peelosophy

Finally.  Hopefully that was the longest month of Winter for us.  There was way too much stuff going on and big stuff all at once at certain points.  Here are some highlights…stick around until #10 it’s the best.

1. George’s 3rd Birthday. Man is he getting big.  He is still the comedian.  He loves recounting moments in our recent history by saying, “Hey mom remember that one time when…” this could have happened a week ago or an hour ago.  Justice is important to him. He never goes a day without out saying, “Hey mom, how come Henry/JJ/Daddy/Emma got this or that and I didn’t” always in a low whine with a martyr-like huff at the end.  He loves to jump over anything and from anything he can – his favorite is to jump on top of a pile of brothers.

He loved his birthday.  It was all about Cars and Superheros.

2. Lots of Snow. This has been fun.  But not anymore, I am over it.

3. The Pinewood Derby. 3 weeks to make the car of JJ’s dreams.  The same 3 weeks  that our van broke for good and John’s company was moving.  This made for little time for the Pinewood Derby and lots of stress. We were prepping him during this time on how to deal with not placing in the race.  This was our first PWD – we had no expectations BUT he got 5th Place – which means he gets to go to Districts!!!  I was blown away. This is the car during construction and then at the race.

4.  Battlestar Galactica.  I’m hopelessly addicted.  It is my crack and I stay up way too late watching it.  Friends have been worried about why I’m so tired and I have to have to fess up.  It’s ridiculous.

5. The Penguin Parade.  Our zoo, does a Penguin Parade during the winter months on Sundays at 2pm – as long as the weather is below 50 degrees.  I have to admit I was a skeptic – but it was so cute!  Tips: Go Early, Stand by the Exit of the Penguin House under the sun.  It doesn’t last long because they don’t force any penguins to parade – so it’s whoever wants too.  The zookeepers said it’s always the same two penguins ready to go out the door.

7.  My New Wheels. My van’s transmission went out on the way home from having dinner at Happy Joe’s for George’s birthday.  It sucked.  So I spent a week getting cross-eyed looking on the internet for what kind of car I wanted next and finding one to buy.  I ended up getting a 2006 Toyota Sienna.  I feel like a princess, my old van was a 1998 – so the perks are amazing to me.  My favorite is the 8 passenger seating – I can fit 2 non-family members legally now.  Wow. And true confession – as I headed out the door to run errands for the first time in my new ride – I actually wore make-up because the car is so fancy.

8.  My Gift.  John’s company moved offices which meant he worked over a weekend and he spent several long nights getting everything just right.  Last Friday, he came home with a wrapped gift for me from his employers.  It had a sweet note saying how they appreciate my patience and lending my husband to them.  It was an iPad.  Let me repeat.  It.was.an.iPad.  And it is fabulous.  And I love it.  They just moved up to one of the 100 Best Companies to Work For in my book.

9. Emma is walking. So she’s up to about 10 steps and it is so cute.  This is not a picture of her walking, just an adorable one.

10. Passing Time. Like I said it’s been a long month with long days.  We’ve been doing all sorts of random things to pass the time.  But this is my favorite.  Emma on the Roomba (our robot vacuum).

I heart my backyard.  It’s mostly the nature thing- being outside is so therapeutic for me. The kids are entertained for hours out there. The size of our backyard is just manageable for us, but there is also room for ideas.  And of course, we have lots of ideas.

There are those things I would just like to update…

• grass that is plush and perfect
• a fence that matches on all sides, but not a privacy fence – I love our neighbors too much and there is something about being able to look up or down four backyards that says community to me.
• some new plants in some of my established flower beds

And then there are the other ideas that I get when I am out there…

• For sure, we need a PATIO.  I’ve been going back and forth between patio and deck, but I think patio is what would do it for me.  It would need to be big enough to fit out patio furniture and grill with extra room to spare.  I like flagstone like this, but way bigger…

(Sunset magazine)

or a stamped concrete like this…

• I would LOVE LOVE LOVE a hot tub too.  The problem is privacy.  I know it would go at one end of the house.  Maybe something like this with a little more tall foliage…

• A water feature, later I do want little pond, but for now I want this fountain – I just can’t find one that’s not under $200.  I even have a place for it! I am totally serious.

There are a couple of things I would want to add to the playground area.

• A couple of these diggers like these, of course John wants to build them with his new welder…

• a kids size picnic table like this one, of course I would want to build it…

• some sort of fort on the ground.  I love the idea of a living willow fort like this one, but I can’t find where to buy willow in the States.  I love how natural it looks, like the forts my brother and I used to make down by the creek.

But I would settle for some sort of camouflaged tee pee or barrack similar to this…

• An outdoor shower attached to our house, just a simple teak shower, more for when the boys come into the house to hose them down.

• It should be said, that John wants to make some sort of man-made creek that drains and a half-pipe back in the play area as well.  I’m trying not to think about that too much.

That’s about it for now. Feel free to enter me in whatever backyard sweepstakes/makeover you can find!

My friend Rebecca hosted an Art and Wine party a couple of weeks ago.  I was a little apprehensive at first, I’ve never done decoupage and friends together.   But it ended up being great fun.

My decoupage experience is very limited.  I’ve decoupaged one other thing previous to the party, it was a car bucket for the boys room to keep the million cars we’ve accumulated with 3 boys.  I decoupaged it with the DK Publishing book “The Big Book of Things that Go” which had almost all of the pages torn out anyways.  It turned out great and went with the car theme we had going in their room.

Here’s a picture:

The night of the Art + Wine party, we could choose from a tray, vase or bangle bracelets – I chose a tray.  It was definitely a process of trial and error for us all.  I learned about what not to do from my own mistakes.  The biggest one was paint the tray BEFORE you decoupage the center. The other was I wouldn’t have used the quote if I knew the paper would wrinkle up like it did.

My tray didn’t turn out perfect, I could maybe get a nickle for it at a yard sale, but I love it.  There is something about making something for yourself.  It wasn’t for anybody but me.  The upholstery I do mainly goes into to other people’s  houses so I don’t get to see it everyday.  I love seeing the tray everyday.

Here’s a picture of the tray:

I saw this decoupage idea after I did my tray.  If only I had some of grandma’s purses still around….

I am:

eating…Mike and Ikes; they are part of Henry’s potty training bribes and so good!

relieved...to have this upholstory project off my hands and into the pleased hands of the owner

listening…to JJ finshing up his Lego Star Wars game & Henry and Freddie  punching each other with Incredible Hulk gloves

looking forward to…going to bed early tonight with nothing I “have to” do

plotting...our trip to Branson next week – SO excited!

praying…for my sweet friend who had a miscarriage this week

hoping…that strong elves will magically appear in the middle of the night and move the 12 cubic feet of pea gravel from our driveway to under the playground

Downtown Chic – Design Mom: I agree with Gabrielle’s review of this book.  I splurged on it and LOVE it!  It’s part the design ideas and the other part the big family and the other part that this couple is living their passion together and doing it with six kids.  Unbelievable and really cool in my book.

Seven Prayers a Day – Bring the Rain: I pray for my kids throughout the day, but nothing like this.  I think this is amazing. I love how the prayers are derived from scripture and how she prays them out loud.  And how it could be applicable to anyone I might be praying for, to think of them seven times a day and pray for them.  It’s amazing the example this is to her children and the impact it will have on their lives.  Wow.

Mothers Day and Narcolepsy- Annie’s Garden: I love my friend Maddie’s blog and getting a chance to peek into her the life she shares with her daughter Annie.  Sometimes I read it and think, life with three boys seems less adventurous then life with Annie.  I don’t want to ruin her post, but it is one of my favorites.  My reaction to reading it was like actually finding Annie – just read it.

East Village Apartment Makes Amazing Use of Space- Unclutterer: I need to go pick up this issue of Dwell Magazine.  The picture of the Transformer-type bed.I even got a little closterphopic looking at it.  Still deciding if that is cool or not.

I have been asked this question over and over again – probably about once a day.

I understand why people ask it, I probably would too.  I guess it’s a logical question since we will have 4 kids come December and live in a 2-bedroom house.  Just with the repetition of he question- all I hear is “What is wrong with you?”

The fact of the matter is, we are fine where we are right now.  We are not crawling up the walls or begging for privacy.  We are very happy.  So if that makes us weird – so be it.  I’ve found that it definitely makes us outside of the norm, which is something I’m fine with, but in this situation, I find myself questioning our feelings.

This questioning has led me to late googling; the specific search, “big family small house”.  Wow.  That search was very comforting.  I found myself from feeling “little old woman who  lived in the shoe-ish” to feeling that our 900 square feet was spacious and sharing rooms was normal.  Try it.

The other thing I did, in search for peace with our decision, was rented the first season of Little House on Prairie.  My goal was to figure out how Ma did it?  Family of five living in a cabin surely smaller than our house.  Where did she put all the toys?  What about clutter? How did she organize the closets effectively?  Honestly, it took me about 3 episodes into it to realize that it was a movie set and watching the rest of the season was not going to answer my questions.  I know I was/am crazy.

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