Family Room Lighting Dilemma (Help!)

Last week we had some really beautiful bookshelves installed on both sides of our fireplace! They have totally transformed the room and I can't wait to share the progress soon! However, in the meantime I need some help from those of you who are way better at decorating than me (which is most likely ALL of you) with a lighting dilemma!

Our family room gets the most incredible natural light during the day. Sunshine literally floods the room thanks to our ginormous windows and I love it. However, we don't have any other light sources in this room so once the sun sets it is nearly pitch dark!

So here's the dilemma: How do I add light to this room?

1. My first preference is recessed lights but I think the ceilings are too high (20-25 feet) for recessed lighting to make a difference, right?
2. I dream about beautiful chandeliers but those are out of the budget and the Florida girl in me wants to keep the ceiling fans (side note: I also do not want to add light kits because I think the lighting would be too harsh, will draw attention to the fans and be a huge maintenance pain).
3. We have floor plugs and are leaning towards floor lamps...but toddlers. Or maybe you can help me figure out a way to get my kids to stop throwing toys and balls over the stair railings and into the living room so they don't destroy my future lighting. Ay yay yay. Also, do affordable and durable floor lamps exist? If so, where?!
4. To the left of the room, leaning against the stairs wall is a foyer table that can easily accommodate two lamps, but I can't find a set of pretty neutral lamps that I love and don't break the bank (and I'm a frequent HomeGoods shopper!).
5. Eventually we will get upgrade to a larger TV so maybe wall sconces at some point?

 Wingchairs | Ottoman | Sofa | Rug | Pillow | Foyer Table

 Help me find some lamps? Pretty please!

Weekend Rewind!

It was too good of a weekend not to recap! A few highlights...   Friday I scooped up the kids from school early and surprised them at home with swimming pools. During my Target run earlier that day I had determined that two pools (in the exact same color) would be the better decision with two wild toddlers. I am happy to report we suffered 50% less slide collisions with two pools vs one.

 The kiddos may or may not have had watermelon and ice pops for dinner and been bathed by hose.

Caroline wrapped up her first (and last for a very long time) soccer season! Soccer started off really fun...the first few Saturdays but Caroline quickly lost interest and spent most of her soccer games sitting on the sidelines digging through all the bags looking for snacks, chasing her friends off the field and up the nearby hill and sticking around till the end for the post-game participation stickers.

 Following her last "game," Caroline's extremely patient soccer coach presented each player with a water bottle and certificate of completion, which made me seriously laugh considering Caroline participated in about 7% of the season.

To celebrate more free time in our upcoming Saturdays we took the kiddos out for donuts after the soccer finale.

Our naptime project for the next 543923235 weekends is painting our new bookshelves in our family room! Truly a labor of love, we managed to get through 25% of the primer coat over the course of two naptimes this weekend. Small victories!

On Sunday we received a call from our tenants informing us that the tree in the front yard split in half. So that was awesome. Such is life with a rental property.

Remember her? Ahhh, the memories!

After meeting the tree guy for an estimate we decided to drown ourselves in chips & queso at one of our favorite restaurants in our old hood.

We ended the weekend with a super fun evening celebrating Caroline's best friend, Austin!

Toddler Talk

Time for another edition of Toddler Talk...

My Dress | Wedges | Caroline's Dress (on sale)

While selling our home Caroline was very concerned when we'd leave the house for a showing:
Caroline: Mommy, are the peoples going to play with our toys?
Mommy: No, they are just looking at stuff in the house.
Caroline: Oh. So they are going to watch Caillou on our TB?

While applying an entire box of band aids to her legs...

Mommy: Let's not waste all the band-aids. Caroline: But mommy, my leg is ouching!

During an attempt to have a conversation with Matt in the car...

Caroline: Excuse me mommy! Mommy + Daddy:...talking... Caroline: Excuse me daddy! Mommy + Daddy:...talking... Caroline: LISTEN TO MY WORDS!!!

While destroying the kitchen at Grandma's house...
Grandma: You are making a big mess!
Caroline: It's OK! My daddy will clean it up!