Monthly Archives: January 2014

Together Up the Shore

Is there anything better than tucking away somewhere hidden with your love? How about if it’s in the middle of the week, out of cell range, without internet or TV, in the middle of a snow storm? Ahh, lovely. That’s exactly what Pete and I were able to do recently when a friend stayed with the kids and we headed up the shore.

Snow along Lake Superior

We stayed for two nights at a small lodge along Lake Superior, not far from Grand Marais and the Canadian Boarder.

Cascade Lodge on Lake Superior

The lodge was old and cozy with a big fireplace in the family room where we sat for hours talking to visitors from all over the country.

Pete at Cascade Lodge

There was also a pretty fantastic game room in the basement. It’s fun to play like kids when our own kids are with someone else.

Ang at Cascade Lodge

Snack, anyone?

Old Vending Machine

While we were cozy inside, it snowed and snowed and snowed. It was perfect.

Snow along Lake Superior

The snow did eventually stop, of course. When it did, we walked next door to a little pub and restaurant. Their walleye was amazing. Pete and I ate under the watchful eye of this big guy.

Cascade Lodge on Lake Superior

After two days, we drove back to Duluth, caught an afternoon movie, and went home to cuddle our babes. Two days away with my love. I can’t wait to do it again.

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A few of you have asked about the progress of our sweet Beatrice – the vintage camper we’re working on. (If you missed our introduction post of our camping adventures, click here.) Beatrice is currently at a local camper shop getting a little work done. She needs some electrical parts replaced and a few spots patched in the roof. She’s also getting a new dinette installed since the old table didn’t actually belong with her and, therefore, wouldn’t turn into an additional bed. We pulled out all the mattresses and curtains before she left us, and we’ll soon be working with a local shop to have the them all remade (they were gross!). They’ll also be recovering the dinette cushions to match our vision for the inside, which means they’ll likely end up red. Once we get her back and the weather warms up a little (which is practically unimaginable in the bitter cold), we’ll paint her inside and out and start the fun decorating! I can’t wait for that! I’m thinking we may go primarily red and aqua inside with vintage postcards and maps of Lake Superior. Good thing we’ve got some great antique shops around here! I’ll be sure to post pictures of my antiquing and thrifting treasures as they are discovered. We can’t wait to go camping!

our vintage camper

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What’s the weather like where you are? It’s frigid here! I may make a cup of chai and imagine I’m back in Kenya, where we were exactly one year ago. If you could go anywhere right now, where would you go?

Stay warm!

 


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{inspired} Oatmeal Alphabet Search

oatmeal alphabet search - perfect indoor activity for preschoolers!

We’re more than used to cold weather in northern Minnesota, but what we’ve been experiencing the last few weeks has been pretty amazing. Since we’ve already had a couple canceled school days due to the cold this month, I wanted to think of something new and fun to keep Ella busy. I scanned the shelves of the pantry, hoping something would catch my eye. There I discovered two big packages of oatmeal. Perfect! I knew exactly what I would make.

oatmeal alphabet search - perfect indoor activity for preschoolers!

I washed a big, shallow container from our storage room and dropped in a bunch of plastic letters.

oatmeal alphabet search - perfect indoor activity for preschoolers!

Just before revealing the bin to Ella, I made a list of the letters on a piece of card stock. One by one, Ella looked for the letters, excitedly showing off each as she pulled them out of the oats. She spent at least an hour with her oatmeal box while I cleaned and folded laundry. Great for both of us. We may be pulling it out again tomorrow. It looks like the schools around us have already canceled classes for tomorrow. Maybe we’ll be next!

oatmeal alphabet search - perfect indoor activity for preschoolers!

Are you experiencing unique, winter weather where you are? What are you doing to stay warm or to keep your kids busy indoors? I’m definitely looking for ideas!


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Christmas in January

Just this past weekend, we had the joy of spending time with Nana & Papa Olsen and Auntie Kristin. We absolutely love when they visit! Ella affectionately refers to them as “Nana & Papa with no puppies.” This has been the easiest way for her to distinguish between my parents and Pete’s. It’s pretty adorable when she says it. During their visit, we were able to celebrate Christmas, something that didn’t work in December. I thought it was fun to extend the holidays, and I don’t mind Ella and Sam spreading their gift receiving out a bit. Here is a little peek at our Olsen Family Christmas – in January…

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Getting a peek inside Sam’s gift.

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I don’t want Sam to ever outgrow his little sweater. One of my very favorite thrift store finds!

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New presents certainly deserve kisses.

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A happy girl in her Christmas dress. I’m pretty sure she’s going to wear that dress until it falls to pieces! That’s fine with me since I picked it up off the free swap table at my Mops group a couple months ago.

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Ella absolutely adores her Auntie Kristin!

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Books with Nana. Such a treat.

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I love watching these two together.

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See? Adorable.

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And as long as we’re still on the topic of Christmas, I wanted to make sure to capture a couple pictures of our dining room Christmas tree. Yes, we have two trees in rooms that are side-by-side. It makes it feel very festive! This is Pete’s tree because each of those beautiful, white ornaments was made my his godmother while he was growing up. We covered the tree and still had many remaining.

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The ornaments are absolutely something we’ll be packing for Africa. That way, I can create a wintery feel in 80-degree weather by hanging long strings of the snowflakes tied together with fishing line. It was be our little taste of snow.

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Speaking of Africa, I will soon have an update on the progress we’re making to get there as well as an introduction to the amazing family we’ll be traveling with. I can’t wait for you to meet them!

Have a wonderful weekend!

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 a small collection of this week’s favorite photos taken on my phone

Collage

 


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{inspired} to celebrate St Valentine’s Day

We finally took down our Christmas tree yesterday, so I’ve been doing a little decorating for Valentine’s Day. I don’t usually do much, but I like to have a few things on the mantle and the kitchen window sill for each season. I needed a little inspiration and started thinking back to what I’ve done in the past when I remembered our Valentine party two years ago.

For our first ever Valentine’s Day party, Pete and I invited a few couples over, hired a babysitter for the wee ones, and had a Valentine’s party in Paris. Well, Paris in northern Minnesota. We used our imaginations.

A beautiful Valentine's party that feels like old Paris!  themangomemoirs.com

I made a few decorative pieces to hang from the ceiling that were made completely of cupcake papers. I tend to have a lot of those around. You can find the tutorial and a whole lot of other fun ideas on my Pinterest Valentine board.

A beautiful Valentine's party that feels like old Paris!  themangomemoirs.com

I also made a raspberry rose cake, though we ended up sending it home with our friends in to-go boxes since we were so filled with fondue!

A beautiful Valentine's party that feels like old Paris!  themangomemoirs.com

I keep this mannequin in the corner of our dinning room, changing it every couple months. I often have a cute pink, half apron my great grandma made. For the party, I decorated it with old jewelry from my grandma and vintage postcards. Here’s the secret for finding perfect postcards for decorating: make your own! If I get a chance, I’ll whip up a little tutorial of how to make them. They are very easy and add a great touch for parties or simple seasonal decorations.

A beautiful Valentine's party that feels like old Paris!  themangomemoirs.com

Looking back, I see I didn’t do much to the mantle. I tend to have the mantel as a center piece now, and change it about once a month just by rotating decorations like picture frames and candles from the nearby bookshelves. I did make a small sort of bunting using a piece of twine and miniature clothespins.

A beautiful Valentine's party that feels like old Paris!  themangomemoirs.com

Around both the dining room and living room, I hung strings of paper doilies, which I still have hanging in the dining room. These are incredibly simple and inexpensive to make. Cut a string the length of your window or hanging space and fold various sizes of paper doilies in half over the string. Use a little glue to secure the two halves together, and you’re finished! I’ve hung the bunting for Valentine’s Day, Ella’s birthday parties, my sister-in-law’s wedding shower, and at Christmas. (Paper doilies can be found at craft stores in the baking section.)

 

A beautiful Valentine's party that feels like old Paris!  themangomemoirs.com

For beverages, we served champagne and sparkling cider with a strawberry. The sparkling cider was quite necessary as I believe four of the five of us women were either pregnant or nursing. I was pregnant with Sam at the time! While we were sipping and dipping our fondue, we read the story of how Valentine’s Day first came about. I had never heard the actual story! (find it here – the first section)

A beautiful Valentine's party that feels like old Paris!  themangomemoirs.com

Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of the actual fondue since I was so involved with conversation and eating as soon as the fondue was ready. But here’s the bread. I’ll let you just imagine the cheese fondue. While looking for recipes, I came across a fun fondue tradition, or so that’s what the story said. Apparently, if someone drops their bread or fruit or dessert into the fondue pot, they have to kiss the person next to them. Of course, we just stuck with significant others, which added a little fun to the party.

A beautiful Valentine's party that feels like old Paris!  themangomemoirs.com

We followed the cheese with an incredible dark chocolate fondue. Yum. Yum. Yum.

A beautiful Valentine's party that feels like old Paris!  themangomemoirs.com

Basically the entire party centered around eating at the dining room table. It was wonderful. We had hoped to make it an annual event, but so far it doesn’t look like that will be happening. Not yet, at least. Last year we celebrated the holiday with all of our new missionary friends and a big pot luck on a basketball court outside the hospital in Kenya. This year, I’ll be in Arizona with my mom for the week. Kinda sad I’ll be missing Valentine’s Day with my little lovies…and the man of the house…but I’m looking forward to a short getaway. We’ll make this party happen again, eventually, even if we’re in Africa when we do!

Do you have any Valentine traditions? I think I should start one or two this year since Ella is at a good age for that now. I’d love to hear your ideas in the comment section below!


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Photo Friday

This week, Sam got a new hat!

 

Sam's Hat 2

 

What a video of Sam in his new hat by clicking here!

 

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I also took the kids bowling with my sister and her girls.

 

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{inspired} To Get Organized

organizing tips that really work! - The Mango Memoirs   themangomemoirs.com

Yet again, I am surrounded by heaps and heaps of stuff. Didn’t I just clean this room? And I’m not talking like I cleaned it at the beginning of the week. I mean, didn’t I clean it this morning? How in the world is everything spilling out around me again? All I can say is that once upon a time, I was organized. And then I entered junior high, and I’m pretty sure I haven’t felt all together organized since.

This feeling of not ever being quite all the way organized is something I want to overcome this year. My Pete was incredibly organized when I met him. Well, that may be an understatement. The first time I was hanging out at his house before we were dating was for a big Friday night dinner he used to have with a group of about 30 random people every other week. (It’s true. He would start talking to the guy who sold him his phone and invite him over for dinner along with the guy he met at the gym and a few other people from church and others from work. I met some cool people at those dinners.) Anyway, he asked me to grab something out of his linen closet, and when I did, I was shocked. Was this not supposed to be a single guy’s bachelor pad? Apparently I was mistaken because on each shelf, he had bottles of cleaning solution lined up so each label was clearly visible, pencils perfectly resting side-by-side, and tubes of Chapstick organized by height. He eventually threw in the towel on converting me to sublime organization. Over time we accumulated more stuff and had a couple kids and now I’m pretty sure he believes it’s an absolutely hopeless concept. But it’s not!

I am beyond tired of spending 30 minutes looking for something that I’m pretty sure I saw somewhere yesterday. I don’t want to continue to cover my dining room table with piles of incoming mail because I don’t have a system of what to do with it after it gets opened. And I am over feeling anxious when peeking into a closet or a room because of its chaotic state. I know there is help to be found, and I want it now.

In search of some organization inspiration over the weekend, I went right to the expert ideas on Pinterest, as I usually do. I’ve been gathering ideas for a few months and pinning them in my Organize & Simplify board, but I took it further and went from site to site to actually learn how to do some of the tips. I was specifically looking for ideas that might actually be do-able. (I know I’m not the only one who sees most of the stuff on Pinterest and thinks, “There’s no way I have time or money for that!”) I found some really great ideas! So, here are a few of the tips and tricks I’ve found that I’ve either already tried with success or that I think are realistic in my house. Maybe they will work in yours, too!

 

1. Command Center: I created a command center in the corner of our kitchen last spring. It’s been tremendously helpful for quickly filing important papers that will later be transferred to our large filing cabinet. It’s also a place I can put mail as it comes in instead of leaving it on the table.

Kitchen-Command-Center

from Lovely Crafty Home

2. Kids’ Toys: This is another tip I’ve tried, though I’d like to organize even more of the crafts and toys like this.

kids toys

from A Bowl Full of Lemons

 

3. Pantry: I recently went through my pantry with a few red, wire baskets I found in the dollar section at Target. It just feels good to open it up and know exactly where everything is and actually be able to see it all.

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from Better Homes and Gardens

 

4. Shoe organizer: I love these clear shoe organizers for sorting in a small space. I have two hanging on doors in our basement. One is filled with my office stuff and the other is filled with Ella’s crafty stuff. I’ve used them for a couple years. Super helpful!

50-Genius-Storage-Ideas-all-very-cheap-and-easy-Great-for-organizing-and-small-houses.13

source unknown

 

5. Linen closet: Clear bins and baskets have transformed our linen closet. I don’t have ours labeled, but perhaps that day will come.

linen2

from Ask Anna

6. Car trash: I am awful when it comes to keeping my car clean. I can blame it on the kids, but it’s way more my fault than theirs. A few months ago I tried this little trick and have managed to keep the garbage on the floor to a minimum! I empty it at the gas station when I’m filling up. It’s a cereal container and I use a plastic produce bag inside.

Car Recycling

from Better Homes and Gardens

7. Tips & Motivation: Organization Junkie is FILLED with organizational tips. I feel super motivated when I visit her site. I’m hoping to actually work through her 52 Weeks of Organizing.

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from Organization Junkie

 

There are times I get super motivated to clean & organize, but sometimes, by the time I get the kids in bed, the feeling has left. Because of that, I’m determined to work on getting organized a little bit every week either during naps or while Ella’s at school. I do LOVE being organized, but sometimes it’s a challenge!

Do you feel organized? What’s your favorite organizational tip? Leave a comment below! Your ideas might really help this house of mine!

A Little R & R linky party!

Also linked at A Group Look


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