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Chairs, New House and Favorite Workouts {Randomness}

19 Jun

Between the thoughts about moving, decorating, family reunions, furniture refinishing, book writing, grocery budgeting, eating healthy and working out, this poor blog has fallen down on the priority list. So I’m here with another list of random thoughts for ya.

1. We have 2 chairs out of 6 for our kitchen table officially refinished. The table and 1 other chair are just waiting for wax (we ran out). The other 3 chairs are in various stages because we ran out of the white milk paint and bonding agent. We ordered more, so hopefully we’ll be able to finish the rest next week. I can’t wait to show you the finished product! Here’s a sneak peek:

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2. After my premature Father’s Day celebration, the real Father’s Day was pretty lowkey. We went out to dinner in Nevis at the Iron Horse on Saturday night. Sunday, I let Travis sleep in, we went to church, worked on our chairs during Emma’s nap and then just bummed out at the house. We grilled chicken and veggies for dinner, and watched Catching Fire after Emma went to bed.

FathersDay 0033. There’s something I find very satisfying about mowing the lawn. I think it’s because you can clearly see the progress you’re making, and the grass looks so good afterward. And with a push mower, it’s a decent workout too. I was exhausted yesterday after mowing Travis’ parents’ yard!

4. Emma can totally walk but chooses not to. Yesterday, she walked across her room several times, and once from the stairs to the couch while carrying my shoes. She’s just being timid I think, so she still resorts to crawling 97% of the time. Apparently, she wants to prove everyone wrong who says “One of these days, she’s just going to take off!” by increasing her steps by just a few each day.

5. For our “Superheroes” family reunion, the 3 of us have decided to dress up as Incredible Hulk, and call ourselves The Incredible Hulks. Now I just need to find purple shorts! Who knew that could be so difficult?

6. I’ve finally gotten into a routine with doing my workout and quiet time during Emma’s first nap… just in time for us to move.

7. Speaking of which, we close on our new house tomorrow! We’re driving down to Brainerd first thing. My dad will watch Emma while we close and then we’ll spend the rest of the weekend painting and doing other random house projects. My mom is planning to drive up tomorrow night.

8. I took last week off from my Tone It Up workouts since I was in Rochester with my parents. I’d rather hang out than work out. 😉 But we did go on a few nice walks up a big hill so I wasn’t a total bum. I got back at it this week and have really enjoyed them. Two of my favorite workouts so far were this HIIT tabata workout and this beach yoga routine. They’re free and only 20 minutes long! (I tell you this only because I really enjoyed them, not because I am compensated in any way.) I was pretty sore after the tabata routine.

And that’s all I got! Have a great weekend. I’ll be back next week with pics of our new house! Yay!

P.S. Bonus points to whoever noticed that even the way I label my posts about randomness are random.

 

 

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I’m Losing My Mind: Monday Randomness

9 Jun

1) Proof that I’m losing my mind: I was convinced that yesterday was Father’s Day. I brought Travis breakfast in bed (eggs, bacon, toast and coffee), gave him his present (the book Lone Survivor, some gum and hand sanitizer – an inside joke), and let him sleep in both Saturday and Sunday until 8:30. I didn’t discover that it wasn’t Father’s Day until I told Trav’s dad Al Happy Father’s Day and he looked at me weird. Well crap.

2) I’m blaming the above on the fact that I went to bed at 11 pm every night this past week, which is 1-2 hours later than I normally do. After Emma went to bed, we used milk paint to refinish the hand-me-down table and chairs we received. They look awesome! We have 2 chairs left to sand and paint, but the rest are ready for distressing and waxing. We’re pumped about them. I have pictures, but I’m going to save them for a separate post. 😉

3) Even though my hair is still shorter than I’d like for putting up in a ponytail, it is the perfect length for air drying. My hair is naturally stick-straight but at this length, it flips out at the bottom when I let it air dry. So I haven’t used my hairdryer in over a month! Love it.

4) I was inspired by the writer/blogger/runner I met at the Park Rapids church several weeks ago to blow the proverbial dust off my book manuscript and start working on it again during Emma’s naptimes. It has been so enjoyable and I’ve made quite a bit of progress on it. It’s still too rough-draft for me to have any idea of a timeline on publishing, but I’m very excited to have a contact who has “been there, done there” with self-publishing and now with a publishing house. This is my dream!

5) The power cord for the baby monitor we got when I was pregnant broke so I bought a cheapy $25 set of baby monitors at Babies R Us to replace them (for some reason, they don’t sell just power cords.) Save your money. It’s the biggest piece of crap ever. We didn’t have the cadillac of monitors before either (maybe $50-60) but this one is horrible. We’d like to buy a video monitor when we have another baby so we were trying to hold out until then, but maybe we just need to break down and get one now. Any recommendations?

6) My mom’s side of the family has a reunion every 4th of July and this summer, the theme is Super Heroes. Emma is going to be dressed as the Incredible Hulk, but named Destructobaby. I’m thinking about going as a spinoff of Wonder Woman, but instead being called Wonder Mommy or Wonder Runner. I’d be making my own costume so it could really be anything.I also thought about going as Catwoman, as a joke since Travis is allergic to cats. Any other ideas? 

7) Emma and I are heading down to Pine City and then Rochester today to spend the week with my parents. I’m excited! But

Well, that’s all the randomness I have for today.

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14 Months Later…

4 Jun

Emma will be 14 months this Saturday and I am just now getting the motivation to really resume the healthy lifestyle I had pre-pregnancy. Even though I trained for and ran a 15k, I have done really nothing at all in the toning department. My core grew stronger through running but it is still pretty weak and squishy.

Likewise, my eating habits used to be fairly buttoned up, but ever since pregnancy, they’ve been looser. For example, I used to hardly ever order value meals at fast food restaurants, but now I barely think twice. Bleh.

So.

I do best with some kind of plan to follow, and want to do more toning than cardio, so I decided to follow the Bikini Body Plan from Tone It Up. I will only be doing 1 workout a day (sometimes they list more than that) and they will be short enough to fit in during one of Emma’s naps. I’ll most likely take 2 rest days a week. But I’m excited about it! I am not into hardcore strength stuff, so I like that their strength routines aren’t anything too crazy, but still get results.

As far as eating goes, I know that if I go too crazy with calorie counting or cutting out carbs or anything, I get obsessed. So I’m just going to focus on:

  1. Eating whole, nutritional foods – which includes switching out Coffeemate creamer for half & half
  2. Limiting alcohol to 1-2 drinks a week, and coffee to 2 cups a day
  3. Drinking at least 32 oz of water a day from my Nalgene, plus water at meals

I want to just start small with the things I know need tweaking, and once those become a habit again, go from there. Too much change at once = FAIL. My family has a reunion on the 4th of July so even though I know this is really a lifestyle change, I’m using that as inspiration to stick with it for the next month.

On the bright side, I have been eating quite a bit healthier here in Minnesota than I was in Colorado. My love for spinach has returned (after disappearing during pregnancy) so I’ve been having big salads for lunch. Dinners are usually a lean meat, vegetable and grain, or a vegetarian dish with lots of veggies!

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Random Update and House Inspiration

3 Jun

Hey friends! I am seriously lacking on blogging inspiration and ideas right now, so I thought I’d share some randomness with you:

1) Last weekend, Travis, Emma and I went to one of Travis’ cousin’s graduation open houses down in the Cities and then we spent the night at my parents’ cabin, which is an hour north of there. They hadn’t seen Emma in over a month! It was fun and we got to help them with some yard work. I’m going back down there this Sunday while Travis travels for work. We’ll make our way down to Rochester too, and I’ll stay until Thursday-ish. So nice to have flexible plans when you live in the same state!

2) My second oldest brother, Brian, is marrying his dream girl, Jill, on Labor Day weekend this year in San Francisco, where they both live. Travis and I just booked our tickets last night! I’m so excited! They’re not having a bridal party, but all immediate family are in the procession. I’m excited to go dress shopping with my mom.

3) Instead of spending $3,000-3,500 on a brand new dining room table and sofas, Travis and I are bargain hunting. We found a couple of LaZBoy couches on CraigsList for $600 (we paid $500) that are the exact ones we were looking at (though a better color) and are in near-new condition. Score! We had to drive to Perham to get them (which was about 2.5 hours round trip) but totally worth it to save $1,400.

And then when we were up at Travis’ parents’ cabin on Memorial Day weekend, they said that there was a maple dining room table and chairs that were just going to be burned if no one wanted them. They were in rough shape, and they’re not necessarily what I would choose if I were paying for them, but hey, they’re free! We are going to refinish them with milk paint and distress them, giving them an antique look. I’ll post befores and afters on the blog.

4) Speaking of house projects, I joined Pinterest for the sole reason of getting house ideas. So I’ll leave you with some of my faves right now (that I might actually try to do):

trunk coffee tableLove the trunk as coffee table

poang

We have this Poang chair in black, but I’d love to recover it with a fun fabric like this. (Does anyone know if Ikea sells just the cover? It didn’t look like it to me…)

understair playhouseThe house we’re buying has a built-in monster old-school flat screen TV underneath the stairs, along with a cubby for DVD and VCR players. If we removed them, this would be an awesome idea of what to do with those built-ins.

breakfast bar stool

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this chair and distressed look. And amazingly, I was able to find this exact chair unfinished on Bellacor’s website. I think Travis and I will buy 3 of these for our breakfast bar, but we’ve agreed to finish them with varnish instead – probably a 2-tone with dark cherry and a lighter oak color.

green wallpaperOur basement has 3 built-in bookshelves and I’d like to put peelable vinyl wallpaper on the wall behind them, just for a little something extra. This wallpaper from Lowe’s is a front runner.

purple tv stand

Our colors downstairs are going to be a toned-down lime green, plum (like the above TV stand) and brown. Would LOVE to find an old dresser and refinish it like the above for our TV stand.

crate flowers

I bought a few crates like this from an antique shop and plan to use them on our front porch for displaying annual flowers. I like this arrangement.

basement ledgeOur basement has a ledge like this, but right now it is just sheetrock. Travis and I plan to finish it with wood like this. The colors down there are actually these exact ones too – tan on top, green on bottom. Not the greatest picture, but I think it will look sharp!

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Well, that’s all I have time for today! Have a great Tuesday. If for some reason you’d like to follow me on Pinterest, my name is Kathy Kluthe. 😉

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Memorial Day Weekend 2014

29 May

Sorry, didn’t mean to leave you hanging with my last post, but I’ve been busy pinning ideas for our new house! A couple weeks ago, we drove down to Brainerd on a Wednesday evening to look at just 2 houses – one we had found on the MLS and the other had been recommended by our realtor based on the other house. Looking at the pictures online, we were pretty pumped about the one our realtor had sent us but it’s always different in person. We also weren’t sure if it had a 5th non-conforming bedroom – since Travis works from home, we would like to have 4 bedrooms, plus an office.

When we arrived at the house though, it was just as awesome as we had thought it would be. And the basement has a large area that could totally be closed off for a 5th real bedroom, so that pretty much sold us. We put an offer down in the next few days, they countered (which we mostly expected), and we accepted the counter. The inspection was done last week – we asked for a handful of things and they agreed to all of them, so now we’re on to the appraisal and closing on June 20!

We won’t move in until the following weekend for a couple of reasons: 1) Travis’ parents will be in Alaska the weekend we close and it’d be nice to have their help, and 2) The current owners have cats. Travis is allergic, so we’re going to have the ducts and carpets cleaned, plus the whole house deep-cleaned. We’re also going to scrub the rooms that Travis will be in the most with a denaturalizer product to kill the cat dander and ‘germs’. But the owners chose paint colors and stuff wisely, so there are only a few things that I want to change before we move in.

So that’s the story. I’m not pregnant again, if you were wondering. 😉

On to our holiday weekend…

We drove up to Handberg’s Marina on Crane Lake on Saturday morning and got up there by about 11:30 (it’s almost a 4 hour drive!). We loaded all of our stuff into the boat and set off for the cabin, about 30 minutes by boat.

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IMG_5769 (Large) IMG_5766 (Large)The weather this year was PERFECT. Couldn’t have asked for anything better – well, except the water be warmer I guess. The ice had just gone off the lake the week before so only a few brave souls jumped in for a few minutes. I waded in the water a decent amount while cleaning pine needles off the beach, but that was as far as I would go.

Activities during our cabin stay included:

Emma swinging…

IMG_5778 (Large)And napping. (Emma’s getting a bunch of new teeth right now, so when she napped in the swing, it was a relief to not have to battle her!)

IMG_5802 (Large)Lots of playing in water warmed by the sun on the dock (don’t worry – we watched her like a hawk, and rigged up some shade after these pictures were taken.)

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IMG_5798 (Large)Campfires

A canoe ride

The dogs enjoyed themselves too. Both our dogs and my sister-in-law’s 2 dogs were completely wiped out the second day. Everytime we went into the bunkhouse, they followed us hoping it was naptime!

IMG_5799 (Large) IMG_5771 (Large) IMG_5780 (Large)Hope you had a good holiday too!

 

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Happy Memorial Day!

26 May

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Summer is here! Thank you to all who serve our country so that we can enjoy days at the pool, bbqs, and corn on the cob.

I have some exciting news that I’ll share once we get back from Travis’ parents’ cabin in Voyaguers National Park. Hope everyone has a great holiday!

7-Year Anniversary Celebration, Part 2

19 May

It’s our 7-year anniversary today. But since it’s 7:30 pm right now and we’re watching Bones while eating Starbursts from Easter, I’ll tell you about our weekend instead.

Saturday, we drove down to Brainerd and got new tires on our SUV. While our car was being worked on, we went on a run – my first one since the Hot Chocolate 15K almost a month ago. Then we ate lunch at Erbert’s & Gerbert’s and it was just as delicious as we remembered it. After lunch, we hit a few garage sales on our drive back north.

That night, we had our friends Jesse and Emily over for dinner and played some Big Buck Hunter. I suck at that game and totally lost, but it was still fun.

Sunday dawned gorgeous and we ate breakfast outside on the deck. We went to church, met a great family that we’re excited to get to know (the wife is a blogger, writer and runner!), and then had a picnic at park. The clouds and wind rolled in, so we didn’t stay long after eating. Emma fell asleep on the way home and took a 2.5 hour nap, so I got a nap too! It was glorious. We went on a walk outside and then ate leftovers for dinner.

After Emma went down for bed, Travis and I relaxed in his parents’ jacuzzi tub while watching an episode of Burn Notice on the iPad with wine for me and beer for him (and a granola bar and popcorn might have been consumed as well).

It was such an enjoyable weekend, and a great lowkey celebration for our anniversary.

Travis, you are still the one who makes me laugh the most and remember that life is fun. I love you!

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Mother’s Day 2014

16 May

I told Travis that all I wanted for Mother’s Day this year was to read at a coffee shop by myself and get a manicure/pedicure. So on Saturday morning, I went to a coffee shop and read for about an hour. So peaceful and rejuvenating.

20140510_095639 20140510_092242The nail salon was all booked that day, so I had an appointment scheduled Monday. But that didn’t work out, and neither did the one I rescheduled for Friday, so that will have to happen after Memorial Day… Sad.

Anyway, on Sunday, the guys cooked me and Beth a delicious breakfast.

20140511_091845Travis, Emma and I went to church in Park Rapids.

After church, we bought a dog poop scooper at Ace Hardware, which I put to use when we got back to the house while Travis fixed the tire on our jogging stroller and Emma took a nap. Not exactly what I had envisioned doing on Mother’s Day but it was enjoyable to be outside at least. I utilized the rest of Emma’s nap to read a book and relax though.

Once Emma woke up, we headed into Nevis and took a walk on the Heartland Trail. Emma also played on the playground near the giant Tiger Muskie statute.

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Awesome, right?

We bought Travis’s mom a book called For Love of Lakes, and will celebrate with my mom the next time we see her (which should be in just a few weeks!). Happy belated Mother’s Day to all of you moms out there!

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The Truth About Sacrifice

13 May

I’ve been thinking about these 2 verses lately:

“And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29)

“And a scribe came up and said to him, ‘Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 8:19-20)

Something I’ve learned over the past 5 or so years is that following Jesus often looks very mundane. Yes, some people are called to sell their house, car and possessions, and become missionaries in Africa. Travis and I haven’t been called to that (yet). Instead, we were called to… move in with Travis’ parents?

I have been tempted to question whether or not moving to Minnesota was God’s leading. I read a book about the Holy Spirit called Better Off Without Jesus by Chuck Bomar around the time we were moving, and he cautioned against the idea that if all circumstances fall into place, it must be God’s will. He pointed out that in the Bible, circumstances worked out for Jonah to disobey God but it was obviously not God’s will (desire) that he disobey.

But after prayer and consideration, I feel confident that our move to Minnesota was God’s leading, for a number of factors:

  1. In the back of our minds, we had always planned on moving back, unless God led us differently. For the full 6 ½ years we were in Denver, He didn’t lead us differently, and our desire to move back didn’t go away. We prayed for several years that if it wasn’t God’s will for us to move to Minnesota someday, He would make it clear.
  2. With his current job, Travis works from home – meaning he can work from anywhere – presenting the possibility to live in northern Minnesota instead of a Cities suburb.
  3. Travis’ boss told us that he’d be okay with us moving to Minnesota before we ever brought it up.
  4. Travis got a bonus at the end of the year, which paid for the expenses of moving and getting our house ready to sell.
  5. For various reasons, we were ready to transition out of our church in Denver, and things were changing at my job to the point where I might’ve still wanted to quit, so things would’ve changed even if we had stayed.

Even though God has been obviously leading us this direction, it has not been easy to continue trusting Him! The house hunt is going very differently from what we had expected or wanted, and I have had a hard time dealing with a life that is ‘on hold’ in every sense except motherhood. (Emma is definitely not on hold! She’s growing up fast.) My new rural existence is also a challenge, though it should get slightly better after Memorial Day, when more tourist-y things are open for the summer.

Sometimes I think that the sacrifice of leaving behind house and friends would be easier if it were for something radical, like living abroad. Then it would be expected to be hard, and it would be for something that’s obviously kingdom-focused. But since the sacrifice is “just to move back to Minnesota” and we’re currently living with Travis’ parents, it seems mundane. Annoying. It doesn’t seem spiritual. It’s not kingdom building. It’s just me, living in the middle of nowhere, with nothing in particular going on.

At least, that’s what Satan wants me to think.

He’s always getting me to focus solely on what I think things should look like. For many years, I felt guilty about “not doing more”, but I just couldn’t fit any formal volunteering into my schedule. Finally, I realized that serving others doesn’t have to be a formal thing. It doesn’t have to happen every Monday from 6-8 pm. It could be random thoughtful gestures, things done whenever a need is noticed. Some weeks, there would be more things to do, and some weeks less. Once I got off the idea of a formal volunteer time, I felt freed to serve as I felt moved by the Spirit.

So Satan wants me to think that moving back to Minnesota is less spiritual and sacrificial than being a missionary. Because the Christians who do radical things, they’re raising support to go live in a hut, learn Lingala and teach hygiene to sick orphans. They’re the ones really living out their faith. Me? I’m just being a coward and moving closer to my family, instead of farther away, and being a typical materialistic American looking for a house that has a master bath and gas fireplace.

Of course that’s not true! (Though I did think that way several years ago.) God has different plans for different people, and for some reason, His plan for us right now is in Minnesota. Our destination may not be Brainerd/Baxter in particular, but until He leads us differently or truly shuts all doors enough times that we get the hint, we will keep patiently looking for a house in that area. We hold our future with open hands, wanting whatever God has for us, and act with the faith that God will reveal His plans in His perfect timing.

“The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.” (Psalm 138:8)

“This is the LORD’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:23-24)

“Life change comes when we receive life with thanks and ask for nothing to change.” (Ann Voskamp, One Thousand Gifts)

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I’ll be back soon with Emma’s 13-month update!

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7-Year Anniversary Celebration, Part 1

7 May

Last weekend, Travis and I spent a night away from Emma for the first time since she was born. As we drove away from Travis’ parents’ house, I almost cried but after that, I was fine. We did call to check in that night and the next morning, and Emma did great! That was a relief.

Travis and I enjoyed ourselves as well. We drove down to the Brainerd area on Friday to look at houses. After that, we were starving so instead of cooking dinner in the kitchen of our hotel room like planned, we ate at Grizzly’s. Sufficiently stuffed, we checked into our hotel at Cragun’s Resort, then walked along the lakeshore for a bit before enjoying a free drink and live music at the resort bar.

We went back to the room to get our jacuzzi on. So fun! We drank wine and talked about houses. Then we watched part of the Wild vs. Blackhawks game and hit the sack. We were dialed!

Saturday morning, I read blogs in bed while Travis slept in and then we drove to Caribou Coffee for coffee and breakfast sandwiches. We took our coffee with us and went down to the lake again.

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It was kinda chilly though so we I didn’t last long. Back up in the room, I sat by the fireplace until it was time to checkout.

We had lunch with a girl I knew in college. She lives near Baxter with her husband and daughter who’s just a few months older than Emma. It was fun reconnecting and they gave us the lowdown on the area.

After lunch, we stopped at Fleet Farm, then drove up to the house we were interested in to talk to a neighbor about the neighborhood. It seemed like a great place and we went back on Monday to see it again but someone put an offer on it yesterday, so back to square one. There aren’t many other houses on the market in our price range that we haven’t looked at so it might be a while before we find a house. I’m definitely ready for life to resume a more normal feel, but trying to be patient and trust God’s provision.

We got back up to Nevis about 4:30 on Saturday. It was good to be away for a night but I enjoyed seeing Emma again.

Emma and I are hanging out down in the Cities this week visiting friends while Travis is out of town on a work trip. It’s a little overwhelming because of all the running around but it’s better than staying in Nevis by ourselves!

Emma’s 13 months today but I don’t have a post ready. Guess that one will be a titch late. Later!

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