TGIF everyone! I’m certain that everyone has to be super excited that our long weekend is about to start! I have quite the treat to start everyone off on their weekends. Today’s featured lady for IN HER SHOES is none other than Beth from The Stories of A to Z. Beth is a new friend to me and I’m so happy that I found her! She is as sweet as pie, bakes delicious treats, homeschools her two boys and finds time to do one amazing DIY project after another. I bow down to her!

Enjoy a peek into her life! I loved seeing what she was up and found out that we are even more similar than I already thought.

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6:00 Two tasmanian devils come whirling into the room like tornados and yell, “There is a 6 on the clock!” The boys know they’re not allowed to wake us up before the 6 appears.  (Note to self:  Set the boys’ clock back by an hour!)  My husband is a saint so gets up with the boys while I go back to sleep.

8:03 I feel like I could sleep for four more hours.  I walk downstairs in a daze and go through being ritualistically attacked by my 5 month old pomeranian pup.  She loves to bite my p.j. pants and shake them vigorously.  I’m always too tired to correct her in the morning.  She knows this and takes full advantage.  No shoes for indoors or even outdoors around my home.  I love to be barefoot.

8:08  I make my morning coffee and admire my newly finished pebble stone backsplash.  My coffee is decaf, but I’m highly sensitive to caffeine so it does the trick.  Or maybe the placebo effect does the trick?  Either way, I’m feeling more awake.

8:15  Matt is reading Narnia to the boys, so I sneak outside to enjoy my breakfast in peace.  My four year old sees me taking a pic so quickly puts on his “tough face”.

8:20  As I munch on some yogurt and granola, I notice all the weeds in our tiny yard and our shabby looking back porch.  Today is glorious outside, so I decide to spruce up the back.

8:27 I head upstairs to get dressed and remember that today is “neighborhood clean-up day”.  Shoot!  I totally forgot.  We live in the city in an urban redevelopment.  Most of the homes in our neighborhood have been completely gutted, renovated, and resold.  However there are several that have not, and the trash and weeds in those areas is a major eye sore.  Time to get out there and make our neighborhood pretty!

I throw on my silver sandals and head out the door with push broom in hand.

12:33  Oh my goodness, we are exhausted!  The trash, weeds, and debris could have taken us all day long!  The boys were done, and frankly so was I.  Time to grab some lunch and then work on my own weeds for awhile.

1:04  I catch up on email, facebook, and twitter while helping my kindergartner complete some worksheets.  I am homeschooling this year but hopefully not next.  Multi-tasking while homeschooling hasn’t worked out so well for us. Hats off to all of you homeschooling mommas!  I have NO idea how you do it, and do it well.

2:35  Asher does some school work on the computer while I head outside to conquer the weeds and scruffy looking back porch.  I bought these shutters and chair from Craigslist for $10 last summer and here they sit waiting for a makeover.  Today is the day!  I want to paint the chair and reupholster it in a fun, bold print.  But I can’t see the end result in my mind’s eye yet so…

….I grab the computer and play around on Polyvore to try and find my vision.

3:40  It took a crowbar to get off that horrid fabric.  This project is taking too long, and I still want to run to the market to buy some flowers.  The chair and shutters will have to wait.

4:02  We arrive at one of my favorite markets.  I love that even though we live in the city the country is only a few minutes away.

4:15  I pretend I know what I’m looking for in a plant and finally settle on my old standbys…impatiens.  I  tend to kill everything else.

4:25  I let the boys visit with all the farm animals.  This calf was uber friendly.

She wanted to kiss Zephan, but Zeph wasn’t in the mood for bovine smooching today :).

5:01  We arrive back home and I hang up my new flowers and enjoy my freshly weeded patio.  I water everything and pray that it doesn’t all die.

5:40  Hubs is home and has made gluten free chicken nuggets and sautéed asparagus for dinner!  I know, I know…a man who lets me sleep in AND makes dinner!  I think I’ll keep him ;).

6:35  Zephan starts begging for ice cream, so we spontaneously decide to go out for ice cream.  This local dive sells the most amazingly delish, affordable, and ginormous cones!  The line is out the door as we arrive.  This is annoying but the bright side is that I have plenty of time to narrow down my flavor options.

6:58  It was a very long wait, but so worth it.  I went for the Gertrude Hawk Box of Chocolate ice cream (and yes, I ate the entire thing.  Yikes!)  I wore my 5 inch black ruffled wedges for the event.  I love these shoes.  My husband is 6’3″ and with these shoes on I feel like I’m finally able to kiss him without straining my neck.

7:20  We live near the river and love to take long walks each evening.  It’s a gorgeous night, and I’m feeling high on chocolate and fresh air!

7:23  I hand the camera over to my 6 yr old and let him have at it.  He captures a sweet pic of me and Matt.

8:00 We walk home, put the boys to bed, and I hit the computer hard!  The evening is my time to blog, catch up on emails, and answer questions.  Today I have several strange questions about advertising.  Two different emails from two different parties wanting to know my rates, but after some back and forth exchange they aren’t willing to tell me their business names, or even if they are interested in advertising.  Seems like they are just phishing.  Whatev.  I tell them what I charge and move on to more important things.  I’m in the middle of coordinating an upcoming series called How to Decorate for the DIY’er scheduled for the month of June.  It’s going to be so much fun!  I work on making a button for the event.

10:39  I’m tired and tomorrow will come all too soon, so I get ready for bed and call it a day.

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A big thank you to Beth and her adorable family for sharing a day in their life. What an amazing hubby!

I hope you all enjoy your holiday weekend. Jon has been off since yesterday so we’ve had fun getting back into the groove of DIY projects. Stay tuned for some fun, easy and relatively budget friendly projects coming your way! We are currently working on 3!