange accessory that’s rocking my summer! Who knew I would love the color orange so much? Then (imagine me throwing confetti here) on Wednesday I told you how I finally completed a project! I managed to not lose two tiny keys during an international move and I found a place to hang them. One project down. 5 million more to go. Totally doable. Totally. Also, big thanks to Handy Husband for…
Update: Vintage Key Project
Over a year ago I shared the vintage keys from our house in Ireland. Yes, the doors of our Irish home actually opened with vintage-looking keys. It was super cool and also a wee bit tricky to get in the house. Details, details. The reason I have those vintage keys now is not that I kept a set when we moved back to the United States. I can’t speak for Handy Husband though. It’s that the doors to the home were replaced while we lived there and those keys no longer worked. I thought they would be the neatest memento of our time living in Ireland. While taking a therapeutic…
The Best $16 I’ve Ever Spent
I should have called this post “welcome to our backyard,” but I went the sensational route. That sometimes happens when I write late it was actually 9 p.m. at night. The home we rented for our arrival back in the U.S. has a cute cabin-y exterior. This is from the day we moved in… Fun, right? But my first impression was OH. NO. WAY. Truly. What the pictures don’t tell you is that the location of this home has some drawbacks due to its close proximity to a busy road and some commercial development. However, the backyard almost makes me forget all of those things and I can see why the owners…
