I did warn you

Yep. Details from our bathroom. In photo form.

Sorry...I just can't help but be excited that I actually finished one of my big summer goals. The redoing of our bathroom. To say it needed done is an understatement. It's really needed done since we moved in, to be perfectly honest. We're talking peeling paint and whatnot. And while I wish we could have afforded to just have it gutted and professionally remodeled, that would have been overkill. Yes, our molded tub/shower is ugly, but there's nothing actually wrong with it...so having it replaced would just be consumerism at its worst. Something we're making a real effort to avoid these days.

Anyway, we ended up with a bit of a theme in there. A kitchen theme. Sounds kinda gross, I suppose. But see, it came about because I was trying to come up with a creative solution to an eyesore. The cover of the ceiling fan vent was ugly, yellowed, and cracked. And it didn't hang quite right either. Yes, we could have epoxied it up there, I suppose. But in this instance, we felt justified in just getting rid of it. But we didn't want to replace it with another ugly piece of plastic. After wracking my brains for a bit, I came up with the idea of using a colander...an idea my darling husband wholeheartedly supported. But we couldn't find one big enough. Not to be deterred, we scoured the kitchen store until we spotted a pizza pan!

Seriously, I wish this photo did it justice, because in person, I swear it looks really cool! (Yeah, or that may just be us. ;) )




























And the pizza pan just set the tone. I added a hook to hold a hand towel made from an old serving spoon. Made a tieback for the shower curtain from cookie cutters.



















An old creamer for cotton swabs and an old serving bowl for cotton balls. (And a silly bug toy, just because it's cute.)


















And my very favorite thing of all. New artwork! Going with that kitchen theme...I gave each of the kiddos a canvas and set them to having fun printing with all the cool kitchen utensils they could find in the kitchen drawers. Again, the photo kinda sucks, as I just couldn't get good lighting, but honestly they look fabulous hanging in there!





























Okay, I apologize for subjecting you to this. But now that I've finished this major project, maybe I'll find time to actually finish a book one of these days. ;) One can hope, anyways.

Sunday Salon

***Warning: I am feeling a tad "chatty" this morning. This portends a rambling, say-nothing-of-consequence post.

My first Sunday Salon post. Not sure what took me so long to sign up, because I absolutely LOVE reading everyone's posts. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy reading book reviews and couldn't imagine blogging without them, but there is just something I adore about reading posts where people just chat about books and reading. When Nymeth joined in last week, it was just the push I needed to finally go sign up. I know, I'm such a little copycat.

And speaking of being a copycat, I did a monthly wrap-up post for January. I always enjoyed reading Dewey's monthly wrap-ups so much. Despite the fact that it also made me feel like such a pathetic reader in comparison. :)

On the surface, my January reading list doesn't look all that horrible, but if you actually look closely, it's easy to see how little reading I actually got done. It's definitely one of those months when I look back and grumble a little in my head, "Man, if I didn't have to homeschool Annie, just think what I might have gotten read for fun." But I don't really mean that grumbling...1. I actually enjoy homeschooling, 2. I feel extremely lucky that I'm able to give Annie what she needs, and 3. I generally like all the stuff I read for homeschooling. But you know how it is...that whole "you MUST read this" feeling.

Anyway, while I didn't do so hot elsewhere, my short story reading was definitely up. And that makes me happy, because I really do love short stories despite the fact that I don't always seem to make enough time for them. I have Carl's mini-challenge for Dewey's Books Challenge to thank for the incentive for getting many of those read. Of all the ones I read, I think "The Fluted Girl" by Paolo Bacigulupi was probably my favorite. "Ass-Hat Magic Spider" by Scott Westerfeld was really great, too, in a very different way.

But you know what may have been my very favorite reading of the month? The essay "Bugs in the Brain" by Robert Sapolsky. This is proof that reading challenges are a good thing for me. Despite the fact that I fail to finish so many of them, they do get me reading things I probably never would read otherwise. In this case, if not for the Essay Reading Challenge, I never would have had the guts to pull Sapolsky's book, Monkeyluv and Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals, off the shelf and actually read something from it. I admit it, I get totally intimidated by so many books. Both fiction and non-fiction. I didn't use to be this way. I actually have my own suspicions of why that changed, but believe me, that's a whole new realm of rambling you don't want me to enter. Anyway, back to the essay...not only did I understand it, I absolutely loved it! I'm now so very excited to read his book, A Primate's Memoir. It's one of Rich's favorite books, and though he has repeatedly assured me it is not "above my head," I still doubted.

So, what's on today's reading slate? Well, first of all, I do hope to do some blog reading...I've been so inundated with other things the past week that my blog reading has suffered immensely. Secondly, I hope to read a few more chapters in Africa: A Biography of the Continent by John Reader. (I am really loving this book!) Would also be great if I could make a little more progress in The Scientists by John Gribbin. (I'm enjoying this one as well, but it's slow going. Partially because when I read something for homeschooling, I take notes and write down questions for discussion and whatnot.) If possible, I'd also love to read another story from Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese. (Can't quite get a handle on what I think of this book yet.) And if I'm really lucky, maybe a few chapters in In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD. Yeah right, who am I kidding...I'll never get all that reading done today, but it's nice to have goals, right?

One thing, on a reading related front, that we will be doing today is buying blinds for our little library. I'm sooooo excited! After we get those up, I'll have to share photos. We (or I should say "I") still haven't painted the walls (that's just going to have to wait until summer), and we (or I should say "Rich") will probably build some more shelves. But once the blinds are up, it's as done as it's going to be for the time being. And let me tell you, we are absolutely loving it!

***Okay, no complaining...I did warn you right off the top.

it's time...

Have you signed up for the read-a-thon yet? If you answered no, I suggest you hop right on over and do so! It's on October 18th this time around, so actually there's plenty of time to sign up if you're just not sure about your schedule yet. But if I were you, I'd just go ahead and rearrange my schedule and make sure that I could participate!

See how much there is to look forward to...

*Duh! 24 hours of reading!

*A delightful, dedicated, hard-working hostess...Dewey. She really is the best!

*The incredible feeling of community and friendship.

*The chance to win prizes. There's always lots of prizes.

Personally, I've got a few other things that have me extra-excited about this read-a-thon...

*Annie's going to join in with me again.

*Two of my favorite people, Nymeth and Chris, are going to get to read this time! I am soooooo excited about this one!

*And finally, I'm hoping to be reading here:



Except that if all goes as planned, it will no longer look like a war zone, but will have been transformed into a cozy little reading room.

Okay, not that I want to bore anyone with the story, but I feel the need to explain the state of that room. I swear, we're really not that incredibly slobbish as a general rule. But the boys, who had been sleeping on the floor of our room for many months, promised that if they could share a room again, they would actually use it for sleeping. Perfectly fine with us. We decided to turn Max's room into their bedroom and Gray's room into a playroom. So in order to paint what is now their bedroom, we totally emptied it out by just hauling it and dumping it into that disaster area pictured in the photo. So now the boys new bedroom has been painted, we've installed bunk beds, and they are officially now "living" there. (Though there are still some odds and ends to finish up.)

Okay, time to deal with the playroom. Which I really was not looking forward to one iota. That is until Rich and I came up with the brilliant idea of turning that room into a reading room instead! There's an area in our basement where Rich has most of his books housed. We've decided to turn that area into the playroom, and use the room up here for our library. Though I suspect we'll all still have a bookcase in our bedroom, and Rich will still have his office full of textbook-type reading, we're hoping to fit everyone's books into our new cozy, little room. Isn't that just so exciting? Okay, maybe not to anyone else, but it sure is to me! And our goal is to have it done in time for the read-a-thon. Not sure if we'll make it, but we're going to try...

let me apologize up front

Not sure what's wrong with me lately. I'd say I'm in a bit of funk, but that's not quite it. Nothing is really wrong, and I certainly have nothing to complain about. Just been feeling disjointed and out of whack, if that makes sense. Can't seem to keep things organized, despite my compulsive list making. Anyway, I'm betting this post will reflect my general feelings of disorganization. So, I don't blame you one iota if you decide not to trudge your way through this one...seriously. (But I do hope you'll read the next paragraph.)

I just want to thank everyone for their incredibly sweet comments on the last post. You were all so very kind to one sappy old mom! And I so very much appreciated that. :) And I should tell you that this sappy old mom felt so much better when she talked to her daughter on the phone after her class. My goodness, the pure excitement in Annie's voice when she told me about how her class had gone knocked all those selfish "you can't grow up" thoughts right from my head. Her enthusiasm truly was priceless! And by the way, I'm sorry if I misled anyone. Annie hasn't started college full time or anything like that. She's just taking one class at the community college. Though it is an Honors Level Advanced Composition course that I think would kick my butt. Just hope it doesn't kick hers! She showed me the writing assignment they had to do in class that first day, and whew...all I can say is "better her than me!" I'll be anxious to see what her professor had to say about it (I think they're supposed to get them back today). I really hope she did okay, as I'd hate to see her get discouraged right off the bat.

*****

And what about my sweet little guys? I didn't have any back-to-school photos to post yesterday morning, because they wouldn't let me take their pictures. No, my little guys definitely do not have their sister's outgoing, try anything personality. Two very shy little boys who hate the unknown. They were extremely anxious yesterday morning, and the last thing I wanted to do was cause them any more stress by insisting they have their pictures taken. I even had to carry poor little Maxidoodle onto the bus, just as I did on the first day of kindergarten last year.

But their faces were lit by smiles when they arrived home. They'd both had a good first day. As Gray said, "It was good; it wasn't wonderful." Believe me, that's high praise coming from him! And they both allowed me to take their pictures after school, so technically we've still got those obligatory "first day of school" photos to be scrapbooked.




*****

And speaking of scrapbooking, I'm pretty darn sure I have the best husband on the planet. He's definitely the best husband for me! :) Anyway, he took over all kid duties on Saturday so I could spend the entire day scrapbooking. It's been a long time since I've spent any real time scrapping, so it was quite a treat. Maybe one of these days I'll even get my finished layouts posted on my craft blog.

*****

On the book front, I did something I rarely do...I gave up on a book. It was a book (Fiscal Pear and Shimmer in the Call of the River Whale) that I was reading to the boys. It started out okay. In fact, Gray was really loving it, in part due to the fact that he is a true fan of the pear (seriously, I think they rate above Smarties on his list of favorite treats) and having a book with a pear as a main character is definitely unique. But as we continued, we just found the story extremely hard to follow. Gray, Max, and I all eventually agreed that we just didn't want to stick with it. I honestly can't recommend reading it or avoiding it, because we didn't finish it and therefore don't have the full picture.

We didn't want to end our reading last night on a down note though, so we started a new book, The Witches by Roald Dahl. Oh my, and are we ever in love with this one!

I'm still working my way through The Stand: Complete and Uncut. Have finally passed the 1,000 page mark. Not sure why it's taking me so long to read it...just too little time to read lately, I guess. But hopefully I'll finish soon so I can jump into some of my RIP reads!

*****

Well, this is quite a day for me...for the first time since Annie was born, all my munchkins are off in school. (Actually, that's not quite true...Annie went to preschool 2 mornings a week during part of the time I was pregnant with Gray, but I was too sick to enjoy the alone time.) Anyway, it shall be that way every Tuesday and Thursday for the next few months. Maybe I can now get a bit caught up on lesson planning, and maybe my poor family won't have to live in such pig sty anymore. :) But on slate for today is painting the boys' bedroom. Ugh...I hate painting. They've decided that they want to share a room again, so we're going to turn Max's room into their bedroom and turn Gray's room into a playroom. We already went out and found some bunk beds that we could sort of afford. Heck, any price would be worth it if they'll actually sleep in them and aren't both sleeping on the floor of our room anymore. :)

*****

And thus concludes this even-more-rambling-than-usual post.

ugh.

I'm feeling soooo behind at the moment. So what the heck am I doing blogging, right?!! We did accomplish a lot this weekend, but it has left me so far behind on so many of the "normal" things...my house desperately needs cleaned again, blogs need to be read, and a menu plan needs to be created. And I must do this all today, because my parents will be arriving tomorrow morning.

So, what did I do with myself all weekend? Well, I finally got around to organizing more than 1,100 photos. We're really good about sending them off to Snapfish to have them printed, though for the past year I haven't been so good about organizing the prints once we receive them. These went back to the first day of school last year.

We also FINALLY got the clothesline up. About time! I really missed hanging clothes outside to dry...it's just one of those chores that I find incredibly relaxing. Not to mention that it saves on the electric bill and is better for the environment.

But the biggest job of the weekend was this...



I cannot believe that I forgot to take a "before" shot. You really need one to tell how far this view came over the weekend. Saturday morning, this walkway was made of cement bricks. Many intact. Many crumbling. Some crumbling so badly that there were big holes...it was really a broken ankle waiting to happen! We got a call from the nursery Friday that our stone was in and would be delivered the next day. So Saturday morning, while I fought with the photos, Rich dug out all the cement bricks lining the sides, smashed up the remaining "floor" bricks with a sledge hammer, and bought some landscape timbers and put them in at the sides. By this time it was late Saturday afternoon, and our stone still hadn't been delivered. I called the nursery and was told that they just got too busy to do it today. Jerks weren't even going to call and tell us. So we headed over in both vehicles, got our delivery fee back, and loaded up all the stone ourselves. Got home and unloaded all the stone. Then called it a day.

Sunday, we hauled and dumped fourteen 50 pound bags of sand and spread it out over the walkway. Then I started hauling and laying out stone. After I'd get 6 or so feet worth laid out to my liking, Rich came behind and started filling in with topsoil.

So, now I am aching in muscles that I didn't even know I had. Which means it's probably going to take me twice as long to get anything done today. But I must say, we are both very happy with the results!