A Trick Question Included

Since Jonas was content in his Bumbo with a snack, and since I had just found another place to hang a boxwood wreath, it seemed imperative to use my free arms to photograph the newly-organized wall.  Nothing like wall photos as fodder for the blog.

Then I spotted Jonas through the camera lens...

And now we've graduated from Bumbo use.

I found this book at an antique store recently, and immediately memories came to mind of looking at it over and over again as a kid.  A grandma had it; maybe Grandma B?  Daphne and I are reading it so that she can learn all about Amish people.

We had a pretty successful visit to that particular antique store because we found vintage picnic baskets, too. (Stars, fyi.)  The baskets store kitchen linens and sit around looking pretty, and they are very successful at both of their jobs. 

Soon our house will be fully decorated and then what will there be left to do in life?  

(Trick question: how many pictures of Amish children are in this blog post?)

(This is a trick question on so many different levels.)

We Have a New Firepit

I went into the backyard Monday and found the big kids stomping around in the muddy garden.  I was so very close to telling them to get out, like literally had the words coming out of my mouth, when I realized this was a time to be quiet and let them be.  The only reason to make them stop was because I didn't feel like having to clean up the mess, but that's probably not always the best reason to say no.

Daph smeared mud up her legs and said to me, "Mud is really good for your skin, right?"

Sure.

lunch break at the mud spa

Another time to be quiet is when all three kids are down for rest at the same time, and you can lay in the hammock while your husband slaves away laying bricks for the new fire pit.  Did you know hammocks are amazing?  As long as you can figure out how to get in without falling back out. 

Speaking of fire pits, ours at the old house was a re-purposed wheel barrow, and we loved it.  We loved it so much we were afraid we wouldn't be able to top it. 

Oh, but top it we did.  Check it out:

We found an old woodstove at a salvage place, managed to haul the thing home (I think it weighs 9 million pounds), and now this back corner feels like a living room.  This week I got a bunch of planters put together for the area, and soon we're going to get some electricity out there so we can hang cafe lights.  David has plans for a play structure nearby.  Isn't it the cutest?

 And speaking of cute, here's Jonas rolling around on a bed.  This has nothing to do with fire pits or mud. 

The Family Room

Nine months later and our upstairs family room is finally painted.  Small victories!

This room is technically a part of the 'master suite,' but as much as I would love an extra room to set up as a sewing room, or a sitting room, or a leave-mom-alone-she's-eating-her-hair room, a family room seemed the most useable idea for the largest number of people. 

The room isn't completed yet because I still need to purchase bamboo shades for the windows and finish the curtain for the kid's closet kitchen.  (They have a closet kitchen and it's just as cool as it sounds.)  (Which may not be very cool?)

Oh! And I have this super great idea for David to build me a faux-mantle to set the TV on.  Something like this:

i have no idea the original source...i've seen this many places

Right now the TV is on a bookshelf, but I think a mantle would add some fun visual interest and help make the room feel even cozier.  And it would give us a great place to hang Christmas stockings since stocking-wise we're not quite sure yet how to utilize our funky wood stove alcove downstairs. 

jonas's opinion on mom painting

Lighting in this room is a little hard because I hatehatehate using ceiling lighting and there's not a lot of space for lamps.  Lights on the old window saved the day!  I added a boxwood wreath because my current hobby involves making more of those than I have room for.  So many wreaths, so few spaces to hang them.

In the absence of 'after' photos of the family room, here are photos of the room being used for what we consider valuable family time. 

fighting

staring blank faced at the television

lots of messes