New Dresser

As most of you know, Andrew and I are renting right now. Our current lease is up the end of October. So, in an effort to secure our next living quarters, we went and got a tour of an apartment complex in the area that we one day hope to buy in. We loved it and are now on the waiting list. 

Even though our current place is very small, and we are bursting at the seams, we are very blessed with a huge bedroom. Our next place will have more square footage overall, but the bedroom will be much smaller than what we are used to. 

This, we quickly realized, will be a problem. Andrew has this massive dresser. Really, it's too big. Neither of us are terribly fond of it either, but he needs to have a dresser. Because of the size, though, it will not fit in our next place well. So, we donated it to the church rummage sale and started on the hunt for something smaller (and with a bit more shabby chic appeal for me!). 

I follow a number of different antique/shabby chic stores on facebook. One of them is in Holland and is my favorite. They always have something for me! When they posted a picture of a dresser, I knew I wanted it. It looked perfect for what we needed. All I had to do was convince my husband.

And I did!!

(Please don't look at the junk surrounding it. We have limited storage options here.)

It was a great price and small enough to fit in the back of his blazer. 

You know how old books have that great smell, and older antiques, especially the ones made of wood, have that great old smell? This dresser has that smell. We pulled the drawers out to bring it into the house and the smell wafted out. To me, that is one of the best smells on earth. 

Anyway. That's our new dresser and I love it. It couldn't be more perfect!

Oatmeal Molasses Cookies

I didn't grow up eating molasses cookies. I grew up on things like oreos, sugar cookies, and chocolate chip cookies. But, these oatmeal molasses cookies are wonderful. They are quick and easy to make. But beware, if you don't keep an eye on them, they will be gone before you can blink!

        Oatmeal Molasses Cookies

        2 C. Flour

        2 C. Oatmeal

        1 tsp. Baking Soda

        1 tsp. Baking Powder

        1 tsp. Salt

        1 C. Sugar

        3/4 C. Shortening

        2 beaten eggs

        5 T. Light Molasses

        2 tsp. Vanilla

        1/2 C. Raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat sugar and shortening together until smooth and creamy. Mix in eggs, molasses, and vanilla. 

In a separate bowl stir together the flour, oatmeal, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add to the sugar and shortening mixture. Add the raisins. Drop by teaspoon-full onto baking sheet and bake 10-12 minutes or until they start to turn brown. 

(The recipe says to use an ungreased baking sheet, but they tended to stick, so we used a greased sheet the second time around.)

I hope you enjoy them as much as we do!

Spring!

I had to work Sunday morning. As I headed to my car at 3am, I was enjoying the warm weather. My car is parked behind the house, under a big tree. As I got to it, I noticed the first signs of spring. The tree had buds.

Later that day, as Andrew and I got home from church, I saw it again. A sign of spring. 

The first dandelion I've seen this year.

Then, yesterday, a couple flowers opened up on the side of the house. 

Aren't they beautiful? 

I love spring. It is one of my favorite seasons.

Rummage Sale!

Ever couple of year our church youth group goes on a mission trip to Brazil. One of the ways we raise money for it is by having a rummage sale every April. Church member donate a lot of stuff and we set it up in the gym.

Like this:

This isn't even everything. Underneath where I am standing is all the furniture. We get a lot of it. 

As you can imagine, it takes a lot of time and effort to get this all set up and priced. We start on Wednesday night. The youth group gets all the tables set up and brings everything in and placed on the appropriate table. (We get a lot of donations early from people who don't have a place to store it until the week of the sale, so it all goes into the bus garage and has to be carried into the church when we start set-up.)

Since this is to support the youth group, the kids are involved the whole time. They come and help get it all set up and priced. It's a lot of fun.

If you would like to take a look at the man in the center of the photo...

That is Craig, our youth pastor. He's a lot of fun and the kids love him. And doesn't he look fabulous in that dress?

Unfortunately, I had to work Saturday morning when the sale was going on, so I don't have any pictures of that. However, we did sell a lot. Between the rummage sale, the car wash, and the bake sale, we raised a lot of money for this years Brazil trip. 

It's Official!

Andrew and I are adults now. 

We have been sleeping on a futon since we got married. Not the biggest (it's only a full) or most comfortable bed to sleep on, but it worked. He had it when we got married; had been using it as a bed for himself. I only had a twin bed and we didn't have the extra money hanging around to buy a new bed at the time. 

We had planned to look for one this summer or fall. However, some friends of ours just got a new bed and offered their old one to us. We gladly excepted! We gave our sleeper sofa to Andrew sister and put our futon in the living room. (Someday we will get a new couch too!)

This is our new queen bed. It is much taller than we are used to. I almost have to jump to get into bed! The headboard looks black in this picture, but it is actually a dark brown with a touch of a distressed look. 

It took us a while, but in our early thirties we finally have an adult bed!