Mom, we need more toilet paper!

"Mom, we need more toilet paper!"
I hear that all the time.
I left the bathroom for a few seconds today and found this when I went back in:

Big Daddy is out of town, so Maggie and I went outside to mow the yard today while Ellie took a nap. I had been mowing for a only a few minutes when I saw a really long black snake. Of course, everyone says that they are perfectly harmless, but I'm not so sure. Maggie was riding her bike in the driveway and came over to see "him". It only took her a fraction of a second before she asked, "Are you going to shoot it with your gun or with Daddy's?"

I explained that I wasn't going to shoot him because he was supposedly harmless. (Even though I can usually hit a target exactly where I want, I hated to shoot and miss and risk him charging at me!) Since he was barely out of the woods and in the edge of our yard I told her that he would most likely go back to where he came from.
Then I told him that if he slithered any closer to our house I'd shoot his head off.

Finished . . . I think.

I'm very happy with how my little desk/vanity project turned out. I have to get liner for the drawers and then I'll have a place to put my sewing stuff and husby's bill paying stuff and my homeschool stuff. Very exciting!

I sat everyone down last night and explained that it was mine and that no one else could put there stuff on it or in it without my permission. I still have to find a little chair for it and figure out what I'm going to put on it and think about something to hang above it and maybe find more knobs for it.

So, here's our hodge-podge bedroom!

The bed is the first thing that you see from the little "bedroom foyer". (If a master bedroom has an entrance with walls on each side, I refer to it as a bedroom foyer. I have been doing this for years and started using the term when I was real estate broker, so it's completely legitimate.)

This is to the left: walk-in closet (out of picture), armoire, master bathroom and Big Daddy's night table.

To the right-I gave up my kidney-shaped night table (it's now a sofa table in the bonus room) and we slip-covered my VERY expensive chair to coordinate with the room. Then there's my hope chest (now painted) and the desk on the other wall.

I have always wanted real bedroom furniture that matches, but the mix and match stuff is really what I like. My parents gave us the armoire the first Christmas after we were married and my dad made our headboard (I drew out what I wanted) a year or so after we bought our first house. The chair was an expensive purchase after my first big real estate closing. (For my second big closing, I bought perfume, so my celebration purchases went down in price!) We had planned on putting the chair upstairs with the loveseat, but we really love it in the bedroom. We have started spending lots of time in there just hanging out watching the kids do flips on the yoga mat or pretending to sleep in our bed.

No April Fools from me today.

The Longest Project of All Time

I have decided that my desk/vanity project may be the longest. project. ever. I have also decided that it's just part of being a mom. Every single thing seems to take a little longer when you know that you have very limited periods of time to work on something and you are almost guaranteed to be interrupted.

So...I had this idea and somewhere in my mind I knew that it wouldn't work out, but I think I really hoped that it would in my heart. I finally had a few minutes free yesterday (after I had folded three loads of laundry and cleaned the ENTIRE house) while Ellie napped and tried it. Epic fail. I fixed the part I had messed up and decided to distress the desk a little and then I'll apply a coat of something that I'm supposed to use now that it's all painted. I have never been afraid of messing it up or having to start all over. I am afraid of wasting the precious time and then trying to find the time to fix it.

With the way things are going, I'm not setting a completion date.

Big Daddy was away on a business trip and as soon as he parked in the garage I started distressing (and de-stressing) with my sandpaper. I'm going to try and finish that today.

In other news, I am feeling much better, but did wake up with ear/neck/head pain this morning. I took my beloved migraine medicine and feel much better. Ellie and I both have a cough and runny nose. She'll be staying with Daddy tonight while Maggie & I go to Awana.

Today is my mom's birthday. Maggie is determined that there is a surprise party planned at Nana's house today. She really doesn't believe me when I tell her that we're celebrating it on another day. Should be fun when reality comes crashing down on her.

Sick Day

I'm officially taking today off. Whatever that means.

I had a horrible headache on Saturday and by the end of the day it was a mild migraine. I say mild, because I was still able to function. On Sunday, I still had a headache, both of my ears were hurting and my throat was so sore. I felt bad when I first woke up, but we were taking Cousin Callie to church with us for "Friend Day" so I made myself feel better. It was during church when my throat started hurting and then when we arrived home I realized how bad I really felt. I decided to go to the local urgent care and was diagnosed with a bad sinus infection. The doctor also said that I had so much "stuff" in my head that it had caused a vacuum and was making my ear drums do something funny.

I felt really horrible again this morning, but Big Daddy had an early meeting so I had to take Maggie to school. I took a little extra Ex.cedrin Migraine to give myself a few good hours. I'm really hoping for a nap today.

Even though I have felt really bad all weekend Big Daddy and I did take the girls to get Easter portraits taken. Ellie was NOT happy about it, but we got a few that were decent of her and Maggie together. Ellie wanted to sit on anything that didn't coordinate or hold a giant rubber ducky or a basketball...or her Daddy. This was her favorite chair until she saw a black and white letter block. I HATE this chair. We didn't buy any of this pose, but she was tickled to sit in the chair.

Today, I have decided that I'm doing laundry and taking care of the kids, but not much else. The hardwood floors need some lovin' but I'm not up to it today. I haven't done anything except fold laundry since Friday night. I'm really hoping that I'll feel well enough to get my work done tomorrow. I need to feel better so that I can put the finishing touches on my second little project.

The Projects

So, I have finished the first project. The chest started out oak (no picture) and then I moved it to the bathroom, put a coat of Kilz on it and two coats of V@alspar paint in Chocolate Turtle.

Big Daddy and I agree that it's an improvement, but we both would like it to be a darker brown. More dark chocolate and less milk chocolate. Of course, it looks nothing like it does in this picture and the walls are a completely different shade of green. (Sherwin Williams Svelte Sage)

Project #2 is the desk/vanity thing. I'm not sure why I love it so much, but I do!

I removed the knobs and washed it two times with Murphy's Oil Soap.

After that, I sanded down nearly the whole thing, but put lots of focus on the top which was pretty rough.

After it was sanded, I washed it again and I have the first coat of paint on. If all goes as planned, I'll do another coat after Maggie and Ellie are in bed tonight. We have sort of a busy day tomorrow, so I'm not sure when it will find a home in the master bedroom. Luckily, there's plenty of room for it and two cars in the garage!

Taking Another Risk

I'm taking another risk!!

There's this little shop (the old Jitterburger) in town that sells used furniture and appliances that often catch my eye. I usually call my mom and tell her what I want and she goes by to check it out to see if it's in good condition. So far, I've scored an old dining room chair (that has arms and everything!) that we use in the kitchen. It needed to be cleaned (really bad) and painted, but it was only $15. My mom bought it for me, so it was technically free.

For quite a while I have wanted a small desk/vanity for our bedroom. We have plenty of floor space and I thought it would be a nice place to keep bills that need to be paid (tucked neatly into drawers) and mailing supplies and a nice place for me to sit and use the laptop (or maybe a sewing machine if I ever get one). I saw THE perfect desk at the shop a few weeks ago, but when I stopped to check it out, found that it was in horrible condition and not even solid wood.

I was excited to see that the "junk man" (I say this with a heart full of love for this man) had lots of "new" stuff out. We were on our way to my mom's for lunch after our Storytime and I could barely get a glimpse of a desk/vanity that he had. After lunch, I told my mom about it and she said she wanted to talk to him about a certain kind of old chair that she was looking for so I suggested that we take a little drive over to look around. The desk-thingy I wanted was only $35 and solid wood and in good working condition. It needs to be cleaned and painted, but I had planned to paint it anyway. And he had a gorgeous antique rocker that I REALLY want for $35, but I'm not sure Big Daddy will go for that. We did a major de-clutter when we moved and he really likes to know where anything new will go or what it's going to be used for. I'm not sure that saying "it just makes my heart happy" will work for me since it doesn't work for him when he wants to buy a new gun.

I called to ask Big Daddy about it as they were loading it into the back of the minivan (YAY! for minivans). I also had to borrow money from my mom because I didn't have enough cash.

So, I have one project finished and another one ready to start. The new piece is still in the minivan, so I might post pictures of both pieces tomorrow.

Taking A Risk

When I saw The Nester talking about "Take A Risk Day" I didn't think about anything that I had (really, really) wanted to do, but worried about the risk. Then this morning, I read the post for the "holiday" and still didn't think of anything.

I spent a few hours outside this morning, cleaning windows and playing with Maggie and Ellie. We came in tired, hungry and ready for a little inside play time. I put both girls down for a nap and was surprised to find that Maggie went to sleep too. Before I knew it, I was in the bathroom painting the "hope chest" that I'd had for years.

Suddenly, I was participating in the holiday and had never thought I would.

Our master bathroom is my sanctuary. It is the only place that I have alone time. Of course, there's also lots of little girls playing in there time, too. I lock the door on Sunday mornings so that I can get ready for church without interruption. I take a shower after Maggie and Ellie are asleep and enjoy the peace and quiet. And, the chest was really heavy and the bathroom seemed like the perfect place to start painting it. I can shut the door, turn on the exhaust fan and not have to worry that someone will play in wet paint.

I have a coat of Kilz on it and I'll try to paint it tomorrow, but it may not happen until Thursday.

I already had the Kilz and the paint was a free sample from V@lspar- in Chocolate Turtle. Right now my biggest is risk is having an angry husband. If he gets a little upset that the chest is in our bathroom I'm going to remind of the time that the gun safe was in our foyer. For days.

School At Home

As kindergarten registration gets closer and closer more people are finding out that we are going to be homeschooling Maggie. I haven't really explained our reasons to many people at all. I have found that many moms start defending their reasons for sending their kids to public or private school.

I have been pretty vague to most people and just said that we had decided to homeschool Maggie and that she's eager to learn and we're up for the challenge. I don't defend our decision to homeschool her, but I do stay up late at night reading and researching and shopping for curriculum. I don't want to mess this up and I take it very seriously. Sometimes I wake up during the night and think about all of the stuff that I need to do to get us registered.

So far, I feel pretty good. I'm the one who has taught Maggie to write and now she's reading too. I didn't wait on preschool to teach her how to write or recognize letters. I haven't had to force Maggie to do anything and I have followed her lead and tried to teach her things as she became curious about them.

Maggie is also completely on board with going to school at home. She knows that she will have assignments to do every single day and she loves the idea. She will also be taking dance classes, attending choir at church, going to Awana and at sometime getting involved in a homeschool group. She'll get plenty of socialization, which I think may be the top (and worst) excuse that I've heard for not homeschooling. I think moms need to be more supportive of each other. This job isn't easy and hopefully, we all do what we think is best for us and our kids. Moms are critical about so many aspects of parenting from how you birth your baby to what/when you feed them.

I decided to go out on a limb last night and look at the private schools that I would like to send Maggie to. One of them was over $11,000 a year for kindergarten. So in a few years her tuition would go up and then Ellie would be in kindergarten and I would be missing a kidney!



"...most of them thought we

were strange long before we announced we'd decided to homeschool the
kids".
~Mary McCarthy, homeschool mom

A Happy Birthday

Maggie's birthday is one month and nine days away. She has started counting down.

I have not.

I have really struggled with her birthday in the past for different reasons. This year I have struggled with her party.

We have been invited to all different kinds of parties. The first birthday party that we attended was for a three year old. There was a bounce/jump thing, sandbox and her parents cooked hot dogs and hamburgers.

Here's little Maggie at her friend Maddie's third birthday party! She wasn't even two years old.

We have also been invited to big parties with family and friends attending, parties at bounce places, swim parties, museums, McDonald's and of course, the children's spa.

In the past I had always worried that Maggie would be too shy or embarrassed to have a big party with friends. I decided that this year was the year for her to have her first party with friends. She went to a party at a bounce place last Summer and really enjoyed it, so I thought that is what she would want. I asked and she said...
"I'd just like a party with family."

Of course, that's fine with me if that's what she wants. Especially since her birthday falls over the Easter holiday and schools will be out for Spring break. I would be so sad if we planned a big party and then many of her friends couldn't make it.

I didn't want to do anything over the top, but I thought this was the year for a big party.

Two posts in one day

I have had a really good day. The kids have played well and I have been extra productive. When things go this well, especially when Big Daddy's away, I always feel like I'm in for a little bit of bad. I'm not superstitious, but I just feel like something not so good is bound to happen. I just usually expect one of the kids to do something crazy or to make a big mess.

I managed to cook dinner, feed the kids and clean the kitchen when the phone rang. It was my very special mommy-friend A. After having surgery to remove skin cancer from her lip at the end of January, she called to tell me that it seems to have returned. We were only able to talk for a couple of minutes, so I only have limited details. Her doctor thinks that this is a very aggressive form of cancer. She had to have several rushed biopsies today and also had to get six stitches.

I called our other mommy-friend to tell her the news and neither of us could help but cry over the phone. As I've said before, A has kids nearly the exact same age as Maggie and Ellie and she is a great woman of faith. Please join me in praying for her.