Anatomy of Painting

As Heather told you, we spent the weekend painting the hall and fixing up the kids/guest bathroom.
Well as you probably know from your own experience, when you spend the whole time cleaning out a room or two to paint them another room may pay the price. So here is a view of the guest room at the end of the hall that was painted and next to the bathroom that was painted.1. Barbie's red car
2. Random wall decoration
3. Painters tape from the hallway
4. Box of misc "to be given" gifts
5. Waste basket
6. Caulk gun
7. Stud finder
8. Dry wall scrapper thingy
9. Level
10. Pictures for bathroom
11. Crib ready for visitors (as soon as some stuff is removed from it.....)
12. Box for goodwill
13. Closet door that Ryan may have ripped off the track when he got tired of it not sliding correctly
14. Chair...because it seems like a good place for one
15. Spackle
16. Latest Costco coupons
17. Stepstool
18. Screws
19. Drill
20. And last but not least....Paint

we went thru a bit of paint this weekend

Spent the entire weekend painting and "remodeling". Got a new looking hallway (looong hallway with 7 doors involved) and a pretty little bathroom out of it. Love it!!

We figured after almost 6 months and the fact that we're looking at lodging houseguest groups # 6 and 7 coming up soon, that it was probably about time to spruce up the kids'/guest bathroom. The filthy tile grout, an overbearing mirror and vanity and a gaping hole in the wall from an obnoxious medicine cabinet we removed the very first few days we lived here were just not very welcoming or attractive. Not to mention the fact that 2 of the 4 lightbulbs have been burned out in there for months. But you know how when you live with something long enough you tend to eventually just not notice it anymore?? Yeah, that was that whole bathroom.

My apologies to those that have visited and had to brush your teeth with that lovely drywall dust in there. I promise if you come back and see us again, you'll have a much more comfortable bathroom!

I'm still working on finishing up the trim and cabinet in the bathroom and then I'll hopefully be putting it all together tomorrow. Can't wait to show you this one!

i'm here. with flowers.

I don't really have much to say, but I feel like it's a blogging kind of morning. It's gray and stormy outside, Savannah's off at school, Sawyer's watching cartoons, both the dishwasher and washing machine are running in the background and I'm sitting here with my Netbook, and I keep feeling like I should be blogging. But I really don't have anything to say.

Except that I miss writing here.
My writing has been slowly waning (even moreso than usual) over the last six months.
And my emotional health has been waning as well. Coincidence??

This is the third interstate move we've made in the past five years. I pretty much lived and breathed journalling my way through the first two... and all was well.
This time around... not so much.
I've really been struggling lately.
And this journal was such a big part of my life previously, I can't help but question;
Am I not writing because I'm struggling more, or am I struggling more because I'm not writing??
Writing has always been so therapeutic to me. Journals, poetry and songs have been my lifeline throughout everything.
And now lately... nothing.

Honestly I am not happy right now.
I mean, I'm happy -in the big picture, I know I'm foundationally, overwhelmingly happy with this life I've been blessed with- I'm just not feeling happy at the moment. Or for the last few months of moments.
I'm really hoping this bit of depression thaws out with the season. I'm ready for spring.

I bought myself some flowers yesterday.
Last year, when we had our house on the market for so long, with our relatively constant flow of showings, I routinely kept vases of fresh flowers in our family room as well as in the master bedroom. Costco's floral department loved me. (and oh how i miss our giant lilac bush!!)
Aside from being an attractive selling tactic, I was always amazed at how flowers really brightened up the place. Especially amidst a trying year of being stressed and crazy... there was just something about having a simple bunch of fresh flowers that could ground me; they could let me pause and smile. Flowers are such a small, uplifting detail that I discovered makes a big difference for me.
I realized this week, that after living with flowers in my home for more than 8 months straight last year, I haven't yet once had fresh flowers in this house. Almost 6 months.
It's about time.

I was reminded of a study I once read about that showed the impact of living with flowers had... that fresh flowers in a home increased kindness and compassion, they were calming, and even seemed to ward away many moments of worry and sadness. It also said that people who live with flowers in their home have lowered hypertention, less anxiety and less negativity with boosted energy levels and productivity.
(I know I tend to keep my kitchen cleaner when there's a pretty vase of flowers sitting in the middle of it!)
It was also suggested that homes with flowers have fewer fights and fewer bouts of sickness and depression.
That's enough for me.


I think flowers may be back on the weekly routine for me.
When is the last time you bought yourself -or better yet, were given- flowers to brighten up not only your spirit but your home's as well??

friday revamp

So remember just two days ago when I said that Savannah had yet to miss a single day of school this year? And that I had every reason to believe she just might get through the whole school year without a single sick day??

Guess who's home with me today.
Although she's not really sick, so even though she's now acquired her first official home sick day this year, I'm sticking with saying she's still managed to stay healthy. So far.

It all started when I got a call from school yesterday, just after lunch, saying I needed to come pick her up from the school clinic because she had been throwing up. Wha-? She was absolutely perfectly fine four hours ago.
Needless to say, I ditched all else and threw Sawyer in the car to run up to the school to get her, all the while feeling horrible for Savannah that she threw up at school, wondering how it happened and how horrible she must feel.
I walked in and they didn't have her in the clinic... they had her sitting right up front with her things waiting for me. And she looked fine. I asked what happened, how she was, if they had detected a fever or anything... nothing, all they told me was that she had thrown up and she couldn't be at school. So we went home.
Turns out, according to Savannah, she never threw up. She had told a teacher in the cafeteria during lunchtime that she felt dizzy and her tummy felt funny and she was sent to the office. I don't know who said what, but somehow it got turned into 'get this girl home because she's been throwing up.'
Of course I quizzed Savannah on any other symptoms... no fever, no headache, no sore throat, just feeling dizzy and "funny".

And.
The fact that it was the 100th day of school and they had their little celebration that morning with a 100 piece snack. Every child brought in a different ingredient (we brought goldfish) and each student took ten pieces of ten ingredients to make their 100 count "trail mix". And ate it all.
So Savannah had consumed dozens and dozens of marshallows, m&m's, skittles, cheezits, fruit loops, etc, stuffing herself full.
Just before P.E.
Which was immediately followed by lunch.
And then felt sick.
Go figure.

I was a little irritated when I got the whole scoop.
But then she went on to not do anything but lay around all afternoon, rest in her room for awhile and watch some tv on the couch. And she didn't eat -or drink- anything for the rest of the day. So I wondered. She looked a bit pale, but still no fever or vomiting or anything whatsoever.
She didn't eat a single bite for dinner and I had to force her to take three sips of applejuice before bed.
And it was the same this morning.
And she said she was too sick for school.

In reality, I think she was sick from all that sugar on an empty stomach (followed by gym class) which carried over for most of the day, turned into finally actual hunger but she was nervous about her tummy... and this morning probably honestly felt too weak and hungry and probably a little headachy from no food or drink for almost 24 hours to feel up to school. And was probably nervous about really getting sick at school.

So here she sits.
I finally got her to eat some applesauce this morning, and then she asked for some oatmeal, which was inhaled in about 2.3 seconds. It was like once she had food, she realized how hungry she was. And perked up immediately.
And of course she was chasing her brother around, bugging him the rest of the morning.
I keep reminding her if she's feeling fine I can take her to school at any time...

Friday's are usually "my" days since Sawyer's at school too, and I had big plans today to go to the paint store, the fabric store, a big consignment sale and a couple of estate sales I'd been waiting for all week. I was also hoping to go have lunch with Ryan.

Instead, here I am, hanging out with my little school skipper. I guess we'll find things to do around here instead. Lord knows this house can always use a good cleaning day!
Why is shopping for the house is always so much more fun than cleaning it...

it's wednesday

We took off again this past weekend for a few days back in St Louis. We stayed with the Swinigans and got to spend some time with the Malones, the Laughlins, hung out in the old 'hood for a bit with some friends there and made it to our old church for Sunday morning. It was a quick visit, but so good to see everyone!

Heather called me Monday morning to let me know Norah had a fever with an ear infection and strep. I spent the day praying that my kids would stay healthy after spending the last three days (and nights) sharing the same germs. I didn't think to pray for myself.

Kids are fine, but I woke up yesterday hardly able to move... achy and chilled and with that sensitive prickly skin where anything that touches you is torture. My head was killing me and my eyes were burning and after I got the kids off to school I basically stayed in bed all day. And then the throat started hurting...

My fever is gone today and I started antibiotics right away, so hopefully it'll be shortlived. And hopefully the kids stay fine. We rarely pass things around in our house, so I'm not too worried. I'm just glad it was me and not them. Savannah hasn't missed a day of school yet this year and she's planning on making it the whole year without a single sick day! Knock on wood.

So after the whirlwind of being out of town, followed by Valentine's Day to-do's and then a day of being knocked flat on my back, I'm feeling like today is finally the start of my week. I painted a bar/cabinet thingie for our dining room this morning and got some laundry started and plan on still taking it easy most of the day. We have some great spring weather (supposed to be 70 tomorrow!!) this week so maybe I'll sit outside with Sawyer for a bit.
Love the sunshine!!

snow day the bazillionth

At least it's been a productive snow day. It's too cold (3° with the windchill) to play out in the white stuff so we've been busy inside. Both kids have cleaned their rooms -spotless!- and I've done bathrooms and laundry and dishes oh my!
And it's only 10 am.
Now the kids are quiet upstairs, one on the computer and one playing old school Nintendo so I thought I should make some time to jump on here and make mention of last weekend before we're already headed into another busy one tomorrow morning!

We ran up to Evansville this past weekend and spent a few days to celebrate J's birthday with him. We were so touched that that was his big birthday request... we were more than happy to join in the festivities! And as usual we had a great time. The kids spent a lot of time Just Dance-ing together which was hilarious to watch and us grown ups got plenty of good visiting time in now that all the kids are old enough to scoot away to the upper floor playroom and manage all on their own. Except for little Lydia of course but Ryan and I were more than happy to get our fill of snuggles from one of the cutest babies around while we sat and caught up with Dave and Amie.
Amie and I even got out for a little mommy (and Lydia) time for lunch and consignment shopping just us girls. And grocery shopping, but that wasn't really on the fun list.



J wanted a camping party "just like Sawyer's" so the kids had fun with that.




























































And Amie made a fabulous campfire -er, I mean cake.




































Totally spaced on getting a stairs shot with the kiddos this time around, so the tent will have to do!

we're out of yogurt

Sawyer is not a breakfast person, but he does love to eat yogurt in the morning. He won't eat cereal or eggs or toast or fruit in the morning, but he'll eat yogurt.
And today we're out of yogurt.

I know we're out of yogurt because he told me this approximately 137 times while I was getting Savannah put together, fed and out the door this morning.

After bidding Savannah farewell I (again) ran down the list of other breakfast options for Sawyer which he shot down one and all amidst sighings of "if only there were yogurt...." and strong hints at the Gogurts he knows are in the freezer reserved for special lunches and picnics or as other treats.

Then I remembered we made cookies yesterday.
No fat, no sugar, banana oatmeal raisin cookies.
"Hey Sawyer, you want a couple of cookies for breakfast??"

He hopped up to the table and happily started munching away.
As he polished off the first one and moved on to his second he pondered...
"Mom, I have a question for you.
Did you give me these cookies to get my mind off the yogurt?"

"Why yes. Yes I did."

"Well, nice try but your plan didn't work because I'M STILL THINKING ABOUT IT!
It is NOT that easy."

three

It's the 3rd of the February.
Can you donate $3?

Just Three dollars.

On the Third of each month.

A small monetary help and a reminder to pray for the Three girls raped every 45 minutes in Kenya.

In a place like that, rape happens every day. It is literally an everyday -every hour- occurrence:
More than 20,000 children are sex trafficked in Kenya.
Parents often force their daughters into trading sex for food in the slums.
13,000 Kenyan girls are kicked out of school -if they were lucky enough to still be in school- for being pregnant.
25% of pregnant women in Kenya are HIV positive.
Annually, 26,000 women die from having an illegal, unsafe abortion in Kenya
and 1500 women die in childbirth every day across Africa.

The Mercy House is striving to serve girls in just these situations in Kenya.
Consider joining me in The Power of Three this year to support them.
Three dollars is not that much.
But 3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3+3 (you get the idea) IS.

Better yet, can you spare more than that?

Can you donate supplies??

We have it so good here. So good.
Even when we think we don't.

our jobs

I haven't coordinated any effort around here to match up with a Works for me Wednesday in a long time, so I thought I'd get my act together today and show you want we're doing with chores in our house.
We call them jobs around here. And this last week we finally got an actual, dependable, regular system in place. What?... it's only taken me 7 years of parenting to make a tangible system... is that so bad??

My kids have been "helpers" for as long as they can remember. They have always been expected to help with household things... they set the table or put away groceries or help with laundry or clean up toys all along the way and are really pretty good about helping out.
When I think to ask them to or remember to remind them to.

Lately, mostly since moving this summer, I've tried to give them more responsibility and regular jobs to be done on a regular basis on their own; cleaning up their bathroom, folding laundry, putting away laundry, keeping their rooms clean and other random this-is-something-you-can-handle-on-a-regular-basis jobs.
Which haven't always worked out so well on that regular basis.
Turns out my kids -or maybe it's just me?- just can't do it without specific times and days and details of how and when and where to do the job each time.

So instead of just a laid back go with the flow team effort I was hoping to create around here, I decided I finally had to get organized and get a plan in place for these guys. Or maybe for me. Either way, it needed to be spelled out, on paper, visual. In other words, it was time to choose from the myriad of chore chart, job jar, responsibility board ideas out there.

So here's what I came up with.
(please excuse the dim pictures today)

First I broke down what I wanted to be the kids' responsibilities into three areas:
Morning Jobs (things like making beds and brushing teeth and getting ready for the day), After Dinner Jobs (things like clearing the table, cleaning up toys, dishes, etc) and
Extra Jobs (things I think of more like "chores"... vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, etc.),

Morning Jobs I posted in their bedrooms for now, most of which are already part of their routine but wanted it to be posted for a reminder nonetheless. These are more of their personal responsibility jobs.















I also wrote up and posted what specifically constitutes keeping their bedrooms cleaned up, just for reference. Their bedrooms, for the most part, are left up to them and only when it gets really bad (SJ, lately, often) do I "make" them "clean their room". Her idea of a clean room and my idea of a clean room haven't been lining up very well, so I'm hoping breaking it down into baby steps will make it easier on all of us.















(I debated putting pictures on the lists since Sawyer can't technically read, but I think he's close enough to being able to read at least the main words that I decided against it... It'll be good practice for him to learn a few specific words and be familiar enough with these lists to figure it out.)

For After Dinner Jobs, I divied them up into two lists and the kids will take turns with each list each week or each night, depending on how we switch it up. We'll definitely go by weeks at first so the kids can get some good "instruction" and practice in on these jobs, doing them right and well.
One set of jobs we refer to as "yellow jobs" and one set are "green jobs". Our Yellow jobs are clearing the table, wiping the table and chairs and then doing a quick pick up of any toys and other out of place things in the kitchen and family room. The Green jobs are helping to put away leftovers, wiping down counters and sweeping the kitchen floor.

Extra Jobs are for now, and probably at least during the school year, going to be Saturday jobs, to be done Saturday mornings; vacuuming, dusting, matching socks, washing windows, bathroom counters, etc.

So here's how our "on paper, spelled out, visuals" plays out for these community/family jobs...

I had bought, a long time ago, these three giant clothespins I came across on clearance at Homegoods. I didn't know what exactly I was going to do with them at the time, but I thought they were cute (oversized anything is cute, right?) and knew I could find something that would make them worth their $2 price tag. Well, turns out they fit right in with my plan here.
















First I painted them
(this is probably why they were on the clearance shelf; one was black with the words "world's best cook" scrawled on both sides, and the other two were two-toned pink and orange.) I made one a turquoisey blue and one solid orange to coordinate with the bright colors in my kitchen and then I turned the black one plain black.










Then I pulled out matching ribbon and I covered some small clothespins (not the hanging clothes size, but craft size) in the ribbon with hot glue, adding a star shaped brad to one side of each clip.















I printed out our jobs, backing them with cuter paper, and used the giant clothespins to display our jobs on the wall in a corner of our kitchen by the laundry room door.


(I ♥ these velcro picture hanging strips... I use them for everything!)
















Our Extra Jobs hang from the big black clothespin and the cards with the After Dinner Jobs will move back and forth from the blue to orange clothespins designating which jobs are whose responsibility.




















The orange clips -both big and small- point out Savannah's jobs and the blue clips are for Sawyer's jobs.




















The little clothespins are clipped to the Extra Jobs list, putting each kids' color next to a job slated for them. I clip them on plain colored side out and the kids turn them over to show the star when the job is completed.
































So far so good. Savannah got her room clean without too much intervention this weekend, and so far the kids have happily been getting their new assignments done. I know it's still new and novel, but I hope having it spelled out like this helps keep us on the ball for the long run.
Do you have a system in place to be sure the kids know and accomplish their responsibilities?? What works for you?












See what's working for others -lots of Valentine's ideas!- this week at Kristen's. :)