The never ending world of projects

My kitchen smells faintly of fall.  I made some (hopefully) low calorie granola to assist me in my consumption of more dairy (in the form of greek yogurt) that I will top with fresh fruit.  

I have a 2 year old that is feeling feisty.  She demands attention.  It is partly due to the fact that her nap was short lived today, that she is unhappy about her siblings going to school and she stays home, and partly due to the fact that she is almost 2. 

Nate is gone for the weekend on a scout trip. 

With the new house comes projects.  

Thankfully most of the projects are just making the place pretty.  Little things that I want to do.  

And part of them are things that need to be done.  I want to do them- not because they are fun, but because I want to have them done. 

Having this said 2 year old makes it difficult.  And I am trying to get it all done so I can relax and just try and be a good mom.   I wish so bad I could get it all done.  First I will show the fun projects- I guess they are not so necessary but I like having a pretty house.  Then you can read the long saga of the super nasty thing I need to do. 

 

 Here are the finished book cases with actual books on them.  They are not grand by any means, but they match my decor so much better.  Beside the Lazy Boy is a stack of books Mikah and I read earlier.  She loves to be read to.

 The previous owners left this table- along with loads of crap (literally- the crap under the deck- and figuratively).  There was no hardware and the sliders were broken.  We had it in our garage sale-failure garage sale, but then I thought I'd use it for a project...then I just decided to use it for the house.  Nate suggested it right away when we moved here, but I did not want another project and we already had 2 dining room tables!  But the dust settled, and I guess I always need a list of projects so I bought hardware, but the table together and drilled supports (temporary) until we buy sliders for the leaf (that we will use only as needed).  $50 is what I think they will cost- but hey free table.  It did not look like this at all to begin with.  The kids and I used scrubbies, brushes, simple green and a knife to remove years of grime.  I sanded and primed it, painted it and sprayed it with poly and then sanded it.  I brought it in the house myself and nate helped drill in some more supports.  I think I like it.

 There were some odd holes on the end- like for drawers.  But there were no drawers.  I just faced it with leftover bead board.  The table got wear and tear from being hauled in (Nate attempted with me in the morning right when we were trying to get the kids off to school- and it got some beating too) thankfully I like that look and did not feel that it had undone my hard work. 

 It is easier to get things done when they are written down.  I used old frames from my Art Classroom to make these chalk boards.  They have chores for myself and the kids. Mikah is making her way to me.

 We have and odd room off of our room.  Nate has his music stuff in here and I make him a little nook.  There is a heater on the wall that is very efficient but hard to decorate around.  I just installed oversize shelves over it to act as a "desk".  Nate has some of his music stuff there and I have some kid music stuff to for when we make music as a family.

 There is the collage I made him for his 30th.  I don't really love it.

 My parents brought me a tube of posters I had in highschool.  I did not know what I was going to do with them until we suddenly had a music room! 

 The other side of this room is my "gym"  My treadmill is in the corner with a mirror so I can see my form- I also use it when lifting free weights and doing workout videos- I am so bad at form.   We don't have a full length mirror in our room so I use it for outfit checks too.    In the corner by the top of the treadmill I felt some dampness on the carpet.  Could be monsoon damage.  Could be another project- not the fun type.

 I hung some chicken wire as a bulletin board  for my race bibs.

 

The previous owners left a lot of scrap wood- most of it lame, but I found this piece.  It was an old sign with vinyl lettering.  I had the kids remove it and I panted it and added some hooks I had on hand.  It is a project finished but waiting to be hung.  tonight maybe?  probably not.

 

My dad and Nate installed some pavers in our garden area last weekend.  I was able to lay out the patterns for the other 2 areas (we need a few more bricks) so Nate could finish the job.  Don't know when we will get to it.  Busy busy with family stuff and scouts.  Again, if I knew how to do it I'd do it myself.  I am THAT IMPATIENT!  I will watch nate do it next time so I can learn.  Next thursday there will be a sale at the nursery and I will buy plants for the planter box and plant them with the kids.  So excited to cross it off the master list. In addition, our back hard has a lot of tripping holes that need filled.  I will add them to the list and hopefully get to them next week.

 

Did you know I made most of these bowls?  I wish I had a project to make about 50-100 of them this semester, but we sort of decided to have me not take a class.  It is on Wednesday- the same night as scouts and I'd have to pay a sitter.  I'd rather pay for new shoes or someone to clean cat crap from under the house. 

Speaking of cat crap....

We had a cat take up under our house.  It smells like pee under there.  I can smell it in my vents.  It will be worse when we turn the heat on.  

I need to go under the house.  Remove the poop.  Put new covers on the crawl space vents and put some sort of enzyme down to get rid of the pee smell.  

I am no stranger to this. A few weeks ago I removed loads of old dog poop from under our deck.  Yesterday I took the bags of poop (that had been rained on ) It leaked on me.  

I wrote a big long angry description of it, but lost it.  Sorry.

News of Mikah.

 Mikah likes to wash her own hands.  She uses the step stool in a little bit of a scary way!

She also likes to hand on the wooden swing like the big kids.  She climbs on the table, grabs the swing and then does her thing.  She is quite the dare devil.

           

        

Developing our Talents. Our Sunday Activity.

I mentioned a few posts ago that we needed to start sharing our talents with our kids, so last week we put together two paper filled jars.  One with little slips of paper each with a different topic such as family, dogs, what we learned in church today and so on.  The other jar was filled with different media such as dance, music, drums, guitar, key board, paint, pencil, markers, clay, oil pastel.  

Each sunday we can draw a subject and medium from the jar and be creative with it.  This week it was "family" and "oil pastel"  Maesyn was elated to be using oil pastel.  

 Here everybody is hard at work.  Mikah is only wearing a diaper because oil pastels are very messy.

 Here is Maesyn's picture of the family.  Mikah left her mark on just about everybody's picture.

 Here is Nate's. Oil Pastels are like very soft crayons that smudge.  I am running (but I look sort of like a man), Jake is playing soccer, Nate is playing the guitar, Maes is dancing and Mikah is pulling Chaco's tail.

 

Jake's patience was wearing thin.  First he drew Nate in red and was pretty much done.  Then we asked him to draw more of us.  Mikah is on the far left, then Maesyn, then Mom and to the right of Nate is Jake.  Nate is sitting down.  The gray is nothing, the brown is a line separating the boys and girls.  It is also the color of poop.  Jake let us know that.  The brown smudge is just a poop thing.  A squirrel poop, actually bird poop. 

 Here I did abstracted silhouettes of each family member in their favorite color.  I just guessed orange for Mikah, she would have said yes to any color. 

Mikah worked very hard the entire time.  She also drew on all the other pictures.  She could have worked the entire night!

Some re-do's

We have only made one brand new purchace of furniture in our marriage, and truth be told, I was not happy about it.  It was before I knew about Craig's list. 

 Today while I was working on some projects I told myself Iwill never purchace new furniture (with the exception of mattresses and fabric couches.  Used mattress=ew and I am to sloppy to re upholster) 

( I also decided that I would try to go the whole school year without using plastic baggies in the kid's lunches.  I keep forgetting to buy them and we are 1.5 weeks into the school year sans baggies and surviving!- but that has nothing to do with this post) 

I made a mad list of things that need to get done in our house and opted to start on one project that led to others that were not even on the list.  I am tempted to write them down just so I can have the pleasure of crossing them off!  

One item on our list was book cases.  We only have our kid's books unpacked and I was waiting to find a nice piece.  After my run on Saturday I noticed a pair of these at a garage sale for $40.  They were pretty sturdy and I thought they would do the job. Solid wood and a good price.  Once home I realized they would not work.  They are mission style, and because I have very little furniture in my living room they automatically made the room look mission style.  So I began looking on how to transform them into a more cottage style set of book shelves.  

I figured with some trim, bead board and paint I'd have it made.  I also thought $20.  (ha ha, it took about 3 trips to Lowes and Home depot that were each just above $20 to make it happen- and that did not include the paitn that I already had. 

 Here are the finished products.  I am not a good painter and do not have very much patience, and my kids helped (but even if they did not help I don't think my painting would be much better).  I kept thinking of my friend Jennica and her tips but my impatience got the best of me and I ended up with thick paint and drips! I will just hope it makes them look older, with lots of layers of paint.  Or once it is filled with books people won't notice the imperfections!

 

Hesitant to post detail pictures (don't want to show my crap paint job) I wanted to show the trim and the bead board.  

 

I tried to remove the rungs but they would not budge. This is an area where I got lots of drips! Hopefully books will hid them-rungs and drips.

 This is not the best photo.  Both of the book cases started out alike but have different details.  I think the original price was great $40.  But then all the money spent made them over $100 for the pair.  I don't buy new furniture, so I am not sure what something like these would cost new.  I am chalking up the cost value of the next two pieces to make it all worth it.

 Also in the workshop (garage- we do happen to have a shop, but the lighting is poor) is this table.  The previous owners left it in pieces sans hardware and covered in grime.  Originally we planned to cut it down to make a table for the laundry room (now an item back on the list).  But once I got thinking about it I saw the potential.   The kids and I got out the simple green, a brush, a green scrubbie and a knife to clean it off.  It is missing the sliders (it has a leaf) so Nate and I will purchase them later.  I just braced it together for now with some scrap wood, and then we primed and painted.  I think it will work much better in our kitchen than our current round table (that also has a leaf).  While somewhat larger, I figure I can slide it into the corner and let the kids eat around the edges (who knows, maybe we can fit the whole family) and then pull out out for guests, and eventually make it larger for more guests!  So free table, plus scrap wood and paint I bought over a year ago on clearance. Not bad.

 

I love this piece.  My good friend Jen Brimhall had this in her Son's room, but said she was going to get rid of it.  I told her to have me buy it when the time came.  They moved into a new house and when I cam home from being out of town this was in my garage.  The door had broken off, but I glued it back on (again, messy job) and decided to give it a new coat of paint.  I will add some hardware too!  Again, Free. 

 

Here is an old mirror I picked up at
goodwill years ago.  I was a little disapointed that you could hardly see about it, but then I saw this post that Jennica posted:  http://littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com/2010/01/nyc-chic.html.  Apparently it is cool to have an antique mirror and people will go through a process to make perfectly good mirrors look antique.  Win!  The frame was a mess and when we trimmed our windows I used some extra trim to frame this mirror. 

 I still have to clean off the mirror, and ti has nails exposed and this is the third color I painted it, but it goes along with the "layers of old paint" look that I enjoy.

First day of School

Maesyn and Jake started School last week.  With the new school year I sort of feel like we are getting a fresh start.  I like getting things together, getting on a schedule and making new goals for myself.  This year I plan on limiting my computer time (time wasting).  Get my house completely clean each week, even dusting everything and spot cleaning walls and washing interior windows!  Each day I have some chores to do so it spreads things out.  Sometimes I might miss and sometimes I can improvise.  I also hope to be more consistent with my kids doing their chores and keeping on a good healthy schedule.  We want to have meaningful family home evenings and happy Sundays.  I want my kids to be involved with extra curricular activities but not be over scheduled.  I want to make sure I have time for my personal scripture study. I want to make sure I'm involved with my children and their activities.  Whew..that is a lot.  

Here's to a great new year.!

 Jake is pretty excited about his school clothes he picked out.  He got 2 spider man shirts and a backpack.  I found him a spider man lunch box and some extra shirts and jeans.  We went to a vans outlet in California and he got some camo slip ons. 

 Before school the kids usually play with chaco and after school Jake comes home to play with Chaco and pick up his poop.  One of his chores. He usually will need to unload the dishwasher for me too, as well as clean up after himself.  Jake LOVES his preschool and wishes he had it every day rather than just 3 days a week.  He said he loves it more than Chocolate milk.  He is a pro at it and just got to work on the first day!

 For some reason Maesyn wanted a front and back photo!

 Maes gets her new school clothes for her birthday and we put them up for the fall.  We have been using backpacks until they fall apart.  Her first one lasted from pre school and 1/2 way through the 1st grade.

 It was hard to get a school shot because the sun was in her eyes.   Maesyn tested at the end of 1st grade at the 4th grade reading level.  She brought home a packet of site words.  It was four pages long front and backand the first page said "Words to know by the end of the first quarter."  I wanted to see how she was doing so I had her read them.  We went through the first and second page and when we were working on the 3rd page I realized that the top of it said "Words to know by the end of the 3rd quarter"  It turned out each page was per quarter.  Curious to see how she would do I had her keep reading all 4 pages.  She struggled with maybe 5 words.  Excite about her smarts, but worried about her not being challenging I prepared how to bring this up to the teacher.  I did not want to be "that mom" who brags about their kid!  However, I feel if she is not challenged she will become complacent.  She finished her whole homework packet for the week in one day and is "practicing" her spelling words (she knew how to spell them all when I first quizzed her". Her teacher said after they are tested she will tell me what to do and give her extra work.  Maesyn will be doing girl scouts this year.  She is super excited.  She might also do dance, but we are seeing how much work the girl scouts will be first.

Jake LOVES his preschool and wishes he had it every day rather than just 3 days a week.  He said he loves it more than Chocolate milk.  He is a pro at it and just got to work on the first day! He loves the lincoln logs and plays with them with me after school.  We also read books after school.  Jake is in Soccer this fall.  He got his uniform today and put it on and played with his ball for a long time in the back hard.  He loved playing with me as long as I played by his rules, we will see how he does with the team. 

part 3: last day and Nate surfs!

Our last day in California was all about the beach. 

 The kids wore sweatshirts over their suits.  It was so cold! 

 Mikah insisted on pulling June's wagon full of toys!

 A sign was posted the previous day when Nate surfed and again on Saturday.  There were lots of people in the water, so I just hoped if a shark did attack it would find someone more tasty than Nate to go for!  (at one point I saw a fin in the water near Nate and Tanner, but I decided I would call it a dolphin!  - Nate and Tanner did have sea lions around them though!) 

I think this was Nate's very favorite part of the trip.  He got to surf.  These are photos from his second day surfing ever, and he was able to get up, which is great (so i hear).

 Waiting for a wave

 Paddling..lots of paddling.

 Wipe out.  Lots of wipeouts!

 Getting up.

 Success.

 More success!

 And a nice last picture to Nate's great day of surfing. 

 

Maesyn opted to go back to the house early with Shelly and June and Allie.  The sun did come out and the littler ones crashed (i made a shade for them).  Jake had a fever all day long and tried to play on the beach, but mostly rested.  Mikah did it all!