sprucing up my nest for summer

Ever since we were given our amazing new sectional, I've been super inspired to keep my house clean and redecorate a little bit. It's been so much fun to spruce up my nest and get ready to enjoy the summer with my youngins and my hubby.  My sweet mother-in-law (I love you, Diane!) sent me a little love gift in the mail a few days ago so that I could go buy a new rug for my living room. And here's my beautiful new rug - isn't it pretty?! I love it.

Joseph likes it, too. :) It is super soft.

(that was Clint's only request - he didn't care what it looked like, only that it felt good on his feet.)

 I found it at Walmart. They had a great selection, and their prices were far and away the most reasonable. Mine is from the Better Homes and Gardens brand. I even got a free year's subscription to the magazine with the purchase of the rug!

I found these amazing vintage tupperware containers with the coolest rubber sealed tops at Goodwill the day before. They were about $4.00 for the set! They sat on my kitchen counter for a couple of days while I tried to figure out what to put inside them. I decided to put my cut squares of bubble wrap, business cards, and washi tape inside them. Now, I've got a cute little shipping station for my etsy packages! Love it!

On Sunday afternoon, Clint told us all to get in the van and that he was taking us on a suprise outing! Our first stop was an amazing estate sale! He sat in the car with the kids so I could go in and shop alone. I found so many treasures! One of my favorites - a HUGE lot of vintage sheet music books. And they were only a quarter a piece - for like really big books! So happy. Can't wait to wrap up all of my etsy orders in the pages. :)

After the estate sale, he took us to a Mexican restaurant that we'd never eaten at before. It was so so good! All seven of us LOVE Mexican food, so we were all really happy to be there enjoying our lunch together. I love this photo of Ruth's little smiling eyes at the bottom of the frame.

This is another favorite find from the estate sale - an awesome little vintage leather and gold coin purse of sorts that held old spools of thread. (and I later discovered upon further inspection (ie. one of the children dumped everything on the floor - haha), the coolest little magnifying glass!)

I had my coffee this morning in this pretty little mug that I found at the sale as well. 

"Sing a new song unto the Lord!"

So, the more I clean up my house, the more I want to clean up my house. 
Does that make sense?

My sweet sister in law sent me some money yesterday in the mail as a belated birthday gift. And today, I went to Target and bought some cute new organizational goodies to help me with my poor poor "desk". This is a "before" pic that I took today right after the kids went down for naps. It is pitiful, I know. Mountains and mountains of paperwork, kids school papers, drawings, books, diapers, and a bunch of junk. It's bad, folks. Just looking at it pile up more and more everyday gave me a headache. 

So, today, with resolve and determination, I set about to transform my desk!

It took a solid 3 hours.

(And I still have a little bit of sorting to do.)

But, overall it is now one of my newest happy places in my house!

ta da!!

I have an actual, functional control station now in my kitchen. 

A place where I can grab a favorite devotional book, pay a bill, or get a diaper and a pack of wipes  (which are inside that basket on the right - and hopefully, will be gone soon if I get my act together and start potty training Robby! :) )

* that pretty file folder holder on the left is one of my new goodies from Target

* the awesome vintage wooden musical note bookends are from that garage sale (Clint surprised me with those - he got them from that estate sale the day before we went together)

* the little vintage owl is a thrift store find from a few years ago

* and those pretty little floral prints are from my Ikea trip last month

While I was cleaning and organizing my desk, Clint was working in the yard and screened in porch. He pressured washed anything and everything that could be pressure washed. (In fact, he's still outside working. It's going on 7 hours now. What can I tell you? He loves to work in the yard - he gets that from his folks. :) Anyway, here's our beautifully clean and pretty and pressure washed screened in porch. Clint, unbeknownst to me, also took all of the quilts and blankets off of the glider this morning and washed them as well. So, they're fresh out of the dryer now and looking good on our beautiful antique glider (which my father-in-law lovingly restored and painted). 

All in all, we've had several really fulfilling and satisfying days working hard, getting our home ready for summer time. Days where we can just relax and enjoy our family of seven. 

I am truly thankful for all that God has given to us.

I hope you all are enjoying your summer, too!

And I hope you are taking time to rest with your family.
And simply just enjoy being together!