Tuesday With Ande

A year or two ago I asked you blog readers for suggestions for a topic to write about on Tuesday.  You gave me all kinds of good ideas and that is what I have used.  Ande's suggestion was "Tuesday's with Ande" much like "Tuesday's with Morrie."  That topic worked out perfectly this week, for we spent last Tuesday with her . . 

We stopped by Joe and Ande's house to wait for a call from Ray at the hospital saying that their baby was born.  Ande guessed we might be hungry and quickly made a pot of cheese/mushroom and chicken ravioli with pasta sauce and shaved Parmesan cheese.  She had the five of us (Ty, Michelle, Calvin, me, and herself) fed within a half an hour.  She is so adept in her home. 

Ande and Joe's home is full of color and fun ideas.  I thought I'd share a few of them with you today:

Joe and Ande are both readers and they have hundreds of books to store.  Ande made a shelf by their bed out of a few classics.  She keeps her journal and pen on top of them.   

Both Cali and Ande have old coke bottle boxes with little mementos.  It's fun to see what they have collected, and a perfect place for those little things you don't know what to do with but don't want to throw away.  (The little tag on the bottom shelf says, "Every day I fall in love with you more and more.  Well, not every day.  Yesterday you were pretty annoying.")  

Ande painted this globe with chalkboard paint.  It sits just inside the door on a beautiful secretary desk.  She and Joe leave notes on it to each other.

I love how Ande found a home for her "I Love Lucy" barbie doll with some of their books.  It's so random.

Ande took a picture of this boat down on the lockes, then enlarged it for their home.

Joe's mom has fine furniture stores in the South and Joe has gotten some beautiful pieces of furniture from her.  Inside one of their bookcases, they have a Polish nativity displayed year round.    

Ande covered two magazine boxes with pages from a book, then turned them sideways and hung them in a corner to store phones, cords, and electronic devises.  

Joe and Ande are both very good cooks and like to cook a lot of ethnic foods.  To give themselves more spice room they bought metal magnetic tins and store some of their more abundantly used spices on the front of the refrigerator.

One of the fun things about the kids setting up their own homes is to see their personalities reflected and to feel the spirit of their homes.  Each family has its own style and priorities and it's fun to enjoy them and get ideas from them.  Homemaking is alive and well and it feels so good.