Nana's Cabin

Back in early September, BJ's mom (whom the kids called Nana) passed away after a five-year courageous fight against cancer. She was only 60 years old. She was truly inspirational the way she faced her terminal illness, how she pushed herself onward every day despite horrible side effects of endless chemo therapies. She refused pain relief drugs because she didn't like taking medications. Although many of us would have sought any form of relief that we could get, she dealt with the discomforts and pains of her illness and treatments without complaint. She would never allow any focus to be upon her, nor would she allow any pity. She was one tough lady who fought until the last moment of her life here on earth. We are sad to be missing her, especially during the holidays, but we are relieved knowing that she is resting, completely free of disease and pain, with Jesus. It makes losing her to cancer a little easier to bear knowing that she is no longer suffering.

Nana has left us with a lot of great memories and a home full of very special treasures that reflect her personality, her appreciation for simplicity, and her pleasure for being surrounded by the familiar, the unique, and the memorable. Her home is a combination of a late-1800s log cabin combined with a more modern log cabin designed to blend the old and the new. She had a great eye for how to meld the two concepts while retaining special features of the antique architecture of the historic cabin. Her home sits on approximately 3 acres in a small cove surrounded by trees, a creek, fruit trees, and sunny garden spots. The kids have always enjoyed our visits to Nana's house. It's a special place.

I was recently told about how Nana drafted a layout of the old cabin and her ideas for the new additions on the back of a brown paper bag. And that's the draft she took to city hall to request a building permit. From that draft, she began work and basically she was the general contractor over the entire building project. She asked friends and family, folks whom she loved and trusted, to do the work that she was unable to do. Every cabinet in the kitchen and bathrooms were custom built by a friend who created the cabinets from a pile of lumber. In this day-and-age, when most get their cabinets from big box retailers (Lowe's and Home Depot), she wanted to be surrounded by craftsmanship by people she knew and cared about. Many elements of the home reflect that love and care for detail. She also took great pains to salvage as much as possible. She was recycling building materials before it was the cool thing to do. She also appreciated the local arts and crafts that the area offers. Her home is full of those types of treasures. For instance, she has 4 cane-bottomed chairs which were hand-caned by the Walker sisters. In addition, she has many handmade pottery pieces, wooden bowl and utensil sets, handwoven baskets, and original pieces of art. In some aspects you feel like you've stepped back in time, but then again you get the incredible comforts of modernity when you fix a meal in the family-size, gourmet kitchen or relax on the over-sized, plush sofa beside the 8-foot-wide stack stone fireplace.

Another favorite tidbit that I enjoyed hearing was how Nana selected the three screened doors that are on her back porch. She had become aware of an old home nearby that was dilapidated and was in line to be demolished. Nana visited the home at one time and remembered how the screened doors there had that perfect squeak from years of use, which also reminded her of the sound of her grandmother's screened doors. So before the old house was demo'd, she retrieved the three doors, hardware included, and incorporated them into her own screened-in back porch. The squeak is still in tact. There are many antique pieces of furniture scattered throughout her house with similar stories - rescued from old homes, salvaged from renovated inns, or acquired from closed-down businesses.

Nana was a creative and industrious woman. Her handmade quilts are treasures. Her canned goods from her own garden are still being enjoyed by our family. Her ideas for how to create a special, warm and welcoming home is a wonderful legacy that she leaves behind. We are blessed to be able to enjoy the labors of her love when we spend time at her home. Here are some photos, most of which do not do any justice to how special this place is, but it's fun to share so others might see and appreciate.

Front view of cabin. The section of cabin with the stone chimney is the two-story historic 1800's cabin. The section on the front with the blue arched window and the section on the left with the shed roof porch are the newer additions. 

Back view of cabin.

View of the screened porch with one of the salvaged "squeaky" doors. Large river rocks serve as steps to the porch.

Old corn crib that houses gardening supplies, and a little fenced garden spot to deter deer, rabbits, and black bears.

The spring house which now serves as the pump house for the well.

View of the small cabin which is used mainly for tool storage and extra building supplies.

Back view of the small cabin and a creek that runs along the property.

Inside the newer addition looking toward the historic cabin with the exposed hand-hewn timbers.

Just a portion of the lovely modern dine-in kitchen.

View of the original stack-stone fireplace in the historic cabin.

There You Are!

I've let the time slip by without a post. So here's a little update and some photos.

1. We are settled into our urban home. But, we are still trying sell the suburban home. We will feel a lot more settled once we finalize everything there.
2. We are loving the spring weather lately. It's pretty neat that we've had warm, sunny days followed by 7 inches of snow. What a cool way to enjoy the great outdoors - bikes to sleds in one month.
3. We are looking forward to camping, swimming pools, and a beach trip in May.
4. We are losing motivation to complete schoolwork each day. The beautiful weather does not help one single bit! Hurry up summer break!
5. Charlotte and Lily both celebrated a birthday in February - ages 3 and 9.
6. I feel like I'm living in a dentist office. Three of the four kids are losing teeth almost weekly. We have a Ziploc baggy with our collection. Ewww!

Snow day!

The nappers enjoy their late afternoon couch time together.

Girlie doesn't even begin to describe this little bit. 

Griffin's first lost tooth. It seemed so early that I questioned his siblings about hitting him.

Birthday girls at Build-A-Bear.

My handsome boy!

Tools for Our Family

Last year we made a list of things we wanted for our growing family and began saving. And now we have just about procured them all thanks to a sizable tax refund (which really means we overpaid in 2010). The first on the list was a new dining room set (not my dining room pictured - I wish!). I need to finish getting my dining room in order and then I'll post some photos. I want to paint the room and hang more artwork.


Second on the list were these bad boys:

BJ really had to convince me that this would be a good purchase and worth the money. I have to agree with him now that I've used these for a few days. What would've normally been 7-10 separate loads of laundry in our older top-load machine, and probably 3 days of washing and drying, was 3 loads in the Samsung 5.0 front-loader. Just so you get an idea, BJ fit into this machine a set of queen-size sheets, pillow cases, queen-size fleece blanket, and a king-size quilt from our bed - all at one time! It completely fit inside this machine with a little room to spare. I am not kidding you! It's crazy how much stuff will fit inside this machine. And it's a lot more efficient because it uses about 15 gallons less per load than our older machine. Lovin' how this addition to our home has made my job a lot easier. Now if I can just find someone to help me fold all of the clean clothes that are laying around in the baskets.

And lastly, we want to put a freezer in our garage so that we can stock up better on food items and take advantage of good deals on bulk. We will be getting our freezer later this month. We hit a good deal when we purchased our washer and dryer. Lowe's was running a special with a tax refund gift card. When you make a purchase with a gift card during the specified time period, they would load 10% onto the card on March 18. So it works out that we get a freezer nearly free since the cost of a freezer is about 10% of the cost of the washer and dryer. Not to mention Lowe's matched a sales price on the washer and dryer when Best Buy was running a crazy good sale on them on President's Day. We saved over $500 for the set and will be getting a freezer out of the whole deal. I love a good deal!

In addition, and a surprise to me, BJ thought it was time to upgrade me to a MacBook Pro. Perhaps it was because I was whining and complaining about my PC. My PC was actually working fine, and it's almost like new, but after using his Mac that I got him for Christmas there is no comparison. I'm a Mac and won't turn Bac! I hope to learn how to use this fancy machine because Mac and PC do have their differences. After using a PC my entire life I'm going to have a huge learning curve but I'm already loving the intuitiveness and speed of the Mac.

New Dining Table & Chairs

At last, we have found a new dining set for our now family of 6. I almost gave up hope on finding something that would work for us that was affordable. What I liked about it:

1) Solid wood and durable (according to reviews)

2) Could expand to seat up to 8

3) Dimensions fit our dining room

4) Black chairs give a modern spin on an old classic

5) Will coordinate with our antique buffet

6) Under $1,000

Of all places, we ordered it from Sam's Club. And since it's an online only item, I haven't seen it in person which makes me a little bit nervous. It should arrive next week. Hope to post real photos soon after we get it all set up.

It's Elementary

A huge pet peeve of mine is grammatical ignorance. I can understand and overlook an occasional typo. Everyone has a moment. I am not going to pretend to be the grammar expert, but I cringe at the misuse of the words "I" and "me" in a sentence. Isn't this one of those grammar rules we all learned in first grade? Okay, maybe it's more like 5th grade, but as adults, that gives us quite a few years of practice to ace this rule. I have read countless blogs over the past few weeks that have contained errors around the use of I and me. (No worries, none of the offenders are Phaneroo followers because you guys are totally brilliant!) For the rest of the blogging community out there, let's review an easy way to remember how to properly use I and me:

Correct uses:
I went to the park.
He went to the park with me.
He and I went to the park.

Incorrect uses:
Me and him went to the park.
(Remove him, which by the way is also incorrect, and the sentence would read like this: "Me went to the park." Silly, right?)
He went to the park with Sue and I.
(Remove Sue and the sentence would read like this: "He went to the park with I." Again, very silly.)

So to all the bloggers out there, let's all promise to review our grammar rules; and, at the very least, get this one right. It's elementary, my dear Watson. Elementary.

Penny for the Arts

Check out Penny4arts.com for some local (Knox County) arts and culture events that your student can attend for just one penny. Pretty nifty and thrifty!

Trouble Justifying

Now about 3 weeks into the furniture hunt - dining room table/chairs and two twin beds - and I'm getting so dissappointed. Maybe it's because I've never really had to purchase "nice" furniture before. I've been the recipient of many very nice antiques (given to me free of charge), all of which are solid wood, no particle board to be found, and constructed with dovetailing and hidden hardware (no visible bolts and screws and glue). So now I'm going to all these furniture stores and seeing particle board, veneers (not like antique veneers, more like cheap wallpaper to look like wood), visible bolts, gaps and sags, and very little real wood. But then I find a real solid wood piece and it's suddenly way out of budget. I just can't justify the cost - I'm too frugal. It's ironic to me that I'm trying to match this very old piece (a circa 1890 - 1900's sideboard*) to something new. And even though the sideboard is considerably "distressed" I'm trying to buy something new that looks like something old. But then the price goes up for extra antiquing and distressing. Ha! Perhaps my kids could take care of that process.

I did find one very awesome table at Bliss Home (they don't have a photo on their site otherwise I'd give you a link). The table was made of reclaimed wood and the legs were made of reclaimed wood windows. It was a piece of art, but the price tag reflected it. Yesterday I made rounds to about half-a-dozen thrift stores hoping to score big. Nada! I just don't have time to hit the thrift stores often enough. Thrifting is an artform that requires time (and probably not 3 1/2 kids in tow). There's one more used furniture store I want to visit. It's usually packed full of junk and hidden treasures. By the time I got there yesterday the rain was really coming down hard and the parking is on the street near the homeless shelter. The homeless men and women were converging upon all the buildings with coverings and awnings in order to seek shelter. That was heartbreaking to see as I stayed dry in BJ's luxury sedan...which leads me to another reason why I'm having trouble justifying the cost of new furniture...I was reminded so vividly yesterday that so many people have absolutely nothing but the clothes on their backs.

So the hunt continues. Next week I'll be spending some time on Craigslist and seeing if I happen upon something newishly old, affordable, well-loved, and durable.

* The sideboard has been in my mom's family for a long time. Just from the looks of it, and after asking a furniture builder, it appears to be made of several different types of hard woods, but not sure which ones other than oak.

Summertime Poll

The campaign for Governor is heating up here in TN, but I want to get to the real issues of the summer. Take my poll (in the sidebar to your right) just for fun. Issues we will be getting to the bottom of...

1. Seedless vs. Seeded Watermelon


2. Lipton vs. Luzianne Tea


3. Sweet vs. Unsweet


4. Sunscreen vs. Tanning Oil


5. Pool vs. Beach


6. Bike Ride vs. Boat Ride


7. Lazy Saturdays vs. Action-Packed Saturdays


8. Fescue vs. Bermuda


9. Water vs. Sports Drink


10. Chasing Fireflies vs. Chasing Butterflies

I'd love to hear your responses. Vote now and come back in a few days for a new poll.

Blog Props

I wanna take a minute to give props to some blogger friends/family out there.

Heather of the Hills (my sister-in-law) just started an Etsy store selling her adorable crochet hats. I am the recipient of many of these creations - one in particular always gets me lots of compliments. And she has made one for each of my babies. I love them! They make great baby gifts or grown-up gifts.


I love Red Hair (and who doesn't?) makes cutie-tutie hair bows, and all sorts of unique hair accessories for little girls, but I bet big girls could wear them too. I love her fabric flowers! I Love Red Hair came to our area when she and her husband were called to minister to folks in and around our 'hood.


Excelsior Praise! just started a blog. Welcome, Excelsior Praise! I will be following you and seeking you for homeschool words of wisdom.

Sick, Sick, Sick and Sick!

The three kids and I are sick. It has hit Griffin the hardest. I took him to the doctor yesterday morning when he was having trouble breathing. He was diagnosed with RSV. I'm sure that's what the rest of us have too, but in children older than 2 it just acts like a bad cold. Everyone around here is crank-y! Thank goodness for snow days and Grandmama. Grandmama stopped by here when school was let out early for snow and picked up Lily. Lily hasn't been 100% either, but her symptoms have been the mildest and she has tons of energy to spare. She will be having a fun time sleeping over at Grandmama and Granddad's house so that I can devote more time between Schaeffer and Griffin. Schaeffer is congested and coughing, but he is still a champ and playing like usual. He has his moments when he begins to whine and get cranky and needs a little TLC from Momma. Griffin, on the other hand, is pitiful. He whimpers a lot, which is breaking my heart. He has a nebulizer and gets breathing treatments every 6 hours. Those, and Tylenol, seem to help him get comfy for a little bit to rest. I'm just praying that we get through this with no additional complications.

Two New Favorite Places

I found these blogs recently, and it looks like I'm a little late in finding them since they are both followed by a gazillion people already. Thought I'd share them anyway:

Making It Lovely - I love her style.

Pioneer Woman - She is a funny urban-professional-turned-farmer's wife with four homeschooled children out on a remote farm somewhere. Deep down, I'm a little envious of her. (More on that later).

Naturally Healthy & Not-So-Beautiful

The no-poo method was a complete bust, for me at least. I gave up after 2.5 days, not even 3 full days. My hair felt crispy and oily all at the same time. I knew it was time for a good shampooing. Thank you sodium lauryl sulfates!

I just received some advice to try Tres Semme and White Rain. I cannot remember if I've ever used Tres Semme, but I know I've never tried White Rain. White Rain brings back horrible memories of my 1990's big hair since White Rain was the hair spray brand of choice. But I'm always willing to try something at least once. If White Rain works, compared to my salon products, I'll save about $18 a month. Or if Tres Semme works I'll save about $14 a month. I'll give it a whirl this week.

On the other hand, I LOVE the oil cleansing method. I'm sticking with this method unless my face just totally rejects it and has a complete breakout. My skin actually looks healthier, smoother and it's clean and not oily. The first time I used the oil cleansing method my skin said, "Ahhh! Thank you!" I didn't realize how much I was drying out and probably ruining my skin while trying to rid myself of oily skin. I've since learned that this is completely a wrong way to approach oily skin and I am repenting of my evil ways. Thank you Castor Oil and EVOO!!

Naturally Healthy & Beautiful (and Cheap!)

Every single time, about once per month, I'm standing in the health/beauty aisles in the discount retail store feeling guilty for my desire to purchase the $29.99 shampoos and $16.99 facial cleansers that come in 2 oz bottles and not the $0.99 ones that come in gallon jugs. I've tried repeatedly to use the $0.99 products, and now I have a cabinet full of partially used jugs all because they don't work very well. So in the end I return to the store to buy the shampoo that costs $19.99 because it works relatively better than the $0.99 but cheaper than the $29.99 ones. My expectations for a shampoo that costs more than $20 is way too high. It should be a bottled miracle. I haven't found that yet. So, just for fun, I decided to try a technique called no-poo. It's going shampoo free and only uses all-natural ingredients (three to be exact and one of those is water). It's supposed to help retain your natural moisture and reduce hair washings. And while I was researching no-poo, I came across a blog that spoke about the oil cleansing method for facial cleansing. I was instantly intrigued. What?! Wash away oil and makeup with oil? That's ground-breaking!

So as soon as BJ returned home today from work, I whisked out the door to head to the grocer to obtain my beauty products: castor oil, safflower oil (they didn't have sunflower seed oil and sunflower and safflower sounded close enough), EV olive oil, coconut oil, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar. I'm sure the cashier thought I had some really unhealthy eating habits, and the castor oil was probably the clencher (castor oil is best known as a natural laxative).

Today has been my first day with these "new" products and I promise to report back on my findings after a trial period. I started with the following recipes, but I bet they'll need to be tweaked as I go.

No-poo recipe: 1 T baking soda mixed in 1 cup water. I cheated and just poured about 1 T baking soda into my palm, wet it in the shower and then massaged it onto my scalp and hair. I let it sit for the duration of my shower...don't know why but thought it couldn't hurt. Then, after I rinsed it out with water I did the recommended rinse with 1 T apple cider vinegar in 1 cup water. I followed these directions because I didn't want to end up smelling like a pickle. And then I went an additional step and conditioned with cocunut oil. If you don't know, cocunut oil comes in a solid form but turns to a liquid when it heats up. I let it sit under the running water while I showered and by the end of my shower it was liquified.

The oil cleansing recipe: Blend 30% Castor Oil with 70% Safflower Oil (Sunflower Seed Oil or EV Olive Oil is recommended) , massaged onto my face, and then placed a warm, wet washcloth across my face to let the steam and water remove the excess.

So far I have nothing exciting to report. The oil cleansing method was surprising in that my face didn't feel like an oil slick afterwards. It actually felt clean and moisturized. And for the hair, I will probably not condition with cocunut oil as it's not weightless and it just made my thick, limp hair seem even limper. Only time will tell if these products work in the long haul. I'm skeptical.

Crazy Praise!

You wanna know why I've been praising God like crazy for the past 2 days? Check this out.

Construction Zone - Unzoned

Earlier this week BJ and I pulled the plug on the new house venture. I'll just say this...things began to get complicated with the sellers and we decided to walk away. We felt it was God's way of leading us in a different direction. Until we know what direction we are to take next, we are happy to be staying in our current home.

Snow Day - February 2

Schaeffer's first snow...

Lily's first snow in a very long time...

Furniture Assembly, Change, Etc.

BJ has put together a lot of furniture in our history together. Four years ago, all of Lily's baby furniture came in boxes. And then when Schaeffer was due, we were given another crib which Lily now uses and Schaeffer uses her first set. This donated crib also came disassembled. All of Griffin's furniture is arriving in boxes disassembled. The kids received an activity table this past Christmas disassembled. And we've moved five times in our 10 years of marriage. A lot of our furniture was disassembled and reassembled in one day. BJ definitely has plenty of experience assembling furniture in our home. One thing that never fails, the pieces never fit together right and what should only take 30 minutes turns into a 3-hour project. But, my man never gives up - he perseveres and gets the job done. Because of him we have one piece of Griffin's furniture put together and in place. Maybe in a few more weeks the rest of the pieces will come together and I can begin posting some photos.

We are still encouraging Lily to give up her crib. Last night she was so close to letting it go. She was excited about the idea of getting her crib moved out and a new desk for her coloring supplies moved in. And then in the last minute, she freaked out and changed her mind. BJ was just seconds away from totally dissassembling her crib before the reality set in and Lily realized the crib was going to be gone forever. One thing is for sure, Lily does NOT like change. I think she likes the "idea" of change but realistically she cannot handle change. So for now, with big change on the horizon for everyone in our home, we will keep as many things the same as possible for Lily and Schaeffer.

Check Out This Website

I wanted to help promote my friend's new business and his new website. His name is Jon Matthews, jonSpot Photography. He did our photo session this fall. He and his wife make a great photo team. Please check out his website and contact him when you need photos. His work is amazing!

Family Photo Session with jonSpot

Check out the beautiful work done by jonSpot Photography. We really enjoyed our photo session with Jon and his very sweet wife, Amy. She is great at getting big smiles from the kids. And Jon's photos are amazing pieces of art. We will definitely be asking him for more photo sessions in the near future, probably in April or May 2009 for our newest addition.

Countdown to Olympics 2008, Beijing

If you missed the Olympics opening ceremony - possibly intentionally in protest of China's human rights - you still must see this video displaying the most impressive beginning to an Olympic opening ceremony ever done. Totally awe-inspiring!