Transformations

Our unfinished room is transforming into a family room. It's unbelievable how much gets accomplished each day. Changing a yucky, smelly, crooked room to a structurally sound, beautiful, usable space is a process, but one that has gone much faster than I'd anticipated. Amazing!

the current view from our yard

Texting

I have never sent a text message.

Ever.

In my whole life.

I don't really ever want to, but I know at some point I will probably have to.

My problem with texting is the way it has spawned abbreviating everything. For example:
how r u instead of How are you?
imo instead of In my opinion.
kwim instead of Do you know what I mean?

Or how about this one I just heard about the other day:
afaik instead of As far as I know.

It drives me nuts.

My two girls

Today Bronwyn and Aubrey had appointments with our doctor. Bronwyn's 4-year well-care visit was about 2 weeks late; Aubrey's 1-year well-care visit was about 2 weeks early. (Works well for me that we could do both on the same day.)

It was just the girls with me when we went, thanks to Nanz, who stayed home with the boys so that Jackson could take his afternoon nap. As I got them in and out of the van and walked into the office, I found myself trying to imagine if it were just them, or if my kids were more like 3 years apart in age instead of the 18 months they are. Life would definitely be simpler in many ways were that the case. There would be a lot less squabbles (at least for now), that's for sure! But I can't imagine Bronwyn without her brother-playmates. God sure knows what's best for each of us.

I was only embarrassed a couple times by Bronwyn. Like when she confidently answered the doctor's question regarding whether or not she sits in a carseat with, "Nope." You can be sure I was the recipient of a rather shocked expression and had to quickly explain that she's very excited about no longer being in a carseat but in a booster seat that she received from Grandma and Pap-Pap as a birthday gift.

Bronwyn continues to be at the top of the charts growth-wise. Her 42lbs puts her in the 85% and her 40.75" put her in the 71%. She and Gabriel are regularly neck-and-neck size-wise until he pulls ahead every so often with a bit of a growth spurt.

Aubrey, on the other hand, took a bit of a nose-dive percentile-wise, though I got many comments about how healthy she's looking and acting. She's 16lbs4oz and 28" long, and her head circumference is 17.75"-- less than the 3%, the 15%, and the 40%. I think the her increased mobility is the reason for such minimal growth these past couple months (a little over 1lb). No big deal except it means that we're still quite a ways off from being able to turn her forward-facing in the vehicle, which usually makes babies happier it seems.

[Warning: bunny trail]

Sometimes I just want to throw percentiles out the window anyway. I mean, I understand that there needs to be some frame of reference, but I also think our culture too highly esteems averages when it comes to our children, particularly their health and academic abilities. Ugh.

[End bunny trail]

It was just a brief 1.5 hours of time spent in a less-than-exciting fashion, but it was fun nonetheless. We talked about dresses and pink and dolls and Aubrey's upcoming birthday and clogs and braids and our vegetable garden. We swung our clasped hands as we walked through the parking lot. We hugged a lot and shared "secrets."

I'm so thankful they're healthy (Bronwyn's incision looks great and Aubrey is all-around looking wonderful!).

I love my girls.

My auction treasure

So I went to an auction several days ago. My reason for going (besides it sounding fun!) was the hope that I might find some sort of hutch/cupboard for my dining room that would be a better space solution than the small table I had in there. With the arrival of school curriculum these past few weeks, I realized I didn't have a good spot in the house for storing them, as well as all the kids' art supplies and "table toys" (that have up until now been shoved anywhere I could find). My hope was to get a big enough piece that I would have storage for educational materials and still have several shelves left for table linens.

There were a lot (3 estates worth) of things to peruse: everything from old books and puzzles to maroon recliners and an old pie shelf originally from a Kentucky kitchen. I saw one piece that seemed like it would work well and decided I would bid on it when it came up.

Imagine my delight when I won the auction for $150.

There was only one shelf when I bought it, since it had been used as a wardrobe previously, but there were already braces for more. Daniel cut a bunch of scrap wood and made me shelves. I'm very pleased with the results. It looks great in the room and has helped me organize things that were a frustration to me up until now. No more stuffing tablecloths any way I have to in order to make them fit! No more art supplies visible to curious eyes and fingers!

Not as many organizers within the cupboard as I eventually want, but we'll get there...

The old piece has a new home in the living room, where it's small size is actually nice instead of annoying.

In Progress

Yesterday we had our biggest crew yet here working on the house. This talented and hard-working group of four laid the new sub-floor (I think that's what it's called... who knows? Not me!), tore down the two exterior walls that need to be replaced, burned a whole lot of old stuff, put in the first of four new windows, and generally kept me so interested that I was running outside at frequent intervals to see what the latest look of the room is.

So fun!

Oh yeah, in addition, another pretty talented guy was over in the afternoon to talk about kitchen cupboard designs and plans. That's the really fun part, if you ask me, though also a bit intimidating. When you're working on a budget, you have to make compromises along the way, and it's hard to know in advance what compromises you will and won't regret making.

Here are a couple glimpses of the room in progress:

the exterior of the unfinished room


the current view as you immediately enter the room
(there will be a wall with 2 windows shortly)


the immediate right corner, which will make up part of the mudroom/laundry room
(the front window will be replaced and moved about 1.5' from its present location)


the exterior doorway,
the present door into the kitchen,
and the wall that will come down to be open to the kitchen


the new doorway onto the deck
(the one in the kitchen will be closed off)


my cathedral roofline, with first-thing-in-the-morning sunlight
(it will be sheet-rocked and all, but the cathedral will remain)

Beginnings and snapshots

Our kitchen/great room remodel has begun! We anticipate it taking about a month to get the whole thing finished.

And by whole thing, I mean whole thing: the ceiling was ripped out yesterday, the floor is coming out today, the roof needs repairs, plumbing (for laundry facilities), electric, and heating will need to be run, and everything from insulation to baseboard has to be put in.

I.am.so.excited.

I'll put up "before" pictures later, once I've taken a few more. (The ones I've got so far are just of the old built-in cupboards that were there and have carefully been removed so that we can put them back together later.)

For now, here are some overdue snapshots of our August birthday princess:

party hats at the party in Long Island


wearing her new Cinderella dress and Fancy Nancy crown


the homemade cake at her "at home" party


party guests gather 'round


trying out her new bicycle from Mom & dad
(helmet courtesy one set of great-grandparents)

On vaccinations

This article has some good food for thought on delayed/selective vaccinations for those who want to vaccinate but don't want to go about it on the rapid and heavy-duty schedule most pediatricians mandate suggest. It has pretty straight-forward, helpful information about what you want to avoid and what's OK.

I appreciated reading it, so I thought I would pass it along.

A favorite photo of favorite people

Little by Little

Kids' toys and books are sorted through. Half a garbage bag of things to be thrown away, a small pile of things to be donated to the nursery, and shelves that are all re-organized and re-arranged.

Laundry room is half emptied. Spring/fall coats were relocated, rags and old shopping bags and work clothes were sorted out and at least half were thrown away, and broken beach toys were separated from unbroken beach toys. Daniel's tools need a new home and I need to go through my pile of laundry detergents/stain removers, which is a rather ridiculously large collection since the only laundry products I use at this point are Oxi Clean spray and Charlie's Soap.

Guest room closet is partially re-organized. I've used cardboard boxes to store children's outgrown (or not-yet-grown-into, depending on how you look at things) clothing due to a bad experience storing crib bedding in a plastic tote, but the cardboard boxes are getting really hard to work with since they're all caving in at this point. I'm about ready to bite the bullet and buy about 12 large totes in order to get maximum stacking ability. Anybody have any favorite sizes for clothing storage that they want to share?

Two kitchen cupboards are re-organized. And I am reminded of how wonderful it will be when we delve into the kitchen remodel and I can finally get double-decker lazy susans in the corner cupboards. When I imagine the joy I will derive from no longer having to crawl almost entirely inside the cupboard in order to get the waffle iron out from the very back, I can't help but smile.

*****

That's my progress so far. Next on the agenda: re-organize art supplies, carve out a temporary space for school supplies (the living room getting finished in the next couple months will totally alter my storage options), and go through all stored clothing to make sure I only have what I really need (or absolutely can't part with because I love it so much).

But first, our final little birthday celebration for Bronwyn tomorrow night.

Then back to my spring cleaning in the fall.

Give the house away, too!

This morning I was sorting through the kids' books (I didn't get to them last night) and explaining to Bronwyn that we would be throwing out the ones with missing pages/torn covers and giving away several titles that we just don't read often or that are duplicates in our home. At first she protested since looking at books is definitely her favorite activity and she was a little upset about parting with any. But then she really got into it-- almost to the point of wanting to give away books that are in great condition and well-loved around here.

About 10 minutes later, I was nursing Aubrey and letting the kids look at the "Give Away" pile one more time before I boxed it up. Bronwyn turned to me and said, "Mama, we should give away our house, too!"

I thought she meant the Little People house that was out in the middle of the family room floor. "But honey, you love to play with that," I reminded her.

She looked confused for a minute and then started giggling, "No, Mama, I meant this house, our yellow house!"

I was a little surprised. "Bronwyn, we can't give our house away! We wouldn't have anywhere to live."

"We could live with Nana and Papa," she announced. "I would like that better anyway."

What a goof.

Progress & Enjoyment

I've made some progress toward completing my Undone List. Last night I purchased all of Gabriel's curriculum for this fall. I still need to make a trip to the store to get things like pencils, a good electric pencil sharpener (no longer having to sharpen pencils by hand will be my splurge this school year!), composition books, writing tablets, etc. I also need to order him some khakis and a long-sleeved polo for Friday Program, but since that doesn't start until October, I figure I still have plenty of time.

Today I did mounds of laundry and am enjoying having it all line-dried on this lovely day. Overall, it's been such a rainy, miserable summer that my line-drying attempts have often been thwarted. I imagine that since I like line-drying as much as I do this year, I'll really like it when we actually have a sunny summer.

(My grandpa told me today that this has been the wettest July since sometime in the 1920s!)

I also took a walk with the kids down to Mom's, picked up Uncle Merrick and brought him back here for the day, dusted and vacuumed, scrubbed down our dining chairs and table, remade the guest bed for next week's scheduled visitor, weeded the vegetable garden a bit (such cute little tomatoes and bell peppers! I sure hope they get a chance to ripen...), reorganized our board/card game shelves, and caught up on email while my 3 little ones slept and the 2 big boys played together. Now I've got to get myself pulled together and start the pizza dough for dinner.

Tonight, since Daniel's home for the evening, I'm hoping to tackle the children's toys and books. I'm going to try to not go overboard with getting rid of lots, but it will be hard. For being as frugal as I am, I can honestly say that I don't usually think twice about throwing or giving things away. I've got two bags of clothing-- one for the trash and one for the blessing shop-- just from folding laundry today.

All in all, it's been a great combination of making progress while still taking some time here and there to enjoy the beautiful day and my children.

Already Over?

Last night we returned home from our week of vacationing on the north shore of Long Island. I love the ocean. I love the city. I love time away from "regular" life. I love doing fun things with my kids. I love family time. To be honest, I didn't feel ready for the week to be over. It felt as though it had just begun.

Today, I'm feeling shocked by autumn's imminent arrival. My Summer To Do List has hardly been touched and here we are on the precipice of bidding the season adieu. Agh!

Undone To Do items:

1. order curriculum (I have it all picked out but have yet to purchase most of it)
2. empty laundry room/mudroom in preparation for remodeling
3. re-organize closets and sort through seasonal gear
4. sort out toys and children's books and art supplies to make room for school materials
5. re-organize kitchen cupboards
6. potty train Jack

If Sherri lived nearby, I would hire her to come help me for a couple days. I'd gladly welcome input from someone telling me what organizational materials to buy and how to arrange things for maximum ease of storage. Unfortunately, I have to muddle through this one on my own even though I don't feel the least inspired to do so.

Frankly, I want this cold day to give way to warm sun. I want to spend the afternoon on a nearby beach and wake up tomorrow with the major agenda item being Walk to the Playground with the Kids.

This is unusual for me. I'm typically the girl who is anxious for autumn. I love the return of routine and order. I love baking lots of apple and pumpkin goodies and cooking hot soups and stews. I love cool, crisp air and colorful leaves. I love lighting candles and wearing wool sweaters. I'm not the girl bemoaning the end of summer.

At least, not normally.

Where are you, Summer???

11 Months

Eleven months of cuteness and sweet moments,
delightful expressions and entertaining baby talk,
exploring and developing and changing and growing,
blessing and joy and supernatural peace.

We love this girl.

Happy Birthday, Bronwyn Eliese!

I remember the moments right after Bronwyn's birth so clearly. They were, by far, the most precious Immediately-Post-Delivery moments I've had with a baby. I felt peaceful. I was pleased with how her birth had played out (not altogether thrilled with the pain, but very satisfied with how things had gone). I was thankful to have a little girl; a daughter of my very own. I was delighted that she was red and wrinkly with jet black hair just like me when I was first born.

Bronwyn has continued to bless me with precious moments throughout her life. She is effervescent and warm and special. I love catching her belting out a song or twirling in front of my full-length mirror. I enjoy sharing all sorts of foods with her and knowing that she'll like almost every single thing I offer her. I am daily amused by her absorption with all things Princess and Bride.

:: She's very good at sharing with others. I appreciate her generosity, especially with her younger siblings.

:: She's pretty tough. There isn't a lot that hurts her physically. (Though I can't say that she doesn't shed tears on account of emotional injury at times. )

:: She is a great companion. I always enjoy taking her along when I run errands or travel or shop.

:: She is still head-over-heels in love with dresses and skirts. It doesn't matter how cute the capris or pants-outfit may be, she would rather wear a dress. I try to humor her: this summer I purchased 2 dresses and 1 skirt for her while only buying 1 pair of shorts.

:: She loves visiting others and having guests come to our house. My, what a People Person my Bronwyn-Girl is.

Happy Birthday to our very own Princess Bronwyn! We love you so dearly!

It's been quiet...

...around here.

But not really, because my days haven't been at all quiet. I'm not sure how one more little guy--specifically, my 22-month-old sparkly-eyed nephew-- can seem to fill up the house so much, but I think his effervescent personality combined with how busy my own kids get when there are visitors around makes the difference.

It's been so fun!

The weather has been great this week. Somehow, the combination of sun and out-of-town family staying here really makes it feel like summer. I like it.

Coming up::

:: celebrating my parents' 30th wedding anniversary a bit early, while all us kids are together.
:: a trip to Long Island
:: Bronwyn's 4th birthday
:: a visitor from out of town
:: the kick-off of our first official year homeschooling

It's crazy how these days are flying by.

So, yeah. Quiet online, but not in real life.