American Sniper...Don't Miss It

We saw American Sniper yesterday.

Despite all the Hollywood snipes being taken

against it, we were happy we saw it. And proud

of our military who risk, and lose, their lives

every day in the war zones.

My grandmother used to say about war:

"It's a rich man's war but a poor man's fight"

No truer words can be spoken about war in

general and this movie certainly makes it clear.

When you see the movie, be sure to stay until

the very, very end. It's not to be missed.

Don't wait for the video, this is one movie

I can't imagine not seeing on the big screen.



Super Hero To Be

Sitting in Texas with the temperature near 70,

it's hard to imagine what the people in the

Northeast area of the country are going through.

I'm posting this picture to cheer you up a

little and let you know there's one little boy

in Illinois who will someday be available

to rescue you.

Batman, fireman, Thomas the Train...

all rolled up into one little hunk of cute.

Thanks for dropping by today.

Hope this cheers you up a little!

Featured At Mrs. Olson's "Share Your Cup" Party

I'm thrilled Jaysa's closet was featured over at

Mrs. Olson's Share Your Cup party today!

 

Last week, I posted about our trip to help with
the closet's mini renovation.

Here's my "I was featured" pin.



Since my last post, Jaysa has been looking for

material to create a padded top for the bench.

She's also planning to paint the bench with Behr's

Swiss Coffee to match the white trim and said she

painted the walls outside of the closet Hale Navy too.

One tip I wanted to relay...

paint your boards before you put them on the wall!

Jaysa and I wanted to do that, but Wild Bill talked

us into doing it after he attached them to the wall.

We knew better! 

It made painting them so much harder.

You can be sure Jaysa painted the shelf before

it went up. So much easier.

(I'm sure he thought he could convince her to let him stain them)

Be sure to hop over to Mrs Olson's party and see

the other projects she featured in tonight's party.

http://jannolson.blogspot.com/2015/01/share-your-cup-thursday-133.html

Thanks for dropping in!

What We Did On Break

The day after Christmas, we drove up to

Illinois (14 hours) to spend some time with our

middle daughter's family and help them

renovate their heavily used coat closet.

This isn't actually the real "before" as Jaysa and 

Mike had already removed the folding doors and

moved all the winter coats to another closet.

The picture below shows how far we got before

we had to come back home. We call this phase one

as we plan to finish the bottom half next trip up.

We took this old bench up for them to use

temporarily until we can build in a full bench

with room below for more baskets.

Here's some pictures of the work in progress:

 Painting in a small space is always a challenge.

It got even more crowded when Superman

(almost 5) decided to lend us his superpowers

by helping us paint. He soon lost interest after
just 10 minutes of helping put on the second coat.

 Lucky for us, his little sister (18 months) was way

too busy running down the hallway the other way.

 Thankfully, she wasn't that interested

in the work going on at the opposite end!

 Wild Bill (AKA Grampy) installed a

wide board on the top for adult coats and a 

smaller one on bottom for the kid's.

  Above the adult's board, Grampy installed a

shelf wide enough to hold baskets. There was a

gap between them, so we decided to add

some trim to cover the gap.

We weren't able to bring all the tools and

saws we needed to do a perfect job, but

we found we could depend on Lowes and

Home Depot to do basic cuts for us.

 Luckily, Grampy brought his power drill as

Jaysa's wasn't strong enough to install the hooks.

He gave Jaysa a quick lesson on controlling

the speed, and she installed the hooks where

she wanted them.

When Grampy saw this next picture he

thought Jaysa looked really determined to

get those screws in and under his breath

he said "straight in Jaysa, straight in."

  Are you wondering why we didn't paint

everything before putting up the hooks?

 Well...snow and ice was forecasted and we

needed to leave early. In fact, it started

snowing as the hooks were being installed.

 Little Livvie stopped running long enough

to model her hook...

 Here's a shot of the trim all painted.

Lowe's didn't have enough hooks for the sides

of the closet so Jaysa is waiting on them.

On our next trip, we plan to help Jaysa add

more trim at the bottom and top of the boards,

along with building in a permanent bench.

Our daughter seems to have a problem

picking paint colors just like her mama!

Here's a shot of the outside of the closet,

which is in the laundry room:

I've heard Rome wasn't built in a day.

So many colors, so little time...

Here's another look at phase one.

When we got home, Santa Claus ordered

Jaysa her own drill just like Grampy's so

she'll be able to finish the hooks and cover

the top of the old bench, as well as help build
the new bench when the time comes.


The wall color inside the closet is
Benjamin Moore's Hale Navy and the white
is Behr's Swiss Coffee in their paint and primer
mix. The baskets are from IKEA, which we
borrowed from the kid's playroom to use until
Jay finds something she likes better.

Thanks for dropping in!

Find me here:

Dwellings...http://www.dwellings-theheartofyourhome.com/2015/01/amaze-me-monday-94.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheHeartOfYourHome+%28The+Heart+of+Your+Home%29


Mrs. Olson's Share Your Cup...

http://jannolson.blogspot.com/2015/01/share-your-cup-thursday-132.html

When Harry Met Sabra

My grandmother, Sabra, was around 26 when

she married my dirt-poor grandfather Harry

in the early 1900's.

Back then, single ladies of her age were

known as spinsters.

Harry, being a poor cowboy and hired-hand,

must have thought he'd died and gone to heaven

when Sabra agreed to married him. Her wealthy

father gave the newlyweds 100 acres of land.

My dad told me he remembered his father Harry

lighting cigars at poker games with $20 bills.

Surely Harry must have invented the term

 'Easy come, Easy go'

-- and it haunted him all his life.

Harry's mother was an Indian woman,

 (we say Native American now)

and his father was some sort of fur trapper.

Harry was born in a log cabin in the Ozark

Mountains. No birth certificates in that sort

of situation back then.

I wish I had gotten Harry's beautiful dark skin.

Instead I got Sabra's pasty light complexion.

When they argued, Harry called Sabra 

"a flat-headed, Pennsylvania Dutch woman"

One can only imagine what feisty Sabra

called him!

So, I'm setting out to learn more about these

two this year. I have a lot of family stories

and papers, and a few pictures, to help me

with my research.

Have you ever noticed how you can look at

your kids...or even your grandchildren...

and see your ancestors in them?

Thanks for dropping in!

Find me here...

http://jannolson.blogspot.com/2015/01/share-your-cup-thursday-132.html

The Best Pot Pie

I'm sure you've noticed by now

that I have no shame...
But, isn't it sad that my 'best of the best'

is someone else's recipe?

When I bragged to my son-in-law Mike

the other night that I could make a great

Turkey Pot Pie with his leftover turkey

from Christmas,

of course I was depending on someone else

to come through for me.

Mike loved that Turkey Pot Pie so much
he had three helpings then complained
all night that he ate too much.

So Mike...here's the promised recipe:
http://www.stonegableblog.com/the-best-recipes-of-2014/

And, from the bottom of my heart,
thank you Stone Gable Blog
for always sharing your wonderful recipes!

I did change it up a little by using a 13 x 8 pan,
and regular pie crust in a box from the
refrigerated section of the store.

I covered the casserole dish with the pie crust,
then baked it at 375 degrees until the crust
was a light flaky brown.

Thanks for dropping by!