Other New Improvements

Other newly added items to my house are my Ikea pillows (the blue triangular graphics). Also, I painted some quick tree branches on canvases and hung them up with some frames in our stairway. See pictures below posts.

Home Improvements

I just thought I'd share some projects I've been working on. First, we took down a dated chandelier from our family room (finally!) and after spray-painting it and attaching a barrel shade, we installed it above our kitchen table. We also replaced our giant fluorescent light with a chandelier to hang above our island. Jason undertook the difficult task of putting trim on our cabinet doors and replacing all the hardware. This was much harder than I thought it would be because there was so much measuring and then filling holes with spackling...painting...etc! It looks beautiful, don't you think? Another huge project was ripping out our old burgundy 80's carpet in the family room. We replaced that with hardwood that snaps together. This ended up being a stressful project because we discovered that our floor was sloped in one corner of the room. We had to buy self-leveling concrete mix which delayed the project for a day. However, we got it done and doesn't it look awesome? That Jason is becoming a pro! I hope to do our sliding glass doors one of these days....wouldn't french doors look beautiful? We'll see! Thanks for stopping by! By the way...I'm not very good at figuring out how to get my pictures where they should be on this sorry excuse for a blog.....I believe they are near the bottom of this page.

Mud Facial Anyone?

So, I thought you might like to see the latest happenings here at our house. Last week it warmed up a bit and I thought it might be fun for the boys to go outside. Right before they went out I said, "watch out for mud...try not to get in it." Ha ha. What a joke! That's like telling a magnet not to get near metal. The next thing I knew I looked out the back door and saw picture #1. I just cracked up. I couldn't help it! So, I ran and got the camera and they posed for me. I guess laughing wasn't the best response because they only got muddier after that! Apparently, Wesley got a mud facial courtesy of his brother. After a while of mud bathing, they wanted to come inside. I had no idea how to get them in the house! Eventually, I decided on taking off their clothes outside. Although they didn't enjoy the chilly air on their wet skin, they did enjoy the warm bath afterward (you don't want to know what the bathtub looked like after that). I carried Wes upstairs to the bath, but Robby ran up and later had to come down to mop up his footprints! He loved it.

Check out picture #1 again...notice their feet...both have a missing boot. Those mud-caked things were later found imbedded in a deep mud hole. Lovely.

Typical Morning in the Life of R. & W.

Oct. 2, 2009

Okay, so I’m finally doing as my mom suggested and writing down the crazy stuff going on in my home. She says I won’t remember it when I’m older (which I find hard to believe…but here goes).

Sometimes I feel so crazy at home with my kids that I am at a loss for words to describe how I feel. Here is what went on this morning…see if you can picture it….
Robby is putting away the clean silverware which is his chore. He did it reluctantly and I had to threaten a timeout to get him going. Wes is done with breakfast and because I forgot his bib, he is covered in mashed bananas, pineapple juice and sausage grease. I strip him down to his diaper and tell R. to finish up his chore while I go dress Wesley.

I come back down to find him using his scissors to hold one piece of silverware at a time, dropping them into the drawer without concern for their final destination. I think, “very clever – he is so smart that the normal way of doing things is boring.” However, I ask him to reorganize and I take the scissors. Strangely, he doesn’t mind too much and doesn’t have a tantrum.

Wes wants to pull down the silverware drawer. Robby starts to freak out (picture frantic yelling, babbling and limb shaking). I take Wes away until R. finishes his chore. He gets a sticker. I tell R. to go potty before he plays….again no tantrum?? Wow! He has a small flashlight to play with that I’d taken away yesterday for violence toward W. Robby is so happy to have it back that he goes right into the bathroom.

He wants to pee by the light of the flashlight. I again think about his creativity. The door closes Wes & Mama out. Wes cries. I comfort him while R. yells that he can’t see. I open the door and turn on the light. R. proceeds to go and flush. W. still cries to get into the bathroom. R. needs help with his pants. I put W. down and discover that R. peed on the floor and his underwear are wet too. We take off the wet underwear and R. cries & screams because I tell him to go get new underwear upstairs (meanwhile I am staying relatively calm and chipper).

R. tries to run out of the bathroom and knocks Wes into the wall. W. cries and R. cries. I tell R. to go around and say excuse me. He yells it. I tell him to take his underwear to the laundry room and I start trying to clean up the pee. Wes is trying to get the drawers and cabinet open to make a delicious snack of T.P. and toilet bowl cleaner. I stop him with one hand and clean up the pee with the other. I open the door to go out and slam it into R.’s face because he is right outside the door. He screams and lays on the floor. I try to comfort him and ask why he wasn’t putting his underwear in the laundry room like I asked. I get no where with this question so I tell him to go upstairs. He then proceeds to ram the baby gate and scream that he can’t go upstairs. I lift him over it and calmly ask him to get new underwear. He yells all the way to his room. I take a deep breath and Wes laughs at me and tries to get down from my arms. I had forgotten I was holding him all this time...no wonder I feel kind of hot and sweaty. I put him down and step over the gate. Wes cries, not wanting to be left behind.
I shout up to R, “do you need help?” R. runs to the stairway and flings underwear at me. I tell him (very calmly still) that he will have to dress himself in his room and not come out until he has them on. R. cries and screams, then grunts and yells at the underwear while yanking them. They get extremely twisted on his legs so I eventually go up to help him.
Wes is crying for me at the bottom of the stairs. We go back down and I tell R. he can watch cartoons while I put W. down for a nap. R. is happy again. W. goes down for a nap.

I collapse on my bed, cry and think, “I can’t do this, why am I such a bad mom, why are my kids like this, what am I doing wrong?”

Then God graciously gives me perspective & peace---those are two p.p.’s I can deal with! Thank you, Lord. Now I’ve gotta go put some pants on R. and get myself dressed before W. wakes up. As usual its 10:30 a.m. and I’m still in my p.j.’s….just another morning in the life of R. & W!