Her Face Tells the Story

This photo sequence makes me laugh.

We can call it "A Place for Her Flowers: A Photo Journal."

That's what I call being resourceful. 

10 Reasons to Enjoy 80 Degree Weather

You know, because it's really hard to decide whether 80 degrees is a good or a bad thing. 

1.  Little boy summer clothes.  Dressing boys is way more fun then I thought it could be.

2.  Coconut oil stays nice and soft, making it so much easier to work with.

3.  First tan lines and sunburned face of the year.

4.  Taking the kids on an impromptu picnic to the park, all to prove myself the Most Best Mommy Ever.  The random food items that were grabbed in the five minutes we had to pack left much to be desired, and Christian seemed confused on what was so fun about eating in the grass, but Daph loved it.  One point for me.

5.  Making Daphne a daisy chain and having her throw it away in disgust.  I'm supposed to be thrilled with every petal she brings me, she could at least pretend to be happy with my impressive flower art. 

6.  Getting to leave the doors open to just the screen doors, but then realizing Christian has escaped out the back and is running down the driveway in only his diaper. 

7.  A walk in the wagon, which in theory was really fun, but in actuality consisted of trying to pull the wagon with one arm while restraining a screaming Christian into a seated position with the other.  Very difficult and slightly embarrassing because of his wailing.

8.  Playing at the playground for two hours, because going to the park is actually fun now.  It doesn't take long for me to hear, "Hi, my name's Daphne. I'm four. What's your name?" and suddenly Daph is running off with a new friend.

Christian likes to follow the big kids around, or pick up bark dust pieces, or sit by whoever has a ball or a dog.  He doesn't try to tackle playground equipment that is too big for him, a healthy fear that Daphne never shared and is what made taking her to the playground such a frightening and stressful event in the past.

9.  Seeing someone I met at BSF walk by my house and wanting to burst out the front door yelling "HIIIII!!!" but restraining myself until I can tell her that I don't usually sit by my front window just waiting to pounce on passers-by. 

10.  Having to water the garden because it hasn't rained in quite a few days. 

Bad Days and Good

I haven't been up to writing much.  This is mostly due to the fact that my dear children, who I just love so much because they are wonderful and sweet, have been, well, not necessarily on their best behavior lately.   

Christian has been exponentially whiny and needy, a stage all little ones go through at various times in their lives.  New teeth?  Not enough sleep?  General malaise?  It's hard to know. 

And Daph...it would be nice that if she's going to ask the 437 questions a day, if she wouldn't mind listening to my answer the first time instead of saying "huh?" so then I have to answer again, and then not asking "huh?" again, so I have to answer one more time...because that means I'm basically answering 437 x 3 questions a day and that is just too much for my weak mind to handle.  

Thankfully the sun has been out because who doesn't feel better when it's warm and beautiful outside? 

checking the status of the strawberries

I'll tell you who.  It doesn't take long for my wonderful and sweet daughter to start complaining that it's too bright, or she's too hot, or about all the bees.  (They're not bees, just tiny, tiny, flies.)  I put Christian in shorts yesterday and he got upset because the pants didn't extend to his ankles.  It's like they've spent all their lives in a dark cave and are just now seeing the sun for the first time.  

So anyways, it's been a real barrel of laughs over here.  Fortunately our neighbors walked to the park with us this afternoon and then brought over ice cream (different neighbors than the life saving ones...such great neighbors we have), and that DID cheer the little ones up. 

The bad moods can only last so long.  I expect change for the better to happen pretty much any minute. 

Kitchen Fun, Where I Share All My Secrets

We made two wonderful discoveries with the little kitchen update we've just completed.

First off, the magical Annie Sloan Chalk Paint.  This is not paint that makes a chalkboard, this is a regular paint that is great for refinishing projects, like furniture or (yes!) trim that is varnished and would be a pain to sand down.  I learned all that I needed to know from this link here. 

It's a little spendy, but it was not hard for me to decide that my time is valuable and I did not need to spend it pulling off and sanding all the trim and doors in our house.  The chalk paint is the answer to all refinishing problems.  I've been watching Craiglist for a bunk bed for the kids and am not afraid to get an ugly one, knowing I can easily paint it with this paint.  It is good stuff.

Secondly, Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint.  David has been having the time of his life taking down our switch plates and spraying them with this stuff (we are easily entertained around here).  The cheap plastic white switch plates hold the paint well and look like we went and bought the expensive bronze ones.  We didn't, folks, because we are too cheap for that.  As I'm painting doors he's also spray painting the door knobs, because again, why would we pay good cash money for new door knobs when we can just use spray paint? 

I learned of both of these paints via Pinterest.  Pinterest is the greatest.

Our kitchen update was nothing fancy: although we probably need a new sink and new counter tops would be nice, we just wanted to spruce it up a little.  New paint, new trim, new curtains, new art.  Cheap and fun.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

This "In This House" sign was one of the first things I pinned after opening my Pinterest account two years ago.  If there was one thing spurring me on to paint the kitchen it was to have a place for this sign.  We modified it a bit with rules that were more personal to us, and I love having it in a place in our house where I can read it several times a day.  It's a good reminder for me to extend grace (because that's what we do in our house!) and accept my kids' mistakes (because we make mistakes here!) and to say 'I'm sorry' when I'm wrong (because we have to...the rules say!).  I love this sign. 

Same reason I have this written on my little kitchen white board right now:
















I need the reminder every day.

I love having a brighter kitchen, and I love how the lighter trim opens the rooms up a bit more since our eyes are no longer being stopped by that old oak stuff. 

Daphne was a great helper, although it took weeks to get the paint out her hair and those pants and the sweatshirt are permanently stained.  I'm not really sure how she got so much paint on herself. 

And that's a wrap on the kitchen.  Finally. 

Stories

Two true stories for you:

1.  Yesterday morning David got up and asked if I had heard the doorbell ring around 11:30 the night before.  Silly David, of course I was sound asleep by then.

He said he heard it once, then heard a bunch of fast and frantic rings.  He ran upstairs to get the door and found our neighbor on the front porch.

Our neighbor said he heard someone screaming and wasn't sure if David was at work and I was home alone having some sort of catastrophe.

Just like I said in this post, don't try any funny business around our house because our neighbors are like vigilantes. 

2.  I've heard two different times now that 'Christian' is one of the most popular names of the year.  Why is this happening???  I've known a lot of people having babies in the past few years and I've heard of no one using this name.  I have a rule that the names we use for children cannot be on any top ten or even top 20s list, so it's upsetting to know Christian's name is becoming popular. 

And here's a third story, just because:

Today we got new carpet in our stairwell.  It's beautiful. and once we have the new artwork hung I will show photos.  Photos of the kitchen too, because it should be done today or tomorrow. 

cozily reading a book

sometimes he has to wear pink hand-me-downs

The Mountain House

I kind of want to talk about our vacation in the most monotonous, boring way ever.  Like this:

Last year we liked our vacation at the snow house.

This year we decided to go to the mountain house, mostly because it was cheaper and because we could take Lola. 

There was no snow because it was the warmest weekend of the year and because we were at a lower elevation than last year.

We played inside and outside, watched movies, ate food, read books, had no internet or cell service, went hiking, and ate more food. 

It was fun.

The end. 

Seriously, by bedtime tonight I felt like I could barely come up with enough responses to all of Daphne's questions today (I read recently that a 4 year old asks an average of 437 questions a day...I know whoever said that was not exaggerating) so I just want to blog like a man with no embellishing whatsoever. 

I can share pictures though.  And even with pictures I can be lame and not think about what I'm saying.  Like this:

This was C's face every time he saw water.  He's saying 'wow':

This is a dried up river bed we found.  Daphne loved it:

This is Daph as a good hiker girl:

This is Chrish as a good hiker boy:

This is David pretending to wash dishes:

This is Chrish attacking Lola:

OK, never mind, I can't talk like that anymore.

The cabin had a lovely deck with a little creek and bridge out back.  Even though it would have been fun to have snow, it was great to be able to go in and out so easily.  Christian would stand at the door and whimper if he felt like he'd been inside for too long, so opening up the sliding door for him to play out back was perfect.  As long as he didn't go stomping through the creek, which was his favorite. 

Having no internet was wonderful.  Too much time is wasted on the internet these days (seems like to me, but what do I know?), especially with the millions of little gadgets that make it so accessible.  It was a wonderful purge to be without for 3 days and we didn't miss it one bit. 

Now that I have vacationed 2 times with these people, I think I can safely say I like it.  Lots.

This is everyone who was on the trip:

What We Did on Easter

Now that it's Thursday, let's get caught up on Easter, shall we?

The kids and I got up Sunday morning to sparkly eggs decorating the front yard.  It was a surprise for all of us, even Daphne, who wondered if the eggs had fallen from the sky. 

We waited for David to wake up before heading out to investigate (well, I let Daph go get two real quick, lest she just die from the agony of having to wait). 

Christian thought hunting for eggs was the lamest idea we had ever come up with.

Not so for this one, Happiest Child Ever:

Then it was time for sibling photos.  I accidentally coordinated them in matching polos, making me wish I had little tennis rackets or golf clubs to give them.  Except not really. 

Christian was much more interested in the eggs when we got in the house and he discovered they were stuffed with Curious George treats.  Later I found several wrappers in his secret hiding spot, a little basket under the kitchen sink where he hides all his most special treasures.  (He came up with the hiding spot all on his own.  It's very cute.)

After our egg hunt is where things got real exciting for us...instead of a typical Easter Sunday of going to church and then to a Grandma's house for lots of food, we packed up the car and headed off for a few days in the mountains.  It felt rather heathen-ish not go to church on Easter, except I think even the heathens go to church on Easter.  So I guess this made us even worse than heathens? (My apologies if you are actually a heathen.  I don't mean to offend.) It was also strange not to spend a holiday with other people, but we found we rather liked choosing our own holiday entertainment this one time.

Daphne had been asking for weeks when she was going to get to color Easter eggs, so we saved that event for once we got to the Mountain House.  Except Christian was just like, "I want food."

I'll save vacation highlights for another day (I would say tomorrow, but I don't know.  Maybe Saturday or maybe next week.  I can't go putting too much pressure on myself.).

Hope you all had a good Easter as well.  Even if you are a heathen, because Jesus loves you too.

(I hope no heathens egg our house.)

(I don't know why I can't stop talking about heathens.)