Banter of a Blond Republican Couple

Nice Lunchbox You've Got There

2012-02-18T08:15:00.001-06:00

MacKenzie just wrote tangentially about the North Carolina government lunchbox inspection story, and I had a Facebook discussion on the topic, but I'm going to expound upon it here, in order to make some further points. As an introduction, here's what happened:

RAEFORD — A preschooler at West Hoke Elementary School ate three chicken nuggets for lunch Jan. 30 because the school told her the lunch her mother packed was not nutritious.

The girl’s turkey and cheese sandwich, banana, potato chips, and apple juice did not meet U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines, according to the interpretation of the person who was inspecting all lunch boxes in the More at Four classroom that day.

I remarked on Facebook that if anyone thinks there is nowhere to cut government, here's a prime candidate. I think the idea that government is now inspecting lunches is the latest, greatest example of government overreach in this country. The response by supporters of this idea will be that some kids get really poor lunches, and we have to help those kids out. That idea prompts several responses.

The first of these is that you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink. You can give kids all the healthy food you want, but that doesn't mean they will eat it (never mind that the lunch in question in this article was what most people would consider perfectly acceptable). Schools in LA found out that, no, kids would not eat quinoa salad. Instead, they bought junk food off the "black market." If kids don't eat their government-approved lunches, do you force them? I don't think that will work.

Second is the question of where this ends. After we start inspecting everyone's lunches, what's next? The kids who are bringing unhealthy lunches to school are quite possibly not brushing their teeth as often as they should. Will we have inspectors looking in kid's mouths after they look in their lunchboxes? Will the government hand out toothbrushes with their chicken nuggets?

Third is the impact of government policy on Americans' eating habits. The lunch police are motivated by the growing (literally!) obesity problem in this country. But why has this come about? I think someone could probably write a good journal article on the effects of various government food policies on our diets. The example that jumps out at me is high fructose corn syrup, which exists because sugar tariffs have driven up US prices well above the world market price, prompting food manufacturers to find alternatives. A lot of people claim that US farm policy, which promotes growing grains, makes bad food cheap and attractive. Food stamps and school lunches are two other programs worth examining in this regard. Maybe this is one of the countless examples (e.g. the housing crisis) of government trying to create solutions to a problem it has created (while refusing to admit that it is culpable).

Fourth is the application of government programs, supposedly intended to help the poor, to everyone. Why do rich senior citizens have to use Medicare? Why do rich women have to receive free contraceptives? Why is there a consistent push to shove every kid into pre-kindergarten? And in this case, why must everyone's lunch be inspected? I suspect that it is not out of a desire to help everyone, but instead out of a desire for government to control more and more of our economy and our lives, because we can't take care of ourselves. This has to stop, not only for budgetary reasons, but for reasons of freedom and self-reliance, characteristics our country needs to remain successful, but that are slowly melting away.

There's a little food for thought for you, that the lunch inspector will surely disapprove of.

But shouldn't we do something?

2012-02-17T07:54:00.002-06:00

The internet is abuzz with tweets, status updates and posts about this story. Don't worry, I'm not really going to get into it that specific case, but I have enjoyed seeing people's reactions especially because they seem to go beyond what normally happens in a case like this.

We've all seen it before. People think some parents aren't doing a good job ____ (feeding, educating, teaching that all lifestyles are equally valid, etc) their kids so the government needs to step in.

The reactions tend to fall into one of two camps. The first says that the government has no business interfereing. The other thinks that it does, because there are some truly crappy parents out there and shouldn't we step in and help those kids, who through no fault of their own, end up with the crappy* parents.

Depends on who "we" is. If "we" is the government, then no, I don't think "we" should because 1) it isn't the government's job and 2) the government can not do a better job parenting than a parent, even a bad parent.

But if by "we" you mean, individuals, then yes. I believe as Christians we are called to help those around us and that includes the little people. Ways this could be done include**:

The single dad in the army who keeps getting sent on TDY (short term, long distance assignments)?Have his 5 and 9 year old boys stay with you while he's gone. And while they are there, teach the 5 year old to read.
The middle school girl struggling with her femininity because her mother isn't in her life and her dad and younger brother aren't exactly helpful when it comes to learning how to dress and act like a lady? Turn your once a week get together with another mom and girl into a "girls club," include her and teach all three girls to bake, sew, quilt and memorize scripture.
When the young teen girl who doesn't get out much is invited to the same costume party your daughter is, but you know she doesn't have a costume or a way to get there? Say you have an extra one lying around, run around to quickly put together something that looks like something you would have had lying around, then tell her you'll pick her up when you drop of your daughter since its "sorta on the way" - even though it isn't.
The brothers who have been attending Awana for several months but you still haven't met their parents or seen them at church? Spend some extra time going over their verses before quiz time to give them a chance to succeed and make sure they understand what they mean. When one says he wants to believe in God but can't because he wants to be a scientist when he grows up, lend him several books about science and God, even though you realize the chances of ever seeing those books again are pretty slim.
That high school friend of your son's who always seem to hang around your house at dinner time because his parents both work and he doesn't want to go home to an empty house and a Hot Pocket? Invite him to stay for dinner - even if you had him over the last two nights.

Those aren't just random examples I thought up. Those are specific things I know my mom did, and just the ones I could think of in one evening. I'm sure there are lots more that I can't remember or was not aware of. It explains why when she died, a friend on mine from high school who could only get two days off of work drove 14 hours through the night, arrived at my house at 2 am to go to the funeral the next day, just to drive back 24 hours later. It's why people that are not one of her three biological children called her "mom."

When she died, people wanted to know where to donate money. What were her special causes? It was hard to answer because she didn't have one special cause. People were her cause. Christ was her cause. This isn't a money issue, its a people issue. Sometimes I read a book or hear a story and I want to "do something," I want to save the world. If only it were as simply as just sitting down, coming up with a plan and changing lives. Maybe it works that way some of the time but I think most people who make a difference are just open to situations and people, and are listening so when God gives them opportunities, they can take them.

*When I'm talking about crappy parents, I'm not talking about abusive or truly neglectful parents. I'm referring to those marginally crappy parents.

**I realize this makes it seem like the parents in these situations were bad parents. They weren't, they were just doing the best they could in difficult situations. Except the cases were a child was abandoned by a parent. Those parents are crap.

Discriminating Hugging

2012-02-16T08:47:00.000-06:00

Lucy is a bit of a hugger. Her sign for hugging is a tap of her chest with her open hand, and we see that sign a lot when she wants to hug something or someone.

But she doesn't like to hug me. For a while, when I asked her for a hug, she'd say no, but I learned that if I asked for a "little hug," she'd say yes. But she sees through that now. My requests for hugs, little or regular size, almost always get rejected. She will pat me, though, so I still have that.

While she is loathe to hug me, she will, of her own volition, hug a wide range of inanimate objects. Here is a sampling of items she has hugged recently:

A package of diapers
A lotion bottle
Stars on a page of a book
A bunny on her shirt
Her stuffed kitty
Her baby doll
A bird on an accent tile on our bathroom wall
A fish on the front of a Duplo package

It is good to know where I stand with her.

The 411

2012-02-14T08:01:00.001-06:00

Baby is due mid-September. I'm only 9 weeks along. This is pretty early to be telling people but 1) Everyone in my family could use a reason to be joyous right now b) Life is precious, even if something happened and we lost this baby, I would still be glad for the time I had with him/her. And you're never truly safe even if you can breathe a tiny bit more after 12 weeks. A friend recently lost her baby at 21 weeks and I've known people that have gone to the hospital at term expecting to come home with a baby and instead come home arms empty and hearts broken. I can't even imagine that pain and I don't mean to be depressing but I'm gonna rejoice with this because I don't know that the future holds. III) I feel a lot less lame about not returning phone calls, emails, being behind with thank you cards, etc when people know that I'm spending most of my time in bed trying not to throw up.

Speaking of throwing up, I've been asked if the morning sickness is as better this time around. (For those of you who weren't around last time, I don't really "do" pregnancy very well.) The answer: Yes - and No. Yes, it's better in the sense that I'm actually keeping things down this time and I've not lost any weight. By this time with Lucy I'd already a few of the 12 pounds I would lose before I finally started gaining some, and looking at the very few pictures we have from them, I just looked awful - bags under my eyes, grey skin, etc. I won't say I'm glowing right now, but I don't look ill. And it started later this pregnancy, so maybe it will end earlier than the 4-5 months I had to go through last time. A girl can hope.

I haven't weaned Lucy and I actually think that is the reason my morning sickness is that smidgen better - my body knows it can't let go of the few calories I can take in. But my supply has decreased and she's noticed. In fact, just a couple days after we found out about baby, she threw a 30 minute tantrum, running around the house hystericaly signing to herself "milk-milk"+"all gone" until she collapsed on my lap and fell asleep. After that first week, she more or less got used to the lower supply and started eating more at meal time and being content with what she's got but she's not giving up completely and that's great with me. It is nice to have a way to give her attention while still being able to rest and if that is what is keeping me from moving from bad morning sickness to full blown HG, I'll take it.

The bad: I still feel as bad as I did last time and my meals consist of a lot of Nutella sandwiches and Sierra Mist. Not exactly "real foods" but it gets the job done. The only time I'm not nauseous is when I'm asleep, taking a bath or lying perfectly flat and still. None of these things are easy to do with a toddler so taking care of Lucy is really challenging. At least last time my job involved a lot of sitting and reading or lab work at a bench. It also involved less bodily fluids and smells. And I was able to stop work at 5 and go to sleep.

Luckily, I still have the same super husband I did last time. He's taken over all laundry, dishes, dinner prep, basic house maintenance, and we are finding ways to make it work when he is at work. We've basically moved all Lucy's fun stuff into our bedroom and we spend our days playing, reading, coloring, etc in bed. I've also resorted to movies but I save those for the first 30 minutes after I eat when I really really do have to lay down and be still.

So, that's what is up with me. I'll probably be kinda scarce around the blogosphere for a little while but who knows, maybe this will all be over in 2-3 weeks and I'll be back to my old chipper self.

The Real Birth Control Issue

2012-02-11T09:47:00.003-06:00

In the kerfuffle/brouhaha/contretemps over Obama and his contraception edict to religious organizations, the debate has focused on whether the government should force religious organizations (primarily the Catholics) to violate their principles as they pertain to contraceptives as part of Obamacare (see here and here). I think this is all beside the real point, which is this:

WHY SHOULD BIRTH CONTROL BE FREE?

This ruling not only requires all employer-provided health insurance to cover contraceptives, but they can't even charge a co-pay for it. It has to be totally, absolutely free. Here's some cost info on birth control:

According to Planned Parenthood (2010), the cost of birth control pills is $15 to $50 a month, depending on the type of pill. On an annual basis, that means the pill costs between $180 and $600, plus doctor visits. Other forms of birth control carry varying costs: For example, Depo-Provera shots cost up to $600 per year, and a diaphragm costs from $60 to $100 per year, plus office visits. The cost of condoms is dependent on useage, but at an average cost of $2.50 times two per week, they would typically cost $250.00 per year.

I'd argue that that's not a lot of money. I'd say that is true even for the poor, considering what possessions poor people often have. If $600 a year is too much to ask people to pay, what else do we have to provide for free? Heat? A car? Diapers? Besides, this freebie isn't even aimed at the poor; all women get free contraceptives under Obamacare. Why should Warren Buffett's wife get free birth control?

I'm sure the argument for this is that contraceptives prevent unwanted births, and thus save money. But considering that nine of 10 insurers and employers already cover it, according to my first link in the first paragraph, I doubt this provision will change much of anything. If people want birth control now, it's more than likely they can get it. And if they want it, why not have them throw in a few bucks out-of-pocket?

This illustrates the main problem with government interference in health care: politicians force insurers to cover every politically correct procedure or drug. This leads to increases in insurance premiums, reduces consumer choice, and, by introducing a third-party payer, increases the cost of medical care (but these are probably purposeful drawbacks, intended to destroy the private insurance market). As John Cochrane says in this WSJ article that may or may not be behind a paywall:

Insurance is a bad idea for small, regular and predictable expenses. There are good reasons that your car insurance company doesn't add $100 per year to your premium and then cover oil changes, and that your health insurance doesn't charge $50 more per year and cover toothpaste. You'd have to fill out mountains of paperwork, the oil-change and toothpaste markets would become much less competitive, and you'd end up spending more.

Furthermore:

The minute pills are "free," under insurance, the incentive for drug companies to come up with cheaper versions vanishes. So does their incentive to develop safer, more convenient, male-centered or nonprescription birth control. And by making pills free but not condoms, the government may inadvertently be contributing to an increase in sexually transmitted diseases.

So, yes, the religious freedom aspect of this issue is troubling, but it's not the main reason to complain.

Lucy's new shirt

2012-02-10T18:22:00.000-06:00

I've had several "favorite" outfits for Lucy over the last 20 months but I gotta say, I really like this one:

Everytime I see it, it makes me want to cry...or maybe that is just the hormones.

More Medicality

2012-02-09T08:14:00.002-06:00

I'm so glad you guys seemed to enjoy the potty humor post. I was a teensy bit afraid that I would get a crickets response and feel like an immature 12-year-old for even posting it so every comment really made my day.

I'm still working on that other potty post and several others. We got back from spending two weeks at my dad's and even though we came home to a clean house and I thought I did all the laundry before we packed, somehow I'm already overwhelmed. I love coming home but I hate just having arrived home.

In other news, I took Lucy to our doctor to get her face checked out. As soon as we stepped in the door, she freaked out. She normally likes our doctor but she was shaking so hard it I felt like such an evil mom for even bring her there. But I trust our doctor so I really wanted to go over a few things.

When we took her to get the stitches removed on Friday, both the ER doctor and I were concerned about the upper mark. It was still really red and swollen. He thought it might be the beginning of an abscess that would need help draining. Luckily, after a weekend of hoping and praying, she woke up Monday morning covered in blood. That was really scary but once I got her cleaned up, that wound looked so much better and I consider it a small miracle that it drained on its own. But I still wanted to get some cream for scar prevention. I know at 20 months she doesn't really care what she looks like, but I'm thinking she might 10-15 years down the road. When I mentioned this to the first pediatrician, he looked at me like I was some sort of toddler and tiara mom and said "only time will tell." When I brought it up today, she said that she was about to suggest it herself. It could be because she has a background in the more "aesthetically" side of medicine so she is more aware of options, or it could be that she actually take a few minutes to think about what the patient is saying - I've heard it both ways.

Also Lucy has a weird rash. It started on her back the last day I gave her antibiotics and another patch justshowed up on her belly. I know they say rashes are rarely anything but this one just looked weird. Before she even took a look, the doc told me that unfortunately because of the antibiotic and the timing, she suspected...lifting Lucy's shirt...yep, ringworm! Nothing like a little fungi to liven up your day.

So know we are one another medicine to treat that. Luckily we caught it pretty early (it hadn't really formed any rings or I would have recognized it). And another small miracle, so far neither Craig nor I have seen any of us which considering how much of a snuggler Lucy is, and how little she likes to wear clothing, that is really saying a lot. We are trying to treat it topically but it that doesn't start clearing it up in the week, she's already given me a prescription for an oral medicine. I really really don't want to have to resort to that because one of it's main side effects, wait for it...diarrhea! Do you feel like we are going in circles here?

Wow, this post was not meant to be such a downer. I really didn't mean to write a whiny post. But I can promise you this - I'll be back again tomorrow with a post that I can guarantee to be non-whiny. You really won't want to miss it. Deal?

Toddler Tuesday: Potty Fun

2012-02-07T10:00:00.000-06:00

I have a big post about potty progress coming up but as I was writing it, I kept thinking of fun potty moments that I wanted to share. Yes, potty training can be fun, if you don't mind a little bathroom humor (and if you do mind bathroom humor, you should stop reading at this point)

Now, when it comes to certain aspects of parenting, I'm pretty laid back. Stop laughing Craig, I said certain aspects. Yes, when it comes to if I'm doing a good job teaching, disciplining, meeting her needs, etc, I probably need to give myself more grace, but when it comes to other stuff, I'm way less type-A than I thought I would be. Here are two conversations that occurred in the last 72 hours:

Scene: Lucy is running around naked while I'm sitting on the couch covered in a blanket.
Grandpa: Isn't she cold?
Me: Probably not. She took her clothes off herself and if she wanted them back on, she'd ask for help.

Craig: Where did she get that granola bar?
Me: It was on the nightstand, I thought you gave it to her.
Craig: I found that under the bed.
Me: Oh, she dropped it down their yesterday while we were reading.
Craig: Is it okay for her to be eating it?
Me: Sure, it's organic.

See. You wouldn't even think she was our first, would you? And potty stuff is just another area I'm totally laid back about. Craig has been known to call me from another room, slightly frantic, "She's peeing, she's peeing on the floor" as if I should come running. I would if it were blood or vomit but I just don't freak out about a little pee or poop. Maybe that is why I have had so much fun with Lucy. Toddlers are hilarious and they have no social inhibitions which only increases the laugh factor. So if you are finding yourself without a potty training toddler to bring amusement to your days, enjoy these:

One phrase I use with Lucy is "listen to your body," especially when I can see that she needs to go but she doesn't want to. One time I took her to go and afterwards I said "doesn't it feel nice when you listen to your body." At this point she did her sign for listen/hear (finger in the ear), tooted really loudly, then started laughing so hard she almost fell off the potty.

For quite a while, anytime she saw a clear liquid on the floor, she thought she had peed. Even if we are standing at the sink washing dishes and she spills a cup, as soon as she looks down, she starts saying/signing potty and runs to the bathroom to get a prefold to clean it up. I tried explaining but she didn't get it so I just let it be one of those amusing things, especially since I'd rather her use a prefold to clean up water than a kitchen towel to clean up an accident. But when she started wearing undies (instead of being naked) this led to some confusion. I spilled some water and she saw it and started to say potty but then stopped, looked down and patted her undies. She was obviously bewildered because in her mind she must have somehow peed on the floor but not in her undies. At that point, I could see the wheels spinning so I took a little cup and poured a bit more water on the floor. Then she got it! She did her signature face slap (think Home Alone but on the forehead) and started laughing at her own silliness and signing water. She still has moments when she panics if I ask her to wipe up water on the floor with a paper towel but once I clearly explain it is water, she calms down.

One day Lucy was being particularly clingy and I was having a hard time being patient. I got up to go to the potty myself but she started clinging to my leg and crying for me to play with her. I turned and jokingly said "But I have to go, do you want mommy to pee in her pants?" She smiled a little, shook her head "No" and let go of me. Thinking I had her now, I tried to increase the laugh factor by saying "Do you want mommy to poop in her pants?" Her mouth dropped open and she got the biggest look of horror on her face. Apparently pooping in your pants in not something you should even joke about. She let me go to the bathroom and it was a good thing. I try really hard not to laugh at her but it was all I could do to keep a straight face until I got those few steps away and as soon as the door was shut, I burst out laughing.

Even Craig has one:

I took Lucy to potty one day. She pooped, stood up, looked at it, signed "kitty" and laughed. Who needs clouds?

Romantic February 14 Plans

2012-02-06T20:16:00.000-06:00

How much do you think MacKenzie will love it when I surprise her with this? I'd better bust out my best suit.

An update

2012-02-02T22:10:00.002-06:00

The last two days have been a bit better than the beginning of the week. But then last night I laid down next to my baby sleeping and watched her and even the bad parts didn't matter so much. It's so easy to forget horrible behavior and temper tantrums when they are sleeping like angels, right? But it wasn't just that. I realized how much worse it could have been. Then I started to cry. She's okay, I'm okay. Tomorrow we get the stitches out and hopefully get the okay to stop the antibiotics so the worst should be over.

I once read in a photography/scrapbooking book that you should take pictures of these types of events because those are the things your kids will want to see. I think that might be more true of boys but still, I took the pictures. I don't know about putting it in our photo books though, I don't ever want to think about it again. But actually, looking at these pictures, it doesn't look as bad as it does in real life (or should I say "in my head") so maybe a scrapbook page wouldn't be so bad.

Being spoiled on Tuesday: A cup of pedialyte, the joy of not being asked to wear clothes and Caillou. What more could a kid want?

Wednesday: Made to wear clothes and go to bed on time. Hmmm, what is happening to my royal treatments? (Not a great shot of the wounds but you can see how much her face is swollen still)

Back to our routine on Thursday. Real underwear and a trip to the park. I guess my normal life isn't so bad. (The bruising is actually looking worse but she seems to be less concerned about protecting it). Although she is still really worried that the random strangers she meets are going to come up and poke her face. When we first got to the park, it was empty and she had fun. Then a few moms and tots showed up and she freaked out, wouldn't let me put her down and kept trying to cover her face. I told her they were nice moms but she just kept saying "no, no, no" and wouldn't calm down and so we left. But she saw a puppy and got all excited, jumped up and down, waved to him and yelled puppy...at least this doesn't appear to be creating a fear of dogs issue.

Birthday Blehs

2012-02-01T17:37:00.001-06:00

I've been wavering between going with the "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" and accepting my need to vent. I've decided to vent. If you want peppy, go elsewhere. This week has not been the best.

Sunday night I thought all the tough parts were behind us and Monday morning Lucy seemed to be doing fine. But it didn't stay that way. We spent the morning picking up heavy duty antibiotics and seeing a random pediatrician here in town so Lucy could get a tetanus shot. Of course, since it wasn' t our doctor, he gave me a lecture about vaccines and then fought me when I wanted to give Lucy the DT and not DTaP. He also took the ER sheet I handed him and proceeded to read it back to me in a condescending tone. "You have to be seen back at the ER in 5 days to have the stitches removed, you need to make sure she gets her antibiotic"...yeah, I know, I handed you the paper that says that! And when he asked about the antibiotic, I said we hadn't given her the first dose because the pharmacy wasn't going to have it ready until noon. I don't think he believed me because he went on and on about how important it was and even asked what pharmacy I dropped it off at. Eventually he relented, we got the DT and got out of there but it is so much nicer to be seen by a doctor who doesn't act like you are an idiot. But it makes me appreciate our family doctor that much more.

Monday afternoon was when things really went downhill. Lucy was really upset now and refused to take a nap and was cranky all afternoon. We got her to sleep that night pretty easily but she woke up often until a little after midnight when she decided she was just not going back to sleep. I'm not sure if it was that her face was hurting her, she was reacting to the shot, or having nightmares but she was not a happy camper. She would fall asleep for maybe 5 minutes, then wake up screaming. We finally got her to sleep around 5:30 by taking her down to the living room and sitting with her watching cartoons but she only slept an hour and was back up until later that afternoon. Craig and I got less than 2 hours sleep the whole night. I was hoping we could spend the morning snuggled on the couch reading and watching cartoons because frankly, I was completely drained.

But then the antibiotics started kicking in. I had been warned that they often have gastrointestinal side effects and they did not let me down. (TMI alert!) explosive diarrhea is hard enough for experiences pottiers and even with her in diapers we went through multiple outfits, sheets, blankets and let's just say that is a good thing my dad has a leather (cleanable) couch. It was bad. And I couldn't even give her a bath because of the stiches. Well actually, they told me I could bath her if I could just make sure the stitches didn't get soaked but I'm wondering if they have ever bathed a toddler because everything within 10 feet of the bathtub gets soaked when Lucy take a bath.

I had only brought enough diapers for nighttime use so Craig took a break at work to run and get some disposables and pedialtye. Then I had to convince Lucy that it was okay to wear diapers. Since she hasn't ever worn disposables, I was able to convince her that all her undies were dirty and that these were throw away undies for when your tummy hurts. It was a tough sell because they fasten like diapers, but since they were thin, I thought I had a chance. She stood there looking at me and the "throw away undies" but when I asked if her tummy hurt, she said yes and then sat down on the diaper. It was so sad.

Today was a little better. She actually slept last night, not well, she said her face hurt but still, she slept and I'll take what I can get. And.I'm not sure if her body is adjusting or all the yogurt I'm forcing into her is helping but the tummy troubles have calmed to a level I can at least handle without needing going through my entire wardrobe in day. And I figured out that most of the trouble comes in the first 2-3 hours after she takes it so we even braved the library story hour since it was just outside the danger period. Getting out of the house was such a treat it was kinda ridiculous.

Did I mention it is my birthday? Craig took Lucy with him to go pick up milk and Thai takeout. It took a little convincing to get her in the car, I think she was afraid we were going somewhere scary again but eventually she relented.Now I'm enjoying my hour off. Hopefully tomorrow continues our trend towards normal.

Worst Date Ever!

2012-01-31T15:06:00.001-06:00

Yesterday was Craig and my first date out of the house without Lucy since we are in Kansas right now and she is comfortable enough with Grandpa that I didn't mind leaving her. It's been 20 months coming and we had been planning it for a little while and were both really excited about it. When Lucy and I woke up from our nap, she was in a bit of a cranky mood but seemed fine once she and Grandpa went out to explore the yard so Craig and I took off.

Our plan was to walk around downtown for a little while then head off for a nice Italian dinner. The downtown area here has lots of little shops, but unfortunately very few are open Sunday afternoon. But we were still enjoying the chance to walk around and talk to each other without interruption. Until we were interrupted.

My dad called and I could hear Lucy screaming in the background. At first I thought she was just having a bad time with the grumpies still but I told him we could come home if she was upset. Then he said that we needed to come home because she had just been bitten by the dog.

I don't know if Craig will ever convince me to leave her again. It's not that I don't trust my dad, I do, the dog bite could have just as easily happened when Craig or I was watching her but I hated knowing she was crying/screaming for me and I wasn't there. It was the longest 20 minutes of walking to the car and driving home ever. When I got there, she was doing a bit better, her face was still bleeding but I had passed along the tip to my dad that she really likes Caillou if he wanted to try and distract her with Netflix. It worked and she was only mildly upset. For the moment.

The bites weren't awful but they were on her face and we weren't taking any risks so we headed off the ER. Once we got there, it got worse. Lucy was not a happy camper. All the poking and cleaning and inspecting was about all I could handle. Especially when I had to hold her down while she looked at me and screamed "Mommy, Mommy!" So when it was time for the actual stitches with her in a baby straight jacket (they call it a papoose, but who do they think they are kidding? Its a baby straight jacket) I left the room and let Craig be her moral support. I think it helped because when I came back, she saw me as an ally instead of her enemy and calmed down as soon as she was in my arms. She had 4 punctures, two little and two big and each of the big ones needed 2 stitches.

I have a whole new respect for parents of sick children. Watching her be put through that without any understanding of what was going on or why was awful. And I was very frustrated with one of the nurses. The triage nurse was nice as was the one who did the vitals but the nurse involved with the actual procedure was really rough. He was an older man and it seemed like he had never been around kids at all. I know that they have to make sure it is cleaned and bandaged correctly which can involve rough handling with squirmy kids but that isn't what I'm talking about. At one point he was putting gauze with numbing cream on her face but instead of ripping a piece of tape off and using it as a bandage, he put the gauze on her, taped it then tried to hold the end of the tape down on her face to rip it off the roll, pressing down on her swollen bleeding baby face! I think he realized that was a bad idea because he tried to do it differently the second time but he put the tape on upside down so it was sticking to his fingers instead of her face, then he snapped at me for not holding her firm enough. I held my "mama bear" tongue but I really wanted to say something snarky, like "If you don't know how tape works, it doesn't really matter how still she is." I know some great nurses so it was just frustrating that we didn't have one and it made things harder on Lucy. I really hope he is not on call when we got back on Friday for the stitches to be removed.

We finally got home about 2 hours after her bed time. I had promised her some tater tots. She tried them for the first time Saturday night and loved them and since Sonic was the only fast food place between the ER and our house that I knew of, it worked out well. She calmed down and ate her tot-heavy dinner, then we finally got her ready for bed.

My dad had came to the ER but once we got home, we called the MPs to file a dog bite report. First they tried to take a picture of Lucy's wounds for the report. Bad idea. She was understandably cautious and not at all happy with yet another stranger trying to take a look at her so he gave up and we put her to bed while poor Kip was carted off to be quarantined. It was probably a good thing it took us a couple hours at the ER, it gave Craig time to calm down before he had to be in the same house as the dog again. Don't send us hate mail, he isn't an animal hater (except for this one), he's just protective of his little girl and you hurt his baby, you'd better watch out.

I'm still not entirely sure what happened with him since my Dad said it happened so fast he doesn't really know either. They had just come in from playing and were looking in the fridge for a snack when Kip came into the room and ran up to them. He is a lab mix and much bigger than Lucy so even if she pushed him, I can't see it really hurting him but perhaps he thought she was standing between him and food. That's my best guess.

He's not a vicious dog, it just takes a special type of dog to be toddler safe and Kip is obviously not that. Right now I think the plan is for him to stay in a kennel for his quarantine period then find a new home, maybe with my brother and his wife, who don't have kids, live on an acre and have a more flexible work schedule. If that works out, it really will be the best for him since he wasn't getting the attention or exercise he needed here. Before my mom got sick, she took him on lots of long walks and worked with him to keep his alpha personality in check. My dad has been struggling to just get him the walks he needs while working but that still leaves him home alone all day. He probably should have been gone a while ago but it gets tricky since he was my mom's favorite dog. All our other dogs were family dogs, golden retrievers that loved indiscriminately. Kip loved my mom, she loved him and the rest of us put up with him. That said, he is a smart dog that will really thrive if he has a firm owner and the exercise he needs. I hope it works out, I just don't want him anywhere near my kid ever again.

What I'm into

2012-01-26T08:43:00.000-06:00

Here are some random things I've been enjoying lately:

Spotify - I've been a Pandora fan for quite a while now but they were losing my loyalty with their limited selection of children's music and Lucy frustration with my lack of ability to play requests. So we switched to Spotify. She still gets annoyed (or scared, depending on the ad) and runs over to tell me "no, no, no" when an ad starts but by the time she gets to me, they are almost over. And a few ads are worth it the ability to play Raffi's "There's a spider on the floor" ten times in a row, I guess. Of course, I just heard that Spotify's free usage is soon to be pretty much worthless to the mom of a repetition loving toddler but we'll enjoy it while we can and then use it to test drive cds before we buy them.

Soft songs - Of course, with spotify, you actually have to know what you want to listen to. Our current favorites include:

You Are My Little Bird (Elizabeth Mitchel) - If I had to personify this cd, it would be a little girl in a yellow dress dancing in a meadow. It's just lovely.

Hide 'em in Your Heart Vol I and II (Steve Green) - Bible verse songs. I had heard good things about Seeds Family Worship cds (one of which is available on spotify) but I've found those to be a little two contemporary* for my tastes while Hide 'em in Your Heart songs are just our style, sweet but fun.

Reverse Engineered Lara bars - I finally got around to buying kitchen stewardship's Healthy Snacks to go e-book and now I'm addicted to her lara bars, especially the Chocolate peanut-butter delight version. Lucy and I consumed an entire batch in less than 24 hours and they only lasted that long because I hid them from her.

Duplo blocks - Lucy got some for Christmas and has pretty much abandoned all her other toys (excepting Baby of course). She really likes me to play with her and build her things, but if I can manage to get her going, I can often slip away and get some emails sent or even read a chapter of a book. Oh Happy Day!

Angry Birds - Admitting this isn't as hard as admitting that I liked the Twilight series, but it is up there. When I downloaded a copy onto Craig's Kindle Fire, I didn't know what would happen to us. It's bad. But really, this game is addicting. And all that physics is good for my brain right. Right? Right?

3x5 Cards - Who doesn't love a good 3x5 card. I always have but I'm working on a couple projects as a part of my new years goals and they are saving the day. From bible memory work to chore charting, they just get the job done. Only problem, I can't seem to find a 3x5 card box. I might actually have to, GASP, go to Wal-mart.

Pickles - We grew a bunch of cucumbers last year and turned them into pickles. But when we tried them a couple months ago, they weren't very good. They weren't exactly bad, they just tasted like soggy cucumbers - no flavor. But we left them down on our canning shelf in the basement and honestly, I forgot about them. I didn't have much hope but we recently tried them again and they are delicious! I guess they just needed more time to be imparted with that wonderful picklish flavor. Now we are all on a pickle kick. Which is good because we have approximately 3 million more quarts of pickles to go.

Non-fiction - I'm not sure if I'm into Non-fiction or just struggling with fiction. I don't want to read anything sad because who needs that when life is a hard enough struggle. But I don't want to read anything too happy either, that's annoying. And even my normal diet of mysteries is failing me. Most involve death of some sort and I just don't want to go there right now. So non-fiction it is. Some of my latest few non-fictions include: Organized Simplicity, From the Garden to the City, Large Family Logistics and A Love that Multiplies.

So what are you into lately? Got any good non-fiction or cd suggestions?

* I almost said to "rock-n-rollish" but felt like I needed to be smoking a pipe and yelling about the evils of Elvis if I wanted to pull that off. But I am very particular about the style of music I want to expose Lucy's developing brain to. I blame Andrew Putewa.

Toddler Tuesday: Shadow Dancing

2012-01-24T08:16:00.000-06:00

We aren't unschoolers. Well, technically maybe we are because Lucy is only 19 months old and we aren't actually homeschoolers yet. But if we were, we wouldn't be unschoolers. Follow?

The whole point of that non-quite-sensical paragraph above is that while that is not the style of teaching I feel comfortable with, some of the points that I've heard unschoolers make, but didn't quite understand, are suddenly making more sense to me. As I watch Lucy learn and grow and start making connections, I am amazed at what she is picking up. Not just the "normal" stuff I was expecting, like her colors and big/little and their relativity, although when you stop to think about it, those are impressive too, but those things I wouldn't have even thought to "teach" her.

Right now, she loves shadows. She received a shadow nursery rhyme book for her birthday but just recently figured out how it works. Now she is obsessed with light and dark and finding shadows, reflections and rainbows. Anytime she sees a little light on the wall, she has to find me and show me.

Last week we had a nice day so I attempted to take my non-flashing camera outside so I would at least have a few pictures of her this month. It didn't really work that well because she was being pensive

(yes, it looks like she is sad but really that is her thinking face)

but if I asked her to smile, she would make a weird smirky face. But it was still a fun time and just in that hour or so, she learned so much. At first she was just playing with them or as my science-loving self would like to say, she was experimenting.

She could run and they would run,

she could make baby dance and baby's shadow would dance,

and if she had baby lay down, her shadow got little.

So of course, she had to try that with herself.

Then she realized if she turned around, they didn't. Then she saw the Sun and was telling me how it was a light. She already knew that her shadow book only works when we use the flashlight shining and then she started signing about light and dark and she started babbling. I'm not sure all of what she was trying to tell me but she it was obviously really important. While she is telling me all of this, I'm just nodding while thinking "My kid is a genius" but really, it isn't just my child. The human brain is amazing and a child's ability to understand concepts is literally breathtaking at moments. I love doing little projects with Lucy and planning trays for her, thinking up new ways to teach her things but this was a great reminder that at the end of the day, she is the one teaching herself because to a child, the world is a fascinating place.

Countertop Choices

2012-01-18T08:26:00.002-06:00

As a boy, I would listen to Minnesota Twins baseball games on the radio. One of the advertisers on the games was Cambria, manufacturer of quartz countertops. For some reason, these ads made an impression on me, even though I was not in any way in the market for countertops, since I was a kid and had no need for them.

Fast forward to 15 or so years later, I was in the market for countertops, and sure enough, Cambria came to mind (talk about a delayed payoff on Cambria's investment in advertising). But I'm glad it did come to mind. Quartz has a number of advantages as a counter surface:

Stronger than granite
Nonporous, so it doesn't need to be sealed and doesn't harbor bacteria
Won't scratch or stain
Cambria is mined and manufactured in the US
Kosher-certified (if that's your thing)
Wide variety of colors (we chose Sharpham)
Easy to clean

Here's a shot of our counter:

UPDATE: Free gift! A cheeseboard.

Word -to my mother

2012-01-16T08:20:00.000-06:00

Lucy has really taken off in the speech department these past few weeks. She's said dada and mama for quite a while but except random words here and there that she refused to repeat (upstairs, water to name two), not much else. But all of sudden, she's figured out she likes to talk. At first, she went with words that she didn't have signs for which meant her vocabulary was a bit odd and included words like man, wool and empanada. Seriously, what kid says empanada (well, em-da) but not ball? I guess my girl, who loves to eat but still can't throw!

But now she is starting to replace signs with words and will frequently say mom, dad, no (and now it actually sounds like no instead of naaa!), more, and baby and big. This is a good thing, but makes me a bit sad too. I love her signing, its so cute!

So, being nostalgic for the good old days that aren't quite gone yet, I decided to list all her signs. I knew she had a lot but writing them down, wow! Most of these were driven by her interests. If I had to pick 75 words for my toddler to know, I wouldn't have included caterpiller, candle or cut. And the ones with the * are the ones she "invented."

dog
cat
bird
fish
bear
squirrel
cow
horse
pig
sheep
alligator
bird
bug
caterpiller
spider
mouse
turtle
frog

flower
tree
grass
leaf
outside
wind
sun
rain
snow

milk-milk (nurse)
sleep
play
stir-stir (bake/cook)*
color*
dance*
be silly*
hug*
back rub*
potty
bath
brush teeth
wipe-wipe (wipe off table)*
fight*
cut* (I promise she isn't a violent child. She knows fight from a couple books with nursery rhymes and wrestling polar bear cubs. And she knows cut because she likes to have her food cut into little pieces and play with her Melissa and Doug veggie cutting toy)

no*
more
all done
quiet*
sad/cry

cold*
hot*
hurt
icky*
wait

where/wait/I don't know*

banana
drink/cow drink (milks)
water

mom
dad
grandpa
bubbie
girl
boy

shoes/socks
eye
nose
head
hair

little
big
light
dark/shadow*

candle*
phone*
book
ball
doll
bubble
family bible time (book + candle)*

I've had several people ask me for signing advice. I didn't do anything special, I think she's just a very communicative girl and we provided an outlet. But because I've been asked, here is what we did:

1) At about 4-6 months we picked three or so signs (milk, more and change - although we dropped change later for kitty because she took an interest in Zeeba) and started signing them. I say 4-6 months because we really weren't consistent until 6 months. I think it is good to pick concrete signs to begin with and make them signs that have a pay-off. She likes getting milk-milk and more (snacks, books etc) so she paid attention. I don't think she really cared if she was polite or not so please wouldn't have been a good first choice.

2) Keep at it. She started responding to signs around 8-9 months but didn't sign back at first. We kept going.

3) Pay attention. It wasn't long before she stared signing back although her first attempts may have gone unnoticed if we weren't really watching because they weren't very good :-) Praise those first attempts so they keep going! When she would sign back "incorrectly," we wouldn't correct her but we would keep doing it the right way. Most of the time she would slowly get it right, but now always. She still does "daddy" wrong but consistently so.

3) Add signs as needed. It doesn't hurt to do more than 2-3 at a time as long as you can remember to be consistent about it. She also started making up her own. Most of those were pretty intuitive and sometimes they ended up being similar to the real sign but even if they were, we kept doing it her way if she "invented it" before we showed it to her.

In the Hood

2012-01-14T23:03:00.000-06:00

Since I am a big proponent of ventilation*, I made sure our kitchen remodel included a outdoor-vented range hood above the stove, not a wimpy microwave-over-the-stove air recirculator. We selected the first model on this page. We ordered this fairly early in the remodel process, but then just let it sit in the box until it was time to hang it up. But we should have opened the box up earlier.

Since our ceiling isn't that tall (8 feet, or a couple of inches below that), and these fans have some placement requirements, it was a rather tight fit. First, these hoods are supposed to be placed at least 30" above a gas stove (24" above an electric one). On top of that, one needs to make room for the duct cover (the top part). For us, I had to cheat by an inch or so on the 30" requirement, and at the end I had to trim 1/2" or so off the duct cover to make it fit under the ceiling (I thought I would have to take the piece somewhere to get it cut, but then realized I could just use tin snips).

Furthermore, the owner's manual states that you should install horizontal 2" x 4" supports in the wall between the two studs on either side of where the hood will go. The hood is to be screwed onto these supports. Had I read this before the drywall guys came, I could have put those in, but I wasn't about to cut open the drywall after the fact. So we had to improvise a bit. The hood is held up by four screws; we used the heaviest-duty drywall anchors we could find for the top two screws. The bottom two screw holes lined up with our window, so we could not use those without finding a workaround.

What we did was attach two 6" long flat metal pieces with small holes in them (I forget what the item's real purpose was) to the horizontal window frame 2" x 4" above the window. The two pieces hung down, and we screwed through the bottom two hood holes into these pieces. We figure this gives the hood some decent support. Also, the duct cover is attached to the wall with a bracket where it meets the ceiling.

To cut a hole in the ceiling for the duct I just used a drywall saw. That part was pretty easy. When you are connecting the duct sections, I guess you're supposed to use aluminum duct tape, not the regular duct tape we all know and love. The guy at Lowe's told me I should use screws, which makes sense. Screws are a no-no in dryer vent ducts, because they catch lint, which can burn, but there will be no lint in my range hood ducts.

This is the kind of job that takes a couple of extra pairs of hands, so grab some friends if you are doing this project. I have yet to cut through the wall of my house to vent the hood to the outside. I hope that part goes well. I couldn't find any 8" vent caps, so I had to buy a 8" to 6" reducer and a 6" cap.

*This was my third ventilation project in this house. The first two were: 1) convert the dryer vent from an indoor one (yeah, who knew?) to and outdoor one, and 2) install a outdoor-vented fan in the bathroom.

What I've learned these past 5 years

2012-01-13T08:17:00.001-06:00

Happy Anniversary to me! And Craig too I guess :-) 5 years ago today we were fighting our way through a winter blizzard in Texas (Yes, I said Texas, what are the odds?) in order to say our vows and make the commitment of a lifetime. We are celebrating with a "once Lucy is in bed the date begins" evening. I'm fighting a bad cold so hopefully it isn't as lame as last years anniversary when Lucy has the chicken pox and we all went to bed early. Only time will tell.

Speaking of time, when I was a newlywed, our 5 year anniversary seemed pretty distant. And I viewed the few young couples I knew that had been married that long as mentors. Now that we are at that point, in many ways I feel like we are still newlyweds with so much to learn. So I don't want to sound pretentious with this little list, but I do want to look at how far we've come and share what I've learned - other than I married the most awesomest man on the planet and that I can't wait to see what the next years bring for us.

1) Remember that you're in it for the long haul.

The big issues you have right now may very well be nothing in a few years. We had one or two big issues when we first got married. And I felt like we needed to fix them right NOW. Because if I/WE didn't fix it, it would just get worse and worse and we would have to live like this FOREVER! We got books and prayed and talk and talked and my goodness, it was painful. Those issues aren't anything now, so much so that I can laugh at myself, but the changes is not because of all the "effort" we put in. Mostly we just needed time, time to learn about each other and time to grow and mature. We would have been better off with just one or two conversations and the prayer part. It's good to put effort into improving your marriage, it's bad to obsess. I really wish someone had told me not to worry so much. Marriage is hard, but don't make it harder that it has to be.

2) The little things that bug you will probably still bug you, so you'd better find a way to deal with them.

How is it that the littlest things can get under your skin so much. I'll let you in on a secret, Craig and I disagree about how to put up toilet paper. He's an under while I, like all normal people, am on over the roll kinda gal. Neither of us would budge. So we made a rule, whoever changes the roll makes the decision and no fussing or alterations are allowed. Now nobody complains about the lack of changing or the direction. It works for us. I am also really bad about turning off the lights when I leave the room. After much effort on my part, I am light years ahead of where I was before but Craig does a really good job of not pointing out when I fail and for his sake, we are slowly replacing the bulbs with LEDs. I dog ear my book. He doesn't nag, he just follows me and puts a bookmark there. So if your wife folds the towels in thirds and you really prefer them folded in half, get over it. Or if your husband always leaves his dirty socks at the foot of your bed, just put a hamper there.

3) Don't assume.

You know what assuming does, don't you? Yes, you're fuming and snappy and it seems like it should be obvious you need a break, but don't assume your husband knows that you've had a bad day and that you need 10 minutes of quiet time or your head will explode when your toddler has yet another fit because she can't hug the train across the street. (Not that this scenario has happened to me, cough cough) And you may have spent the last two days buying and preparing all the supplies you need to fix that vent but don't assume that your wife knows you really wanted to get that done Friday afternoon so her suggestion that they go to the library together is not a great one. Don't assume, tell. Life is so much better now that I've learned to tell Craig things instead of assuming he'll figure it out (or worse, assuming that he knows and is deliberately choosing not to take action). Now the only thing I assume is that if he knew how and could help me, he would. And that he loves me and is on my side.

What about you? Any good marriage advice to pass on?

Let there be light

2012-01-11T08:00:00.003-06:00

Light fixtures: A sign we are near the end of remodeling saga. It also means we are nearing the end of our budget. So what's a girl to do? Improvise.

This is what we started with. A horrible outdated brass chandelier. A cheap ceiling fan (with pieces of the wall border cut out and pasted onto it so it matched) and a fluorescent tube partially hidden in a cabinet. None of it was staying.

I had very specific ideas of what type of lighting I wanted - simple school house style retro pendants and chandelier. These were my inspiration pieces.

This chandelier for over the dining room.

http://www.schoolhouseelectric.com/lighting-and-hardware/fixtures/chandelier/chesapeake.html

A simple flush mount pendant for the main kitchen light.

http://www.schoolhouseelectric.com/lighting-and-hardware/fixtures/otis-4.html

And a pendant for over the sink (but in the same oil rubbed bronze as the above two, minus the blue strip on the shade)

But if you add up the cost of those fixtures and shades, the total comes to a whopping $766.30!

Originally, I budgeted $500 for lighting but that $766.30 doesn't even include undercabinet lighting which we estimated would be about $180 so I really needed to make some changes and be creative if I wanted my vision to work. It took three trips to make what I wanted happen. First up, our local thrift store. I had seen lots of "vintage" (read - really old fashioned) style light shades and fixtures there before and they did not let me down. I had to search through a lot of really bad shades but I found a pack of 4 milk white 2.25 fitter shades in just the style I wanted - for $1!

Then Habitat Restore. Again, it took some digging and squinting before I picked up a chandelier and a pendant. The chandelier was ugly brass and had horrible shades, in other words, not that different from the original, except this one had potential. The pendant was the perfect color. It was a tad long and we were trying to figure out how to cut it shorter when we realized it was in sections so we just removed the middle rod to get it to a perfect length. Add in a new glass shade that I also found there and we are getting close to finished. Total: $35.

The last stop was good old Home Depot. They have basic pendant fixtures and one or two styles of schoolhouse shades so I grabbed another milk white shade to match the four I got at goodwill, a white plastic flush mount kit and a shade to fit, plus two cans of spray paint, chrome and oil-rubbed bronze (originally, I was not sure which finish I wanted for the kitchen fixtures). Total: $28

Grand total: $64. Of course, I wasn't quite done yet. And if I was a good blogger, I would have lots of wonderful process pictures with all my supplies laid out but I don't. But basically, I took this chandelier

(picture is mid spray paint but the painted side is away from the camera so this is really what it looked like when I got it)

and some supplies like this, give or take a few :-)

and did some of this (ignore chrome color, I tried both and liked oil rubbed bronze best so I redid the chrome one)

and this

To get this.

and this

and all together, this:

Nope, I'll never be a professional blogger. But at least I have nice kitchen lighting. I'm happy and so is the budget!

Update: We ended up using a coupon to buy under-cabinet lighting so all the lighting combined was $224. I came in over 50% under budget! But I also just selected a kitchen backsplash tile and will be taking all that savings and putting it directly towards that. Oh well, you win some, you lose some :-)

When Daddy picks out the hat.

2012-01-10T10:35:00.000-06:00

I had a tough time picking out Lucy's winter gear (Not that I needed to bother. We went all the way to North Dakota and we didn't even get any snow!). I was sick of pink but couldn't find much else. Finally I found a purple/blue jacket and purple snow pants, but after quite the ordeal Lucy and I finally agreed on pink snow boots. All that was left was a hat. Of course, in my perfect world, Lucy would wear an adorable hat, perhaps shaped like an animal, knitted in a nice natural color from organic wool either by myself or purchased from some great etsy vendor. But this is the real world, with its real budget and time restraints. So Craig, Lucy and I stopped off at Once Upon a Child and I let Lucy and Craig pick out the hat while I went in search of others things. This is what they came up with -

You could probably guess this but it's not organic wool. Heck, it's not even wool. This guy is 100% polyester. And not only does it not look very natural or "waldorfian," it doesn't come close to matching her snow outfit.

But she loves it. She wants to wear it all the time. It is her hat. And it is perfect.

Week 16 Update.

2012-01-09T08:32:00.001-06:00

We're still chugging away. We took a big break for Christmas when we went up to ND to visit the family but have been catching up.

I don't have any pictures of either of things for you because neither of our two cameras are cooperating right now but the kitchen doesn't look that much different.

The electrician's been back so now we have working outlets and new fixtures (more on those later this week). Once he finished up with the stove, we were able to install the last wall cabinet so we only have the island left but we are waiting for those until the plumber installs the dishwasher so he can actually have room to manuever it.

Craig's spent this week installing all the trim, toe kicks and cabinet hardware. I don't think it would show up as a big change on a photograph but those little things really make a difference in how finished it all looks. I've been debating backsplashes and ordering samples. I'm not sure which of us has been sweating more. The backsplash decision has been stressing me out but I think I'm close to deciding - how's that for committing!

The biggest change we have left is the countertops which are scheduled to arrive Thursday morning! I'm so excited. Then Friday the plumber comes at which time our kitchen will be functional again. Technically we aren't supposed to use it until we have the inspector back but just knowing it is working will be something. Here is a rundown of what still remains.

Countertops and undermount sink installed
Plumber finishes up sink and faucet installation, installs dishwasher and hooks up water to fridge
We install island foundation, island, and island toe kick.
Electrician comes back (last time!) to put outlet in island.
Inspection time!
Backsplash samples finish arriving and MacKenzie commits to one.
Craig takes last trip to Ikea to pick up butcherblock (was out of stock during last trip) and pick up a few items (extra glass shelves, drawer that was out of stock, etc).
Butcherblock countertop installed on island
Backsplash installed.
The fun stuff - art, curtains, putting everything in its new home.

Let's try that again

2012-01-05T19:44:00.000-06:00

So my last personal post was a bit of a downer but God has been working on me since then in a few special ways and since I shared the low, I thought it only fair that I shared the high.

I had been thinking about taking a personal mini-retreat to give myself some time for goal setting and focused prioritizing time. Then I read this post and it spurred me into action. But first, Craig and I needed to talk about our goals. I can't just go off on my own planning things willy-nilly without knowing what Craig thinks our priorities and focus should be.

So Sunday night, Craig and I spent the evening discussing our goals. We didn't do anything crazy formal but I started with a list of some areas we might want to discuss (marriage, family, spiritual, financial, etc). We'd pick one and talk about it; the good, the bad, what our goals should be. Or sometimes we wouldn't talk about it other than to say, I think we are doing good with ___, let's stay on that same track. Next.

One of the biggest struggles of the last year and a half has been feeling torn between my homes, being with my husband and Lucy here or taking her and spending time with my mom and family in KS.I didn't mention every trip on this blog but I was gone at least one week a month, sometimes two. Craig came for the weekends when he could, but that is still a lot of time apart. Yet, my time with my mom was so precious and limited and I hated being away from her. It felt like a lose/lose and I was still harboring guilt (there is that guilt word again, this won't be the last time it shows up). And when I was home, he was supporting me and helping me cope, really being there for me. And I felt like I was just - there.

But lately one thing my Texas home group leader and mentor told me about once was to always remember the difference between truth-based guilt and guilt based on a lie. Truth-based guilt is from God; it's a conviction to spur change. Guilt based on a lie is from Satan and his goal is to turn our hearts from God. I know that my guilt is lie-based. I made the decisions I did with Craig's full blessing and after prayerfully considered where God wanted me to be. And I have no regrets. Not really. But I still have allowed guilt and worries to affect me.

What does this have to do with goals? Well, our goal planning night showed my how like minded Craig and I are on our vision for our family. It may have felt like there were times last year when Craig and I were just trying to get through the days, that we were ships passing in the night if you will excuse the cliche, but we weren't. When we really talked about the important things, we were right there, side by side. Probably more so than I think we ever have been before. It just felt like this sign from God reminding me that He has us in His hands. One of our hopes for the next year is to spend more time doing fun family things on Craig's days off and to fit in more date nights. But not because our marriage is in trouble or we need to address issues, but because we want to spend time together. We like spending time with each other, we like spending time with Lucy, we like being together as a family. Our marriage has been sustained, and is thriving, not because of our works, but because God is faithful. And being reminded of that was so refreshing.

Then Monday, I went on my mini-retreat. Sometimes I pray better out loud so on the drive to Panera, I did a lot of talking to God. Then I got there, bought my peppermint hot chocolate, found a quiet corner, and started listening. I only spent a little over an hour and half there but God showed me so much. I have lot of ideas and goals for the year now, an overall vision for where I want to take my "job" this next year and I'm really excited about them but even more important, I left all that guilt and baggage at Panera and came home feeling like a new person. Which incidentally, is the theme God gave me for this year. I had been focusing on the ideas of renewing and letting God lift up my spirit since I knew I couldn't do it on my own. Then when I started planning I put "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain." on the top of my page but couldn't remember the reference and when I Googled it, I saw that it is Psalm 127, also knows as a Song of Ascent. Yes! Lift me up Lord. Take me higher. I think I really am ready to say "Welcome 2012" now.

Toddler Tuesdays: Not all Montessori

2012-01-03T07:54:00.000-06:00

It's not big secret that I have an affinity for Montessori and Montessori style activities. But there is another side of me that loves the less structured concepts of some other schools of thought when it comes to young children and education, like Charlotte Mason and Waldorf. So to prove I'm not all sensory bins and tray work, here are some pictures from a few weeks ago when I presented her with a new "toy."

My mom had lots of clothes, including many scarves and hats, shoes and purses. I took some, picked out a few for my grandmother and made sure my aunts had their chance but there were still lots left. We donated a lot of her clothing but I also wanted something for Lucy. So I took my mom's scarf basket (yes, she has a big basket just for her scarves, she was know for always wearing scarves) and put in a few of the ones I remember her wearing, a hat or two plus a fun pair of red heels and a couple of her smaller purses.

She already loved her play silks so I knew the scarves would be a hit but she really liked the heels too. They gave her a bit of trouble at the beginning, but pretty soon she was even walking the line with them.

Even with that little tuckage issue, I'd venture to say that tightie whities have never been so fashionable before.

HOAs: Not Just for Micromanaging

2012-01-02T09:40:00.004-06:00

I promised way back in July to start a series on homeowner associations (HOAs). Well, here's my first crack at it.

An HOA in the Houston area (Oak Park Trails) is fighting to keep a scourge out of its neighborhood. What is this blight, a meth lab? A landfill? Nope, it's Aldi [note: not "Aldi's"], the awesome grocery store chain. What's wrong with Aldi, you ask?

“It’s a very low-end type of store. They don’t really shelve anything. They just have open pallets of products — it’s kind of like a 99-cent store for groceries.”

HOA residents only shop at Byerly's or Whole Foods, apparently.

“One of our other concerns is they’re going to sell beer and wine. There’s a Montessori school just across the street from this, but it’s just outside the 300-foot rule for not selling alcohol near churches and schools,” Balkanli said.

Apparently HOA residents only shop at [insert name of high-end liquor store here]. So the legislature or city council or whatever decided that 300 feet is a sufficient distance between a liquor store and a school, but Oak Park Trails thinks it should be 305, I guess.

“We’re not opposed the Aldi food store business model at all. We feel that it’s a free enterprise system, and we feel there’s certainly a need for a low-cost, value-oriented grocery store in other areas,” Balkanli said. “The only thing we’re opposed to is it happens to be in front of our subdivision.”

The real concern in regards to Aldi is quite clear under the surface of this article: poor people might shop in our neighborhood!

I would cheer for a new Aldi to open in any situation. They have low prices and good products. But more than any regular Aldi, I want this one to succeed.

Update: Here's a video by the anti-Aldi yahoos. "We're generally a middle- to upper-class neighborhood, whereas Aldi does not serve that demographic element." Ha!

A New Year

2012-01-01T13:53:00.000-06:00

It's been a little over a month since my mom passed away. For the most part, I think I'm doing okay but some days are really hard. Like last night.

I thought Christmas would be hard, and it was a little hard but we celebrated "Christmas" in November so it kinda felt like a fake Christmas this time around. The Christmas eve service was emotional for me and reading the facebook updates of everyone excited to see there family or friends spending time making cookies or shopping with their mom stung but the rest of the time I was okay. But for some reason, yesterday things just kept reminding me of my mom. Five or six different times I thought of "this" and was going to call my mom or I told myself to tell my mom about "that" next time I talked to her before I remembered, "Oh, I can't." I don't do that much. When she was sick, she was always on my mind because I was always praying or worrying (hey, being honest :-) and calling to see how she was doing. So the fact that she was dying was always there in the front of my mind and I rarely "slipped up" and forgot about it. But now that she is actually gone, in some ways I'm more likely to forget and think I can just pick up the phone. But, with the exception of yesterday, I really only do that once or twice a week. I was actually getting mad at myself for letting that happen so much yesterday because each time the pain hits like I'm finding our for the first time.

I didn't really think much about New Years impacting me. Maybe that was why it hit so much harder than Christmas, because it was unexpected. But it does make sense. In many ways, I am ready to be done with 2011. It was not a great year and I'd like to be able to say "Good Riddance" with 100% of my heart.

But it was also my last year with my mom. 2011 is the last scrapbook that she will be in. The holidays and birthdays of 2011 are the last ones I will celebrate with her. And as hard as this year was, I do have lots of wonderful memories of spending time with my mom and my family together.

And while there are lots of things I'm looking about 2012 I'm looking forward too, even that is a mixed bag of emotions. Dealing with a terminal illness is so different from other trials or difficult seasons because normally, I just remind myself that it is a season and that "this too shall pass" and that makes me feel better. I pray for strength to get through the hard times. But when I would do that this time, I would remember that I didn't really want to get through it, being through with it meant my mom would be gone and I couldn't want that. I put off doing things because they weren't as important as my mom but doing so meant that I was, in a weird way, "saving" them for when she was gone. And even though I knew it wasn't true, it felt like if I wanted those things I was waiting for or holding off on, I was wishing for her to be gone.

But wished for or not, she is gone and entering this new year really feels like I'm leaving her behind now. When 11pm rolled around, I felt like I was leaving 2011 kicking and screaming and I just fell apart.

If I'm going to fall apart, it happens in the evening. Lucy is asleep, things are quiet, I can actually think. Luckily it normally also means that Craig is around and bedtime is near. Because once I'm down, I can't get myself back up. I just have to ride it out. Craig will stay with me until I fall asleep. And the morning brings a new day, or in the case, a new year. Welcome 2012.

A Christmas video treat

2011-12-29T19:36:00.000-06:00

Christmas cleaning leads to Christmas music. And Christmas music leads to Christmas dancing of course. Enjoy!

Toddler Tuesday

2011-12-20T09:05:00.000-06:00

I am loving 18 months. All of a sudden Lucy just seems to get so many activities. We've had puzzles around that she could do with quite a bit of help, but now she's a pro. And she now loves matching which opens up tons of activities. She also understands tray work now and will get one tray out then put it up before getting another.

But of course, there always seems to be a directly correlation between the amount of time I spend prepping an activity and the amount of time Lucy spends on it. Example - this one took all of 30 second to arrange, but kept Lucy busy for quite a while.

What is it? Well, if it looks like Lucy is standing on a piece of painters tape stuck to our floor, you would be correct. Although to Lucy, it's a line for her to walk on. It tests her skill and requires deep concentration.

She did it once then ran off. I thought that was it but she came right back. She just needed some skid-proof socks for better traction, or maybe she was cold :-)

Then of course, baby needed a turn too.

Her first line was just a few feet long but at her request, I made it longer and included a corner.

This is a great example of how important timing is and how kids develop at their own pace. This was originally an activity from Slow and Steady Get Me Ready but it was listed as an activity for 1 year 6 weeks (or what normally people would call 13 months). She could walk by then but did not understand the concept of walking on a line at all so I put it aside. Then recently I noticed she was more interested in physical things like walking backwards, spinning, dancing, etc. She could do them before when prompted, but now she spends 30 minutes just figuring out how to make her body move and really seems to enjoy challenging herself to go faster, longer and harder. So we tried it again and voila, fun fun fun! She started "walking on the line" with one foot staying on the line and the other off to the side but after just a few days she started getting both feet to stay on the line.

Another activity that illustrates this is this animal matching game. It's on several other sites so I won't claim it's new but I think my kid is cute, so I'm putting up more pictures of it. It is supposedly a activity for a 2-3 year old but if Lucy is 6 months behind on her line walking, she is 6 months ahead on her animal matching! So I'm learning to ignore the numbers and remember that I know my kid best. Anyway, her is Little Miss matching away:

I took 6 of these cards and put them on a tray with the matching animals that we already had. She could probably handle more but none of the other animals we have match the cards they have. Her animals are her most used toy though so we'll be getting more.

Lucy gets out the tray...

lays out the cards

and starts matching

sometimes she will put the wrong animal on the card, look at us, shake her head no, pick it up and put it down correctly

then she stands back and admires her accomplishment.

*These pictures may or may not have been taken on the same day. The undies + pink socks combo is fairly common round here.

Week 13 Update

2011-12-19T10:48:00.000-06:00

Weeks 10-12 were pretty calm. For obvious reasons, we didn't do a whole lot on the kitchen. But last week my dad came to visit and Thursday my brother Ben (otherwise knows as The Beav) finished up his first semester at A&M and flew in too. Being the wonderful hostess and daughter/sister that I am, I put them to work.

Craig had already put together the cabinets in the basement so when my dad came, we started bringing 'em up and installing them. It wasn't too hard and the motivation was high since every cabinet made a big visual difference in how "kitchen-y" it looked. Here we are working on the first cabinets.

I've never installed cabinets before but I think Ikea installation is a little more diy friendly that others. The top cabinets fit onto metal rails you secure and level beforehand. This makes it feasible for two people to do the install although it was really nice having my dad around as a third set of hands (and ones with more upper body strength than mine) There were a few moments when we had to consult the ikeafans forum but overall, I'm pleased with both the quality and the user-friendliness of working with ikea cabinets. It also helped when I reminded myself that Home Depot charges $75 per cabinet just for installation so when it took at hour or two to get a cabinet in place, it was worth the effort.

We mostly worked in the evenings after Lucy went to bed, but during the days, she tried to help out as best she could.

Of course, we had a few little glitches to deal with on the way and I think we took a trip to Home Depot or our local hardware store at least once a day but we have all but three cabinets installed now. The three that remain are the one to the left of the stove and the two island cabinets. We are waiting for those until after the electrical work is done to make it easy on the electricians as they work behind the stove.

Craig also worked on getting the range hood installed. This took some ingenuity because our vent hood was being installed over the glass blocks. You are technically supposed to attach the hood to horizontal supports that you install between the studs and behind the drywall. We weren't going to do that, so my dad came up with a solution that involved drywall anchors along with some metal strips that allowed us to make use of the upper window framing as a means of support. It took three pairs of hands to get it installed, and as of this writing, 24 hours later, it has yet to fall down.

Here is what it is looking like these days.

We are taking off this next week for holiday festivities but the electritian comes on the 28th after which we can finish up those last few cabinets and bring in the countertop guys for templating. The end is in sight!

Mark Maker

2011-12-16T10:44:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned in our first post of 2009, I am a Maker's Mark Ambassador. It's not quite as prestigious as it sounds - I signed up on their website. As an Ambassador, I am supposed to promote the fine Kentucky bourbon whiskey (I think this post counts; to become an Ambassador, go here). As a reward, there is a barrel o' whiskey with my name on it. When it is ready, I can buy some of it. It also means I get a Christmas gift each year. Two years ago it was some gift bags and wrapping paper. Last year it was an ice cube tray for making bourbon balls (the tray makes 4 perfectly spherical ice cubes). Here is this year's present, which just arrived in the mail:

A bottle sweater! Isn't that festive?

A New Tradition

2011-12-15T16:41:00.000-06:00

One new addition to our Advent/Christmas season celebrations was St. Lucia Day. St. Lucia's day is a church feast day set aside to celebrate the young martyr, St. Lucia (St. Lucy). Her name means light so the day is also a reminder that as Jesus is our light, we are called to reflect His light to all the world as well. A traditional home celebration involves the eldest girl dressing in white with a red sash with a crown of candles on her head. She carries the St. Lucia buns to all the family members early in the morning while they are still tucked in bed.

It's mainly celebrated in Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Norway. Craig's Norwegian heritage is very important to him so even though he did not grow up celebrating this holiday, he was on board. Even more so when I told him it involved food. Who doesn't like a food holiday?

We prepared the week beforehand. Wednesday is was our baking day so we borrowed Neighbor J's kitchen for the afternoon and made these St. Lucia Rolls (also known as Saffron rolls). I underbaked them by just a few minutes so we could heat them up in the morning in our toaster oven. That worked really well and they were delicious. The only thing I would change would be to leave out the Saffron. I know that Saffron is the traditional flavor of St. Lucia rolls but we couldn't really taste it in the roll and it is really expensive. So expensive that when I bought it, the check-out lady double-checked the price then asked me if I really wanted to buy it. I'm sure I could have gotten it cheaper online but it was ~$15 for 0.03 oz at our local grocery store. Yikes! But the rolls were delicious.And not very crumble, which is good since we ate them in bed.

Thursday, our craft day, we made Lucy's St. Lucia crown. I had pre-cut the crown, leaves and candle parts (I just went free-hand) and they were waiting for her in her advent bag. Once we measure her head and I stapled the crown to the right size, I cover the outside with double stick tape so she could put the leaves and candles where she wanted to. I thought about letting her glue them but she really doesn't like to get messy and the double stick tape was similar to stickers so I thought she would enjoy that. And she did. We had a great time assembling it. But she was very much opposed to wearing it anytime I asked her that day or the next.

Technically, St. Lucia's day was Tuesday but we celebrated Sunday so daddy didn't have to feel rushed. When Lucy woke up, we made Craig stay in bed while we went and prepared the tray. I didn't dress her in white but she was wearing her red and white hanna anderson pajamas and h.a. is swedish so we were still pretty authentic, right :-)

She wanted to carry it herself. Tray carrying is a new skill of hers but I was nervous because the tray had several rolls plus the crown (that she still refused to wear). She actually did great but was so fast I didn't get any pictures of her.

Here she is showing daddy (and baby) the tray. Then we feasted on our rolls and once in bed, Craig asked her if she wanted to wear her crown and surprise, surprise, she did!

It might look like she is handing them out, but actually she is stealing everyone else's raisins. She liked the rolls but only tried them once all the raisins were consumed.

Hmm, let me see, Yep, Raisins!

Overall, this was a great First St. Lucia Day for our family. I hope we keep this event as a tradition. Next year when I have a kitchen, I might even try making swedish meatballs or kneple soup that night. And maybe buy this book when Lucy's a few years older.

Advent is upon us

2011-12-12T08:30:00.000-06:00

We're getting a little bit of a late start on Advent since we just got back into town last week but Craig and I just didn't fill Lucy in on that fact and since she can only count to one, I think our secret is safe.

I've been thinking and planning for Advent for a couple months now and forcing Craig down to think and plan with me for several weeks. I really want to thoughtfully consider what traditions we want to incorporate instead of just letting Christmas happen to us. I've always felt that way but Lucy ups the ante. And I also know that this holiday period is going to be hard on me so I think I'm not so sub-consciously hoping that if I stay busy, I won't notice that my mom isn't here. I don't really think that plan is working, but I'll try. It might get easier this week since my dad arrived last night and my brother will be flying in as soon as he wraps up finals week at A&M.

So here are the things we've been doing this advent season:

Bags with activities/treats:

Source: aubreyandlindsay.blogspot.com via MacKenzie on Pinterest

I saw this on pinterest and knew I could make something similar so I ordered muslin bags and a number stencil from Amazon. (Note: don't depend on your local Hobby Lobby to have number stencils - mine didn't :-( I originally wanted to hang them on a branch or dowel but I ran out of steam so this year they just went into a basket. Next year perhaps.

At this point, Lucy doesn't really get the countdown part but having the calender planned out helps ensure that the really important stuff that I wanted to make sure happens, actually happens and doesn't get crowded out by last minute, not-as-crucial, activities. So far, I love it. The bags give me lots of options. I've tried to focus on activities but I do have a toy in the bag for the day we fly to Grandma and Grandpas. Here are a few of our bags:

Make St. Lucia crown - bag contains pre-cut paper
Make treat for the birds - pinecone (with pb, birdseed to come later)
Shop for Christmas tree ornament - activity on a slip of paper
Make cards for firemen/postman/librarian - stickers and paper
Make treats for firemen/postman/librarian - recipe for muddy buddies (one of the few items we could make without a kitchen :-)
Roll Advent candle - Every Sunday we make the next Advent wreath candle using supplies from this kit from etsy. Lucy needs help getting it started but can roll it pretty well with just a bit of guidance. They aren't professional looking but she is very proud of them and it is obvious she considers them her candles.

Advent wreath with candle:

This is pretty standard fare for anyone with a liturgical background. We do our study in the evening and Lucy tolerates it. She does better once we light the candles but overall, this part is more for Craig and I.

Prepare for Baby Jesus:

This is by far Lucy's favorite thing. I think the reason she tolerates sitting still for the devotional is that she knows this comes next. I read about the general concept of preparing a manger for baby Jesus on a Catholic mom forum but the details were sparse so I improvised. I made a manger from a pack of sculpey clay. I'd worked with sculpey before but if you haven't, the package tells all you need to know. It is easy to work with and fairly durable once baked. My manger is very homemade looking but that adds to it's charm, right? Baby Jesus was a wooden peg from Hobby Lobby painted with acrylics I had on hand. Lucy hasn't seen him yet - and I haven't exactly finished painting him yet. Right now he is a white body with a peach head. The second layer will include eyes, mouth and perhaps a halo. He will go in bag 25 to be opened Christmas day!

Every evening after we blow out the advent candles, she starts signing "baby" until we give her a little piece of "hay" (yarn). She then very carefully places it in the manger to get it ready and cozy for baby Jesus. Then we say the Come Lord Jesus prayer which for those of you who are unfamiliar with it goes something like this - "Come Lord Jesus." It's a tricky one.

I wasn't really expecting her to care about the prayer but she gets really excited about that too, grabbing our hands and smiling when we say it. Perhaps because it is short enough that she knows it, even if she can't say it yet. This activity takes 2 minutes total but she is grinning ear to ear the whole time.

I am definitely getting to be in a more Christmasy mood now that Lucy and I are activity awaiting the celebration of the wonderful gift of "baby Jesus." I know that this will probably be the hardest Christmas season I've experienced, but it is still nice to rejoice in the wonder of the Christmas story and remember the memories my mom worked so hard to build up in our minds and hearts over the years.

Next 5

2011-12-08T08:58:00.000-06:00

My problem is not normally a lack of ideas but too many. That is especially true now that I’ve joined pinterest. But it always seems that when I actually have the resources to put an idea into place, I forget what I wanted to do or am to overwhelmed and so ever get around to anything.

So I started a new page in my “mom notes” notebook - my next 5. I keep other lists with tons of ideas and I have a lot saved on pinterest but my next 5 is the place I go to when I want to implement. And I don’t necessarily have 5 in all categories, sometimes I just have one or two, but I won’t let myself have more than five. Here are a few of my current “next 5”

Books to read:

A Charlotte mason companion type book (I've read two of her own books but want to get a summarized version as well)
Bible training (not discipline) book (Recommendations anyone?)
Miss Pettigrew lives for a day

Things to buy: (not literally, that would be bread, milk, fruit, veggies and p.b.) these are more splurgy things for when I have bonus money/swagbucks burning a whole in my pocket)

Wool unders for Lucy (Got a awesome thred-up coupon so splurged some from these last week!)
Praise/Bible verse CD
Indoor shoes/slippers for Lucy (love these)
Art prints for Lucy’s reading nook
Christmas/Advent items: (beeswax?) advent candles and Lucy still doesn’t have a stocking!

Lucy projects

Self-serve water station
Rearrange clothes for independent dressing
Lacing activity
Music station
Montessori rough/smooth boards

But it's okay because she's cute

2011-12-06T21:13:00.056-06:00

We normally write nice Christmas letters every year. We started it our first Christmas and surprisingly, have actually kept up with it. We even managed to get one out the year I was in the midst of morning sickness while trying to prepare to move across the country. But not this year. I just don't have it in me. It takes energy which I don't have and frankly, the last thing I want to do right now is relive the last year.

So we made a shutterfly card instead.

It was quick, easy and illustrates Lucy's cuteness pretty well. And since I'm blogging about it, I get a $10 coupon. Added bonus: the coupon expires on January 31st so I have really strong motivation to finish that 2010 album I've been working on. I only have a few pages left, none of which involve my mom so I should be able to do it without dissolving into a puddle of tears like I did when I looked through the 2009 album I just had printed* and saw pictures from this afternoon**.

*"Just had printed" doesn't mean just finished. I was waiting for a good Christmas sale before I printed it. That is my story and I'm sticking with it.

** And again, I'm crying. How was that less than 2 years ago? I look at that third pictures and all I can think is how my life was perfect back then. Now all I want to do is spend hours reading all my old posts searching for my mom's (Junecleaver) comments just so I can read her words. This is hard. Really really hard.

Polka Dot Christmas Wishes Christmas

Shutterfly Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

18 Months!

2011-12-05T10:47:00.000-06:00

1.5 years! How did you get so old baby girl? You are a full toddler now and you won't let me forget it. You are so much fun to be around and I love to watch you learn and grow. You can do so much including:

- Walk up and down stairs all by yourself. I make you hold my hand if there are more than a couple but you don't really need to.

- Spin in a circle until you get really dizzy. Fall down or stand wobble for a few seconds. Repeat. You think this is hilarious.

- Count to 1! You love counting. After one, you just point and I say the numbers but you recognize what numbers are in several of your books.

- Pick out the color yellow. After we painted the kitchen, we collected lots of yellow things and now you can pick out yellow from a group almost all the time. Sometimes you get other colors but not nearly as reliable.

- Select the "big" one and the "little" one. If I ask you to hand me the little or big you get it right but you don't know those signs so you call the big ones "mommy" or "daddy" and the little ones "baby". This makes sense when we are talking about rubber duckies or toy animals but less sense when we are talking about blocks but you'll figure that out later.

-Talk. You are so funny. You still prefer signing to talking but I know you actually can say a fair number of words. Repeat words include mom, dad, ball but you most often say a word just once though. Just a day or two ago, you said "upstairs" - and grandpa was around to hear it to. I haven't got you to repeat it and probably won't. Its like you slip up and let us know you can talk then realize your mistake and clam up again. I would not be surprised if you hold out for a bit longer then just start talking in complete sentences.

- Reply in the negative. The one "word" we do hear a lot, "Nah" - accompanied by a very empatic head shake. You don't seem to understand the difference between my asking you something and my telling you something but if you keep insisting with the "Nah," I just tell you that it is a "Mommy decision" at which point you hang your head but accept your fate.

- Make animal sounds. Meow, Woof-woof, moo, baa and gobble gobble are the most frequently heard.

- Give fist bumps. Your uncles taught you this one. At first I just rolled my eyes but now I will admit, its pretty adorable.

- Socialize with people other than mommy daddy grandpa and bubbie. You've finally decided that other people are okay and will occassionally let uncles/aunts hug or even hold you. And you liked greeting the hospice workers and certain family friends now that you've seen them a few times. You'll even share your toys with them.

You are getting such a personality and are definitely a little girl. We bought you new shoes last week and you had very strong opinions on what you wanted. Then we got home and you walked around the house showing everyone your new pink converses! I like that I can see you start to do things that I do. You ask me to rub your back a lot, which is something Bubbie always did for me. And you sleep with your arms tucked under you just like I do.

Mostly though, I just like you. Back in the letter I wrote you when you were just one month old, I said you were my little sunshine and it's true. You fit your name. God gave you to us at a difficult time but I believe He did so because He knew we would need you, need your laughter, your smile, your silliness. You brought such joy to your Bubbie this past year and a half and I know that right now you are lighting up the lives of your grandpa, your uncles and I in what, without you, would be a very dark period for us. I can't imagine what my world would be without you, and I'm so glad I don't even have to try.

Lessons Learned

2011-11-29T08:38:00.001-06:00

I can't believe I've been a mom for over 18 months now. But Lucy and I are both still learning a lot about being a parent/toddler. Here are a few of the lessons we have learned in the past couple weeks.

Lesson #1 (Mama): Decorating a Christmas tree with toddler "helper" is difficult but not impossible.

Lesson #2 (Mama): The one finger rule is surprisingly helpful.

Lesson #3 (Lucy): Mama can not understand sign language when it is 2am and pitch black.

Lesson #4 (Mama): If at 2am, you hear your toddler take off her diaper and see her attempting to sign something or move her arm around at all, don't think. Just move to the potty as fast as possible or you will end up spending the rest of the night on the 1/4 of the bed that is still dry. (Yes, this one is related to the previous lesson but hey, it could have been much worse).

Lesson #5 (Mama): If you let your toddler eat nothing but asparagus for Christmas dinner (11 stalks to be exact), she will have incredible stinky diapers for the next 24-48 hours. (Luckily this was a few days separated from Lessons #3 and #4)

Lesson#6: (Lucy): Hugs from your mama make everything better.

Lesson #6 (Mama): Hugs from your baby can't make everything better, but they do help a lot.

The expected happens

2011-11-28T07:39:00.000-06:00

My mom passed away Saturday morning. From my experience and knowledge of cancer and death, I had several fears but in the end, her death was peaceful. My family was all at home with her and I've very thankful for the hospice care that allowed that to happen.

We knew on Friday we were getting close to the end. Lucy had been sick and feverish so Craig and I had been keeping her and her vomit upstairs most of the day but that night she wasn't sleeping well and just wanted to be sprawled over my chest so, I took her down and we all spent the evening with my mom. We watched a movie while my mom slept. Then I took Lucy up to bed while my aunt, brother and dad spent the night taking turns watching over my mom. My dad got me early in the morning so I could say my last goodbye. Ben was holding her hand and I had my arm around her and my head on her pillow next to hers when she took her last breathe.

Compared to how frantic everything seemed last fall when she had her first bad spell, things were very calm and quiet and slow. Hospice came and the chaplain that we had been working with us said a prayer and we all sang a hymn. I didn't feel rushed to say goodbye or to hurry through things. It was hard to be thankful this Thanksgiving but that is one of the things I am most thankful for.

The time was good for Lucy too. I've explained to her the best way I knew how. She is at a really hard age in that she understands and communicates just enough to need an explaination but not enough to understand. But I told her that Bubbie's outside, her body, wasn't working anymore so it was going away but her insides were up with Jesus. When she heard "Jesus", she got excited and starting signing about Baby Jesus and the angel and the book (she loves this book we've been reading about Christmas) and I told her that it was the same Jesus. She also seems interested when people are sad or crying so I told her that it was okay to be sad and cry because we miss Bubbie or we want to give her a hug but can't. Then we gave Bubbie one last big hug. It hadn't been long so my mom didn't seem much different that the previous days to Lucy. Since then, she's had a few moments of confusion. She kept signing Bubbie when they came to take the hospital bed away and she threw a fit when she wanted to find Bubbie and give her a hug but I reminded her of what I had said before and how we had given her a hug earlier and after a few repetitions, she seemed to understand and let it go - for now. Her relationship with my mom was very real so even though she doesn't understand everything, I know she will grieve in her own way and her own time. It will just take her a while to realize what losing Bubbie really means.

Frankly, I think it is going to take me a while to completely realize what losing my mom means. In a way, I've been preparing for this for 18 months but now that it has happened, I don't think I quite belive it. Last night we were all in the living room together and with the bed and medical supplies gone, it looked like our normal living room. I kept thinking my mom was just going to walk in any minute with a bowl of popcorn and a tray of tea. Oh, how I wish she could.

Garbage Disposal

2011-11-23T08:47:00.001-06:00

Our kitchen demolition project was clearly going to generate a lot of waste, so we looked around for a way to get rid of it. A dumpster was the obvious option. The problem with them, though, was that you only get them for a week or so before the garbage company comes to take it back. Since our project is largely do-it-yourself, it has proceeded more slowly than a professional job, so a week wasn't going to cut it. We could have piled our debris in the yard, ordered the dumpster, and loaded it after demolition was complete, but that would have been a pain.

MacKenzie, however, had heard of this product called The Bagster. It is a 8' x 4' canvas-like bag that you buy at your favorite home improvement store for $30. You fill it up at your leisure, and schedule your pickup when you are ready, paying for collection when you book it. These bags hold 3 cubic yards, as compared to about 10 or more for a dumpster. Costwise, it was about the same for us to get two of these as it would have been to get a dumpster. Two bags was enough to hold all our debris, and we kept the bags for a good 7 weeks before having them picked up (you get a bit of a discount if you have multiple bags picked up at once). So this is an option you might consider for your disposal needs.

One note I will add is that, when you view promotional videos for The Bagster, they make the sides look so rigid. That was not our experience.

Maybe I did it wrong? This wasn't a major issue, but I thought it was kind of funny.

Update: The bag comes with specific placement directions (5 feet from any building, 16 feet of overhead clearance, 10-foot wide driveway, etc.). I was worried about getting these picked up, because our driveway is L-shaped and hard to get in and out of for larger vehicles. But Waste Management had no trouble taking our full Bagsters away.

My mommy you'll be

2011-11-21T21:15:00.001-06:00

Those of you who are friends with me in real life or who are following my dad's writings on my mom's caring bridge page will know that my mom has recently begun her final time of rest before she leaves this world.

I haven't talked a lot about her illness on this blog. I've written several posts and left them in drafts and have written over a dozen posts in my head but sometimes it seems like living it is taking all the strength I have and I don't have any left to write about it. But I also hate that because this blog chronicles our lives and I don't want it too seem like my life lately has been taking pictures of Lucy playing or remodeling our kitchen. Those things are in my life but they are secondary and good for a distraction but my focus has been spending time with my family and my mother. I want the world the know who she is but I know I can't do justice to her and I don't even know how to try. But I do want to share a bit now (well, I think I do, I'm still not sure if I will post this or not. If I do, I won't go back and edit it so forgive my spelling or grammer errors.)

I recently remembered a story she told me a couple times about how she found out she was pregnant with me. She thought she might be pregnant but tests were expensive and they were young and didn't have a lot of money. And at the time they were back visiting her parents for a little while before moving to Germany so they couldn't go to the army hospital like she normally would. So she decided to go to planned parenthood for their free pregnancy tests. She went and got a postive (you knew that was coming, right :-) but then got confused as they started talking to her about her schedule and when she should come back. Finally it dawned on her that they thought she wanted an abortion. She got upset and went on a rant about how she was excited about this, how she and her husband (that would be my dad :-) wanted this baby! Even 20 years later when she would tell me that story, I could see her get upset at the thought of them assuming she would even think about having an abortion.

You might be thinking that is a really odd story to be telling right now. Don't worry, I'm not about to twist that into a "I was almost aborted" story. I wasn't. Nor am I really telling if for any pro-life cause. Because what that story means to me is just that from the very moment my mother knew of my existance, she loved me and her first thought was to protect me.

Now, flash forwards ~27 years. When I arrived Sunday night, she hadn't woken up for over 24 hours. She was resting in peace and comfort but unresponsive and I didn't know if I would be able to really say goodbye. But this morning, she "woke up" a bit. Barely, but we could see her one eye open a bit and move around towards us. So we all sat and talked to her but I still wasn't sure if she was awake, could hear us or knew we were there. Then I lay me head down on the pillow and started to cry. And she started to cry too and squeezed me hand. Because all these years later, I'm still her baby and I know that she loves me and wants to protect me.

She's my mentor, my role model, my confidante, my friend. But foremost, she's my ~~mother~~ mama.

I'll close with a line that anyone who has ever read and cried over this book will remember. Now that I've been both a daughter and a mother, I understand how true it is and if I had to tell you what I think that hand squeeze and those tears were meant to convey, this would be the sentiment:

I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

as long as I'm living

my baby you'll be

and if I could only say one thing back to her, I would choose the same response:

I'll love you forever,

I'll like you for always,

as long as I'm living

my Mommy you'll be.

Week 9 update (or hip hip hooray, the floors are done!)

2011-11-21T08:58:00.001-06:00

Lucy and I went home last week, just for a few days, (we are back with my mom now) but it was a fun treat to see the progress on the kitchen. I left right before the drywall was put in and the only pictures I've seen are the ones you all have so it looked a lot different when I walked inside. Craig had just finished installing the floors. They look great. Even Lucy was impressed. She kept pointing to the floor and signing daddy. When I say that yes, daddy did the floors, she signs "me" - yep, she thinks daddy did the new floors just for her. And I guess that is partially true.

Since Craig stained the existing hardwood floors in the rest of the house himself, we knew exactly what stain to use so (crossing our fingers) we should expect a nice match as long as we started with the same material. We weren't exactly sure whether the old stuff was red or white oak but from my research, it seemed like red oak was the more likely candidate so we went with that.

It was actually harder than anticipated to find unfinished wood flooring but Lumber Liquidators had just what we wanted. They have three grades of red oak: select, natural and rustic. We went with natural, which had a quite a bit of variation, similar to our old flooring and our favorite style-wise (a happy coincidence) but not the level of knots and open spots that the rustic would have.

Last Sunday he stained the floors and the color is perfect! Then he spent the next two days laying down the three coats of poly. We were a bit worried about that because the first time we went with Varathane oil-based satin finish but both Lowe's and Home Depot were out of that so we went with Varathane High Traffic Satin oil finish hoping there wouldn't be a visible difference. This morning the second coat was dry to the touch but glossier than the old area and I was a bit worried but by 18 hours of dry time the sheens were almost identical so it looks like we lucked out with that too (I could see a slight different when I put my head down on the ground and the sun was shining directly on the seam but I'm not really worried about people doing that and there will be cabinets covering about half the seam). In fact, I'm actually happier knowing we have the heavier duty poly in the kitchen since even with only three of us, the kitchen will certainly be a high traffic area. (Here's a post he did on floor staining back in January.)

Here they are in all their glory: We can finally take a progress shot from the same angle now that the drop cloth wall we had up has been taken down.

And here is it today!

After letting them sit a few days to make sure they were fully dry, we were able to paint. And you might notice that we also have a a few new shiny appliances now. We're already been enjoying the new fridge for a few days and the dishwasher (off-camera to the right) is making a nice makeshift table for the time being. The stove was delivered Saturday and next week the plumber is coming to install the propane line.

I really feel like we're on the downward slope of our project now that the floors are done. The window and the floors were the two biggest question marks in our planning and neither of us had any experience installing windows or floors but now that they are done, the room looks like a room again and I can actually visualize my kitchen. I'm excited! I'll be even more excited when I finish de-dusting my house* but still, I'm excited!

*Even with the drop cloth wall, the dust got everywhere. Lucy and I have spent the last two days dusting, sweeping and wiping down walls. The amount we get each time we sweep up is diminishing so another day or two of cleaning and we should be back to normal.

Hardwood Floor Installation

2011-11-19T08:36:00.001-06:00

MacKenzie has another floor post planned, but first I thought I'd talk a little about the installation process. I installed 3/4" x 2 1/4" tongue-and-groove unfinished red oak flooring.

Our existing subfloor is 1" x 8" planks. Before starting the install, I replaced a couple of decaying boards and then made sure all the nails were pounded in all the way. Then I laid down 15-lb felt paper. I found different answers online about whether to overlap adjacent pieces and whether or not to staple it down, but I overlapped by 3-4" and stapled.

I had the issue of how to transition from the existing wood to the new wood. Ideally, you would interlace the boards, so adjacent boards don't end right next to each other, but that wasn't an option without tearing out boards. So I did as Lumber Liquidators suggested and put one row of flooring perpendicular to the existing floor to serve as a transition strip (visible in photo above). I installed the strip with the tongue facing the new flooring, which was really the only option. Before installing the strip, I had to take a circular saw and cut the existing floor so all pieces ended evenly (a few pieces previously extended a few inches more than the rest). It was not easy to get this straight, but I did what I could using a chalk line.

Before installing, to back up a bit, I brought the wood into the kitchen for a few days to allow it to assume room temperature and room humidity. I separated the boards into piles based on size. This helped break up the different bundles I bought, and allow for easy board selection during installation. I also picked out boards that were less than perfect. I used most of these against the west wall, where they will be covered with cabinets.

I began at the west wall by using a chalk line to measure out a line about 1/2" from the wall (this is the expansion gap) I laid out 3 rows of flooring, cutting the ends of the last pieces to make them fit, leaving about 1/2" for expansion along the south wall (this gap will be covered by baseboards). These rows had to be face-nailed by hand (nailed through the top through pre-drilled holes). I had to work around the water pipes for the sink here by making notches in the side of a short piece of wood at both ends.

I started out trying to do the job with a manual floor nailer that I rented, but I found that the nails wouldn't quite go all the way in. I had to set them by hand, which was slow and occasionally led to bent nails. The nails were more or less unremoveable once placed, unless you take up the board and pound them out from underneath. When necessary, I would generally twist and bend a partially-driven nail to break it off if it had more than 1/2" sticking out.

I then rented a pneumatic nailer, which uses an air compressor to assist the mallet in driving the nail. This one gave me the same problem. I switched to a larger air compressor, thinking that might solve the problem, but it didn't. I thought maybe my floor was too hard, but another return to the rental place to try a different pneumatic nailer proved successful. It wasn't me, after all, it was the tools. With that taken care of, I could proceed. By this time, I had laid out about half the floor, so I just had to go back and nail the rows that were ready to go. I made marks on the east and west walls where the floor joists were, and tried to nail into them when possible, while still maintaining 8-10" nail spacing.

Another obstacle to work around was the vent. We decided to put in a wooden vent that lies flush with the floor, so I had to make it fit by cutting some small pieces (the gap you see below was filled in later).

When I got within about 5 rows of the end, I was no longer able to use the nailer, because there was no room to swing the hammer. I tongue nailed a few rows by hand, but had to face-nail the last two. I had several long boards left at this point (40-50 inches), and I realized this portion of the project would have been easier with shorter boards. Tongue-nailing serves to help push a board flush against the previous row, something that is important with longer boards, because they can be harder to get a close fit with. A large board will overlap several shorter boards, and if these pieces are slightly misaligned, it will affect the fit of the long boards. Tongue-nailing with the nailer usually overcomes this difficulty, but face-nailing does not. So use up your long boards before you get to the end.

My last row ended about 1/2" from the east wall. This was perfect - close enough to be covered by the baseboard, without requiring me to rip (cut longitudinally) the last row. To finish, I had to do the area under the door, ending with stair nosing where the floor steps down into the entry way. I had to file away at the bottom of the door jamb in order to fit pieces under it. To get the stair nosing tight against the next row, I had to file away at the lip underneath so the piece extended further in from the edge (thus slightly reducing the overhang. Here is the installed product:

One more note: when you put your drill down after pre-drilling holes for face-nailing, lay it down instead of standing it up. If you do the latter, and you knock the drill over, it will fall forward and break the bit. I found this out twice.

Challenge complete!

2011-11-18T11:57:00.000-06:00

Back in August and September, I read a ton of books. Okay, maybe not a full ton but quite a lot. I was reading several heavy non-fiction books so I needed some fun light fiction to balance out my brain. And I was gone for almost 3 weeks so instead of bring a huge bag of library books, I grabbed a ton of free kindle reads, many of which were historical fiction. The result is that not only did I complete my challenge, I kinda decimated it. So instead of writing about all the books I read, I’m only posting about the ones that didn’t stink:

5 more rhys bowen books catching up with both the Molly Murphy and Royal Spyness series (reviews here). Now I have to wait for her to write more :-(

The Swan House by Elizabeth Musser
This is a Christian book that doesn’t read like one. (How sad is it that I mean that as a compliment) I was about 1/4 of the way through and still didn’t know it was a Christian novel until I saw World Magazine review on the author. Of course, by the end of the book it became quite clear that the author had a message but never in a “oh, I’d better stick a God reference in here somewhere” type of way. Mary’s faith is a central element to the story but in what I felt was a realistic manner, one that a Christian would relate to.
I really liked this book because I felt quite a kinship with the main character Mary Swan, her struggles to deal with the tragedies in her life, and with her responsibility to her community and world. Those are all things I’m going through right now so even though this is a coming of age story and Mary is in high school, I felt connected to her.

Also, it is set in Atlanta and having lived there, it was neat to recognize the places she describes. I just found out there is a sequel and I’m excited to pick it up.

Ransom’s Honor by Kaye Dacus
This one was so-so. I liked the characters, Julia, a 29-year old daughter of an Admiral who has come back to England after having spent the last several years running her father’s plantation in Jamaica, and William, a British naval captain. They were strong and likeable, even in their dislike for each other. Several of the minor characters where quite delightful although the antagonists seemed a bit cliché. And the plot was interesting and several twists really caught me off guard. Writing this, I feel like I should have liked it more than I did. Actually, I think I did like this but the next in the series deals mostly with my least favorite character of the first so that is why I didn’t want to read the next. Maybe I should stop waiting so long before I write the reviews :-)

The Preacher’s Bride
A fictional story loosely based on the life of John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress. I didn’t know that until after I finished the book and I think I would have enjoyed this more had I known that at the beginning or if I had known more about the historical setting. But now I want to know more so that must say something.

Sixteen Brides
This could have been really good, but just wasn’t quite there. Sixteen women head west to Nebraska, lured by free land, independence and a chance for a new life. There are a lot of “main” characters (not 16 though, don’t worry) but it wasn’t that I had trouble keeping track, they were had fairly distinct characters. I liked several of the storylines better than others but it was all to easily wrapped up by the end - like a hallmark movie. But if you are in the mood for a hallmark movie book, this one isn’t bad.

The Innocence of Father Brown (ht to Elaine for the e-reader freebie share)
I can’t believe I’ve never read any Father Brown before. I really enjoyed these little logical mysteries. I think I will consider myself Mensa ready if I can ever figure them out before hand but I’m not holding my breath. That little priest is very clever. They are perfect for reading on the go or when Lucy is distracted and I can pick up a book without her wanting to see what I’m doing since they are short and I can stop and go without losing my place, mentally speaking.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie King
It’s 1915 and Sherlock Holmes has retired. At least until he meets 15 year old Mary Russell and decides to mentor her. The premise is a bit odd so this book, which must have belonged to either my mom, dad or brother, sat in the guest bedroom on the nightstand for quite a while before I was bored enough to pick it up one night. But now I’m hooked. I like Mary, she’s intelligent and a bit edgy but personable. I even like Holmes. Now King does take some liberties with Holmes’ character but she admits it and moves on. Since finishing this mystery, I’ve gone back and read some of the original Holmes and it’s interesting to see the difference. I probably shouldn’t admit this because it will reflect badly on my literary skills, but I think I like King’s better. I’ve already read three of the sequels (A Monstrous Regiment of Women, A Letter of Mary, The Moor, and O Jerusalem).

The Dead Travel Fast by Deanne Raybourn
I’m a fan of Deanne Raybourne’s Lady Julie Grey Series and an occasional reader of her blog, I thought I would try this one, even though (with that one sad exception :-) I’m not normally not a big fan of the vampire/gothic genre. It was the plot of this book that really kept me going – as soon I as I thought I had it figured out, something changes. But the characters are just not the same as the Julie Grey series. I didn’t really relate to Theodora much nor did I particularly care for the count (he’s certainly no Brisbane). And the secondary characters and not nearly as developed as her other books. Also, despite their questionable covers, with a few exceptions, the Julie Grey Series is generally pretty clean. This one however seemed to match the cover more that I was excepting or appreciative of. It’s not bad but I’m ready for The Dark Enquiry (come on paperback swap!).

Toddler Tuesday (or Wednesday, whatever): Puddle jumping

2011-11-16T09:09:00.000-06:00

The last few days had been cold and wet so every time Lucy asked to go out, I tried to distract her. But yesterday, I gave in, rounded up the random assortment of outdoor clothing I have here at my parents and we ventured out. She has several lays on underneath her rain pants along with her new winter jacket but I'm not sure if oshkosh needs to rethink their sizing or Lucy has an abnormally large head but while the jacket is a bit too large still, the hat that came with it was a tad small.

Eventually we decided to just go with the hood.

First she found a puddle.

Then she jumped in the puddle.

Then she landed smack on her face into the puddle. (Sorry the picture is blurry but I could see the fall in slow motion and was a good mom who moved to pick her up instead of capturing the memory).

I thought that was going to be the end of our puddle jumping adventure but she didn't want to go in yet so off we went in search of another, softer, puddle to jump in.

I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, but Lucy is at a stage where she doesn't like to be messy. So she found a great puddle and spent 5 minutes looking at it and wanting to jump in it. She would back up and approach from a different angle, but never actually touch the muddy water.

After a while, she looked so cold and wet and miserable that I asked if she wanted to go in.

Her expression quickly changed as she said "no", as if to prove she was having fun.

Finding a cleaner puddle meant that she was willing to actually get into it and touch it - but then she noticed her shoes had mud on them so she wanted to go inside so I could clean them off. Silly baby!

I think it might be a while before she opens her own mud pie stand.

Eleanor Beardsley Voice Debate

2011-11-14T09:38:00.002-06:00

Even though it is liberal, I normally listen to NPR on my short commute to/from work, because the station provides good international news coverage. While doing so, I was immediately drawn to the reports from Eleanor Beardsley, who grew up in South Carolina and reports from France for NPR. Along with her lush descriptions of the environs on which she is reporting, her voice has a conversational, almost rakish feel to it, along with an engaging cadence. Her pronunciations of French words and names are delightful. Here, have a listen (she comes in after an intro):

After listening to that, you may agree with me, or you may vigorously disagree (or disconcur, as I like to say). Like opinions on cupcakes, House Hunters International, or the positioning of the toilet paper roll, views on her voice are sharply divided. "Smashy" shares my opinion:

Beardsley is NPR’s correspondent in Paris and has that best kind of southern accent – one that sounds warm and soothing while never losing the subtle irony and edginess of an intelligent speaker. Think of buttery bread pudding with rum sauce.

Teresa, however, disagrees:

Unfortunately, her style sounds exactly like an affectation — or a somewhat misguided interpretation of how a radio journalist should sound.

What is your opinion? Don't you love it?

While we are on the subject of controversial NPR voices, how about Diane Rehm? Hers is one that I'm opposed to, but the fact that she has a medical condition throws a wrench into that debate.

Long Underwear

2011-11-10T17:32:00.000-06:00

One of the First World problems I have long dealt with is having my dress shirts repeatedly come untucked during the day. I determined rather long ago that the problem was my Hanes/Fruit of the Loom undershirts. They were not very long, so they easily became untucked, taking my shirts with them. I looked into buying some long undershirts awhile ago, but never got around to it.

I returned to this problem when I was trying to think of a Christmas gift to ask for from MacKenzie's family. They like to give pajamas, but I'm not really a pajama guy (not that I sleep nekkid or anything). So I thought, hey, why not ask for long undershirts for our early Christmas celebration?

Well, I ended up in a situation where I got to select and purchase my own present. I went to Macy's, because MacKenzie's research indicated their Alfani brand was a good choice. I found some shirts, and asked the salesman if the undershirts in question were indeed long. He said they were not. I called MacKenzie to confirm her findings, which contradicted the salesman, and then I found an open pack on the shelf. I took a shirt into the dressing room to try on, and found that the shirts were indeed a good 4" longer than my Hanes shirt (I informed the salesman of this fact). I bought both a V-neck and a crew neck package (another First World problem of mine is that many dress shirts place the next-to-top button too low, so if I wear a V-neck shirt, I'm showing too much of the chest area (I normally don't wear a tie, and thus I don't button the top button). Therefore, I prefer to wear crew-neck shirts in these situations, even though I'd rather not).

I have been wearing these shirts for 3 days now. They indeed stay tucked in, allowing my dress shirts to also stay tucked in. These shirts are rather stretchy, too, giving them a tighter fit (you can buy them in ~5% spandex, too, for an even tighter fit, but for twice the price). They are also tagless, a great feature that has become standard in the undershirt world. I have not washed and reworn any shirts yet, so I can't comment on how they stand up. These shirts are about twice the price of the Hanes model, but so far, they are well worth it.

Merry Christmas!

2011-11-09T19:15:00.002-06:00

Now you may be thinking that I skipped a little something in between Halloween and Christmas. But we all know that Jesus wasn't really born on December 25th so my family decided to go a little crazy and celebrate Christmas last weekend.

My brothers and sister-in-law flew in, along with my aunt and uncle. We had a full house. Lucy was a great helper as I decorated, went grocery shopping and prepared for the big weekend. Saturday was my mom's birthday. Everyone flew in and we had a nice supper and a birthday cheesecake. Then we did "Christmas" on Sunday complete with Stollen, presents and a big afternoon feast. Lucy really enjoyed the unwrapping process this year and become the official present opening assistant. She didn't mind if once open, all the box held was a sweater or scarf, she just wanted to rip the paper up.

Here I am opening up my first present.

Then helping daddy.

And Uncle Rick must need my assistance as well.

Hey Uncle Ben, you were supposed to let me help you!

Oh well, another present for me!

Bubbie got a fun pillow...

Which of course I had to try out.

Eventually I realized that there was fun stuff inside the boxes as well. Like my new dolly.

Although she did end up being quite smitten with her doll, barn, books and even clothes. She kept trying to put all the clothes on over the outfit she was already wearing.

Monday was Rick's birthday so even though we had all eaten more sweets that I might have thought was humanly possible, we managed to sing Happy Birthday and indulge in candle light brownie bites. The sacrifices I make for my family :-)

Honestly thought, it was a great Christmas. Nobody had a lot of time to shop so everyone's gifts were simply and the emphasis was on family and traditions. We got our usual Christmas pajamas but this year, the girls matched. Shockingly :-) I only managed to capture Lucy in hers, but she was pretty thrilled when she realized that hers were the same as ours.

Oh, no, I've been caught playing with the decorations even

though I know I wasn't supposed to touch them.

I'll just distract them with my mad head stand skills. (Actually, Lucy took this one after she gave Windsor the camera, pointed to herself then did a headstand. Afterwards she went back to Windsor to take a look at the image. What a ham!)

Hallmark even happened to be running a Christmas movie marathon so we even got to have our fill of sappy movies. We still need to break out While You Were Sleeping though. I've been waiting until the boys were gone since it isn't their favorite but tomorrow, Lucy is going to join the "N" family women in one of their favorite holiday traditions.

Toddler Tuesdays: Halloween edition

2011-11-01T09:05:00.000-05:00

Ah, Halloween, a not at all controversial subject amoung Christians, right? Growing up, we never went trick or treating. Sometimes we went to church parties, sometimes we didn't do anything although my parents relaxed over the years so by the time my little brother was old enough, he went. There are some Christian families that I respect and admire that choose not to celebrate Halloween. And there are some Christian familes that I respect and admire that choose to celebrate Halloween. I always assumed we would do (or should I say, not do) the same but Craig thinks it is fun so we this year, we did Halloween.

If by "did" you mean, I took 10 minutes to put together a costume for Lucy and 15 minutes taking her to the nearest 5 houses, let her eat 2 pieces of candy, then put her to bed. I didn't even have the energy to decorate a pumpkin. We really know how to live it up around here :-)

She was a prisoner. My friend has passed down this really cute romper but everytime I put Lucy in it, Craig made fun of me, saying I was dressing her up like a prisoner. So I went with it. All I did was add the number (masking tape and pen on an old nametag from my mom's volunteering days). It was pretty fitting considering we were walking around Fort Leavenworth. Although I think the shoes broke the outfit, I'm not sure a lot of real prisoners wear shoes with pink kittens on them.

But anyway, the real reason for this post is pictures for the Craig, Bubbie, Grandpa and Grandma. And because I promised lots of pictures, I'm providing LOTS of pictures. Be forewarned.

My dad was trying to get the candy bowl ready so he could hand out the candy but Lucy didn't understand that her candy was coming later so she was living up to her criminal costume.

While we were getting ready, I told her that if she said "Hi" to everyone, they would give her candy. So she started walking around the house waving at us all.

Why, that is quite the adorable little girl I see!

Uhm, there isn't anything in my bag mom.

The little black bag was supposed to be part of her costume, like a garbage bag for a chain gang member. But I think it ended up looking like I was too cheap to buy her a $1 plastic pumpkin.

Off we go!

At the first house, she was quite unsure. Then she saw their cat and didn't want to leave. But eventually she caught on and had fun, although she didn't seem to understand why people were giving her candy but I wasn't letting her eat it.

Her favorite spot was grandpa's candy bowl. She kept going up and getting candy from him then going back down the stairs again only to go right back. I guess she figured if it worked once, why not keep trying! And of course, how could he say no this this?

He couldn't! I did let her share two pieces with me. She seemed to enjoy them but we were quickly approaching bedtime since she brought out her sleepy face.

So we went in to share some candy with Bubbie and say goodnight.

Not a big event, but a fun one nonetheless.

More on floors

2011-10-31T08:25:00.001-05:00

While Craig is busy working on our floors (I think he is finding the task a bit more time consuming that originally expected, I think he has bad floor mojo or something), I thought I would talk a bit more about our choice. Mostly because it ends with me winning and that is always nice :-)

When we started planning the kitchen, we were going to replace the wall with a penisula. This meant the kitchen floor and the dining room floors could be different without being a visual nightmare and our floor options were wide open. Looking at my idea files and listening to my heart, I knew that wood was what I really wanted but I had heard some negative things about wood floors in kitchens so I attempted to listen to Craig's reasonings about other options.

We both liked slate. When my brother got married last fall, the house we all stayed in has slate kitchen floors and we liked the look but it seemed a bit too modern for the rest of the house. Plus, the sealing sounded like a pain.

I didn't really want tile. I love how easy to clean it us but I'm really clumsy and if you drop stuff on tile, it breaks. And my feet get cold easily. Yes, that really was one of the reasons I didn't want tile :-)

Cork. This is a pretty controversial in the world of kitchen floors. Some people think this is the bees knees because its soft, quiet and water and bacteria resistant, and other people think is will soon be outdated and is just not durable enough for a kitchen floor. I originally looked into it because it sounded cool but most of the pros/cons are similar to hard wood so why would I want to get something similar but not matching. The answer, I wouldn't.

Linoleum (the real stuff, not to be confused with vinyl - yuck) I think this was Craig's favorite for a while and I really wanted to agree with him. It's made from natural materials so its eco-friendly and fairly low in toxicity/offgassing compared to a lot of other flooring options. It does need to be polished occasionally to keep its protective coating but it seemed like it would be a good fit. I was trying really hard to sell this idea to myself, thinking it would be cool if we could keep the black and white checkered floor look which I am fond of as long as it is not off-white and black with missing patches like the old one was.

But right when I had almost convinced myself that I would settle for linoleum, we changed the floor plan from this

to this which means the old floor would meet the new one right in the middle of the fridge. That would be weird and really mess up the casual eat in kitchen look. Which is sad for poor rejected linoleum, but happy for me and my beloved wood floor option.

And I'm not really worried about the wood in the kitchen naysayers. Yes, I'll have to be careful about quickly cleaning up spills but the very reasons people don't like wood in the kitchen is the reason I do. It's quiet and soft on your feet. It's easy to clean and easy to know that it is clean (I have to sweep our living room at least once a day to keep it clean but unlike carpet, I know that it is clean once I'm finished!)

And we'll be using a polyurethane coat so I'm not to worried about scratches or dents. Lucy is rough on our living room floor with her love of pushing furniture around but so far, nothing. And we don't wear shoes in the house so even if I suddenly develop a love of high heels (don't hold your breath), I think it will be just fine.

Of course, if we have a water pipe burst or a dishwasher leak sometime next year, I'm giving you permission to hold this conversation over my head. Just be gentle okay?

Potty Learning – Lessons and Lifestyle Changes

2011-10-27T19:39:00.002-05:00

This was actually written a few weeks ago so things have changed a bit with our crazy goings on. I'm not sure why I felt the need to add this disclaimer but I didn't want people who know what's going on to think I'm lying.

Lessons

When I say “Lessons,” I don’t mean to imply I have this figured out, I don’t at all! But do want to record what has worked for us so far in this journey….before the next kid comes around and I’ve forgotten it all!

Lesson #1) Naked is better
We’ve dropped the trainers for now. I know we will go back to them eventually as she can’t be naked her entire life but for now, it was confusing her. She knows that when she is wearing a diaper, she doesn’t have to worry about the potty. When we are out and about she still wears diapers, and sometimes in the evenings when I am trying to make dinner or she is going back and forth between Craig and I. Those times, she still tells me when she has to go #2 but she doesn’t even seem to care about being wet. Even though the trainers were cloth, she always seemed surprised to be in a puddle when she had them on, like they weren’t doing their job, but she knows she needs to potty if she is naked. So naked it is, for now at least. Plus it cuts down on laundry :-)

Lesson #2) Ride the waves
If you go back and read over my potty posts, you will probably notice that Lucy does better, than slows down, does better, then slows down. We normally end up ahead of where we were at after the last “slow down” stage so there is progress but when you are in a low period, it can be hard to remember. Just keep going. I remind myself that we aren’t doing this to prove that she is the best and smartest baby in the world, (we already know that :-) nor are we doing this to save on diapers or laundry costs. We are doing this to help her understand her body and take care of herself and because we want to enable her to do what we know she is capable of. Even if she totally reverts tomorrow and doesn’t complete the potty training process until she is 3, I will still think the time and effort we put in so far has helped her and was worth it.

Lesson #3) Have Fun
I’m not sure if this is being conveyed well by these posts, but potty training a baby is a lot of fun. Really! I hear mom’s fretting over potty training their older tots, worried that they won’t be done in time for VBS/Pre-school/Kindergarten and I feel bad because they are missing out on the fun. It is a lot like watching a baby learn to feed herself. The mess and the clean-up are there but if that is all you focus on, you’re missing the best part. In both cases, it is amazing to watch her learn and develop, to see the pride in her face when she knows she did it right, the independence she is developing in her ability to know her body and how it works. Just like seeing her face when the spoon makes it to her mouth is worth dealing with some peas on the floor, watching her face when she make it to the potty is worth dealing with some pee on the floor.

Lifestyle changes

Change #1) Pull up the rug
I mean that literally, if at all possible, pack that rug away. This is directly related to Lesson #1. We have hardwood floors so a lot of our flooring is potty safe but the area rug in the living room kinda drove me nuts. I would be all tense anytime she was there until finally, we just rolled it up. Yes, it makes the living room seem a bit more bacheloresque but we’ll survive, and so will my nerves. Make the changes that need to be made to make your life easier. It won’t be forever.

Change #2) Got to keep ‘em separated
The one bad thing about potty training early than the majority of people is that clothing manufacturers assume they are still in diapers. Why does it seem like 90% of size 18 mon clothing snaps between the legs or is complicated to put on or take off? At home, we do a shirt-sleeved shirt if it is warm or a long-sleeve shirt and baby legs if it is a bit cooler - hopefully adding trainers/undies into the mix in a few months. If Lucy is wearing pants or shorts she wants them completely off while she is sitting but she doesn’t mind keeping baby legs on. I don’t have many t-shirts since my favorite brands seems to make mostly onesies.

And when we are out of the house, it would still be nice if I could easily get her clothes off. She told me she needed to go at our church picnic last weekend and the church even has a little toddler sized toilet in the nursery that we could use but it took so long to take off her pants that we only made it for the second half.
But now that I am aware of the issue, I’ll be on the lookout for potty safe clothing. I needed to do that anyway since according to Montessori she is nearing the sensitive period for learning how to dress herself – easy on/off separates.

Update: I've wrote this post last week and am even more frustrated after a week of looking. I've found a few Children's place tees at once upon a child but still have not found any good pants options! And I thought dresses with baby legs would work but the dress part keeps getting caught under her when she sits on the potty and ends up wet. If you have any clothing (style or company) recommendations, please let me know!

Change #3) Slow down
Potty training hasn’t been hard, but it has taken a commitment on my part to be slow, stay home and keep to our routine. Of course, we have to prioritize sometimes too. We always go back a bit when we visit my parents each month but that is fine. I am 100% sure that I will not be looking back on these months and wishing I had spent less time with my mom and more time on potty training. But potty training does take precedence over quick trips to target because I’m bored or going out to lunch at chic-fil-a just to get out of the house. But I think of that as a blessing. I want to be a home centered family, I want our family rhythm to be a priority. This is just one way I can easily tell if I am being successful in those efforts or if I need to step back and evaluate my schedule again.

17 months!

2011-10-26T20:04:00.003-05:00

Dear Lucy,

What a month! It may just be because I've been doing the solo parenting thing most of this month, but it certainly seems like you have developed quite the "personality" this month. Most of the time that is a good thing but good or bad, it wears me out.

You have finally found your voice. Whether it is screaming (because you aren't getting what you want, because you're excited or just because you feel like seeing how loud you can be), babbling or talking, you are much noisier than last month. In addition to the "mama" and "dada" you have been able to say for months, you say ball (ba) and meow regularly now and have said "hot" and one other word which I can't remember a few times (how sad is that, I know your up to 5 what is #5?)

Update: I remembered, it's "pop" as in bubbles "pop."

I think it is fun how you are choosing such random words to say, probably because you already know how to "say" almost anything you want to communicate by signing. Signing is still your main mode of communication and while I stopping counting a few months back when you were in the mid 30s, I'm sure you have at least 50 now.

Helping me make pie crusts.

You absolutely adore being outside. Sometimes I'm afraid to take you outside because I know no matter how long we are out there, you will throw a fit when it is time to back in. But you are so easy to entertain when we are outside that it is still worth it. You like to find bugs, pick and eat Grandpa's tomatoes (I think you believe Grandpa has a magical candy bush just for you) and go "crunch crunch" in the leaves.

You certainly don't mind getting dirty

But your favorite outside activity is sliding. You like to go up the park platform/steps, sit down, scooch to the edge then slide. At first you would let me help with some of those steps but now you want to do them all by youself. If I try to help you, you'll just push me away. Its a bit scary for me to let you go and I've tried to steer you towards the little slide but you don't like that one, you like the big whirly slide!

You've also decided this month that clothing should be optional. And you are pretty fast at getting it off. I'll put your shirt on, turn around to grab your pants and by the time I turn back around, the shirts off again. Sometimes you insist on being naked, sometimes you just want to practice taking your shirt on and off over and over again. You also want to put your shoes on all by yourself but can't yet and get very frustrated by that fact. Basically, you want to do everything all by yourself - except sleep. You tell me when you want to go to sleep but you still want me to be there by your side. But you only nurse to sleep about half the time no, the rest of the time you ask me to sing and you lay next to me and let me rub your back until you drift off.

4 generations!

You've become very interested in music and singing this month and not just at night. You've always liked it but now you ask me to sing every 20 minutes or so. And you are quite particular about which song I am to sing. I'll start singing and you will shake your head until I figure out the correct song. But luckily for me you are pretty consistent in your selections (que sera sera is your favorite night time song, Old McDonald or Wheels on the Bus are your favorite daytime songs). You really like Thursdays because that is when Bubbie's music therapist comes and you get to listen to a real musician. And sometimes she even lets you play the maracas or tambourine along with her. Last week though you got frustrated with her song selection so we had to leave the room so I could sing Wheels on the Bus for you myself. Oh, what a character you are!

Week Five Update

2011-10-25T08:22:00.000-05:00

Well, we got the drywall up. This is another point of no return, as what is done behind the walls is done. I left a newspaper behind one of the interior walls for someone to find someday in the future. I thought about leaving a dollar or an old cellphone, but I didn't. I ended up not putting up a vapor barrier (a sheet of heavy plastic between the insulation and drywall - not to be confused with Tyvek housewrap, which goes on the outside of the house and is a moisture barrier, but not a vapor barrier). Missouri is on a borderline; if we were much further north, a vapor barrier would be a good plan, but it gets pretty humid here in summer. Thus, humid air from outdoors enters the walls during that season. This air would hit the vapor barrier and the water would condense inside the wall, and that would be bad. Note: this decision may or may not have been correct. I could not find a definitive answer.

We used "green drywall" where our sink and counters are going to be. This is water-resistant, sometimes mold-resistant drywall that is green in color. I wasn't sure if I should use something more water-resistant, like cement board. I know the latter should be used in bathrooms behind the tub and shower, but the people I talked to said that stuff isn't used in kitchens. I couldn't find a definitive Mike Holmes answer for this, either, so we went with the green stuff in part of the kitchen. I would have liked it to extend further to the left, but this should do, I suppose.

I have started laying hardwood floors. This type of flooring isn't recommended by some for use in kitchens, because there is lots of water there, but we wanted to match our dining room and living room, so we decided to use it. I'll have to seal it well, and make sure we clean up spills quickly. I laid down 15-lb roofing paper on top of the wood plank subfloor, and started laying wood. I rented a manual nailer, but it wasn't driving the nails all the way into the wood. Plus, it would take me several hits to drive a nail, and during these hits the nailer would move slightly, which probably helped with problem #1. I'm going to rent a pneumatic nailer this week and see how that works.

To transition between the existing wood floor and the new floor. I first used a circular saw to cut the edge of the existing floor as straight as possible. I had a heck of a time cutting the ends next to the walls, since the saw wouldn't go all the way to the end.. For oneend , I used a hand saw to cut the last two inches, and on the other end I had to use a rotozip (with which I later sustained my first renovation injury, a thumb cut). I then laid a row of new flooring perpendicular to the existing wood, to create a transition strip that will be flush with both the old and new flooring. This was recommended by the Lumber Liquidators guy. While this violates the rule that you should stagger the ends of adjacent wood pieces, it is really the only feasible option in this situation.

Before I started laying and cutting wood, I first brought the pieces into the kitchen 5 or so days before I started, in order to acclimate the wood to the temperature and humidity in the house. I then sorted the pieces, laying them out by size and weeding out less-than-perfect ones, which I used in the area on which the sink cabinets and dishwasher will sit.

We also selected and ordered our refrigerator and dishwasher. We combined a Lowe's sale with a 10% off coupon. To use the coupon, I ordered the appliances in the store (I avoided the closest Lowe's to deprive a certain city government out of my sales taxes for this purchase). The store prices were higher than the online prices, but I brought in web site printouts and got the store to match the price. I tried to get the 5% discount that comes with signing up for a Lowe's credit card, but they said I couldn't do that. The appliances come in another 10 days or so - it would be nice if I could finish installing, staining, and sealing the floor by then. For appliances, we went with stainless steel. I campaigned hard for black, and not just because they cost less than stainless steel, but I lost that one.

High on function, low on fashion

2011-10-20T09:32:00.000-05:00

If you read enough productive-type SAHM blogs, it won’t be long before you run into someone talking about a home journal, also knows as a homemaking binder or control journal.
I’ve tried several times to make one. They sound great. All my important information (routines, phone lists, menu plans, phone lists) put together, organized so I can find things easily. I have such good intentions. Here is the pretty cover I made for mine.

In fact, I think that might be the second or third pretty cover I’ve made. But I never get beyond the pretty cover. That one pictured above currently holds my 2009-10 MOPS phone list, a few yogurt instructions and a compost booklet I got from a friend. But I only knew that because I got it out to take a picture of it.
My problem is that I wanted it to be filled perfectly before I use it and it never got there. But recently, I’ve found a way to make the homemaking binder work for me:

Yep, a $0.75 composition notebook. It isn’t pretty. And it certainly isn’t perfect. But I’ve been using it and now, I love it! It has our daily and weekly rhythms, my kitchen prep plan, Christmas present ideas, Lucy project ideas and a list of supplies I need for them so whenever I’m have some time and money to swing by Hobby Lobby, I know what I want to get, blog post ideas – basically my brain + pinterest.
And now that I’ve been doing it, it seems like it should have been obvious because duh, it’s a lab notebook! At both of my post-college full time jobs, my life was my lab notebook. Everything I did was written in mine and I carried it with me everywhere. It was the first thing I picked up in the morning and the last thing I put down. That’s what you do when you work in a lab. The chronological order of it is probably pretty unusual for a hmj, it doesn’t have plastic covered slots for me to easily arrange my papers and protect them from spills and it lacks tabs for quick and easy searching, but since I’m used to that, it works for me.
And all those things people say about them are true. I’m more organized, I’m more productive, my mind is clearer because I don’t have 5 simultaneously lists running in it. One of my goals is to be intentional. My profession is mothering and I want that to be seen in the way I structure my life. This not only helps me do that but it also helps me see that I am doing that and after a long day of wiping noses and bottoms, it is nice to see evidence that my life is more than that, even if it doesn’t have a pretty cover.

Toddler Tuesday: Finally some art that she likes!

2011-10-18T07:25:00.000-05:00

Now that Lucy is older (and Pinterest exists :-) I have tons of things I want to do with her, but without a time set aside to do them, I'm pretty sure they would remain ideas. Enter the weekly rhythm. Our daily rhythm is pretty good, just consistent enough without being rigid but I had never really gotten a weekly rhythm into place until lately. And I love it.

Now that Wednesday is baking day, we actually bake together. Thursday is supposed to be art day. She has access to her playdough all the time and uses it at least once a day and her crayons and chalkboard wall are regulars in the play department but I wanted to do fun messy sensory art projects with her on Thursday.

But it turns out, she doesn't like to be messy. At least not with art. I tried making goop with cornstarch, food coloring and water and putting it on a cooking sheet for her to play with. I had a lot of fun demonstrating how it worked but Lucy touched it with one finger, then refused to go near it again. I thought maybe it was because it was sticky so the next week I tried with finger painting (water plus food coloring). She just gave my a "if you even think I'm touching that, you better have another think coming" look. (Have I mentioned that she can now roll her eyes, heaven help me!)

But I have finally found something she likes - sticker art! We got some free stickers in the mail and I put them aside until a few days later, Thursday rolled around and I, slightly discouraged and tired of searching pinterest for things she wouldn't want to do, had yet to come up with an art project idea. So we sat down with a piece of paper and the stickers. She immediately loved it.

She would point to which sticker she wanted and I would hand it to her. She would very thoughtfully decide where it should go and put it in its place, carefully making sure it was all flat and secure. She really did work precisely and with a lot of effort and thought.

And when it was done, she was so proud of herself. I put it on the fridge and everytime she saw it, she reminded me that we had to show daddy when he got home - and she did!

I guess this is a good case of follow the child. She doesn't want to do crazy tactile messy hands art projects at this point but that doesn't mean she can't be creative. And Disney character stickers would not be my ideal but if she's happy, so am I.

Green Choice #1

2011-10-14T08:33:00.000-05:00

Since we are hippies and all, of course we will want to be making some eco-friendly choices on our kitchen remodel journey. But we are also on a strict budget and trying to do it ourselves to we have to be reasonable with what we can do. Straw bale walls and solar panels will have to wait for our next house.

But when possible, we do want to think about making a greener choice, for us and the environment. When looking at insulation, we had several options. We didn't like the traditional fiberglass batting.

Craig's a big fan of Holmes so he would have liked to go with a spray foam insulation but that was out of our budget, especially since our area wouldn't have met the minimum so we would have had to pay for insulation we weren't even getting.

In terms of super eco friendly insulation, there are really neat options out there, like natural wool or recycled denim. In my dream world, I probably would have chosen one of those, but they are more expensive and not easily available.

Our final choice: Roxul. Roxul is a stone wool batt insulation. Holmes recommends it because it is non-combustible and won't burn or release toxic gases if it contacts flames. Also unlike fiberglass - it's water, mold and pest proof. It is R-15 so comparable in efficiency to fiberglass, didn't cost much more and we could get it from Lowe's (required a special order but came in just a few days). That made Craig happy.

It is still a spun batt insulation so I had to wear long sleeves/pants and a mask during insulation so I wouldn't be breathing in the fibers. Some would say it isn't any better than fiberglass in terms of healthy and safety but unlike fiberglass with its offgassing dyes and formaldehyde, Roxul doesn't have volatile components that will off gas after installation which I think is a bigger issue. And while I couldn't even walk through the kitchen without itching during the time between drywall and old fiberglass insulation removal, I worked with the Roxul all evening and didn't really feel very itchy until I was cleaning myself up at the end of the night.

And it was really easy to use. I did it myself with just a measuring tape and a old bread knife. The pieces cut easily and I was able to get a nice fit without much trouble. And the batt was thick and held in place without flopping over. Overall, I think it is a great compromise product and if we have more insulating requirements in the future, it will probably be our choice.

Replace a Vinyl Window with a Smaller Glass Block Window

2011-10-12T09:03:00.000-05:00

I am going to discuss today a two-part project I have mostly completed for which not much guidance was available online or in books. Maybe it will help someone out. It will probably allow others to point out my errors, which is OK, too.

Because we wanted to, as part of our kitchen remodel, move our range to a spot in front of the window pictured below, we decided to reduce the size of the window. We were originally going to remove it altogether, but we like the light it provides. Because we wanted a smaller window, and we didn't need it to open, we decided to go with a glass block window. There are two options for GBWs, as I'll call them: ones constructed block-by-block by the consumer, and prefabricated ones. We chose a 32" x 24" version of the latter (yeah, it says "basement window," but it also says it's great for kitchens).

Removing the existing window was fairly easy. It was wedged into the wall opening and apparently only held by two nails (one on each side) and some caulking on the outside of the window, securing it to the siding. I was able to remove it by cutting the caulk with a utility knife and prying the window (frame and all) out with a crowbar. I managed to avoid breaking the window, which was a plus.

The night before doing this, I built a frame for the new window. The actual size of the window was 31" x 23.35", and the installation instructions that came with the window called for using between 1/4" and 1" of mortar between the window and the frame. I split the difference and decided to use 1/2", so I built the frame with a 32" x 24.25" opening. I read somewhere that, since GBWs are heavy, to use a double sill, so I attached a second 2x4 below the one at the bottom of the frame.

To reduce the size of the opening, I planned to, with a friend, install two new studs in the wall opening to hold the frame [see diagram of window framing, with terminology]. Before doing this, I replaced the three boards already there (the two jack studs and the sill) because they were decaying, and I added a second sill here too, for good measure. I also decided to add a 2x4 across the top of the opening, so I didn't have to try to toenail in the new studs to the header using an upside-down motion. I attached the new studs (cut to the full height of the wall opening (minus the new top and bottom 2x4s) to the new top 2x4, then inserted the three boards as one piece into the opening. I also installed two cripple studs underneath where the frame would be going, to further support it. My assistant toenailed one of these in, but this was difficult, so he ended up pounding a nail up through the two new sill boards into the other cripple stud. I then installed the new frame. I placed the new studs based on where we wanted the window to be in relation to the cabinets we planned to install, so the right edge of the window was 55" from the kitchen wall to the right.

Once the framing was installed, it was time to mortar in the window. If you build a window block-by-block, you can buy channels to attach to the inside of the frame to hold the blocks, but with a prefab GBW, you mortar it directly to the wood. First I used shims and 1/2 inch wood blocks between the window and the frame to anchor the window tightly in place with proper spacing all around. My fear during this portion of the project was having the window fall out the other side of the wall while I was trying to secure it, and smashing into pieces, so I nailed an old piece of window trim across the opening on the outside as a sort of safety bar.

For the mortar, I used Quikrete Mortar Mix, which was recommended at Home Depot (how educated the recommendation was, I don't know). I bought a trowel and a grout bag (which is like a frosting bag). The bag did a good job of dispensing a large volume of mortar deep into the openings, but it was hard to squeeze the mortar out of the bag. It was more or less a two-person job; one person holds the tip and directs the mortar while the other person holds the bag and squeezes it. After using the bag at first, we ended up using the trowel and our fingers to fill the remaining space. We mortared around the shims, leaving some space in order to be able to pull them out after the mortar had set a bit.

I received conflicting advice about whether or not to mortar the top of the window; the official directions said to do so, but others said to use silicone caulk instead, because mortar would place weight and pressure on the window from above. I decided to go the caulk route on the top. I inserted several foam backer rods in the opening in order to save on caulk. I cut the tip of the caulk tube so it dispensed a wide bead and went to work, trying to create a smoothish bead. One set of instructions suggested waiting 24 hours after mortaring to do the caulking, so I did that.

Afterwards, I used plywood to cover the openings where the old window used to be, and then covered it with Tyvek housewrap. I bought some siding J channels, which I will use to trim the window and connect it to the vinyl siding. I also bought siding to cover the plywood; I will attempt to integrate this new siding with the existing siding.

Toddler Tuesday – Sensory Bins

2011-10-11T12:00:00.000-05:00

I’m really excited to start sensory bins with Lucy! I’m not sure if they are an official Montessori activity or not, but they really seem to fit with the ideals. Its like an ever evolving treasure basket on steroids. Lucy is on the young side for them but she loved that tray of wheat so much and after watching her spend 30 minutes scooping and dumping with a measuring spoon and cup, rubbing her fingers in it and making little roads, I thought she was ready for a more put together sensory experience.

I’ve seen lots of ideas for themed sensory bins and I plan to switch Lucy’s out every month or two so I’m sure those will come in handy but for this first bin, I wanted to put it together myself. Since she is currently loving all things froggie and fishie, I did a pond theme. Of course, my ideas are by no means unique and after I came up with my ideas, I saw a few pond bins online that had pretty much the same things I thought up anyway :-) but at least I tried. The rest of the items where found by walking up and down the aisles of Hobby Lobby looking for pondish items that were inexpensive.

I started with some aquarium beads.

I’ve seen a lot of bins that use pebbles or rice that has been dyed but I though I would stick to large (read: easy to clean up) filler for the first basket or two while Lucy practices the “keep the items in the bin” concept. Then I added:

Felt lily pads

Foam fish

Log

Water lily (just a flower I found at hobby lobby that looked lily-ish, I cut off the flower part)

Frog life cycle animal set (eggs, tadpole, froglet and frog)

At $5, the animal set was my “splurge,” and it took me over budget but since realistic animal figures are one of the few toys Lucy can be counted on to love, I felt it was worth it. I don’t think she will quite get the life cycle aspect but it was the only frogs they had and someday it might be useful.

It’s ready to go!

I spent a little over $11 but my goal is to keep it under $10 for the first couple baskets since I’m starting from scratch, but once I have enough fillers and basics to reuse, I hope to get it to under $5 a bin.

She’s been playing with it for about two weeks now and it is still a hit! Every few days she picks a new favorite part and explores that. At first it was the beads, then the frogs, now she really likes the little fishes and will have the frogs pretend to eat them. Too cute!

Week three update

2011-10-10T15:58:00.000-05:00

Technically this is the end of week three, but week two was not very productive because I was gone all week and Craig was gone two days for a business trip and two days for his cousin's wedding. But before he left, he was able to remove our old window and with the help of a friend, install the new glass block window/backsplash. He'll be explain that process later since all I did was pick out what I wanted, provide beer for the helper, and keep Lucy out of their way.

Then, when Craig got back, but before Lucy and I did, he took the opportunity to remove the old kitchen flooring with it's yucky asbestos middle layer. The tiles were intact and sandwiched between the newest two vinyl layers and the plywood subfloor which he removed intact plus he sealed the whole area off from the rest of the house then thoroughly cleaned up afterwards but we still felt more comfortable doing that while the house was baby-free. I did miss getting to see him in the full bunny suit though :-(

The morning after I got back, Lucy and I had to get up early to greet the electricians. They spent the morning:

Removing the outlets from the wall we removed
Adding new outlets for countertop, fridge and stove
Adding wiring for our new hood and undercabinet lighting
Updating the kitchen and dining room lighting to have three way switches - so we can turn on either the kitchen and/or dining room lights from both the living room entrance and the garage entrance.

I'm refinishing old light fixtures to keep the lighting budget in check and was still working on the new (to us) fixtures. I thought I would have them leave the old ones in place until they come back for the finish work but they had to take the old dining room chandelier down to alter the wiring and I felt bad having asking them to reinstall the old one only to have to switch it in a few weeks. Luckily the dining room chandelier was the one I was farthest along with so I had them put up our new one even though it still needs tweaking. I love how it looks and can't wait to get the other ones done and share it all with you.

After the electrical work was done, it was time for the inspections. We needed both county and fire inspections and I was not sure what to expect but, aside from a little scheduling miscommunication, they were easy peasy and by Thursday we were approved and ready to start putting everything back together.

Since our schedules had to be adjusted for me to head back to my parents quickly, we only had one night to get a lot done but we worked well together. When he removed the old flooring, Craig found a few spots where the window had leaked. The window itself was replaced before we moved in so the problem had been fixed but the floor underneath was weak in a few spots. While Craig replaced those floorboards, I worked on the insulation and listened to Craig alternate grunts and groans with whoops and hollers as he listened to the Yankees and the Tigers battle it out. I'm really glad the Yankees lost or we might have hammered us out of a house.

We gave in and started cleaning up around 11pm but both of us had made pretty good progress. Craig needed to do a bit more sawing to finish up the floor and I needed to do a bit more insulation but was waiting on the floor since he was in the way :-) But by then, Lucy has woken up and was having trouble going back to sleep so I nixed the sawing idea and we headed to bed. Hopefully, Craig will get all that done Monday because the drywall guy comes Tuesday!

I'm really excited about getting the drywall done because the room will start to look more like a room again and hopefully the level of dust in the house will start decreasing. Right now it is threatening to take over unless I sweep 4-5 times a day. But on the positive side, all that practice means Lucy is actually getting pretty good at sweeping and holding the dustpan for me.

Here is a photo:

Going, Going, Gone

2011-10-07T08:32:00.002-05:00

We got rid of the tv last month. Technically, it was a 6-week no tv trial but Craig and I both knew that once he went through the trouble of disconnecting everything and taking it downstairs, it wasn’t coming back.
It’s removal has been a long time coming. I knew I didn’t want Lucy watching tv and for over a year, I was really really good about not having it on when she was awake. She knew what it was since it is on for my mom a lot at her house but she never really seemed to notice or care. But then this spring she got sick and I got sick and out of desperation, I picked up a baby signing time dvd from the library. She loved it. It got me through that week but a little part of my soul died. Okay, that’s a little melodramatic but I really hated her watching it.

It isn’t that baby signing time is so bad. In fact, if I had to pick an “ideal” baby television show, that would be it. Its not flashy or annoying, just 4-5 sweet songs with babies signing about pets or snacks or feelings. But I saw how mesmerized she was by it. She didn’t learn any new signs from it, or interact with me when I would try and show her that our kitty was sitting next to us just like the kitty on the screen, she just stared out into space, like a little zombie. I finally got better and the dvd went back but she was persistent. For weeks she would ask for it (by signing baby and dancing) everytime she saw a tv.

Over the summer I read two different Waldorf books. I’m not a Waldorfian but I did find myself agreeing with many of their opinions on media. And I realized, this is probably the easiest it will ever be because only 2 of the 3 of us is really used to a world with a tv. So if we wanted to do it, now is the time. So we did!
Turns out, it was a lot like getting rid of our microwave. It took a long time to decide to do it and I worried about how hard it would be (on me, not Lucy) but once it was done, it was an easy adjustment. Every once in a while I crash onto the couch after I get Lucy to sleep and finish the last laundry'/dishes and I instinctively reach for the remote before I realize it isn’t there. Then I pick up a book or a project or – here’s a crazy idea – I go to bed and actually get some sleep!

We can still watch stuff on the laptop. We had a date night and curled up on the couch with “The Grace Card” from redbox and once Psych starts up again, we’ll find time for that as well. And I still let Lucy watch baby signing time clips on youtube on certain occasions (such as nail clippings or temperature taking). But since we only have one computer, it really has to be a joint decision to sit down and watch a show instead of just watching because we aren’t creative enough to think of something else to do.

The trial has come to an end and last Saturday the cable man came and disconnected us so tv-free we are for at least the foreseeable future. Now I just have to find a way to fill my ginormous armoire.

What about you? Have you ever thought about ditching the boob tube or have you already? Or maybe your addicted and you like it that way?

A pretty picture

2011-10-05T08:43:00.000-05:00

I was a good girl and started the kitchen project with the important things like a practical layout and lots of storage. But that isn’t the fun part, the fun part involves colors and textures and design!
I love interior design and spent my senior year of high school torn between pursing architecture/design and a science degree. I’m glad I went with science, mostly because I did not have enough fashion sense to survive at a design school, but I’m glad I get the chance to explore my creative side a bit more now. But it is a tad bit intimidating. Designing a kitchen is more of a commitment than picking a paint color and I did not want to get this wrong!
Luckily for me, Pinterest came along at just the right time. I had been trying to mentally keep track of the kitchens I liked, but it wasn’t until I saw it all laid out on Pinterest that I felt confident in my vision – both that I knew what I wanted and that I wasn’t a weirdo for wanting it.
See if you can spot the similarities between some of my favorite inspiration images:

This one evens comes complete with a husband and baby – but mine are cuter :-)

White cabinets
Dark grey/black counters
Wood floors
Pops of bright colors, specifically yellows and blues/greens

While my confidence might have been a bit shaken my the H.D. lady going on and on about how black countertops would be too much of a contrast with white cabinets and how I would regret that decision – I say poo-poo. I know what I want and, at least theoretically, it’s gonna look goood.

Another Update

2011-10-03T21:17:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for your prayer's and support. I'm home again but just for a couple days, then I'm heading back to my parent's to spend time with them and my brothers. We know my mom's time here with us is winding down and I don't want to miss any of it unless I have to.

I actually have several random posts written from before this last trip so I'll probably set those to publish over the next week or two, I just wanted to tell you so you aren't wondering about the timing or why I am writing about such shallow things. I'm not sure how much I'll be writing about my mom's situation, it depends on how I feel, but my dad will probably update her caringbridge site fairly often.

Update

2011-09-29T22:13:00.000-05:00

This isn't the fun picture filled post I had wanted to put up today. I'm here visiting my parents and my mom's not doing very well. My dad wrote an update here. She's home from the hospital now, having been released a few hours ago. We still don't really know much, just playing a waiting game. I feel like I've got about a dozen emotions blasting me right now but I can't really articulate anything so I'm gonna go get ready for bed, snuggle up with my baby and try to get a good nights sleep. Prayers for my family would be appreciated.

16 months!

2011-09-28T08:27:00.001-05:00

Dear Lucy,

This month was all about independence. You made huge strides with potty training but I see it in other ways too.

We went to the park last week and you wanted to do all the activities by yourself too. I was a bit nervous at first but you can go down the slide all by yourself – and if I didn’t stop you, you’d go up it too!

You can run now. You used to think you could but now you actually can!
You also like to walk on whatever balance beam you can find, whether it is a brick wall (scary for mommy!), a piece of leftover 2x4 lying on the ground or a rolled up rug (not quite so scary for mommy).
And I shouldn’t even think about helping you with stairs. You can walk up and down them on your own, thank you very much! Sometimes if they are really big ones, you might let me hold your hand, but you have to ask, I can’t offer or you get quite offended.

You have an amazing memory. You still “talk” (sign) about alligator you got to pet last weekend and the ducks you saw last week and the caterpillar that used to live in our backyard that we haven’t seen for over a month!

You will play with your trays and put them up by yourself too. Last week you carried your tray over to your playdough spot, then layed out your tools before bringing the playdough over and opening it up. I watched you play for a few minutes then got distracted but when I looked back, you had picked everything up and it was all back on your shelf! If I wasn’t positive I had seen you playing with it, I wouldn’t have believed it.

Of course, you have your messy moments as well but in general, you like things neat and tidy. In fact, you’ve decided a couple weeks ago that you don’t like anything dirty or sticky on your hands. You were given a donut treat after church this past Sunday and wouldn’t eat it at first because you didn’t want to touch the stickiness. You finally gave in and picked it up but every other bite you would hold out your hands for me to wipe them down. And if your spot at the dinner table gets messy, you ask for a rag so you can wipe it down. I call you my little helper and you nod and smile and point to yourself.

You don’t want help eating. You would rather me just hand you your utensil and plate/bowl and let you go to town. It is really nice to be able to give you a bowl of yogurt and leave you there for a few minutes while I put other things away or do dishes and not have a yogurt explosion waiting for me when I turn back around.
Overall, you're just getting to be such a big girl!

Toddler Tuesday: Desperate times

2011-09-27T08:41:00.003-05:00

They call for desperate measures. Last week, I really really really needed to get a few things done before we started the renovation but Lucy was not cooperating. It probably had something to do with the strep and ear infections she had but I knew she was on a pain reliever and was feeling mostly better, she just needed a distraction. So I got out a couple plastic containers, a spoon and gave her some wheat to play with.

It was messy. Really really really messy. But it worked. She had a blast and played with it for quite a while. She didn’t even notice when I finished my tasks and got the camera out. And it only took me a couple of minutes to sweep it all up. I won’t be doing it very often but in a pinch, it works.

Week one update

2011-09-26T08:40:00.001-05:00

As Craig mentioned, we started demoing last Friday. One week later and we’ve made pretty good progress.
It started out looking like this:

And after a week of this:

It looks like this:

(taken from the same spot as the first picture above)

The first few days went better than expected. The next few, not so much. We had trouble turning off our water to remove the sink. The cold water valve under the sink was broken so we planned on turning it off to the whole house to remove the sink and its plumbing then replace the valve. But it wasn’t so easy, we kept turning the main water valves but the water kept coming. It was odd and discouraging. We aren’t planning on moving any plumbing so while it isn’t our area of expertise, we didn’t expect problems and were beginning to feel really stupid. We finally realized that one of several valves in the basement must also be broken so the next day we called the plumber for help.

Turns out, our system is more complicated than it should be and one valve was broken so even the plumber had difficulties figuring out what was going wrong. Twice he came up and said “that should do it, let’s just make sure nothing comes out” only to then turned on the faucet and have water came out. Luckily Lucy can’t read lips or she might have picked up some new vocabulary I didn’t want her to have :-) But a couple hours and $230 later, we had a couple new valves, a better understanding of how our water system is laid out and a renewed sense of confidence.

The next night, with the water successfully shut off, we finished removing the sink and lower cabinets. Underneath that cabinet we saw just what we didn’t want to – asbestos tiles. Before we even had time to contemplate what that meant, we accidently nicked a copper pipe. It was at that point that I began to worry and wonder just what we had gotten ourselves into.

But Craig made a quick trip to Home Depot for a repair clamp (which was cheap, simple and worked great) and I did some thinking. I was planning on taking Lucy to my mom’s soon anyway so we just extended the trip to ensure that Craig has plenty of time to finish the tile removal and thoroughly clean up before we bring the baby back so it has all worked out okay so far. Just another reason to keep my eyes on the prize.
My goal was to have the demoing done so we could schedule the electrical work. Thursday night we finished up the last bit of drywall removal so we are right on track and we’ve already got the electricians and drywall installers scheduled and on the calendar so onward we go!

Wrecking Crew

2011-09-21T09:02:00.000-05:00

Back in our younger days, MacKenzie used to make me watch renovation shows on HGTV. I did not enjoy them (too bad they didn't have Holmes on Homes back then), especially since I was not a homeowner.. I really didn't like how they always gave the homeowners sledgehammers to swing around with wild abandon. Often, the stuff they smashed could easily have been salvaged. At the very least, it is much easier to haul one or two pieces outside instead of 45 pieces, which is what you get from smashing. But I guess smashing makes for better TV.

One particular incident, though, made my week. This guy went to hit a closed toilet lid with his sledgehammer (yeah, why would you do that?). The lid shattered into shards, one of which sliced into his arm or leg (I can't recall which), bloodying him up. I definitely LOL'ed. I tried to find the video on Youtube, but a search for "toilet sledgehammer" comes up with a lot of videos.

Anyway, we are in the demolition phase right now, and I can assure you that I swung no sledgehammers with wild abandon. Here's me at work:

Toddler Tuesday – Pom Poms!

2011-09-20T08:14:00.000-05:00

Aah, the pom-pom. Small, colorful, full of endless possibilities. I picked up a pack a couple months ago but never thought Lucy would get so much use out of them.

I started by setting up a transfer activity. One tray with two bowls, one empty and one with 15 or so pom-poms. She would sit and transfer them back and forth, back and forth, at first just using her hands but now she likes to use a spoon. In theory, I start her going from the left bowl to the right since that is supposed to help prepare them for reading but she switches back and forth and I’m not going to micromanage her pom-pom fun.

Another activity I made with pom-poms is her drop bottle. Its just a small plastic soda bottle with a hole cut out of it. I wrapped the edges of the hole with duct tape so they wouldn’t scratch her. She stuffs pom-poms down the neck and uses the hole to get them back again. It isn’t the pretties thing but she uses it a lot.

Those the only official pom-pom activites I’ve set-up but that isn’t the only way she uses them. She also likes to:
- Roll them down the slats of the rocking chair so they fly off the back. This really wears her out since she likes to roll one down, run around the chair to pick it up then back to roll it again. Never mind that she has 14 still in her bowl, she has to get that one back.

- Hide them around the room, stuffing them into crevices in the couch, putting them in the corner of shelves, etc. Then she will go around and collect them again. Its like an Easter egg hunt anytime she wants!

- Place them over the air ducts (when the air conditioner is running) so they fly up in the air.

-Rub them on her face, our face, her baby dol'l’s face, the cat’s face. She likes how soft they feel and assumes everyone else must too. The cat is the only one of us who has issues with this.

- Give up trying to put them on the cat’s face and just watch the cat bat them around. This one brings on lots of giggles, especially when the cat looses control and goes skidding across our hardwood floors.

So far, this has been one of the best $2 investments I’ve made. And I’m sure we’ll be using them more in the future. Sorting by color, counting activities, art projects, are just a few of the things I can think of right now but Lucy will probably come up with better ideas anyway.

Potty Progress

2011-09-19T08:57:00.000-05:00

During my sabbatical, I knew I would be writing a potty update when I started writing again but I thought it would be all about our “potty strike.” Luckily that is not the case but I do want to talk about it.

Potty strikes are apparently pretty common for EC/early pottiers, especially during the 12-15 month range. They can last a week or two, or a month or two. Lucy’s lasted a few weeks, during which she only went on the potty one time.

At first, I mistakenly let myself get frustrated. It wasn’t that she wasn’t going, it was that she knew she needed to but refused to sit down. She would sit any other time I asked her or sometimes just because she felt like it but if she started to go and I took her to the potty, she would become a stick and refuse to sit down. This was unlike previous “down” times because I knew she knew what to do which is I why I call this a true “potty strike.”

But after I reminded myself that 1) I wasn’t going to do this unless it was fun for us both, and 2) based on all my readings, this was really a good sign that she was close to making the independence leap, I let my frustrations go and we plunged ahead with lots of naked time. It also helped when I realize that wiping up an accident on hardwood is actually easier than changing a toddlers’ diaper (I can’t believe I just admitted that but it is true!).

So I was all prepared to write about the strike and how I was dealing with it but Lucy had a better idea. Last week, the strike ended, something clicked and she really got it. Now we are on a potty roll. She happily sits and goes whenever I remind her it is time, and she will tell me when she needs to go as well. She sometimes starts but then realizes and signs potty and runs (well, the best she can – it is really more of a walk with fast arms) to the potty. The last few days she has stayed clean and dry until early afternoon and even then only had 2 accidents each day (including through naptimes!). And when we do have “accidents,” she comes and shows me then will go get a diaper and help me mop up. I’m so proud of her!

Laying it out for you

2011-09-15T08:36:00.000-05:00

One of the main reasons I had the confidence to do this remodel is because we are going with Ikea cabinets. Ikea is really diy friendly and their kitchen designer program made it easy for me to design the layout. We also turned to the ikeafans.com forum and got quite a bit of help. I definitely could not have come up with these plans without them. Between those two sources, we ended up feeling like we could get a good usable space even in our small area.
Here is the current kitchen and dining room. Well, our current kitchen doesn’t use ikea cabinets or countertop so this is the closest I could get using the ikea planner but you get the picture – and it isn’t pretty.

Now beauty is as beauty does but its not just aesthetically ugly but practically too. There is very little cabinet or countertop space. The door on the bottom left is the entrance from the garage and the main way we enter the house. Carrying a bunch of grocery bags through the small space between the fridge and oven is not fun. There is no countertop anywhere near the oven which means I often balance a plate of hot pancakes on the little ledge cutout on the yellow wall. And if I want to drain spaghetti, I have to walk across the kitchen, but first I take Lucy into the living room then run back and try to finish before she gets underfoot again – because I care about safety and not dropping boiling water on my small child. So we are pretty much gutting the place. The drywall on the ceiling will remain as will a few electrical outlets and one window. I think that’s it.
My main obstacle during the design process was thinking outside the box which is where ikeafans helped out. My original idea was to do a peninsula but I had several problems.
1) The dishwasher would butt up against the penisula, making it awkward to put away dishes when the dishwasher is open. It would also be squishing our already small dining room more than I wanted to.
2) The window. I really really wanted to keep it. Having a natural light source from two directions was one of the few things I loved about this kitchen and it hurt my heart to think about losing that. But that window does look out onto our garage wall (with about a ~8ft path between) so it wasn’t exactly a pretty view.
Here is the new layout.

It solves both problems. We ended up convinced that an island was the way to go. The island will mean a more open flow, but that is okay with Mr. anti-open floor plan Craig because we still have a bit of separation from the living room. The end result will be more of a eat-in kitchen look compared to a formal dining room but with a small casual house like ours, I think it will work well. And I can already imagine little people sitting at the island building volcanos or creating playdough art while I am working away at my own science experiment-y kitchen projects (home fermentation, anyone?)
The window issue was a bit tricker but we got it too. I was getting stuck because the window overlapped the fridge and the new stove location but I couldn’t find another place to put the stove. Turns out, I didn’t need a new place to put the stove, I needed a new place to put the fridge. Moving the fridge to the other side of the dishwasher does mean it encroaches into the dining room a bit more but it is just a fridge and not a whole line of cabinets so it won’t feel as smooshy. And it allows us to move the stove down to be centered over the new, slightly smaller, window.
I know what you are thinking…a stove in front of a window? Is that to code? In our case yes because the window is going to be a glass block window. No venting issues or trying to work with a downdraft system and we get the light without the ugly view!
Here is a side view.
That is the image I have to force myself to remember when I start hyperventilating. If only remodeling a kitchen in real life was as easy as creating it on the ikea kitchen planner!

Toddler Tuesdays – Treasure Basket

2011-09-13T08:35:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite Montessori baby activities is the treasure basket. Its was cheap and easy to put together and best of all, has been loved for quite a while. Although its been tweaked a few times since then, I originally put it together back when Lucy was probably only 8-9 months old. She loved it then and she loves it now.
The concept of a treasure basket is simple. Its a basket filled with treasures for a baby or young toddler to explore. Babies naturally explore the world with all their senses and Montessori believed it was important to build on this by giving babies and young children a variety of sensorial experiences to stimulate those senses and help develop the ability to focus their attention and discriminate between items. You want to help them learn how to learn. Keeping this in mind, you will want to select a wide variety of textures, scents, colors and sounds when picking items for your basket.

When I first put it together, I only had 5-10 items in mine but How to Raise an Amazing Child the Montessori Way recommends between 50-100. I still don’t think I have 50 (just counted, hers has 30) but I did notice that Lucy took a greater interest in it after I added more items.
And think outside of the box basket. They don’t need to be baby items. Here are a few of the things I put in Lucy’s:
avocado pit
pompoms
boning tool (for basket making, very smooth texture)
little canvas bag
seashell
rock
ribbons of different colors and textures
glass jar
pine cone
velcro (she just figured out last night how to pull the pieces apart and she loves the sound that makes)
wood sample (from picking out our kitchen flooring, haha!)

You’ll see that many of my items would not make it on a list of baby proof items. I’m okay with that. I’m not advocating giving your baby a basket full of knives, use your own judgment and common sense, but try to keep an open mind. The best way to fill a basket is to just start looking for fun items through the day.
Another Montessori concept is freedom and in many cases this is seen by leaving items out for a child to select what and when he wants to work on an activity. But since, as I said before, I want to be present if she is playing with it, I only take it down at select times when I know I can keep an eye on her. She doesn’t have to play with it when I take it down, but she normally does.
The first few times I would pick out items on my own and look and explore them myself, and that was enough to get her interested but now she knows it is fun and I can just take it down. She wants me nearby but doesn’t want, or need, my interaction so I use that time every afternoon to sit next to her, relax and listen to my German lessons (but I kept forgetting to take pictures so these are from last night, I let her play after bathtime, hence the wet hair and pajamas :-)
She normally plays with it for 20-30 minutes. Now that she is getting older, I can tell I need to add or switch items more so recently, I’ve been on the lookout for new things to throw in there. Let me know if you make a basket and stumble upon something really toddlerific!

What we’ve got cookin’

2011-09-12T09:05:00.000-05:00

I believe I’ve mentioned once or twice that out current kitchen is slightly outdated. While we could wait around hoping that pink and grey laminate countertops are coming back in style, we’ve decided to take the renovation route instead.
When we first looked into remodeling the kitchen, we did what seemed normal, we went to a big chain store, in our case “orange,” and met with a kitchen designer. We know it works well for some people, especially those who don’t want to have to be involved with the nitty gritty details but also don’t have the money, or time, to find and hire a local general contractor on their own. And others have found their kitchen planner services to be invaluable (the Young House Love couple swears by theirs).
But in our case, we left less than impressed. One of the main draws of the big store was the knowledge and expertise when it came to design but the kitchen designer didn’t have anything useful to say about our layout issues. She basically told me that I was screwed and should just let go of the idea of keeping a window that I really wanted (and in the end, do get to!) keep. She also almost doubled the budget we went in with and I felt a lot of pressure to accept that. And the few design decisions I was pretty sure about, she rejected (I was told nobody does white cabinets and black countertops. Really? I don’t think she has spent any time on pinterest.)
So I did a little research and realized that it wasn’t our only option. In the end, we decided to go rogue and be our own general contractors.
The upside is that we will be getting a lot more bang for our buck, quality wise. Since we aren’t willing to go into debt for this kitchen but we still want it to be built to last, that one is a biggie. Another plus is that we will be in control of every aspect so I know we will be getting just what I want. We won’t be totally alone, we’re calling in contractors for several area (electrical, drywall, etc) and I’ve found a few internet buddies to help me along the journey but all the decisions and responsibility rest with us. And to be honest, we like it that way. The downside – its a lot more work. But I think we are up to the challenge, or I at least I hope we are.

The plan is for us to start the demolition process in a couple of weeks, which means we are really busy planning, ordering, putting together cabinets (in the basement) and trying to organize and prepare for many weeks/months of living a kitchen-less lifestyle. I’m nervous but excited!

15 months

2011-09-08T20:48:00.000-05:00

Since Lucy is well on her way to being 16 months old now, I almost skipped this post. But then I remembered how much I forget about all the ways she is changing even after just a few months have passed so I decided to be a good mom and just get it done before more memories escape.

Dear Lucy,

You are my sweet baby, but I fear you are also becoming a daddy's girl. Daddy was away from us for a couple weeks this month and every morning you woke up asking for him, and every time you saw my camera or the computer, you would ask and ask to see pictures of him and every time the phone rang, you would get so exciting thinking it was him. The night after we got home, you woke up after just a little while and the only thing that consoled you was being held by your daddy. And several times since then, you have rejected my snuggles and just wanted him. Its so sweet to see you two together that I can't really be hurt though.

Walkin' in daddy's shoes

You've added a few more signs to your vocabulary plus you've made up quite a few of your own signs like cold, phone, quiet (you say this when we go to watch the birds eat, you will make lots of noise but if I say anything, you turn to me and put your finger to your lips). But more than the number is the quality. You're moving beyond just basic nouns like dog and cat to more abstract concepts like cold, sad, hurt, wind, wait. Your actually kind of obsessed with things being sad or hurt.

You've started telling "stories". You will repeat a group of 3-5 signs over and over and over again to relate something that happened earlier. Like when I hit my head on a shelf one morning, that night at dinner you kept signing "hurt, head, sad, then pointing to me and the shelf." When we went to the petting zoo, you spent the rest of the week telling me "horse, pig, sheep, outside" and when the caterpillar you and daddy used to go visit on the bush out back disappeared, every time we went outside it was "caterpillar, outside, daddy, all-gone, sad." And sometimes you will intentionally hurt your baby so you can tell us all about how she is hurt and sad.

The top one shows your sweet smile, but this one shows your squinty smile. Both are cute!

But you are also sweet and love love to snuggle with your baby. She is a constant part of our life now and it is so much fun to see you act our your life through her. Now that you are a big girl, you get to walk sometimes instead of always being carried. A few days after I started being intentional about letting you walk, you started taking your baby by her hand and walking with her her instead of just carrying her. You like to have your legs stroked/scratched with the snappi and I've caught you sitting with baby in your lap, stroking her legs with the snappi too. You always make sure to share your snack and water with "baby," she often sits on your lap during story time, and you love to make your baby dance when I put on some music.

You and your dolly are dancing along to Wicked.

One of the few things you love as much as your baby is frogs. I don't even remember where you first learned about frogs but they became an instant hit.You love books about frogs. You love it when we make froggie noises. When I tell you it is time for pajamas, you sign frog and unfortunately, have been known to throw a fit if your frog pajamas are not clean. We saw a couple frogs last week at Grandpa and Bubbies house and you just got so excited. I love seeing you develop your own interests and this one is definitely your own since neither your dad or I did anything to encourage your froggie fixation. Who knows, maybe you will grow up to be a herpatoligist!

Another thing you currently love is nursery rhymes. You can sit for 30 minutes listening to me read your nursery rhyme book and you even have signs to describe your favorite ones so I know which one you would prefer next, like "Doggy, Eat, All-done, Sad" (Old Mother Hubbard),"Fishy" (Little Tommy Tittle-mouse), and "Mama, Daddy, Baby" (The Lion and the Unicorn - the illustration for that one shows a man, woman and little girl watching the fight). "Sad" could mean The Old Women Who Lived in a Shoe, Little Boy Blue or The Queen of Hearts, all of which, much to your delight, involve some sort of sadness. Its funny how much sad things interest you, because you aren't normally sad my happy little girl!

And I'm back...

2011-09-06T20:48:00.001-05:00

I really enjoyed my time off but I can't exactly say I took it easy. Here are just a few of the things I've been up to:

took three trips, which had me spanning three states and taking Lucy on five different flights - it wears me out just remembering that!
spent hours upon hours on the big house project we are planning that is threatening to take over our lives. If you are my pinterest friend, you might already have an inkling as to what that is, if not, well, you should be my friend! (but if pinterest isn't your thing, just wait a few days and all will be revealed
read enough books to finish my historical fiction challenge and still maintain a pretty good fiction/non-fiction ratio.
threw a party which made babies on the other side of the world happy
finally found a way to make the homemakers journal work for me - and boy am I keeping it busy now

So after my month off, I still feel like I need a nap, but at least I have things to write about. And I'm exciting to start writing...but first, I have to unpack some suitcases and catch up on laundry. Some things never change :-)

Book Review of the Day

2011-08-28T15:28:00.001-05:00

For a kid's book called Ten Little Fingers and Ten Little Toes:

I want to love this book. The pictures are adorable, the babies are multi-cultural, the text flows beautifully, and the message about babies being basically the same wherever they are born is important. But I can't love this book, because apparently "everyone" is not aware that limb abnormalities occur in 2.6 out of 10,000 births in the U.S. In a nation of 300 million, that adds up to plenty of people, myself included. When the hook of this text is that "everyone knows" that "ALL of these babies" are born with 10 fingers and 10 toes, a refrain used repeatedly, that is not a book I want to share with my 4-yr-old. I don't want to confuse him, because HE knows someone without 10 fingers, and this book will give the impression that I am the only one in the entire world for whom that is true.

I feel similarly about books that teach kids that "we ALL" see with our eyes and hear with our ears. No, not ALL of us do. I wish the authors could have found something else that all of these babies had in common, because "everyone knows" that it's difficult enough to teach kids about the differences in people without books like this making those differences seem even more strange and abnormal.

How dare this author make generalizations in a children's book! I think we should also throw out books that call the sky blue, because sometimes the sky is gray, and books that mention pets, because some kids are allergic to pets.

The reviewer wishes the author could have "found something else that all of these babies have in common." Never gonna happen, if we are going to be so strict about including people with rare abnormalities in literature for toddlers. I challenge anyone to name something each of the characters in the book might have in common that some kid, somewhere, does not differ from.

Insert that "Law & Order" Sound Here

2011-08-20T23:32:00.000-05:00

As a conservative, I'm generally a law and order type of guy. I like to see rioters get hit with water cannons and nightsticks, for example. Like many people, I tend to give police and prosecutors the benefit of the doubt when it comes to most criminal cases. And I think the OJ Simpson jurors were morons.

However, I have read a number of items in recent months that have given me pause. Coyote Blog, one of my faves, has a number of posts on police abuse. In addition, I just read John Grisham's 2006 non-fiction account of lazy, incompetent police and prosecutors in a small town (by regular folks' standards, at least - to me, 16,000 people is a lot) who railroaded four innocent men. And then there's the case of the West Memphis Three. While I am loath to support something that is a rock star cause celebre, this looks like a conviction based on thin evidence, coercive interrogation and an unreliable "witnesses" angling for a plea bargain, much like Grisham describes in his story. Of course, none of this would fly if juries didn't convict in such cases, but I wouldn't want to place my fate in the hands of most juries. (I think we should have some sort of quasi-professional jury system, in which qualified people serve for a year or two as a full-time juror, but that's another topic.)

I think it comes down to this: just like there are incompetent, corrupt, and/or lazy people in any walk of life, such people exist in the police and prosecutorial ranks. Add to this the fact that police and prosecutors are government employees, and that many prosecutors are politicians, the likelihood of these attributes being found in some segment of these professions increases.

Therefore, we need to be vigilant in our civil rights (particularly the 4th and 5th Amendments) and attentive and critical if we find ourselves on juries. For one thing, if you find yourself in a police interview, get a dang lawyer. This video, on why you should never talk to the police (I assume he refers merely to situations where one is a potential suspect, not a witness), is worth watching.

On a lighter note, this Chris Rock video describes how not to get beaten by police (warning: bad language).

Sabatical

2011-08-04T21:06:00.000-05:00

If you follow me on Pinterest, you've already probably seen this but it is me to a T.

But not always a bad mood. Just a overwhelmed mood. I've got a lot on my mind but I want to feel free to think it, feel it and maybe even implement some of it, without feeling compelled to blog about it. Its odd but sometimes blogging is how I do think about things and work them out. Other times, I need to stay inside myself. Since I've been blogging for over four years now (really, is that right? sheesh, that's a long time in internet years), you would think I could balance myself by now but I don't think I can. So I'm taking a sabatical.

Sabatical. Doesn't that sound much nicer better than "break" or "whoops, its been three weeks and I haven't posted anything" or "Never mind me, I've just turned into a hermit." At this point, I could start spouting off about how a rose by any other name...but that would be cliche so I won't. I'll just say see ya later! I'll be back in September.

Oh, but Craig isn't weird like me, so he'll probably still be around every once in a while. Keep checking in on us so he doesn't feel lonely and unloved :-)

14 months!

2011-08-03T08:26:00.002-05:00

Dear Lucy,

I'm pretty sure I've thought this most months and actually said it several of them, but this might be my favorite age with you.

You've finally gotten past the everything goes in my mouth stage, (except rocks, rocks still always go in your mouth. Your dad thought we should just let you try them and find out for yourself you didn't like them but it backfired because you do! Yuck!) But this has freed us up to do a whole bunch of fun things together -

Like playdough, we play with playdough at least 30 minutes a day. You ask me to make balls for you and then you smoosh them between your fingers. Or you use cookie cutters or poke the dough with tools. We've done a few other art projects like water painting and crayons and you can use the chalk board but playdough is still your favorite.

You've started looking at books by yourself, mostly in the car when no one is around to read them to you. You look at the pictures and will babble and sign to yourself about what you are seeing.

You had a signing explosion this month. It has been hard for your dad and I to keep up. You can now sign at least 29 words including:

baby (this can mean yourself, another baby or your baby doll)

hot (your own version that I accidentally "taught" you by always waving your food while saying "hot" if you were being impatient and it was too hot for you to eat, but now you know it for hot items and hot weather)

outside

grass

tree

rain

spider (You know this doing the itsy-bitsy spider song with me but I didn't know how well until I signed bug and pointed to a spider in a book and you looked at me and signed "spider" - well then!)

horse

cow

pig

alligator (You know this from a book but yesterday, I said "later gator" to you and you signed gator back to me, cracked me up!)

daddy

ball

water

brush your teeth

potty

sleep

You would probably know more but I have to learn them before I can teach them to you and its getting hard to think up new ones. I tried to find a sign for playdough but haven't yet.

You also do sentences like "kitty eat" and "kitty milk-milk." Now "kitty milk-milk" might sound like an odd sentence but one day you pounced on the kitty and she scratched you. You weren't that hurt, you didn't even cry, but I told you to leave the kitty alone because she was grumpy and wanted to sleep and that when you jump on her it scared and hurts her. After that you kept saying "kitty milk-milk," I guess you know what makes you feel better and you wanted the kitty to have that too.

You also babble with your hands. You'll just be moving them around and sometimes I'll notice real signs in there. At first I worried that you were trying to tell me something but you get frustrated if you do so I've learned that as long as your happy, I just nod along and then after a few minutes, you'll walk away.

You are starting to get pretending and imitation play. You love your baby doll and play with her more and more every week. You love to "talk" on the phone, whether someone is listening or not. In the afternoons, you start asking for Daddy so I wait until I know he is on is way home then tell you to call him and ask him to come how. You walk around holding the phone saying "dadadadada" and then, amazingly enough, in a few minutes he will walk inside!

You also love your small plastic cows and horses. You carry them around and pretend to feed them by holding there faces up to the little plastic hay bale while making smacking noises.

We just started the transition to only one nap a day. So far is hasn't been too bad, you are so active during the day that you wear yourself out pretty well. I thought I would miss having that free time but we have so much fun to fit into our day, I don't have time to!

More Chicago

2011-08-01T09:18:00.001-05:00

After our naps (yes, we all fell asleep), we were ready for more fun. We checked out and drove to our next stop, the Field Museum. This is where things got rough. We managed to pick the worst possible activity because right next door to the Field Museum was the soccer stadium where Manchester United was about to play. Ahh! Traffic was awful, everything was redirected and parking rates were bumped up. We paid 30 bucks to park for a couple hours! This did not make my frugal husband happy but we balanced it out but eating cheaply for lunch. What’s more Chicago than hot dogs right?

I wasn’t too sure about the toppings involved with a Chicago-style hot dog. I mean, pickles on a hot dog? But I really liked it. And I’m not a hot dog fan so that is saying something. Perhaps that is how I need to fix them all the time.

We spent a couple hours at the Field Museum but frankly, I was underwhelmed. Maybe we’re just spoiled by all the other awesome museums we’ve been to (like these in DC and these in London).

We were staying farther out of the city the second night because another major part of our trip was IKEA! We are planning a kitchen remodel in the future and wanted to take a look at the cabinets and meet with a kitchen designer. We were planning on doing that the next morning but took some time in the evening to look around, eat Swedish meatballs and do just a smidge of shopping.

We called it an early evening and since IKEA doesn’t open till 10, we had a leisurely morning too. That isn’t normally our style but it was nice. And it gave us time to eat breakfast. The hotel we were staying at was really busy that weekend, apparently there was a traveling team of basketball players, a group going to the Jimmy Buffet concert and a Jehovah’s witnesses convention. It took us about an hour to get our breakfast, find seats and eat – but at least there was some interesting people watching moments while we waited!

After our IKEA designing adventure, we headed home. Lucy did amazing on this drive but alas, the fates were against us. Even though we only had to stop once because she was fussy, traffic and construction meant that our trip still took us almost 2 hours over what it should have. Sheesh!

We’ve tagged along on business trips with Craig and visited family multiple times so I kinda consider myself a baby travel pro by now but this was our first real family vacation with Lucy in tow. We obviously slowed down our pace when planning our itinerary but travel is something we love and I’m glad to know that even with a little one, it is still something we can fit into our lifestyle.

Happy Birthday Ben!

2011-07-29T21:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday Little Brother,

I can't believe you are 18. I remember the day you were born. In fact, I remember going with mom to the ultrasound and finding out you were a boy. I was so disappointed you were not going to be a sister, but that might be the last time I was disappointed with you. And as long as you still agree to go shopping with me sometimes, I'll forgive you for not being a girl :-)

You are a great brother, a great friend and now, a great adult. I know this past year hasn't been what you were hoping for in your senior year but you have stepped up and shown yourself to be an amazing man. I'm so proud of you.

I've enjoyed spending so much time with you this year and being able to be a part of your life again. I'm going to miss seeing you every month when you go off to school but I know you will also be a great Aggie and they are lucky to have you.

And at the end of the day, you will still be my baby brother so it is my right to call you at school and bug you about grades and it you are getting enough sleep and eating enough vegetables, knowing full well that the answer to both of those questions is probably going to be no. But I promise not to call you that in public anymore.

Chicago!

2011-07-29T10:39:00.001-05:00

Our trip began early Friday morning and made pretty good time. Lucy did well most of the trip but the last hour or so needed a change so I started driving while Craig went to the back to play and read to her.

This change of scenery for her worked great except for one thing. It meant I was driving the last few miles of the trip – in downtown Chicago! I’m not a bad driver but I’m not always very confident and there was a lot of traffic, both cars and pedestrian, not to mention construction going on right in front of the hotel. I missed the valet station the first time and had to circle around again. It was incredible stressful and I practically needed to change my shirt when we got there but we all survived and I only got yelled at once.

Once we got in, we let Lucy have some downtime in our room then popped her in the Ergo and headed out for the Sears Willis tower.

But on our way to had to stop and show Lucy the pigeon. Could we be more tourist? But she loves the pigeon books and she enjoyed watching them for a minute so I don’t care.

This was the one thing I really wanted to do but honestly, I wasn’t sure how much it would hold Lucy’s attention. Turns out, she loved it.

She kept pointing out the window and signing “bug,” not quite sure why – perhaps everything looked bug-sized?

Towards the end she started to get fussy but the Ergo was great since she could nurse without my having to find a seat (because there aren’t any!). Then we did the unthinkable. We put her on a leash! We had been given a monkey backpack leash a while back and this was its inaugural use. My pre-mom self would be shocked at this and I don’t think we’ll be using it that much, but for this situation, it worked.

After that, she did okay until we were waiting to go out onto the clear platform. Craig didn’t really want to but I was brave and Lucy was oblivious so we waited, or tried to wait. She didn’t grasp the concept of waiting in line. She threw a huge fit but as soon as we got out there, she relaxed.

If you watch the Duggars, you’ll know that one of the older girls had a lot of trouble with this platform and I understand why now. It’s scarier than I thought it would be. I didn’t stay there long at all!

It was only about 4:30 by the time we left the tower but right next door was Giordanos Pizza which was personally recommended to me by a friend who used to live in Chicago. Even with us being there so early, we had to wait 40 minutes for our pizza. 40 minutes is like an eternity in toddler/restaurant time. But Lucy did amazing. One thing that really helped was the group sitting next to us, they were a guide dog raising organization so under the table were about 5 sleeping golden retriever puppies. Cute and entertaining! Between that, a packet of applesauce and a couple of walks up and down the bathroom hall, we not only survived but had a delightful evening (and allowed others to have theirs as well :-). And the pizza was worth the wait, it was so good. We weren’t the only ones to think so, by the time we left, the line to get into the restaurant was getting pretty long so I was very thankful we had gotten there so early.

The next morning, we got up nice and early and went to explore the parks next to the hotel. We thought about going to the Navy Pier but didn’t want to take Lucy in a cab without a car seat. I know it is legal but too scary for a first time mom. This ended up being one of my favorite parts of the trip anyway. 8am on a Saturday morning is a nice quite time in Chicago apparently, we only saw a handful of people and it was nice calm way to start the day.

We got her a new stroller (Macleran Volo) and this was our first time testing it out. I didn’t like our old one at all and neither did she but this one is awesome. She just sat back with her sippy and enjoyed the sites of the fountains and “wildlife” like pigeons, seagulls, bunnies and squirrels.

Of course, just because we’re the parents shouldn’t mean we do all the work. She had to do her fair share of pushing our stuff around. Here she is “building her character”

Next up was Millenium Park. We were waiting for a children’s festival to open but on our way found Cloud Gate. It wasn’t on our agenda, we aren’t big modern art folks and I didn’t really get it, but I’m so glad we didn’t miss it. It’s a toddlers dream. She had a blast running around and looking at herself.

And it was kind fun trying to get a picture of ourselves and the skyline. I might have to post the “outakes” later.

We spent a little bit of time at the kid’s festival but she was getting really tired so we ducked out early and went back to the hotel for some downtime before we checked out. But the fun wasn’t over yet!

Crazy days

2011-07-27T08:59:00.000-05:00

I feel like I just ran a marathon. No, that's not strong enough. How about I feel like I just finished a week of VBS? I didn't do that, but we have been pretty busy. First Craig was gone then we went to Chicago. The Chicago trip is going to be posted later, once I've had a chance to catch up on laundry, get rid of my hotel hair*, and download the many many pictures we took, but I can share the "excitement" of my 72 hours in a house alone with Lucy.

Craig was gone from Tuesday morning to Thursday evening. He's been gone before, and for much longer than that, but I've always retreated to my parent's with Lucy. Even though my work load isn't really any lighter there, it feels so much easier than being here alone. To give you a sense of the progression: I had plans to make Craig a nice homecooked meal before the weekend of travel food. My meal plan on Tuesday was chicken fried steak, mashed potatos, and green beans. On Wednesday it was spaghetti and green beans. Thursday is was "we're going out." Thursday was just a bad day. A real bad day. By then, she wanted her daddy and kept signing for him and pointing at the door. By then my patience was pretty much all used up and I wanted him too but there wasn't much I could do about it other than wait it out. I

When she woke up from her afternoon nap (after spending two grumpy hours refusing to sleep), we still had about an hour before it was time to pick up Craig but I knew we need to get out of the house. We were both too crabby and tired. So I threw her in the car (not literally, I wasn't that upset, maybe I should say I gently put her into her child safety seat and nicely adjust the buckles until she was snug and safe) and drove. I wasn't sure where we were going at first but we ended up at Panera. This was a good choice as it is relaxing and their salads have lots of good Lucy foods in the them (We had the chicken bbq which has black beans, corn and chicken - three of Lucy's favorite foods). Craig was able to be dropped off there and by then time he arrived, Lucy and Mommy were happy and calm but still very relieved to see him.

And then we had 12 hours to unpack, repack and head off to Chicago. But more on that later!

*Does anyone else get hotel hair. It doesn't matter if I use their shampoo or my own. I always seem to get hotel hair.