Improvising Improvements

There is a room in my house that the plants and I like to pretend is a sunroom. For awhile, I've been looking around for some plant stands, but everything is either too busy or too expensive. Yesterday, I took matters into my own hands after window shopping online for more than an hour.

I dream of this room becoming a game room/study/library, hence the game theme in the arrangement. Both the trunk boxes come from my childhood: the puppy box was a place to keep my treasures when I was little, and I used the green trunk when I lived with my second family. The puppy box is topped with my husband's childhood checker board. I thought of covering the sides of it too, but I just couldn't do it!

The hat box used to look like this:

It was pretty, but it never really fit anywhere in my house, so I covered it with some of my husband's old playing cards, and put the Chinese Checkers game on top. I'll keep my eyes open for something a little taller to replace the polka dotted tin, but for now, I'm happy with it and I think the plants are too.

The Party's Over

There are reverberations all around: a dozen plastic cups with the names of people I love written on them, two fortune cookies that remind me of my amusement that we celebrated something very American by going out for Chinese, pillows and blankets stacked here and there, waiting to be hugged again next time. We all waved goodbye, even the baby, until we could no longer see the shrinking cars in the distance. All of these things make me feel like it's the end of the best ride in an amusement park at closing time, but I smile because I had such a good time!



P.S. Someone who has talent I do not made that cake, just F.Y.I.

Reusable Recipes: Salad Edition

I hesitate to share this first recipe because it seems to be well known. I've seen it at potlucks (which doesn't surprise me because it is so delicious) but just because my corner of the world knows it, doesn't mean the rest of the world does!

Chicken Cabbage Salad

1/2 head cabbage, cut up
2 oz. chopped or slivered almonds
1 pkg. chicken ramen, noodles only--uncooked and broken into bits
3 green onions, cut up
2 chicken breasts, cooked & cut up (seasoned grilled chicken makes it even better)

Mix. In separate bowl combine:

Spice packet from the ramen noodles
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup salad oil (I don't really know what salad oil is:
I always use 1/4 cup each of olive and vegetable oil)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. pepper

Mix and pour over salad. Toss, chill, and enjoy.

I discovered the following recipe in a Taste Of Home magazine (except I added the sunflower seeds) and it has blessed my life ever since.

Crab and Pea Salad

2 pkg. (10 oz.) frozen peas
1 pkg. (16 oz.) imitation crab meat, flaked
12-16 bacon strips, cooked & crumbled
1 cup mayonnaise
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1/8 cup sunflower seeds

CHAOS: x 3

First of all, I wish to thank each visitor. Motivation is powerful fuel.

I had hoped to have the wallpaper down from the nursery by Monday (the Monday that happened three days ago). I can already tell that when we get to the next Monday in four days, it still won't be done--but I am making progress.

First, I climbed Stuff Mountain. Realizing it was mostly made of unfinished projects and hand-me-down clothes for my children, I tried to think of another place for the unfinished projects to live and came up with this:

Genius!

Actually, this bathroom is broken so we haven't used this shower since we moved in. Stuff has been stashed there before, but now it is the designated place for all my procrastinated projects that I am going to finish tomorrow. My house lacks when it comes to storage areas...to state the obvious.

With that out of the way, we were ready to remove wallpaper. I hired some help:

(I see now how much better this picture would have been if I had thought to put my oldest in stripes as well!) We also removed the upside-down chair rail that was pretending to be baseboards. When the three of us finished peeling, pulling, and prying, I paid my girls by telling them they could color on the walls.

(Love those lashes!)




























Let me share what I learned: If you are going to be replacing carpet with vinyl, remove the baseboards before the installers come. You are going to have to move them anyway because they'll sit too high off the floor, so you might as well take them off so the vinyl will be installed all the way to the wall, with a straight edge. I wish the carpet/vinyl store had told me!

My new goal is to have the wallpaper removed and the walls primed by Wednesday. We could call it Washed Wallpaperless White Walls Wednesday." See you then!

Hats All Folks!

I don't have anything to report on the nursery because I have been finishing these:

The first one was supposed to be for my friend who is enduring chemo, but it turned out to be nothing like the pattern picture so then I made the next one. I hope it fits.

Dear reader, will you take off your hat and say a prayer for my friend, Brenda, please?

CHAOS To the Power of Two

Being the type that wants to have everything planned out (oh, the disappointments!), I took my nursery design questions to Facebook. I asked every question on my mind, from frame colors to accessory placement. I invited all of my friends to vote. It was FUN. Free personalized ideas came to me in comment boxes. I can't wait to use them!

But first, there's that wallpaper (my cousin made me smile when she referred to it as jailhouse stripes):

I'm still working on removing it. Look at the interesting purple and green I found underneath. Combined with the black, we've got some nice bruise colors going on.


Now, this is where the true chaos comes in. This room has been the catch-all since we moved in two years ago. For the past several months, I couldn't even get in this room to use the changing table or rocker.

And remember what CHAOS stands for? Well, when my close friend said she was coming for a visit from Colorado, I was delighted. I thought I'd just shut the door on this room and no one would know the disaster that lived in there.

I couldn't hide it, though. I couldn't even get the door shut! She must have felt sorry for me because while I fed lunch to my kids, she dug out half the room and stacked it on the other side. I was embarrassed, but more shocked than anything. Talk about super powers.

So, I've removed half the wallpaper and hope to get the rest off by Monday. It is fairly easy to do. I tear off the outer layer and then use the handy wallpaper scorer another handy friend gave me. I spray the whole area with a solution of one part fabric softener and four parts water and let it sit for awhile. Before it starts to dry, I scrape it off. Then I wash the wall with warm water while it is still damp.

You might be wondering where I'm going to put all that stuff so I can get this done? The truth? I have no idea!

I'll keep you posted.

Often Things Are Not What They Seem

I pushed the double stroller down the sidewalk. The babies looked sweet in their blanket sleepers, taking in the sights, each leaning a different way.

"Bus!" said my two-year-old. A minute later: "Nother bus!" (While her baby brother inspected the weeds on the other side of the sidewalk.)

I saw a man ahead with a black dog. He cheerfully patted the dog's head when it jumped up on him. Then the dog bounded toward us and began licking the faces of my children. Horrified, and thankful the dog wasn't a biter (I was recently bitten by a neighbor's dog), I thought to myself that this man was very rude to let his dog clobber my children. I tried to push the dog away, but this was a persistently friendly dog.

As I walked away, the dog followed us. The man didn't say a word. Then I realized this was not his dog. Then I realized he probably thought this was my dog and may have even thought to himself, "How impolite of this woman to let her dog jump on me and not even apologize. And where is the leash?"

I was glad when the dog gave up trying to tongue assault my babies, but it still wanted to follow us. I tried everything I could think of (without being cruel) to get the dog to leave us alone. If I stopped and gave the dog my best "Scram!" stare, the dog would sit. I did a lot of pointing and yelling and pretend or soft kicking. I tried throwing rocks (I mostly missed). No effect. If I ignored the dog and walked on, the dog walked along side me like I had taught it to heel. (We had a dog once [that's a whole other story] and it was like a battle trying to get her to heel on a walk.)

So I just walked. What choice did I have?

People driving past us may have thought to themselves that I was a good master as they saw the dog keep perfect pace with me.

When the dog decided to dart into the street, the slowed drivers might have been thinking I was a negligent owner, to let my unleashed dog run wherever it wanted.

Funny thing is, they would have all been wrong!

CHAOS

If you are a Fly Lady, you know what CHAOS stands for: Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. And I've got it bad. I've seen blogs where people post their projects and remodels and I love to see how much they accomplish as much as I hate to see how much they accomplish (because it makes me feel like a loser).

So, I thought I'd give it a try. If I believe even one person might be "coming over," maybe it will motivate me to get off my duff and get some things done around here!

Below you will see the before picture of my baby boy's room that he still doesn't get to live in.


This is the way we found the room when we moved into the house. See that carpet? I'm pretty sure it would have turned thirty this year with the house if we had not murdered it last year and dropped it in a dumpster. Hey, we had motive! Imagine digging around in a well-used litterbox with your nose; that's what it smelled like. Even after several scented candlelight vigils, it smelled no better. I told my husband we needed to clean it and he said we might as well rip it out and start over. So we went to the local carpet stores and began to premeditate its removal. It was a double homicide too. The mauve carpet in the girls' room was just as nasty (only it smelled like an old nursing home instead), so it had to go as well.

I don't really gross out easily, but when I saw the bottom side of those carpets on installation day I was GROSSED OUT. The only way I can think to describe how it looked is hundreds of overlapping Venn diagram pee spots. I'm sure they weren't all pee spots, but they all looked the same to me.

This leads me to share my joy in choosing vinyl. Because even though I don't have indoor pets and my children don't pee on the floor very often, if they did, no one thirty years from now would ever know about it by looking at the bottom of the vinyl!

And now, for that wallpaper...

All of Our Ducks in a Row

Okay, well, not ALL of them. But we did catch the bus today, and yesterday I conquered the dishes and the dining room floor.

This morning I walked into my daughters' room to see this:My two-year-old is at the stage where she gathers like toys together and puts them in a line. These groupings always amuse me, can you see why?

Needless to say, I saw this "row" as a good omen for today. So far, so good!

Tomorrow, the Other Side of the Street

We missed the bus again today. More truthfully, I missed the bus again. As I ran up the sidewalk with my three children (two of them in a stroller), only to see the bus pass by at the end of the street, my brain couldn't avoid a flashback to childhood.

It must have happened at least a hundred times: me running up the dirt road only to see the bus pass by at the end of the street. The morning air was only slightly cooled and sat still as I hurried. Luckily, the bus had to come back that way, so if I crossed the street, I could be picked up on the other side. The streak of yellow at the finish line might as well have carried the banner, "You lose again."

And that was how I felt today, only worse. My daughter has never ridden the bus to school. She wants to, but her mother can't get her to the bus stop in time. Yesterday, on her second day of Kindergarten, I promised her that we would catch the bus "tomorrow." I should have known (from experience) it was a promise I am incapable of keeping.

As I drove her to school, a knot in my stomach, I told her I was sorry for breaking my promise. When I asked her how I could make it up to her, she said that she just wanted us to try again tomorrow. Her forgiveness only made me feel worse. I watched her as she ran to the playground, the knot tightening as I worried about her drowning in the sea of children. When I could no longer see her, I drove home.

On the way, I thought of the many ways I have neglected my duties as wife and mother. I hate to admit it, but I have discovered that it is easier to neglect a child (and a husband) than I once believed. I do not think my goals are lofty because I have seen many women who gush of the life I am striving for (my husband's mother is the best among them). So I know it can be done.

I am usually one to look on the positive side of things, but today the only thing I feel I am successful at is failure.

It isn't just about the lost race to the bus stop. I wish it was. It is about a cluttered home, dozens of unfinished projects, late appointments, procrastinated intentions, and unmet promises. It is about a pile of unfolded laundry, a sink and counter full of dishes, a sticky dining room floor, weeds growing in the yard and mold growing in the toilet, to name only a few.

I looked in the rear view mirror at my babies, one of each kind, and wondered if they would get a better mom than their big sister. As I parked in front of our home, I could hear my daughter's words echoing in my head.

I hope God doesn't mind that I pray daily for super powers because I think that's what it's going to take to pull this thing off.