Howdy! 🤠

Last week was so busy around here! How about for you? Normally I’d have posted it all on IG stories but since I’m not doing that at the moment, let me give you a recap. I went to town with a friend: we got breakfast then did a little shopping. Then I went to the hardware store by myself. I picked up a lot of lumber and other supplies (around $120) and hoisted it into the back of our truck and strapped it all down. I was so confident with myself when the checkout lady asked if I needed any help getting it to my car… “No I’ve got it!” I mean, I did get it into the truck and strapped it all down, but it took me 15 minutes, and my arms were jello by the end of it. 😅

Anyway, why the lumber? I think I mentioned last week that I wanted to turn our kids’ beds into loft beds. And ta-freakin-da, we made it happen. It took about 8 hours, mostly on Saturday, plus a little more on Sunday afternoon. I’ll actually get into the details in a second!

Then Sunday morning I had worship practice, so I was up early. And then, my mama came to town and stayed the night. And finally, Monday, she left, and we went for a long hike + bike at a local park. Monday afternoon I literally crashed. I was so exhausted from those 4 days of go-go-going!

The loft bed situation

I posted the pictures as a TikTok slideshow. Let me explain how we did it!

I saw these bed lifts on Amazon and thought to myself, “I can make that.” We wanted the beds to be fairly tall so that the kids could have a seating area underneath. We decided to make them 36” tall (that’s a little less than 1 meter). Cam and I did a lot of measuring and sketching and planning before coming up with the design. We would make bed stilts. The picture above, but better, and taller.

The safest, most secure way to do it would be to keep the existing legs of the beds and create a wood “pocket” for them to slide into. Then, we would secure the bed’s legs to the stilts as well as secure the bed directly to the studs of the walls.

1. Measure height of bed legs

2. Subtract that amount from 36” to determine how much additional height we’d need

3. Purchase enough 4×4 lumber for all 8 bed legs

4. Purchase enough 2×4 lumber to have 28 pieces at 36” each. You see, two legs would need 4 of those pieces, and two legs would be against the wall, so those would just need 3 of the pieces.

5. Measure and cut all the lumber

6. Sand everything

7. Attach 4 (or 3) pieces of 2×4 to the 4×4 with wood screws

8. Test! Make sure it’s level and fairly stable (we’d make them super secure in another step).

9. Screw the stilts directly to the bed legs

10. Attach the piece of wood directly to the wall, then attach the bed to that piece of wood.

11. Test again for stability! Add safety railings, steps for getting up/down, and decorations

If you want to do something like this, feel free to reach out with questions. This is probably not the easiest to understand in just text.

Cameron hopped up on both beds and wiggled around, and we both shook the mess out of them in all directions. They are solid. It’s only been a few days, but both kids have been hanging out under their beds a TON. It’s cozy and private and a really nice idea. I’m so glad we decided to do this! Down the road, we will have an additional bedroom or two, but this is a great temporary solution for us!

The floor is….

We’ve all heard of The Floor is Lava. But juuuust in case you haven’t, it’s a kid game that’s been around forever. You have to move from one place to another but can’t touch the ground because it’s lava.

Well, my kids have come up with variations of this that I want to share.

• The floor is SHOOTING STARS. If you touch the floor, you have to run quickly, as if you landed on a shooting star.

• The floor is ELEVATORS. If you touch the floor, you have to drop to the ground, as if you ended up on a falling elevator.

• The floor is SPAGHETTI. If you touch the floor, you have to make a squishing sound and walk very slowly, as if walking through a lot of spaghetti.

A yummy throw-together meal

I’ve been making this a few times a week for the last month or so!

If we’ve got some leftover cooked chicken, ground beef, pulled pork, anything like that, I’ll do this with it:

1. Chop up whatever veggies you have. Potatoes, broccoli, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, onion, sweet potatoes. Literally just whatever you have on hand! The more the merrier!

2. Cook that in oil and/or butter until almost done. I add salt, pepper, garlic, and ginger.

3. Add a good bit of soy sauce, then either teriyaki sauce or pad Thai sauce, plus the cooked meat, and let that cook a few more minutes.

4. Serve as is or with rice or noodles.

It makes a lot, uses up leftovers and whatever else needs to be cooked, and it’s darn tasty.

Ginger snap ice cream

My mama came over this past weekend and brought a sleeve of these thin, ginger snap cookies. I decided to turn them into ice cream - and it was great!

I took about half of them and soaked them in some heavy cream for about 20 minutes. Then I strained them through a sieve to get as much of the infused cream as I could. I added milk and more cream until I had 3 cups of liquid total. Plus about ¾ cup of brown sugar, plus a spoonful of corn starch, plus a pinch of salt. I whisked that really well then poured it into my ice cream machine. While it churned, I broke the other cookies into chunks, and once the ice cream was nearly done (around 20 minutes), I added the chunks and let it mix a few more minutes.

Delicious! 

What flavor should I try next? I’m a big fan of turning cookies (and other treats, like a Swiss roll) into ice cream!

Harry Potter fan club - Patronus quiz

On Sunday, some friends and I were talking about what Patronus we each were. There’s an online quiz you can take that will reveal yours. Fair warning, you have to sign up for the Harry Potter fan club in order to take the quiz; it’s free, though!

For those who are not familiar, let me explain a Patronus. In Harry Potter, there’s a prison called Azkaban. And there are Dementors that guard Azkaban and make sure none of the criminals escape. They are these flying creatures that will literally suck the life out of you. And the only way to shield yourself from them is to use the Patronus Charm. It’s an advanced charm, but it can save your life! You point your wand at the creature then shout Expecto Patronum toward them and, at the same time, you think of your happiest memory. And if the memory is strong enough, and you are skilled enough, your Patronus will appear. It takes the form of an animal and it essentially protects you from the Dementor.

Anyway, I took the quiz, and my Patronus is a rattlesnake! 😱😆 I’m not sure how I feel about that. Does that mean I belong in Slytherin House? Oh my.

Pet rabbit??

Annabelle wants a pet rabbit. I’ve dug around online and found out a few things. Rabbits live 8-14 years. They need a lot of space for running around, either inside or out. They are clean (they groom themselves pretty well), can be litter box trained (though that can be difficult), and are social (they do best with a rabbit buddy!). They also like to chew, so you have to cover your cords!

I learned some more, but I’d like to know if any of you have or have had a pet rabbit. This is a big decision, and I’m currently leaning toward “No way” but I’d like to hear from people who have experience! Thanks in advance!

A few random things

• I ordered some new clothes from two companies called Boden and Quince. I’m waiting for them to come in, but I’m excited to try some new things!

• I think Charlie is almost ready to potty train! He’s starting to show the signs. Exciting!

• Broken Bow OK is calling my name 😅

• A while back, I decided to try to be a little more playful (inspired by Bluey’s parents!), since it’s not something that comes naturally to me. Most days lately, there happens to be at least one moment when I think “this will be a memory they’ll have forever“. Dancing in the kitchen, racing down the driveway, just silly stuff. ❤️

• Tonight I made pizza while Cam was at a Bible study, and let me just say, I think it’s the best-looking pizza I’ve ever made. I started the dough early so that it could rise and rest for longer than usual. It was crispy and chewy. And we didn’t have pepperoni, so I sliced up some sausage instead. Lookey!

  

• We watched Onward again a few days ago. I BAWL every single time. The scene near the end, right near sunset… I won’t spoil it but dang, if you have not seen it, I highly recommend it!

• Oh and have you seen The Mole on Netflix? I remember watching that show like, 20 something years ago. This is a new version of it. It’s fun to watch if you are into escape rooms, I think! This one came out in 2022 and is just one season, so maybe it wasn’t very popular, but I like it so far! I’m only on episode 4, so my opinion of who The Mole is keeps changing.

• Here’s a quick little TikTok roundup of 6 random videos I’ve liked recently!

  • British people greeting each other (over and over) - I’m not sure why this made me giggle 🤭

  • This guy is SO good at word games (10 Wordles in under 2 minutes - I tried the same challenge, and I only got 3 words in 2 minutes!)

  • Here are some clip-on earrings that don’t pinch!

  • This Little Mermaid lip sync cracked us all up😅

  • I think this pink marble painted wall is stunning!

  • Jason (his last name is pronounced La-Danny) is a playing card master. Every video of his is just mind blowing! This one is one of my favs ever.

Shout outs 🥹

A few podcasts I follow do occasional shout outs, and I really like that. I think it’s nice to acknowledge when people are supportive and/or helpful! So I want to say a big thank you to Paulina, Sarah, Leighanne, Ivis, and Michelle for your helpful info about cruises!

That's it for this week. Have a good one!❤️ Bethany

If you like my content and want to support me, click the coffee cup below to go to my virtual tip jar!