Post 50 - Wow!

Fifty posts.  Big deal!  I'm excited for it.

Just an update.  We are crawling towards the end of the kitchen remodel.  Little bits left.  My brain is jumping ahead to other projects around the house which Dear Husband is desperately trying to restrain me from!

I've also been working diligently on getting up early to walk or do something if DH is gone.  However, to do that I need to get to bed by 10:00 pm.  But DH isn't the best influence on that. For example, last night I was able to get my stuff done before 10 but then he turned on one of my recent favorite shows: Friday Night Lights.  My word!

I love this show and we had a huge hiatus from it during the remodel.  Now Tammy T and Coach Taylor are back!!!!  I really love this show.  I really love the relationship of the Taylors. They are truly inspiring.  Just their interactions and balance they are able to find amazes me.

So...since we are firing up another episode my word of advice tonight is catch an episode.  :)

Cheers,
Megs

Post 49 - A little DIY

Yes, it's been FOREVER since I've posted.  We've survived week 1 of no daycare or school - ALLLLLL thanks to my amazing mom.  The kids had "Grandma Camp" for the first three days and now they'll have "Dad Camp" for the next two.

Of course, when Grandma Camp was "over" they proceeded to cry and meltdown in the parking lot.  :)

Partly they were melting down because they were exhausted.  Thus why I'm sitting here at 8:30 in a silent house...well, almost silent.  The dinging of Ellie's collar tags is about to drive me up the wall but there is no kid noise!  Amazing.

The nice thing about an early bedtime is that it gave me time to finish up some last minute projects before Dear Husband got back from his week away (part drill/part football camp).  I put up the covers on the outlets and light switches that were finished and decided to tackle our entry light.

This thing was ugly!  Oh...hideous.  Really flared out frosted glass and gold metal and dark wood.  Ugh.

This is the best picture I could find with the glass still in it.  It's the light fixture on the right.  You can kind of get an idea of the floral-flare-out awesomeness.

Here's a close up of the wood and goldish hardware.  I put tinfoil over the inlets for the bulbs to keep the spray paint from coating them. 

Here's the post-spray paint look.  I used a hammered bronze spray, same as the heating grates.

And - yep - sprayed it on the ceiling.  Would have been smarter to take the whole thing off but I was lazy.  Some cardboard and ceiling paint for touch ups and good to go!

AND here is the final look!!!!

And with the lights on....ooooooo...

Each piece of glass was $4 and the spray paint was $7, I think.  We had to get it anyway for our heating grates.  I really liked the directional lighting this gives us at the entry and on both sets of stairs but I couldn't find another fixture like it.  I'm pretty happy with the results. 

Soon enough we'll have pictures of the BIG REVEAL!  As I was looking through old pictures, I couldn't believe how UGLY our kitchen was before!  They are going to be amazing before and after pictures!

But you'll have to wait!

Cheers - 

Meghan

Post 48 - Saying Thank You

This week is the last week Little Miss will attend daycare.  It's a bittersweet time.

On one hand, I'm really excited that Little Man and Miss will once again be at the same place next year.  It simplifies my mornings significantly.  And I love, love, love the school that they'll be attending.

On the other hand, I'm really, really sad that my days of dropping kids off with Ms. Mandi are over.  I love our daycare workers.  It's mainly Ms. Mandi, her husband, and her mom.  Occasionally she will have a sub but for the last three years, these have been the main care providers of my children.  It is really hard to say goodbye.

Back to the sweet hand, Little Miss is taking Irish dance, which Ms. Mandi is heavily involved in so we aren't totally saying goodbye.

But it won't be the same.

These people are who took us in when we needed to find someone to watch our kids at a really young age.  Little Man was two and Little Miss was 8 months old when she started.  We had a really bad sampling experience with another daycare the day before.  I hesitantly dropped Little Man off for another trial run and when my mom went to get him, she immediately called me ecstatic - we had found our daycare.

The kids started there when Ryan was gone.  She took pictures of them chronicling their growth.  She had them draw pictures for him.  She made sure to talk about him daily.  She kept a daily log of what they did and ate so I could email it to him.  She was a huge support for that year and has been ever since.

But now it is time to move on.

How to say thank you to such wonderful people?  I struggled with this.  I wanted to give them a huge bonus but we couldn't afford that.  So I trolled the blogs for ideas and came up with a pretty fun, appreciative package.  At least I think so!

I procured two pots, some seeds, gardening gloves, a gift card to downtown and found a great poem that sums up how most moms feel about their daycare workers.

The seeds I got were 4 o'clocks, since that was the usual pick up time for us and alyssums....reminded me of the word asylum and the fact our kids didn't send the workers there!  I did a little play-on-words for those tags then wrapped a tag around the pot saying "Thank you for helping me grow."

The gift cards are for several businesses downtown and can be used at any of them.  I like to stay local so this was that flavor.

The poem is called "A Mother's Thank You."  I typed that up and had Little Miss do her handprints next to it then found some simple frames to put them in.

Overall I think it turned out really cute.  Here's a pic:

I really like the text of the poem, so here it is:

A Mother's Thank You

For all your patience...day to day,

For every tear you wipe away,

For "little hands" you gently hold,

And all the stories you have told,

For your consoling, tender heart,

And all the wisdom you impart,

For silly songs & quiet times,

For peaceful naps & nursery rhymes,

...

For all the sweet things that you do,

To help the children all year through,

For being there in place of me.

I'm grateful...and I'll always be!

The three dots about 2/3 of the way down were because there were some lines in the original poem that weren't in the poem I copied.  These lines are:

for teaching children how to share,

for being kind & being fair,

for every shoe that you have tied,

and thoughtful words that instill pride...

I really like those lines and wish I had seen them before I typed up and painted the ones I'm giving!  But alas, I did not so there they stand. 

I need to get gift bags for them tomorrow then we'll deliver them on Friday.  I'm sure there will be some tears.  

Then next week....it'll be Dear Husband's turn to provide the care!  Bring on Daddy Camp!

Cheers, 

Megs

PS:  Anyone else have some great ideas that have been popular with daycare workers or preschool teachers?  We need to show our appreciation for these people to whom we entrust our children's lives and good ideas can be hard to find!

Post 47 - The Working Out Dilemma

I came across this list and found myself chuckling at many of the things the dear husband listed:

http://www.toulouseandtonic.com/top-10-sucky-things-about-being-married-to-a-pregnant-woman/

He brings up some valid points and ones we can laugh about a few months looking back.  But then there are always new "sucky" things to dread.

I recently wondered if Dear Husband was going to be creating his own list soon.  However...

Good news:  DH won't have to deal with those things for awhile longer.

Bad news:  My "am I pregnant?" gut means I've just been denying the lack of physical activity's effect on my body!  Time to figure something out.

Any tips on fitting in a workout during the chaos of motherhood?

I finally decided I needed to bite the bullet and drag my tired bum out of bed at 5 AM to get a walk in.  Maybe eventually I'll graduate to running (ha!) or another type of workout but for now a walk is a good start.

You see, I used to be pretty active.  When I was teaching, I walked a lot and swam and did yoga.  Then came pregnancy and I still walked a bit.  Then came another pregnancy and an office job where I sit alllllll day.  My kids force me to be active to a point but I found myself being winded with simple runs around the yard.  That's not the kind of mom I want to be.

So I'm stepping it up.  By getting up.  Early.  Did I mention 5 AM?

I know a lot of people do it.  It's a great time to do it especially in the summer.  It just means that I need to be in bed by 10 PM to get a decent amount of sleep and not snooze through the alarms.  That means less "date" time with DH watching "our shows."  That means less time to finish my to-do list.

There are trade-offs to getting in shape I guess.

I just need to continue the motivation.  I was motivated when I first started this blog to get up early and write, have coffee, and some me-time.  That, sadly, fell to the wayside.  Life happens.  Late nights come around.  Stomaches appear.  Kids get up (like Little Miss did the night before last thus pushing back my start date).  So what can keep me motivated?

Not sure.  Until my kids are older and can stay sleeping alone, it's a solo workout so I can't count on DH.  My dog is some motivation since she needs to lose some weight, too.  My own general physical and mental health is motivation.  My energy level is motivation.  My brother's wedding in August is motivation.  My wonderment as to my own pregnancy state is definitely motivation.  I don't want others wondering if I'm pregnant.  I want them (and me!) to know I'm pregnant!

So there we go.  I have about seven minutes to get a little bit more unpacking of the kitchen done then head to bed.

Cheers,
Megs