do I get mad?

Last night, as I was reading X-man his bedtime story, he asked me a question. This is not usual. During the course of one Dr. Seuss book, I usually answer many, many questions about what is going on in the pictures and so on. This time was different.

X-man was staring at me very intently and then asked "what's that" as he pointed to my forehead. This had me worried. Did I have a giant pimple that was about to burst (as this has been happening lately), or a bug on me, what?? Nope. Instead, he was pointing at the wrinkle I now have between my eyes! He asked me to make that face again so he could see it, touch it, laugh at it. Nice. Then, he made the face and asked where his was. I told him that he did not have one...yet. He seemed ok with that answer.

I think that I am getting old. Or at least I must look it.


After I put him to bed, I went down to do mom stuff. Every night when I put X to bed, he tells me to not make a mess. So, I do mom stuff that involves not making a mess. Thanks 3 year old! On the monitor, I heard him get up and get a book. He then read the book to himself while occasionally flipping pages. I decided that there were worse things he could be doing, so I let him read while I finished not making a mess.

30 minutes later, I went up to check on him. When I opened the door, he was not in his bed. Momentarily, I panicked. Then I saw him...sitting in his bean bag chair, happy as could be, reading "One Fish, Two Fish, Red fish"(he does not like the full name of the book and so the title ends there). I did what every mother should do. I sat down next to him, let him put his little feet on my legs and we finished reading the book together.

Once the book was done and he had explained to me that he had first read the book in his bed, then in his glider and ended up on the beanbag chair, I tucked him back into bed.


"Mommy, are you happy?"


"Yes baby. Mommy is very happy"

rough life

suzie homemaker

On Sunday, a friend and I decided to drive up to the mountains of Virginia. The trees were beautiful, in vibrant colors of orange, yellows and reds. We had a really good time on the drive up.

We finally ended up at our destination!

We then went out to the orchards and picked some apples!

It was a perfect day outside The sun was shining and it was about 58 degrees out. Pefect for picking apples.

Tonight, I decided to do something with some of the apples. I put 2-3 of them in the food processor and made a sauce. Then I put that into the dehydrator on a tray. Hello fruit roll-up!

I then cut up some more of the apples, treated them and put the slices into the food processor
YUM!

Come back tomorrow to see the results!

List for the week

I live for lists. Sometimes, I makes lists of lists that I need to make. Some might call me OCD. Here is my list for this week.

- go to gym 3 times

- clean all the bathrooms

- organize the basement bedroom

- make something with the 7 lbs of apples we picked yesterday

- clean out my car

- go to bed earlier

As you can see, the bedroom is a wreck and so it will be my main goal of the week. The second main goal is to get my butt to the gym.

Since it is already 10:30pm, I need to work more on that last point.

simple life

Kids are suppose to bring joy to your life. Sometimes, it does not always work out so easily. Today, I was having a rough day. I am not really sure why but it was. I decided to come home for lunch and it really helped. The house was quiet. The dogs were still locked in their kennel. As I sat there, I started to look around and I noticed things. Little things. Like, the way the toilet was ready for the next potty break.


And how his little cleats were left by the front door, ready for the weekend and his next soccer game.

I also saw the letters that were left on the refrigerator. They were just waiting for X-Man to get home and spell out different things.

After looking around, I felt better. Sometimes it is just the simple things in life that make you smile.

a simple shelf

Clutter makes me feel unorganized and a bit frazzled. Everyday, when I would look at our television, I would feel this way. Looking at this picture, you can see that the DVD player and the cable box are on the sides of the TV. The speakers for the surround sound are on the mantle. When watching TV, you had to turn your head sideways to see the time on the cable box or to read what level the sound was at. The DVD player could not play DVD's and the front of the mantle was not really accessible. It was way too cluttered.


I decided that today was the day to change that. I broke out the measuring tape, drew a little picture and went out to my local hardware store. There, I got all the materials that were needed.

Then, I primed the wood and got to work. Notice all the dust on my camera lens? That is from sanding the wood.

I painted two coats on each side of each piece of wood. I let it dry for about an hour or so on each side with a fan blowing on it. Today was a very wet, yucky day so I was afraid the paint would never dry.

After all the wood was dry, I assembled my shelf. I am going to be totally honest and tell you that it was no easy feat. Every time I got everything all set up and tried to nail a nail in, the boards on the bottom would fall over and I would get wood glue all over everything. Another confession is that I am pretty sure I scared the dogs and X-man pretty good at one point.

I am not a great carpenter and it shows. I did put another nail in to make sure that the shelf was sturdy.

Here is the end result. I am extremely happy with it. Everything looks so organized. The DVD player and cable box now sit flat like they should. The speakers are next to the TV and off the mantle. The only minor problem is that I can not find another home for the center speaker.

I should also mention that this entire project cost $31. The only thing I did not have to buy was a paintbrush.

Color

I love color. One of my favorite colors to wear is tropical orange. My house, though, had no color in it at all when we first moved in. All the walls were white, with a few walls a darker shade of white. It was kind of annoying and really boring. We were finally able to get started on painting last week. First, I started with a barely there purple in the bathroom. I love it! Do you see the butterflies? I really like those too.


Then, it was time to really add color. Orange is a GREAT color! This room is not nearly done yet but here is a picture of the color in it. I ABSOLUTELY love it. I am having a really hard time deciding what to put on the walls. The wall to the left, which is not visible, has a black and white family picture of us and our three dogs walking across a field. I have no idea what to do with the others.

I decided to stay pretty neutral in the living room and kitchen. This picture does not really show it, but the walls are a green color. It is better visible in the next picture. I really like the color because of the balance it has with the accent color in the kitchen. My appliances, area rugs and hand towels are fire engine red and they look great up against this color. I do not have a picture to show this but it will be coming soon.

Again, color is fantastic. I try to incorporate it into every room, even if it is just by using trinkets.

Just relaxing in the sun.

Things have been busy over here! The past few weeks have been filled to the brim with inside housework. The first week, I hauled, lifted, sweated and rearranged until the basement was no longer an OCD person's nightmare. Here are a few pictures.

There have been other big changes going on in the house. Here is a sneak preview of what is to come.