Clover Lane

I've waited so long to do this, only because I knew it would take considerable time.  And also I needed the icky feelings of living through a remodel to wear off. :) So it took almost two years but here we go.

I am NOT an expert in design (which is obvious.) I copied a bunch of photos of other kitchens that I loved and put it all together with help of friend's opinions and advice. It was SO helpful to have friends that just built or remodeled. They had resources and ideas and knew what mattered and what didn't and I swear the whole project would have turned out crooked (I mean that literally because a friend totally caught and corrected some major mis-measurement when it came to lighting/island/table placement) without them.  I spent way way way too much time on Houzz (and will never visit again as I burned my eyeballs out looking at so many images) and narrowed my favorites down to things I pinned on Pinterest (which are no longer pinned because once again, I was done and over it all by the time I finished.)


My house was built in 1942 and has sweet character and charm and I wanted to match that, but still make it practical for a family of eight, and stay in budget.  The budget could be summed up this way: "get quality things that will last forever because I am never doing this again, but don't make my husband blow a gasket". I think I succeeded. All those inspiration photos above are from million dollar houses no doubt, so I had to work with what I had, and what we could afford.

We didn't just do the kitchen-we spent years and years debating doing a small fix or going all the way-I think we chose something in the middle. We had added two more children than when we moved in, and some major things (leaky ceilings, rotting foundation) that needed to be repaired since we had bought our house. Because I didn't want to compromise the front exterior of the house, and also the original layout (cutting bedrooms down in size, losing my lovely dining room, or even losing a window in the dining room or kitchen were out of the question-I have sentimentality issues!) I had to make compromises-I never got my mudroom. I really thought long and hard about everything and I'm very pleased we waited and revised and then revised again and finally got the plans right.  I had listed our priorities in order and our architect really worked with me and my hangups about not changing the house too much.

Here were some inspiration photos I chose:










In the kitchen we knocked the back wall out about ten feet. We needed to keep the existing kitchen intact-we did a small remodel right when we moved in 10 years ago and no way was I going to get all new cabinets-I didn't want or need a complete tear out again.  I did get new cabinet doors (my old ones were thermofoil doors and were peeling in some places, and I needed to match new to old anyways).  I kept the back wall the same as far as doors and windows and the extra ten feet allowed me to turn and extend our table to fit all of us, and fit an big island, and another oven, and a huge panty. (My pantry was spread between small cabinets and the basement and coat closet.)

I will list all details at end, but if I miss anything feel free to ask.














Ask for help. I said it in the beginning but I am so so thankful for my friends, both online and in real life, that answered my questions and gave me great advice. (Thank you Erin and Melissa!)
Hire good contractors and make sure you sign a contract with every single detail possible. We did this but still had a hard time at the end with completion and wished we would have been even more specific. Write down everything-all conversations-and take tons of pictures of the process just in case. If I did it again (I won't), I would have some sort of written timeline agreement where the contractors would be penalized monetarily for their own delays.

I made this yesterday twice-once for me and once for my oldest who came home from working out starving. And then I made it again today. It is SO SO good. I adapted it from this recipe-the dressing calls for sugar and that is obviously not Whole30 approved so I put 1 TBS OJ in it's place. I also used a fresh Clementine instead of canned and used ground ginger instead of fresh. It is delicious and so filling. It says it makes four servings-well I ate the whole thing myself and maybe used a little less Romaine.

Whole60 ends today, Whole90 starts tomorrow! I've decided to try some new things every week so I don't get bored. This salad is one of them, and I have a few more that look great.

Happy March!

Tidbits I want to remember:

I did a Whole 30 in January (and am continuing on-Day 45 today) and some of you have asked me some questions about how I did it etc.-here's that post!

First off, my friend Jane helped me a ton and really got me started and motivated.  Here is her post on her Whole30 experience (she is still going strong months and months later with I think a more than 30 pound weight loss!)

If you want to read about what the Whole30 is, this is the basic information you need to know. I really didn't read either of the books (first one, second one) until after I started and then had to return them mid-journey. I also read a book the Whole30 authors refer to a few times as they have based their program off of it, called The Paleo Solution by Roff Wolf and I really liked how this guy explained the paleo philosophy and also gave some weight training information as well.  All books are very motivating and interesting.

There are a TON of recipes on the internet for Whole30 (and Paleo-which is not the same as Whole30 as Whole30 excludes some things basic Paleo plans do not.) BUT I did not want to overwhelm myself and wanted to start slow and simple.

I know enough about my lifestyle, my appetite and what will work for me especially the time I have for all of this. I love Whole30 and it worked for me because it is not restrictive on the amount of food you can eat. I know I hate being hungry, I hate not having food choices, I am very much an "all or nothing" person (called an abstainer instead of a moderator, thank you Gretchen Rubin).  I kept a very simple "meal plan" for myself and kept up cooking normally for my family. I know my weakness is sugar and I must go all or nothing because it slowly creeps into my life and before I know it, it is my main food group. My older sister has been telling me for years to control my sugar cravings by eating more protein and finally I listened to her, and you know what, she was right.

Eating out I've just figured out what I could have. Parties-I eat before I go, and go saying to myself I will eat nothing the entire time. I feel good when I get home instead of gross like I used to.

Benefits of Whole30 for me:
I have never once been hungry on this plan. I am usually too full by dinner time to eat much dinner.

I've slept better, lost weight, tons more energy, no afternoon slump, no sugar cravings, no sore joints, clearer skin, better mood all the time, think about food less, and life more.

Just an important side note-there are times in life when we have more time for ourselves than others. If someone would have tried to get me to do this plan, as simple as it is, one or two or three years ago when Janey was a high needs baby and there were other stressors in my life, I might have said a bad word or two back to them in my head.  I just didn't have the mental energy, the time to sit down and eat a nice meal some days, the extra space in my soul for motivation, the ability to deprive myself of some major stress relief chocolate eating. I was doing my best giving most (all?) of my energy caring for this gorgeous baby and five other children and a husband and keeping it all together. If this is you, you know that's okay right?  I know that might not be the message we hear-(take time for yourself, go on date nights, exercise, look sexy after baby, fit back into those jeans, eat frequent small meals, make sure you get enough sleep blah blah blah shut up)-SOMETIMES IT IS NOT POSSIBLE.  Like you don't have ONE second to go to the bathroom, how could you do any of this??? IF THIS IS YOU RIGHT NOW, JUST KEEP DOING WHAT YOU ARE DOING IT IS GOD's WORK. Give it-it being mothering-your all. You will never regret it and will be rewarded for the rest of your life, and once this hard stage of mothering passes, or ebbs till the next baby, know one day you WILL be able to sit down and eat a healthier breakfast, and might have time to make a salad or even do a few leg lifts, lose a few pounds if so desired, and pay a little attention to yourself. 



So here are my basics:
Every morning for breakfast I have the same thing. I take a small frying pan, put MILD olive oil in it, saute some spinach, tomato, and chopped peppers (maybe some mushrooms and onions) and once those are soft I add two or three scrambled eggs right on top. I turn heat on low and cover the pan, and it "souffles" into a nice little meal.  I make normal breakfast for the kids while I am doing this whether it's eggs, waffles, pancakes, or cereal.

For lunch almost every day:
A big salad.  Romaine, some broccoli slaw for crunch and color, tomatoes, onions, maybe a hard-boiled egg, or avocado cut up and grilled chicken. I cut up the chicken when I get home from the store and freeze some with the garlic in freezer bags, keeping what I will use that week in the fridge. I usually grill up a batch about every four days as needed. I also have made taco salad with ground beef, avocado, cilantro, etc. and used the Ranch dressing with cilantro added as a dressing.

I use these three dressings-your really have to make your own and honestly, homemade dressing makes a salad, so I didn't mind, although it does take more time. I would double the recipe so I'd have the dressing to use all week.

Ranch -scroll down when you get to this post. This is delicious and I use this for sweet potato fry dip and also in place of ketchup on burgers. (I thought I'd die without ketchup (and there are Whole30 ketchup recipes that you can make-but I haven't missed it at all and now it's gross to me.) I printed out this entire post and put it in my recipe binder, but have only used the Ranch so far.

Balsamic Vinaigrette

My Greek dressing

Snack:

Essentials for me that I make sure I am never without: Sweet potatoes, spaghetti sauce, eggs, (and hardboiled eggs for salads), tomatoes, Romaine lettuce (I use one "stalk" for every salad), broccoli slaw to add crunch and color to salad, avocado...







I printed this out and hung this list on the fridge which helped me at first (it's SO basic-fruit, vegetables, some nuts, some fat, meat and eggs. No dairy, no processed foods, no flour, no sugar.)

That's it!  I have some simple recipes I've saved on my Pinterest Whole 30 board that I may plan to try when I have time (I made a goal of trying one new recipe a week and have done pretty well at it) but the key for me is not being overwhelmed by it all.

Any questions, feel free to ask.

Isaac came home, and the games get heated (our neighbor is in this pic too and for some reason Isaac is not.)

Love this interview with my Uncle John (my mom is his oldest sister) and everything he has to say about hard work, competition, the drive that is necessary as the sole provider for his family, growing up in a big family, peas and toast mentality (you get what you get and you like it!), the "Greatest Generation", and my wonderful Aunt Kathleen who is one of my top mother mentors.