Repurposing

Man, it's been a while hu? I've been in a small nothing-terribly-inspiring-to-post-about slump, I guess. Or maybe it's because I've been thinking, and I feel like I have so MUCH to say that it's just easier to say nothing. Shrug. Who knows. All I know is I have a fun idea. (And yes, the idea does involve these seemingly random pictures.)
Recently, I have found myself with a big room. Okay, so maybe it wasn't quite so easy as just "finding" it, it actually took quite a bit of effort to make this room in our home available, but now it is--and I'm loving it! I have big ideas for this room. It's going to be an art/play/office-ish room, a room everyone in the family can use, and I have some ideas for decorating it. One of the ideas involves a shelf already hanging in the room (see seemingly random pictures). I thought it would be a useful storage center for craft/art supplies. Initially, I was wanting to go to Ikea and buy all matching clear jars to contain the craft supplies. But Ikea is quite a distance from here and there are lots of other things I'd rather spend money on. So, I started rummaging through the house to see what I already had that I could use. I was pretty excited with what I found. What do you think of the final result?
Anyhoo. All of this put me in a mood--a sort of a money-saving, using-what-you've-got-to-make-it-work mood. And it helped spawn my fun idea, which I really am getting to. I'm going to redecorate this room using only things I currently have. It'll be a big project based solely on the idea of repurposing. Excluding money. That is, I can't use the money I have now. But, I will need some money. So the rule is that I can only use money I earn from selling things I already have. AND I've already got $25 from selling a child pack on craigslist this morning. Hooray! I'm off and running. Now, I sort want a name for this project of mine...

Daddy Fest!

Yesterday, Nate took the kids to the mountains for a few hours of quality Daddy time. (Leaving Mommy alone at home to get some things done around the house. :)) It was our first Daddy Fest! The kids had a blast. They climbed and jumped off rocks, had a picnic and splashed in the creek. Nate's so brave, he even took Gibby! Grace asked if we could have Daddy Fest every time Daddy doesn't have work.

A Clean Spring

Cleaning is always on my mind. Mostly because my place is always a wreck. Therefore, I have been working on establishing routines for myself to help keep the house in order. This is something I learned from the FLY Lady and, from my minimal experience in the business world. In the land of business I was taught to establish systems or, again, routines.

Below is a list of rules and routines I have set up for myself that seem to be making a difference. In no fancy order here they are:

1. NEVER PUT CLOTHES IN THE WASHER IF THERE ARE CLOTHES IN THE DRYER. I know it seems a little annoying, but if something comes up (or I forget) and I don't have time to fold the clothes in the dryer and put them away, where am I going to find time to dry and fold the load I just put in the washer? I won't. They'll just sit in that washer and get stinky. And then I'll have to wash them again.

2. ALWAYS FOLD THE CLOTHES STRAIGHT FROM THE DYER. Don't let clean clothes pile up in baskets or on the bed.

3. DO ONE LOAD OF WASH EVERY DAY. This was a tip from Sink Reflections, written by our friend the Fly Lady. And when I have laundry piled up (because I don't always follow my rules) it makes the task seem less daunting and more manageable.

4. COOK SOMETHING EVERY DAY. I read this on a blog somewhere, I wish I could remember where. I haven't done it yet. But I sure have been thinking about it alot! :) And, I really think it would make a difference for me. (I sort of hate to cook. It's something I've got to get over!)

5. START THE DISHWASHER BEFORE I GO TO BED EVERY NIGHT-even if it's not totally full. I know it's not the "greenest" thing to do. But, otherwise, halfway through the next day I've got a full dishwasher and my dishes start to pile.

6. UNLOAD THE DISHWASHER 1ST THING EACH MORNING. Again if the dishwasher is full--even it's full of CLEAN dishes--the stacks of dishes appear.

So, those are my rules. They probably sound a little silly to most of you. Do any of you have "rules" you set up for yourselves? I would love to hear them.

A Book Bag

Okay, so I think this is such a great idea! It's an old book turned handbag. Seriously. Super cute. Very green. And just plain smarty! AND if you go here, you can find out how to make your own! Lucky!

Type is Beautiful

I really like the idea of using type as a decorative element like they do here at Pottery Barn. I just really love type.

Toothers

Grace has lost her first tooth! She was VERY excited. But her excitement over the tooth actually coming out only rivaled the excitement she had when she first figured out it was loose. She was SO excited. She honestly got a little teary she was so happy. It was very sweet. She has been wanting to lose a tooth for a while now.

Speaking of teeth. We also just recently took our kids to the dentist for the first time. (I know! Grace should have been in ages ago...naughty mommy!) Anyway, we went to a Pediatric Dentist, which was actually kind of fun. The office was all sorts of decked out with play areas and colorful animals. And, they were really good about making sure the kids were comfortable and knew what all the equipment was, giving the dental tools fun names. For example that funky vacuum water-sprayer was "Mr. Thirsty." Sounds a little cheesy, but the kids ate it up. I think it was especially good for Anderson. He tends to be more timid in new situations. Anyway if you got a kiddo that's had a bad dentist experience or is just more like my Anderson, a Pediatric Dentist might be the way to go. If you're interested, this will tell you more about WHY you might want to choose a Peds Dentist.

Documentaries

I have a thing for documentaries. I just finished watching Mad Hot Ballroom. It's about a bunch of 5th graders who are taught to ballroom dance. Then they have this competition, and I thought it was actually pretty cute, but Nate went to bed half way through. Yeah, I think you have to be a really patient movie-watcher in order to enjoy documentaries. I mean, you can't really go into them with the same expectations as other, what some may call, "real" movies. Can you? No, because, it has been my experience that their plots (if they exist) are pretty slow and predictable. And, in the end, I admittedly feel a little dissatisfied. So, why do I keep watching them? Maybe it's because, supposedly, they deal with REAL people and REAL life. Maybe I'm hoping to learn something from those people and their experiences. Maybe it makes me feel smart and I can say, "I watch documentaries, ho ho ho, aren't I spiffy!" I just really don't know. Do any of you know of any REALLY GOOD documentaries? I would love to hear about them!

That Thing About Ice Cream

So, today I paid $6.79 for a carton (1.75 quarts to be exact) of Dreyers Double Fudge Brownie ice cream. $6.79 is a small fortune for that much ice cream. But, we live in the boonies and the corner market is aparently keenly aware that they are the only carrier of such yums for many miles. When I got home, Nate actually told me that he would love me more if I bought ice cream every week. He said he was kidding, but I wonder... :)

Sprouts

Nate and I have been trying to come up with ways of teaching our little ones the value of hard work.

One thing we've done is plant a garden. I LOVE to garden. I'm not saying I'm any good at it, but it's something I grew up doing, and so it reminds me of home, and so I love it. I love going out early in the morning and watering. And, I love watching the little sprouts push up through the dirt and grow. In my opinion, gardens are just really great places. I have fond memories of picking vegetables, especially peas and tomatoes, and eating them right from the garden.


Anyway, like I said, we want our kids to be involved in this garden, so we did a couple of things to make it more kid friendly. One thing we did, which I think was my dad's idea, was put big rocks at the top of each row. This helps the kids identify that there actually is a row there before the seeds pop up. And, the rocks act as sort of a guard rail for the hose. They keep the hose at the top of the garden and thus save our plants from destruction via garden hose.

Another thing we did also involved rocks. And that was just put some larger rocks randomly throughout the garden. We hoped this would add some fun to the garden. The rocks are there to climb on, sit on, and jump off of. There is a nice flat rock I think would be fun to have little tea parties on. You get the idea.

So far we have planted peas, carrots, zucchini, squash and radishes from seed. The tomatoes and peppers we planted from starts. The seeds have all started to sprout and it's really fun to see. Grace is especially excited. She does a great job of watering--when I let her. (Remember, I told you I really like to water in the early morning. It's supposed to be Grace's job.)

If you like the idea of gardening with your kids, check out kidsgardening.org. I thought their Parents Primer section looked especially interesting. It doesn't have to be stressful, you could just do what Cheryl Dorschner suggested here and "plant last night's dessert--watermelon seeds..."

Citrus

Well, we spent this last weekend with our good friends, the Potters. Ruth's parents have citrus trees and were kind enough to let us have BUNCH fruit! So, today the kids and I squeezed a lot of oranges, some grapefruit, and 3 gigantic lemons. We had a great time!

Anderson washed the fruit. He was drenched by the end, but had a ball playing with the water--I mean cleaning the fruit. :)

I cut the fruit.

And, Grace did most of the juicing. She was having so much fun with the juicer she even forfeited her turn with the playmobile people!

And tomorrow for breakfast we'll have fresh-squeezed orange juice! Hooray! Thanks Gordons!

If you have also found yourself with and abundance of citrus, particularly lemons, maybe you should try this lemonade recipe. I think I will.

Fresh!

I have great hopes for this little blog. They're so great I don't want to ruin it with a stale first post. And just the fact that this is the first post is stressing me out. So, lets get on with it.