If a woodchuck would chuck wood

I love our adorable old house. I love how big it is and how there are no hallways and the extra farmer's sink and all the other quirky old-house things about it. However, I have never really been completely in love with the all wood paneled kitchen. And since we are just renting the house we can't exactly rip it out or paint over it or anything drastic like that. So we've tried to disguise it with big pictures or large wall fixtures but there's really no hiding that it is covered in wood. So I had a bright idea awhile ago that we should at least take care of the wood-slatted doors that hide our washer and dryer in the kitchen. It would at least break up the solid wood-ness of the kitchen a little. So we reused the head table runner fabric from our wedding and created a covering for it. Adam was such a sport in helping me with it, he even crawled behind the doors and squeezed between the doors and the washer and dryer. Anyway, we loved it when we were done and felt very proud of ourselves. Its so refreshing to look at really. Now we feel like DIY pro's and are hoping we get our own show or something. Ok, well not really. But we were super happy. One small victory for the Coxes, one giant leap for old-house owners everywhere.
Here's the before and after pics!

The lovely wood covered before pic

Yay!!! So much better!

Sleepover

Last weekend we had our first overnight guests come....my niece and nephew! They were so excited on the car ride over, it was absolutely adorable. I loved having them in our house and getting to do all kinds of fun things with them. We showed them a good time, small town style. Our first destination was the Gas City petting zoo where we fed a lot of goats and Peyton discovered that although ducks are small and cute, they bite! Adam and I were cracking up watching them feeding the animals. Peyton gave every animal one pellet of food at a time, thinking that was substantial enough, while Ava dumped her food at the feet of the goats often to avoid a ruckus. It was a lot of fun and the kids were definitely surprised by the exoticness of the animals present. Peyton looks like he's reasoning with the goats here, haha.

After the zoo we were all pretty hot so we cooled off by playing with a sprinkler rocket thing the kids brought with them. Adam loved it so much and kept thinking of things to launch off of it. We were all soaked and grassy by dinner time, but we had so much fun! 

This picture doesn't do it justice, it shot really high, I just couldn't get a picture of it!

Ava refused to wear a shirt because she said it was too pretty:) 

We spent the rest of the night decorating very sugary sugar cookies and playing piano and watching the Strawberry Shortcake movie on Netflix. It was such a great couple of days and Adam and I had a blast. I love those kids so much and I'm glad I got to make a wonderful summer memory with them. 

City Mouse and Country Mouse

Remember the fable about the city and country mouse? The Country Mouse is happy with his quiet life but his cousin, the City Mouse, convinces him he should come to the big city which is much more exciting. I forget the exact moral of the story but I think it was something about being content with a quiet life and anyway I simply mention it here to point out that I am the City Mouse but I'm shacking up at the Country Mouse's home for awhile.


It's really funny when I think about it because I didn't grow up in a big city but I was at least in the middle of civilization my whole life. I hate the taste of well-water, I despise having to drive more than five minutes to run errands, and I like a strong cell phone connection. Also, I love big city life....the hustle and bussle, the big concerts, the millions of things to do in walking distance, the tall buildings, the diversity, the food...everything really. But somehow I am currently living in Upland, IN. There are two gas stations, one grocery store (which also moonlights as a Dollar Store), a few churches, and a well-known ice cream joint. I live on top of a hill, surrounded by a corn field and a soy bean field (or so I've been told) and we own a burn barrel???


But I really have come to love parts of country life already... Like I love the stars at night in the country, there is absolutely nothing keeping them from shining as bright as possible and it is magnificent. And I'm loving the view of the fields and trees from the window above our kitchen sink while I do dishes. And I like riding my 80's bike past all the fields and old houses. The hundred-year-old curtains in our house are absolutely perfect too and I think my love of vintage things fits in well out here in the country. And all the other things are starting to not seem quite so bothersome...I barely gag on the water when I'm brushing my teeth and we consolidate errand trips so we don't have to make tons of trips to destinations 20- 30 minutes away.  So I guess the moral of this story is that the City Mouse can be content too. Because I am.