damien thorn has moved into my house.
see the resemblance?
but wow.
i created this blog to remember more about these times in our family, and we do occasionally do things other than redecorate, so here is a post about the past three or four weeks.
those of you that know me, that know my son, know that he has been mellow most of his life. he was a mellow newborn, i mean, he cried, don’t get me wrong, but he was fairly easily soothed by nursing or going outside, and granted, i spent the first year of his life exhausted from the effort (oh yeah, and starting grad school and finding out that my gestational diabetes had not gone away, and all that). but he was not “high needs” or anything like that. he would sleep in his sling or stroller anytime, really. i could go anywhere with him, he was my little sidekick.
this continued for a long time. well, really until about a month ago. he is almost four. will be four in a matter of DAYS, actually. and last month a lot of things changed. he lost some important aspects of his routine, mostly his mondays with geneva and her family. it was bound to happen, i say this only because it was entirely too perfect to last. and it didn’t. nothing perfect lasts. perfection is a myth! haha.
an aside about geneva, my amazing, dynamic, tireless, organic, unschooling, homebirthing, inspiring friend, who has been the only non-family member to keep my child for me with any regularity since his birth, and has done so for the past two years. she has him right now, actually. she just needed a break from the every monday structure and i respect that. but really, if i could afford to offer her $100 an hour to be my only childcare, i would. that is it. she is awesome and her kids are awesome (all three of them!) and vincent is so happy and safe with her. geneva, such a good friend and mama.
anyway, vincent has been having temper tantrums. for the first time. we had no terrible twos, no trying threes. i know that these fits are very age-appropriate, and they will pass, and they are all about his new levels of independence and the inconsistency of our family schedule…(our schedules are the same every week, but not every day. this is hard for a four year old to get. mondays we do this, tuesdays we do that…a week is a long time for them. they are like goldfish.)
i need to fall back and regroup.
all of that, on a monday, and to top it off, literally, my cowlick won’t quit! gimme a break.
cow. lick.
on an up note, the trip to IKEA with the remnants of last year’s gift cards was FRUITFUL and AWESOME, and wednesday morning, i am going to get to work on the last part of the playroom redesign. SO excited.
bake, craft, clean, repeat
i love fridays. i especially love them when i have no plans to be anywhere, and the weather is nice and i can open the windows and have a breeze and bake without feeling like i am going to die of a heatstroke. i love that the grocery store next to josh’s store has $5 prepared meats on fridays, and he brings it home so i don’t have to cook, just make a side and a salad. tonight, it is roasted chicken, which makes me happy. we will have leftover potpourri as sides. life is good.
so i wanted to make english muffins. dunno why, they just sounded good to me. so i surfed around until i found this, and tried the recipe.
yum. lunch.
the one in front was my spoils, with turkey, asiago and a slice of tomato. delish, and not hard. just followed the recipe. raised it in the oven with the light on the first time, and it didn’t seem to rise, but it actually did. then, i made the balls, eight instead of six (and could realy have made 10, they are still pretty big), and then did the trick where you put the oven on till you can just touch the wall of the oven, turn it off, and do the second rise in there. then, the rest just like the cute little boy blogger did.
also, made a cute mobile out of skewers, cotton yarn, and construction paper. I LOVE HAVING A KID!!
so much fun.
that was inspired by this blog that i saw on the craftzine blog that i must read every single day several times. i left the leaves off because well, i just wasn’t feeling them. after making them, though, i was feeling the mobile vibe. didn’t have any disposable chopsticks, so i went with skewers. vincent loves it.
i am almost done cleaning the craft room, during which time my darling boy has wrecked his playroom. i am drinking a diet coke, determined to sit down to dinner in a clean house.
my loaf of bread.
whitey.
and a little moment to shine up my girl…
my hotrod babe.
cause she works hard for the money.
silly dada, bloggers use pictures!
allow me.
the new shelf…makes me SQUEAL with glee!!
simple and gorgeous
the clock is back! and so…even!
time to get to work!
and the drapes of mystery…so dramatic!
not this dark in here...
and the master re-installation of the hardware…thanks dada!!
nice job josh!
i have big plans today and this evening to put more things back on the walls, in between baking and cleaning my craft room, which exploded into a bit of chaos while we were painting. be still, i plan to blog it.
Home improvement, Hurtado style
Normally, “Hurtado-style” home improvement would require 7 half-done projects that look very wrong and at least one trip to the hospital. Luckily, my wife has taught me to be a little more careful than my forebearers. Today I got the following done:
Put the clock back up in the living room. This is very important as we have been constantly looking back toward a blank wall to see what time it is.
Replaced the drapes and curtain rod over the French doors. We’re using the same ones that were up before, only measuring more accurately and being far more careful about where we drill, since we just spent 3 days painting the playroom/den. It looks pretty good, and I think I’ve conquered the practical issues regarding opening the doors with the drapes in the way, though I’ll defer to the judgement of the inspector later.
Put up a shelf in the cabinet that holds all of our most used casserole dishes, strainers, etc… This was something we should have done LONG ago. This morning we just had 1000 things piled on top of one another. Now there are more, smaller piles organized by their usefullness. More useful and used items are on the bottom, the more specialized things are on the top. I did pretty well. The shelf itself is unfinished, so it ain’t going in Modern Architecture magazine, but it works. All of the supplies for that little venture cost about $7. I was pretty happy with that.
There are more things to do, mainly in our autonomous spaces of the house, but the playroom/den is shaping up nicely.
oh and by the way
we are on day three, NO POOP. yes, we are using miralax, and raisins, and juice, and water, and apples, and whatever else he wants to eat. he appears no worse for the wear right now.
hi mama!
that reminds me, the sheets are peed. gotta add changing the sheets to my list. WTF am i sitting here for?
play room part two
so now the hallway looks like this:
better here than in the playroom!
yes, there are a lot.
back here too.
this is the hallway that goes back to the bedrooms, i rearranged these shelves, which already had toys on them, to add more art supplies, etc. and puzzles. things i want to supervise playing with.
so what i have done so far…i moved all these toys out into the hallway. i have taken everything down and spackled except for the paneling wall with the TV hole in it. i am on my way to do that after i get up from this seat.
still to do tonight…
take down tie backs.
take down speakers.
take down curtain rod above tv hole.
spackle.
spackle wall behind couch.
paint picture frame.
tomorrow:
take down curtains and rod from french doors.
spackle.
prime trim.
prime paneling.
cut in walls.
paint walls.
paint trim.
paint paneling.
sunday:
second coats.
take down ceiling fan, spray paint.
put ceiling fan back.
put speakers back.
put new shelves together, put in playroom.
collapse.
play room and kitchen revamp
well, most people that know us know that we kinda live in the kitchen and playroom of our house. i am revamping this area with some new furniture and paint. here are the befores:
peaceful at sundown
this is kind of dark but a very nice shot of my kitchenette corner in the afternoon. a harsher look…
kitchenette corner, before...
now, going clockwise from that corner, here is the wall with the doors, which are going to be painted with chalkboard paint…
i found that awesome 70’s looking ABC print at the thrift store for about 3 bucks. i am going to paint the frame green this evening.
fishtank corner
this is really not a good use of space at all. there are not enough plugs in here, so that will be part of the putting it all back together. moving the plugs isn’t possible, but running some fresh and hidden extension cords is.
long shot
this is standing right in front of the fish tank. it looks so chaotic when i see it in this picture. this is how it feels too. this is the “tv hole” that i will be covering with bird fabric that will match the curtains on the french doors.
left hand corner, close up
middle close up
right hand corner, close up
more. toys.
going around to the long wall where the couch sits, more toys.
destination
here is the hallway that is out the playroom door. we never use the front door. i mean literally, we get the mail, and pizza delivery at the front door. that is is. so, this is wasted space as far as i am concerned, so i am going to use it for toys.
today is the day
we have, as a family, thrown all of the pull ups and diaper-type accessories (changing pad, etc) in the TRASH. vincent helped. he is now watching the lion king because it is after lunch, he has to poo and he is in denial.
wish me luck. seriously.
oh, the red circle store, and play room revamp…
big outing to target today, which vincent calls the red circle store. there were some planned purchases, some scores, and a couple of impulse buys in the dollar bins. not too bad.
mostly i want to show you this awesome playmobil set that vincent came apart over, just wanted it with all of his heart, so i got it for him. i probably won’t buy him anything specifically for his birthday since he will probably get presents from other people at his little party. so. this is how i justify it. that, and this…
hours of silent fun
i mean, this is really cool, admit it!
ahoy, there...
i ended up giving up on my dream of this in my playroom, because the expense was making it very difficult to attain. by the time i added the baskets that make the shelf so cool as storage, it was over $300, which is too much to handle right now. so today, i decided that since these, as well as a set of three-two-one cubes in an asymmetrical stack and these were on sale today, it was a sign to go ahead and get this project accomplished for 1/3 the cost.
and my mama told me she wants to pick up the tab as a present to vinny. that mama. i love her more than i love my teeth. she also had me get the nine-cube set for her in espresso, with pale blue drawer boxes. chic.
so, i still have on my play room revamp list four of these for the wall with the TV in it, and maybe even still getting one of these for just under the TV hole. plus, sewing up the curtains to cover said TV hole.
but all this is after we paint. i plan to prep a bit today, some sunday, and to finish prep completely by friday night. my mom will be coming over saturday i hope, so we can paint.
i may get the doors done with their coats of chalkboard paint before that.
so, on to my scores…
gorgeous bamboo storage boxes for 4.48 and 3.34 respectively…
i am in love with these.
and they are lined…
this is a beautiful thing.
i am not exactly sure where i will use these, but i know that i love them, and wish i would have snatched up the other two. oh well.
it is all good when you get a camera/phone photo of your boy loving some pizza at the end of the trip…
yum.
alright, i have to make a salad.
