Crazy

David’s parents were here the end of last week to do some babysitting for us while we went out with our friend and her husband for her 30th birthday; then they continued on to the Hills for some skiing.  While they were here, they mentioned that when they came back through they would be willing to take the girls for a couple of days.  David and I will be headed that way soon, and then we'll be leaving from there for our vacation.  I wasn’t sure if that was the best idea since we would be leaving them for 8-9 days during our vacation.  After talking it over with David, and knowing that we would be with them for at least 3 days over the coming weekend, I decided it would work out all right.  Bria really wanted to go with them too. When was the decision made?  After grandpa and grandma stopped on their way through.  Talk about last minute!  That isn’t like me.  This way, I will (hopefully) feel more organized in getting things ready for our vacation.  Now I have a couple of days to straighten up the house, have it stay that way, and get everything packed without being interrupted.

Forts

It has not been that cold this winter, but it still seems like the girls have been inside a lot.  That probably isn’t actually true, even though it feels that way.  Most of the girls’ time inside results in the building of forts.  Every cushion of the couch is removed and every blanket is unfolded.

The forts never look the same, but always result in the same mess.  You would never know that they had a whole basement full of toys, because it seems like they never spend any time playing down there.  It is more fun for them to make a mess of the living room than it is to play with toys.  I must say though, they are pretty good about cleaning up the mess every day (sometimes even twice a day).

Bentley’s other favorite activity is to “make supper”.  Although she has a whole kitchen set and food toys galore, her “making supper” consists of using every magnetic item she has (letters and other magnets) as food and books as plates.  Every day, all the magnets from the door in the kitchen are scattered in the living room; as well as every book.

Needless to say, I love the days the girls can get outside and play.  I am tired of the messes, even if they are good fun for the kids.  Confession: a messy house stresses me out.  Did I mention that all the work that each girl puts into their favorite activity makes them more prone to fighting with each other when something is messed up by the other.  Second confession: I am tired of playing referee. 

Teaching your children to get along, to be kind and loving to others (especially a sibling), showing them the importance of sharing and respecting each others’ hard work, and not running to me over every little incident, takes a lot of work.  It makes for a very tired mommy.  Thank goodness daddy comes home every day and jumps right in to help.  What a great man!  I could never do this without him.  God knew what he was doing when he brought us together.  It is a great partnership.

Projects Completed

Throughout the fall and winter, we have slowly been completing the projects that we started this summer.  Sorry if some of these things have already been posted.  I couldn’t remember if I posted pictures or comments or both as the projects got done.

The front door is completely finished (sometime in October).  I painted it while David and the girls were gone for a few days.  David hung the screen door sometime after that.  It is so nice to have a door that doesn’t have a cold breeze coming through it when a northwest wind blows.  The door also clears the inside floor when it is opened so we can have a rug in front of it.

It is hard to tell from this picture, but the inside of the door is a dark red.

The outside of the door is a dark blue, and the screen door is cream.  The dark blue matches the shutters on the windows and the cream matches the trim (or will once the outside of the house is repainted).

This fall, we also painted our bedroom and master bathroom, except for the wall that where the window was replaced in the bathroom.  After David finished off all of the interior sheet rock and mudding, we finally painted it and hung blinds and curtains.

The wall is no longer a mixture of maroon paint and white primer.  Yeah!

A few weeks ago, I finally decided what colors I wanted to paint the kitchen and the bathroom on the main floor.  When we were in RC last week, we picked up the paint; that way, we can paint those areas whenever we have time.  The kitchen needed to be painted, especially where we replaced the window (same with the bathroom).  If we were going to paint any of these remodeled walls, the whole room would need to be painted to match the new color.  Yesterday when David woke up, he decided it was time to paint the area in the kitchen affected by the new window.

This area is actually above the basement stairs which made it difficult to paint.  Previously the wall was a medium tone tan.  Now it is a dark gray.  Unfortunately, we don’t have time to paint the rest of the kitchen; but at least we have the wall that was half primed and half painted tan covered with new gray paint.  I guess some other weekend, we will wake up and decide to tackle the rest of it.

We have not started to paint the main floor bathroom either, but it will get done some day.  At least we have the paint on hand to get them completed when we find the time.  It feels good to have fresh paint in most of the house.  The kitchen and bathroom are the only rooms in the house that we haven’t painted.