4 Men 1 Lady

The hardest job ever…and most sacred.

August 30, 2016 by Michelle Hinckley 4 Comments

Yesterday marked the very first day I’ve been home alone longer than 4 hours by myself.
For the past 12 years these boys have been my everything.
Raising them has been no easy task.
They’re stubborn, strong-willed and know exactly what they want.
August 1st I was ready for them to go back to school.
This past week they did.
I thought I’d be jumping for joy.
Instead my eyes welled up with stinging tears as I watched my youngest walk in the that big tan school building.

The old wise ones tell us enjoy our kids now because before you know it they’re gone.
They were right.
Time has flown by.
Blink and you’ll miss it.
Despite it’s challenges parenting has been a sacred honor.
Sometimes it takes them leaving you by yourself all day to realize that.

What do do with a collection.

August 19, 2016 by Michelle Hinckley 4 Comments

Since having boys I’ve always been on the look out for vintage boxes, baskets and containers. They are perfect perfect for keeping baseball cards, marbles and trinkets. Since taking over The Old Flamingo I’ve been treasure hunting every weekend and have started a collection of vintage first aid boxes.

As I’ve been picking through people’s stuff I’ve found that lots of people have collections but often time they are stuffed in a closet or under a bed.
What good is a collection if you can’t enjoy it?
Vowing not to get caught in that trap I decided to figure out a cool way to display my new collection.

I picked up a couple of Ikea’s Ribba Picture ledges for $14.99 each. DIY’ing these is really simple. I’ve made them here and here.
My sweet Mr. hung them for me in the basement above the piano.

Then I place all my boxes on the ledges.

Do you have a collection? How do you display it?

Beach or bust.

August 12, 2016 by Michelle Hinckley 2 Comments

This summer has been a family filled past few months. We’ve tried to pump the breaks and smell the roses with these boys. A tall order with the 5 of us going in different directions.

We escaped the summer heat and headed west for the beach.

The San Diego beaches were good to us. Usually when we travel we hit every theme park, attraction, historical marker…
This trip we parked ourselves on the beach and played for 5 straight days.

We dug our toes deep in the sand, built castles, boogie boarded until our fingers were wrinkled, had the lifeguards tell us we were out too far, watched from the ocean as the seagulls stole our lunch on the beach, reunited with cousins, drank way too much sea water…the whole trip was bliss.