A Wednesday ramble

January 25, 2012 by Filed Under: confessions, daily life

1-24 floor

Ya’ll we are having a really great mild winter here in Arkansas and I am loving it. We have a couple of cold days, some rain, and then it’s right back up in the 60s and that is just fine with me. No matter that our persimmon tree seeds predicted snow, I am pretty much always happy when predictions fail to come true.

1-24 kids

It seems like we’ve turned a curve here at age three. We still have surprise moments where she’s covered herself in sunscreen (today at 5:45 pm) or when we find her under the table painting herself and everything else with purple fingernail polish (yesterday at 3:20 pm), she is finally able to entertain herself a little while when we are doing school. I can get out the Play Doh or her stamps and she will sit there quietly (for the most part) while we do table work. When I’m reading aloud she can play memory or hook together her bead set. It’s not all quiet and peaceful, but it’s a lot better than it was about six months ago.

1-24 floor2

We started a fun science/ art project this week and I’m eager to share it if it turns out the way we hope. It involved a tiny bit of math so there’s a chance nothing will turn out right at all.

homeschool science

I’ve been doing Darcy’s Project 52 photo challenge, but I’m posting all the challenges on my photography blog. You can find them all here. This week’s theme is self-portrait. I actually thought that theme was last week and I started taking shots of myself every day so I could pick the best one. Then I realized I was two weeks ahead and I just kept doing it. Every day. I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it up, but right now it’s a fun challenge just to get a shot of myself every day. It forces me to learn some new things and helps me understand how uncomfortable it can be in front of the camera (big uncomfortable). I’m storing them all in my flickr set.

Are you doing any photo challenges this year?

2 Comments

White

January 23, 2012 by Filed Under: DIY, house

I made the decision to repaint all the areas of my home that had not been repainted since we moved in 8 years ago before Christmas. I dreaded tackling the job. My dining room, kitchen, breakfast area, back entry and living room are a continuous wall. There’s no stopping point so I knew I’d be doing all those rooms. I also wanted to do the entry and my office, possibly even the hallway. I decided on white pretty early even though several people tried to talk me out of it and everyone I told said, “White?” in a horrified tone.

You wouldn’t believe how difficult it was to make a decision on what shade of white. I assumed it would be easy. I was wrong. I went in and chose a color, came home and painted my dining room and hated it. It has a blue undertone and was wrong, wrong, wrong. I chose again, Roman Column from Sherwin Williams and it was right, right, right.

I had three helpers on Saturday and we got three rooms finished. I have lots left to do, but I’ve made a good start.

white room 1

white room 2

The red chairs are new (overstocks.com). I wanted something petite so we could squeeze more people around the table. I have three tables in my house and they are all full, overflowing and people eating on the living room chairs every Sunday. Also, I hated my wooden chairs that came with the table after I painted them white. However, I moved them in the living room (bottom picture) and now I like them again.

white room 3

white room 4

Ignore the guinea pig cage in the corner. My house will never look like a magazine cover because there will always be messes, pets, and piles of clutter.

turquoise dresser

I love the way my turquoise dresser looks against the white wall and also the children’s art (and one of Sara Mincy’s paintings) above it.

living room

This is the living room with the Blonde paint that was everywhere. I don’t hate this color, but if I was going to repaint, I wanted a change. This room, hopefully, will soon be white too.

7 Comments

Little blue eyes

January 22, 2012 by Filed Under: daily life

hazel

We named her Hazel and at first I thought we had gotten ourselves a golden dog. She whined when she needed to go out. She pottied every time we took her out and she didn’t even cut up when we put her in the laundry room at bedtime. She seemed perfect.

All that changed on the third day. I guess she got used to us. She realized there was more to outside than just a big bathroom and now she wanders off, gets distracted, then comes inside to pee on the floor.

pup sleeping

She’s just your typical puppy. Nothing really special except those piercing blue eyes.

chicken coop

Our chicken pen is finished and stocked with hens and a rooster. Hopefully by this summer we’ll be churning out our own eggs.

One of my goals this year was to repaint all our living areas. It’s taken me about 3 weeks and I’ve only done three rooms. I had a few helpers on Saturday and we got a lot done. But I still have the living room, hall, office and entry to do. It’s not as overwhelming now as it seemed in the beginning. When I thought about it before I began it made me a little nauseous to think about tackling a project that huge. I thought I’d have to send the kids to summer camp and put everything in storage. But, really you just take it one wall at a time. Eventually you’ll see some progress and more than a few items of clothing marred by white paint since I didn’t send the kids to camp after all.

painted painted painted all day but I had fabulous help and we completed 2 rooms.

This is an instagram picture, but I’ll take more eventually. I’m loving the clean look the white is giving me. The Nester claims white is quiet. I’m not sure I’m ready to make that claim, but it does feel clean and fresh.

Related Posts with Thumbnails
6 Comments
« Older Posts
Newer Posts »