What a Weekend!

 This weekend while the kids were away with D this is what I worked on.  Here is the before.....

And here is the after with the new quilt (sewed in Virginia and tied it this weekend here in Alabama).  Also put the posts on the bed which we hadn't used before.

Also, completed the kids bathrooms and worked on moving pics to the right places, but only hung 2 or 3 pics.  I'll get to it....eventually. 

When D and the boys arrived home Sunday afternoon the weather was so beautiful that we took a short bike ride over to the pond to fish.  I walked around taking photos while the boys caught a few fish.

  Here are the only "pretty" pictures I took that are worth looking at.

Hoping that spending more time exploring here will bring more opportunites for beautiful photographs.  

love and hugs, B

On My Own

I am on my own in my own home for 36 hours.... 16 hours in I can say that it is fantastic and exactly what I needed. While I have gotten time alone before (2 hours here, 3 hours there, run errands on the weekend without kids) this is the first time D has taken the kids out of town (to his parents) for a day without me and I get to spend time in the house on my own to do what I wish. My day went like this: I had breakfast without interuption and read the paper during breakfast cover to cover. I then did odds and ends around the house (placed pictures to the right rooms, moved some plants, quick sweep of the house, copy some papers of school records, etc). Ran errands, but not just any errands: I took my time and made as many stops as I wanted and looked at exactly what I wanted. Even found a new favorite store and a dress for G's first communion. When I finally returned home I did a few more things around the house-- including reutrning the chunk of grass that had floated across the yard in the rain back to its place. Took a walk by myself. Ate dinner from my favorite restaurant here by myself and didn't have to share any. Sat on the couch and tied our new quilt without interuption for as long as I wanted (which explains why I am blogging at 11pm). I do miss the boys, but am looking forward to a few more hours tomorrow to finish some things before they get home. When they get home I know I will have had enough of a break to really be happy to see them and appreciate them and hug them and we have got to do this more than once every 10 years. love and hugs, B

Alabama Update on the Boys

E:  over confident at school-- typical.  Hopefully this confidence will build real confidence so when he figures out there are some gaps in his learning between schools and whole subject items are missing he can recover quickly like he did in Virginia.   His teachers have been understanding thus far and said that he is "energetic" but none of them took me up on the offer of duct tape to control his talking.
G:  has hit his first challenge--- second grade here begins cursive at the beginning of second semester; in Virginia they didn't touch cursive until 3rd grade. He is working hard to catch up.  Also in math they have already worked on regrouping in addition and subtraction and handled numbers up to thousands with this skill.   Good thing spring break is next week so we can do some tutoring at home and put G back together.

E and G are riding with D in the morning and walk home on their own in the afternoon.  No bus service so they are trying their wings (legs) and independence with getting themselves home.  Both boys are finding friends  at school and in our neighborhood.

M:  poor M.  Has chosen the most inconvenient time to try in earnest to learn to read.   We are together all day every day.  As we go into stores I have lists of items that I need  to get/ cannot leave the store without, but the stores are all new to me and some items are odd items that would be hard to locate in my regular old stores to trips to the store begin at a tense level.  Now add in a little guy who enthusiastically calls out letters he sees and asks what they spell.  So as we are walking through plastic storage stuff and I am looking for the right size whatever he is calling out "F-R-O-Z-E-N-F-O-O-D-S.   What does that spell mommy?  What word is that?"   Lovely.  Under normal circumstances I would be so happy to help him, but this week it has been hard to put on a happy face about this.  He is handling being out of preschool well and is trying to hang with the big boys in the neighborhood.  We are slowly finding kids his age to play with.  Hoping things settle down so we can do some library story time type activities together after spring break.

That is the Alabama update on the boys.  love and hugs, B

Friday Funnies!

I know I just posted an entry less than 12 hours ago, but thought of these two things and had to add them to brighten your Friday. M is finally night potty trained. We are officially done with day and night diapers!!!!! Basically when we finally gave up on helping him through bribes, threats, getting him up, etc. etc. etc. He just started staying dry. Still not sure he actually gets up to go, but the bed has been dry for weeks. I have to take credit/blame for the fianl method as D left to begin the new job and I was sick of dealing with it and put him in underwear and let the cards fall where they would. I have never mentioned it before but the children are highly musical. Not in the real sense, but in the sense that they are constantly humming, singing,beat boxing, making up new words to songs, spontaneously burst into song for no reason. The other morning E was trying to concentrate on something and wanted silence. When G burst into a song about how to be quiet E said "This is like living with the Muppets". And it is. They can take any subject you would like and make up a song about it and then sing it over and over and over and over and over. love and hugs, B

I'm Back from Box World...Almost

 I got organized enough to day to download pics off the camera and here is the first pic that showed up onscreen.....

 

Daffodils booming in our yard in Virginia.   M and I planted 200 daffodils and about 150 crocus and got to see half the crocus and about 10 daffodils.

Here is the kitchen the morning before the truck showed up.   All the cabinets were lined in kitchen, laundry and baths and the kitchen cabinets were tagged with post its so I knew what items belonged where;  this is my own method so as I unpack items I don't have to wander the kitchen deciding where they should live.  (So wrong that I have all these crazy methods for moving-- I should write a book)

 The morning the truck showed up I also had every room in the house tagged with a map with the name of the boxes that belonged there at the top. 

 Here is what the house looked like during the week of unpacking.  Boxes and more boxes.

 After a good weekends work we had unpacked enough so that the house finally started to come together.   I work in vignettes so setting things to look nice gives me peace and makes me feel settled.  Monday I attacked the den boxes and set the bookcases with knickknacks....and all was right with the world.  If you just said that it needs a picture over the fireplace you need to logout now because I am mad at you---perhaps you should come over and hang pictures for me.

 The kitchen still has its labels because we found this time they are very helpful in finding everything or getting dishes put away after washing-- we may never take them off.

But don't think it is all sunshine and roses  there are areas in the house that are dumping grounds for items without homes like this.....

 

 and this.......

Things are slowly coming together and hopefully that means more time for secret adventures and more blogs to keep friends and family far away updated on the beasties.

love and hugs, B

On The Moves

We are currently in the process of our move to Alabama. We are staying in an apartment until the furniture arrives Tuesday and I have to say the if at all possible we will stay in the house Tuesday night or Wednesday at the latest. Let me go ahead and list some first world problems with the apartment. This is the first time we have stayed in corparate housing that I disliked on smell---- smokers above. No, really. Last night after the guy who lives above us got home (he wears concrete shoes and must weigh 3000 pounds from the sound of his footsteps) he smoked a pack of cigarettes and I ended up a floor below with a nicotine buzz and couldn't go to sleep for 3 hours. Ready to move into the house in sleeping bags. Yes, we are happy to have shelter, learning experience for the children, perfect example of a first world problem. The packing was great. The loading took longer than expected due to some weather, but my crew was fabulous. The trip down was smooth as silk-- 3 kids were unbelievablely terrific! Sunday of showing the kids around a bit and working around the house was great. Tomorrow the big kids begin school at their new elementary school. During this move I have thought a lot about the things I miss about the houses we have lived in. Here are a few of those thoughts.....
House one: our first house in Nashvegas. I miss that it was just the 3 of us at that time and our neighbors were all so different ( single mom, couple with no kids, guy who would never get married, married super preppy couple). What I would tell the new owners is to love your deck-- beautiful placement with shade in the heat of the day and a large deck space to work with. House 2: in Glen Allen VA: that house perfectly fit that time of our lives. We added 2 members to our family there and by the time we left it really didn't fit us anymore. Loved the neighbors and the driveway was perfect for little ones to ride bikes and play outside. That nieghborhood is also perfect to take quick walk with the kids to the pond. House 3: our first really well built house in Gig Harbor WA. What I miss about this house is the sound of rain ringing on the metal pipes on the roof at night and the sound of coyotes howling during the summer when the windows were open. The sight of E climbing so far up a tree he could tell me how much moss was on the roof. Still missing the neighbors there.... so much. It doesn't feel like a year has gone by already. House 4: The first house that we found during the building process and helped finish. Loved the very different floor plan without formal rooms. What I would tell the new owners is to enjoy the screen porch-- the view into the woods is so peaceful. Use the downstairs patio-- the coolest place to play with little ones in the heat of summer. Also, there is a frog that lives in a drainpipe in the backyard; when he croaks there is nothing you can do but giggle because while he is actually only about 4 inches big he sound slike he is 4 feet around. Also, the owls and frogs might make you crazy in the spring; who knew they could be so loud. House 5: what I like is that this house will again follow my new goal of "Every room is a useful room". I hate having formal rooms that are never used. In the last house we had a whole basement that the kids did NOT want to use for their playroom. We are again consolidating and making every room in our home useful for everyday living. I hope I don't have to write anything that I might miss about this house for a very long time; we all need some stability for a while and I don't think I can face another move for at least 5 or 10 or 15 years. Our truck is due in on Tuesday with our furniture so it will probably be late inthe week (or more) before you hear from me. as always-- love and hugs, B