Back to Blogging!

 Needless to say, I never intended for so much time to pass before posting again!  My break was wonderful and needful, but I really did miss this blog and all of you!  The days have been busy (the main reason I felt like I needed to take a break), but we've had many special moments too.  

 When I thought back over the past few months, we've had a lot of fun times... our annual trip to the beach, special time with family, precious time with friends.  All packing it in between the full days of work, school and chores. 

 During this time both of our girls had birthdays.  Rosetta turned four and Jillian turned seven.  They are ever so sweet and I try my best to soak in every moment as I know this time will pass quickly and I want to enjoy every stage.

You may remember from last year that my mom and I have a little flower business during the growing season.  We sell our bouquets from a roadside stand on the honor system (and also do some events).  This year has been a blast, since we have been even busier than last and we love every moment in the flower garden.  You just can't keep from feeling happy when you're surrounded by gorgeous blooms, butterflies and sunshine!  I'll do a separate post on some of our flower happenings so far!   

My vegetable garden was a little smaller this year.  I wasn't able to put anything away for the winter months, but it was completely stress free and we had plenty of veggies for the summer months.  As hard as this can be for me, I've tried to let some things go, or at least do them on a smaller scale... :-)

 I felt like I would be remiss if I didn't do a little update on house projects!  This past spring we had a lot of updates to our house, but many of them were more functional than pretty!  The main two updates were for efficiency reasons; we upgraded our HVAC unit (clearly nothing exciting to blog about) and purchased a new front door to replace the original (I know you're cringing here, and I totally understand, but I'll try to do a separate post on that!). 

As you can see from the picture above, we are nearly finished with our upstairs bathroom!  It's actually been at a standstill for a while... all that is left is a little bit of trim work and paint but we've happily been using it for several months now.We all love having another bathroom, as you can imagine!  And we are so happy with how it is turning out. 

 I cringe every time I remember grouting this subway tile with Justus, but love it so much that it might have been worth the pain! 

 I promise to do a separate post all about the bathroom once it's completely finished.  I knew I had to snap a couple quick photos though for this post since it has been so long!  As you can see from the photo above, I've been too busy lazy to finish painting, but I hope to find the motivation soon.  ;-)

My mom made the most perfect cotton dishcloths for me in my favorite color (yes, white 😉) for washing dishes, but they are so pretty I put them on my kitchen shelves and stare at them instead! 😀❤️

A photo posted by Andrea - Keeping It Cozy (@keepingitcozy) on Aug 25, 2015 at 7:41am PDT

   In other news, I did somehow succumb to signing up for Instagram in the meanwhile, and if you have it, you can find me there posting about little random things.  :-)  (Here's the link.)

Thank you for all your sweet comments and emails while I was away.  

Justus asked me frequently (especially lately) when I was going to blog again and I would usually respond teasingly with something like, "Well, when you give me some ideas of what to blog about!"  I think I'm inserting this because while it may not make for very exciting blog posts, I have a feeling my posts from now on may be a lot more of "daily life" than anything else.  I hope you don't mind... As the girls are growing older, I find the days are much fuller, but I do know that I miss writing here and don't want to say goodbye.  But if you feel like you'd like to chime in with some ideas, I am all ears!!  ;-)

Also, please tell me how you are and how your summer has been!  I have missed talking to you!