HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMBABY!!!

She's two, now. I... can't believe it. She's brought such joy, such laughter, to our home (not to mention she's revealed a completely squishy soft side to Zorak).

She hangs with the boys, talks better than any of them did at this age, excpet perhaps James. She laughs and shrieks and talks. And has absolutely no volume control. Or shame. She'll bat those great big eyes at anyone for a little cookie dough.

I went through photos to capture the past year, but one thing struck me the most as I wandered down digital memory lane...

This child has grown some serious HAIR this year! Look at it. Then...

Now...


Then...

Now...

Wow.

Once I hit on that, I wasted an hour and a half just perusing pictures, oohing and ahhing, completely forgetting I was supposed to be finding shots to blog. She does that to me. :-) I'll have to try later to find some that really sum up her year. For now, though, they're all up and hungry again. We've got memories to make rather than memories to remember, at the moment.

But still, she's two! Wow. Happy Birthday, Sweet Emily!

And Happy Birthday to her Birthday Buddy, SJ!!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Quick Schooling Update

Howdy, all! It's not all construction and renovation around here, so today I thought I'd touch base on the schooling we've been doing. We're really finding a good groove for the winter term. Now if the children would just believe me when I tell them a schedule is a useful thing... *sigh* Maybe one day. Then again, maybe not. My poor mother tried for years to get me used to scheduling things, and to this day I still make dr's appointments for the morning, even though I *know better*. Perhaps I'll learn to think of it as a legacy instead of a struggle? It could happen.

So, there's this fun site: Robert Krampf's Science Videos. Oh, that's a lot of fun. I love that he explains why reactions happen, and that he uses things we might, possibly, if we think hard enough, find on hand. No depleted uranium, no corks (who keeps corks around the house???), no random weird things, really. We just pop in there for fun. For the rest, we've been following along with How To Teach Science's Periodic Table of the Elements newsletter. I'd signed up before Christmas, but that was only because I knew I'd forget about it by January. We just began this week, and are enjoying it. I'm enjoying the new perspective, and the boys are enjoying the supplemental work we do with it. You know, I didn't "get" isotopes until college. The boys are "getting" it now. That's good stuff. Good, good stuff.

Math is going well, in general. James is nearly finished with MUS Delta. Wow. Delta seemed so far away when we started. (Heh, when we started, they didn't have Delta, actually. But once they made it, it did seem so far away.) His housekeeping is a little shoddy, and that's been kicking him in the teeth - but that's the beauty of grid paper, dry erase boards, and unlimited time to stand there making throat clearing noises to redirect his attention. This morning, I think he grasped the importance of good housekeeping, and I also think it was one of those simple things that I never thought to point out. "It's okay to do it that way, just leave yourself enough room to do it that way." *POOF* Sudden improvement. I *heart* homeschooling. (I am also tremendously thankful that that was the problem! Because you know how one's mind wanders after a while...) John's nearly done with Alpha, too, and aside from an innate desire on his part to hold off on using the blocks until the end of the chapter (rather than initially, to cement the concepts), he's just soaking it all up.

Hopefully, the new math order won't hurt too badly, since Epsilon is the only full set we'll have to buy. John will just need the Beta student text, and Smidge is dying to start Primer, which we have and will just need a new student text for him, as well. (Talk about things that seemed so far away! Smidge, Primer. *sob*) For Smidge, for now, to keep him happy, though, I've been printing out worksheets from this site: Softschools They have oodles of fully customizable options, and once you figure out which end is up, it's fantastically useful.

Latin is... *happy sigh* My Favorite Subject. I love having something other than Zorak and I that asks the boys to t-h-i-n-k. It bleeds over into math, too, which is a beautiful thing (and gives me hope that one day it will bleed over into other aspects of their non-academic lives!) From what I've seen, Classical Academic Press has made more changes to their Latin program (such as now *actually* including Ecclesiastical Latin pronunciation, as they'd been advertising they did - always appreciated - as well as weeding out more of the myriad typos in the texts). If that is the case with Primer B, then we'll continue on with Latin for Children. If that's not the case, then, well, I'm not sure how long I'll spend in the closet, crying, before I try to figure out what to do next.

Reading is always fun around here. We have just a few more Celtic Fairy Tales (Jacobs) and then we'll have completed that book. We're working through the rest of the Yellow Fairy Book (Long), and then I'm not sure where I'd like to pick up in our reading and literature for school. I do like the idea of tying it to our history (Middle Ages/Early Renaissance), but haven't taken the time to compile a good list yet. On the boys' reading independently, John's enjoying his brain candy: Animorphs, Magic Tree House, and Henry and Ribsy. He's also still reading dutifully any of the other materials we put before him. Between the two, he's growing in his reading and also developing the habit of reading. I do love a good one-two punch! James will master reading comprehension. He will get it. He will not leave the house with this amazing ability to recall every detail of an appliance user's manual and yet not be able to recall a single thing about the biography he just read. I know this. I trust this. I will repeat this until I am vindicated in my faith. Until then, we will continue to read, talk, think, question, read, talk, question, think, read...

History is, as always, Story of the World. LOVE it. We've just wrapped up the introduction to the history of Islam, as a nation and an empire. Good stuff. We start the Chang Dynasty today, and then in no time at all we'll be up to the necks of our hauberks in knights and samurai! I plan to hit up the Baldwin Project and Project Gutenberg for some good reading to add to that. ClickBooks will make our springtime reading so much easier!

I think that's it. It doesn't look like much when it's all written out. Why does it feel like we're always so busy? Well, we do slip a lot in here and there. Sometimes we skip something, sometimes we add something, but there's always something to learn.

Oh, and we did decide to do Cub Scouts. The boys are enthusiastic and interested, the leaders are, at the very least, enthusiastic, and Zorak swears it'll be *his* thing to do with the boys (which gives me one evening a week with just the Littlest Littles, and that's quite enjoyable - enjoyable and guilt-free!) So, there's that, as well.

And now, I've spent most of my lunch preparation time writing this up. I'd best go find something to put together and call the boys in from their romping.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Blogging: Toy Bin

This is the last of the Christmas Vacation projects. It's also the last of the completed projects. (No, this isn't how we rest, Mere - the lack of productivity I blogged about the other day is how we recover from the work we did between Christmas and New Year's! That's all I've been up to since then, and that's why this is the last of the photos. Um, nevermind. You asked if this is how I Nest, not Rest... obviously, they eyesight in the third or fourth thing to go.)

Now, If you all aren't inspired to finish something by now, well, there's nothing more I can do for you. I'm fully back in Total Enabler Mode, and if you ask for ideas, my input is likely to be along the lines of chocolate, coffee, and good books.

The toy bins are a favorite creation around here. They began like so many other projects around here:

One of us will need a solution for some functional issue. We'll look around a bit. We'll complain about the shoddy workmanship and the lack of true functionality. One of us will mutter, 'We could make something better.' And then, we do.

Or, to be more specific. I say, "Oh! Oh! I know! It's easy! We could *insert creative, yet not terribly well-thought out idea here*!" Zorak looks at me, and wanders off to the computer to draw up something that won't implode. And then, we do it.

The open, ladder style sides are new. They reduce the weight tremendously, are more economical to make than the solid-side design in the kids' rooms, and we really like the look. As you can see in the photo, the rails are offset, front to back. This allows the bins to rest forward just a bit. It makes it easier for little hands to reach in, and for little eyes to spot "where things go".

This design accomodates four of the small bins (like the one in the photo above - there's only one because we gave the actual bins to Claudia on Christmas - "Hey! Merry Christmas! Here's half a gift for ya!" Good thing she loves us.) across each of the top two, smaller shelves, and three each of a larger size bin across each of the two lower shelves. We love the waffle-hole Sterlite bins for this. They are sturdy, don't get mucked up easily, and we can find them anywhere!

Oh - and the bathroom picture? The medicine cabinets and painted vanity - those count, too. But I didn't bother to get good pictures of them, so you'll just have to believe me on that. :-)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Blogging: Built-In Desk

So, back when the Forever Home was still a crack house, it had this little built-in desk in one of the bedrooms. Just perfect for studying, erm... chemistry, or, based on the burn marks, for heating heroin. It's not high-end construction, but it is sturdy, and it does fit just perfectly in the little niche in this particular room. We hit it with mildewcide (because that's not dust in the picture below), and banished it to the carport for a while.

Over Christmas, it became another project on the completion list:

It's not entirely completed. The top and left side are a thick veneer, and we've never worked with veneers before. There was no way we could get some of the burn marks completely out without decimating the rest of the piece, so we did what we could -

Stripped and, sanded. We cleaned up some of the edges a bit, and stained it.

The veneer on the left side has some damage down low, so we are thinking we'll put corkboard on that side. The kids could use it for a number of things, it'll look nice, and it'll cover the damaged veneer and protect the integrity of the piece.

We plan to put plexiglass over the top, so the kids can use it for a work surface and display their work and drawings beneath it (that will do double duty in making the desk fully functional *and* hiding the burn marks!) The floor isn't in that room, yet (ignore that part, please), so we won't reattach it until we get that done. We'll put the trim up around the base at that point, too.

And again, before:

After:

But for now, as you can see, the desk has been taken over by Playmobil and the exorcist baby (I have no clue what's up with that doll - perhaps she was injured in a siege?)

And finally, because the shot of the bathroom in that first picture heebes me out so completely, here's a little something to wash it out:
Another Project done! (Hey, maybe someday we'll do baseboards!)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

No Productivity Whatsoever

Yeah, yeah, I know. Well, you see, we've been... napping. And then there was that time we spent eating. That was good. Not productive, per se, and didn't get us anywhere on the projects or the project blogging (sorry!) but well *stretch* it was *yawn* really, really good.

And then, there was more napping.

The funny thing about napping. I hate it. I love my afternoon quiet time. But I don't so much love the whole-family-nap-a-thon thing. During the week, we have lunch, we put EmBaby down for a nap. Everybody goes away and spends an hour not touching each other, not asking for candy, not. making. noise. That's what I'm after. I don't care if they sleep or not. And since I'm usually too stoked to be not being touched, or whined at, or called in to intervene (and since I know it's only going to last an hour before the bell dings and we're all back in the padded ring together), I don't usually sleep. I may rest, but I don't sleep. And since I'm awake, I can get things done before the hour is up. It's a beautiful thing, that afternoon quiet time.

But when Zorak is home, it's a different story. He's so warm and torch-like. (This is far more appealing mid-January than, say, late-August!) He's wonderfully affectionate. And he does love a good nap. Somehow, that combination creates this hideous vortex that sucks me in like a ship to a whirlpool. I snuggle in, "just for a minute".

Then everything goes black.

I wake up two hours later to the sound of Snow White torturing birds on the TV, the children climbing over my head like they're foraging for mites, and the unmistakable realization that I've lost valuable laundry time. Project time. Food preparation time! And they're UP! They're moving about. EmBaby's done napping! Noooo...

So I drag myself from the vortex, find a sweater, and wipe the tears from my eyes as I stumble toward the bathroom (because yeah, I'm that pregnant now). At least the children know not to try to beat me to the bathroom door anymore. You get stepped on enough times by a sleepy pregnant woman with an angry bladder and you learn to steer clear of that situation.

But I never can seem to get back on top of things after that. So the rest of the day is usually pretty tough. I mentioned this yesterday, and how I felt so robbed of the productivity I'd planned in my head, and how pouty I was feeling that I'd been gypped of that precious work-time.

Zorak looked at me like I'd grown three heads. All in rather awkward places. "Wow. I was just going to say that this was the most relaxing, enjoyable day I've had in my entire life."

Gah.

Now I have guilt.

How can the same, exact day look and feel so completely different to two people? Two people who were both *there* for the entire day? I know the answer: I am notoriously bad at letting go of the "To Do List" in my head. Even when the "Got It" list is nicer, better, snugglier, and probably a whole lot healthier, it's hard to let go of the internal That Which Must Be Done.

I've gotta work on that, and then work on not kicking myself afterword. Or, you know, unintentionally kicking someone I love. *cringe*

So, we all had a wonderful day spent doing a few things that needed doing, eating food that needed eating, and getting rest and time together that we all needed to get. It was good. It just took me a while to realize that. I'm glad I've got Zorak to recalibrate me on what's important to put at the top of the list.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Blogging?

Well, it's a project of sorts. :-) Meet Heinrich*:

We ran the gauntlet (literally - I will never set foot in an OB's office again after that nightmare) in order to see his little spine (perfect!), the four chambers of his heart (beautiful!), his full little bladder (lookin' good!), and... F. Murray Abraham!Do you see him in there, lurking behind my child, in the upper left corner? Why is he in there? How did he get in there? Huh. You'd think I'd be bigger.

And this is about the only recognizable shot we got of wee little Heinrich. The OB did the ultrasound. After waiting two hours past our appointment time, and being treated like pariahs, the u/s tech walked out on us without a word before even starting the u/s. (And we hadn't even complained or whined! We were stoked to be there, in the actual room, to see the baby, and focused on being positive!) The OB didn't know what he was doing, and had a very difficult time of it. And he made it clear, too.

Like I said, not a pleasant experience. That wasn't the worst of it, by a long shot, though, and at least in the end, we saw the important things and feel comfortable that there'll be no need for a specialist on hand at the birth. So, all systems are a "Go" and we'll get better pictures when he arrives in March! What an amazing experience, no matter how many times you do it.

Kiss those babies!

~Dy

*No, we're not really calling him Heinrich. But until we land on a name, this will have to do.

Project Blogging: Coffee Table

Wow. This one took me back a few years. I bought this thing before I met Zorak. Picked it up for $30 at a junk shop. It was stained with a dark, dark stain that was probably meant to have a "luxurious, rich wood" look. It made the table look black. The top was smokey glass. (Hey, I was childless, okay? Glass-topped furniture didn't seem like too bad an idea, as long as you kept the drunks away from it.) Granted, it wasn't "just the thing" to set off my wicker living room furniture (also bought dirt cheap at a junk shop - this is a theme, with me), but it worked.

Zorak and I stripped it and refinished it in '98. We fell in love with the wood grains, although the top never made us say "wow". Still, you go with what you've got. It lived happily with our small family until we began to worry that James would fall through the smokey glass and bleed uncontrollably, at which point, the table went into the garage.

Fast forward three years. Two children, and another on the way. We really needed a living room table, so the boys and I decided we'd tile the table top. Zorak didn't think we'd do it, but once it became evident we would, in fact, go through with it, he got involved with the structural engineering aspect of the design and the coffee table became a Whole Family Project. (He loves me, and part of that love includes knowing my limitations. I will come up with ideas galore, and they'll be beautiful! But I'm not likely to do the math with regard to weight limits, structural integrity, or water drainage. It'll be lovely, but someone *could* die if Zorak doesn't step in and help.) So, he helped, and we got a great table!

Our little Family Table lived a fairly normal life, until we bought this place. (Also a theme for us, and most of our belongings!) And so, it has languished in the basement, unseen and uncared for, for a little over two years. Construction debris, dust, spiders, paint thinner, primer, stripper, sawdust... you name it, this table's been hit with it in the past two years. It was lookin' a little poor last week...

Fortunately, however, it cleaned up beautifully, and is now back among the living! Another project completed.

Kiss those babies!

~Dy

p.s. - the lines on this piece are the ones we replicated in some of our other projects. :-)

Project Blogging: Coat Rack

And *this* is my new coat rack:

It's got 12 hooks, and all that wonderful shelf space. I love it. The old one (which is identical, except it it's 1/3 the length, and has only four hooks) now resides quite happily in our bedroom. Both make me so happy. They help tremendously with our lack of closet space, and every time I look at them, I hear a little voice whispering, "We're loved."

The boys did a significant amount of the work on this project: measuring, cutting, joining, and routing. Although I knew about it, they still wanted to do the work "in secret", so I wasn't there to take pictures of any of the totally cool work, like the biscuit joining or the routing. Zorak did get to take some shots of them staining the pegs, since that didn't require his highest concentration and cat-herding skills quite like overseeing small children and power tools - I can appreciate the dearth of photographs, considering the options available to him!

Smidge was so proud of his work.

John, fastidious, as always.

Em got a dry brush and a stack of pegs, because she simply would not let John stain in peace, "I a turn! I A TURN!" This made her very happy. (Me, too.)

And, Voila! Lovely pegs!

Zorak did the gluing in the wee hours of the night. I think he was ready for it to be Up And Functional.

A few hours later, it was, in fact, Up And Functional (we didn't waste any time filling that thing up, did we?)

Take a gander at the edging on this. Zorak *hearts* CAD. It allows him to do oodles of nifty things, but in this case, he could replicate the profile on our favorite piece of furniture. Now, in spite of the fact that nothing was made at the same time, or of the same materials (or usually even with the same stain), the profiles tie it all together. It all says, "This is ours." I love the way they look, and they're fun to fondle, too.

And so, that's another project completed. Feels good. Looks good. Works beautifully. Forever Home Projects really do help make a house, a Home. :-)

Kiss those babies!

~Dy

Project Blogging: Chair

I've finally got photographs of the projects we've done this past week. They are uploaded and mostly edited. My goal this week (on top of schooling, bills, and other miscellaneous whatever-it-is-I've-forgotten by now) is to get pictures of each project posted. I'm hoping for one a day. We'll see how it goes.

Starting with today's projects, and working backward, this is my Dad's old office chair. I don't know where it came from, as he had it for years before he ever met Mom. There's a tag underneath that says, "Sikes Company, Inc. Buffalo, NY". It had markings on it in pencil, but they've been illegible for thirty years or more. The style, from what I've found of Sikes Chairs, indicates late '40's. However, there's a black and cream plastic tag on the back, in lieu of the metal tags used in the '30's. So, going with the heyday of my Dad's time, I'm going to guess this is a late 50's, early-60's model. Total conjecture on my part, however, and I've no way of ever knowing for sure.

Still, I love this chair. Not that you can tell it in the "before" pictures at the top, but I do. And so, this weekend, we cleaned it up and got it ready to resume Life With A Family (which could quite possibly reduce it to its former condition in no time at all, I know).
Obviously, we didn't do a full restoration on this piece. I've got a pecan wood tea cart that's been waiting a lot longer, and is in more dire need of some hard-core TLC. However, this little bit of work is enough to keep the wood from deteriorating, and make the piece not only appealing, but useful once more.

*happy sigh*

I love quality, old-school woodwork!

The kids are thrilled, and hope to use it with the desk, which is now back in the guest room (pictures will follow, honest!) I don't know, though... this chair is horribly comfy... much moreso than the stool I've got here at the computer desk... hmmm. We may have to negotiate.

My computer has dementia! And, uh, some other ramblings.

Somehow (we'll pretend we don't know the usual suspects) the clock on the computer got reset, and it insisted that today is January 3. I could have sworn we were at the library on Jan 3. I wrote two checks yesterday, and dated them both the 3rd. Am I losing my mind? Ahhh, no. It's the House Gremlins. (I wanted house elves, I got house gremlins. How is that right, I ask you?)

In general news:
Last night, Zorak brought home three wonderful, thick, new twin-sized mattresses. I was more excited than the boys! They've been sleeping on the 3" thick foam pads that came with their bunks beds, oh, four years ago (and Smidge has been in the toddler bed - thankfully, he got my father's stumpy legs, so he still fits lengthwise!) It was time. It was most likely past time, to be honest, but you work with what you've got and when you can do it, then that's the time to do it. And so. Oh, what fun. Fresh, flannel sheets, twin size blankets. The boys thought it was pretty cool, but for me, it was more than that. It was that warm and fuzzy feeling only a parent knows, the one that says,

"All is right with your child's world, if only for right now. And please, God, don't let anybody pee on this new mattress or I will cry. You know I will."

Smidge's bed is a trundle. Well, right now, it's on the floor, and we'll just push it under the bunk beds each morning. But shortly, we'll build a trundle frame for it, with wheels, so he can break his own neck without having to rely on his brothers' assistance. The joy for me came in not having him come galumpfing into our room around four-thirty, complaining that he was cold, or that he'd had a nightmare. Usually it's just that he's fallen out of bed. Last night, all slept deeply and awoke this morning refreshed and ready for the day! Good, good stuff. (I don't mind the littles in our bed, but this one puts off an awful lot of heat and sleeps atop the covers. Within half an hour, I'm being roasted alive between the Flaming Torch and his son, Smouldering Stick, and I can't get out on either side without a struggle. It makes for rough mornings. He is what we semi-affectionately call a 'nad killer', though, and can't sleep in the middle or Zorak suffers terribly while I escape off the side.)

EmBaby graduated from the crib to the toddler bed. She got a new satin pillowcase (in the hope that will cut down on her morning dreds). I thought for sure there'd be a bit of negotiation with the whole I-can-get-out-without-your-assistance-now realization. But no, she was thrilled. She climbed in, pulled the covers over her head and went right to bed, happy as a head-covered clam.
(This picture if from Christmas morning - she actully sleeps like that - makes me batty.)

Now, if we can just get back to a routine, I think we'll see spectacular things in 2008!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

A delicious first day of the year.

Bring it on! I am ready for 2008! My calendars are synchronized. All in the same ink, even. (Which is the non-tech equivalent of having your various software all clean and ready for work.) I feel downright invincible! Muaahaahaaa!!!

We were about four hours later than we'd hoped to be, getting into town, but I had three days' worth of sawdust to get out of my hair (and my pores), so it took some scrubbing. Granted, not four hours' worth, but still, that didn't help.

However, we made it into town, made one stop for jeans for Zorak (which they didn't have - curses! - we miss living in the Southwest, where his jeans are readily available in any clothing outlet *sigh*). The boys, however, when we pulled into Gander Mtn's parking lot, erupted with pleas that surprised us:

Oh! Oh, can we get more Smart Wools?

What? Yes, it seems our offspring have developed a penchant for a specific type of sock. Me-Wa and Me-Tae bought them each a pair last Christmas, and I'm surprised there aren't holes in every pair, for all the wear they've had this year. So why I was surprised to find my non-shoppers so eager to run in and grab... socks... I don't know. I'm not even sure how they knew Gander Mtn. sells Smart Wools, to be honest. However, they got their socks, and then we journeyed onward.

We enjoyed a few hours of really nice conversation and general hanging out with friends, ditched the rest of the errands we'd hoped to run and made it home before bedtime. We'll have to run errands tomorrow, instead, but having the kids in bed before the adults needed to be turning in was, to my semi-introverted inner self, worth every minute it'll cost tomorrow. The partial paralysis to my emotional well-being from having Very Little Down Time this past week should begin to subside with a few nights' restorative work on the routine.

We saw snow flurries! They didn't last, and they didn't stick, but they felt downright magical floating down on us as we walked up the street. If they hadn't been accompanied by some kind of evil, transient Arctic wind, I'd have hijacked Zorak for a romantic walk in the moonlight. It's the thought that counts, though, right? Even if you're thinking it while you high-tail it for the nearest door? Very good.

I just checked the weather. No wonder the heater hasn't shut off yet! According to The Weather Channel, it's "27', feels like 17'." Um, yeah. That's pretty stinking cold. The low tonight is supposed to get down to 19'. I don't want to be up at that point to see what it feels like. So I'm going to crawl into bed and give thanks for the insulation in our walls, the blankets on our windows, and the propane in the tank. There's no way I can take those things for granted.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Our wish for you this year...

...is that you'll always feel welcome,

You'll always find beauty in simple things,

You'll remember to seek wonder all around,

And when you find it, you'll share it.

From our home, to yours, may 2008 bring you Joyful Adventures filled with wonder, awe, love, and warmth.

Kiss those babies!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Another Productive Day

We got so much done today! Well, not a lot, domestically speaking. The kids mostly ran amok in and out of the sawdust, played billiards, and ate Chrismtas candy remnants. But on the project front, we did accomplish a bit. It's going to be horribly dull when Zorak goes back to work Wednesday. The kids and I just do normal "stuff" during the day - but when Zorak is home, it's all an adventure! I have thoroughly enjoyed this time with him.

Today he put two coats of stain on my new coat rack. I want to fondle it and touch it and whisper things to it, but it's a bad idea to manhandle the wet stain. Not to mention the whole fumes-while-pregnant issue. We won't even discuss the concerns surrounding Mommy talking to the furniture. So. I stand back and oooohhh and ahhhh, and inwardly stomp my feet like the impatient six-year-old I am. You know, deep down inside. :-) He got the stain on the rails of Claudia's toy bin, too. Different stain. Just as pretty. I didn't touch or talk to those, either. (I've been so good!)

I did, however, while feeling a bit guilty for sitting on the futon chair (again), reading (again), and doing absolutley nothing (erm, still...) decide I needed to clean up our old coffee table. This is the table James and John helped me make the top for, way back when I was pregnant with Smidge. We didn't want to strip it, but after two and a half years in storage, it needed something more than Murphy's. Zorak found a product today at Home Depot called "Restor-A-Finish" - wow! You can't use it with polyurethane, but since we don't polyurethane *anything*, we figured it would work well for us. It did! The table looks as good tonight as it did when we first refinished it. Ahhh, what a great feeling. (And how little work! LOVE that stuff!) Anyway, that little project turned out so beautifully that I've decided to tackle the big office desk chair and an old end table tomorrow. If we somehow manage to get enough sunlight into the basement, I'll get pictures of the progress.

We have only two days of vacation left. In that time, we've got to finish the small desk and haul it upstairs, pick up mattress bags and haul the guest room bed downstairs, hang the coat rack, finish Claudia's toy bin rack, make a new step stool for the bathroom (one that will fit beneath the sink and remove the toe-eating feature of the bath - not a big selling point, really) and... and I'm forgetting something. There's more on the list, but this is the stuff I need Zorak's help with (well, I *could*, technically, just let the boys maul the mattress down the basement stairs, but I have nightmares that they'll one day try to *ride* something down those stairs... those stairs that end at a cinder-block wall... it's worth it to ask for help from a grownup). We also want to get into town and visit Me-Wa and Me-Tae - we haven't seen them in almost a month, and we're all Jonesing for a visit.

Sometime between now and Wednesday, I want to review our lessons and goals for the Winter Term. We've only got January, February, and March before the baby arrives, and I'd like to be all caught up on our more structured academic work, poised with plenty of good literature on hand, and be able to spend our Spring on the back porch, enjoying the new dynamics and the daffodils. :-)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Christmas Gatherings. Literally.

This sounds so trite, but we had the nicest Christmas. The children had a wonderful time. We had a wonderful time. The food was to-die-for and since we ditched the traditional menu, the time savings left us with oodles of time to just enjoy the days leading up to, and following, Christmas Day. Other than missing so many of our loved ones, and wishing we could have been together, this was, perhaps, the Best Christmas Ever, for us.

We took over 300 pictures that day. 98% of them are of the backs and sides of peoples' heads. This is not what I was shooting for. This would normally bother me (or cause me to lobby for a better camera... which isn't out of the question just yet), except that the reason for the poor pictorial performance is wonderful: everybody was wholeheartedly engaged with everyone else.

Pfft.

How can I knock that, even in the name of needing to get some good pictures?
See...

Isn't that fun? They were like this all day. The kids were all excited about their own gifts, but they were equally excited to share in their siblings' joy, too. That... that stuff doesn't just... well, that was the best thing I could have found beneath the tree this year, that's for sure.

And my gift? The final gluing and clamping is done. It dries tonight, and in the morning, we stain. I can hardly wait to show y'all!!

Did you have a good Christmas? Did you get a Favorite Shot sometime during the day? Want to post it? I'd love to see it!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

A New Project

You can see, if you look closely at the picture below, there is a futon frame, belly-up in the basement. (OK, I tried to make it easy - the hot pink writing? Doesn't actually appear in the basement.)
That's the one we salvaged when we needed a couch for this place during its "construction phase", two years ago. We lived in/on/around it for about a year, thoroughly beat the tar out of it, and then, when it had finally given up all pretense of function, we laid it down in the basement. Presumably to die.

But that's the thing about metal. It just won't always up and decompose like you'd hope it would. And so, as you can see, the frame stayed. It gathered dust. It held my old lariat. It created a jarring visual. Particularly after the Great Basement Clean of '08 (which continued this last week, once I could again breathe and stand upright - but more on that later). I wanted to toss it. Zorak wanted to keep it. (Did you see all that metal? Metal is always useful. Honestly.) We went back and forth. Considering this photo was taken less than two weeks ago, I think it's obvious how I fared on those discussions. Fast forward to December 23rd. Decision-making time. There was only one way to handle this:

This basement's just not big enough... well, it's big enough, but I just don't want to look at this thing, anymore. Are you going to do something with it, or is this part of your overall plan to make me criminally insane?

Well, I guess I'd just never taken the blunt approach before. And the basement is all purtied up and ready to use. And, well, what the heck. Let's do it.

And so, what began as a Crusade to rid the basement of More Crap turned into the Plan to Make It All Come Together. Here's what we came up with:


You know, that was actually kind of fun! It fits two adults and one toddler quite comfortably. Or one adult, one bag of peanut butter cups, a coffee cup, and a good book. (Ask me where I spent the day after Christmas!) Plus, since we saved the hardware from the edges, it folds flat to make a splendid cushiony seating thing for, well, I can't think of a reason. But it'd be a great place to nap if you're small enough! It won't be pretty for a while, but now it's functional. And the view across the basement is improved already! And did ya see the joy on that little guy's face? Oh, he had so much fun helping to build it with us! That, alone, was worth all the waiting in the world.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Christmas Tree Cakes

The boys got their trees decorated. The trees actually turned out much better than I anticipated. James asked if I was going to blog them, so, here they are! The boys worked diligently at their task. (Ignore the boxes in the foyer - that's what passes for Christmas storage in our house.)
Why, yes, yes, they are wearing their pajamas. Sometimes we don't get around to something until it's, well, past bedtime, if I must be honest. :-) Don't they look traumatized?
And then, ta-da! Decorated, happy, semi-delicious trees. I think these silly little trees turned out to be one of the best projects we've done this season. The kids really enjoyed them. (So much so that there are actually a few missing. It seems there is no flat surface in this house that can keep EmBaby from her sugar fix.)
(The boys graciously agreed to let her keep the ones she'd already sucked on. How thoughtful, no?)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

One More Gift To Buy

Oh, this was just too sweet, and I can't resist. Tonight, we were doing groceries, when James saw that the store had The Order of the Phoenix. That's the next book on his list. He's been told he must wait until his birthday (next September) to get it. Still, he was so excited to point it out to me.

I gave the non-committal "mmmm, that's interesting" response and kept walking, because, let's be truthful, I'm about done shopping. I bought food tonight solely because I really like to eat.

He paused, and suddenly, his little face just. lit. up. He let out a little, "Oh!", slipped up to me, put his arm in mine, and whispered, "Thank you."

And the child simply glowed through the rest of the shopping excursion.

At the thought of receiving this book.

Not even a hint of disappointment at thinking he knew what he'd be getting Christmas morning. It didn't ruin anything for him. Just total, utter contentment.

Well. Yeah. How can I not pick up a copy now, right?

So, one more stop this weekend, and then I'm really, truly finished. But oh, what a worthwhile stop to make!

Dy

Thanks!

Well, we got pictures to Target to print out as cards. Thank you for your input! (And Amy, thank you for reminding me of Shutterfly - and then, for walking me through it in my caffeine-deprived haze this morning!) Hopefully, Zorak will pick them up on his way home. If I have your address, you can expect a card from us by, um, Easter. And if you read the blog, you may not actually get the Christmas letter in with your card, because, well, because you know everything we've been doing this year!

And just when I was feeling quite together and such, Smidge brought me this lovely package of little gift bags and asked what they were for. "OH, those are for Daddy to take candies to his co-workers." Pause. Insert internal dialogue:

Uh... tomorrow's Friday. And then, it's Christmas. He won't see these people after tomorrow. I haven't made candy! When was I going to make candy? Why didn't I? Oh, yeah, I was sick. Nuts. Well, they'll probably appreciate that I didn't make candy *while* I was sick. Or, they would if they knew why there's no candy. Oh. Well.

There goes the General Sensation of Togetherness, as you can see. And so, that brings us up to date. :-) Yay. Putting Em down right now, and then I'm going to turn the boys loose to decorate the cupcake Christmas trees we attempted to make the other day.

What? I didn't mention those? Yeah. Probably because they didn't work so well. The cones we used collapsed. It'll take a month to burn off all the overspill in the oven. Then we tried making foil cones to hold the batter. Those weren't horribly stiff, and didn't want to hold your basic cone-shape. It was difficult to get the trees out from all the folds and creases. But they did come out. Mostly. We have a theme, at least: A Chernobyl Christmas.

Thankfully, the kids are all about the icing, which I'm not going to tell you about, either. So, thankfully-thankfully, the kids don't have terribly high standards and are just happy to be decorating what I claim are trees with what they know is a sugar-based substance. See? It's all good. No need for holiday stress, at all, if you're simply willing to lower your standards, mmm, "be flexible".

Yeah. Good stuff, really. Even when our tea cart is decorated with what looks suspiciously like an acid-rain forest, and Zorak has to hand out empty gift bags tomorrow. How did I get so lucky to have such an awesome family? Really. Good, good stuff.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Group Photos from Round 1

OK, just presume that I can edit out the marker (which I didn't see when I took the picture to begin with - you'd think I'd have fixed that by now, I know). And if there's anything else truly glaring, I probably can't fix it, but I have People Who Can. And they love me. Thankfully!

I really like this next one... except, is Smidge chewing or talking? I'm not sure.

This one makes me smile the most...

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Photos, Take 1

This is gonna take another round, I think. Whooo boy. We made a point of keeping it fun......and while that did reduce the stress level, it didn't do much for the quality of the photos. When I got a good shot, it was blurry (my camera doesn't like indoor photography, at all, and I haven't figured out the magic trick for making it behave). I mean, seriously, look at that - I'm not using a 1976 Polaroid, I swear. Huh. And, um, the star wasn't straightened. But I'd happily crop the star for in-focus children at this point!


And then, they figured out that I had muffins, and it was all over...


Emily's watching Elf (we think she has a crush on Buddy *sigh*) and when she gets up from her nap, if it's still light out, we'll try again. I hate to do this, as the children have been so gracious and sweet about it. But you know what, this is one of the perks of having children. They're lucky I don't take them to the Big, Scary Photographer my mother took me to as a child... oh, wait, that was my Uncle. Well, still, it's not fun to have Herr Scary directing the Christmas shots, okay? Someday (not today, or probably even next year, but someday), they'll appreciate this.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

They've Been Warned

Last night, I told each child that this morning is The Day. The Day we take pictures. The Day we pretend we're organized. Since I'm still without transportation, and it's kind of cold outside, we'll do it indoors. They have from the time we put the muffins IN the oven, until the time we take them OUT of the oven, to give me a good shot with most apendages intact, and eyeballs not doing things eyeballs ought not do. Period. It's happening, folks, and it's happening T-O-D-A-Y.

But... but what brought this on, you may ask? Traitors. That's what brought this on.

We got cards this year from not one, but TWO -- TWO -- friends I've always been able to count on for also Not Sending Cards. But noooooo, they had to go get on the ball this year. Then another friend called yesterday, "I got cards! I need your address!" Granted, after I gave it to her, she laughed and said, "OK, now I've got *one* address. This is such a good start." So, there may still be hope for her, but I doubt it. She sounded like she'd been stoking up on caffeine, and she just might pull this off. Well, I may be the last among my friends to be able to keep a plant alive. Or to stop giggling and hearing Beavis' voice in my head when I'm taking tours led by Park Rangers. Or to relegate an actual day to switching out the sheets. I'm okay with bringing up the rear on those things. But I cannot be the Very Last One to get around to the last of the Domestic Tasks That Makes People Smile.

How could I not want to make people smile? What kind of selfish, horrible, scatterbrained person wouldn't leap at the chance to spread a little happiness and help fund the USPS? What am I, a commie?

NO! No, I say! I am a red-blooded American Housewife, and by-golly, I have a heritage to uphold! *play inspiring music of your choice in your head, here - personally, I'm going with Eye of the Tiger this morning*

So, who wants to come back around lunch and help me pick photos? :-D And recover.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Company, or More Forever Home Updates

I know, I promised to relegate those to Sunday's posts only. I lied. It seems that's been our focus this week, and I can't just sit here and hear the voices on my own, okay? So, I've got to share the joy with you.

We're having company next week, and I've noticed that seems to be our biggest motivator. (Ack! Someone might see how we *gasp* LIVE!) I mean, it's one thing to read about it, but it's another thing, entirely, to walk into it. What I really need is a year's supply of guests, each willing to come for one weekend a month, one group per month. That gives me three weekends to get things done before each group arrives, and then a weekend of force feeding people just because it's fun. Really, that seems like the best schedule for us to use. Any takers? Anyone? Please? The last weekend in January looks open, and at this rate, I think we could roll out the red carpet for you by then!

We finally caved and bought medicine cabinets at Lowe's this weekend. We've been holding off for an IKEA trip. There is so much we'd planned to get from IKEA: medicine cabinets, comforters for the boys, new twin mattresses, that hanging chair thing (for the kids, honest), kitchen lighting, perhaps a new sofa. See? That's worth the drive to Atlanta. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to scrape together the time to make the trip *and* the money to blow once we got there, all at the same time. But the kids really need blankets that actually fit their beds, and we really need some storage solutions. So, we gave in and went with this. It turned out great. We put up two cabinets, so there are enough mirrors that everyone can see from the vantage point of his respective sink. Plus, the mirrors are far enough apart that nobody's toothpaste gets in anybody else's hair. (If your toothpaste gets in your own hair, well, there's not much I can do for ya, there.) The gap between the two is large enough that when somebody starts touching someone else, it'll be fairly obvious who violated the airspace. The peace this will bring to my home is indescribable. There is also now enough room to stash a step stool beneath the sinks, and my stubbed toes will be forever grateful to get that bit taken care of.

Then, like the distractable puppies we are, we realized you can now actually access the wee gap between the backsplash and the wall (bad framing, not something we did wrong). It needs caulking before the boys decide it would make a great used floss receptacle. And we thought we found weird things behind the cabinets we pulled out, right? Ew. But, before we can caulk, we really need to paint the cabinet base, and before we can paint the cabinet base, we really need to dismantle the doors and drawers. Oh! Hey! We can paint in the basement! So it doesn't matter that it'll get down to the 20's at night! WOOHOO! Let's go! Now, the storm windows still aren't finished, but the cabinet base is lookin' good.

I worked a bit more in the basement yesterday, too. Cleared off the Big Wonderful Desk (I love that desk), and also cleared off the Small, Semi-Creepy-Yet-Fully-Functional desk from beneath the piles of boxes. Zorak pulled the small desk out and we made the command decision to give it a hearty sanding and restain it, and we'll put it back into the guest room, where it has lived for most of its life. That buys us more floor space in the basement, and gives James a place to work in peace (because right now, he's nine, and he must have peace to tap into his genius. Or something. I don't know. He's nine. We just try to go with it.)

All in all, things are moving along nicely. Zorak asked me to be a little less productive day, and (once I ascertained that he was actually wanting me to relax and rest, and he wasn't being snarky), I agreed. So we're going to be slugs today. Perhaps bake. Definitely read. Maybe even craft something. (Don't quote me on that, though, he said I could relax - so we'll play the crafting bit by ear.)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy