Author: cakerwakers

We finally finished our dining room makeover. The space looks amazing! I am so happy with the wall decor, the paint colors, and the board and batten! This was not a very hard or time consuming project. Next Tuesday, I will go more in depth on the process and the cost of installing board and…

For the first time in a long time, it feels like the world is resuming a sense of normalcy. My kids are attending homeschool activities. We’re seeing friends on a fairly regular basis. Best of all, I no longer feel the oppressive weight of fear on my shoulders whenever I walk out the door. Maybe…

Lately, I have gone off the rails with my diet. I have been drinking soda from the time I get up until I go to bed. I eat whatever I want, whenever I want. Recently I developed an obsession with cheese crackers, and didn’t bat an eye at eating half a box for a “snack.” Honestly,…

I love chili. It’s one of my favorite meals. Fortunately for me, my whole family seems to enjoy eating chili too (especially my baby boy). My favorite recipe is for Instant Pot chili mac, but my lentil chili recipe is pretty darn tasty too. The original recipe came from Katie at Runs For Cookies. My…

Since my last post, John and I have made some more progress on our dining room makeover.  Unfortunately, we’re not as far along as I had hoped we would be. Although this is a fairly simple project, the weather in New Jersey has been awful. We had snow on the ground for most of February….

Everyone spends money frivolously on occasion, and we are no exception. John and I haven’t been very good with our extra cash lately. It seems like we are down to a few dollars in our checking account at the end of every pay period. We usually have about $5 left to spare! Looking back over…

Like everyone else, my feelings about saving money ebb and flow. Sometimes, I am highly motivated. I make frugal and practical choices to save the most money for my family. But other times, I just want to live my life without constantly thinking about money. I want to go out to eat. I want to…

I am in the middle of trying to fix my dining room walls before I paint. I should mention that our entire house is covered in wallpaper. And when I say the entire house, I mean the walls AND the ceilings. It’s in every room, and even in the closets.  The people who lived here…

Or more accurately, if you give Christy a new kitchen, she’s going to want a new dining room to go with it.  Yes, I want to redo our dining room now. It’s a minor project – just paint, a new overhead light, and maybe some new wall decor. I also wanted to cover our ceiling…