COFFEE TALK 03.01.20 ☕️

Well, friends. It’s March, the longest month of the year! I’m hoping for an early spring this year, but March is a fickle woman, and one never knows what we’re going to get.

We haven’t had any snow at all in Philly this winter, so I have this funny feeling… but let’s not think about that!

Today is also my husband’s birthday, so my son is home for the weekend, and we’re going out for lunch after church with good friends. Which we do almost every Sunday, but today we actually made a plan in advance, so that makes it special, right?

All three kids are coming out too, which really does make it special. Even when they’re all here, they don’t always go to lunch with us.

Are my kids the only ones who don’t find going out to eat to be a treat? I guess we’ve made it too common.

So let’s see… What else do I have to tell you today?

I’ve had a few questions about my hip progress. For anyone not aware, I have an anterior labral tear in my right hip.

It’s not really getting better, so I’m a little anxious to hear what my doctor wants to do next.

I’ve been taking the anti-inflammatory he prescribed, I stopped running, and my walking has been sporadic because our weather has been pretty frightful as of late. I’m still working out, but we’ve been modifying things and doing mostly arm and core work. (This was approved by my doctor.)

I got a new desk chair and this convertible desk so I can sit or stand, and I like them both, but neither seems to be helping my hip issue very much.

If anything, I’m experiencing some lower back pain from the standing. I’ve probably been standing too much. It feels good to get a break from the sitting, but I’ve been advised not to stand too much at first, and gradually build up to it. Makes sense, but I wish I’d known that sooner.

Anyway! I see my doctor next week, so for now I’m just waiting to see what he wants to do.

In other news, the kitchen is coming along, but our progress has stalled a bit.

My backsplash tile didn’t arrive in time to be installed yesterday, and that will delay our vent hood from going in on Wednesday because that was supposed to go over the tile.

But, the good news is, we have paint!!! 

My brown kitchen is officially a thing of the past.

R and I were sitting on the family room couch last night, where we have a full view of the kitchen, looking through old pictures on my phone. We came across one of the kitchen before we started remodeling just a couple weeks ago, and she remarked, “Look how orange our kitchen was!!!”

That made me laugh, but it really was startling to see that picture, and it’s only been a few days. It’s funny how quickly you get used to new things.

As of right now, all of our new appliances are in and working, my quartzite counters are in, and the drink station is pretty much complete (minus the built-in wine rack.) That’s getting painted and will be installed at a later date.

My island and the boxes to my cabinets and the decorative trim over the cooktop have all been painted, but my cabinets don’t have any doors and drawers because they were taken off-site to be sprayed. I originally thought they would come back tomorrow, but it’s looking more like Wednesday at this point.

And the backsplash, which I thought would be installed yesterday, is on hold until the tile arrives and I get my contractor to reschedule.

It’s a small job compared to the others he’s working on, so I’m hoping he’ll be able to fit us in sooner rather than later. I need to touch base with him tomorrow and get that squared away. Then I’ll need to reschedule the vent hood installation.

So right now our kitchen is in a state of flux, but I’m finding it easier to be patient than I thought it would be.

We’re seeing some progress almost every day, and it already looks drastically different than it did a week ago, to say nothing of the week before that.

I also got my new counter stools yesterday, which was a fun surprise. The website said they were on backorder until mid-March, but they showed up yesterday!

They’re a great addition to the space, and it’s so nice not to have to maneuver around the heavy, high-backed chairs I had there before.

This is how my kitchen looks as of today.

Before you ask, we painted the island Sherwin Williams Iron Ore, and the cabinets Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace.

I thought the Iron Ore was going to be darker, closer to black, but I’m happy with it. Although, now that it’s painted, I’m wishing I’d replaced the columns and corbels with something more modern.

I did go ahead and order a set of corbels that I like better, but I’m not sure how feasible it is to replace them at this point. They’re definitely providing support, along with the columns underneath, and I don’t want to risk upsetting the countertop. If it were to crack, I would be sick.

I’m also wondering about building boxes around the columns to streamline those a bit, so I need to see what, if anything, can be done at this point. I was going to ask the contractor yesterday when he was here to do the backsplash, but of course he didn’t come.

I wish I’d thought about doing this before, but I didn’t mind them so much in the old kitchen.

Oh, well. I’m sure I can learn to ignore them if I find out it’s too risky to mess with them, but I’m hoping we can figure out how to jerry-rig something that’s more inline with my style.

And if that’s not enough drama, I’m beginning to wonder what’s going to happen to our Paris trip.

If you’re just tuning in, Paul and I are planning a trip to Paris in May to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

Of course, I was super excited, and yet I had this funny feeling that something was going to happen to prevent us from going.

I’m not usually a pessimist, but I was feeling a little gun-shy after we had to cancel our trip to Austin last spring when I was suffering from vertigo, and that isn’t our only experience with a highly anticipated trip going awry. A few years ago, our big family vacation out west to see the Grand Canyon was derailed by a case of the flu.

All that to say, this coronavirus has me a little bit on edge.

I’m not one to get caught up in all the hype, and I’m not really worried about contracting the virus, but I am worried about businesses and tourist destinations getting shut down for a time, or even worse, getting stuck in a quarantine situation. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

If one of us were traveling alone, it wouldn’t be such a big deal, but I don’t want to risk the both of us being separated from our kids for a long period of time.

We aren’t making any decisions yet — the trip is still two months away, and a lot can happen between now and then. But I can’t help but think about it.

As of right now, we have booked our plane tickets, our apartment, and all of our excursions. It would be a real pain to have to reverse all of that, but we do have trip insurance, so we’re just biding our time until we see how it all plays out.

So, yeah, I feel like all I’m doing these days is waiting. Waiting for spring, waiting for the kitchen to come together, waiting for my hip to get better, waiting to see what happens to our epic vacation… but these are all fun things!

Well, the hip isn’t fun, but it’s still minor in the grand scheme of things.

I know people right now who are waiting on test results and major surgeries and scary medical diagnoses. I am grateful that most of what I’m waiting on is fun stuff.

Spring will come, my kitchen will come together, my hip will heal, and if we have to cancel or postpone our trip, we will find something else fun to do to celebrate. It’s all good.

And the sun is shining today, so there’s that!

Unfortunately, it’s also 30 degrees and windy, so I’m going to skip my walk again.

I probably should take up yoga. At least I can do that inside. Anyone have a good resource for that? YouTube or something? I don’t even know. I never work out to videos.

Before I let you go, I want to be sure you don’t miss the white t-shirt review I posted yesterday!

I’ve been trying not to post on Saturdays, but I couldn’t get this one ready in time for Friday, and I didn’t want to put it off any longer, so I went ahead and published it yesterday.

So far, the feedback has been very positive. I did put many hours into it, so I sure hope it’s helpful to many of you!

Okay, that’s it for me. I’m off to get ready for church.

Have a great day!