Back-to-school is in full-swing at the Eller household, which puts Mom a little on edge. Some may make a comparison to a former dictator, but I wouldn’t go that far. In fact, I’ve been making a concerted effort this year to keep all the anxieties that correlate with working full time and having two kids in school at bay.

I even left work with a new attitude one random day. No driving home in my typical clenched-fisted manner; mentally assigning a task to each and every one of those precious minutes between 5:30 (mom gets home) and 8:30 (kids’ ...

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While my college friends were surfing the beach and boys over Spring Break way back when, I was stuck in rural, land-locked Pennsylvania doing things like, oh, having my wisdom teeth extracted or painting my bedroom mauve (showing my age, huh?). Obviously priming and rolling wasn’t as much fun as sinking my toes in Ocean City, MD sand, but that experience did set a precedent for me. To this day, when spring rolls around, I get an uncontrollable urge for change.

 

This year is no different. So far, I’ve bleached out my hair, changed the paint color in ...

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Like many suburban homes built in the 1990s, my kitchen rolls right into my living room. In the middle of this long rectangle there is a jetted-out area with three angled windows. You know… that space that leaves you no other option but to go buy a small four-top table.

After months of searching for a simple table (trust me, not as easy as it sounds) I finally chose a square pub table with a dark finish. Cute! Atop the honey-Oak wood floor, that scarily matches the island that scarily matches the cabinets, it screamed for a round rug to ...

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Inspiration for style changes in your home can come from most anywhere… sometimes when you’re not even looking for it. Actually, that’s usually when it works out best!

A healthy shoe obsession (yes, there is such a thing) has lead me to a local department store on more than one occasion. (Hey, you never know when the perfect pair of Steve Madden’s in a size 8 is calling your name… I’m just sayin’). During one trip in particular a fire screen caught my eye as I was checking out. I’d completed my transaction and was right at the 15-minute window ...

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Dare I dream?

 

So I’m already deemed the slacker in this blog environment as my overachieving and overzealous coworkers just seem to have so much to say. My reflective time however gets trumped by 3^rd grade math, laundry, cleaning the house, laundry, assisting in the creation of a Native American diorama, laundry, being an enthusiastic spectator of Batman on Xbox360, laundry, rushing to the pediatrician’s office during holiday breaks, and oh, did I mention laundry? I’m sure my fellow Gen X working moms can relate to this constant state of overwhelmedness.

 

Organization is my current battle ...

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Hard to believe with today’s economy, but in 2006 houses around Mooresville, N.C. were sold $100 above asking price before even hitting the market. After several offers left us disappointed… sometimes crushed, we ended up buying our house sight unseen. (trust me… enough material there for a whole other blog)

The home we left was our first and it was custom-made by me. Our current living conditions were made by the same guy who built the other 200 houses in the neighborhood. Not so custom…

My husband settled in just fine. He decked the garage out with a tile-top bar, ...

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