One of the reasons I fell in love in our house was the yard. Our neighborhood is a suburban neighborhood that was built and planned 40 years ago. So while many of the houses started off the same, over the years additions and changes have made each house a little different.

One of the main benefits of living in an older development is that we have sidewalks, mature trees, and larger lots of land.

While our house is adequately sized (only about 1800 square feet), the yard is enormous. We have about 3/4 of an acre and the house is situated on a corner lot with a bit more space than our neighbors. This is both wonderful and terrible.

We love having a yard the kids can play in. I love to garden in the yard (when I can find time). It’s also kind of awesome to be in the middle of everything but feel like we’re a bit secluded.

However, the previous homeowners were an elderly couple. The husband passed away, and the wife moved into a home. The house sat untouched (and not maintained) for a long time. While they loved to garden, and especially had passion for trees, the landscape was pretty overgrown when we moved in. We had trees that butted up against both rear corners of the house, as well as a line of arborvitae (more pine trees) that cut the yard in half.

The previous owners were obviously going for privacy, and planted trees, shrubs, and plants along the three borders of our backyard along with those trees that were close to the house.

The trees closest to the house were removed right after we moved in for safety reasons. It was helpful that we had received the funds to do so from the seller. We also removed the trees that cut the yard in half. Again they were too close to the house, and a danger to our home so they had to go.

Over the last 5 years though we’ve done some work to improve things it was a huge challenge. Many of the pants were gorgeous specimens, but placed too close together (especially the trees) so that they weren’t healthy.

As much as I tried to right things after living with it for so long we knew it was time to make a change, so we decided to drastically ‘reset’ our backyard with some professional help.

I contacted a local tree company, (Harlan Tree Service) and they offered me a great day rate for tree work and clearing the many shrubs at the back of our lot.

When we arrived home from our vacation they had worked on one side of the yard already, so we were stunned to come home to many of our giant trees being gone. Over the next few days the crew came back to remove the rest of the plant ‘clutter’ from our yard including tons of trees, bushes, and more.

I’ve been digging around for some before shots, but the best I could find are these snow pictures below. That tells you how much I loathed it! I never took pictures of the landscape there.

Upon moving in we removed an above ground pool in the circular area in the middle of the backyard and eventually loaded that area with dirt and grass. Additionally we added a bridge for the kids to get up and down from the hill to the flat area below as well as using some old tree stumps as ‘stepping stumps’ for a fun natural play area.

In this photo you can see a large tree on the left as well as several pine trees, and a variety of shrubs. To the right the property is lined with more pines, a crabapple tree that’s way too crowded, and so much more.

This photo is a bit farther to the left and you can see an additional tall tree, pines, and more peeking out of the corner. Not pictured are the far right and left where there were even more pine trees!

Here’s how the yard looked after the trees were gone. Keep in mind the trees that were removed were either diseased, reaching the end of their lifespan, and/or were too close to the other trees.

In addition to the tree removal we got rid of a few of other things including:

• the painted wood ‘bridge’ we made from an old deck for the pool that used to be in the yard
• the tree ‘stepping stumps’ that were beat up from 5 years of use
• the carpeted patio (more on that below)
• a small deck from our dining room that went nowhere (we called it the “Juliette” deck)

Removing these things was a process that happend over several days-the main part being the patio.

Here is a shot of the right side of the yard with the trees still in and the horrible patio that’s carpeted. (who does that???)

The ‘patio’ area was carpeted over (outdoor carpet, but STILL) but covered in dirt and moss and coming up in spots. The carpet covered a inch thick layer of concrete (that crunched when you walked on it) over rectangular brick pavers.

I’m not exactly sure why you’d add concrete to brick pavers or carpet over it, but I image it went through several incarnations before becoming the mess it was when we moved in.

While the carpet looked fine for the first two years it became obvious over time that it needed to go. I spent several days this week yanking up the stinky carpet, digging up brick pavers, and collecting concrete pieces.

It’s satisfying though to have that eyesore gone!

Still on our backyard reset to do list:

• Find a home for the brick pavers.
• Clean up shrubs and ground cover, and rake areas to remove debris.
• Use a tiller to make way for more grass areas. We figure that adding grass will be the easiest option while we assess what we want to do with the yard in the long-term.
• Remove the ‘sun porch’ from the back of the house. The roof slant isn’t safe, and it is falling apart slowly.  

We hope to have grass take over those areas by the Fall, and have a more detailed landscape plan, as well as having all the debris and extra junk gone from the yard.. Additionally we’re considering deck and patio options as well as plants, fences, and more. Most of that will happend later (in phases) but we’re considering a ‘starter deck’ or steps to use to exit the dining room to our backyard.

I absolutely love demolotion phase of remodeling, so I’m a happy camper right now.

What projects are you working on right now?

Kelly

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

My heart aches for the people of Oklahoma this morning. I’m sending prayers and love to Oklahoma, and will be making a donation to the Red Cross. There are other organizations that are on the ground helping as well, and you can find more information at the links below.

How can you help tornado victims?
Type-A Parent has a list of ways you can help tornado victims.

NBCNews offers more ways you can help.

Oklahomans need monetary donations to disaster relief organizations that are on the ground. Collections of old clothing and other items are not recommended at this time.

If you have other ideas about ways to help, or organizations that are on the ground, please share in the comments.

My heart is with the people of Oklahoma.

Kelly

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

Well, hello! It’s been two weeks off of meal planning for our vacation, and it’s been fun to take a break from planning and cooking all our meals. Disney fed us well, and by far my favorite meals were spent eating and drinking my way around Epcot. As part of the Flower & Garden Festival there were stands set up with a variety of food and drinks at affordable prices. (Many under $5)

Sadly this week is back to the real world and meal planning. Though realistically my waistline couldn’t handle much more vacation food!

This weekend is a holiday weekend as well, so we’ll be enjoying some of our summer favorites, and I plan to keep it simple since we’re working on a big project in the backyard (more details soon!).

Learn to meal plan and save thousands of dollars each year with my repeating meal plan which includes free printables like a year-long menu plan, grocery list and more on the Centsible Printables page.

Monday: Perfect chicken,, kale chips (these are totally addictive!), and fruit salad.

Recipes: Perfect Chicken Breasts.

Tuesday: Taco night!

Recipes: Taco beef recipe, Easy Guacamole Recipe.

Wednesday: Pancakes and bacon with a side of fruit salad.

Recipes: Organic pancake recipe.

Thursday: Homemade pizzas and spinach salad.

Recipes: Homemade pizza dough, gluten-free pizza.

Friday: Appetizer night. A fun way to end our week.

Saturday: Clean out the fridge night.

Sunday: Hamburgers, hot dogs, watermelon, fresh corn on the cob, and a big green salad with strawberries.

What’s on your menu this week?

Kelly

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

Gel manicures are extremely popular, and when I asked friends and readers all were eager to share the benefits of the process. Many claimed it lasted two to three weeks, and nearly everyone agree the gel finish meant that chipping was minimal.

Note: I have edited this article to reflect that the process I paid for was a gel manicure, not shellac per Julie’s comment below. I guess I need to try shellac now too!

Most friends I spoke to said it wasn’t worth it all the time, but that for special events or vacations gel manicures far outlast regular manicures.

To start let’s talk nail care. I don’t regularly get manicures and pedicures because the cost is prohibitive. I didn’t even have my first mani/pedi until my sister was married (that means I didn’t for my own wedding either).

Many nail aficionados and readers have extolled the benefits of home manicures and pedicures for cost-savings. Personally I have no knack for it. My nails come out looking like a 5 year old painted them, so normally I go all-natural and simply trim and file my nails. I get pedicures a few times a year (with a Groupon typically) just to keep the ick off my feet.

Occasionally I get my nails done for conferences, or just for a fun day of pampering. However, it’s not a regular cost I would add to my budget, especially given my lifestyle. Dishes three times a day hardly make nail polish care simple.

When I was prepping for our trip to DisneyWorld for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration I knew I needed a pedicure (my feet have been in boots all winter!) and thought it would be fun to try a gel manicure to see what all the fuss was about. With packing and managing kids I thought it would be a great test of how long gel polish can last.

What’s a gel manicure?
Gel manicures are harder and tougher than regular polish. Available in limited colors (my salon had about 15) the manicurist trims and files your nails like a typical manicure. Next he or she will apply one coat of the gel nail polish. The gel polish is dried under a UV light for a minute or two repeating two to three times.

My manicurist applied polish to my pinky, ring, and middle finger and placed those under the light before moving on to my index finger and thumb. She repeated the process on my other hand and then again for a second coat. Finally she touched up areas that needed it, and I was all set! No waiting to dry.

The gel polish is meant to last two weeks (or more) and you pay more for gel manicures because of this unique feature.

Here they are on Day One.

How much is it?

I didn’t have any discounts, Groupons, etc. so I paid full price $45 plus tip. Prices vary widely even in my area, but look for a reputable nail salon with great ratings from customers.

Health Concerns?

There have been concerns raised over gel manicures in terms of the UV light exposure, the application process, and more. The main concerns are: concerns about skin cancer risk from the UV lights, damage to nail beds, and nail infections. I found conflicting opinions on both, but I think it’s safe to say that you should proceed with caution, and it shouldn’t be a regular thing until more is known about the health concerns.

Gel Polish Removal

Getting the polish off isn’t as simple as a regular manicure, and there have been concerns that it can damage your nails if it’s not done properly. I have yet to take it off, but I’m debating the DIY approach versus heading back to the salon to get a professional to take off my polish.

Is Gel Polish Worth the Cost?

I’m now on day 9 of my manicure and I can safely say it wasn’t worth the cost for me. My nails grow extremely fast so the gap under the polish is too obvious. While the tops and most edges have held up under all the luggage carting, hand-holding, typing, ticket-swiping, swimming, and more that I’ve done I’d prefer the regular polish since I could have removed it 6 days ago.

The verdict?

While I prefer painted nails, chipping is a problem for me. It often happens the say I get a manicure! I am terrible at DIY manicures, so I think I’ll stick to au natural most of the time and the occasional (regular) manicure when it’s necessary. After all I can always get my girls to do touch-ups for me since they do a better job at manicures than I do!

What’s your take? Are you a DIY mani-er? Do you love gel polish? Do you prefer all natural nails?

Kelly

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

Yesterday was a truly magical day. I’ll share more about how we surprised the kids soon, but they were BEYOND thrilled that we were in the car before they knew that we were heading to DisneyWorld. After spending a night in a hotel near the airport Wednesday night the kids went down to breakfast and were shocked to find their Nana and Poppy waiting for them!

We arrived early in the morning at DisneyWorld on Thursday morning, check into the hotel and the conference, took a peek at our AMAZING rooms, and then headed out to the parks. We rode some amazing rides, we ate some amazing food, and then we headed back to the hotel once everyone was grumpy to hit the pool.

Last night I attended an opening night ceremony, and then the families joined us for dinner, dessert, and fireworks at Epcot.

I’ll share more photos in details in my wrap-up, but here’s a sneak peek at Day One with Disney’s new Story app which allows you to combine photos, videos, text, and more to create your own stories out of everyday moments.

Kelly

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

We are in Orlando, Florida for a magical time. While I’ll be sharing some via twitter, Facebook, and Instagram –content on the blog will slow down as I take time to attend a conference and have a much-needed family vacation.

I was invited to attend Disney Social Media Moms conference (you can follow the fun on twitter using #DisneySMMoms), and I am thrilled that we were not only able to bring the whole family as well as my parents, but we’re also extending our stay through next week!

I can’t wait to share the magic with you, and what tips and tricks we learn on our trip.

In the meantime you can watch this video of my crazy packing technique.

To view the video if you cannot see it embedded, click here.

Kelly

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

Summer is just around the corner, and Mother’s Day is even closer. Now that the sun is shining and daylight saving has extended our daylight past dinnertime, we are spending more and more time outdoors. Which means that I’m adding fun pieces to our outdoor entertaining and picnic supplies.

So Dad, are you planning on making handmade Mother’s Day cards with the kids? Well, I’m going to show you how to make a simple, practical craft project with them too that mum is sure to love.

These aren’t just napkin weights though, they can be used as a paperweight, and on the corners of picnic blankets, fabric and wallpaper that tend to curl up at the edges.

What you need:

• A rock
• Scrap pieces of fabric
• Mod Podge
• Scrap pieces of felt
• Scissors

Clean and dry the rock.

Cover one side of the rock in Mod Podge and wrap the piece of fabric tightly around it.

Cover the outside of the fabric that is attached to the rock with Mod Podge. Set aside to dry with the open side down.  Once it is dry, turn it over and glue down all of the loose edges with Mod Podge, and then again, apply Mod Podge to the outside of the fabric too.  Set aside to dry.

Cut out a small circle of felt.  Using Mod Podge attach it over the messy side of the fabric, this will ensure the edges don’t come free.  Again, set aside to dry.

Once dry, place in a box and tie it with ribbon.  Mom is sure to love her handmade Mother’s Day gift, and every time you enjoy a picnic as a family, or entertain outdoors she will be reminded of the special gift that was handmade for her.

I hope all of the mother’s out there have a wonderful Mother’s Day.

Tonya

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

This week’s menu is a little different. Since we’re leaving on vacation soon. I plan to use up as much food as possible in the next few days since I prefer to come home to an empty fridge than a fridge filled with food that’s gone bad.

Additionally, there’s not much to recap from last week since meals did not go as planned. With my youngest coming down with the stomach flu, and then both girls catching it as well it cooking meals took a backseat to nursing care. To be honest it was partly due to my own fear of catching it-so I kept eating foods like apples and rice just in case I came down with it too. (Thankfully I didn’t!)

Looking for an easy way to meal plan? Try my repeating meal plan which includes free printables like a year-long menu plan, grocery list and more on the Centsible Printables page.

Pre-Vacation Meal Plan

Cook all meats or freeze them.
Cook anything that you can eat now. Freeze any leftovers. Freeze anything that needs you can’t cook.

Cook or eat all fresh fruits and vegetables.
We like to cut up all our fresh fruits and veggies. The kids devour them. Anything that needs to be cooked I cook a few days before we leave (like steaming broccoli) and use it up over a few days.

Freeze or use dairy products.
You can freeze milk and milk products as well. We prefer to use the milk and yogurt up with smoothies, milkshakes, and just drinking it up. I also shred cheese and freeze it.

Toss expired or near expiration date condiments.
This is a great time to toss things that are expired, and use up the bottoms of those condiments that have a tiny squeeze or two.

Eat from the pantry.
If you have a stocked pantry like most folks then you can eat from your pantry for a few days with no problem. It’s a great way to use up things you don’t prefer and get rid of things that are expired as well.

Any advice for meal planning when you’re prepping for vacation?

Kelly

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

This week has been ROUGH. The kids have had the stomach flu this week (it started with the 7-year-old, and now the 9 and 11 year olds are recovering). It started while I was away for a girl’s weekend with my mom and sister last weekend. Thankfully my husband is an old pro at dealing with household duties, kid duty, and handled it all with way more grace and less complaints than I could ever manage!

While Aidan got better, we weren’t done. Next Emma got the stomach flu too, and a day later Audrey succumbed. They are still home today. I tried sending Emma back to school since she’s been better for a day and she promptly threw up at her locker. So she’s back home resting again, poor girl.

On top of that my 7-year-old returned to school Wednesday only to hit his face on a pole while he was running in gym class. The pole won. While he didn’t have anything broken (thank goodness!) or a concussion, he had a huge knot in between in his eyes, and lacerations on his nose. Between the stomach flu and his injuries my heart aches every time I look at the kids.

I’m grateful they are getting better in time for our trip next week to DisneyWorld as part of the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, but I’m on nursing duty, so expect the blog to be less active for now.

If you have any spare positive thoughts or healing ‘vibes’ send them our way!

Kelly

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.

If you’ve followed my blog for awhile you know I’m a big fan of finding things at amazing discounts. There’s something about shopping and scoring big that gives me a rush. Since it can be a bit addicted I’m careful to avoid doing it ALL the time, and save my savvy shopping skills for big purchases.

One of the best ways to save on some of the big purchases in your life have been outlined before on the blog, like how to buy a car, but buying furniture is one of the things I love the most.

Our house isn’t meant to be a showplace, however. It’s a place I work, a place we sleep, a place we laugh, a place we eat, and a place where 4 very active kids live. While we have occasional visitors and I’ll share snippets of life here on the blog, the reality is I buy a couch because it’s comfortable enough to sleep on and a dining room table because it’s got enough space for our family and then some.

Several years ago I had an awesome bedroom dedicated to being our office. It had two desks, and our two comfy chairs, storage space and a door. God bless doors when you’re on a conference call and your kids are at home.

Unfortunately, that space got turned back into a bedroom which is for the best for our kids and for when my parents come to visit, but not so happy for me. I made use of one of the desks for awhile, and we tried various solutions without any of them really working well. Working on the couch became a regular thing, and that’s NOT good, well aside from catching up on Real Housewives. (I have a girl crush on Nene after this season.)

When we remodeled the family room (and bought our couch) last year we opted to keep it a mostly toy-free zone. Our kids are beyond needing to have tons of toys everywhere, so it’s not a huge sacrifice for them either. Yes, the kids still play in there, but the main function of that room is to relax, watch TV and movies, read, and enjoy the fireplace. I also use it often to fold our laundry since the laundry room is right off the family room since I always thought TV and folding laundry go together like PB&J.

We had this living room space that was kind of odd. It was half library, half work space, and half play space. You can see how that doesn’t add up, right? The grand plan we hatched a few months ago was to buy a GIANT dedicated table for the living room, beef up our storage and turn it into more of an office/game/craft area, and less of a messy, confusing work and play space.

Part of the change meant making room in all four bedrooms for desks. Since we had two desks on hand I moved the largest one into our boys’ room for them to share. I measured carefully and discovered that my plan to add a desk to our daughter’s closet space got super simple. We already had an Ikea desk that would fit nearly perfectly in her closet!

Next we went out and purchased two additional desks, both also from Ikea. For my older daughter, Emma, we chose the Micke desk from Ikea. She wanted drawer space and we wanted something long and a bit lean, so this fit the bill perfectly. At $89 it was cheap enough that I could stomach the pricetag, and months of thrifting had turned up nothing, so this was worth it to finally get her the desk she wants.

For my bedroom I wanted something simple. It’s not a place to be cluttered or have tons of stuff, just a landing spot for laptops, books, or an iPad when I need to work away from the kids when they are home occupying the living spaces downstairs or I am working late while my husband is watching TV. I picked this tabletop and legs. Yes, the legs were pricey, but I love the way it looks!

Now we were left with creating a space in our living room. In the meantime the kids started using their desks and I worked from the desk in our room.

We eyed up our options including building our own desk, window shopping at tons of stores and online, but we couldn’t figure out exactly what we wanted. We came up with several concepts and layouts for the space, but eventually settled on creating a clutter-free workspace. The concept is to create a distraction-free workspace where a large table would act like a work space. Not a catchall, not a place to leave papers and files, and scattered projects. The kids have their own space for those, and we do most of our work digitally, so all I need is a few organization options on the adjacent shelves to make the space work well and a weekly cleanup to purge all the junk they tend to pile up.

In the end settled on this dining room table from Restoration Hardware both because of the details-we love rustic and industrial mixed with some of the more traditional elements of our 1970 colonial home, and because we knew it would stand up to whatever we (and let’s face it the kids) would throw at it or on it.

The only problem? The pricetag. We are used to spending well under $100 on desks, so biting off a $1295 table with shipping and tax was not going to happen. Instead we took our time saving up credit card points to turn into gift cards, and stalked our local(ish) Restoration Hardware Outlet. We had previously purchased our family room couch from the Outlet as well as curtains, so I knew the quality was perfect, and often there were no notable defects.

The staff at our local RH Outlet is AWESOME. They are always available to answer questions, and informed me I should call in on Tuesdays (when they get shipments) to find out if they had any Flat Iron tables come in since there were none in stock on our last visit. I also left my phone number with them after a recent visit when the associates said they had the PERFECT table in the back (112 inches, zinc finish legs) but no hardware to go with it.

I called back the following Tuesday and they said that the hardware didn’t come on the truck that week (whomp whomp). But one of the sale associates said he could use the hardware from another table and have it ready for us by the end of the day. (WOOHOO!)

112″ is HUGE (10 feet, in case your math is rusty). I folded down the seats in my minivan and did some measuring and by my calculations it would JUST fit. You can probably see where this is going.

I eagerly waited to drive to the outlet (about 35 minutes from us) until they were done, and once my husband was home I drove over to get the table.

It was in PERFECT shape, and I finalized our purchase with tons of gift cards spending about $400 out of pocket. Still a hefty price tag, but this is a piece I know we’ll have forever.

The guys in the back got it all wrapped u pand ready for me to take home, but then they tried to put it in the car. Whomp, whomp. It didn’t fit by a LOT. And silly me I had taken out our bungee cables when I emptied my car out, and the outlet doesn’t provide rope. Oops.

The guys at the RHOutlet however would not give up. They padded the end of the table and used a shrink wrap and lots of it to secure the end of the table to the car. It was like MacGyver meets ninjas or something. I was FREAKED out so I didn’t even bother to take a picture.

Once they were done, I made a plan to drive on a main but less traveled road to our house (once I went 4 miles on a busy highway). It was late at night, FREEZING cold, and the whole time my car was beeping at me for having the liftgate up.

I’m happy to say the table and I survived the trip, but my arm was sore from holding onto the table with one hand while I drove. I drove that way as if I could stop it from falling out with one hand.

It was almost as nerve-wracking as driving our newborns home, only I never worried about them falling out the back.

So while I highly recommend shopping at furniture outlets, you may want to think a bit more before you buy. Or measure better than I do.

Here are some shots of our desk in all its’ glory. Isn’t he handsome?

What adventurous tales of furniture shopping do you have?

Kelly

© 2013, Whalen Media LLC. All rights reserved. To repost or publish, please email Kelly.