The Bird and the Dragons

Get Your Nose Out of that Book!

2012-01-26T21:09:00.002-06:00

This post is basically just for me to remember, but I'm loving Grey's new passion for reading. During the day he's all basketball and video games and board games and rough housing, but in the evenings he's all about reading. We put him to bed two hours ago, and he just came down a few minutes ago saying, "Mommy, I have to read this to you . . . it's so amazing, and it's all true!" He was reading The Magic Treehouse series that his Aunt Tiffany gave him for Christmas, and the characters in the book end up on the moon. He was reading me the part about how you weigh less when you're on the moon than you do when you're on earth. He thought it was crazy fun!

He's totally got me wrapped around his little finger with the reading. He asked if he could stay up and read "so he wouldn't bother Annie," because he "just might accidentally start reading out loud if it gets really exciting." And I totally let him. Even though it's 9:00 and he has chess club at 7:00 tomorrow morning.

He read me the end of that chapter, taking a break to sigh and say, "This book is really hard." But he loves it--laughs at the story, is amazed by the facts, and can't put it down. I had to take it out of his hands. I hope this love for books lasts the rest of his life!

Are You Exhausted?

2012-01-03T13:35:00.003-06:00

After the holidays I always feel so exhausted--all that planning, cooking, shopping, wrapping, visiting, hugging, and celebrating ends so quickly. My back physically aches with the end of it all. I miss the friends who have gone back home and wish the fellowship could continue. But I'm so thankful for preschool and sweet, kind teachers who love my kids. It's my first day back, and I'm running around town, 50 miles on my car, doing errands, going to the grocery, all those things I didn't want to do with the kids with me.

I am working today, too, and now that I think about it, my work is one of the greatest blessings of my life, really. I had no plans to become an editor, nor a writer. It just kind of happened. But I'm certain that God knew and he planned. It's such a delight to get paid to read a good book, to be inspired by your work. That happened to me today. I'm reading Max Lucado's upcoming book, titled Grace. It's wonderful. My only regret is that I have to read it quickly. I highly recommend it and suggest you pre-order it today. Amazon gives you great deals when you pre-order, or support your local bookstore by pre-ordering it there. Either way, order the book!

[[OK, just looked online and the book isn't available for pre-order yet. I'll update this and move it to the top when it is.]]

Here is one of the many passages in it that have wrapped me up in a big hug of grace today. I LOVE this, and I hope it gives you that big breath of fresh air you might need too.

"God’s promise has no hidden language. Let grace happen, for heaven’s sake. No more performance for God, no more clamoring after God. Of all the things you must earn in life, God’s unending affection is not one of them. You have it. Stretch yourself out in the hammock of grace.

You can rest now."

Family Tradition

2011-12-30T20:05:00.002-06:00

Every year when school gets out for Christmas break we've been "stair sledding" with the kids. Perhaps this is because we have no snow here to do real sledding, or perhaps it's because of the looks on their faces.

Lord of All Creation

2011-12-29T21:15:00.001-06:00

Such a beautiful sunset tonight. Thank you, God!

Good or Greed?

2011-12-16T16:45:00.007-06:00

An acquaintance posted this article on Facebook today, and the comments section surprised me a bit. Take a minute to read through it, 'cause I want your opinions.

My first reaction, and that of most of the commenters, as I started to read it was that this was a series of kind gestures by generous people. And that's true. But after reading further on, I'm not sure they were good gestures.

The part that first gave me pause was when it said someone had paid off a certain woman's layaway account "which held nearly $200 in toys for her 4-year-old son." What hit me about this was that the woman was considered "impoverished," yet she had put $200 in toys on layaway, presumably because she couldn't afford to pay for them up front, and it was all for one child. I know that $200 isn't $2000, and it's so hard to resist when you're desire is to make your kids happy. But what are we really teaching them by giving them things we can't afford? Isn't that what got us into this problem in the first place?

This has been a tightening-of-the-belt-straps year for us with Todd finishing up his last of four years of full-time school and starting a new job. God has blessed us more than we deserve. Next year should be more comfortable than this year, due to that blessing and Todd's hard work, but we've experienced just a little bit of what so many Americans have since 2008. Because of all of this, we're scaling back this year. We've gotten four gifts for each child, and we've spent less than a $100 on each child. How? I've resisted the urge to buy many things I know the kids would love. We've made gifts by hand. We've bought teacher's gifts in bulk and divided them up. And one of Annie's sweet friends handed down an awesome almost-new toy for Hayes--and he'll never know we didn't pay the $60 it costs at retail.

Back to K-mart. Certainly, these anonymous shoppers were very generous to help others, some who couldn't afford to pay for their kids' toys and some who could. Many of those needy parents probably were trying to just get a few things that would make Christmas a special day, not anything extravagant. I especially love the story about the lady who had saved up the money to pay off her bill, and when her bill was paid, she decided to use that money to pay someone else's bill. Generosity is definitely great this time of year, but greediness and uber-consumerism isn't.

NOTE: My kids will be thoroughly spoiled by their grandparents this year, so we'll be cleaning out tons of old toys and clothes next week. If you want anything, just let us know! :)

ALSO NOTE: This picture is from an NPR website. It has nothing to do with the article other than showing people shopping. These ladies may could be buying for anyone--their kids, a preschool, charity, etc.

You Get What You Get and You Don't Throw a Fit

2011-12-11T22:36:00.002-06:00

I've been enforcing the "kids eat what grownups eat" for dinner rule lately, bolstered by the realization that the only one who actually eats the grownup food is the baby, so the being-too-young argument holds no weight. Last week I made pot roast, and Grey turned up his nose. After a few bites, though, he declared, "This is the best thing I've ever eaten! Except McDonalds. That's a little bit better."

Then, tonight I made black beans and rice with kielbasa in the slow cooker. After a day all over town with a rough nursery duty at church (let me just say, if you're kid's allergic to goldfish, please tell the nursery worker), a birthday party, and basketball practice, I wasn't about to make something special for them, even though I know they don't love black beans. I threw in some rolls as a consolation prize. Annie was the only one who ate, and I asked if she liked it. "Yes," she said automatically but cheerfully. Then, "Wait, no. I don't like it. But I'll get used to it."

Real Creative

2011-11-19T14:05:00.003-06:00

When we were picking names for our kids, we felt drawn to family names because they held some significance for us. But we also wanted unique-but-not-weird, uncommon-but-not-unusual names. And we didn't want any juniors. We looked up the meanings at the time, just to make sure they weren't crazy weird, and then promptly forgot them. I knew vaguely that Annie's had something to do with the home. I looked them up today.

Turns out, she and Grey have almost identical name meanings:

Harriett (home ruler) Anne (gracious)

Henry (home ruler) Greydon (pleasant)

I never looked Hayes's up. Honestly, I figured since he basically has all last names, his wouldn't have a meaning like the others do. But I really like the meaning of Hayes.

Anderson (son of Anders) Hayes (from the hedged place)

I love the idea of protection and safety that comes with his name.

But my favorite has to be my nephew, Alfie's, meaning. Alfred means "elf counsel." How awesome is that?

By the way, the family connections are that Harriett Ann was my grandmother, and all the ladies in Todd's family have Anne as their middle name. Thus Annie. My grandfather was Carl Henry, but he went by Carl on the very few times he wasn't called by his nickname, Butter. But that was kind of a coincidence. I'd always loved the name. And Anderson, of course, is a reference to my family name. Hayes and Greydon are just names we liked!

Halloween, belated

2011-11-17T09:48:00.006-06:00

So, I'm a little late in getting this up. Halloween was tons of fun this year once again. We had the Marlows and the Fords come out and party with us, and they brought along their grandparents and cousins as well. A huge houseful of kids who took over our new neighborhood for the first time. We ended up with more candy than we started with, and I promptly donated TONS of it to our church picnic the following weekend. Here are some photos of the lovelies:

three-layer chocolate cake for dessert

(Why in the world did I think we'd need a dessert after all that candy? It was John's birthday weekend, though. So we were able to celebrate him.)

our little owl. without the hat, he looked more like a flamenco dancer.

either way is cool with me.

the crew

spiderman and tangled

buzz and woody (coincidental pairing of theme for these real-life buddies)

Tangled hair

Many thanks to Natalina for the great pictures!

Three Ninjas

2011-11-15T19:47:00.003-06:00

Annie's favorite movie for the last year or so has been Three Ninjas, an early-90s trilogy about three brothers who moonlight as ninjas, with a small part played by the illustrious Hulk Hogan. The youngest brother is about Annie's age, and she loves to play Three Ninjas at home. Hayes is TumTum, Grey is Colt, and I can't remember the other one's name. Tonight I walked in on an epic battle, and I was so glad to know that I'm safe at home with these crime-fighters tucked snugly in their beds.

Is a Snickers Really Worth This?

2011-10-24T20:35:00.003-05:00

Imagine your friend tells you that she's found this great new coffee shop that sells their drinks at a fraction of the cost of Starbucks. The way they can cut costs is that they use child labor to gather their coffee beans. Child labor in a third-world country doesn't cost much. She doesn't have a problem with it as long as her coffee stays cheap. It's a win-win, right?

Horrific, no?

That's the point that Kristen Howerton made on her blog, Rage Against the Minivan, a few weeks ago. Why? Because most of the major commercial chocolate companies are doing this very thing.

Kids like this little boy in West Africa do back-breaking labor to gather cocoa pods so we can have our Three Musketeers bars. As Kristen says:

But honestly, what concerns me even more is that we, as consumers, are not demanding that this be stopped. People continue to buy chocolate even after learning about these human rights abuses. I’ve heard excuses from people in my own life that sound pretty similar to the ones I made in the coffee post. We rationalize that we can’t afford fair-trade. We joke about how addicted we are. We justify that we can’t change everything. And I think secretly, we don’t relate because these are kids in a far-off country, and not our own. It’s okay as long as we don’t have to see it happening right in front of us.

This isn't one random fringe company you've never heard of; it's "pretty much every snack-size candy bar that will be available in stores this Halloween."

Please, read Kristen's blog post here.

And before you shop, check this list of slave-free chocolate here. And here are some non-chocolate options.

Big Day

2011-10-17T20:44:00.003-05:00

Today was the day. I've been dreading it for about six months.

A few years ago we noticed this funny little thing Grey did when he watched TV. He pointed his chin down and looked from the top of his eyeballs at the screen. Quirky. Funny. Cute. Turns out it was actually his way of compensating for some muscle issues he had going on in his eye. About a year ago I started noticing that he'd cross his left eye in. I'd tell him to quit and he would, and that was that. But his pediatrician told me it's not possible for him to do that on purpose. Clearly, however, I know more about children's anatomy than a doctor who's been practicing for (possibly) 30 or 40 years. So I just ignored it.

Turns out he was right! We took him to Vanderbilt Eye Institute in April, and after a three hour appointment with multiple opinions, I was stunned to find out he'd have to have surgery to fix it. I was thinking worst-case scenario would be glasses. We went back two months later for a visit to confirm his measurements, and they still suggested surgery. Whew boy.

Todd and Grey waiting for the doctors.

We put it off as long as we could for a variety of reasons (Todd's work, no swimming for two weeks after surgery, etc.) Today was the day. I kept it together pretty well until last night, then I just worried about my baby going under anesthesia. Had dreams during the night that'd we'd sent him off to college at age 6 and couldn't find him in his dorms. Woke up at 4:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep. Worried.

But, when we left the house at 5:30 for Vanderbilt Children's Hospital I'd switched into "fake it till you make it" mode and was doing well. Grey was a super trooper. He got a little clingy after the 10th doctor had come in to ask the same questions, but other than that he was great. I highly suggest scheduling surgery first thing in the morning--makes it easier, I'm convinced.

Vanderbilt is a great place, and they truly know how to communicate with kids about their medical condition. There were cozy coupes in the rooms for them to ride around in. Grey got to watch TV. His stuffed lion, Radar, got his own ID bracelet just like Grey. A lady came by and showed him photos of all the rooms he'd be in and then let him pick out the flavor of chapstick he wanted to rub on the mask they'd use for his anesthesia. It was all very relatable.

I'm seeing now, even as I type this, the blessing that his false diagnosis of asthma was when he was a baby. He still remembers the "fish face"--his breathing machine. He wasn't scared at all of the anesthesia mask because it was so similar to his nebulizer. Little mercies.

Post-surgery with Dr. Radar. Love that they dressed his toy up like this while he was back there. Grey had a bite of popsicle in his mouth in this picture. He was too tired to keep his eyes open, but he was awake.

All this to say, at the end of the day we had a little guy with blood-tinged eyes but a huge heart and strong backbone. He never complained once. He wanted to visit with his brother and sister. He wanted to eat the spaghetti and meatballs because Grama had made it for him and it was his favorite, even though he'd just thrown up. He encouraged his sister, who thought it was now her turn to go have surgery, that it was okay because she wouldn't remember anything. And he fell asleep in Grama's lap, just like he used to when he was a baby. Nothing like going through surgery to remind you how wonderful your kids are and how much you love them. And nothing like spending a day at the children's hospital to remember just how blessed you are.

A conversation with Annie

2011-10-10T20:47:00.004-05:00

Now that Grey's in kindergarten (and loving it), I have a lot more one-on-one time with Annie. Hayes naps before we go get Grey, and Annie "rests." She usually stays up in her room for a while then comes down and watches a movie. Today she stayed downstairs and colored at the kitchen table while I worked. I walked over to her and said, "Hey, Annie, can you do me a favor?" She looked at me and said, "Never grow up?" Love it.

In other notable news, Grey is reading! I knew he was getting words here or there, but yesterday he and Annie sat down on the couch next to me and he opened a book up and just started reading it to her. After a few pages I realized what was happening and tuned in. He had to ask for help a couple times, but I'm very proud of his hard work. His sweet teacher, Mrs. Teller, is so wonderful and I can tell he's learning so much. He's asked me a lot of thoughtful questions about the history of Christianity, and I love that he's learning so much about our faith as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic!

House for Sale

2011-09-26T13:08:00.004-05:00

We're FINALLY ready to list our old house for sale, and we're hoping to move it fast. I know it's unlikely in this economy, but we're really praying that God will prepare the right family for this house. It's been a wonderful place to have three children, and the neighborhood is nice and there are plenty of kids to play with.

We regularly walked to get dinner, ice cream, or go to Publix (if we didn't need to get much to carry back). We also walked the kids to preschool and even the YMCA, and our neighbors could walk their kids to Harpeth Heights Elementary School, which is a great elementary school in Bellevue. We're one or two miles up from Loveless Cafe off Hwy 100. We've loved it, and we hope you know someone who will too!

Beautiful, private back porch

Spacious sun room with five windows. Lots of light!

There's this fun little space between the kitchen and sunroom. At various times we've left it empty and maximized use of the porch, put a dinner table there, or set up comfy chairs and a coffee table for a little reading/coffee nook.

Open kitchen with all stainless appliances staying. Corian countertops. Nice, big cabinets. Large pantry. There's also a guest bathroom off the kitchen, and an entrance to the garage (which is really handy when you're bringing in groceries).

Lots of light in the dining room as well. Or, this room could be used as a study if you don't have a formal dining set.

The downstairs living room with wood-burning fireplace and hardwood floors throughout. These hardwoods are the real deal--they can be sanded and refinished and all that.

The upstairs has three bedrooms, including a very large master suite with spacious bathroom, sitting area and huge walk-in closet. The bathroom has a whirlpool tub, shower, and his-and-hers sinks.

There is also a very big playroom upstairs with four windows facing the road and a huge arched window facing the side yard. There is tons of light in this room and is big enough to double as a playroom and adult TV/computer room.

Last but not least, there is also a kids' full bathroom with tub/shower combo and big built-in sink cabinets and the laundry room (with front-load washer and dryer staying) upstairs. I LOVED having my laundry room right by the bedrooms. It made doing laundry so easy.

If you know anyone who wants to move to this lovely neighborhood, please have them get in touch with me. We're ready to sell!

7341 Olmsted Drive, Nashville, TN 37221

I Think By Now . . .

2011-09-25T13:22:00.002-05:00

This little munchkin is my favorite little girl in the world, as I probably tell her too often. She's spunky and smart and definitely not a people-pleaser. By that I mean she's not afraid to tell it how it is, and she'll make a great lawyer or CEO or dictator or mother some day.

Todd has been driving Grey to school in the mornings, so on the days she and Hayes go to preschool I have just the two of them in the car. We take a back road past Owl's Hill Nature Center to avoid the traffic on the way. It's a two-lane, winding, gravel road with lots of little dips and rises, and the whole way there she hoots and hollers, "This is the best day ever!" She has a beautiful little spirit that is passionate and excited about everything.

She's also very stubborn. A couple days ago she did something in the car to offend her brother. I think she whacked him on the head, but I can't really remember. I had thought ahead and brought some treats with me for carpool pickup, and I was asking her to apologize before she could have her treat. She refused. After about 15 minutes of back-and-forth on it, I told her, "Honey, I think by now you understand that you aren't going to get your treat if you don't apologize." She instantly replied, "And I think by now you've figured out I'm not going to apologize, so just give me my treat." I couldn't help but laugh out loud (and not give her the treat).

An Exercise in Frugality

2011-09-15T09:29:00.006-05:00

One of my weaknesses in our household budget is that I love to eat lunch out. I often meet up with mom or friends and get a bite to eat. I'm known to stick to the same old places--for a few years we went to Davis Kidd's bistro a couple times a week and sat in Suzanne's section. Now we're hooked on Bread & Company. When we're with the kids, I still think B&C is one of the best places to go because they can split the $2 chicken tenders and $.99 fruit. However, it's dern expensive for us grown ups.

One of my favorite salads there is the Montrechat salad. Greens, pulled turkey breast, dried cranberries, walnuts, and goat cheese with a vinaigrette dressing that they make in house. I've been making it at home lately, and it's been really yummy. Today I thought I'd do the math and see how much I'm saving.

The Montrechat is not on their menu online, but I'm pretty sure it was $12.99. Maybe $14.99. Their fruit tea is $2.25 for a large, right? (Again, not on the menu.) So, you're looking at $16.00 for lunch, easily.

I headed to Publix this morning and bought 1 lb of chicken ($6.62), mixed greens ($3.99), dried cranberries ($3.75), walnuts ($3.19), goat cheese ($5.89--there were cheaper options, but I like this brand the best), and salad dressing ($3.29). I also got a small loaf of rosemary olive oil bread ($2.49) to have a slice with the salad; B&C gives you a choice of a piece of bread with your salads. Then, for my drinks I got 1 gallon of Publix orange juice ($4.99), 1 gallon of sweet tea ($2.99--could make your own much cheaper, but I was lazy), and 1 bottle of lemon barley water ($3.99, in the British section).

My total is $41.19. Oh, and I bought everything organic. Except the juice and sweet tea. Everything for the salad--greens, chicken, cranberries, walnuts.

I bake the chicken breasts then chop them up finely and season with salt and pepper. I put them in a tupperware container and put them in the fridge. That way it will be ready when I need it this week.

Other than that, I just have to arrange my salad every day. Greens, pulled chicken, handful of cranberries, handful of walnuts, goat cheese, and dressing. Honestly, I prefer this Marie's dressing to Bread & Company's dressing. But if you like the Bread & Co stuff better they do sell it in bulk quantity. And the rosemary olive-oil bread from Publix was really good and half the price of B&C's pane paesano. Publix also sells a cranberry walnut loaf for $4 that's similar to B&C's $10 loaf of cranberry pecan.

For the fruit tea, I get a cup and put in my ice. Then I pour in the sweet tea to fill the cup halfway.

Then, I add OJ until it's another 2/3 full . . .

and I top it off with the barley water. It has a different flavor from B&C, a little more tart maybe? But it's pretty darn close and easy. Word has it that the B&C recipe is: brew sweet tea over mint leaves, discard leaves and add OJ concentrate, lemon juice, and water. I guess I'm just missing the mint. You could drop one droplet of mint extract if you want. Or add mint leaves to it. Your call.

This will be enough for me to make at least five salads. My cost is $5.84 per salad. The fruit tea makes a little more than two gallons, and the cost is $11.97. One gallon of fruit tea at Bread & Co is $9.95. A large glass with your order is $2.25, so you're saving lots by making it at home.

Of course, I left out the tax at the grocery and at the restaurant, so I guess it probably evens out.

Before and Afters

2011-09-09T19:51:00.007-05:00

I had really hoped to take some great "after" shots before the furniture was moved in, but that didn't happen. We're still about 15 or 25 percent in boxes and there are some furniture issues that need to be resolved, but overall we're starting to feel settled. I think it won't really feel like home till we have some friends over to share it with us, so we're looking forward to having all the dangerous tools and other stuff put away so we can start the invites!

Bathroom Before:

Bathroom After:

We're hoping to get a little shelf to put over the toilet to hold makeup, medicine, etc. since we have a lot less storage in here than we did in our last house. We didn't really plan to renovate this room yet, but the wallpaper just peeled off. So it's sort of a half-done job here.

Master Bedroom before:

Master Bedroom After:

No pictures on the walls yet, the photo isn't very good, and I haven't found our shams yet for the bed, but you can see we painted, put in new carpet, and hung curtains.

Den Before:

Den After:

Hardwood floors replaced the old carpet, knocked the wall out between den and kitchen, added built-in bookshelves (not quite finished yet), and painted. Boxes everywhere.

Dining Room Before:

Dining Room After:

Foyer Before:

Foyer After:

You can see where the hall and closet are now a laundry room, and the old laundry room is now my office.

Kitchen Before:

Kitchen After:

It's a long galley kitchen and with the wall knocked out it feels huge!

Living Room Before:

Living Room After:

God has blessed us with beautiful weather and this wonderful back yard that's fenced in. I can let the kids go out there and play, and I envision lots of fall evenings cooking out and watching kids running around playing.

Not Done Yet

2011-09-06T21:42:00.003-05:00

Boxes are slowly being unpacked. And Todd's racing to finish up the bookshelves, coming home from work and putting in a few more hours on them before bed. We had our first dinner at the house tonight. I meant to take a picture but didn't. Kids are kind of starting to get used to their rooms. Pray that they'll STAY IN BED, DARN IT. And I have been beyond exhausted. Not sure why I'm this tired. I mean, I know I should be tired, but this is crazy.

The shelves Todd built are looking amazing. He's done it 100 percent on his own, and I think they look pretty dang professional if you ask me. Can't wait to get the books up there.

The whole unit will eventually be this dark gray color. It's the same color that's in our bedroom and the kitchen. It looks almost like a Hunter green in the picture. It's not. It's "Gray Squirrel" from Martha Stewart. Love me some Martha. (Don't love the fingerprints all over the wonky TV. It's on swivel mount, so it was sitting out kind of funny at the moment I took this picture. Don't worry--it can straighten up. And we have Windex.)

These are the boxes of books. They will go on the shelves. We could start a small library.

So. Tired.

2011-09-05T21:20:00.003-05:00

We moved in on Saturday. Many thanks to Steve, Adam, and John for their muscles. And to Debbie and Steve for hiring a piano mover. The house looks much worse than these pictures show. And just try to find your keys when they go missing and your house is full of boxes and bags of trash in every room.

The rain that's come through is wonderful in terms of cooling us down, but it wasn't so great when mom, Todd, and I were dashing back and forth through it with yet another load of boxes and clothes this afternoon. I will be very thankful when this process is over. But we're glad to be here and we're looking forward to finding a buyer for the Bellevue house soon!

[[Sorry - pictures won't upload right now. Will post them later.]]

Breaking Her In

2011-08-31T21:28:00.004-05:00

Today lots of the little details were finished up that started to make the house feel less like a construction zone and more like a home. Lights were hung. Knobs were put on cabinets. Tools were taken home. The floor was mopped. And we had friends over.

We are one of four (pretty rockin') families who meet together every other week for dinner and great conversation. The ten children we have among us run wild--laughing, fighting, playing, wrestling, chasing, and becoming fast friends. In fact, as Annie argues vehemently--they're not her friends; they're her family. We hope to be in each other's lives for a very long time, so it was appropriate that they were the first ones to come over to the house.

Taking turns sitting on the three chairs we have at the house, we ate pizza and popsicles. The kids broke in the backyard and went up and down, up and down, up and down the stairs. And in and out, in and out, in and out the back door. They all (even ours) felt the need to open every door and see what was behind it, which I love. I love their curiosity and interest in our lives. These are great kids and I'm so thankful that ours get to grow up along side these boys and girls.

[[This is the perfect place for me to put a picture of all the kids playing together in the yard, but I didn't take one. Oops! Next time . . .]]

Now for some rest, hopefully. The big move is in T-58 hours.

Pictures from today:

Our house looks like this right now. I cannot wait to have the boxes gone. Hayes is climbing them when he can, so I'm having to stack them in ways that I'm sure he can't get on top of them. Trickier than you'd think. It feels like a huge game of Tetris-meets-Mario.

The den. Nice and open and clean! Ceiling fan going in tomorrow. Todd needs to finish up his bookshelves (the first thing we started, which got seriously held up by having the contractors in and their stuff all over the shelves for last few weeks).

Dining room chandelier is in! Debating whether or not to add shades to the lights. Thoughts? I don't really like looking at bare bulbs, but I don't want it to look too traditional either. Curtains coming after we move, since I've packed up my sewing stuff.

The south wall of the kitchen. Makes it sound quite formal that way, doesn't it? Curtains up (and uneven). Faucet in! Need to turn the water on and get a few more door knobs, but other than that we're ready to go!

North wall of the kitchen. Appliances in, knobs on, electricity and gas working. Yay! So thankful to Todd for letting me splurge and get the gas range. I love it! And Annie is thrilled that we have a microwave that works again. (Ours has been broken for about three months.) She was running through the house saying, "We can have popcorn again!"

This room was mom's brainchild. Formerly a laundry room off the den, this little room has been converted into an office for me. This way I can sit and watch the kids play in the backyard while I work, or in the evenings if I need to work I can still be in the room where Todd will be hanging out.

The End is in Sight

2011-08-29T21:16:00.003-05:00

We're quitting this week. Our contractor Barrett told us you never finish, you just quit when you're doing home renovation. I think he's right. So, this week we're quitting. We're planning to move this weekend!

If you know anyone who wants to buy a nice three-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom house in Nashville, send them my way! Likewise, if you really enjoy lifting heavy things on hot days, you know where to find us this weekend. :)

As soon as we get it cleaned up I'll post some before-and-after shots! :)

Lesson Learned?

2011-08-26T23:15:00.004-05:00

Today is Alfie's 6th birthday! We went to celebrate with him and some of his school friends this afternoon. The kids had a great time, and at the end he was opening his presents. One of his friends told Annie that only boys could play with a certain present. I didn't hear this and only saw her looking at me, bottom lip trembling, holding back tears. This is very unlike Annie. She is a very strong girl who will usually fight back. So I was a bit concerned. I took her inside to find out what was wrong. When I discovered that it was a very minor offense and she was relatively comforted, I thought maybe I'd make it a learning experience. "Annie, let's just remember how it makes you feel when someone talks mean to you like that." After a couple more sniffles, she replied: "It makes me feel," sniff, sniff, "like he's an idiot."

And . . . she's back.

Piece by Piece

2011-08-25T13:22:00.002-05:00

We have countertops! Yay!

More Progress on Floors

2011-08-22T08:41:00.002-05:00

Todd and his dad made more progress on the floors yesterday, and I snapped a couple pictures of some of my favorite kitchen features.

Double silverware drawer--the top level slides back to reveal the second level.

Spice cabinet--this swings out and you can store more behind there. It makes me think of the Simpsons episode where Marge goes into a neighbor's kitchen and says, "Eight spices! Some of these have to be repeats . . ."

Floor in dining room.

Kitchen

Kitchen view from den.

A Coat of Paint Makes Such a Difference

2011-08-19T21:16:00.004-05:00

The painters are pretty much done--just a few touch ups and closets to get to. I think I may have posted earlier about how we painted latex paint over oil on the trim, and it was peeling off in huge chunks. All our sweet family and friends who came to help worked in vain, unfortunately. And we didn't have it in us to do it again, so we brought in the big guns. We were very happy with our painters, however, and I always think it's amazing how much difference a coat of paint makes.

Dining Room. Floors are starting to go in and it's painted. Still need to switch out that light fixture.

Kitchen, looking at it from the den. You can see the dining room in the background. Walls painted and cabinets up. Door handles going in soon, I think. :)

Another view of the kitchen. We'll put a table in front of those windows.

Den. You can see the kitchen to the right. Lots of stuff sitting in here so that the floors can go in.

I was standing in the same place as the photo above, but I turned and am looking down the opposite side of the house. You can see the foyer and then the living room in the background.

Foyer view of stairs (carpet looks much darker than it really is) and the new laundry room.

Other view of the foyer--my blue door on the coat closet and the front door. You can see the garage door through the front porch.

Master bedroom--painted, new light fixture, and wonky curtains up. The windows here are much higher than I anticipated!

I had to show this too. Our dear friends had a very cute baby this week, and we took them dinner tonight. This little salad above was mixed into some wild and brown rice and barley (which was cooking when I took the picture). The recipe is from Cooking Light and you can see it here. It is super yummy and could be a meal unto itself.

A Woman's Work

2011-08-16T23:31:00.003-05:00

I hung four doors today. Our contractor didn't want me to do the first one by myself so he helped then told me to quit and let Todd do them. Ha! Mom and I showed him. ;) I managed to get one more done alone, then mom helped me hold and balance the other two while I screwed them in. Just felt that I needed to toot my own horn about that one.

Got a call that they charged us too much for the granite and are issuing a partial refund. Yay!

And . . . the upstairs doors were kind of boring solid panel doors with no detail on them. We'd wanted to recycle some of the downstairs doors we aren't using anymore that have the six raised panels on them and put them upstairs, but they didn't fit when we hung them. We almost spent a couple hundred dollars on new doors and labor for hanging, but today I made a wonderful discovery. We'd just brought the wrong door up when we hung it last time. For some reason the doors are all different sizes, but (dare I say, miraculously? no, but maybe graciously) it worked out so that we have three doors upstairs the exact sizes of three doors downstairs that are the prettier kind with architectural details on them. The painter accidentally painted them all instead of just the ones we planned to use, so they're ready to go. I'm so excited to have pretty doors upstairs!

Making Progress

2011-08-15T20:07:00.004-05:00

We're reaching the end of this process and I'm so excited! Paint was pretty much finished today. Mike O'Neil was our painter (with M&M Painters). He has done a great job and was fun and friendly around the house. Highly recommend!

Laundry room view from foyer.

Bedroom wall painted after sanding it down. Looks so much better.

Bedroom closets

Den walls painted and trim is white!

Dining room in process. Bottom is painted and the top is primed over the wallpaper.

Living room walls painted and trim is white! Notice the fridge in the living room that they're having to work around.

Christmas Day!

2011-08-10T21:52:00.004-05:00

It feels like Christmas Day around here. The kitchen cabinets went in today. Very excited!

I'm loving the way the sunlight comes in the kitchen in the morning.

The huge wall of cabinets! And Andy, our contractor!

This wall has no wall cabinets on it. We're going to put some floating shelves to keep it feeling light and airy.

Somewhat obstructed view from the den.

The great wall of cabinets couldn't fit all in one shot, so here's the left side of the wall.

And here's the right.

This is the wall with only base cabinets.

View from the dining room.

"You Live, You Learn"

2011-08-09T20:21:00.003-05:00

I feel like the lyrics to that Alanis Morrisette song were probably written about a couple doing a home remodel. "I recommend biting off more than you can chew to anyone, I certainly do . . . you live, you learn. You love, you learn. You cry, you learn. You lose, you learn. You bleed, you learn. You scream, you learn . . ."

We hired a carpenter to fix a couple broken windows before we met the fabulous team of Andy + Barrett, and looking back we should have just cancelled with him. He offered us a really good rate to knock out the wall between the kitchen and dining room, but when I asked if he had insurance he said, "I don't think they do that for contractors." We were smart enough to know to look elsewhere for demolition of a load-bearing wall, but we didn't think he could cause too much damage to the broken windows he said he'd fix for a really good price. So we had him repair three windows and replace two.

I came by later that afternoon and noticed a bunch of insulation on the floor in the garage. I looked straight above that spot and noticed a hole the size of a man's foot in the ceiling. Looks like Carpenter missed the beam in the attic and stepped through the ceiling below. Thank goodness it was just the garage and not one of the freshly painted bedroom ceilings! As luck would have it, Carpenter happened to step in the exact spot where the wire for the garage door ran, and he split it in two with the force of his fall. It was a one in a hundred chance he would step there. Maybe I should get him to buy us a lotto ticket! (In his defense, he very nicely repaired all of this on his own time.)

That afternoon, Barrett was checking the garage door wire for me because I'd mentioned that I didn't want to be afraid the house would burn down every time we opened and closed it. He picked up the two ends of the wires and we heard HRRRRRRRR. He let go and it stopped. He grabbed them again: HRRRRRRR. A voice from below called out, "It's going up now." The charge for the garage door was going through his body and the door was opening and closing. It was a little bit crazy. I felt like it was a really dangerous science class experiment. Glad we all made it through safe and sound.

A couple days later I walked into Grey and Annie's bedroom where the window had been replaced and it looked slanted to me. Todd and Andy grabbed the measuring tape, and sure enough it was off by about 1.5 inches. So, we started over with Barrett fixing the window this time. And he did a beautiful job. Thus, the connection to "You Learn" that I'm feeling today.

Tomorrow the place is going to look really different. Painters are coming in to fix our latex-over-oil debacle upstairs, and the cabinets are going in the kitchen! Thursday the granite people are coming out to measure, and on Friday our appliances are being delivered. Yay! Progress!

The back wall of the laundry room is drywalled and mudded. (Can these words be used as verbs?)

New light fixture up in the bedroom, thanks to Todd's dad! And the painter has patched over all the poorly mudded spots on our bedroom wall where the wallpaper came down. There were just a couple places where I didn't get it quite perfect, as you can see.

The doorway into the dining room is complete, and you can see how he just mudded right over that problem wallpaper.

Ceiling light in Hayes' room is replaced with a simple little mushroom light instead of that recessed light with the yellow glass in it. Yellow must have been very popular in the '70s. They don't make square recessed lighting anymore, so Billy offered to pull them out, put in drywall, and mud and sand them three times for us over the last couple weeks. Very kind, indeed. Grey and Annie's room has the same fixture.

This was just a pretty little sunset we saw on the way home. I kind of like the way it looks a bit like winter in this photo. I really wish cooler weather were here. It's cooling off a bit and I actually chased the kids around outside a while tonight. We might be moving in at the perfect time for the kids to be playing outside while we get the house straightened up.

I feel somewhat compelled to say that the previous owner of this house was a sweet lady and dear friend of Debbie's. I never met her, but she was very kind to want us to have this house and to make it available for us. She loved the house and had told Debbie she'd live there for the rest of her life, which she did. And I hope she'd be happy with the updates we're making. We hope to stay here a while, and our kids are so excited to be there. It's been a good house, and we're excited to be taking it into it's next phase of existence.

Kitchen

2011-08-09T11:00:00.004-05:00

Wall Color:

Cabinet Color:

Counter Tops:

Cabinet Pulls:

Curtains: (Dwell, Vintage Blossom in Citrine) The fabric company sent the wrong fabric, and then forgot to send me the correct fabric, and now it's on backorder. If I didn't already have one yard of it I'd just let it go. But I really do love it.

Kitchen Cabinets: (Martha Stewart's Ox Hill design in Sharkey Grey)

Lights:

Wish List Item: We don't really have room for an island, but if we did I would want this table. And I might need to find a place to put it anyway. So cool.

Dining Room

2011-08-08T13:56:00.001-05:00

wall color above chair rail - "sisal"

wall color below chair rail - "gray squirrel"

trim color and chair rail color - "picket fence"

curtains (one window) - Premier Prints "Barber Taupe/Robin"

seat cushions - Premier Prints "ZigZag Village Blue/Natural"

this is the chandelier I've bought, but I'm thinking about changing it. I like these below. Thoughts?

(I'd just use regular linen shades on this, not the wicker)

Is this one too industrial? I like the look, but it's really meant to be an island light, not a dining room chandelier.

Living Room

2011-08-08T13:39:00.002-05:00

wall color - "sisal"

trim color - "picket fence"

curtains (on two windows)

Not a lot to share here because the room is really simple. We'll put the piano in here and one of the sofas. Lots of lamps, because there is no ceiling light fixture.

Foyer

2011-08-08T13:29:00.002-05:00

I thought I'd share some of the choices we've made for the different rooms of the new house. It will help me get organized and I can get opinions on decisions not yet made! :)

This is the plan for the foyer:

wall color

trim color

door colors (laundry room doors and coat closet door)

Considering painting one accent wall with this stencil with blue over the tan. We'd then hang tons of family photos on the wall and let the chevron be the connector between them all. Whatcha think? Too much?

Foyer Light

wish list item--foyer bench

Starting to Get Old

2011-08-08T13:18:00.004-05:00

35 days. That's how long it takes for a home remodel/move to get old. All the exciting part is getting ready to happen, and I'm not physically doing any of it. We're thrilled to have Andy Watson and Barrett Petty running the show. They're doing great work at a great price and I feel comfortable having them in and out of the house. But still, I'm in the hurry up and wait holding pattern. I need to make a few decisions, but other than that we're just installing and painting then moving. Yay!

The baby climbs this pile of boxes every chance he gets. He fell off yesterday, which might deter him a bit. Annie calls him "the mountain climber baby" now.

The wallpaper came off like a breeze in the bedroom, but the kitchen and dining room aren't going so well. The original builders didn't size the wall before they put the paper up. I have no idea what this means, other than that it's a nightmare to try to get the paper off. Looks like our painter is going to just have to paint over it.

Debbie Etue putting in some manual labor trying to get the dern paper off.

This is about an hour and a half of work.

The laundry room is roughed in. Yay!

Kitchen cabinets have arrived and are in 49 boxes in the living room and dining room. I hope Andy and Barrett are good at puzzles! :)

We're widening the door between the kitchen and the dining room. Barrett's in the background working on the drywall for the laundry room (I think).

Images from Today

2011-08-02T15:47:00.004-05:00

The mess in the garage ready for hauling off.

Two new windows ready for install.

This is the result of a couple hours of steaming wallpaper in the dining room. This stuff was put on there very well. We're calling it the mid-90s Bosnia look.

Empty kitchen, ready for new cabinets!

The view of the new laundry room from my bedroom door.

Carpet!

So Tired

2011-08-01T20:18:00.002-05:00

I've been looking rough lately. Tired, sweaty, worn out. It's not even all the work at the house that's making me look this way. We're at a point there where most of our work is being outsourced. I need to take some pictures, but my mind is halfway running right now. In fact, this morning my friend Christy texted me:

ARE YOU SKIPPING GYMNASTICS TODAY?

I quickly looked at the clock: 10:15. Gymnastics started at 10:00. Annie was painting. Grey was playing a card game with himself. And Hayes was playing in the living room. Perfect harmony while I was packing up china. Nevertheless: "Everybody get your shoes on. I forgot about gymnastics!!"

We were in the car in 2 minutes and at gymnastics by 10:30, long enough for them to finish the last half of the class.

After gymnastics we went by the house, where my main task was making sure the kids didn't seriously injure themselves with one of the nail guns, saws, loose nails, boards, or other dangerous items laying around the workspace while I talked with our contractor. We left successfully and went to the grocery, where I'm pretty sure I spent $120 on junk food and juice. I'm not sure what all made it into the cart, but I know it wasn't good.

Later, my mom came over to babysit while I went to volunteer at a consignment sale for the kids' school. (A clear example of the "acts veiled as service with the ulterior motive of personal gain" that was talked about at church--I wanted to be able to shop early and get the better clothes and better deals, which I did.) By that point I was dragging after cleaning up after Hayes's tornado in the playroom a couple times, making lunch, and all the other to-dos of the day. Annie and mom were getting a movie set up, and I asked Annie to tell Mimi about the funny thing that mommy forgot to do this morning (gymnastics, clearly). She looked me over, as if assessing my qualifications as a mother, and thoughtfully answered, "Take a shower."

Week 4 - Life is Getting Busy

2011-07-29T22:34:00.003-05:00

Major lack of posts this week. Sorry about that. Todd started work on Tuesday (yay!), which means I've been juggling my work, work at the house, and those three little children who require my assistance to stay alive. On top of that, we had a major setback at the house that was quite disheartening.

On Monday carpets were installed. Yay! Soft, safe floor surface for the children! Now we can quickly finish up while the kids run around upstairs—this is what I thought. But the carpet installation scratched up the baseboards, which our friends and family so lovingly spent two Saturdays painting. When they were scratched, we realized we had painted latex over oil. It is peeling off in huge chunks. This means we have to sand this all down and repaint. With the brand new carpet down. Not what I was hoping to do. But, alas, it will work out.

Our fabulous contractor has been hard at work putting in a laundry room and taking away the ugly cabinets. I promise to take some better pictures tomorrow.

Kitchen chaos

Andy and Gerald working on the cabinets.

This space will be my new laundry room. The door on the back side will become a solid wall, and the opening on the front will be widened to make room for a washer and dryer.

Another view of the side that will be the doors.

Week 3

2011-07-23T20:55:00.005-05:00

The family (minus Todd) up in the mountains of Asheville, NC, one of my favorite places to go.

We've had the house for 21 days now, and we're making some progress. The upstairs is completely painted. We need to get some new doors, switch out to the new electrical fixtures, and have the carpet laid and it will be done!

Downstairs we've been painting like crazy as well, trying to get ready for carpet installation. Our bedroom walls are painted (this is the only downstairs room with carpet going in), the foyer is painted, and the living room is painted but not trimmed.

But the piece de resistance happened when I was in Asheville with the kids. Todd stayed back for some job interviews and oversaw the demolition of the wall between the den and the kitchen. It opens up the house so much. I'm thrilled about it! Here are some pictures:

Den before . . .

and after!

Bedroom, before . . .

during . . .

and after!

(Still need to paint those pesky closet doors. Turns out we have the wrong kind of paint and need to go get some oil-based paint because it's peeling off.)

The bathroom. Just had to share this picture because I started picking at the wallpaper in there and it came off in huge sheets. We weren't really ready to re-do this room yet, but looks like we're going to! :)

Todd working hard in the living room. Mom was there too, but I didn't get a shot of her!

I love this blue door. It's going in the foyer and will pick up the blue chevron pattern on the curtains in the living room off the foyer.

Foyer painted.

Day 15

2011-07-16T21:30:00.003-05:00

We got a lot accomplished today, thanks to Grama and Grampa (for keeping the kids at their house all day) and Christy (for coming to paint . . . again!). I pulled off old wallpaper and finished up some painting loose ends upstairs. Christy painted ceilings for about three hours, and Todd worked on the bookshelf. Movin' on up!

My recommendation--the steamer works WAY better than any of the sprays. It was only $31 per day (not sure why that tack on that extra $1). You'd easily spend that much on the spray to get off as much wallpaper as we're dealing with.

The lovely bookcases, painted sharkey gray. Shelves will be coming soon, and the TV will go in the middle section. Some detail work needs to be finished up, but other than that they're looking pretty good! Great job, Todd!

We ended the day with burgers and pizza with the Fords and Goodins. The kids played till way past bedtime in the backyard--wrestling, sliding on the slide, catching fireflies, and swinging. It was really great fun.

Two Weeks with Two Homes

2011-07-15T19:42:00.005-05:00

We've really slowed down on work at the house this week. The kids are needing a little more time with us than we've been able to give them lately. Our sweet friend Natalina took them on Thursday so we could get some work done, and Todd made good progress on the bookshelves. They should be finished up soon. And today the kids and I went to the stone yard to pick out our piece of granite for the countertops. We've done a little more painting, and I switched out some of the light switches with newer fixtures and clean plates. It's amazing how much those little details make a difference.

Built-in bookshelves taking shape.

Bottom cabinets are painted now.

Annie and I cleaned up the floors. This was about 1/4 of one room. Nasty.

Piled in a the stone yard.

This is the one they voted for!

Day 10

2011-07-10T22:29:00.003-05:00

Well, our birthday girl has ended up sick. And now I think her brother has it too. She "slept" in our bed last night and mostly tossed and turned and cried and asked for water. It kept us from having to keep getting up and going to her room all night, but I hope that Todd and I don't get it. The saddest part is that we've had to reschedule her birthday party twice. She's been a real trooper about it though.

Back to the house . . . Todd's uncle Daren came over and helped Debbie and Steve paint while Todd worked on the cabinets some more. Mom came over again and surprised us by helping paint more again! It would have been so much easier to have hired painters, but our house is going to be so full of love from all these friends and family who have helped, and I love that. There may be little splotches here or there (like my trademark blop on every ceiling), but they'll remind me of all the encouragement and support of our sweet friends and family.

We ran into a problem with our hardwood floors we ordered. We opened the box and the colors look great, but all the boards were the same length. They're supposed to be random length. The display in the store said so. The invoice said so. And the website said so. Then, when we looked closer at the website, we noticed they charged us about $20 per box more than the website advertised. They've offered us some money back, and they're trying to figure out what the situation is about the random lengths because they swear that quicklock floors don't come in random lengths. So . . . we're not sure what's going to happen there. But we're hopeful it will be a good result.

I didn't take any pictures today, but I'm sure we'll be back over there tomorrow!

Day 8 - That's What Friends Are For!

2011-07-09T21:13:00.005-05:00

Last night Debbie and I were looking at the upstairs thinking, How in the world are we going to get all this trim finished by Wednesday? (That's when they're coming to lay the carpet, and I really want it all painted before then.) Then, this morning Christy and my mom both said they wanted to come help paint. Grama Carole came over and quickly volunteered to watch the kids so Steve could help paint the doors and Debbie could help us trim. Between all of us, we got the upstairs knocked out today. And it was so much more fun than doing it by ourselves! Thanks, friends! [There are no pictures of Debbie because 1) she had her eyes closed in all of them, and 2) she threatened me.]

Christy working on the ugly yellow trim and doors. We decided to take these doors off and leave them in the garage. It'll open up the hallway and we'll put all their toys and stuff in there.

Mom with paint on her face! Workin' hard!

Hallway storage with the doors off, painted walls, white trim! Happy!

Grey and Annie's room with a white window. Ready for carpet! Happy!

Another view of Grey and Annie's room.

More progress on the bookshelves. Todd stayed late tonight and got the doors on then primed and put one coat of paint on, so I didn't get pictures. But then he came home and read to the kids for bedtime. Great daddy.

We're trying hard to find the right place to give us a good countertop for the cabinet. Any suggestions? We need that before he can start the top section.

Line 'em up, line 'em all up. Formerly goldenrod doors, now white! Grampa spent the day powerwashing and painting doors.

Grampa working hard!

Day 8

2011-07-08T21:53:00.003-05:00

Mom came over this morning and hung out with Annie and Hayes while I went to Home Depot and spent a small fortune on doorknobs. Someone there asked me if I managed an apartment complex because I was buying so much stuff. Ha!

Then I painted for eight hours. Finished the ceilings and walls in both kids' rooms, Hayes's closet, and the hallway. I have Grey & Annie's closet left upstairs, then I'm finished up there. Debbie has been working more on the trim, which makes all the difference.

Grey went with Todd to Home Depot also this morning, and while they were there he lost his second tooth. And by that I mean he actually lost it--he pulled it out and then dropped it and couldn't find it. They came back to the house and Todd kept working on the bookshelf. Too tired to post much more tonight.

Progress on the built-in bookshelves. (There will be doors on the bottom cabinets and shelves will sit above it.)

This is really just for me--the hall is painted. Hard to tell, but it is painted. Need to finish the trim and doors. I need to figure out the lighting situation up here. It's really dark in the whole upstairs.

The walls in Annie and Grey's room. Annie gets pink and Grey gets green!

Days 6-7

2011-07-07T20:03:00.004-05:00

Tomorrow is the beginning of week 2 on the new house, and if there's one word to describe how we feel right now it's . . . sore. My hands, arms, and back hurt from painting, but Todd's really born the brunt of it all. He's slammed a hammer into his leg, dropped a board on his toe, and has countless cuts and bruises. But it's coming along. Starting to see some progress upstairs as the paint colors go up.

Todd and Grey worked today on the foundation for some built-in bookshelves. This is a top priority, as we have about twenty boxes of books packed up.

This is Hayes's room. Debbie has come over a few times and painted the trim white. It's starting to look happy!

A brighter photo--sorry these are so bad. I can't seem to find my good camera, so these are taken with my phone.

You really can't tell at all what's been done here, but the walls in Grey and Annie's room (on Grey's side) are green now. The ceilings upstairs have all been painted. I need to yank out a built in desktop (in a nice wood-grain laminate) that is in nook on the opposite wall from what you see above, and then I can paint Annie's pink walls.

Ceiling paint in the stairwell--as far as I could reach before falling down the stairs.

And . . . yesterday was Annie's fourth birthday! I didn't go to the new house at all yesterday, and instead we went to get lunch at Blue Coast with our cousins and then got ready for our small group to come over. We made chocolate cupcakes with pink icing (sorry, no photos taken in time before they were all eaten up). I think she had a fun birthday, and it was nice to take a break from working on the house. She and Grey both got these fun computers from Grama for their birthdays this year, so they had some "workin" time this evening.

The Plan

2011-07-05T21:45:00.011-05:00

Here are the paint colors and fabrics we've picked out for the new house.

Foyer

This color is called Sisal. It'll be our main neutral throughout.

Living Room

When you walk in the foyer, you'll see the living room to your left. The curtains will be this blue chevron. The walls in there will be Sisal as well.

Dining Room

Continuing around the house, you'll see the dining room. There is a chair rail, and above the chair rail we'll put the Sisal paint color, and below will be the darker Grey Squirrel. The curtains are this avian pattern.

Kitchen

Keep on going and you'll get to the kitchen next. It will have a lot of greys in there with this bright yellow curtain. (If you need fabric, check the aptly named Fabric.com. Everything I need is at least $5 cheaper there.)

The walls are this color, the same Grey Squirrel that's in the dining room:

The cabinets are this color: Sharkey Grey.

They look like this:

This is the hardware for the drawers, but it will be in the brushed finish:

And this is the hardware for the cabinets:

Den

We're not totally sure what's going to happen in the den at this point, but this is the paint color it's called Buckwheat Flour, isn't that nice?

And I guess I could mention that this is the hardwood that's going in downstairs:

Harry Potter Room

There is a little nook of a room under the stairs, so we've (I've) named it the Harry Potter room. It's really a big closet, but I'm planning at this point to put the kids toys in there. It's big enough that they can play in there, but small enough that we can throw all the toys in there and close the door when guests come over and no one will be the wiser. However, after discussions tonight, there may be some changes that would turn this room into an office or laundry room. Stay tuned.

Two of the walls will be Hollyhock Pink:

And two will be Geyser:

Upstairs Hallway
The upstairs hall and the stairwell will be Sisal again.

Annie & Grey's Room

Annie and Grey will share a room again, and two walls will be Ballet Slipper Pink.

Two will be Garden Shed. And Hayes's room is all Garden Shed, which as I said earlier looks much more green in real life.

That's it, folks!

New House - Days 3-5

2011-07-05T20:56:00.006-05:00

So, remodeling a house goes a lot slower than you'd expect. It doesn't look like much, but it's been a tremendous amount of work for Todd. He's been over there every day pulling up ever tack strip, every staple in the floor, and every random rusty nail. The floors are almost perfectly clear. All that's left is the difficult job of pulling up the old linoleum in the kitchen. It seems like it would just come right up when you pull it, but it's glued down and is like pulling off wallpaper. He has the patience of a saint and the perfectionism of . . . someone who is really perfectionistic.

I painted Hayes's bedroom yesterday. The fella at Home Depot convinced me to buy this little gizmo to make the job easier. Easier it did not make it. Do not be tempted to buy this. Reasons why?

The cord is appx. 3 inches long. In other words, it is too short for the machine to sit on the floor and be plugged into the socket on our wall. I had to prop it up on a container of spackle, and it flipped over once, spilling paint everywhere. Fail.
The cord that attaches the roller to the machine popped off the front of the machine twice. However, it continued to pump paint out all over the floor. I am very, very glad I decided to paint before we put in the new carpet. Fail.
The roller is much heavier than a normal paint roller, and my arms became very tired very quickly. Granted, I may need to work out more. But nevertheless, this did not make the painting process easier.

Hayes's room with the ceiling and walls painted. Need to paint the trim still. The color is Martha Stewart Living's "Garden Shed" from Home Depot. Here's the online sample, but it really looks more like green in the room.

kitchen linoleum coming up

parquet is gone! yay! wallpaper is starting to come off

and a big huge thanks to Danielle and Grama for watching the kids all day so Todd could work on the house and I could work on some books!

New House - Day 2

2011-07-03T23:10:00.005-05:00

This house has a distinct smell to it. It's 30-year-old carpet + smoker + pet owner smell. So, our first step was to go through and rip out all the carpet. The carpet and hardwood are on order, so we want to get everything ready for installation as soon as possible. I had two painters come out from the painting companies "Walls" and "Dragon Painting"--(I made them make up names). We tested colors and are still struggling over which ones to buy. But it's decision time--the sale ends at Home Depot tomorrow.

Grey has on his "painting hat" that Daddy gave him. This color didn't quite work. Mom said it looked "institutional." Not quite the look we were going for.

Group effort.

So, here's the update after first day of work. Half of the parquet floor is up. (Models available for hire.)

Carpet gone on the stairs.

Living room - carpet gone.

Dining room - carpet gone.

Kitchen - no changes, just cute kids.

Den - carpet AND pad up!

Master bedroom - carpet up. We also got all the upstairs carpet up and dealt with a broken air conditioner. Not a nice way to break in the new house. But we're very thankful it was able to be fixed. And it made my decision on the lighting easier--go cheaper.

At the end of the day we took a break for this. Not quite sure why I showered first. It was so hot and humid, but we love us some U2. The boys make me happy. "It's no secret that a friend is someone who lets you help." U2, The Fly

New House - Day 1

2011-07-03T22:34:00.006-05:00

I'm back! We're starting out on an exhausting and exciting journey, and I wanted to chronicle it somewhere.

We bought a house! The home across from my in-laws was up for sale, we made an offer, and we closed on the house this Friday. It's a major fixer-upper and was a great price. It's going to be a lot of work though.

A note to any future home buyers, buying a fixer-upper on a holiday weekend is a GREAT idea. Seriously. The sales at Home Depot have been amazing. Appliances on major sale. Good deal on kitchen cabinets. And they're offering $5 off per gallon of paint, plus honoring the $10 off of $50 coupon from Sherwin Williams through July 4.

So . . . Day 1. Here's what the house looks like. Heaven help us.

Outside - Not bad, but those three gabled windows are broken. Landscaping needs some work. (In the back, the fence is rotted but we have a big, flat backyard for the kids to play on. And the common area behind us is gently sloped, so it's a fun sledding spot in winter.)

This is the foyer when you walk into the house. The front door is on the left in this photo. You can't tell very well in this picture, but the walls are yellow and the molding is marigold. The carpet is . . . ochre? goldenrod? ugly?

another view of the foyer, looking at it from the den

When you go in the front door (you're looking straight at the stairs), this living room is to your left. We'll put Grey's piano in here and a sofa. Needless to say, it's new EVERYTHING throughout. Again, yellow walls and goldenrod molding.

Dining room. Moldy wall where siding is leaking. And wallpaper. Ugh, wallpaper. Why did people do this? It's SO hard to get off. Any tips? The gel is not working.

The kitchen. Brown brick linoleum. Mustard formica countertops. Broken appliances. Yellow gingham wallpaper. And nails everywhere. We went around the downstairs pulling them out, and Annie was putting them into an 8-cup measuring cup. There were 4 cups of nails.

You keep going around the house in a circle, and this den comes next. We're going to knock a wall out between the den and kitchen to open it up a bit.

Master bedroom. Yes, there's another layer of wallpaper under this nice blue stripe.

Master bathroom. For some reason, the sink comes up to about hip high. Seems a bit low to me. Got some nice swag lights there. And again, brown floral wallpaper underneath this blue. Re-doing this bathroom is in Phase 2.

This is our upstairs hallway. We have a huge unfinished space upstairs, and when we finish out that room we hope to knock this wall on the right down and put in a railing so you can see downstairs to the foyer/front door.

We're calling this Bedroom 1. It will probably be Hayes' bedroom.

Bedroom 2 for Grey and Annie. Both of these bedrooms are a lot bigger than they look.

This is the kids' bathroom. Also planned for Phase 2 remodel. But we will definitely keep the bald eagle toilet paper holder.

They make it look so easy

2011-04-29T20:28:00.004-05:00

A great photo looks so effortless, but we all know it's not so easy to get the kids to cooperate. Case in point:

"Annie! Annie, turn around!"

"Uh, Grey, turn around. Hey Grey! Turn around!"

I give up.

Goodbye is Hard

2011-02-15T22:19:00.005-06:00

A mommy-acquaintance from preschool had this as her Facebook status today: "We need time for tears, not for the one who is at peace in heaven but for ourselves as we realize that things will never be the same." It's a sentiment from a Hallmark card, and a beautiful one at that. And especially appropriate for some people I love today.

This morning I got a text message that my brother-in-law's mother had passed away. It had been a relatively short, but agonizingly long, battle with pancreatic cancer that took her. I'd never met his mom, but I do know that she was deeply loved by her children, and they will never forget her role in their lives. I haven't had to say goodbye to my mom yet--something I'm very, very thankful for--but I can only imagine what they're feeling as they stand on the precipice of a new life without mom in it. I'm really writing all this to ask for prayers for their tender hearts tonight.

Later this afternoon, I was finishing up my grocery shopping for tonight, and I got a call from my dear friend-that's-like-a-sister, Katheryn. She and her mom had a very difficult year last year, which I've written about before. She was calling to let me know that her beloved Grandaddy had passed away this afternoon at the rich age of 96. He'd been fairly sick this week, and keeping vigil has worn down the nerves and emotions of everyone in the family, I'm sure. But as we celebrate his life this weekend, I trust that this week is not what they'll remember about Grandaddy. Instead, they'll cherish his playful spirit, his loyalty to his family, his hard work ethic, and his unending love for his grandkids. Grandaddy was one of those grandparents who love on their grandchildren's friends with almost equal affection as his own (my children have grandparents like this), and I was one of the lucky recipients of Grandaddy's attention. I remember riding in the station wagon as an elementary school age child as he created fantastic, imaginary scenarios for us on our trip to the grocery. I remember him as "Dr. Hay, MD." I remember seeing him standing in the grass at Scarritt-Bennett Chapel, on his birthday, listening to the bagpipes play as he waited to enter for our wedding. And I'll never forget Katheryn storming in the house on White Avenue, just home from a cut-short internship in DC, geared up to prepare herself for the dreaded call to Grandaddy. But, no surprise, he was not cross with her. He encouraged her to excel, and he (and her parents, certainly) are a big part of the reason Katheryn is so incredibly loyal, successful, and talented. She is a good person because she comes from good people like Grandaddy. I'm thankful I had the chance to know him, and I wish I could see his reception into Jesus's arms today. I'm praying for my sweet friend that her tears are healing ones, and that she'll find great comfort in the memories God has blessed her with.

Signing Off

2011-01-08T13:11:00.002-06:00

I'm going to be taking a break from the blog for a while. Recently it's been more stressful than fun, and I'd rather not add any more drama to my already busy life. Also, the whole cyberlife can become too consuming, and that kind of freaks me out. Perhaps I'll see you online later. In the meantime, if you want to know what we're up to just call or email. See you in the real world!

New Picks

2011-01-07T20:27:00.002-06:00

This week's Etsy picks are dragon themed. Click here to see more.

Disney World!

2011-01-04T21:07:00.009-06:00

Some new pictures added:

Tiff & Meg

Grama and Hayes

Grampa, Grama, Pooh, and Tiff

Debbie & Grey at the Holiday Lights

Christmas this year meant a trip to Disney World! We went two years ago, but Annie was just a baby and didn't remember much. This time was special for her, and it was exciting to walk in the park for the first time in the middle of a main street parade to see Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, and all the other princesses driving by on a float waving to us. We stayed with Todd's family, and my parents, sister, her kids, and her boyfriend all came down for the middle four days, and it was so much fun for the kids to experience it together and for us to get to hang out at the park with the grownups in the evening (thanks grandparents!).

I'll let the pictures tell the rest!

The ride on the way down. Armed with toys, coloring books, blankets, pillows and a throw up bucket (which we ended up needing) for Grey.

Annie was excited to see Cinderella's castle!

The boys were transformed into pirates at the Pirates Cove in Adventureland. The experience was really fun--a whole story was involved including a pirate oath and secret treasure. Very fun!

Margaritas in "Mexico" at Epcot.

Meg and Bridget in "Germany" at Epcot

Me and the kids with Mickey and Minnie at Epcot.

Me and Annie in "Germany" at Epcot.

After the boys got their pirate makeovers, the girls went to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique to be transformed into princesses. Here Annie's picking out her tiara.

After much brushing, gel and hairspray, she was transformed into a beautiful princess, a la Toddlers and Tiaras.

This is what it looked like when we took it down to wash it. She thought it was hilarious. So did I.

This was a common sight--Hayes asleep in the Baby Bjorn.

Breakfast with the Winnie the Pooh characters. Hayes was fascinated by the characters, Annie was shy, and Grey loved them.

Hayes loved standing up and playing at the trains in Germany at Epcot. I think this was the only time the whole week he got to get out and move on his own. Poor guy hated the stroller by the end of the week.

I think my favorite moment of the week was captured in this photo, and I almost missed it. We ate lunch at Le Chefs de France at Epcot, and the meal was fabulous. When I returned to the table after taking Annie to the restroom, this waiter came by with a silver tray and lid. I fully expected him to reveal a dessert selection, but instead it was Remy from Ratatouille! The kids really believed it was him, and the adults were so surprised, which made it really fun. Highly recommend this restaurant!!

the kids had their faces painted before they climbed the Swiss Family Tree House

Pretty Bridget

Annie as Tinkerbelle

Grey's priceless reaction when he saw his face paint for the first time. I'm so glad this moment was caught on camera!

We rode Aladdin's Carpet about six times. It's just like the Dumbo ride but without the long wait (partially due to the fact that four people can ride in one carpet instead of two). The kids loved driving the carpet up and down in the air!

It was a long but good trip. We ran them hard without a break and saw pretty much everything we wanted to (except the line to meet "Tangled," as Annie calls her--two hours is too long to wait!). Three times the kids fell asleep at the table waiting for their food at dinner (and lunch). We're tired and glad to be home. And Mommy's glad school starts tomorrow!

This Week's Etsy Picks

2010-12-23T21:50:00.002-06:00

Here are some yummy food picks from Etsy!

The Last 24 Hours

2010-12-23T17:40:00.003-06:00

Last night our dear friend Taylor and his lovely girlfriend came by for a Christmas visit and stayed till the kids' bedtime. Hayes had fallen asleep in my lap while we were visiting, and Todd laid him down for an early bedtime. But then when the two elephants came tromping up for teeth-brushing and pajama-getting-on time, they woke up the baby. So, I went and picked him up to try to give him his nighttime bottle. He wanted none of it, just to cuddle. I was hesitant to get him too close for fear he'd drool on my new silk shirt I was wearing (I hadn't had a chance to change clothes yet). But he was so snuggly that I gave him a good ol' hug. That's when I heard the telling "eh-ugh" noise that comes right before this:

A bath (for him) and a shower and couple hand-washings (for me) later, he was back to normal and I was ready to settle in for the night, nixing the planned run to Target for last-minute Christmas things until this morning. But, around 3:00 in the morning or so, I got up and retched too. Then all the other glorious stuff that goes with stomach bug. So, on this Christmas Eve Eve, we bundled up the big kids and sent them off to Grandma's so they could get away from the germs, then we holed up in bed and later on the couch with Hayes and me sick and moody. Todd took a mid-morning run to Publix for ginger ale and got me this card. Love it. It was taped to the front of a People magazine so I'd have some trash to read while I'm recouping.

It's not a very festive way to spend the holidays, and I'm miserable that the big kids aren't here. But it's worth it if they don't end up sick on our trip to Disney World. Please pray for speedy recoveries!

Favorite Christmas Music

2010-12-21T15:18:00.007-06:00

I think the best way to remember the real reason for Christmas is to have a great soundtrack playing. There are some great classic songs out there--"The Christmas Song," "Baby it's Cold Outside," "Jingle Bells," etc. But my favorite songs are those that bring me to tears about the gift of Jesus. Here are some of my favorites:

Michael W. Smith, Christmas, 1989

"Anthem for Christmas" is one of my very favorite songs. It really captures the excitement of the moment by describing heaven's preparation for the incarnation. "All creation had a language / words to say what must be said. / All day long the heavens whispered / signing words in scarlet red. / ... On a silent night in Judah's hills a baby's cry was heard." Michael W. uses boys' choirs and adult choirs to really up the drama. Love this album.

* * *

The Tipitina Foundation performed a version of "O Holy Night" on a Christmas episode of the short-lived TV drama Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. The New Orleans horns version of this song is achingly beautiful. You can listen to it here.

* * *

"It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" by Sixpence None the Richer is very, very pretty. Here's a link.

* * *

I really like the worship songs on the new album Christmas by Jill Phillips and Andy Gullahorn. I find this couple very believable. Their music is intentional and authentic. They've got a few fun songs on the album, which seems to be their signature (at least Andy's) but "The First Noel" and "O Come Let Us Adore Him" are very nice modern takes on the classic songs. Here's a link.

* * *

But the absolute best, without question, is Andrew Peterson's Behold the Lamb of God. This album starts at the beginning and shows us our need for Christmas, for the incarnation. The songs build and swell as the tell the story of the coming of Christ. My heart breaks in "Passover Us" when he sings, "Oh, but the Lord he gave to Moses a word for the people. He said your first born sons will live to see another day." Then, when Jesus finally arrives in "Labor of Love," you just want to cry for Joseph and "little Mary full of grace." And then the finale, "Behold the lamb, the hope of man"--there are no words. It's beautiful and simple and gets me into the spirit of worship at Christmas every single time I really listen to it. Buy this TODAY. You won't regret it.

What We've Been Up To . . .

2010-12-18T21:30:00.002-06:00

School's out, and a tradition we started with the kids last year was "stair sledding." (Click here for the we-are-good-parents disclaimer.) Todd added a crib-sized mattress to the ride this year, and it made a big difference in the landing.

Here's a motion shot:

Annie's dance recital was today. She had an open class this week where we were invited to watch them practice the routine for today. We weren't quite sure how it would go this morning, but the girls did really well. Lots of the girls are shy, and they're very young, but they did a wonderful job for the most part. They all made it out onto the stage and stayed there, which was an accomplishment in itself! :) And a few of them even did parts of the routine.

Little, tiny ballerinas are just the cutest thing.

Daddy got her a beautiful bouquet of pink, yellow, and orange roses. I thought he was pretty handsome too.

We're headed into a busy week before Christmas! Lots of baking going on. I'll be posting menus later.

Retraction

2010-12-13T20:33:00.003-06:00

So, This afternoon the kids visited Grama and asked why she didn't have anything in the stockings hanging on her mantle. She said, "I don't do it the way Mommy does, I wait till the day before." Grey very firmly corrected her, "Mommy didn't fill our stockings. Elves did."

I guess he forgot our discussion of the other day. Well, at least we've had a dry run on the conversation!

Let it Snow!

2010-12-12T20:08:00.003-06:00

Tomorrow's our first official school closure due to snow for the winter. The kids will be home, and I guess we'll be doing more of this:

Warning: Spoiler Alert!

2010-12-11T21:55:00.002-06:00

Christmas 2008

We had a major moment today. Before I get into it, I'll add the disclaimer that we have taught our kids that Christmas is about Jesus, not Santa. Nevertheless, it's pretty hard for kids to not focus on the gifts . . . That said:

On our way home from Grama's house today, I told the kiddos that we'd be going to see Santa tomorrow and that they might want to write him a letter. Grey listed off about ten things he wanted (all brand new requests, of course, now that I've finished my shopping) and Annie had a few things she wanted to mention too. We chatted for a minute or two about who would give Santa the letter--me or them. Then, after a quiet minute, Grey said:

"Mommy, is Santa real?"

I hesitated a minute. This was a pivotal moment. We've never really pushed the Santa thing, and I have told them in the past that Santa is pretend. But this year they've really believed in Santa. They've talked about being good for him and him bringing them presents. It's been fun and exciting for them. I hate to end that. But, flat out lie to my child? I wasn't sure I could do it.

"Well, honey," I started. "Santa is what we call a 'legend.'"

"What's a legend?"

"It's something that's so fun to believe in that we pretend it's real because it's fun to pretend."

He wasn't so sure this was a good idea. And Annie was hearing every word.

"So . . . he's not real?"

I started to backpedal. "Well, what do you think?"

"If he's not real, what will happen at Christmas?" Panic had started to creep in. I had to think quick.

"Well" I said, "What I'd do is think about last year. Did you have a fun and exciting Christmas with good presents and all your family around, even if Santa wasn't real?"

"Yes," he said, trying to make sense of the new reality setting in.

"Then I bet this Christmas will still be really fun and exciting too!"

"Yeah!" he said.

It's a little bit of a bummer for him to come to this realization two weeks before Christmas, but it is what it is. My little boy is growing up.

Deck the Halls

2010-12-10T23:08:00.002-06:00

Here are some holiday decorating ideas for you from Etsy!

Craft Time

2010-12-07T20:09:00.005-06:00

Annie came home from school yesterday saying she needed a scarf and some "glubs." I know her grandmother is planning to get her some gloves for Christmas, so I thought we'd tackle the scarf and figure out something for the gloves for the next couple weeks.

I have a huge stash of scrap fabric at home, so we dug through that and Annie picked out her fabrics. She even had the idea for a pocket that would hold her "glubs." Here's how we did it.

1. I used a rotary cutter and this quilting measure and cut a piece of fabric the width of this marker (6 inches) and about 36 inches long. (We chose pink corduroy and flannel fabric with glitter hearts.)

2. Then we cut two squares of fabric large enough to hold gloves for her hands--probably about 5 x 7 inches.

3. Pin the squares right sides together to the scarf fabric. Make sure they mirror each other. Sew a seam 3/8" from the edge where you pinned the fabric.

4. Open up the flap for the pocket and lay the two pieces right sides together.

5. Sew around all edges (including the pocket) and leave an opening so you can turn it right side out.

6. Turn the scarf right side out, then either close up the opening with hand stitches or top stitch the entire thing (except the opening for the pocket).

Enjoy! (I'll update with a picture of Annie soon--check back.)

Gift Picks from Etsy

2010-12-03T13:49:00.003-06:00

My thought on this treasury is that it is gifts moms or sisters would like.

Domestic Bliss

2010-12-02T00:41:00.004-06:00

Life doesn't get much more refined than this:

• Last night our disposal quit draining, and the (few) bites of chicken I put down there from the kids' plates were pulverized and spewed all over the kitchen. Todd and I had to extract the remaining water(?), broth(?), let's just go with liquid that was in the sink with our turkey baster, which is now in the trash can. Then we got to pick particles of chicken off the cabinets, floor, countertops, and walls. Lovely.

• I woke up at 6:30 this morning to Grey screaming with glee, "Diaper fight!" (The diapers in question were not clean, new ones.) What in the world possesses them to do something like this?

But then tonight we went to the annual Andrew Peterson Christmas concert. This is my favorite event of the Christmas season.

If you don't know this album, please go buy it now. Listen to it with your kids. Absorb the beauty of the lyrics and the profound truth of God's amazing gift to us at Christmas. Grey's face was absolutely shining when the music started up and Andrew sang, "Gather 'round, ye children, come listen to the old, old story of the power of death undone and an infant born of glory." As the story progressed through the Old Testament, the prophets, and finally arriving at the birth of Christ, the kids sat (pretty much) still in our laps and listened. We snuggled and sang along and danced in our seats to the music. We marveled at the beautiful artwork by the lovely and talented Evie Coates. And at the end I got choked up a few times, and Andrew did too--he was barely able to get through the last song as he sang, "Behold the Lamb, the hope of man."

It was the perfect way to start off the advent season, and I'm so thankful to God for artists like Andrew and the chance to worship Him together in this way. Christmas season just gets so busy, and this chance to sit back and reflect on the real meaning, together with our kids, was the best gift we could have gotten.

Etsy Christmas Picks for the Kiddos!

2010-11-27T20:54:00.002-06:00

You can view the treasury here!

Top Ten Things I'm Thankful For This Year

2010-11-25T22:41:00.004-06:00

1. Baby Hayes!! Welcome to the family. :)

2. Our house didn't wash away in the flood.

3. Our extended family. Most of us live nearby and we like each other and spend tons of time together.

4. Work.

5. Clean carpet in the playroom.

6. Grandparents who help with the kids.

7. Good red wine.

8. A stable small group who enjoy hanging out and getting to know each other better.

9. The Jesus Storybook Bible.

10. Most important--our kids love Jesus, and he loves them.

Pumpkin Bread

2010-11-23T21:04:00.002-06:00

I've made a few different types of cakey, dessert breads in my life, but this recipe is the best, lightest, most moist pumpkin bread I've ever had. If you have extra leftover canned pumpkin puree--MAKE THIS. (Bobby Flay's recipe)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, plus more for greasing
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
8 ounces (scant 1 cup) canned unsweetened pumpkin puree
2 large eggs
2/3 cup water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter or lightly spray the bottom and sides of a 9-inch loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk together the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a small bowl.

In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the 4 tablespoons softened butter, sugar, and oil at high speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl a few times.

Add the pumpkin puree and mix until combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix until just incorporated. At low speed, slowly add the flour mixture and water and mix until just combined. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 60 to 75 minutes. Let cool in the pan on a baking rack for 10 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely.

Gobble, Gobble

2010-11-21T22:29:00.002-06:00

Here are some Thanksgiving Etsy picks for everyone to enjoy!

High Aspirations

2010-11-17T22:31:00.001-06:00

Grey told us that he wants to be a golfer or basketball player or maybe a lawyer when he grows up.

Annie wants to be a unicorn.

Under the Sea

2010-11-12T23:13:00.001-06:00

This week's Etsy treasury is complete! We'll see how long I'm able to keep this up. :)

A Craft You Can Do - Homemade Watercolors

2010-11-11T22:54:00.006-06:00

I read about this craft somewhere online and thought I needed to try it with the kids. They had a lot of fun with it, so I wanted to share it here.

PROs:

1. I didn't have to buy anything. It uses everyday pantry items.

2. It bubbles and fizzes while you mix it up--entertainment points.

3. The paint dries super fast so we didn't have a kitchen full of paintings drying everywhere.

CONs:

1. Food coloring stains, so you have to be pretty careful with it.

Here's what to do . . .

1. Get this stuff:

Mix together:

3 T corn starch

3 T baking soda

1 1/2 teaspoons syrup

2 T white vinegar

It will bubble up and foam. Keep stirring until it gets a little thicker.

Pour the liquid into muffin liners (use foil ones--our paper ones collapsed if they got too full). Add food coloring.

No shirts because it stains! (Grey insisted that he would only help with the mixing and wasn't going to paint, but he couldn't resist.)

This was one of our "GRRR Paintings." You get the main color (purple) heavy on your brush, then you move it around the paper like you're a little bit crazy while saying, "GRRR!!!" Then you take a long, hard look and figure out what it is. Add arms, legs (and the occasional beak) and you're done!

Annie's scary monster.

Grey's self-portrait (with big hair and a beard).

Weekend Picks

2010-11-07T22:26:00.003-06:00

I'm going to try to start putting together a list of Etsy picks on different themes, and this week's them is "Child of the 80s." Here are some fun items to help you relive your childhood.

Click HERE to see the complete list.

Cleaning Out My Closet

2010-11-07T20:25:00.003-06:00

Mom came over this afternoon and we pulled every article of clothing out of my closet and decided whether or not to keep it. It's humbling (after three babies) but better to do it all at once than try to decide if things fit every day while I'm getting dressed. I kept a few too-small things in hopes that working out will actually make a difference, but at the end of the day there are two HUGE garbage bags full of things that date all the way back to high school, when I was a size 2. Hard to believe.

That said, I have tons of clothes to give away. Many are junky and will go to Goodwill. But many are pretty nice and good brand names--Ann Taylor, Benneton, J Crew, Joe's Jeans, Lucky, Gap, etc. If you want to take a gander, feel free to come over.

Items of note:

Navy blue wool blend J Crew suit - size 6 jacket and size 10 pants

Black silk turtleneck sweater from Ann Taylor - size medium

Ivory silk turtleneck sweater from Ann Taylor - size medium

Benneton skirts

Nine West shoes (probably size 9, not sure off the top of my head)

I'd much rather they go to a good home than to Goodwill, so come by this week if you want them!

Pretend Parties

2010-10-29T11:20:00.003-05:00

Today was "Pretend Parties" day at preschool, and the kids had lots of fun dressing up with their friends. Annie tried on a few different outfits before she settled on her ensemble. This little girl is one of her buddies in class. And Grey's class turned out to have the Justice League intact, plus Lightning McQueen on the side. Big Fun!

My SoapBox for the Day - Energy Drinks

2010-10-26T22:31:00.004-05:00

A year or so ago, I heard Todd sitting at the dining room table talking to Grey. He was saying that one day Grey would go off to college, and he'd have friends who'd try to encourage him to drink things that weren't good for him. He said he knew Grey would probably try those drinks some, but he wanted him to be sure he didn't become someone who drank them all the time . . . because soda wasn't good for him.

See, we don't drink sodas around here. I gave them up about 9 years ago when I started having panic attacks again and my doctor suggested the caffeine might be connected. At first, when I'd have a cheeseburger or Mexican food, I really craved a Coke. But before long I got to the point where the taste of it was unappealing. About three years ago Todd quit drinking soda too.

So, when we saw tonight's report on E:60 (on ESPN) our interest was piqued. It was on the adverse health effects of "energy drinks." Now, I've never even tried a Red Bull, figuring that if a Coke could trigger a panic attack then a Monster or Red Bull or whatever would totally send me over the edge. But kill me? The boy featured in this video had a massive seizure because of the caffeine in a Nos drink he consumed (equivalent to 15 Cokes). Luckily, his stepfather was a nurse and knew how to revive him. But it's been a long road back for him.

Please, don't let your kids drink these drinks! The caffeine levels are too high for children. Just say no, and hand them a water. It'll give them a lot more energy than they realize.

Puffy Muffin

2010-10-25T19:49:00.005-05:00

If you like Puffy Muffin, you should totally get this Living Social deal today. It's just like Groupon. Buy a $20 gift card for Puffy Muffin for only $10. It's good until mid-April 2011. But the thing I think is really cool about Living Social is that if you get 3 other people to buy the deal, you get one for free. I'm only one person away from the free coupon. Buy one using this link, and I'll take you with me to split the free one! :)

NOTE: The deal is available for 9 hours, starting now.

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

2010-10-19T16:03:00.003-05:00

We're always trying to convince friends to move into the neighborhood because it would just be so fun to have our kids grow up running back and forth between the houses like we did growing up. And it would be so much more convenient to hang out on a moment's notice. That said, our neighbor's 4BR house is up for auction! I'm assuming it's a foreclosure, but they've been gone for a few months. Starting bid is $50,000. Come live near us! We can walk down to get ice cream in the summer and head to Loveless for breakfast in the winter . . . Drop your kids off with us while you go make your bid!

Details:

4BR 3.5BA 3,406+/- sf single-family. Built in 2002.

Open House 1-4pm Sun Oct 24th, 31st and 2 hours before sale.

Sells: 3:15 PM CDT Saturday, November 6, 2010

Sale Location: on site

What we're loving right now . . .

2010-10-18T21:05:00.004-05:00

This is a random assortment of our recent favorites. Hope you try them too!

After a long absence, we've rejoined the YMCA. We've been back for a few months now and I can safely say I've quickly become addicted. At first I just enjoyed a little time to myself on the treadmill while the kids were at YPlay. But my mother-in-law dragged me to a Zumba class one night, and I got hooked. I'm still a little embarrassed about it because it's, you know, a little sassy. But Christi is a fantastic instructor and I love the makeshift community that the morning group (mostly middle aged women who have no problem screaming out, "Shake it, Sharon!" throughout the class) has become.

But mostly, I feel like I'm getting in much better shape. I'm stronger and have a lot more endurance. But more than that, Grey's doing swim team, Annie loves the YPlay ladies, and they offer ballet and other options for the kids. We love it. Come join (list us as your referral!) and work out with me. We'll have a blast!

This children's book is so cute. It features Alice, a self-proclaimed "temporary fairy" who is in training to become a real fairy. My favorite page shows her with a heaping mountain of sugar in her breakfast bowl with the words, "My magic wand can turn my oatmeal into cake!" Annie loves, LOVES this book. Buy it here. (Thanks, Lori, for introducing us to it!)

This is one of my favorite kids' movies to come out in a while. The action is so much fun, the characters are unique, and most importantly, it isn't dumbed down. For example, in one scene, the seemingly wimpy boy (named Hiccup) is lamenting the reasons his Viking-warrior dad doesn't like him--his skinny arms, spindly legs, etc. His friend says, "No, no, no. You've got it all wrong. It's not what's on the outside that matters; it's what's on the inside that he can't stand!" Cracks me up every time. If you haven't seen it, rent it now! (By the way, we ended up with two copies so if someone wants one for $10, I'll sell you ours!)

Might seem a little strange, but I picked up this package of Korma sauce at Publix (in the British foods section). It is delish! We've been cutting up some lamb steaks into cubes. These are pretty fatty and take some time to trim down. If you haven't had lamb before, it's not too expensive (a 1 lb steak was $4) and it was plenty for the four of us. Saute it in some olive oil until the juices start to run. Then add in the Korma sauce. Let it simmer for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, have some basmati rice boiling. Once it's cooked through, add a small package of frozen peas, stir them in, and cover the pot. (The warm rice will heat the peas up.) I also got some Naan bread (in the bakery area) and warmed it up and served it with peach jelly (mango chutney would have been much better). It is a great, easy meal! I think we're going to have a regular Indian night in circulation.

I found a huge list of printable crafts (for kids and adults) here, and this project was on the list. Annie worked on this today, and I plan to finish it up with her tomorrow. There are three pages you can print out from your computer. You glue the proscenium page to a box of crackers or cereal, then cut out the opening. The other two pages are characters you will color in and glue to popsicle sticks (from the top). Then, you stick your little people/animals down into the box and put on your very own puppet show. This might bide you some time during this very long Fall break week.

Hope you enjoy these too!

What we

2010-10-18T21:04:00.000-05:00

Photo Album

2010-10-15T21:16:00.004-05:00

I've been playing around with the photo editing actions that Pioneer Woman has as free downloads on her website (see the Blogs list on the right of the screen). I'm totally lost when it comes to Photoshop, so I'm thrilled to have these easy ways to tweak my pictures. Here are some samples:

The Original

Black & White

Heartland Action:

(I love how this one looks like it would be one of my great-grandparents' photos)

Seriously?

2010-10-13T17:41:00.007-05:00

I saw this ad on Facebook today. Seriously? Does it really need to take seven days to get rid of a pacifier? Grey just packed them up and gave them to a new baby friend of ours. We all survived with very little trauma.

But then again, who knows? Maybe it'll come up in therapy when he's older that paci-trauma is the root of all his adult issues. I'll keep my fingers crossed that he stays sane.

Viva U2

2010-10-08T22:13:00.005-05:00

Shortly after we got married, Todd drug me up to Louisville to see a U2 concert with his brother. I'd listened to a bit of Achtung Baby and, of course, Joshua Tree in college. And we used to watch Rattle and Hum quite a bit. But it wasn't until I saw them live that I became a fan. Then, a Fan. War, Achtung Baby, Joshua Tree . . . it just doesn't get better than that.

So, I'm a sucker for documentaries anyway, and I'm loving this new doc (available as instant download on Netflix right now) called It Might Get Loud. It's a guitar and music love-story told by Jack White, Jimmy Page, and The Edge. I'm not a musician and don't know almost anything about guitars, but it's fascinating and funny to see the ancient footage of these bands way back when, and it's just cool to see how they do what they love to do. I highly recommend it if you're a fan of The White Stripes, Led Zepplin, or U2.

Precious Memories

2010-10-06T14:13:00.003-05:00

Well, preschool is in full swing and that means we have lots (and lots and lots and lots and lots) of "artwork" that has come home over the last month. This ranges from a quite impressive booklet Grey made about the life cycle of frogs to a piece of scrap paper with two scribbles on it (and no name--it was probably Annie's but, in reality, it could be anyone's). In my opinion, if my child wasn't interested enough in the project to do it, you don't need to send it home with me. But I digress.

Usually these projects end up displayed on the fridge just long enough for the kids to go blind to them. They walk by without seeing it anymore. That's when I think I'm in the clear to trash them. Now, I'm not heartless, I keep the good ones. The ones I like. But the rest--garbage.

Inevitably, however, the kids will see their masterpiece sitting in the recycling bin and wail, "Why'd you throw away my picture?!?" That's when the lies start. "Oh my goodness, how'd that get in there? Oops!" Then I pull it back out with a secretly exasperated sigh and wait until enough time has passed to throw it away again.

Well, this year I've started a new tradition and I think it's satisfying all of us. I bought each child a three ring binder and inserted a sheet of paper as the "cover" that their name and the year printed on it. Inside, we put a folder that we picked out at Target for the smaller or messier projects to be kept in. Then, when they come home from school they get their notebooks off the shelf, we punch holes in their project, and they're kept there for posterity.

Someday, when they're touted as the world's the next Andy Warhols, someone will discover these portfolios and become a millionaire. For me, I'm just happy with a clean counter and a (relatively) clutter-free fridge.

Video of Grey's Meet

2010-10-02T21:23:00.003-05:00

See below for post about the event.

He Didn't Come in Last!

2010-10-02T20:09:00.007-05:00

Grey's first swim meet was today. He was super excited to be there and wanted to make sure he got there early enough to "practice his strokes." To be honest, I was pretty excited too. The chaos of the meet was a bit overwhelming to me, though. We had no idea where we were supposed to be or when, but we sat right next to the corner of the pool where the swimmers were starting from and just waited and stayed close to Coach Erica.

A few minutes before his event, he turned to me and said, "What if I'm the slowest?" It was heartbreaking, especially knowing he might be (since he was close to the youngest there), but he was still determined to do it and do it well.

We told him we'd be so proud of him no matter what place he came in, and we totally were. I was probably a completely obnoxious mom on the "sidelines," but I couldn't help it. I was screaming, "Go, Grey!" the whole 25m. And he swam as hard as he could.

We couldn't have done it without Grama & Grampa, who kept Annie and Hayes occupied for the hour that we waited until his event. And then we went for ice cream treats with Mimi afterward. It was a good day.

NOTE: Yes, we did wear sweaters this morning to his soccer game, then we swam outside this early October afternoon. Crazy.

How She Sees Me

2010-09-29T16:29:00.003-05:00

Sweetest Kids in the World

2010-09-23T22:18:00.003-05:00

I locked myself in the bathroom for five minutes today to get a blessed moment of peace (it was one of those get-up-and-go days). When I reemerged, the big kids were quiet and so I left them alone while I worked on some sewing. After a few minutes, I heard Grey saying "Pinkalicious" over and over, so I snuck in and found this:

They were all snuggled up in the chair, and Grey was "reading" the book to her. It was one of those moments of clarity as a parent when, after countless timeouts and threats to take away SillyBandz, you think maybe, just maybe, you're doing something right.

Then Annie started screaming and hit Grey over the top of the head.

Oh well, at least they have their moments.

Swim Team

2010-09-23T21:54:00.003-05:00

Grey joined the swim team at the YMCA this year (go Hurricanes!), and he's having a lot of fun. I've been so impressed with him swimming for an hour twice a week. His first meet is next week, and we'll (of course) post how he does. I looked at the times from the last meet, and his competitors are swimming one length of the pool in about a minute and a half. It won't exactly be speedy, but we'll be proud of him nonetheless.

Today they learned how to start off the blocks when swimming backstroke. Fun!

Cousins

2010-09-20T21:31:00.002-05:00

Grey had his first boys' spend-the-night last weekend. His cousin Alfie called and invited him over, and he was so excited to get to go. He packed up his blanket, Radar (his toy lion), and Marshmallow (his toy elephant). They played until extra late, then climbed in bed and read Where's Waldo even later. When Todd picked him up in the morning, Grey said, "Spending the night with Aunt Meg is so fun! She does whatever we want her to! We even got up in the night and . . . she made us toast!" Doesn't get better than that.

Teach Your Children Well

2010-09-12T23:46:00.004-05:00

Our small group meets every couple weeks, and while the grown ups are downstairs solving the world's problems, we've got babysitters watching the kids upstairs. There are a couple reasons why we do this. 1) It's easier to go in together and get a babysitter for all the kids instead of each trying to find our own. 2) We want our kids to experience community as well. 3) It's fun to have all the kids together.

But after a couple nights where the kids kept coming down and interrupting us, and one particularly bad night at the Marlowes' house with crayons on the walls and bookshelves, we made two major changes. We hired awesome babysitters, whose identity I will take to my grave--well, at least until my kids are in high school--to ensure they're always available for us. And, we've come up with something for them to do. Since I'm unwilling to be generous on the first (at least on the Internet), I'll share the second.

We've decided to design lessons around the Fruit of the Spirit for the kids, and you'll need a few supplies as well as a Bible translation the kids can understand (maybe NCV or The Message) if you want to use it with your small group or at home with the kids. It's kind of silly, but the kids have really been enjoying it.

Supplies:

1 piece of poster board per child

crayons

glue

red art paper--construction paper or copy paper, either one is fine

Love

“The fruit of the Spirit is love . . .” (Galatians 5:22)

“A friend loves you all the time, and a brother helps in time of trouble.” (Proverbs 17:17 NCV)

Story

Do you guys know what leprosy is?

Leprosy is a sickness people get sometimes that makes their skin get all crackly and itchy. It might sound yucky, but try to think about what it would be like for the people who have it. It would make you pretty sad, wouldn’t it, to feel like that all the time?

Well, when Jesus was alive on earth, a person with leprosy had to live all by themselves so no one else would catch it. I think they were probably pretty lonely, don’t you? One day, in one of the villages where Jesus was, a man with leprosy saw him. The man came out to Jesus, dropped down to the ground on his knees like he was praying, and he said, “If you want to, you can heal me!”

Most people would have said, “Eww, go away, that’s yucky!” But Jesus didn’t. He reached out his hand, touched him, and said, “I want to help you.” Right away, the man’s skin was all smooth and normal, just like yours and mine. It was a miracle.

Questions

In this story Jesus showed LOVE by helping the man with leprosy.

Who loves you?

How does it make you feel to know your mommy and daddy and grandparents love you?

What do you do to love other people?

Is love just a feeling, or is it something you choose to do?

Activity

Play “Love or Not-Love”

Act out different funny actions for the kids and get them to yell out “LOVE” or “MEAN” at each one. Examples: hug, pout with hands on hips, stomp feet, one help the other stand up, say “will you be my friend?” and so on.

Make “Fruit of the Spirit” Posters

Write “Fruit of the Spirit” across the top of the poster board.

Help the kids cut out smallish heart shapes. (They’re eventually going to do all 9 of the fruits, so make sure you leave enough room for them all.)

If the child can write, let them write LOVE on the heart. (If not, you do it.)

Let them decorate their hearts with crayons or stickers.

Glue the hearts to the poster board.

Ask the kids to tell you what love is, then write it on the posters under their hearts.

Playtime, then clean up!

Love that Generous Spirit

2010-09-04T20:47:00.003-05:00

Grey was riding his scooter at Grama's house today, but his helmet didn't fit right. It's too small. He handed it to me and said, "Let's give this to big Will."

"Who?"

"Um . . . old Will?"

"Honey, I don't know who . . ."

"Maybe, good Will? I don't really know who that is, but . . ."

"Oh, Goodwill," I say, nodding. "That's a great idea, sweetie. Thanks."

Who Knew They Had a Sense of Humor?

2010-09-02T15:26:00.003-05:00

I subscribe to The Chicago Manual of Style online. This book is the Bible for editors, and I am on their website daily. One of my favorite features is their Q & A section. Each week there's at least one smart aleck answer to a question. If you're interested in grammar, I heartily recommend perusing their questions every once in a while.

Q. My significant other and I have a disagreement: he maintains that in referring to a roomful of nurses, we may say “a roomful of R.N.” on the grounds that we do not need to pluralize R.N. as R.N.s, although he does concede that one would not say “a roomful of nurse.” (“Room full” perhaps irrationally connotes to me a more ominous density of nurses than “roomful.”) We have been arguing about this for going-on ten years and would like to settle the question in order to move on to some new dispute.

A. To my ear, a roomful of R.N. sounds far more ominous than a roomful of RNs. But as you can see, Chicago style regularly pluralizes abbreviations and skips the pesky periods: “a roomful [or room full] of RNs.” Maybe you can argue about the periods from now on.

Q. Recently my wife corrected my grammar several times in one day, in front of her family, which led me to seek an opportunity to publicly correct her. I contended that she should have said “high quality” instead of simply “quality.” She insisted that I was wrong, and I fear that I may indeed be wrong, but I would like your insight on the off chance that I might be right.

A. Oh, dear—this needs to stop before it escalates any further. It’s rude to correct someone’s grammar in public; your wife was wrong to correct you; and you are wrong about the use of “quality.” I suggest you buy a dictionary and stop at the florist on the way home. See if you can arrange a détente.

Do you like to sew?

2010-08-27T23:33:00.003-05:00

If you like to sew but hate to spend $15-20 on top of the cost of fabric to make things, check out these resources.

Amy Butler

She has fun, bright, vibrant fabrics, but she also offers tons of patterns for free on her site. Many of them are quilts, some are accessories. Fun, easy projects!

Heather Bailey

More flirty, retro Midwest fun. Lots of great fabrics for bags, quilts, and sassy skirts. Look on the right hand side of her blog.

Oliver + S

I cannot express how much I love these patterns. They're easy to follow, stylish yet classic, and the art is adorable. They regularly offer free patterns on their blog. Scroll through the blog posts. I love the Popover Sundress and the Ruffled Halter.

Little Ballerinas

2010-08-19T14:49:00.007-05:00

Annie's friend Hazel invited her to take a ballet class with her this year, and today was their first class. They were very cute in their little pink outfits, and they had tons of fun. They start with tap dance, then move on to ballet, and end up with some tumbling. Tap was Annie's favorite part, she said.

Here is the obligatory obscene amount of pictures . . .

Amelia (Hazel's cousin, in black), Annie, and Hazel

ball-change

step-tap-step-tap-step-tap

pirouette

waiting on her star mat for her turn as leader

rolling down the "cheese"

Sewing with Annie

2010-08-16T20:35:00.003-05:00

I love sewing with the kids. Well, I love the first ten minutes of sewing with the kids--when they're interested, obedient, and enthusiastic about the project. Annie, especially, loves to compliment me. "Good job, Mommy." "That's a good idea, Mommy."

We made a bunch of pairs of pajama pants the other day, and she helped. She pushed the presser foot "perfectly exactly until you said stop." Grey's gotten to the point where he's able to direct the fabric through the machine, with help.

They start to lose interest about the time I get to the waistband, but other than that they both enjoy it a lot.

Wiped Out

2010-08-11T01:03:00.001-05:00

Proud Mama

2010-08-09T21:36:00.004-05:00

Today I had one of those parenting moments that I think I'll always remember. Trying to figure out what to say about it, I feel like it sounds insignificant. But it was an emotional moment for us.

Grey tried out for the swim team today. We showed up a little early, and he was very excited. We tempered his expectations a little bit, warning him that he would probably be the youngest one there and the other kids would be bigger and faster. He took in what we were saying but was determined to give it his best shot.

When the coach told him it was his turn, he jumped in the pool and started swimming as hard as he could. As he approached the far ladder, he started to look tired. At the end, he grabbed the wall, held it for a second, then made the turn and swam back in our direction. It was down to the last ten feet or so, and his head was coming straight up out of the water and he was taking huge gulps of air, but he didn't quit. It was all I could do not to pump my hands in the air and cheer for him.

At the end of the try-outs, he was one of the kids left who'd made the team. Three others had been cut, some older than he is. At home, while I was making dinner, I overheard him talking to his grandfather on the phone.

"Yeah, I made the team . . . Some kids didn't make the team, and they were older than me . . . Yeah, and they were older than me . . . I was nervous before that maybe I wouldn't make it because I was smaller than some of them, but I tried really hard because I really wanted to be on the team."

I couldn't have been more proud of his willingness to try something, even if there was a chance he might fail. And then to succeed! Watch out, Bellevue Y, you may just have a stage mom on your hands.

So stinkin' cute

2010-08-07T23:13:00.001-05:00

Fabric Finds

2010-08-01T23:00:00.007-05:00

We've been sewing again this weekend. I took the kids to the fabric store last week and they each picked out 4 or 5 pieces of fabric to make pajamas with. I'll post pictures of all that later, but in the meantime I've been looking at fabric online. I love these!

For some reason this is called "Clown Stripe," but I think it would make a really fun, swingy A-line skirt, cut on the bias to make a V with the stripes in the center.

I kind of wish this was in light-weight corduroy. It would make a cute fall dress or pants for Annie. Lollipop by Heather Bailey

Oohhh-- A dress for Annie out of these two! Flock and Blue Yonder by Cloud Nine Fabrics (all organic!) Their Toadstools pattern in this collection is really cute too.

Apple Harvest, a Japanese import. This would make a yummy satchel. (It's canvas.)

Garden Party by Anna Maria Horner. I want a skirt out of this, or maybe a sundress . . .