Mostly Normal Mom

March 13th, 2013

Girls' Room

We play up in the girls' room a couple times a day. I find a change of scenery during the day is pretty essential, especially since it's so hard to get out of the house when it's still snowing and miserable (despite being mid-March). Mostly for my sanity, I keep the toys up in their room to a minimum. Right now, it's just dolls/house/cooking supplies (to go with the playhouse) and their books. 

Tea party in progress. I recently repainted the little rocker to match with the yellows of the rest of the room. It turned out pretty decent despite my poor painting technique. 

The girls' gallery wall continues to grow. I'll admit, it's one of my favorite things. 

The playhouse is still pretty much the same as when it was built last fall, with a few small additions.

This is a little memory-foam bath mat (which we already had but weren't really using). This lives at the bottom of the ladder. Freya's been climbing up the ladder since we built the playhouse, and she figured out how to go down a couple months ago too. I'm amazed that we still haven't had a fall off the ladder, but I feel a little better knowing there's a cushion at the bottom.

Peek-a-boo! I also added some little curtains to the upper windows (from two mini tension rods and a set of brown embroidered place mats that I've probably had for five years and never used). How fanciful!

In the downstairs, there's a small room for the girls' doll cradle. It's tall enough for Freya to stand up in, but everyone else has to crawl.

And opposite that is the kitchen area.

I think maybe next I'll make some curtains for this lower window (or maybe some shutters?) so they can use this as a puppet area. 

October 16th, 2012

Raking, Jumping, Making

September 21st, 2012

Playhouse: Step by Step

So, I'll try to have Stewart hop on here with me soon to provide more details about the actual construction process. But for now, here's some "in progress" pictures. 

Step 1 (Monday, September 3rd) -- removed closet doors, purchase lumber.

Step 2 -- removed interior shelving, cutting begins...

Step 4 -- constructed a frame to support platforms and walls. 

(Wednesday, September 5th) -- second platform completed

Step 5 (Friday, September 7th) -- floors in place and secured to platform; exterior design cut with jigsaw and secured to frame.

Step 7 (Sunday, September 9th) -- constructed door and ladder; purchases decorative supplies.

Steps 8--13 (Monday, September 10th - Sunday, September 16th) -- cleaned up all the construction dust, painted the interior and exterior and ceilings, cut and installed carpet, cut clear acrylic to fit upper windows, cut vinyl peel-and-stick floor tiles for faux stone finish, adhered "stones" with super glue. 

Step 14 -- put the toys back and opened the playhouse for business!

April 23rd, 2012

Earth Day Plants

Shire and Liam (and Beth) helped mom dig out a previously installed (and long-ago forgotten) little garden by the mail box. We found all those rocks buried beneath grass and dirt and put in some plants in honor of Earth Day. Mostly it was an excuse to play with dirt, shovels, and worms. 

They seem pretty proud of themselves, though. 

We also played a round of bean-bag toss, watched the kids play with a tarp in the backyard, and then ate pizza, played a board game, and nursed our Ring Game wounds and alcohol-aided dehydration sickness. Heh. Good day. 

October 5th, 2011

Beautiful Day

It's been three days of beautiful weather here in Madison. And I realized that this might be my last hurrah to work on outdoor projects in comfort. So I've sanded the woodwork on the front porch and then repainted the trim on the porch and around all the doors. I also painted the baby gate which we installed on the steps to the deck (since it was not an outdoor item and was starting to get damaged). 

A nice evening mowing the lawn plus the mums I planted last month and a nice sunset view. Not too shabby, I say. 

October 1st, 2011

New House: Shire's Room

Pros / Likes:

• size and shape (can accommodate two twin beds)
• double window
• large closet

Things we've done so far:

• paint (Behr Ultra: Fortune Cookie / Mixed Berry Jam)
• carpet removed 
• red birch hardwood floors installed
• chair rail installed / painted with metallic primer
• two new twin beds + bedding
• new area rug
• gallery wall 
• new black out window blind (Shire literally destroyed the other one. Whoops)

Cons / Things to Change:

• new ceiling fan

And eventually...

• Freya moves in, and hopefully both girls will be happy to stay together for quite a while.

 

This room has been one of my biggest projects. Finding beds that I would be happy with and would be durable enough to hold up to some rearranging (but not cost too much), plus buying mattresses and bedding. It was really fun gathering pictures for the gallery wall (and I hope to keep going too, but I've got take a bit of a pause from buying art for the rest of the year...). Then I had to devise a storage system for the large closet to house both clothes, toys, and other gear. Then it was just settling in with some of the details, like the small area rug and the upgraded shade. Actually, figuring out the window treatment for this room was tricky. It needed to be room darkening (for napping) but I really couldn't do anything with cords, and I hesitated to do any curtains at all (since if you apply enough pressure, you could bend/break the rod). But, I'm really happy with the room. It's cheerful and bright and fun without being at all pastel or "traditional girly." 

September 15th, 2011

New House: Our Bedroom

Pros / Likes:

• size (so much larger than our last bedroom!)
• two windows / good cross ventilation
• attached bathroom (though it's too small)
• double closets with rods/shelves already installed 

Things we've done so far:

• paint (Behr Ultra: Smokey Topaz)
• carpet removed 
• red birch hardwood floors installed
• new king size bed (cue "Hallelujah Chorus")
• new bedside tables (which we never had room for before)

Cons / Things to Change:

• new room darkening blinds (order, but not installed yet)
• new ceiling fan
• paint Stewart's bedside table

And eventually...

• replace all the doors
• come up with something to do with the extra space when we move the crib out (probably not for a while).

So this is a pretty important room. 4 out of the 5 members of the family sleep here. It's also where a lot of nursing and changing takes place. We don't have a changing table any more, since Shire's out of diapers. I just keep Freya's diaper supplies in my bedside table. 

For our bedroom, I'm trying to embody the feeling of a really nice hotel room. No muss, no fuss, no extra crap. Seriously, if I could have a dresser with just empty drawers, that would excite me to no end. But I guess that's a little impractical. 

August 26th, 2011

Chores

So being a stay-at-home mom, my chore list is...exhaustive (I guess I am pretty particular about my house, but anyways...)

I'm starting to compile a list of chores that Shire can (and will) help out with on a daily basis. The sooner we start, the better. I try not to make Stewart do too much after he comes home from work (he helps out, obviously, but it's not officially on his "list"), so that leaves just me and Shire. 

Some parents might shun the notion of forced chores because it makes helping "not fun." Well, I think that there are lot of "fun" things in life, and it seems reasonable (and in fact, logical and instructional) that there also be the existence of "not fun" activities. Or at least, things that aren't always fun. I mean, we can go all Mary Poppins on the act of cleaning and show how things can be fun. But really....it doesn't always have to be fun. Sometimes, things just have to be done (and people have to help) because that's what you do as a family and as a good person. 

So I'm planning on making Shire a visual "chore chart" where she can see activities and then complete them. Here are a few pictures I've compiled so far.

Wiping the table 

Cleaning my toys

Vacuuming

(okay, so I realize she's not really vacuuming, but this keeps her occupied while I vacuum the house)

July 23rd, 2011

New House: Office

This is an idea that I've had (and wanted) for a while -- to create a total "family office" in a central space. In between the front door and garage door is a hallway. It's not extremely high traffic because you can also just walk through the living room into the dining room/kitchen  and get to the same place. As soon as I saw the oversized "coat" closet, I knew that I could make better use of the space. So Stewart and I planned out what needed to live here and got the necessary materials. He took out the closet rod, but left the original shelf up top. Then we installed a desk top (slightly higher than standard countertop height) and two side shelves. Then it was just getting small storage accessories to fit the space (and using some stuff I already had too). 

Here's what I have:

• three large baskets for things that need to leave the house (one is for returns to stores, one is for donations, and one is things to be given back to friends).
• large monthly calendar and planning board (both dry erase and magnetic)
• container for my basic stuff (keys, wallet, date book) 
• container for my camera, video camera, and chargers
• container for coupons, gift cards, and shopping list
• IN and OUT box 

And on this side we have:

• container for Stewart's basic stuff
• container for frequently used tools
• change jar
• writing utensils

I also have a couple of cute birthday cards framed, along with the weekly schedule for the yoga studio I joined. Also, you can see that my laptop lives here most of the time.

Underneath is our library bag, a chair (not exactly the right height, but I don't usually sit down anyways), and a 10-drawer cart on wheels. What I love about the cart is that it's like having a bunch of different piles of stuff, but stuff can be organized and put away in its own drawer. I'm not sure what all will live in here eventually, but right now it's holding envelopes/cards, address labels/stamps/address book, health care information (we're in the process of figuring out our new benefits), tape/glue/staples, and a few other things. I was keeping sticker and Shire's art supplies in here...but she quickly found those and started accessing them unsupervised (a recipe for disaster).

So that's my office. I completely love it, and it's so helpful to have a place just to put all that stuff that I need to basically "run" the family. A few people scoffed at the notion that I was going to sacrifice my hall closet for an office space. But honestly, I think 95% of all hall closets are vacuums for junk and clutter and therefore just wasted space. Our first house taught us to appreciate nooks like this and to really utilize any space to its full potential. And that's what this does. 

July 19th, 2011

 

New House: Living Room

Pros / Likes:

• hardwood floors 
• gas fireplace
• connection to dining room
• detail on window panes
• size/shape

 

Things we've done so far:

• paint (Behr Ultra: Raffia Ribbon)
• custom shelf behind couch

 

Cons / Things to Change:

• fix weather strip on windows (Shire has been tearing those out...)

 

And eventually...

• nothing?

 

I'm very happy with how the living room has turned out. First, all of our furniture not only fit in the room, but it all looks nice. We bought the area rug (since we definitely didn't have one that was big enough for all this space!), built the shelf behind the couch, and were given the child-size table and chairs from my aunt and uncle to use and pass on.