It's Megalicious!: June at Fort Willy

01. Days For Girls Service Project

Remember our underwear drive for Days for Girls? WELL thanks to friends and family and primary teachers who really came through to show support, the Willy kids collected 297 pair of girls briefs! 297!

We sorted them by size and removed about 30 pair with words or animal prints on them (can't go through customs) and donated them to the NWA children's shelter. Kasey took all the white briefs and dyed them a lovely deep purple.

The underwear then went to the bentonville stake girls camp where, along with all the other collected components, they were assembled into 250 Days for Girls kits! 250 girls in school. 250 women with their dignity. 250 females with better personal hygeine. 250 girls got their days back.

02. What the?! Too soon!

We seem to be entering a new phase in the Willardson house and I'm unsure how I feel about it. Reese and Quincy are suddenly a little boy crazy. Reese is quiet about her crushes to the general public, but I am now privy to her feelings of affection toward a few boys in our ward. I try to embarrass her just the right amount to help her lighten up a bit. It seems to be working and she's pretty open now about her feelings. Hopefully getting her to crack won't have some sort of Pandora's box effect and morph her into some kind of hormonal kraken.

Quincy, on the other hand...oh boy.

Here she is dramatically telling her damsel's tale of a cut toe to the lifeguard at the pool. Her delight in his attention is only minimally hilarious and mostly just terrifies me.

But Quincy had big plans to marry Landan, a boy in our ward. She's loved him since the day she met him. One day after kindergarten the kids were loading into our vans side by side, and she shouted out her window at the top of her lungs, "don't forget that you love me, Landan! I know it!" To which he yelled back, "you couldn't pay me a million dollars!"

But Quincy will not be deterred. Years later, she now has recruited Landan's older sister and most of the Shaw family to work as accomplices in her master plan. Delaney got him to "agree to marry you someday" to which Quincy requested a "promise" be made, and then she dressed up to accept this agreement.

Oh the grey hairs!

03. Metal Mouth

This beauty got the rest of her top brackets and a mouth full of bottom braces yesterday. She looks too mature for me to be happy about it, and she is in a lot of pain. Ice cream for everyone. Isn't she lovely?

04. Something old that's something new

Reese is signed up for orchestra, next year and I found this great little used violin for her. And little is the perfect description...she fitted for a 1/4 size! It's so tiny and adorable. I had my violin tuned up with a new bridge and had my bow rehaired. I haven't played in like 10 years, so it will be interesting to make an attempt to play, but I'm dying to create music again. The ENT determined that until I get my deviated septum surgically fixed (not gonna happen, who has time for that?) and my allergies under control (basically impossible in NWA) then the nodes on my vocal chords are here to stay. Just call me Demi Moore, because I guess I will have this raspy voice forever! I can't even sing all of the alto notes for most hymns but it's enough. I should just learn the barritone. Hahaha

I digress. Look at this cute little violin that someone abused and scratched with a pen. I assured Reese that a used violin is actually better than a shiny new one. I had my violin appraised while it was in the shop and the luthier gave us a little history about it. It was made in 1910! Funny thing, when hearing it played by the luthier when I picked it up, I recognized it's rich tambour right away and was filled with familiar warmth. It got goosebumps and thought, yep, that one's mine. Reese and I are excited to start something "new" together.

05. Operation Brighter Kitchen Update

If funds were unlimited, this kitchen would have been gutted the day we moved in, with more lights and real countertops and non laminate floors and white painted cabinets with seeded glass fronts, and a different shaped island and a window and the fridge and paint and backsplash all done right away, before we moved in.

But we're realistic and tackling this one project at a time. I actually don't mind doing it this way. Each small (or large) thing we've done to bring light into this cave kitchen has been appreciated so much for the small (or large) difference made. And we may realize along the way that other things we think the kitchen "needs" aren't really that important or worth spending the money on.

I've waited the 3 year timeline for countertops and and soooo very excited for this step. Buh buy dark, melted, broken laminate! If I had a dollar for every time someone has snagged a shirt on the laminate island, I could pay for the granite with with change to spare. Last year, I secured the corners with packing tape and super glue to save our clothes. This year, on a whim one evening, I busted out my trusty crowbar and started ripping out the island. It was very satisfying.

And even MORE satisfying to discover the tiled floor under the cabinets, and room for an electrician to access to the crawl space! Best surprise ever! It was 10pm and I'm shouting, "Quick! Aaron! Get in here! I don't believe it! They installed the island after they did the floors!" And Aaron replied with feigned excitement, "awesome! Spend less money!" Hahahaha

Why is the discovery of a finished floor so wonderful? Because now we can add cabinets to the island and change its odd shape. The original kitchen was a galley kitchen, and when reconfigured to be larger in size, the possibility for more storage wasn't really considered. I ran to lowes and picked up 2 more matching base cabinets. Adding 18 inches to the island will have it "face" the proper direction, give me more counter space for cooking, and fill wasted space with drawers! Yay! And that gap between cabinets will host an electrical outlet so I can use a mixer or griddle or crockpot on the island! If the floors hadn't been under there, we wouldn't have been able to add cabinets without pounding out tile...which is the worst job! That big support beam is here to stay, but I'm ok with it.

I found a granite slab for the countertop, but I need to find a stone fabricator.

For the backsplash, Aaron and I both really love the look of this white honeycomb hex tile.

Aaron wants to go for it, but even though I found some half price online, I don't think I can justify the expense. This mini subway tile is still half the cost of the discounted hex tile.

And I've decided not to paint the cabinets yet. They're still in ok shape in most places, so I don't think it's a necessity right now. The way painted cabinets go, you have to repaint every 5 years or so, and with the hard wear and tear we put on our kitchen, we might as well put it off until the current paint job is at least that old. It's only chipping around the lower cabinets. I can live with that!

06. Garden update and a recipe

I just said last week, "I don't think our tomatoes are going to do well this year." We should have early girls by now, and the plants are more spindly than usual. And days later, the spindly plants bushed right out and became strong, thick, leafy plants and blossoms are finally appearing. Coming soon, tomatoes! It will be a late crop, but should be a good one.

We picked 8 lbs of green beans Monday and have more coming in. The sugar snap peas are so sweet and juicy. Aaron hates them (like most vegetables), but everyone that comes over tells him he's crazy because they are delish! I made roasted green beans last night and they were so good we're making them again tomorrow.

Roasted Green Beans with Garlic and Rosemary

1 1/2 lbs fresh green beans, ends trimmed

Toss with 2 TBS EVOO and 2 inches of snipped up fresh rosemary

Roast on a parchment lined baking dish for 10 minutes at 425*

Stir and brush with crushed garlic.

Roast 10 more minutes.

Devour.

07. Summer play dates

Our July calendar is busier than ever before with swimming lessons and dr and dentist appointments alone! Sloane and Soren have well checks, 4 kids and 2 parents have cleanings, Q has 3 ENT appointments (she has a bacterial infection that the dr thinks is E. coli in her ear. Wah!). I know I will be halt to have gotten them done during summer when school starts up. We have squeezed in a few play dates with friends and trips to the pool between the dozens of appointments. These days are priceless to me. I love watching my kids play for hours and hours. On one friend day, we madeiaracord bracelets, I spy bags, snow cones, played beanboozled and basketball mini hoops and had an epic funballz battle in the basement. At one point there were 11 children in my home and the madness was wildly fun. I was exhausted by bedtime and it was so worth it. Being "party mom" is not a sustainable hat I can wear day after day, but I really love the days when I get to put it on.

08. Time With Lady

My mom was here last week, and we got to pick out carpet, furniture, countertops, and paint for her new house. We met a few contractors and painters and everything is coming together nicely. The ceilings are being painted this week and then I'm going to go over a couple evenings staring next week and paint the walls. It's such a great house, I can't wait for them to move here. Keep purging stuff, mom and dad! Don't bring it here! ;)

09. Running

With excessive heat and being sick almost a month, I just about fell off the running wagon. I picked back up last week and it was really hard. My goal at this point is to just maintain a 5 mile "baseline" through this gross summer heat, and then in the fall maybe I will be able to pick up some speed. Or a least be less slow ;)

10. I read an actual book!

I'm giving up on my new year goal of reading a book for leisure every month...since its almost July and I've been on page 25 of The Night Circus since...oh...September? Right now, I don't have the capacity to invest in the characters of a fantasy book, or dive into the supplemental literature that historical fiction will pile onto my "to read" queue. I did, however, really love the Marie Kondo tidying book, and this Memoir also really spoke to me. Perhaps I needed to just change genres. Self help and a mothering memoir. Does this make me a grown up? Am I adulting? I guess so. I loved this book and wish every human to read it. It's hard. Gut wrenching. Empowering. Thought provoking.

11. Heart eyes for this one

The note on the entrance:

12. Board Games

I'm super happy to announce that some of the children have graduated from the candyland years. Our tables are constantly sporting a board game. And with 4 children who can (for the most part) play a board game together, great fun is being had around here. What's funny is that with them graduating from the Candyland years, one might expect the "that's not fair!" Meltdowns over not winning to dissolve. Instead, the meltdowns have matured too, into accusations of "they're cheaters!". I kind of love it. Not the disharmony....just that they're in a new phase. They can talk it out and work it out. Or not, and refuse to play until someone lets them win. Either way, it's nice to play Stratego and Uno instead of Candyland.