The Buerglers

Last year's Advent was spent in prayerful discernment about my career.  Not really focused on Christ's birth, but it was spent in profound prayer.  It was much needed and very therapeutic. I still received peace as a gift through the season. As we head into Advent today, the phrase "Prepare ye the way of the Lord" has been on my heart.  I have noticed how impulsive I have become with purchases, how blind I have been to distinguish needs and wants, and how lazy I have become with my house keeping. It's time for me to "prepare the way" for Christ to live in us. And this year, that means in my house...literally! I am tired of being embarrassed with drop in company seeing my house look like an F4 just blew by.  I'm tired of making excuses of "it's been a crazy week, sorry for the mess".  And for being too overwhelmed with clutter that I don't even know where to start. For me, right now, this isn't a pride thing. It's a s...

When Eric turned two his parents took him out for Chinese food and read him his fortune cookie fortune which "said", "You will sleep in a big boy bed tonight" And that was it, on Eric's second birthday he moved into his big boy room. In keeping with what his parents started, we've talked about moving Evie to a big girl room around her second birthday in November.  I'm not really in a rush, since she's still doing great in the crib and I want to keep her contained as long as possible. But literally, no sooner did the paint dry on her nursery did I start hunting down room theme ideas for her eventual new room. Since we did something gender neutral and timeless for the nursery, I wanted something feminine and more grown up for her big girl room. I also didn't want anything too trendy, or that involved a character of sorts.  Mostly, I wanted something that she can grow with until her tweenage years. It took almost a year, but I finally f...

A few weeks ago I wrote about being intentional , and how it's deliberate baby-steps towards an end goal.  One of those end goals for Eric and I is to find simple things we can do to be good stewards of our treasure (read: money) and the earth.  Also known as cheap and green. It's part of our duty on this earth as part of Catholic Social Teaching. Here's a few simple things we do around out house that help save us money, but also help save the earth. Cloth napkins.     Level: beginner Cost: free to $ So this one is super easy.  Take those $10 Kohl's cards that come in the mail and march yourself to the clearance kitchenwares section. Snag 2-4 cloth napkins.  I've built up our stash to 10-12 over the years.  In the four years we've been married I've only bought 1 package of napkins. We just throw the cloth napkins in our regular wash as needed.  And they only take two seconds to fold.   I know this isn't savin...

Hello, again!   One of the aspects of living in an apartment that I both LOVED and HATED was not having a yard. I loved not having to worry about yard work, but as Evie grew, I hated not having a place for her to run and play.  And we long to host cookouts. Last week I did a quick tour of the downstairs of our new house, and back in March, Evie's Room .  And now I want to show the back yard.   Our GLORIOUS back yard! But this gloriousness didn't happen over night!  The family we bought the house from had done a TON of landscape work to flip the house. It looked great!   However, in order to sell a house in November they just planted big ! pretty ! things. And they exploded this Spring. Exhibit A.   It was lush, but I felt like it was encroaching on us.  And animals were starting to take up residence in the bushes. I don't do animals . Having moved from an apartment we didn't have lawn equipment to ta...

Well, hello there.  I think quite possibly the most asked question I've had since we moved in November is, "Hey! When are we going to see pictures of your house"  So, 6 months after we moved in, here they are! The Buergler Haus Welcome to the foyer! The door on the right by the mirror is the bathroom and the one on the left is a closet.  Our living room! The furniture is a collection of hand-me-downs from parents and friends. We bought our hutch (pictured a few photos down) and the tv credenza with wedding money. I'm not much for baby proofing, but the baby gate was necessary.  We have a few bookshelves upstairs that I'm scared to death Evie will pull over. Darn toddlers can go into stealth mode and sneak up stairs before you even know they're gone. But at bed time? It's like Mt. Everest. We had decorations on the coffee and end tables until a little person that belongs to us learned how to pull the backs off picture frames....