our little family

Skiing, finally.

2012-02-08T09:58:00.000-07:00


Callie and Brynn on the slopes under the blue Colorado sky.

Maybe you've heard...it hasn't been the best year for snow here in the west. It took much longer than normal to build up a decent base of snow at most of the resorts here in Colorado (and I've heard the same has been true in Utah and California). So we put off skiing until we hit the perfect day: new snow and decent temperatures. By decent I of course mean WELL over 30 degrees and no wind.

You see, I'm a wimp and I'm getting wimpier with age.

My children, apparently, are not. As long as they are with friends, the cold doesn't seem to bother them.

This year, for the first time EVER, the girls skied (close your eyes Grandparents, you won't want to read this) without us! Callie skied with a friend and Brynn skied with a friend and we didn't see them much all day.

Scary, I know. Because there are lots of no-good people in the world and my daughters are cute and vulnerable.

But the resort where we are skiing this year is small and all of the trails lead back to the same base. It would be very difficult to get lost or off track.

The girls stayed out until the bitter end -- until the lifts stopped running and every trail was in the shade. Brynn came in with tears in her eyes because her hands were so cold, but it was nothing that couldn't be solved by a good cup of hot chocolate.

I tend to fight skiing with the family because I'm so afraid of the cold. But now that the girls can ski without me, now that I can sit in the lodge with a book and a cup of coffee, I think we're moving into a new era. It's an exciting time!

My favorite walk

2012-02-07T09:47:00.000-07:00

One of the (many) things I love about living in Colorado is that, because of the spectacular weather and vast swaths of open space, I can go for walks almost any day of the year in lots of different places within just minutes of my house. But one walk in particular is my favorite. Maybe because it isn't too long or too far from the house and so it fits into my daily schedule? Maybe because it is quiet and beautiful.

My favorite walk is on this trail that leaves from the kids' school and meanders between the backs of houses in our neighborhood. It is peaceful and serene and on the way home it is slightly uphill, which is great for me. Because I pretty much refuse to challenge myself, so the little incline does it for me.

Last week while I was walking, the sun was hitting the trees at just the perfect angle. The sky was clear and the air was crisp and I stopped walking for a second, just to take it all in. The next morning I took my camera with me (actually, Scott's camera -- his new little Canon PowerShot, which I love) and grabbed a few photos so you could enjoy the scenery with me.

It's nothing spectacular; just a little slice of peace and beauty and serenity. Just what I need to clear my head at the start of my day.

What is your favorite beer?

2012-01-18T07:48:00.001-07:00

Callie: What is your favorite beer?
Brynn: Uhhhhh...
Callie: Do you like stout? Like Guinness?
Brynn: Uhhhhh...I don't like beer.
Callie: But if you did, which would be your favorite?
Brynn: I haven't even tasted beer. I don't know.
Callie: Mine is Corona. I don't really like dark beer. I like light beer.

Nicely put, Callie. Our favorite beer connoisseur, age 6.

Heading home

2012-01-06T21:54:00.001-07:00

We're heading home from Mexico tomorrow. We've been here for three weeks and it has been a fantastic vacation. Callie is hyperventalating and in tears because she doesn't want to leave. Scott and I, in the meantime, are having a conversation that goes something like this:

Scott: Accuweather says it's going to be 15 degrees tomorrow. NOW are you worried about getting Libbie home?

Hill: Um, no, I don't even know where her travel documents are.

Scott: I really don't know how you survive. How do you even survive?

So, yeah, that's us in a nutshell. He's into details. I'm not. One thing I love about our marriage is that being with Scott has freed me up to be, well, free. He worries about little things. He concerns himself with things like whether or not the dog will be allowed to fly into Denver despite the cold. And getting to the airport (and church, and school functions, and swim meets, etc.) on time. If he knew that I sometimes forget to pay our utility bill, he'd probably worry about that, too. Let's keep that between us.

Scott and I celebrated 11 years last week and I am so grateful to have him. He is supportive and dedicated and sensitive (for a man, anyway) and so very, very loyal. He brings out the best in me (and yes, sometimes the worst, too) and frees me up to be whom I want to be and do what I want to do.

I am so blessed.

Christmas Lists

2011-12-15T13:00:00.002-07:00

Christmas lists are generally not encouraged in our house. Despite that, both of the girls took it upon themselves to write lists a few days ago. Never mind that our shopping is done or that there wasn't much shopping planned in the first place, they figure that Santa can always come through, whether you actually believe in him or not.

Let me share a few highlights from their lists. First of all, both girls have listed "violin" at the tops of their lists, and Brynn has also requested weekly lessons to go with her violin. In addition to her violin, Callie would like an American Girl doll bed, a reading loft, and a grapefruit. Or "grap froot" as she spells it. She'd also like a bag of glitter and fairy wings, plus a bag of lavender, a grandfather clock, a bunny, a puppy, and a kitten. Not too much to ask, right?

As for Brynn, she would like an American Girl doll with "most of her accessories," her "very own" kitten or puppy, a wallet (that can carry a lot), a piano in the house, money to donate to Atin Afrika, and a baby brother. (Yes, you read that right.) Oh, and a ballerina jewelry model from Hobby Lobby. She also left the following note: "I have been asking for these things for so long now! I would love to have at least three or four items from my list. They would be really precious to me. Maybe not to you, but me. Even if I only get one item, I would treat it with care."

So, here I go wrapping presents and realizing that not one thing that the girls asked for is in the presents. Brynn will be thrilled, I'm sure, to find a lampshade among her gifts. And both girls will be getting socks with toes sewn into them. I bet they'll wish those had been on their lists. I did just send Scott to Safeway to grab a grapefruit for Callie. At least she can check off one item.

The Gift of Parenthood

2011-12-12T22:04:00.002-07:00

As I was reading Natalie's recent post about the protectiveness that motherhood brings out in her, I was taken back to my first two weeks with Brynn. Those fierce emotions hit me like a freight train after Brynn was born. Suddenly, love was so much easier to understand.

Within hours of Brynn's birth, I understood that a parent's love for a child is a metaphor for God's love for us. I even took it so far as to consider the idea that until one becomes a parent, one cannot truly understand the depth and breadth of God's love for us. It is only through parenting that we experience such selfless, sacrificial love.

I love my husband. I would defend him and fight for him and give my life for him. He is a gift from God. But my kids? It is like my love for my husband...times a billion. I would, without a second thought, throw myself in front of a bus for my children. I would give not one, but two kidneys. I'd give my heart and every ounce of blood in my body for my children. There is nothing that I would not do to ensure their safety and their survival.

And the metaphor continues. With my children, nothing is unforgivable. Should they wrong me in some way and then apologize sincerely, I would forgive them for anything. I love them so much that nothing they could do could ever cause me to stop loving them.

I remember lying in the hospital bed after Brynn was born and thinking about the story of the prodigal son. I've probably even blogged about it before. It was such a huge revelation for me that I still think about it often. I grew up having a tough time relating to the father in the story of the prodigal son. I related well to the older brother -- maybe it was my nature as a self-righteous older sister. The older brother had done everything right. He was responsible and respectful and fulfilled every duty he was given. His younger brother was wild and irresponsible, but when that younger brother returned home groveling, he was celebrated. The younger brother was barely even in his father's line of sight before he was forgiven and the party started.

I wondered how that was possible. How could the father love his son so much that he would forgive him despite such stupidity? And how is it possible that God loves us so much that he would do the same?

Then I looked down at my utterly perfect baby, my baby who was so clearly knitted together by the hands of God, and I understood. At only a few hours old, I would do anything for her. Anything.

And as I read Natalie's blog today, about how the government says that baby Theo has a deformed foot and a low set ear but all his mom sees is an absolutely perfect baby, I was reminded of how God sees us. He looks at us and he sees perfection, just the way we see perfection in our children. When I look at Callie's completely ridiculous outfits with two different socks and crazy skirts with tops that don't match, I see a vibrant and creative and independent child with the potential to be anything she wants to be. I see a child who is perfect in every way, absolutely beautiful and brilliant and full of life.

I am so thankful that God created parenthood as a mirror image of his relationship with us. Until we get there, until we hold that first beautiful baby in our arms and let our love wash over her, we really can't understand the intensity of what God feels for us or how he could love us the way he says he does. Being a parent gives us a glimpse, a reminder of what cherished gifts we all are.

Brynn turns nine

2011-12-08T10:32:00.001-07:00

Brynn thinks it is hilarious to count down the days to turning ten. She knows it makes me squirm to think of her growing up and so she says, "Mom, 348 days til I turn 10." Ach. Drives me crazy.

Despite the fact that I would prefer she stay exactly as she is, time seems to continue marching along without me. And so here we are, at her 9th birthday, which she has stubbornly decided MUST be a sleepover and MUST include tea.

Okay...tea. "Can we have a 2 hour tea party? Look at all the cute tea party inspiration pics I pinned on Pinterest, honey!"

"NO, mom. I want a sleepover."

Sigh, okay. So we had a sleepover. With tea. And hot cider for the non-tea drinkers among us (which was pretty much all of them). They ate cake, did a fun craft, drank tea, and stayed up too late. Yep, I think they filled every requirement for a fun birthday sleepover.

God bless Whole Foods. Brynn loves those cakes!

The girls putting together their ornaments.

Brynn is so blessed to have such a kind and fun group of friends.

Some of the finished ornaments.

The girls did an amazing job on the ornaments. They're all very crafty.

Callie and I punched the paper ahead of time.

The girls just stuck the paper punches
onto styrofoam balls with sewing pins.

And attached ribbons for hanging. Cute and simple.

Ride, Callie, ride!

2011-12-08T10:23:00.001-07:00

All she wants to do is ride around, Callie.
Ride, Callie, ride!

Callie finally (and suddenly) decided that she was ready to learn to ride a bike. Her dad has tried to teach her several times but she was resistant (and when I say resistant, you know I mean stubborn as a donkey, dragged kicking and screaming). Suddenly this fall, she asked Brynn to teach her to ride. So around and around the garage they went until Callie was gliding and eventually pedaling.

I am so thankful for the great friendship that B&C have. Yes, they scream at each other, but they also forgive and love each other. And without Brynn, Callie would still have to wear velcro shoes and ride a trike.

Cowgirls

2011-11-16T15:52:00.001-07:00

Scott and I made a deal with the girls when we were in Steamboat Springs this August. We told them, "Yes, we will buy you both cowgirl boots. But you have to be cowgirls for Halloween." Deal. And they've been wearing their cowgirl boots to school a few times a week, so I think they were totally worth the investment.

Check out the girls' awesome glittery belt buckles. They used the shiny, glittery belt buckles on the barrel racers at the rodeo in Steamboat as their inspiration. These ones are actually jar lids with holes punched in them, glued and glittered to the max, and tied onto their belts. Brilliant, I know.

I love my cowgirls!

Those freckles on her nose are to die for. Love them.

Yeeeeehaw!

I have no idea what got them giggling this time. I'm so glad to have girls who are not just sisters, but friends too.

Check out that bling!!

Poor Libbie had to be Superdog again. She was not pleased. I'm sure she would have preferred to go with the theme and be a cattle dog. No costume necessary.

Motivation

2011-11-01T23:00:00.000-06:00

This quote may not represent the whole truth, but dang if it doesn't motivate me.

When these girls dance

2011-10-21T00:37:00.000-06:00

When these girls dance, I see their personalities. One is serious and reserved, the other lighthearted and smiling. One wants to be sure her positions are perfect, the other wants to fly through the air. One seems like a serious artist while the other is the definition of a munchkin.

In both girls, their gifts are evident. Brynn awes me with the beautiful ways she moves, brings tears to my eyes when she swims and when she dances, moving swiftly and fluidly with coordination and confidence that belie her years. The grace in her body surprises me, catches me off guard every single time. I never expected my almost ten pound baby, the one born bowlegged, to move like this. It is like she sees beauty and internalizes it and lets it flow through her body and out her fingers and toes.

Callie draws out the joy in those around her, smiling and giggling and cracking jokes. She is silly and bright and life bubbles out of her every moment she is awake. Her moods change without hesitation, from elated to passionately angry to pee-in-her-pants laughing without skipping a beat. How blessed I am, mother to them both, given the opportunity to watch them bloom, to stand witness as their gifts emerge, to be overwhelmed by their passion and showered by their joy.

Sometimes I can't believe they are my daughters; they are so gifted and so blessed in so many ways. And then I realize, so am I.

A Wake-Up Story

2011-10-17T09:33:00.001-06:00

The Crazy Ones

2011-10-06T10:49:00.001-06:00

Sprouting

2011-10-04T22:45:00.000-06:00

We plant ideas in our children. We show them and tell them and show them and tell them what is important to us, what we want to be important to them. We believe that we are planting those ideas in fertile soil and that with proper care, those ideas will take root and grow in our children.

When something we hold dear and pass onto our children grows in them...well, there is nothing in the world as satisfying or gratifying or inspiring.

Today I saw an idea sprout in Brynn.

Brynn's social studies textbook was following a Texas wheat farmer. The farmer was explaining to them how he grows wheat. In Brynn's words, "After the wheat sprouts, he said that he fertilizes the wheat. Our book said that fertilizers are 'chemicals that farmers spray on seedlings to help them grow.'"

She even knew the page number. No mention of compost. No mention of manure. Nothing about other techniques for growing plants.

To most third graders (heck, probably most adult Americans), this idea of using chemical fertilizers would probably pass unnoticed. And it sounds like, for most of Brynn's class, it did.

But organic food, sustainable food systems, and chemical-free living (or chemical-light, as the case may be) are ideas that Scott and I planted in Brynn before she was even in kindergarten. They are ideas we've been nurturing for years but not expecting to see evidence of until she begins making her own choices as a consumer.

To see her questioning her textbook and questioning conventional farming at only eight years old -- it blew me away and made me indescribably proud.

While Brynn didn't have the courage to speak up during class (she is shy and extremely respectful of authority, just like her dad and I were at her age), she is not satisfied with what her textbook is teaching her and she is itching to talk to someone about it. Someone besides me, but not someone as authoritative as her principal. She wants to talk to a teacher who will sympathize with her and help her understand how her textbook could leave out what are, in her mind, such important details.

Where Brynn will go with this is yet to be seen. But, seeing undeniable evidence that our values are sprouting in her? No matter where she goes with it, I am encouraged and inspired to continue speaking and living truth into both of my girls. Against all odds, it seems that they actually believe me.

Language snob.

2011-09-22T23:18:00.000-06:00

Now I can be a grammar (and spelling) snob in English AND in Spanish! Look what I found on Facebook, care of Brynn's former teacher! Love, love, love it.

Estimado lector, aprenda que: "haber" es un verbo, "a ver" es mirar, "haver" no existe. "Hay" es haber, "ahí" es un lugar, "ay" es una exclamación y "ahy" no existe. "Haya" es haber, "halla" es encontrar, "allá" es un lugar y "haiga" no existe. "Iba" es de ir, "IVA" es un impuesto e "hiba" no existe. "Vaya" es de ir, "valla" es una cerca y "baya" es un fruto. Campaña contra la mala ortografía.

And here is the difference between learning a language naturally and learning it in the classroom. The mistakes highlighted above are mistakes with parallels in English (think their, they're, and there, too, to, and two...those kinds of mistakes), mistakes that drive me crazy when I see or hear them. But in Spanish? I had no idea these mistakes existed. I learned Spanish from a textbook, not from listening to my parents speak it, and so I never ran into these problems.

Call me a geek, but it is so fun for me to see the mistakes that native speakers make in a language other than English. And even more fun to understand them.

I'm not ready for this

2011-09-17T10:47:00.005-06:00

The view from my kitchen window today.

Uh oh. Winter is coming.

The Facebook Effect

2011-09-16T11:19:00.000-06:00

As someone who used to study interpersonal communication, I've recently been interested how the parameters and norms of Facebook affect our friendships. Not our Facebook friendships, but our real friendships. Because there is a difference, right? I am "friends" with a lot of people on Facebook -- people I would have long since forgotten but because we have a way to "connect," we are still "friends." Sometimes even better friends than we were before Facebook.

But, are we really friends? By the traditional definition of friendship? Do we enjoy doing activities together? Self-disclose with one another? Trust each other? No, not really. We're acquaintances who happen to know a lot about what is going on in each other's lives. But Facebook defines us as friends. Our Facebook friendship had a beginning -- the day the person friended me and I accepted their friendship -- and it may have an end. The end will be the day the person chooses to "unfriend" me. Or the day I unfriend them.

I've lost a few friends recently. Wait, let me re-state that. I've been "unfriended by" a few friends lately. When someone unfriends you on Facebook, you don't get any kind of notice from Facebook. They don't send you an email or flag that person's name somewhere on your account where you can see it. The person's updates just disappear from your feed and your total number of friends changes. I don't look at my number often so I don't notice right away when someone unfriends me.

One of the people who unfriended me recently was someone whom I didn't usually agree with politically and she posted several politically-charged status updates every month. The problem for me was that politics was never a discussion for her. She would not consider any opinion but hers which made her updates frustrating to read. I was tired of seeing her updates so I "blocked" them. That means I set up my account so that I wouldn't see her updates but I could still go to her page to check in on her and see what she was up to. I knew she was about to move across the country so I went to her page one day to see whether her house had sold and when she was planning to leave. When I got to her page, I realized immediately that she'd unfriended me.

Her unfriending came within a few days of me writing this post about our (inappropriate, in my opinion) reaction to Osama bin Laden's death. I know that she believes me to be extremely liberal (which is laughable) and my post probably fit right in with her opinion of my political position. I'm guessing that the post was like the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to her opinion of me.

When I wrote that post and linked it to my Facebook account, I thought it would probably be a catalyst for some friendly banter. I usually enjoy a little debate (as long as it doesn't turn into someone hounding me constantly -- in a huff, I actually unfriended someone for that once. Thankfully he gave me crap about it and I took him back the next day and am a better person for his Facebook friendship). To my surprise, everyone who posted comments on my Facebook page agreed with what I had said in the Osama bin Laden post. I was genuinely nervous putting the post up and was really surprised by the positive reaction.

So when I figured out that one of my friends had unfriended me as (what seemed like) a result of the post, I was sad and torn and really surprised that she couldn't just tell me she disagreed. Or block me like I had done with her status updates. I think that what made the unfriending hurt most was that the person was someone I was genuinely friends with. We had spent time together when our kids were younger, I had taken Christmas photos of her family, trudging through the snow in my flip flops to get the best photos and then spending hours and hours editing them. I had listened to her tell me about problems in her marriage and even watched her kids for her while she and her husband went for counseling. I even sewed curtains for her daughter's room. I invested a lot of time and hard work in our real friendship.

She wasn't my favorite friend and we certainly had our differences, but she was an actual friend, not just a Facebook friend. While our friendship had evolved naturally and could have been allowed to die out naturally when she moved away, instead it was ended abruptly using the contrived rules of relationships that we are bound to on Facebook.

With a real friendship, it is unlikely that there would ever be an abrupt beginning or an abrupt end. We ease into friendships and ease out of them. Okay, so there are the occasional blow-up, drag-out fights, but in general we grow apart. Our situations change, our schedules change, our interests change and we move on.

But not so on Facebook. The relationship ends. No discussion of why. No explanation. No grace.

I love that Facebook allows me to keep in touch with people I used to be close friends with. I love that I can get to know acquaintances better by peering into the Facebook window to their lives. But I haven't yet figured out how to deal with the new rules that Facebook is imposing on my friendships. Like early transportation and then the Pony Express and then phones and eventually email, Facebook's effect on friendships is uncharted territory and I am interested in seeing how it plays out.

And swimming continues...

2011-09-08T10:33:00.001-06:00

The girls both had fantastic swim seasons this year. Brynn finished 3rd overall in the 8 & unders at City, Callie finished 1st in the 6 & unders. They both finished 3rd overall in their age groups at State. They worked hard at practice and made good friends and, most importantly, had fun.

Brynn's freestyle and backstroke are both so beautiful I sometimes start to cry when I watch her. I know that is ridiculous, but I can't get over her. She is amazing. Efficient, graceful, fast. She is not super competitive which is something we tried to instill in her this year but eventually we decided it will come when it comes.

Callie's strokes are a lot more rough around the edges, but that girl has fire. Not that it should surprise anyone who knows her, but, after trying to encourage competitiveness in Brynn, it was a new experience to hear Callie say, "I want to WIN. I want to BEAT THAT GIRL." Whoa. Just not what we're used to.

Summer swimming ended about a month ago and now the girls are starting back up with a fall swim camp at a local high school. The camp is run by a coach whom I've admired for his attention to detail with each swimmer and his affinity for telling it like it is. He seems to say what he thinks.

Yesterday at the beginning of Callie's session, she was overwhelmed. The little kids swim at the same time as the high school kids and when coach called them all down to the pool, there were about forty 16-year olds...and Callie. And one other little boy. Callie cowered until coach yelled, "Little kids, over here!" She perked up and hopped in the water and did great. She is a very good listener and with hard work, will be an excellent swimmer.

About an hour later it was Brynn's turn. She started out with the group who needed the most work on their strokes. Coach came over and asked me where she was and I pointed. "She's the one in the tie-dye cap and pink goggles." He walked over to her lane and asked, "What's your name?"

"Brynn," she replied meekly.

"You swim for Rockrimmon?"

She whispered, "Yes."

"You're supposed to be over here." And he moved her to a different lane.

Because she is not assertive, she put herself last in her lane. She's the new girl and assumed that was her place. And she was swiftly kicked in the face by the kid in front of her during the first drill.

Coach came back. "You, from Rockrimmon. What did you place at City?"

Quietly, "Third."

"Why are you going last? You're too fast to go last. Your going to get hurt. You swim first with Jessica."

And so, two-by-two, Jessica and Brynn swam 25s next to each other. And every time they'd get to the end, Jessica (who finished 2nd at City in Brynn's age group) would tell Brynn, "You finished after me."

And Brynn would look at her like she was nuts. And then she'd swim her graceful, ballerina freestyle next to Jessica who was clearly working her rear end off to beat Brynn, and Jessica would finish just ahead of her again.

After practice last night, I told Brynn what I saw. One swimmer who was working on her strokes and one who was working on beating her partner.

And then I asked her, "Next time you swim against Jessica in a race, who is going to win?"

And she smiled. And with all the sincerity and determination she has in her, she said, "I am."

That is the story of how a fall swim camp, which is supposed to improve a kid's strokes, might also create a competitor.

School: I don't really care anymore

2011-09-01T22:59:00.002-06:00

Yep, I said it. I don't care.

It's almost as if an alien has invaded my brain over the past ten years and scrambled it all up. I was not raised to think like this. I was not educated to think like this. My children made me do it. Wait, correction: my child made me do it.

Brynn is in an ultra-competitive class at school -- a class that we chose to put her in because it is partial-Spanish immersion and I believe that learning a second language is more important than almost anything else she'll learn in school. Besides reading, everything else will come. She'll figure out the science, the math, the social studies. But the second language? We have to make a concerted effort to teach it to her, so, in that sense, immersion fits our ideals well.

In general, Brynn's classmates read, write, and do math well above grade level. Not all of them, but most of them. It is a skewed bell curve, for sure, skewed waaaaay to the right. Brynn is a smart kid. She reads at or slightly above her grade level. While math isn't her strongest subject, she can do word problems with the best of them. She is curious and bright -- she loves science and she really loves to read. This summer she devoured every chapter book she could get her hands on.

But, in her class, Brynn feels dumb.

Her feelings seem familiar to me, and maybe that is why I am reacting so strongly.

Knowing that your kid feels dumb is gut-wrenching. I can't stand it. I just want my kid to be happy and confident. I want her to work hard, to do her best, to enjoy learning, and to be happy. I want her to figure out what she loves to do and I want her to have a chance to do it. And I really want her to have that second language, so I won't pull her from immersion unless the cost of being among the competitive kids begins to outweigh the benefit of learning the language.

Mostly, I want both of my kids to be happy. That's it. Is it too much to ask?

So tonight, as Brynn was feeling defeated because she is "only" reading at and slightly above her grade level, this is what I told her:

Brynn, I don't care what some dumb, unreliable reading test says. All I care about is that you understand what you are reading and that you enjoy reading. Do you understand what your textbooks say?

Yes.

Do you enjoy reading books?

Mom (with that adolescent tone...Mo-om!), of course I do.

Then forget about the test. Forget about what "level" your classmates are reading. All that matters is that you understand what you are reading and that you love to read. That's it.

And then we chatted for a bit and before I left her room I tested her to be sure she remembered what I'd said. It took her a second, but she remembered. "All that matters is that I understand it and I enjoy it. That's it."

So there you go. That's the story of how I became a person who doesn't care how her kid scores in school. I care that she works hard, that she does her best, and that she never stops wanting to learn. I don't think her elementary school years will determine where she goes to college. In fact, I don't think it matters if or when or where she goes to college. That's kind of a big statement from someone who teaches college.

I just want her to be happy.

Funny, but that sounds so...American.

Something else to discuss

2011-08-26T06:00:00.027-06:00

Since we're getting rid of Netflix at the end of the month, I finally forced myself to watch The Cove, which has been sitting in our queue for at least six months. I knew it would be hard for me to watch. Thankfully, the filmmakers minimized the bloodbath so the visual part wasn't as horrifying as it could have been and it didn't go on as long as I feared it would.

But it was still horrifying.

It was horrifying even though I already knew that dolphin roundups and slaughters were happening. But the magnitude of it, the sounds of the panicked dolphins, the blood in the water, the thrashing, the separation of moms from babies, the carelessness and machismo of the "fishermen," the lying and ignorance of the Japanese government and its representatives, the cover ups...if it doesn't make you angry, I'd have to question whether your heart is beating.

While we were in Mexico, I said "no" over and over again to swim-with-the-dolphin programs. Because I know that dolphins don't belong in captivity. But I still took my kids to a dolphin "show" at the local water park. And I still look back on the swim-with-the-dolphin program I did 14 years ago with regret.

My children will not see captive dolphins again, at least on my dime. Er, peso, as it were.

The best part about having kids, or ONE of the best parts about having kids, is the opportunity to present injustice to them. They soak it up. It inspires them to create change. My children do not see the world through rose colored glasses. They get the truth from me.

Their potential is limitless, as is their capacity to learn. And as we all know, kids understand justice. That "life isn't fair" doesn't ring true to them. It should be fair. It must be fair. But it's not. Especially if you're a dolphin who happens to migrate past the coast of Japan.

So, add "cetacions in captivity" to the list of stuff we discuss in the car and on our walks to school. Coal and oil vs. renewable energy, the ethics of buying CAFO meat, the effects of egg farming on egg farmers, human trafficking, genocide, child labor, big pharma, my kids hear it all.

They know that we vote with our dollars. They've heard "I vote with my dollars, and I can't vote for that" so many times they probably hear it in their sleep. And if I have anything to do with it, my kids will become activists for something that matters. They will change this world for the better some day. It might be through their art, maybe their words or their writing or their loud, loud voices. It might be through their children, but somehow my kids will make an impact.

My children will leave this place better than they found it.

Maybe this is why I work?

2011-08-23T19:00:00.032-06:00

I don't work much. I mean, not at a ~~real~~ paid job, anyway. This semester I'm only teaching one class and it falls on Monday nights which leaves Scott in charge of the kids for about an hour and a half before they go to bed.

Maybe it is because he is a man or maybe it is because he's not around the kids as much as I am or maybe he's just more efficient and less distracted, but when he has the kids to himself, they do things I would never think of doing. Not bad things, just different things.

Tonight, that thing was football. You see, Scott and I really love football. And yesterday I told the girls that football is "so easy even meat heads can understand it." After that he said something about football I didn't understand. As if to prove that he's not a meat head. Or that it isn't a meat head sport.

We spent some time explaining the basics of football (and I REFRAINED from interrupting when I thought he might not know how to explain it -- it turns out he really IS a football expert, after all). By the end of the session, the girls knew how to get a touchdown, how many points it's worth, what an extra point is, and what a field goal is. We started to explain downs but it didn't make as much sense on paper as it does in real life.

So you know what he did tonight? My sweet husband played football with two little girls.

How freakin' awesome is that? My husband, my strong, football-loving husband, played football with two little girls. He taught them what downs are by playing the game with them.

Never mind that Callie kept telling him how many "meters" they had left to go before getting a first down. Forget about the fact that Brynn played defense by standing in the end zone with her hands up (just like she stands under the hoop with her hands up in basketball).

The girls PLAYED football. And if I had been here? It never would have happened. I would have made them go to their rooms to clean up, to get ready for bed, to read. Scott and I would have lollygagged in the kitchen until the girls really had to go to bed.

I know that being a single parent would be an unfathomable challenge. But being a single parent for one night out of seven? That might not be so bad.

The US Pro Cycling Challenge

2011-08-22T17:47:00.002-06:00

Yep, it's a mouthful. Not as easy to say as "The Tour de France" but, whatever. It was fun no matter what the name.

The rest of the "challenge" will be broadcast on Versus this week and then NBC on Sunday. We caught the prologue today, an individual time trial. We even took the girls out of school for it!!

The line of the day? It was all Brynnie. "Wow, check this out!! This ant is carrying a dead grasshopper!" You can tell they were enthralled by the action on the road in front of them.

This photo care of Callie. Not bad for a six year old, right?

Bye, bye baby.

2011-08-12T13:37:00.005-06:00

Callie's worst fears have come to fruition.

She's officially no longer a baby.

Here she was last month, still considering herself a baby:

See all those teeth? That's her dividing line between baby and big kid. Those front teeth.

And now here she is. As of 1:30 this afternoon, she is no longer a baby.

This is Callie showing me where she found her tooth. She wanted to show me how far she could push it out with her tongue. She said, "Look, Mama!" and smiled and there was no tooth. She gasped, stuck her finger into her cheek, and found it right where she's pointing.

This afternoon we had a super lunch of sushi, miso, and salad. Watching her try to eat sushi rolls with that dangling front tooth was painful and funny all at the same time. Rice spilling everywhere, long cords of wet seaweed dangling from her hand, blood on her napkin...it was not pretty.

I think we're all happy to be done with that tooth.

All except the baby of the family, that is.

Sisterly love

2011-07-11T19:40:00.003-06:00

Brynn had an ingrown toenail. It's gross and I don't like to think about it much less write about it, but it had to be dealt with. It was infected and not improving quickly enough to ignore. So today we went to our family doc and Brynn absolutely refused to let him do anything to help improve her situation. It was awful, embarrassing, and frustrating for both me and the doc. She was screaming every time he touched it, not listening to him as he explained what he was going to do, and eventually refused to let him touch it at all. She was panicked and definitely not herself.

Upon threat of missing an afternoon playdate, she agreed to see a podiatrist this afternoon. Calmed by a dose of valium, she sat in the chair and behaved reasonably well while the doctor dug out the ingrown part of her nail, trimmed it off, and killed that part of the nail root with acid. The nail will look a little goofy for the next 92 years of her life, but it won't ever be ingrown again.

Brynn did not watch the procedure as it happened, but her little sister did. Callie was all eyes as she observed every move the doctor made. After it was over, she said that watching him stick instruments so far into Brynn's toe nearly made her cry.

After dinner she begged for a sleepover. "Can't Brynn PLEEEEAASE come sleep in my room?" No, I explained. She needs plenty of sleep for her toe to heal. "We NEVER do anything FUN in this family!" she yelled at me. Shortly after, she meekly requested to sleep on her sister's hardwood floor. She was shut down again. I told her that on Wednesday, after their next swim meet, they could have a sleepover.

Callie retreated to her room and when I went to kiss her goodnight, she asked me to help her arrange a pillow for her feet. "Why do your feet need a pillow?" I asked. "Because if Brynn has to sleep with her feet up, then I will to." Callie didn't just want a sleep over with her sister for fun. She wanted the closeness of it, the intimacy of sharing space with someone she cares about. She wanted to support her sister.

And so, with tears in my eyes, I went into Brynn's room and reminded her how much her little sister loves her, how lucky she is to have this sister relationship and how amazing it is that she gets to grow up with the person who will be her best friend forever.

Brynn smiled and asked, "Even though earlier today she called me a stupid idiot?"

And that's life, right? You get in a fight with your BFF, call her names, and then go back to loving each other, empathizing with each other, and caring for each other like it never even happened.

What blessed girls they are to have each other not only for family, but also for friends.

Feeling like a slacker

2011-07-01T20:58:00.003-06:00

Sheetrock is up. Mud is going up as we speak. Yep, it's 9pm on a Friday and mud is going up. And I'm here writing, which means I'm not doing it. And neither is Scott. He's putting the kids to bed in a tent in the backyard.

We hired out the basement drywall. The drywaller came highly recommended by good friends who know what they're talking about. And we could afford him. And we couldn't afford to do it ourselves. That would probably mean doing it twice (like everything else -- do it, rip it apart, do it over). It might have meant some serious roadblocks for our marriage.

So I'm glad we hired it out. But now I feel like a slacker because this guy? The one who showed up at 8:30 this morning as part of the crew to hang the drywall? He's still here. He's the mudder of the group and he's been working for about 12 and a half hours. He took about 45 minutes for lunch. Other than that, there've been no breaks.

Have you ever worked that hard in your life? I think if you're the kind of person who would read a blog on your personal computer, the answer is probably no. Oh, sure, maybe you've put in 12 hour days at the office, but 12 hours of physical labor (with who knows how many more to come)? I doubt it.

I know I haven't put in time like that. Not even close. Probably not even half. And if I did, I'd probably complain so much someone would put me out of my misery. One way or another.

So I'm amazed. And I've offered the guy water, a coke, even a beer. He won't take any of it. He just keeps strutting around down there on stilts slapping mud up on the walls and ceiling faster than I could imagine doing it. And I do imagine things like that. I spend a lot of time standing in the middle of a room staring at the walls trying to figure out how I'm going to build/paint/trim/etc. In no case would I have imagined mudding as fast or efficiently as he is.

I'm a little bit in awe. And humbled. It's a good feeling.

A month out.

2011-06-24T14:41:00.006-06:00

We're about a month out from our first guests in the soon-to-be guest suite downstairs. There is no floor, no drywall, and certainly no furniture. No toilet, no sink, no tile on the floor or walls. But the electrical is done and passed inspection, as did the plumbing and mechanical. We're still crossing our fingers for a variance on the inch-and-a-half too narrow hallway and at the same time plotting our course in case the variance doesn't come through.

All I can think is, oh my word. What have I done? My house is a pit. There's animal hair everywhere. Nobody has clean clothes. I've yet to swim in the pool this summer. My children and husband are losing weight because I can't muster the energy or creativity to cook for them (I, of course, am holding steady as always). What the crap was I thinking?

Someday this will be a long-forgotten season of exhaustion. And I will sit on a comfy sofa down there and watch a movie in 7.2 surround sound. And gaze at my beautiful built-in cabinets that I BUILT MYSELF. Mostly. On a wall that is about as flat as the earth. Which is to say, not at all flat. Someday.

These aren't the newest photos, but they're new to you and, honestly, not much different from what I'm seeing down there today. Hopefully we'll sheetrock next week and then things will resume moving along. Hopefully.

Why yes, those ARE two perfectly square and plumb pocket doors, thank you very much.

Bathroom through the doorway on the left, walk-in closet to the right.

The one existing wall with the new closet framed in on the other side.

Tub and screwed up plumbing which had to be ripped out because I chose the wrong kind of shower valve. Rookie mistake.

This is that round wall. I know you can't tell from the photos, but trust me...the cabinets and shelving I'm installing are flat and the wall is...not. Not at all.

Someday you will look through that doorway and see a beautiful custom vanity made from reclaimed wood and perfectly centered reclaimed chandelier reflected in the built-in custom medicine cabinet mirror. Seriously, what have I done?

Let's talk about inspections

2011-06-17T18:07:00.003-06:00

Had I known then what I know now...like, that the hallway has to be 36" (nope, 34 1/2 apparently doesn't cut it) and that hallway width trumps standard closet depth. Or that a bathroom has to be on its own electrical circuit because hair dryers blow the circuit otherwise. Or that when I pulled down that drywall, what I found behind it was the cold air return and it needed be panned and sealed to meet current code...which was much more difficult to do after furring out the wall and adding the bones for the built-in medicine cabinet. I wish I had known that you start by submitting a sketch to the building board, not by going straight to the permit desk and pulling a plumbing permit. It would have been nice to know that the building inspector would measure the not-to-code hallway, that the plumbing inspector would tell us to install the exhaust fan and then call him back but he would tell the building department that we needed to pull mechanical, electrical, and building permits...

Yeah, there's a lot I would have done differently had I known then what I know now. But, now we're in up to our necks and hoping to get it done before the end of July. I'll either be ripping out the closet and rebuilding it or getting a variance for the 1 1/2 inches short that the hallway width is because of the closet depth. Of course, the next time our variance can get approved is July 22nd. It would be a bummer to wait until then to sheetrock, right? Especially if they deny us, which they probably will. Sigh. Scott is rewiring as I write and then we'll wait for our electrician to connect the rewiring to a new circuit in our very nearly maxed out electrical panel. Whew...we're lucky even to have a spot for the new circuit.

The one thing I probably wouldn't do differently? I probably wouldn't NOT pull a permit. I'm glad to be doing this all above the radar (although not happy about the taxes that will befall us because of the extra bathroom and I will fight that for sure), I just wish I'd known more before I started.

Our Little Ballerinas

2011-05-31T07:44:00.005-06:00

PROgress or REgress?

2011-05-21T17:46:00.003-06:00

Plumbing work in the mechanical room, connecting the bathroom fixtures to the main house drain.

Digging in the toilet, sink, and shower drains.

I guess sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. Such was the case with the basement bathroom rough-in. First, holes cut in the subfloor. Then, piles of dirt on the floor and eventually piles of dirt moved to the crawl space. Then I had to rip off all the drywall on the plumbing wall so that I could fur out the wall with 2x4s to accommodate the new plumbing and even out the surface of the wall since there's a bump out that won't work with the shower. All that work created mountains of dust and debris, which I hauled out at 1am this morning in six big trash bags.

Someday it will be done. Someday.

I love my little family.

2011-05-16T13:52:00.004-06:00

I grabbed this snapshot after Callie's soccer game this weekend. I am in love with it. It captures the essence of each person in the photo. Scott, loving and dedicated. Callie, unpredictable. (What's she gonna do next? Scream? Cry? Smile? You'll never know, and neither will I.) Brynn, genuine, interested, and a little bit mischievous.

I am so blessed.

Look who's here!!

2011-05-16T13:47:00.003-06:00

And now, for the not-so-DIY part of the basement...

So glad I'm not doing this leg of the project. As I googled "how to tear out a subfloor" last night, I realized I was in way over my head. Even eating ice cream straight out of the container didn't help me feel less anxiety. When these guys showed up this morning and took their circular saws to my floor, I felt utter relief. As I watched them pile dirt on my basement floor, I felt elated. Digging under the basement floor is not a job I relish, nor is tapping into my main sewer pipe. Yikes. I am happy to stick to trim carpentry and furniture building, thankyouverymuch.

The "S-Word"

2011-05-11T20:36:00.000-06:00

Tonight while they brushed their teeth, Brynn and Callie were having an argument. In the midst of that argument, Brynn threatened to use the "s-word" on Callie. Later I asked her, "So what exactly IS the s-word?"

She held up two fingers (Dr. Evil style) and whispered, "Shut up."

Ooooh, right. I should have know that.

It's common to hear that kids are growing up too fast these days. Girls hit puberty earlier than ever before, they have sex earlier than ever before, and they fight for their independence before they are mature enough to handle it. One might expect that by second grade a child would know what the real s-word is and how to use it, especially if that child goes to public school and occasionally witnesses ugly outbursts from her parents. Even more so if at age five, that child screamed about the "faaaahking" rental car window that wouldn't roll up. (She was swiftly told that "faaaahk" is in fact not a real word and, not wanting to sound silly, that word magically disappeared from her vocabulary.) I'm thrilled to say that, although some children definitely are growing up too fast, my children have somehow been spared from that fate. So far.

Barn Door Sliders

2011-05-10T09:03:00.005-06:00

Something I've gotten used to since moving to Colorado Springs is the wind. It's not always windy, but it's windy a lot. It knocks over umbrellas at the pool in the summer, separates limbs from trees in the fall and spring, and knocks down fences all year round.

There are certainly some downsides to dealing with the wind, like the occasional broken car windows and dealing with insurance companies to get fences replaced. But there are upsides, too. Super clean air is one of them, along with a clear blue sky. And then there are those fences. They don't do much good for keeping the deer out and the dog in when they're lying on the ground, but it turns out they're great for building.

Hence my journey into building with reclaimed wood.

A neighbor recently had a new fence put in after four of their cedar 4x4 fence posts broke in a wind storm. I looked at the pile of wood every day as I drove past and eventually got up the nerve to ask, "Can I take your old fence?"

"Uh, sure. Take as much as you want, but it's full of nails."

"Yeah, um, I'll be careful. Thanks!"

And so I dragged those fence sections out to the sidewalk and knocked the boards apart, loaded them into the trusty Cherokee and brought them home. I lined them up on my sawhorses, knocked out all the nails, and then came up with a plan to turn them into reclaimed wood cabinet doors and sliders for my new basement closet.

I did it for a couple of reasons. First, I'm cheap and this was free. Second, I hate seeing anything that isn't destroyed making its way to the landfill. Third, I've seen lots of barn doors lately and I love the look. Rustic, warm, unexpected, free. Oh, yeah. Free. Already said that.

Unfortunately my (er, our) miter saw is out of square again and Scott's in no position to fix it at the moment (an unbearably painful sacral shear and torsion have taking him out of the game for a while. Never heard of a sacral shear? Neither had I. Read more about them here and here). So, I had to use butt joints on the cabinet and door frames which probably added to the rustic look. Right? On the cabinet doors, I just glued and nailed the inset panel to the backside of the frame. I had planned to do the same on the sliders, but they would have ended up too thick to pass each other on the sliding track. So for those, I cut the inset wood to fit inside the frame and then joined them to the frame with my kreg jig and glue.

This project helped me learn a few things about reclaimed wood.

First, always take way more than you think you'll need. It's not that I had to discard a lot, the problem was that the cuts for the sliders were just slightly more than half a length of each fence picket. So I had a lot of pieces that were an inch or two too short to use. I'm sure I'll use them eventually -- probably on a table top.

Second, cut off the gnarly ends to reveal fresh wood. The fresh wood joins much better than the gnarly wood and is less likely to split. I didn't realize that until about halfway through, and then I started making sure that all of my ends were freshly cut. It lent much more stability to the final product.

Third, don't worry about the color difference in the freshly cut ends. Painting them with a formula of vinegar and dissolved steel wool oxidizes them almost immediately, matching the patina of the old wood perfectly. Check out this great tutorial to see what I mean.

Clearly, there is much work still to be done in the basement. We haven't quite settled on a plumber to do the bathroom rough-in, though I think we're nearly there. There's electrical and drywall and some framing and the ENTIRE bathroom and trim work and floors and some more popcorn ceiling in the hallway. Ha. Not even close to halfway there. But I like my new doors.

My new love: Reclaimed Wood

2011-05-05T18:44:00.004-06:00

I'm still working on that lovely little basement project. You know, the one where we had a leak, I ripped out the drywall and carpet and then decided I might as well turn it into a guest suite?

Two weeks ago I framed in the closet and then last week I did the bedroom door. I finished up the closet framing with some storage above the closet to make use of the 9 foot ceilings.

I considered leaving the upper storage open and using baskets to hold whatever ends up there. Nope, that would be waaay too easy.

Then I decided that, with all the gorgeous barn doors I've seen in blogland lately, I should pick up some wood from a neighbor's old fence and build some old-looking cabinet doors for the top of the closet and sliding doors for the bottom.

I'm still hard at work on the sliding doors (need to go grab a few more pieces of wood to finish them off) but I've finished the cabinet doors and I'm in love.

In love with reclaimed wood.

Why? First, no finishing. No finishing! You build it and then it's done! Okay, so I did oxidize the newly cut ends to make them match the old look of the rest of the wood. But other than that? Nothing. Second, it's free. Need I say more? And third, it's reusing something that would have gone to the landfill. What's not to love about that?

Stay tuned for photos of the finished sliders!

A little decorum, please.

2011-05-02T13:31:00.003-06:00

My mom used to say that to my brother and me when we were kids. "Have a little decorum, please." I thought it was sort of an annoying phrase and I didn't know why she had to choose those particular words, but now I've figured it out. Nothing else fits quite like the word "decorum."

For us, it was usually when Nick was farting and I was burping or we were wiping our mouths on our sleeves or some other shenanigans. It was her way of saying, "Act with some poise and manners, I didn't raise you to be barbarians."

That's pretty much what I wanted to shout at the TV last night as I heard the throngs of people singing "We are the Champions" in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death.

Have a little decorum, please.

Yes, it is good that OBL is dead. Yes, it might bring some small amount of closure, the tiniest bit of justice to those whose loved ones were lost on 9/11 or to those who have been lost since in a desperate search for that madman.

But, "We are the Champions" is not the way to celebrate. That's what you sing when you win a football game or a basketball game. Or on the way to your broomball games if you're like my friends and I were back in college. It's what you sing when you're thrilled over a fun victory.

In this situation, singing "We are the Champions" is the American version of beheading a man and parading his head through the street and then hanging it from a bridge for everyone to see. Shame on us; we know better.

When your goal is to kill a man who has murdered thousands of your people, you don't celebrate reaching that goal in the same way that you celebrate winning a football game.

Because war is not a game.

War costs money. Trillions upon trillions of dollars.

War costs lives. Thousands of them. Some innocent bystanders, some brave volunteers.

War costs our freedom. It costs us the ability to travel anywhere in the world without concern for our safety. It costs us the freedom to move across the planet unobstructed.

When you win a battle in a war, you don't sing songs and celebrate like it's a sporting event. You have a little decorum. Behind closed doors you hug your partners and your friends and your loved ones. You smile for the victory but shed tears over those lost along the way. Many have been lost and many will be lost in the years to come.

You crack open a beer and breathe a sigh of relief for this moment of peace.

And then you take a deep breath and prepare yourself for the next step. You prepare yourself to keep on fighting 'til the end.

More on giving...

2011-04-26T11:11:00.001-06:00

Brynn and Junior are featured on 365Give today. Maybe the Giving Fairy will strike again?

Caution! Men at work!

2011-04-21T09:01:00.005-06:00

Er, in this case, WOMAN at work. Now, that's not totally true. Scott put some muscle into a bit of demo and framing for me, and he's going to do the electrical, but so far it's been 95% me. And I'm not griping, I'm bragging. Pride is sometimes a problem for me...I'll try to tone it down now.

We had our first of two plumbers over yesterday to check out the basement and give us an estimate on roughing in the bathroom plumbing. (That's something else I won't be doing on my own. And I'm considering hiring a drywaller, too. Some things just aren't worth the trouble.)

Here's the good news: the main waste drain in our house is downhill from where we're putting the bathroom. This means a few things. First, we won't need a pump to get waste to the drain. Second, roughing in will be cheaper than we had originally thought. We will get the first estimate back this afternoon and another on Friday or early next week. Then we'll have some actual numbers to work with.

Here's the bad news: in my head, I was imagining the bathroom being impossible and, thus, me getting to turn the basement into a workspace for myself. A workshop, to be more specific. A non-garage place to build, finish, and refinish furniture. Ahhhhh...but my dreams have been dashed by my good luck, so it's back to the garage my mind must go (and back to the driveway for our cars).

I'm trying to be smart about this -- I assume (though I haven't looked it up) that a second bedroom and full bath will add more value to our house than a workshop. But, if a potential buyer were a woodworking kind of person, the shop could theoretically add significantly more. The chances of that, though, I would guess are not nearly as good as a potential buyer wanting more bedrooms and bathrooms. So there you go. Practicality stinks.

Here's how the remodel is going so far. I've ripped out the carpet and padding and given both away via Craigslist (not to the local landfill, hallelujah). I've scraped off the popcorn ceiling (and haven't come down with mesothelioma, yet...we'll get back to that in thirty years). Scott muscled out the header from the old doorway to the basement in order to get a more continuous ceiling from the stairway into the basement hallway. I framed in the new ceiling in the hallway and the hall closet, leaving us with the minimum hallway clearance of three feet, but still a sizeable (eight feet wide by two feet deep) closet for more basement storage.

Today I go back to Lowe's to pick up another load of ten foot 2x4s and then I'll get on with framing the new basement bedroom door. Wish me luck.

The view coming down the stairs. There used to be a doorway at the bottom of the stairs.

The new closet is framed in on the left. Standard 6ft opening, thankyouverymuch.

My beloved closet from another angle. That beautiful little desk will be repainted (the kids messed up the paint on top) and moved upstairs to Scott's new office once the guest furniture has been moved down to the basement.

Home of the future bathroom and closet. The blue painter's tape is helping us get used to the size and layout. Closet to the right, then wall, bathtub, 30" vanity, then toilet.

The corner where the door to the mechanical room used to be. Now there will be a toilet! And I put in some vents for our nitpicky tankless water heater -- it needs plenty o' fresh air.

The giving fairy strikes again.

2011-04-18T13:22:00.005-06:00

If you've been following our family for a while, you know that one of Brynn's gifts is her desire to give. She is empathetic and compassionate, moved to action for causes all over the world. Like some of her friends, Brynn has celebrated birthdays with "give it away" parties where she had her friends bring donations to give away rather than giving presents to Brynn. She always gives away at least 10% of whatever she takes out of her bank account -- she does not need to be reminded or begged to do this. It is natural for her.

One of the most amazing teachers I have ever met is a third grade teacher at Brynn's school and this year, at the urging of some of her students, she agreed to start a school club where students would make something to give to the community. Brynn joined enthusiastically -- it was right up her alley, of course. She then went on to begin organizaing a club of her own, called "HELP," which she and a friend decided stands for Helping Everyone Love Peace. Their plan is to make crafts that they can sell and then donate all of their profits to deserving organizations.

As Brynn began to get more and more enthusiastic about this idea, I received an email from my friend Chelsea Peters who is starting a new foundation in Uganda called Atin Afrika. You can (and really, really should) read more about her organization at her temporary homepage here. Once her permanent site is up, I will re-link this post to it. I know Chelsea from our time in Mexico -- she was a middle school teacher in PV while we were living in San Pancho and she co-ran an organization called MexiMutt which was gracious enough to help us re-home our favorite street dog, Bubbles.

I told Brynn a little about Chelsea's new organization and Brynn was intrigued. She immediately wanted to start using HELP to create items for sale and pass on the profits to Atin Afrika. This weekend, as Brynn and I went from thrift store to thrift store to collect the raw materials for her crafts, I updated her on how Chelsea is doing with fundraising and what is going on in the meantime with the kids she's trying to help. I told her about how Morris, Chelsea's Atin Afrika partner in Uganda, has been visiting one particular child, Junior, on the street every day. I told her how Junior has been cold lately, as the Ugandan rainy season has just returned and sleeping on the street in wet clothes in the rain is no fun. I told her that Morris scraped together enough money to buy Junior a jacket and is feeding him every day and that, as soon as Chelsea is able to raise enough money, Junior and several other children who live on the streets will have shelter until Chelsea and Morris can find them permanent homes.

Brynn was quiet for a bit. I figured she must have been daydreaming and was expecting her to say something like, "I'm hungry, can we get a burrito?"

Instead, after her moment of silence, she said, "Mom, I want you to transfer $100 out of my bank account and send it to Chelsea."

I checked with her to be sure she really wanted me to take out that much money. I said, "Brynn, that is more than 1/4 of what you have in savings."

"I know. I want you to send it to Chelsea."

Of course, as always happens when I see evidence of Brynn's gift of giving, tears welled up in my eyes.

How is it that God has blessed me with a child who cares SO much about others? Who wants justice and peace and change? Who is willing to DO something about it? How could I be entrusted with this? And what can I do to foster her gift? To help her grow to her full potential?

And so I transferred the money for her and sent it to Chelsea. I drove from thrift store to thrift store to thrift store buying what Brynn needs for the crafts she is going to sell. I scoured the internet looking for crafts that kids can do that will look good and racked my brain to think of places where Brynn and HELP can sell their wares.

Because, when you have a kid who has potential like this, you nurture it. You abandon your own desires for things like a clean house and a finished basement and you pour yourself into a kid who wants to change the world. And then you keep your eyes and ears open for the next opportunity the giving fairy will have to strike again.

If Brynn's story of giving touches you, I would challenge you to match her donation. She only makes $3/week, and she gave $100. How much will you give? We'll chalk your gift up to the giving fairy.

Trash to Treasure, Brynnie style

2011-04-15T22:54:00.007-06:00

"Mom, is that chair going to the dump?"

"What chair, Brynn?"

The sun was shining in my eyes, I was barely awake, trying to rush the girls to school...I had no idea what she was talking about.

"That one, Mom. Right there, by the garbage can!"

"Oh, that one? Yep, looks like trash."

"Mom, Nate (as in Berkus) would save it! He'd fix it and make it beautiful again. Will you please pick it up on your way home?"

And so I did. Because I'm a sucker for indulging my kids' passions, and one of Brynn's passions is Nate Berkus. Or, at least Nate's decorating style and his charisma. She desperately wants to go see his show in New York, but unfortunately, his website clearly states it's 18 and up only.

So I walked home with Libbie's leash in one hand and this dirty, rickity, dog-chewed chair in the other. Yep, I'm sure the neighbors think I'm nuts.

The chair sat in the garage for a while before Brynn and I were able to get our hands on some free syringes (thank you, Walgreen's pharmacist!) to shoot wood glue into the joints. Once it was stable, Brynn sanded off most of the old finish and I sanded off the parts she missed. And the dog chew-marks.

Then one day after school I took on the chair as my own. I didn't want to, but I couldn't help it. I had fallen in love with it, too. I asked Brynn's permission to work on it, told her my plan, got the plan approved, and went to work. While she watched...of course...Nate.

I sprayed the chair with Krylon "Celery" high gloss paint, sanded the edges to let the old white paint and bare oak show through, stained the bare wood to bring out some warm honey tones and then I coated the whole thing with Krylon clear coat.

Callie and Scott worked on weaving the new seat until they ran out of webbing. Brynn and I finished it up a few days ago, making the chair a whole family affair!

And I think the chair is beautiful.

Callie's a winner!

2011-04-15T22:15:00.003-06:00

Among her many talents (she is ambidextrous and can apparently shoot a soccer ball left-footed, she can make a joke out of anything, can throw a fit at anything, can read school announcements over the loudspeaker with remarkable clarity even though she would never read said announcements to a crowd she could see, she can add two digit numbers in her head, and can sew a halter top that fits her Barbie uncannily well), Callie is also apparently quite artistic.

She is pictured above with her award winning piece aptly named Bird on a Branch. She has a way with words, too...did I mention that? Pithy, isn't she?

I think my favorite part of parenting is seeing my girls' gifts develop. Callie has an amazing mind for space and color. She can draw things the way she sees them in her head and she has no fear of combining colors that you or I would never dare to put together. I should take a photo of her outfit every day before sending her to school -- she's like a living, breathing version of Punky Brewster, only with a less predictable temper.

Brynn, on the other hand, is impressing me with her steadiness as she gets dragged from gymnastics to swimming or dance to swimming and never complains. Her pre-season swim practices have started and she's loving them. Watching her in the water is like seeing a flower bloom, like watching one of God's creations move the way He built it to move. She's beautiful and strong and consistent and lovely. And best of all, happy.

I am so thankful that I have these girls in my life.

Renovation A.D.D.

2011-04-11T11:14:00.005-06:00

I am sure it is clear that I am having a hard time sticking to working on JUST the basement these days but, I tell you, if I have to spend more than a few days down there at a time, I might go nuts. Especially when the work involves popcorn ceilings and dimensions that may or may not be big enough to fit a standard-sized bathtub. Don't even ask.

So this weekend I took another small detour and built this. It solves the "I've got NOWHERE to store TP!" dilemma that our powder room has been facing for years (and years and years).

I also painted the powder room. Goodby garish red, hello soft and soothing grey-green.

The red was so awful I couldn't bring myself to take before pictures. Trust me, it's much better now.

Fore more details on how I built the tower and the finish...just in case you're interested...check out my brag post on Ana-White.com.

Oh deer.

2011-04-06T23:20:00.005-06:00

As Brynn was heading out to school a few days ago (and I was still helping Callie gather her backpack, etc.) I peeked out the window to see Brynn standing in the driveway throwing her arms up in the air and jumping around like she was trying to spook something. Sure enough, when I looked a bit further down the driveway I saw a herd of deer walking toward her. Knowing better than to try to walk among them, she tried to scare them off, instead.

But she's not very scary.

So I opened the door and sent Libbie out. The deer scattered like leaves in the fall and Libbie came running back to the front door with her satisfied, "I did it, Mom! I did it!" look on her face.

Brynn thanked me and continued on her way.

I am so blessed.

If you build it, they will clean.

2011-03-27T14:13:00.004-06:00

The bathroom cabinet we put in the girls' bathroom upon moving into this house nearly seven years ago has seen better days. Target furniture was not meant to last this long. Not only is it chipped and falling apart, it's gross, too. Covered in toothpaste, hair, and other unidentifiable goobers, the cabinet was beyond saving.

So last week, as I began to scrape the popcorn ceilings from the basement and quickly realized how much fun that is, I decided to design and build a new cabinet for the girls.

The girls' bathroom is on the list of projects to tackle after I finish the basement. I may have even promised to start it this coming fall if the girls can keep their sink and vanity toothpaste-free for the next six months. Ha. I won't hold my breath. In the spirit of clean, though, this cabinet is a place for the girls to keep their hair clutter, toothbrushes, and tubes (and tubes and tubes) of toothpaste. How did we end up with so much toothpaste? Maybe the cabinet will help them toward their goal of maintaining a clean bathroom (I did, in fact, say that with a straight face).

In anticipation of gutting and re-doing the girls' bathroom, I built the cabinet not only to grow with the girls and be one of few fixtures that will return to the bathroom after the remodel, but I also painted it colors to go with the new bathroom. The deep teal inside the cabinet and inside the drawers will blend perfectly with the new Mexican sink. I imagine that the rest of the bathroom will be white, or nearly all white.

Love that teal interior -- it's actually much lighter than it appears in this photo. As soon as I can pick up some more wood, I'll cut and paint the shelves for the interior.

This cabinet was a great learning experience for me. Designing it from scratch took some time and a few wasted materials, but I figure I will be building similar ones for other bathrooms eventually, so I took copious notes as I worked. In the end, here are the things I learned:

Do not be afraid of making drawer faces and cabinet doors fit tightly. They can always be made smaller, but not the other way around.
Krylon "crystal clear" spray finish is not actually clear. It's yellow. I will be budgeting some time for re-painting this piece in the next month or so. But it WAS on sale for $2.55/bottle at K Mart, so I now have four bottles which I will happily use on colored pieces from now on. Or sparingly over white.
Using the table saw to route space for 1/8" MDF for drawer bottoms or cabinet backs works well (as seen on The New Yankee Workshop, thank you very much Norm Abrams). But the MDF cut to fit in those spaces must be square. And you should do the routing BEFORE cutting the wood to size. Routing small pieces on a crappy table saw is like asking to get a finger cut off.
Plan for drawer faces to be a dimensional wood size so that you don't have to rip a half inch off of a drawer face to make it fit. If I had made the drawer spaces a tad bigger or a tad smaller, I could have used 1x6s or 1x8s. Instead, I had to rip a 1x8 to fit -- always a risky procedure on my lame (but better than nothing) table saw.
Cabinet makers build overlay doors for a reason. They don't have to be as exact as inset doors. Duh. Maybe next time.
Cute trim takes a piece from boring to adorable -- it is okay to trim a cabinet within an inch of its life. In this case, that meant quarter round around the top (which covers a multitude of cutting sins, such as having a miter saw too small to cut a 1x8), beaded crown under the top, more beading around the middle (covering more mistakes but also adding fun detail), and base trim at the bottom. Trim really makes a piece look finished and covers mistake after mistake after mistake.
Learn your stinkin' math facts so that you don't end up with a drawer opening that is off by an inch and a half. But I'm the only one who will ever know!
Shelving jigs rock. The one I bought was not cheap (about $20 for a piece of plastic) but it allowed me to drill perfectly spaced holes for shelf pins on the inside of the cabinet. I will definitely get my money's worth for that overpriced piece of plastic.
A bathroom cabinet can't be too big, especially in a bathroom inhabited by two semi-high-maintenance girls. This one is 24"w x 40"t. It might hold most of the stuff it needs to hold.

So, yeah, I learned a lot. But am I totally stoked to have a new cabinet to organize the chaos that is the girls' bathroom? Absolutely. Am I thrilled that it has an endlessly wipe-able surface? Even more. Will I be making a second (although not identical) cabinet to go in the new basement bathroom? Without question. And eventually two for our bathroom, also. Yep, despite all of the "learning experiences" involved in building this, I love my new cabinet.

Why, yes, I did bake two cakes in two weeks.

2011-03-27T14:11:00.002-06:00

Double happy birthday to Callie. Not perfect cakes, but cute AND edible. My baking skillz are improving. Slowly, but surely!

A little like Groundhog Day

2011-03-16T17:24:00.004-06:00

This is the third cube bookcase I've built from Ana White's cube bookcase plans and I love it just as much as the first two. I love that it keeps Callie's stuff organized, I love the size and weight and strength of it, and I especially love the color. It is painted in Ralph Lauren Aged Mint topped with two coats of polyurethane. I bought the Aged Mint a few years ago to match Callie's wrought iron bed and also used it on the locker cabinet I built for our entryway this fall. Callie was thrilled to see the bookcase (it was a birthday present, but don't worry -- it wasn't the ONLY birthday present) and she was even more excited that it isn't painted white!

For this bookcase, I had the lumber cut at Lowe's, which proved to be much easier than cutting it myself. The cuts are straight and square -- always a good thing in carpentry. This bookcase comes out big and heavy and sturdy. Exactly how I like my furniture.

Check out that perrrrfect corner cut! Scott squared up the miter saw for me a few weeks ago. Thanks, babe!

I scream, you scream.

2011-03-15T14:37:00.004-06:00

It's possible that my favorite part of planning birthday parties is designing the invitation. I kind of missed out this year with Brynn's birthday party because I was drowning in carpentry chores. So, I've been having more than my fair share of fun working on Callie's party which is coming up this week. The invitation (minus the time and RSVP details) is pictured above.

I also decided to do a coloring sheet for the kids, as well as name tags to make life easier for the person who will be giving them a kitchen tour and making a batch of ice cream with them.

And last, but of course not least, I thought this year's party deserved its own custom thank you notes. Pretty fun, right?

Mother of the Year

2011-03-14T10:58:00.002-06:00

Callie: Um, Mama? Some day after school, when you don't have to teach and when we don't have ballet or gymnastics?

Me: Yes? (Thinking she's going to ask to do a big messy craft project.)

Callie: Um, Mama, when we have free time after school someday, could you change my sheets?

Happy Birthday, Little Goose!

2011-03-10T08:57:00.010-07:00

Little Goose. That is her nickname. Today Little Goose turns six. At about a month old, we gave Callie that nickname because she can be stubborn and loud. Oh, so very, very loud. Of course, her teacher would say that she is nothing like a goose. In fact, Callie has never displayed any of the negative characteristics of a goose while in her classroom. The word angelic may have even been used to describer her. Yep, angelic along with bright, kind, patient, sweet, thoughtful, caring, smart, hard-working, diligent, focused. Even the word quiet. Can you believe it? But she's also stubborn. And loud. Did I mention that she is loud? If you don't believe me, ask our neighbors. Oh, and she's beautiful, too. And funny. Really funny. Without her, our family would be sadly boring. Let's just drop those qualities into the mix.

Do you know what you get when you combine loud and stubborn with LOTS and LOTS of great qualities? You get a strong and passionate kid who is learning to stand up for herself and those around her and to freely express her adamant beliefs about right and wrong (so if you eat at McDonald's she may target you for a conversation about how their cows stand in poop all their lives). For Callie, life is black and white and she isn't afraid to say what she thinks when she thinks it, but she is also compassionate and empathetic.

In other words, we hit the jackpot. At six years old, when her stubbornness is misdirected, she may not seem like the jackpot. When we joke about the handful that her husband will inherit, she doesn't seem like a treasure. But when I list every quality that Callie has, I know that God has gifted me with a child unlike any other. She is amazing, and a precious, precious gift to me.

Little Goose then...

And Little Goose last night...

And, yep. I made a cake. And (for like the third time in my life) it was not a wreck!

Ski Weekend

2011-03-06T20:48:00.003-07:00

Taking a break from making furniture and upgrading the basement...

Skiing Sisters from Hillary on Vimeo.

Gear closet. Done.

2011-02-27T22:27:00.009-07:00

Apparently I run a tight ship here at Our Little Family. I may have been accused of imposing impossible deadlines thus far in my basement remodel. In reality, I have no actual deadlines for this project but I couldn't move on with the main part of the project until the gear closet (aka: utility room, litter box room, freezer room, or man cave) was done since the "gear" had taken over the main part of the basement. The project required a bit of Scott's help in the form of six inches of extra height and a few foot-pounds of extra bicep power. Screwing hundreds of 2.5" screws into 2x4s got to be a bit more than I could handle alone but I'm now stronger because of it.

And now it's done! And Scott has a lovely new home for his gear. Ridiculous deadlines or not, I think he's a happy guy now that it's over. And I'm happy because now I can move on to the good stuff.

You already saw the new door on the gear closet. The room has also been outfitted with two new shelving units on 3" casters, pegs for hanging skis, a new electrical outlet (for the freezer which was moved from one side of the room to the other), a new light (because I couldn't see into the freezer once we turned it away from the original light), two new return air vents, and a timer on the crawlspace fan.

A timer on the crawlspace fan? What? Some of you already know that I have superhuman hearing. It's really a great asset when someone is talking behind my back or when my kids are upstairs NOT brushing their teeth. It's not so handy when the sound of the crawlspace fan drives me batty, running 24x7. It's even worse when I'm working in the basement and the fan seems so loud that I can't think straight! So, my handy electrician husband (I don't do electrical work) changed out the fan switch for a timer. Now the fan runs just from midnight to six in the morning. I'm sure the sound of it will be incorporated into my dreams at some point but at least it doesn't drive me nuts all day.

The real showpiece in the new gear closet is not the timer (hard to believe, I know). It's the super-sturdy, super-organized, super-clever shelving system that I designed and built (out of mostly re-used 2x4s) to hold Scott's (er...our) camping, kayaking, backpacking, skiing, and sports gear. Not everyone needs to store five tents of various sizes and purposes, five sleeping bags (Nick, we've got your bag, in case you were wondering where it went), four pairs of skis and boots and snow gear, an inflatable kayak, and coolers out the wazoo. Oh, and about twelve different backpacks. Each with its own specific use. And a crate full of Camelbacks. Yes, my friends. Apparently we are Coloradans through and through.

We needed the shelving unit to hold all this...uh...stuff. But the unit needed to be designed in a way that would allow us access to the Christmas decor (which is stuffed under the stairs behind the shelves). And, some day we'll probably have to get the freezer out of there and replace it. So, I made the shelving units short and shallow enough to fit through the pocket door and I put them on casters to make them easy to move. I added sides and a back to one shelf to keep Scott's basketballs and footballs in place and did the same with the tent/sleeping bag shelf.

I love casters. And rust colored carpet. Okay, maybe not the carpet.

For ski storage, I threw together some shaker-inspired pegs and now our skis hang by their tips between the pegs. Yep, probably bad for the skis but, eh, oh well. We don't invest in expensive ski gear.

A few things that used to be in the gear closet did not make it back in. Like, for instance, my wedding dress. I'm confident we'll find it a new home where it can live on in trunk-show infamy awaiting a second chance at life. A few other things got left out too. A book I wrote in fifth grade now has a home in Brynn's room where she has enjoyed laughing at the "about the author" page. I'm glad she can find humor in the fact that I believed I was headed for a career as a dolphin trainer. Especially since she has been raised to frown on dolphin shows and nearly all other instances of wild animals living in captivity. Oh, the irony. It's not lost on her.

So, without setting any arbitrary deadlines, here's what my next few weeks will look like: clean up garage, remove remaining stuff from main basement area, rip out carpet, rip out padding, find a new home for carpet and padding (not the landfill, thanks to Craigslist), scrape and smooth popcorn ceilings. Yeah, baby.

How to install a pocket door

2011-02-15T12:01:00.011-07:00

Yes, I believe I've now earned the right to write a "how to" post on pocket door installation. One install and you know it all. Er, maybe not. But here is what I learned, in case you want to tackle one!

1. Buy the proper sized kit from the hardware store, preferably one that was not previously opened. Yes, even if it means you have to ask an associate to bring a ladder over to get an unopened kit off the top shelf.
2. Prepare a great comeback for the associate who asks, "Where is HE?" as you pepper him with questions about pocket door installation. He who? "He...the one who should be doing this project." Oh, no, this is MY project, not HIS. So there.
3. Get your rear view mirror set straight so you can laugh as you drive home with the hatch open on your car and the pocket door kit hanging out the back. It's amusing to see all the cars behind you keep their distance.
4. Those warnings you read on how-to sites about making the rough opening **perfectly** square? They're right. But I found a way around it in case you can't (for the life of you) get a square opening.
5. Take the time to fill up your air compressor and use your nail gun. I forgot how tough it is to use a hammer and nails well!
6. If your opening is impossible to get square, don't follow the directions on the bag of hardware. Use your instincts -- they're probably smarter. And then get creative with trim.
7. Oh, and about those instincts? If your instincts say, "Use screws even though the directions say nails," go with screws. Screws are much easier to remove and re-adjust.

My pocket door kit came from Lowe's and cost me about $70. It included a frame that goes inside the wall to make space for the door, a header with a roller track from which the door will hang, and a door jamb. It also had all of the hardware needed to hang the door from the track (two rollers and two hangers). It did not include the nails needed to put the kit together or to attach it to the studs and floor. I re-used the louvered door that was originally on the other side of our utility room, so I was spared the cost of buying a new door. There will be some elbow-grease involved in refinishing it, though.

First, using the chart on the bag of hardware that comes with your pocket door kit, create your rough opening. This means removing the drywall from at least one side of the opening, plus cutting the hole for the door in the drywall on both sides. For our 30" door, the opening needed to be about 7' tall by 5' wide. The opening should be square.

Since we only have a sub-floor in the area where the door was going, I added a 1x6 to the bottom of the opening to act as a threshold and to make future floor-laying go more smoothly. We'll see how that pans out...

Next, get your pocket door kit and attach the header to the frame and then the jamb to the header. Do it on a large, flat surface in order to get everything as flush as possible. The directions on how to do this or what kind of nails to use were vague to say the least. I used finish nails and they seemed to work okay. I considered using wood screws but thought I would probably split the wood and was too lazy to pre-drill.

Once your kit is put together, put it into the opening and see if it fits. This is when I decided I needed to add a threshold to the floor. The directions on the bag are confusing here. The first thing you're supposed to do is nail (I screwed) the metal plate on the bottom "into the sub-floor," which makes it sound like the door should go directly onto the sub-floor. I think what they mean is to use nails long enough to go through the floor and into the sub-floor. I used screws because I had a feeling I'd need to pull them up and re-position this plate. I am SO glad I followed my instincts on that one.

After you attach the bottom plate to the floor, you're supposed to nail the jamb into the rough opening. Our jamb just wasn't getting plumb (vertically level), even though the rough opening was plumb. After troubleshooting with a carpenter at Lowe's, we decided that the jamb was probably milled badly and was not the same thickness throughout. I could have pulled the whole thing out and taken it apart and returned it for an UNopened kit, but that was a bit more than I could handle. I will tell you my solution in a bit.

I got the jamb in as plumb as possible and then went to attach the other end of the kit (the frame that goes in between the drywall) to the other side of the rough opening. We had a good 1" gap between the frame and the opening, so I filled it with a 1x4 and lots of shims and then put in one 3" screw to hold everything in place temporarily.

This is where I departed from the directions. I just knew I wasn't getting the frame in totally straight -- I could tell it was warping out a bit. So, I followed the directions to attach the hanging hardware to the door and I hung the door inside the unfinished frame. Once I was able to slide the door back and fourth a bit, it was easy to see how to tweak the frame to get it flat and straight in the opening.

Once the frame was screwed in and straight, I closed the door to see how it laid against our slightly un-plumb jamb. With a few adjustments to the hanging hardware (to make the door tilt a bit to match the jamb), the door was hanging parallel to the jamb and opening and closing smoothly. All of these adjustments made the opening in the frame slightly bigger than the door, so I added a couple of trim pieces to the frame to make it all work.

With a little creativity and lot of instinct-following, here is what we've got (unpainted and untrimmed, of course).

Looking down the stairs at the new louvered pocket door.

Yep, it even opens!

View from the other side. The unfinished trim you see in this photo is where I had to add an extra strip of trim to decrease the width of the opening, thus keeping the trailing edge of the door in the pocket when it is fully closed.

Peaking inside...the giant black bookcase that didn't sell on Craigslist has a new home and a new purpose. The rest of the giant black furniture (double desk and two short bookcases) is gone. Thankfully.

Here it is from the inside. You can see the threshold I laid, the frame to the right, the header on top and the jamb to the left.

Clearly, the door needs to be painted and needs some hardware in place of the original doorknob. It also needs to have a cat flap added to the bottom so that Anna can access her litter box. Er, um...boxes. Lucky lady.

That little nook to the right of the bookcase? I'd like to make it ski storage. But that is up to Scott. This is HIS gear closet.

And, my two shelves in HIS gear closet...pickles, anyone? Yep, we do love pickles.

And, in unrelated news, a photo of my sweet, super-smart Brynn giving her "famous American" speech at school yesterday. Each kid had to gather information about his or her famous American, create a doll to represent that person, and show the doll to the class during the speech. Brynn chose Ansel Adams for her famous American. She now knows how to spell Yosemite and understands how art can influence people's attitudes as well as public policy. I'm so proud of her!

My kid is a genius.

2011-02-13T20:07:00.005-07:00

Maybe both kids are geniuses (genii?), but Brynn showed it today.

This morning, I was about 2/3 done cutting a hole in the utility room wall. I was cutting out the studs and drywall to make room for a new door. I ran out of time and had to go shower before church and left the job unfinished. As I was drying off from my shower, I heard her downstairs in the hallway saying to her dad, "Oh, I thought the door would be over here."

I wondered what she could mean. Then I realized that she meant she thought the door to the utility room would be at the bottom of the stairs instead of around the corner.

Immediately I felt like a complete dummy. Brilliant! Of course! Why would I break up a wall of storage with a door when I could put the door right at the bottom of the stairs? I've been into a few other houses with our floorplan and all of them had the door in the spot where I had been cutting the hole this morning. It never occurred to me to move it to a completely different location.

So after church, I measured and stared and measured some more. Then I asked Scott what he thought. He thought it was a brilliant idea, too.

Brynn gets the credit for this fabulous design change.

See it here in the plans. Here is the old layout. The current utility room door is near the future toilet. My plan was to move it into the hallway between the tall cabinets. That's where I was cutting today.
Here is the new plan, with a pocket door at the bottom of the stairs. The pocket door will disappear into the wall under the stairs when it is opened, saving lots of valuable space in the utility room and not intruding on the hallway.

Possibly the best part of this new plan is that now I can put a regular closet in on the long wall in the hallway. Not only will that give me more storage and be significantly cheaper than using cabinets (actually, the Ikea Pax wardrobe system was my most recent plan), but I already have six-foot bi-fold doors that I can put on the closet.

Both of our girls' rooms had bi-folds on the closets when we moved in. I changed them out for curtains to help counter the echos and the pinched fingers. I love having curtains in their rooms and can't imagine going back to bi-folds, but I really like bi-folds, too. At least, I love them on closets. I love to be able to open both sides and see everything at a glance.

I'm still considering all my options -- maybe I'll go with curtains? That way the closet opening could be wider and it would soften the space considerably. But, I love the idea of re-using our bi-fold doors. They've been sitting in the attic for about six years, just waiting for a job like this.

In related news, we managed to completely clear out the gear closet (aka: utility room) this weekend and do some necessary electrical work (moving light switches and electrical outlets) before knocking out the wall for the pocket door (one and a half times). In the process, we managed to kill only one circuit breaker, Scott only shocked himself once, and he only stabbed himself in the thumb with a screwdriver once! He bled several times from several different "accidents," but the screwdriver to the thumb was the worst incident. I jigsawed through one live electrical wire (oops) but other than that I came away mostly unscathed, save for really dry skin and more than enough drywall dust up my nose. So, no permanent damage was done. I call that a success.

And the work continues. Tonight may be a late night of pocket door installation for me!

Change of plans

2011-02-11T14:45:00.007-07:00

Maybe not so much a change as a slight modification? A new goal?

Yesterday while walking home from dropping the kids off at school, I saw a foreclosure house being gutted. Among the items in the driveway was a sad looking 70's style two-tiered chandelier with a mixture of bulb types and a few hurricane shades. It was dirty and ugly...and free. So it came home with me. If nothing else, I've got a great imagination. I'd love to fix up that old chandelier and repaint it and hang it above the mirror in our new basement bathroom. If we ever get there.

After I picked up the chandelier, I saw this photo in a book I checked out from the library and I also read that light coming from the front or side of us is more pleasing than light coming from above.

See that little hurricane sconce in the middle? I like that. I saw it and thought...hmm, I'd love to find two sconces that work with the free chandelier to go on either side of the non-existent bathroom's non-existent mirror. And, funny enough, I stopped into our Habitat for Humanity ReStore today (my first time there, unbelievably) and found two sconces that match my free chandelier! And guess how much they cost...

Are you ready?

Four smackers each. Yep, a whopping total of $8 for my two sconces and the two-tiered chandelier. Add to that the cost of paint and new light bulbs, plus wiring the non-existent bathroom and I think you'll agree that we've found ourselves (er, I've found myself) a pretty sweet deal on lighting!

And, because I know you're curious, here are the ugly old light fixtures that I'm planning to re-make:

As I was taking my time browsing the ReStore, I found some white subway tile identical to the tile in our kitchen. It's the tile I've been planning to use on all of the bathrooms in our house. Daltile 3x6 tiles in Arctic White with a matte finish. The ReStore was selling them for $1/square foot. That's about half the retail price, so I picked up all they had. I ended up coming home with three boxes of field tiles and one box of edge tiles -- fifty square feet in all.

I also saw some doors that will work in the basement as well as a mirror (I think it came from a hotel because there were about 15 of the same one) with a lovely rope detail on the frame and a nice beveled edge on the mirror. I'm planning to go back and pick up the mirror when I drag Scott down to check out the doors. The mirror is a steal (in my opinion) at $30. Super heavy-duty frame and the perfect size for our non-existent bathroom. I'll just repaint the frame so that it goes with the rest of the room. What can I say? I love cheap.

All of this cheapness and the overwhelming stock at the ReStore got me thinking...how much of this basement project can I do with re-used, re-purposed, recycled materials? And that thought led me to change my goals for this project. I'd like to use re-purposed materials for as much of the project as possible.

I'm sure it won't be one hundred percent re-purposed, but I'm going to start keeping track and visiting the ReStore before making any major construction purchases.

Quote of the Day

2011-02-08T15:49:00.003-07:00

Having another snow day here. Somehow the girls found my basal thermometer and are taking their temperatures. Here is what Callie had to say.

Callie: Mom, my temperature is 90.5. I think I have a fever!

Mom: Anything below 100 is fine.

Callie: Well then I guess I have a cold.

A woman with a plan

2011-02-07T22:55:00.004-07:00

Look out. I've got a plan. And I'm going to share it with you. Although, to actually SEE my plan, you should probably click on the image below. That will blow it up bigger so you can study it.
When I tackle a project, I've got to have a plan. The bigger the project, the more specific my plan needs to be. Without a plan, I stand around staring at the ceiling, turning in circles. No kidding. I think it's a trait I inherited from my mother because I've seen her do the same thing. I stare at details. I consider alternatives. I plan in my head and then I spin around and do it some more. This tactic usually doesn't get me far. Until I've got a plan in writing, I get very little done.

So, look out. It's in writing now.

Today, our basement looks almost nothing like this plan. Besides the stairs, the furnace, the hot water heater, the windows, and the outside walls, pretty much everything else in this plan is a major change for our little basement.

Our little basement has no bathroom. There isn't even roughed-in plumbing. The door to the utility room is currently where the freezer is in the plan. Right now there is a door at the bottom of the steps, but not one into the main part of the basement.

All of that is about to change.

Er...all of that will change eventually. Just as fast as my hands can work which is, um, not all that fast.

Not only do I have the pretty plans above, I've got plans in my head. I've got plans for my plans. Plans to re-use as many elements as possible. For instance, I'd like to re-use both of the doors in the basement, hopefully by moving them from their current locations to new locations -- one to be used as the bathroom door, one as the door to the main room. I'm hoping to use the bathtub from the girls' bathroom upstairs in the new basement bathroom. There's nothing wrong with the tub and, eventually, the girls' bathroom will have just a shower (because it's a tiny bathroom). But this house needs at least one bathtub, so I'd like to move it downstairs. Reusing as much as possible is both an economic decision and a conscious choice not to discard perfectly good elements. The doors are solid wood. The bathtub is in fine shape. Why buy new ones if I can get away with the old?

I do need to bring in some new elements, like the 24" deep high cabinets in the hallway and built-ins flanking the window and a small media center opposite the bed for TV viewing comfort.

I've also got some particularly nit-picky plans. For instance, the new door to the utility room will have to be placed in the exact right spot to allow for a 24" cabinet on one side and a 30" and 15" on the other. Also, the pocket door going into the new closet will have to be in the exact right spot in order to leave wall space for a bedside table. The bathroom door needs to be exactly opposite the vanity. Because I like it that way. When the bathroom door is open, I'd much rather see a beautiful vanity than a toilet.

Most likely, there is a lot I'm leaving out. I know nothing about design. I know even less about traffic flow and codes and plumbing (although I did learn today about the challenges of putting a toilet in a basement -- it involves pumping waste uphill).

And, although it may look like I've got my mind all made up, I'm uncertain about a lot of things. Like, whether we'll even put a bed down there or if we'll opt for a VERY comfortable fold-out sofa. A sofa would make the room more multi-purpose. More media-centered. Which means we should probably put in speakers. And special lighting. Where ARE the lights going to go and how AM I going to get them there? And what will they look like? And what about the heater vents that straddle places where I need to put walls? And the vents that need to go into the utility room wall to ensure that our finicky tankless water heater has enough oxygen to burn? And what about the cat? How will I put a cat-door into the vented utility room door? We keep her litter box there and the box needs to be accessible for her.

So, yeah, I may have more questions than answers at this point.

But at least I'm making progress. Today the old wallpaper came down and the carpet staples came up. And I made a plan. That's progress.

A fresh start

2011-02-05T10:53:00.010-07:00

I'm choosing to think of this as a fresh start. In almost any other room in my house, I probably couldn't manage that thought. But here, in the basement, it's pretty easy to make lemons into lemonade. Or, maybe someone just handed me straight-up lemonade. Or even a bottle of limoncello.

The basement before:

The basement now:

Yeah. A fresh start. We had some cold temps here in Colorado last week. Our cold water faucet in the kitchen stopped working (as usual). We hoped that was the only cold-related issue, but when things started to thaw on Thursday, I heard a suspicious hissing. I thought it was wind blowing at a weird angle through the kitchen vent fan, but when the wind stopped and the hissing continued, I thought again.

Scott headed down to the basement (which is below the kitchen) to see if he could figure anything out. Sure enough, I heard a few sailor-esque words and went down to check it out myself. The wall was soaked, the carpet was SOAKED. We had a busted pipe.

We turned off the water and went to bed. I slept. Scott didn't.

The next morning, we started tearing off the drywall and found that the copper line to our icemaker had busted in two places. The insulation was so wet that I could squeeze water out of it.

Going in to find the leak

The culprit. See the tiny copper line? The nasty looking stuff on the left is wet blown-in insulation. The regular fiberglass insulation is the yellow stuff on the right.

Not one to back down from a DIY challenge, I headed to Lowe's and (with the help of a very knowledgeable employee in the plumbing department) devised a plan. Instead of running a new copper line down through the floor where it might freeze and burst again, I got a ten foot long flexible ice maker line. When I got home, I drilled holes in the backs of our cabinets and ran the line through the cabinets, from the fridge to the sink where it connects to the water source. No leaks! No chance to freeze!

Fishing a wire through the cabinets to lead the new icemaker line back to the water source. I did a little happy dance when the fishing wire made it all the way through.

When my kitchen looks like this, you know we've got a problem.

Once the leak was fixed, I headed down to the basement to rip off the rest of the drywall and tear up the wet carpet and padding. Although mold is rare here (due to our super dry air), I didn't want to take any chances. I have no idea if I went overboard or not, but I know that replacing the insulation and drywall will be relatively cheap. A lot cheaper than dealing with a mold issue later on. Again, not taking any chances.

Getting started.

Darn, so sad to see the wallpaper go.

Making headway.

Done with this phase of demolition! Things are drying very quickly.

Steve's still hanging in there with us!

So, how, you might be wondering, can I view all of this as lemonade instead of lemons? Well...to start with, I had recently cleaned out the basement, so none of our stuff got ruined. Our ski boots were sitting in a big puddle when we found the leak, but that's about it.

Second, (she sheepishly admits) before this happened, Scott was not totally on board with my plan to renovate the basement. Now the basement is torn up anyway, so finishing the job is not such a big deal. I wouldn't say he's enthusiastically supportive, but he is definitely warming up to the idea of me changing this space from a storage area/office to a guest suite. He would still prefer not to know any specifics.

Next steps, finish taking off the wallpaper, scrape the ceilings, modify the placement of electrical outlets, switches, light fixtures, etc. And then...who knows? I'm taking it a few steps at a time, I guess. But at least now I have permission to get started.

Photo booth

2011-02-01T20:07:00.004-07:00

In more snow day fun today, we had a little photo booth session in the kitchen. The girls had a blast!

On a snow day

2011-02-01T11:23:00.007-07:00

On a snow day, what does one do to entertain the kidlettes?

Well...we just received Callie's class list for Valentine's Day cards. And if you know me at all, you know I'm totally anti-commercialism and would NEVER buy Valentine's Day cards, especially not ones with characters on them. Thus, snow day (actually -4 degree day) becomes get-crafty-with-Valentine's-Day-cards day.

I'm not leaving the house today. In fact, I probably won't change out of my jammies today, and neither will the girls. So, we're making due with the supplies we have on hand. We've got a handy-dandy printer, some very old (purchased while I was in college, but never used up) white linen paper, a heart-shaped stamp and red stamp pad, some little jewels for embellishing, whatever glue we have on hand, and leftover envelopes from who knows what. Just the right ingredients for sweet (and simple) V-Day cards.

Brynn spellchecking her envelopes.

Callie got through her list very quickly. She has impressive penmanship for a five year old. Quite a bit better than her Uncle Nick, even. ;)

Cards waiting to be cut in half.

As you can see, this was not a stressful craft.

Wow, I love that girl. She just said, "I wish there were school today." The statement and the grammar both make me swoon.

Should I go artsy on it?

2011-01-31T12:28:00.007-07:00

While I was working on finishing up the storage bases, I also refinished (and added an extra shelf to) this bedside table for Brynn's room. When Brynn's big room reveal happened on her birthday, I hadn't decided yet what I wanted to put next to her bed for a bedside table, so I just left it out and figured I'd get to it eventually. Eventually is here -- I decided to put a new finish on her old bedside table and put it back in her room.

At first, it was going to be a straightforward white finish. But then I was inspired by some tables at the Evergreen Cafe in Buena Vista. I was thinking I would do something similar on Brynn's table. But will it be too cluttered? Too much? There will already be a lamp, a clock, and who knows what else on top of the table. Dare I go artsy on it as well?

Here are the inspiration tables:

Here is the top of Brynn's table. What do you think? I need some feedback!

By the way, here was Scott's feedback: "Just put something little in the corner. It'll be like a little accent. Like a nose ring."

Riiiiight.

Game storage...check!

2011-01-30T18:53:00.009-07:00

This project started as a way to get our family board games out of the basement. Because, remember my big project? De-cluttering, de-carpeting, de-popcorn the ceiling...and on and on. This storage unit (see the plans here) is just a small cog in a very large wheel.

And it's done! All but the last coat of poly over the touch-ups on the trim.

What do you think? I would be happy if it were simply square and not ugly. But I think it's a lovely addition to our house, as well. The tall base trim on it really makes it look substantial and heavy (which it is) -- perfect for our big space. And, it was another good learning piece for me. I'm working up to big things, I tell you!

I put the whole thing together with glue and our pneumatic nailer since our cordless drill batteries are DEAD (new ones on order -- thankfully we have a lifetime warranty!). For the finish, I used Kilz low-voc latex primer and several coats of Sherwin-Williams ProClassic trim paint color-matched to our personal furniture white. I sanded between every coat and used several coats of Minwax Polycrylic in satin to harden up the finish. The finish turned out super smooth. Just the way I like it!

To make the drawer bases look more built-in, Scott and I removed the baseboard on that wall and pushed the whole unit flush with the wall before cutting the baseboard to fit tightly up against the trim on the drawer bases. This may cause some problems at Christmastime...the drawers are encroaching on our tree's space. Other than that, I love the placement of the drawers and the super soft olive green corduroy, too.

Putting the upholstered top together was a bit of a process. At least, it took some thought. I spent about two weeks dreading buying expensive foam for the cushion and then having to sew a cover for it. Cutting the fabric for the welting, sewing the welting, attaching the welting...okay, maybe it was mostly dealing with welting that I was dreading, and I didn't want to do it without welting. But, really, my box cushions usually come out far from perfect and I wanted this to be perfect. You can see this piece of furniture when you walk through the front door of our home. I pass it every time I walk from the kitchen downstairs to the family room or my bedroom. I couldn't take looking at an awful cushion every time I walk by.

So one night around midnight I was taking a long shower. I find long, hot showers to be a great catalyst for creative thought. I was brooding over this box cushion and its welting when I realized...I could make a no-sew top! I didn't have a piece of MDF large enough to fit the top of all three drawer bases, but I had lots of long, skinny pieces. If I put them together with my pocket hole jig, drywall screws, and glue, I could add 1" foam to the top (which I already had), wrap the whole thing in batting, and staple the fabric to it.

Duh. How could I have been so dense in the first place?

Here is what the cushion looked like while it was in the works (upside down):

See all those pocket holes? Here's a closer-up shot of them:
The pocket holes create one solid piece of MDF (thanks to Ana White for teaching me this trick!), plus there are some little skinny pieces attached on each end. I glued and screwed those with regular countersink holes because they seemed too fragile for pocket holes. I split the skinny MDF strips a few times before I got the big part of the countersink hole big enough for the top of the screw.

Once I had the MDF put together, I spray-glued the foam on top, turned the whole thing upside-down on the batting, stapled on the batting and then stapled on the fabric. I had enough fabric to run it lengthwise without having to sew anything, but I wanted the pattern in the corduroy to run perpendicular to the length of the bench. The bench didn't need to look any longer than it already is. So, I did the old curtain trick -- a full width in the middle plus a half width on either side. I've got a ton of fabric left over, probably close to three yards. Since I only paid $4/yard for it, I'm not bummed to have so much extra. I'm actually looking forward to using it again!

As with any big project I tackle, I'm pleased with the outcome but, most of all, happy to be done!

A cake which did not fail.

2011-01-30T17:10:00.006-07:00

Scott's birthday was on Thursday. I contemplated several options for his birthday dessert. The first thought was a Costco cake. Terrible, I know, but sooooo good when that's what you're craving. He was craving one this fall but after Brynn's birthday and the half cake we had leftover from her party, I was pretty sure he wasn't craving one anymore.

The second thought was a cake from the best bakery in town, Marigold. It was a bit over my budget.

The third idea was to make an orange cake (his childhood favorite) from Alice Water's basic cake recipe in The Art of Simple Food. This cookbook is, in my mind, the one indispensable cookbook that every kitchen should have. I'm sure the basic cake recipe is great in the hands of any normal person. Unfortunately, the last time I attempted to follow it the cake was an epic fail. It did make good cake balls, though.

Actually, most of the cakes I make are epic fails. They fall apart, they crumble, they look like crap. Sometimes literally.

But this one was amazing.

It's a Guinness Chocolate cake. Yep, two of our favorite ingredients. Together.

Guinness + Chocolate. It's a match made in heaven.

Top it with some frothy cream cheese frosting, and you're in heaven.

Happy birthday, my sweetheart!

Maybe I'm just having a bad day?

2011-01-25T19:11:00.007-07:00

Wait, no...I'm definitely having a bad day. First, with me as a witness (paintbrush in hand, eye contact avoided), the insurance man and the roofer got into some very uncomfortable discussions in my house, on my roof, and in my garage. By the time they left, I felt quite shaken.

Or maybe it is because my girls (though continually coached NOT to do just this) raced to open the door while Libbie was barking after hearing the doorbell. Within seconds, the poor (and might I say, very VERY kind) UPS man was down on his behind in the driveway, after tripping while running from my overprotective and stupid mutt. It was dark, the neon light coming from his signature pad was a bit scary, and she was still in protective mode after being on the lookout all day while the insurance man and roofer were here inspecting the house. Still...totally unacceptable. She was carried to her crate by the scruff of her neck while I muttered several choice words. Both girls ate dinner in their rooms. They will be coming out again someday -- don't worry. They have to brush their teeth before bed and I am not planning to ground them from school tomorrow.

So maybe this bad day is why I couldn't care less about the State of the Union address? Although, I'm still listening to it from a room away. I guess I can't totally tear myself away from my heritage. You see, my dad made it clear that awareness of our political system and understanding of current events is crucial for being a responsible American citizen. Mr. Hiller, my eighth grade history teacher, made me love American history and government. Mr. Maters, my high school government/economics teacher, made me believe that if I know what is going on, I can participate and make a difference in our country. The YMCA's Youth & Government program taught me how a bill becomes a law and let me take part in the process. It made me believe that we live in the greatest country in the world, a place where anyone can achieve anything.

I still believe those things. I still think that my kids need to know what is going on in the world. I think we need to read the papers and vote and write to our representatives and voice our opinions.

But I think I'm having a bad day, because I don't want to listen to the State of the Union address. I'll read about it in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. For now, that seems like enough.

Artistic liberties

2011-01-24T14:16:00.005-07:00

I'm pretty sure the tree I painted on the wall of Brynn's room today is not an accurate representation of any species of tree anywhere. Upon witnessing my work of art, an arborist would probably roll his eyes and sigh.

Artistic liberties, my friends. Artistic liberties.

Procrastinator

2011-01-21T12:38:00.002-07:00

I hate putting semi-finished photos up because I'm a procrastinator...and if I've gotten this far in a project (as in, nearly finished) I might not finish the details. Like, say, the base molding. Or the cushion.

But, what the heck. I'm so stoked about the fun colors in these drawers, I couldn't help but post a few photos.

The blue drawer is painted with leftover paint from Brynn's first room in this house. It's a Kelly Moore color called Tiana's Eyes. I loooooove the color. The green and peach colors are my own custom mixes of leftovers from the garage.

I'm not totally sure that white was the right way to go with this gargantuan bench (maybe black would have been a better choice?) but I think the cushion I'll be putting on top (olivey-avocadoey green corduroy) will tone down the white a lot. Here's to hoping I don't screw it up...my sewing skills are not so great.

Next up, though, base molding.

And the drama ends

2011-01-20T11:40:00.003-07:00

The drama of the cheap-o not-full-extension ball bearing drawer slides, that is.

It only took three trips to Lowe's to get the slides right. The first trip I bought six slides. I destroyed the first two (which I maintain was actually caused by a design flaw rather than my incompetence). Scott picked up two more, but one of them had previously been opened and returned (which is why I put that slide back during my first slide-buying expedition...c'mon people!). That one was not like the others -- it didn't allow the drawer to slide all the way into the box. Which is probably why someone else had returned it already. So, this morning I took back the lame slide, as well as the two I destroyed, and picked up one more to complete the drawer slide installation.

And, finally, voila! Drawers are in.

Next up, attach drawer faces, attach pulls, paint and attach base trim, remove baseboards so that the units will sit snug against the wall, possibly trim out the ends of the two end units to match the drawers, and make the upholstered cushion for the top.

So...I'm not quite halfway done.

On a different note, the most exciting news of the day is the arrival of my Blue Like Jazz associate producer t-shirt and coffee mug. After my thank-you phone call from the director, Steve Taylor, last week, I'm getting pretty stoked about the movie! I might even find a babysitter so we can go see it in the theaters. Now THAT would be exciting.

Ball bearings are my enemy.

2011-01-19T17:41:00.004-07:00

I stopped into Lowe's today to pick up three pairs of drawer slides for the drawers in the new storage bases. Unfortunately, there was not a great selection of drawer slides and, seeing as I'm too lazy to drive two miles to Home Depot or Woodcraft, I had to deal with what was available. The only undermount slides that would fit my drawers were light duty (35lb max, which will likely be much too light) and they were supposed to be mounted one per drawer, in the center of the drawer (not going to work on a 27" wide drawer). To make matters worse, they had ball bearings, which I hate with a passion.

You see, we had these little pencil tray drawers mounted under our old Techline desks and they had ball bearings in the drawer slides and they absolutely SUCKED. They never opened as far as they were supposed to and eventually they never opened at all. So maybe ball bearings aren't so bad, but in my experience, they're lame.

But, again...too lazy to drive to another store, so I deserve the ball bearings, I guess.

Anyway, I got two of the slides attached to the first box and the first drawer (two mounted twenty inches apart instead of one in the center). I managed to get the drawer inside the box and on the slides but then realized that the slides were not positioned far enough back in the box, so the front of the drawer was going to be too far forward in the box. I undid everything, redid everything and suddenly ball bearings were rolling all over the floor.

I told you they suck.

So I opened a new package, started from scratch with the slides attached a bit farther back in the box and this time it worked swimmingly. Or, rollingly. I wish they were full-extension glides, I wish they were rated for a heavier load, and I really wish they were ball bearing-free. I wish I didn't hate driving around town to find what I need. But, I am what I am, right?

So ball bearings it is. And now I need to go back to Lowe's to pick up one more pair. So much for not driving.

Here is the first finished box. Well...not totally finished, but the first box with a drawer installed. The drawer face will get attached to the drawer after I've installed the other two drawers -- that's the face sitting on top of the box.

I painted the three drawers different colors -- blue, orange, and green. Just for fun. And because it seemed like a good use of random leftover paint. All three drawers got a good sanding, a few coats of paint and a coat of poly before being installed in the boxes.

Once I've finished installing the drawers and faces, it will be time to attach the base trim (to cover the gap below the unit) and then make the cushion for the top. Somehow ski trips, dentist appointments, volunteer commitments and (imagine this...) WORK keep getting in the way of finishing this project! C'est la vie.

I wonder if this means I'll be cleaning up board games?

2011-01-13T09:10:00.006-07:00

Richard at Lowe's rocks. He cut up ALL my MDF (nearly 3 full sheets worth) on Tuesday (for $0.25/cut), and he got every cut right. I think when I am finished with this project, I will bring him photos...because it was some major work for him. Every piece of my three storage bases is square! So different from me trying to wrangle a giant piece of wood across our undersized table saw. It's really amazing how simple it is to build something when all of your pieces are square.

Anyway, so the giant board game storage bench is underway, as you can see. Boxes are built, faces for the drawers are built. Today I'll be filling holes, sanding, and priming. I'll head out to Lowe's to buy drawer glides which I have NO idea how to install, but I guess that will be a new, er...fun, learning experience.

I'm also trying out the hardware on the drawer face. It's an extra-long black cup pull that looks like hammered iron. I think I like it -- big and chunky enough to fit the furniture, black to tie in with the myriad of black frames on the wall where the bench will live, and on sale for $4/each. Not bad.

Now I'm starting to wonder...once I get this giant bench and all of its storage capacity into my house, and I fill those giant drawers with board games, am I going to spend every afternoon picking up board game pieces after my kids do a post-school raid of the games? Right now the games are out of sight, and kind of out of mind. Not for long, though. Hmmm...maybe this isn't such a good idea.

Classical conditioning and training your kid

2011-01-09T17:05:00.004-07:00

About four years ago, as we prepared to adopt Libbie, I had an insatiable appetite for dog-related books. I wanted to be prepared. What I learned, mostly, is that if you give a dog food treats while she's doing what you want her to do, she'll do that thing more often and sometimes even on command. How great is that? So simple and, as we're finding out with our kids, so applicable to other situations. Even people situations.

Like, say, a family with a dad who would love to spend Sunday watching football but who has two little girls who would rather not. Little girls generally aren't known for their love for football. Even our kids, who would watch grass grow if it were on TV, don't sit and watch football well.

Enter classical conditioning for kids.

In our family, classical conditioning must be done with food treats that are extra special. In dog training, these are called "high value" treats. For our pooch Libbie, it would be salmon skin, cut up hot dogs, chicken...you get the idea. Her very favorite treats. For the kids, it's processed snacks that they don't get any other time. Today it is Chipotle BBQ potato chips (the Boulder kind), although pretzels or crackers with smoked salmon dip or salt and vinegar chips work just as well (as long as nobody has cuts on their fingers -- then it turns into a salt-in-the-wound screaming fit).

So far, the classical conditioning seems to be working. The girls don't love football yet, but they are asking questions about the game and they are sitting still while they watch with their dad. I'm pretty sure that with enough tasty treats they could actually grow to love watching football. THAT, my friends, would be a major victory around here.

Do you love a good purge?

2011-01-07T22:45:00.007-07:00

I do. Check out these before and after shots. Project Basement Stage One complete.

The giant old-fashioned tube TV won't be in that awkward spot forever, but that is the best place for it now, since step 3 in Project Basement is to tear off the wallpaper behind the sofa.

Woot! And, yes, Steve is STILL hanging in there. What a guy.

Two before shots:
One after shot:

These are the Giant Black Bookcases that must be sold, preferably with the Giant Black Desk. The games stashed in the bookcase will be part of Project Basement Stage Two, the stage in which I build storage benches to go in the family room upstairs.

I love re-using these kitchen cabinets. This is the third (or fourth?) place where they've been used in our house. And, I have to say, my six and a half year old paint job on them looks as good as it did on day one. Thank you, oil-based paint. Oil-based paint really rocks, even if it is a pain in the rear to work with.
All of the books we decided to keep from the Giant Black Bookcases fit nicely into the old kitchen cabinets. We use our public library a lot, so we don't have much use for a private one at home. We've got Harry Potter, a ton of C.S. Lewis, the textbooks I use to teach, a few guidebooks and not much else.

Here's how things will go down during Project Basement Stage Two. First, I'll be posting the Giant Black Desk and Giant Black Bookcases on Craigslist. And crossing my fingers that they go quickly. In the meantime, I'll be building three benches similar to these base units, but using Ana White's plans, making an upholstered top (hopefully), and filling the drawers with our games. The benches will eventually be centered on this wall below our giant photo collage. They will take up around two-thirds to three-quarters of the total width of the wall.

For Project Basement Stage Three, I envision myself removing wallpaper and scraping the popcorn ceiling (which will include moving some light fixtures and switches). If we get too many more snowstorms, Stage Two might have to switch with Three. Stage Four might see me doing some re-construction in our utility room/gear closet to move the entry door from the main basement room into the hallway (since the eventual plan is to make the main part of the basement into a guest suite). There are about six more stages after that, but they all seem a looooong way off right now. Next up, storage benches.

Making progress.

2011-01-06T12:19:00.003-07:00

Two days and three carloads to Goodwill later...

Steve's still hanging in there with me.

Just about ready to move Scott's work station from the big ugly desk to the nice little one.

Hallway is passable! Most of the stuff in there will will stay, but those ugly bookcases will leave with the big ugly desk.

Be still, my heart...

2011-01-04T12:15:00.010-07:00

because when I look at these photos, I feel like I might pass out.

Here are our basement "before" photos. Yesterday I foolishly promised to share them. I would like to preface these by saying that MOST of this stuff was in boxes when we returned in June. Then we started unpacking boxes bit by bit, but left the stuff we didn't want/didn't know what to do with and now it is all scattered around the basement. Hence the mess. This kind of mess is not my M.O.

Entering the abyss.

Getting nervous.

Feeling overwhelmed.

Starting to spin in circles because I don't know where to start.

At least I've got Steve to keep me company. And that cute little silhouette. I remember my kindergarten teachers working on that project. I should make some of the girls and hang us all up together! Speaking of which...maybe Scott's mom has an old profile shot of Scott I can use to complete the family silhouettes? Like YHL did here? That would be a good way to get out of working down here...

Oh, how I want to sell this gigantic desk. Too bad it's covered in stuff that all needs to be stashed elsewhere.

On my way up the stairs loaded up with stuff for Goodwill. Watch the tripping hazards.

Yeah, gonna need to switch cars with Scott for a while. This little trunk ain't gonna cut it.

But at least it's a start! I'll share more when you can actually tell that I've made a dent!

Goals for the new year, part two.

2011-01-02T21:32:00.003-07:00

Yesterday's post will fill you in on some of my previous goals and how I've accomplished them. They were much more transformative goals than I'm setting for myself this year. This year's goals are a bit like a to-do list. So, um...oh well. That's where I am in my life right now, you know? Not in a place to take on big changes in my person-hood. But ready for a to-do list. The good news is that, like other goals I've been successful in acheiving, I have both the motivation and the information to help move me along on these.

I've recently realized that I'm capable of doing a lot more around our house than I used to think was possible. I know how to solder pipes, I can clean out drains and reconnect PVC pipes without leaks. I can paint, I can tile, I can use every tool in our garage. I once moved six tons of gravel and sand from our driveway to our side yard. Alone. Although, Scott was with me in spirit (which wasn't all that helpful). I've learned to build furniture and figured out how to lay and finish a hardwood floor. If I can lay a hardwood floor, I kinda feel like I can do just about anything, which has really broadened my idea of what I can do around here (although, I still can't get the lawn mower started). So I'm feeling a bit like I'm ready to tackle some big projects.

Our basement is a horrible mess. Ever since we left for Mexico, when we stored all our crap down there for the year that we were gone, it's been a mess. The kids shriek when I try to give away their old toys, but at this point, the toys have been in the basement since we got home in June so I don't think they'll be missed if I haul them off to Goodwill. Then there are all of our old books. And furniture that doesn't fit the style nor the shape of our house. It's time for that stuff to go. And the old carpet. And the frustrating lack of purpose in the basement. It's a small space, but it could be a useful space. It could even be a pleasing space. Right now it's just awful. So, there's goal number one. De-clutter, de-carpet, and renovate the basement. While the long term goal is to add a bathroom down there and turn it into a guest suite (it's quiet, private, warm in the winter and cool in the summer), I'd be happy with half that in the next year. I'd be happy just to clean the place out, take down the wallpaper that has been there since before we moved in, knock down the popcorn ceiling, paint, add some tall cabinets in the hallway (thank God Ikea is coming to Denver this fall!), and plan for the eventual major overhaul. That's goal #1. Deal with the basement.

Here is goal #2: deal with the girls' bathroom.When I say this, Scott rolls his eyes, and I'm still not sure why! The girls are only getting older and they're only spending MORE time in there. You wouldn't believe the amount of time Brynn spends admiring herself in the mirror (I guess I might too if I looked like she does). She makes faces at herself and checks out her hair from every imaginable angle. The bathroom is dated and has almost no storage. When we have guests, they have to share that tiny bathroom with the girls and there is virtually nowhere for them to put their toothbrushes, etc. while they stay with us. Plus, the floor is rotting dangerously close to the bathtub. I'm just waiting for the bathtub to fall into my bedroom and squish the dog some night while we're all sound asleep. So, yeah, the bathroom needs to change, and the sooner (and cheaper) the better. Goal #2: deal with the upstairs bathroom.

Goal #3: Get Scott a TV. The problem with buying a new TV is that a new TV requires a wall full of new furniture. I don't really care if we get a newer, better TV, but Scott does and so I should care too. And he's never had a new cutting-edge TV and he doesn't abuse technology. But the TV is going to be pricey. This goal requires a strict budget combined with some creative solutions to furnish the giant wall where the TV will go. Fitting the TV and furniture into the budget will require some major sacrifices -- like maybe skipping all of the traveling we've been hoping to plan in the near future. Global traveling. Traveling that we think our kids are finally old enough to enjoy. Going back to Mexico, going to Europe, going to Asia. I've got to decide what is more important -- the place where we spend 350 days a year, or the other 15 days that we'd like to spend somewhere else? So, there's that. And it makes the new TV and furniture look less attractive, not to mention the bathroom project which I assume will come in around $2000. Ahhh...decisions. Still, goal #3: Get Scott a TV.

And then there's #4, sort of inspired by goal #3 and all its challenges: grow my business. I teach interpersonal and intercultural communication at UCCS, but my real love is editing and proofreading. It comes naturally, I'm good at it, and I can do it on my schedule (usually at 1:30am in my pajamas). I've been proofreading professionally for about five years now, but it's a very small endeavor and I've done more work for free than for pay (because I can't turn down a good cause). I really don't know how to go about growing my business (they don't teach entrepreneurship in the Department of Communication, and on a daily basis I'm much more interested in planning my next room re-do or vacation than figuring out how to drum up business. So, this may be more of a dream than a goal, but at least it's on my mind.

So, there you go. They're not earth-shattering goals, but at least now you know what to look for here at Our Little Family in the next year. I think I'll start taking photos of that hideous basement tomorrow. That should provide some major motivation, and I've already got the brains and brawn to get the project moving.

Goals for the new year, part one.

2011-01-02T20:06:00.005-07:00

I generally don't make resolutions. At least, not publicly. Sure, every year since about 4th grade, I've thought, "I want to lose X pounds this year." Sometimes I've even thought of it all the way up to, say, January 5th. Usually it's forgotten within the first three days of the new year, though. So, for me, new year's resolutions are usually not something I take seriously.

I do occasionally set goals, though. Usually my goals don't have anything to do with the start of a new year. I can think of three major goals I've set for myself in the past that I was actually successful at achieving. The first was during the summer between eighth grade and my freshman year in high school. That was the year I was introduced to the Y's Ragger Program and earned my first rag -- the blue rag. One challenge associated with the blue rag is to be your best self. I remember thinking that my best self would be more outgoing and more interested in the people around me. Because of my blue rag challenge, I began to make a conscious effort to engage others in conversation and it changed my entire personality. I went from being relatively withdrawn and quiet to conversational and outgoing. Clearly, I'm still no social butterfly and I'm not the life of the party, but I'm very different from the girl I was before accepting that challenge.

The second life-changing goal I managed to accomplish was shortly after Brynn was born. Before having Brynn, I had never successfully lost weight. I'd thought about it a lot and had been really unhappy with my body from the middle of elementary school all the way past college graduation. I've always been a bigger girl -- even in high school when I was swimming year round, even working out 4+ hours a day in the pool. Small is just not in my body's vocabulary...well, besides my cup size. That's a different problem. Anyway, By the time Brynn was born, I'd gained 30 pounds (about ten of which was Brynn and probably another eight in fluids and baby-related stuff that disappeared shortly after she was born). A few weeks after her birth, I had a good chunk of weight left to lose plus whatever I could lose beyond my pre-pregnancy weight to get to a healthy goal weight. Since I'd never successfully lost weight before, I knew it would be a challenge.

But...those months when Brynn slept 20 or more hours per day, when I had no job and almost nothing to do at home, I was pretty disciplined. I started using FitDay.com to track my calorie intake and within a month and a half of starting, I'd not only lost the baby weight, but also gotten below my pre-pregnancy weight. I was sooooo proud of myself -- to finally accomplish something I'd wanted for so long. Then I got pregnant with Callie, the weight came back, and the discipline disappeared. When I think about it now, I know I could lose at least a few pounds if I tried...but it's a lot of work and I just don't have it in me today.

The last life-changing goal I accomplished related to the food I ate and the food I fed my family. It was initiated by a FoxNews.com article I read about pigs being abused at a North Carolina slaughterhouse. It sickened me in a way I'd never experienced before, so much so that it set me on a road to change my eating habits. It started with not wanting to contribute to animal cruelty, grew into wanting to limit my contributions to the toxicity of our environment, and turned into a personal crusade to keep my family eating as organically, locally, and sustainably as possible. With the budding resources at the time (from books by Michael Pollan and Barbara Kingsolver plus a tiny handful of websites with directories of small, local farms), I managed to completely change the way my family and I eat.

At first, it seemed impossible. Giving up bone-in chicken thighs on the grill was PAINFUL, let me tell you, for the kids as much as for me. I missed the steaks, the cheap chicken, the pre-marinated pork loins, the grapes grown in Chile, the clementines from Spain and Morocco, the New Zealand lamb and apples. Now, when we occasionally have those treats at a friend's house, they really seem like treats, rather than feeling guilty about eating them.

Between changing my understanding of food and then also beginning treatment with a chiropractor, I became aware of some of the toxins in my environment and the toxins that my kids are exposed to on a daily basis. Fire retardants, pesticides, formaldahyde, mercury, fluoride, parabens and other body-product additives like sodium laurel sulfate and aluminum, BPAs...all of it. The list seems to grow monthly yet somehow we've maintained a relatively normal lifestyle while working to minimize our exposure to these toxins. And all of it started with a story about abused pigs and a goal to be conscious about what I eat and what I feed my family.

Each of these major goals I accomplished had serious motivation behind them and the information I needed in order to accomplish the goals. When I got my blue rag, I KNEW how to be a good conversationalist. I knew how to engage other people because I'd spent my whole life watching my mom do it. I tell my interpersonal communication classes this all the time -- I've never seen anyone engage others in conversation better than my own mother does. People know that she cares about them by the way she listens to them and the question she asks. I had a model and I knew what I needed to do to become more outgoing. I also knew that if I didn't engage others, I could have a very lonely time in high school. I was motivated to make a change.

When I lost Brynn's baby weight, I had FitDay.com by my side, giving me the information I needed to keep my calories-out exceeding my calories-in. I had the time and the discipline to keep track of everything I ate and I had my old jeans standing by to motivate me.

When I changed the way our family eats, I had the motivation -- the poor North Carolina pigs provided more than I needed. Bit by bit, I gained the knowledge I needed to find what we now call "happy food" and over the past three years, the resources available for finding and buying happy food have grown at what seems to be an exponential rate. It's become easy and second nature for us because we have the resources available to help us.

With all that in mind, I'll be back tomorrow to share my goals for the new year.

Walking the line.

2011-01-01T16:35:00.006-07:00

Usually, when faced with a reminder that my kids are being raised without much of the industrialized food that normal Americans eat, I smile. I am happy for the lifelong habits that they are developing, happy that they eat enough variety to not be dependent on industrialized food, happy that when industrialized food is the only choice, they generally choose the best option. For example, when they are faced with the über-American choice of pepperoni or cheese pizza (like at Costco or at the pool in the summertime), they ask me, "Is the pepperoni happy?" Meaning, does the pepperoni come from local, humanely and sustainably-raised pigs? "Happy" is the word we use in our house. The answer is almost always "Nope. It's not happy meat," and usually they choose the non-meat version. Callie chooses the non-meat version 100% of the time. Brynn chooses it the majority of the time, but not always. And the choice is always hers.

Combined with our unusual attitude toward food is this: my kids don't watch much tv and they see almost no commercials. They mostly watch shows that are available via Netflix instant downloads (Martha Speaks, Sid the Science Kid, Cake Boss, Say Yes to the Dress, and Dhani Tackles the Globe are their current favorites), and they occasionally watch PBS. But we don't have cable, so that's about it. They didn't know what to ask for for Christmas this year because they don't know what is out there (which is fine with me). But, sometimes I fear that this lack of knowledge of the world, or at least the world that is familiar to their peers, could turn into a social handicap. I sometimes feel like we're walking the line between raising healthy kids and raising social outcasts.

Take, for instance, the conversation I had with Brynn this weekend. We were watching some New Year's Eve coverage and there was a McDonald's commercial. The idea of eating at McD's generally evokes choruses of "ewwww" or "grooooosssss" from my kids. Usually, Callie follows it up with a statement about how McD's serves burgers made from old dairy cows who spent their lives standing in poop up to their knees. But this time, the commercial was for McD's Happy Meals. Brynn had apparently never heard of a Happy Meal and was absolutely astonished, mouth agape, as she watched the commercial. As it ended, she questioned, "Mom, did you KNOW that McDonald's has HAPPY meals?"

"Brynn, do you know what a Happy Meal is?" I asked.

"A meal with happy meat!?"

Ahhhhh, so sad. And this is my point: by raising my kids in an environment where they are encouraged (though by no means forced) to choose "happy" options, and an environment where they have little exposure to the consumerism encouraged by our modern media, are they weird? Are they the kids you remember from your childhood whose parents chose not to even own a TV?

I believe that because I am honest with my kids and do my best to explain all of the consequences of choosing regular meat or happy meat, organic or not organic, sustainable or not sustainable, local or global, that they will mature with not only good habits, but an understanding of why they choose what they choose and the effects that their choices have on their health, the environment, and our local economy. Still, when I realize that my eight year old doesn't know what a Happy Meal is, I wonder whether I am doing the right thing!

She does now, by the way, know what a Happy Meal is. Here is the explanation I gave her: A Happy Meal is a meal that McDonald's makes for kids. It has a little burger with a pickle slice and ketchup on it, a small bag of french fries, a drink, and a toy that breaks shortly after you take it out of the package.

She is much less interested trying a Happy Meal now that she knows what it is.

631 Days Too Long

2010-12-31T10:47:00.003-07:00

From my perspective, one of the biggest negatives of living in Mexico last winter was the lack of snow. I love snow and my favorite activity is to go skiing with the family. (There is nothing like the smell and the peacefulness of gliding down a run together.) Last Monday we were finally able to hit the slopes again and had an outstanding time!

I put together a quick video of the experience below. Callie is now able to keep up at a comfortable pace, so I'm expecting the fun to get better and better...until the day when Brynn and Callie turn around tell Hillary and me that we are too slow, and that they'll just meet up with us at lunch. Hopefully that is far off...

New Family Tradition

2010-12-31T10:40:00.003-07:00

This year the creative members of the family started a new tradition of building gingerbread houses for Christmas. Below is Hillary's house made of beans and peppers. (By the time she was able to make her house Brynn and Callie had used up all the candy.)
Brynn's House...
Callie's House...

Ten years and counting.

2010-12-25T21:30:00.007-07:00

Photo care of Nick and Natalie Foy. :)

Why is it called wedded bliss? Bliss? I mean, really. Bliss? That phrase was coined with sarcasm, right? Marriage is not a relationship with a house-trained, obedient dog. It is not a contract with a robot. It is one life shared by two people, people who can sometimes be stubborn, prideful, arrogant, conceited, and ignorant. What could possibly be blissful about that?

On December 29th, Scott and I will celebrate ten years of marriage. I know ten years is nothing, at least not in the real scheme of things. Scott's grandparents have been married for 60 years. We have friends whose parents have been married for 40 years. Ten years is barely a blip on the radar screen compared to those marriages that have stood the test of time.

But, we also have friends who divorced after two years. We have friends who are single and wondering whether the right person is out there or whether they are even meant to get married. In ten years, we've created a life for ourselves. We have two children who are miraculously well-adjusted (so far, at least). We have a dog who thinks we're better than a raw beef rib and a cat who sticks by our sides as if we regularly bathed in catnip. We've bought and sold one condo, bought a house, bought two cars, four Apple computers, a lot of furniture and we're only a little bit in debt. That is, assuming you consider a mortgage just a "little bit." We've encountered causes that touch our hearts and organizations that inspire us to give beyond our comfort level. We've made friends -- good friends. Friends whom we trust with our children and with our emotions. We've found a neighborhood that we love and a church where we feel at home. We are blessed.

Scott and I laugh together. We communicate through glances and raised eyebrows and nods and postures and occasionally a well-placed grope. Sometimes Scott can talk me into scratching his back and once he even rubbed my feet. That was a moment I'll never forget. We serve each other and balance each other's weaknesses. We listen to one another and believe in one another, we inform each other and broaden each other's worlds. We introduce each other to new things and we challenge one another.

Occasionally we slam doors. Once I threw a full Nalgene bottle at the wall. When Scott filled the hole left by the bottle, he repaired both the wall and my pride. Sometimes we call each other names and blame each other when things go wrong. Sometimes it feels like we are speaking different languages. We're not perfect. We're people.

But we're people who love each other. We're people who forgive each other. Over and over and over again.

On the day we got married, we believed that forgiveness would be the key to a long and happy marriage. We stand by that today.

Here's to ten more years of bliss!

We interrupt this big birthday room reveal to...

2010-12-19T12:03:00.007-07:00

go on a cruise.

Yep, I started blogging about Brynn's new room and didn't have a chance to finish because we were busy removing our children from school so that they could enjoy this:

And do this:

And spend time with some of our favorite people, including these goofballs:

Once the refrigerator is replenished and the house is vacuumed and Libbie is retrieved from prison and the gingerbread houses are made and...oh, who am I kidding? I have no idea when I'll be back to blogging, but until then,

The big birthday reveal, part three.

2010-12-06T10:22:00.010-07:00

The cube bookcases. They are today's reveal.

All of Brynn's clothes fit in her closet, so we have no need for a dresser in her room. This leaves space for some other piece of furniture and, ever since she was born, she's had bookcases in her room. They were white laminate MDF bookcases that cost about twenty bucks each and you could tell. They were cheap, ugly, and not very sturdy. When we moved to Mexico last year I vowed that, upon returning, those bookcases would not go back in her room.

So for her birthday I built these instead.

These bookcases are based on Ana White's plans (which are based on a Land of Nod piece), only I added some trim detail to the top and took an inch off the height of the legs to be sure that the cases would fit under Brynn's window. The plans offer the option of adding backs to the bookcases, but I ran out of time and energy. In the end, I'm glad that I left the backs off, as finishing the inside of the cubes was much easier when I could work from both sides.

As you can see, Brynn has already made use of the "wasted" corner space by storing her Build-a-Bear box, filled with bear clothes and accessories, between the two bookcases. I was actually planning to build a little shelf to fit down into that corner, so that the top of the bookcases would continue through the corner, but now I'm having second thoughts. So far she's stored the bear stuff, balloons, and balls back there. It's a pretty good spot for that kind of stuff. But I can imagine it filling with dirty socks and underwear, inside out jeans, and sweatshirts that she doesn't "have time" to hang up.

When it comes to that, I'll build the shelf.

What I love about this bookcase plan is the cubes -- no more books falling over and looking messy. The canvas drawers (about $6/each from Target) are great for hiding her stuff. Jewelry, photos and photo albums, toys with lots of little parts (how I loathe those), and bedside necessities like kleenex and a water bottle all hide inside the canvas drawers.

Brynn calls this corner of her room the "art" area and has started posting her artwork on the wall to the right. She said that the corner seemed right for art because the lamp (from Ikea) "looks like art to me."

One of my favorite details in her room is the black and white photo hanging above the bookcase on the left. It is a shot of her from a ballet class a few years ago. I love the lighting, I love her positioning, I love her little tummy, and I love the concentrated look on her face. Such a beautiful girl.

The photo is framed in this cheap find from Goodwill. I just added glass and backing.

For tomorrow, the bed.

Edited to add: Here are a couple of close-ups of the cube bookcase trim, since a few people have asked how I did it. Besides that one modification and the shortening of the bookcase legs, I built the bookcases exactly as directed in Ana White's plans. See the comments for more info on what I did with the trim.

Bye bye ponytail!

2010-12-04T11:06:00.002-07:00

Sending it off to Locks of Love...

Super cute haircut care of Kristi at Paloma Salon and Spa on Tejon Street.

The big birthday reveal, part two.

2010-12-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

Okay, I promised furniture in part two of the big birthday reveal.

Ahhhh...so much to say. Let's start with the reading loft. It's bound to be the wordiest.

Whatddaya think? Brynn's pretty stoked about it.

Scott and I built this one mostly together -- I'm pretty sure this isn't a one-person project. The hardest part? Besides painting all those inside corners? The ladder. Those are some wicked angles. Not that we couldn't handle it. We managed. We based the loft on this twin bed loft plan by Ana White, we just shrunk it to fit our space. And added a desk. Ana's directions were, as always, superb.

Actually, I should tell you the story of how we got stuck building the loft in the first place. It has something to do with a husband who sometimes speaks out of turn. We were in Brynn's room measuring for a desk. Just a desk. When we finished measuring, Scott blurted out something like, "Brynn, how would you like to have a second story in your room?"

I smacked him.

Brynn jumped up and down, giggling.

Fabulous. She has a bed already and we're not replacing it with a loft bed. Because it used to be my bed. And it is beautiful. So we decided the loft would have to be a reading nook, not a bed. Many sketches, internet searches, and calculations later, we decided on Ana White's loft and we're really happy with how it turned out. It is super sturdy (Scott says it could hold an NFL offensive line, though I'm not sure how they'd all fit up there), big enough to accomodate Brynn, easy to assemble and disassemble. It is just right.

The loft is definitely Brynn's favorite part of her new room. When she held the room "ribbon cutting" ceremony at her birthday party to show off her new room, there was an immediate line of ten little girls taking turns climbing up the ladder, sitting in the loft for a few seconds, and then climbing down. Look at them, streaming in to check out the new room!

The cushion on top of the loft was a bit of a challenge. I bought foam to make a proper cushion, but Scott was with me at the fabric store (big mistake!) and just about passed out when he found out how expensive foam is (we spent about $78 on foam and a few pillow forms, and it was all 30-50% off). I bought the foam despite his, um, reservations. Then we realized that the $19 Kirkland Signature dog beds at Costco (the rectangular ones) would fit the loft perfectly, so I ran to Costco where I found out that they're only stocking ROUND dog beds at the moment. Bummer, because both my kids love a good dog bed. At some point Scott remembered that we had some foam left over from my last upholstery project, tucked away in a box in the attic. He brought it down and, well, the contents of the box weren't exactly what I needed.

But we're resourceful. Scott brought me a bag of shipping peanuts from the garage and the box of 1" thick foam. I figured I could do something with it. I sewed a quick box cushion cover out of a flat lilac bed sheet from Goodwill, lined it with batting and 1" foam, filled it with peanuts, sewed the end closed and...voila. A recycled shipping peanut bean bag cushion.

Don't tell me about the chemicals in the shipping peanuts and foam...oh, the irony, I know, especially after the search for a non-toxic floor finish. The irony isn't lost on me, I assure you. The cushions surrounding the health-and-eco-nightmare recycled cushion are king sized pillows in Target pillowcases. And the green pillow is made out of an old Eddie Bauer sweater that I used to love...until it shrunk and became about two inches too short. The welting on both the cushion and the pillow are made from silver and purple Costco Christmas ribbon wrapped around some old nylon camping rope that we don't use.

What eight year old girl wouldn't love to have that desk? So much potential for creativity. It's like a blank canvas! Sharp new colored pencils, unblemished markers, her first ever ruler, her very own stapler and (gasp! because she has a bad habit of cutting her own hair! and bedsheets!) scissors. Brand new scissors. All in upcycled salsa and jam jars.

And, of course, there is the $4 Goodwill bulletin board, which could have taken on a much more dramatic change, had I not been overworked and running on empty. My friend Susan suggested turning it into a French memo board, with some cute fabric and ribbon. I considered it but couldn't muster the energy, not with all that needed to be finished before the big birthday party "ribbon cutting" (which was absolutely not my idea). So, here's a little detail of what I did do. A painted border, painted frame, and hot glued welting. Not much, but, enough.

The one disappointment is the light fixture above the loft. Scott bloodied his head up in the attic to drop wires for a hardwired fixture. I found an $8 contractor-grade ceiling fixture at Lowe's that I was stoked about cannabalizing and re-making into something fantastic. Something that looked like this, only smaller:

This pendant lamp is covered in...brace yourselves! Coffee filters. And I love it! So after I used Krylon High Gloss White to spray-paint the base of the ugly brass contractor-grade lamp, I took the glass shade and prepared to make it look like a fluffy white pom-pom. I spent an hour in front of Oprah (you can't go wrong with the Favorite Things episode) hot-gluing 100 coffee filters onto this glass shade. It was a masterpiece. I loved it. I attached it to the wall in Brynn's room, admired it, and walked away. I left the light on so that I could see how hot it would get. After all, I didn't want those filters catching fire.

About 45 minutes later, I returned with my camera and to my horror, all of the coffee filters were on the floor, hot glue cobwebs the only thing left connecting them to the glass shade.

Duh. Hot glue. It melts when it gets hot.

Yeah, um, oh well. It was a nice idea. I picked the mess up, threw it in a bag for later, grabbed a glass globe off of a much older contractor-grade fixture in our closet, washed it and put it on the wall in Brynn's room. So much for that idea. Now we have this ugly little guy which is better than no light but has zero character. My plan is to replace the 40-watt incandescent bulb with an LED bulb (which won't be so hot) and then do the coffee filter treatment again, but with different glue. Maybe Aileen's? Maybe E6000, or whatever that crazy epoxy stuff is called? It probably doesn't matter, since it is not likely to happen for a good 6-12 months. Oh well. It COULD have been really cute!

I think that's it for the reading loft. Tomorrow, on to the bookcases!

The big birthday reveal, part one.

2010-12-02T12:11:00.008-07:00

Brynn's room is finished. Well, mostly. I've still got a bedside table to build and possibly a very simple mural to paint, but she's moved in and to anyone else, it seems finished.

The first part of re-building/re-modeling/re-decorating Brynn's room was the floor. I'm not a fan of carpet. Not one bit. Hard to clean, always seems grungy, made of plastic, held together with chemicals that I don't want in my body (nor in the bodies of my kids). Bleh.

So I tore it out and replaced it with hardwood. Cheap hardwood ($1.09 Lumber Liquidator utility grade oak, to be exact), but hardwood nevertheless. Using a borrowed hardwood nailer (thank you kind neighbors!), Scott and I knocked the floor out in a few days. While I did most of the work myself, I was super happy to have Scott there to swing the hammer in some tight spots. That's not my forte and if it were left totally up to me, we would surely have several holes in the walls from my hammer backswinging skills (or lack thereof).

Utility grade oak is a pain in the rear, but I'm happy with the varied look of it. The bundles were 95% short boards (like 8-14 inches), and almost all of them had big knot holes, cracks, or other issues. It took a lot of studying boards before picking the right ones. And then lots of filling. And some more filling. And lots of sanding and then more filling. I used Timbermate (or TEEM-bah-mayt, if you want to be authentic) wood filler from Woodcraft, which was AWESOME. It is super easy to use, very maleable, and when it starts to dry out, you just add water to thin it back down again. Seriously the best filler I've used in my very short carpentry life. It kicks Elmer's butt, that's for sure. I filled the knots with black Timbermate and the cracks with Red Oak Timbermate tinted with the stain I used on the floor.

For the stain, I used a greenish oil based stain made by Minwax called "Nutmeg." Hoping to neutralize the orange and red tones in the Oak before finishing with tung oil, this seemed like the best option. Now that I've finished, I think I'd probably do it differently next time. The floor is still too red for me (despite the green stain and several coats of greenish brown-tinted tung oil). If I were to do it again, I'd probably go for a super-dark espresso stain which would maybe wipe out that red/orange tone? A bit of a change from my original vision, which was to pickle the floor or paint it white.

Halfway through staining the floor.

So far I love the look and feel of the tung oil finish. It is completely matte and looks antique. The tung oil application required one coat every 24 hours for about five days, so the whole finish took me about a week. You mop on the tung oil, thinned with orange oil or these green-ish mineral spirits (I alternated between the two, depending on what I had on hand). Let the oil sit for fifteen minutes or so, and then go back for your day's leg workout. It reminded me of volleyball practice in high school, where we would have to run up and down the court pushing a towel-wrapped two-by-four along the ground? Bottom up in the air, hands and feet on the floor? Torture. And I did it with my feet wrapped in plastic bags. Really fun stuff. You can walk on a newly oiled floor in bare feet within a few hours, but it takes at least a week to harden up enough for the kind of abuse that heeled shoes or scraping chairs might bring.

There are a few scrapes and scratches under Brynn's desk already (I have no idea what she's been doing down there) but they will go away with a new coat of tung oil. The great thing about a tung oil finish (at least, a 100% tung oil finish) is that it doesn't require re-sanding before finishing it again. Every few years, it requires a coat or two or three of tung oil to keep it in tip-top shape, or so I've read. I guess we shall see.

Tomorrow: the furniture.

To be filed under the category of, "Why the heck not?"

2010-12-01T23:15:00.003-07:00

Latkes (wait, ORGANIC latkes) frying on my stove tonight.

"Because we have too many potatoes? And I'm an opportunistic celebrator? Or is it equal-opportunity celebrator?"

Those are a few of the thoughts I had tonight when Scott asked me, "Why are we celebrating Hanukkah? And how do you know so much about it, anyway?"

He asked me that shortly after I'd given the girls a detailed description of the Festival of Lights during dinner. Our dinner of freshly fried latkes.

We ate our latkes (and drank our hard-won Venetucci Pumpkin Ale, which was actually given to us by a Jewish friend) while discussing the differences between Hebrew and Yiddish. Hebrew and Yiddish are really not as similar as I thought (which I found out care of Wikipedia).

The girls weren't big fans of the latkes. Actually, Callie wasn't a fan. Neither kid liked the butternut squash casserole that I threw together to go with the latkes. But they both ate the applesauce and sour cream latke garnishes. Kind of like the Jewish version of ketchup, maybe?

So, why did we celebrate the first night of Hanukkah tonight? Even though we are Christians? Well...it really did start with the over-abundance of potatoes sitting in my pantry. I needed to do something with them and Hanukkah happened to come at a convenient time. I grew up eating latkes and playing with dradles during elementary school, and singing Hanukkah songs along side Christmas carols for school performances. It actually seemed pretty natural to me.

And then, when I reasearched Hanukkah to get a reminder of what it was all about (I couldn't remember much more than the Jews celebrating because they had enough lamp oil to last them eight days), I was inspired.

Here is my very uniformed understanding of it. Hanukkah came about at a time when the Jews were being persecuted by the Greeks for their religious beliefs. Their temple had been desecrated time and time again by the Greeks, including slaughtering pigs at the altar. The Jews were eventually able to revolt successfully against the Greeks and re-dedicate their temple. However, they only had enough consecrated lamp oil left to last them one day, but it would take a week to make and consecrate new lamp oil and they had to keep a flame burning every night in the temple.

The rest of the story, you probably already know. The oil that was only supposed to last one day ended up lasting eight days, exactly how long it took to make and consecrate new oil.

I don't know, I guess things just have a funny way of working out when God is involved, right? Five loaves and two fish feed thousands of people. Manna from heaven. Water that turns into wine. Daniel spared from the Lions.

Jesus, God's son, being born a little human to a teenage virgin.

God works miracles. So, when given a chance to celebrate one of those miracles, I'm going to do it.

Sometimes it just takes an oversupply of potatoes to get me in the mood.

Overheard around the Christmas tree

2010-11-27T16:45:00.004-07:00

Hill: When are the lights going to turn on on the tree?
Scott: I set the timer for 4:30.
Hill: Brynn, did you mess with the timer when you were under there?
Brynn: No, I didn't touch it. But you should check it just in case.

Birthday cannoli

2010-11-22T14:59:00.005-07:00

Cannoli followed closely by a Strongbow Cider. Not meant to be consumed together, but perfect birthday treats anyway. Even at 10am.

My dog looks just like your dog! Except...

2010-11-19T08:25:00.007-07:00

Libbie guarding her latest treasure, a deer foreleg.
See the hoof? Her wolf ancestors would be so proud.

Libbie walks to school with the girls and me every day. And back again to pick them up in the afternoon. Consequently, she knows most of the kids at school and they all love her. They fall all over her, rub her tummy, kiss her nose...all while she is keeping a vigilant eye out for her prey. Bunnies and squirrels, of course.

This morning on our way home from school, we ran into a boy who, while petting Libbie, said, "She looks just like my dog! Except she's not as wild."

"Oh, really?" I asked. "Does your dog have a curly tail, too?" I believe Libbie's tail is her most distinctive, and comical, feature.

"No," he replied. "Actually, my dog is a Golden Retriever."

Ooooh, right. I see the resemblance.

Bribery? Or fair compensation?

2010-11-15T08:23:00.004-07:00

This weekend I decided I was tired of being up to my knees in dead leaves, so it was time to get the girls on the job of raking and bagging all those leaves. These are girls who generally enjoy helping out, but can also throw a hideous fit when asked to hang up their clean clothes. So I didn't really know what to expect. They knew the job needed to be done by the end of the day Sunday, and (predictably) they put off doing it all day Saturday because it was "tooooo cold outside!"

Sunday rolled around and we still had all those Cottonwood and Aspen leaves burrowing themselves under my shrubs and perennials, so I reminded them again. Their response was unenthusiastic. Until the subject of payment (or bribery?) came up.

You see, we had been at their final race (they've been running in a series of four races this fall) and on the way home we passed Jack in the Box (or, to me and my high school friends, Jack in the Crack). Scott was hankering for some Two-Tacos-for-99-Cents. The girls both ordered salads (I love my children) and Scott ordered 5 Two-Tacos. For all of us to share. During the Bronco game. Because, you know we don't normally eat fast food, right?

Anyway, we got home and the girls ate their salads but smelled the tacos. Brynn asked for two. We gave her one. Callie asked for one. She wolfed it down like it was...fast food. There was one taco remaining and both girls wanted it. You can see where this is going, right?

"Go get those leaves raked up and in the garbage and I'll pay you each with half a taco." Whew! You'd think I had offered them $20 each to take care of those leaves. I left to run some errands and when I came back, I was shocked to see that the girls had almost finished their task. I raked up a few more piles for them, shoved Callie into the leaf garbage can a few times to pack the leaves down, and within half an hour, they were done! With good attitudes (for the most part)! And totally thrilled to receive half a Jack in the Box taco as payment!

The lesson? In our family, food speaks more loudly than money. Not such a surprise, I guess.

While I'm stripping...

2010-11-10T16:35:00.005-07:00

stripping my FURNITURE, that is, let me show you what I've been up to today.

I started the day trying to build this gorgeous chair, plans courtesy of Ana White. The back legs proved to be more difficult to cut than we could manage (our circular saw doesn't turn and the jigsaw blade wasn't long enough to get through the wood -- I think I need the bandsaw I used in 7th grade wood shop). After wasting a good hour sanding the legs to try to get them into the right shape, I gave up and threw the chair in the trash. Instead of building, I cleaned the inches of sawdust from the garage floor and then ran to the Goodwill store where I found these little gems:

When it's clear you can't build a chair, buy one. For $11.99, it doesn't matter if it isn't what you were imagining or if it's a bit too big. Just strip it, paint it, re-upholster the seat, and forget about the first chair. The paint/stain stripper is working its magic as I type.

At Goodwill I also found lavender linens for about $3 each. These will come in handy as I sew cushions, pillows, and window treatments. Pre-shrunk and soft.

A big corkboard. That's a good thing to have in an adolescent's room, yes? Thinking about ways to dress it up.

And these...as you'll see in a minute, I kind of have a problem with jars. I couldn't resist these old mason jars. Even though I have no idea what I'll do with them. Ideas are welcome. :) They're so old, they even have a few bubbles in the glass.

And, a cool frame. I don't know what I'm going to put in it, or what I'm going to do with it (paint it? leave it? something else?), but at $3, I couldn't resist.

And here's some building I've been doing.

First, a small book rack to hang on the wall above Brynn's reading nook.

And this fun shelf to hang near the desk. These re-purposed jars will store pencils, markers, crayons, erasers...but they're not even close to as cool as those old mason jars.

While I was at Goodwill I also scored two Crate & Barrel serving bowls and a matching serving tray. For $4 each. Love that.

As I've been typing, the paint stripper has been working. Here is that chair now:

Brynn thinks it's a closet

2010-11-06T17:40:00.004-06:00

Clearly, this structure is on its way to being a lofted reading nook, though. I'm sure you can see that, right? The frame is done. It needs cleats and a platform on top and the desk and chair underneath. Oh, and a ladder, of course. And it is disassemble-able for easy in and out of the house. Hopefully this will satisfy Brynn's desire to cozy up in a nest while she reads.

Spices in bulk

2010-11-03T16:30:00.010-06:00

My new spice jars.

When we moved to the Springs about six years ago, I started shopping at Whole Foods. I love Whole Foods. I love their 365 products. I love that their owner is a Libertarian. I love their concentration on local food. I love that I can get organic, local milk there. Contrary to conventional wisdom, I don't think that Whole Foods is too expensive (don't buy cheap, just buy less, right?). I guess that if you shop at Whole Foods regularly, it is important to stay out of the prepared foods section. That could bankrupt you, but ooooooh, does it taste good!

One of my very favorite parts of shopping at Whole Foods is their bulk section. Quinoa, honey, maple syrup, barley, whole wheat flour, pastry flour, oat flour, rice flour, pasta, veggie chips, chocolate chips, carob chips, dried fruit...if it is available in bulk, Whole Foods probably sells it. Compared to buying prepackaged pantry items, the bulk stuff is usually cheaper. And, best of all, Whole Foods sells spices in bulk and they are cheeeeaaaap. When I discovered bulk spices, my shopping habits changed.

I don't go through a ton of spices, but I do use a wide variety of spices and I can't stomach paying $2.50-$6.00 per bottle of spices when I only use a few tablespoons per year. Not to mention the waste involved in packaging spices. Glass bottles, plastic bottles, plastic tops. The packaging itself is wasteful and the weight of the packaging leads to more burning of fossil fuels for transporting the spices.

The waste from bulk spices -- small ziplock bags. I've been known to wash them and reuse them in my kids' lunches. This works with everything but curry powder and tumeric. The kids don't appreciate having their rasins packaged in a bag that previously held curry powder. :)

So, when we remodeled our kitchen a few years ago, my spice solution was to get a very wide, shallow spice drawer where I could put lots of shallow, flat containers of spices. I bought round tin containers with clear tops from Specialty Bottle online and clear printable labels from Online Labels and filled the containers with my bulk spices. This system worked perfectly...until we moved to Mexico. There, the humid air penetrated the tins and made most of the spices moldy. Blech. So I tossed the spices, washed the rusting tins and left them at the girls' school to use in the classroom.

Today I finally replaced all those spices, and the containers, too. This time I chose clear glass jars with plastic screwtops. If we ever live in a humid climate again (please, no more humidity!), my spices should be safe, yes?

While I waited for new tires to be installed on my car today, I picked up a new stash of bulk spices. I still can't get over how cheap spices are when you buy in bulk. Here is what I paid to fill each of my four ounce spice jars today:

Fennel whole -- $0.54
Cumin whole -- 0.47
Curry powder -- 0.98
Coriander seed -- 0.54
Caraway seed -- 0.57
Lemon pepper -- 1.92
Cumin ground -- 0.40
Applewood Smoked Sea Salt -- 3.24 ($18.39/lb)
Allspice ground -- 1.84
Peppercorns whole -- 2.25
Mustard seed -- 1.08
Tumeric -- 0.55
Chipotle powder -- 1.66
Rosemary -- 0.28
Paprika -- 2.15
Pepper ground -- 1.40

I would estimate that I saved an average of $3 per spice today, which adds up to a whopping $48. If you look at the list closely, you'll notice some of the "normal" spices are missing. I've got thyme, oregano, basil, garlic powder, home-mixed pumpkin pie spice, chili powder, ground ginger etc. in my drawer already. Today was a day for rounding out my spice collection.

So, it turns out that waiting for my tires to be installed was more fruitful than I thought it would be. Now I've got two new tires AND a drawer full of fresh spices.

Meanwhile, back in the garage...

2010-11-02T23:08:00.003-06:00

I'm still working on Brynn's new floor (tung oil finishes are not known for being fast), but I'm also getting back to building. Yesterday I cut the wood for these two new bookcases, and today I put them together. It took me about two hours to cut the wood and five hours to build them. Tomorrow I'm going to try to figure out a solution for making the tops look prettier (cove molding and an overhanging edge?) and I'll start sanding and filling the holes. Then these babies will sit in the garage until all the rest of the furniture is ready for paint!

The design for these bookcases came from Ana White's website. The thing I love about them is the dividers -- I love the idea of having cubes for Brynn's books instead of just straight shelves. She has a hard time keeping her books looking decent, and I think this will help. Plus, I can fill a few of the empty cubbies with canvas baskets to hide some of her...er...stuff.

Sisters on Halloween

2010-11-01T08:28:00.002-06:00

Fancy Nancy and a Ballerina Fairy ready to tackle the neighborhood. Together.

Citrus Solvents. Did you know?

2010-10-25T09:17:00.003-06:00

The new floor is in! With a few hours of work on Friday, several on Saturday, and a few yesterday, Scott and I managed to get the whole floor down and I love the way it looks. It is 4-inch wide utility-grade oak from Lumber Liquidators. Lots of color variation and knot-holes (which I am planning to fill with an ebony colored wood filler called Timermate in order to match the dark color of the wood around the holes). The floor looks rustic. Like wood. Which is what it is, after all, right?

I was originally planning to paint the floor white or stain it white to keep the room light and bright and because I knew the oak floors wouldn't go so well with my old pine sleigh bed, which is what Brynn sleeps on now. But, I'm so in love with the floors I think that the bed is going white instead. Let me know what you think about that. I'm a fan of painted cottage floors but I'm not sure I can do it to this floor.

In debating the floor finish with...um, myself, I've been putting in some serious time on Google. I'm looking for a non-toxic (or less-toxic) approach to finishing Brynn's floor. One that will still look good. That part is important. Water-based stains raise the grain of the wood, which is not thrilling to me. Oil-based stains are smelly and hard to clean up. Or so I thought.

So in my research I started learning about tung oil. It is arguably the oldest and least-toxic way to preserve a floor (and smells like the oil we used to use to work in my softball mitts). Tung oil is only non-toxic if you can apply it without the use of mineral spirits as a thinner. Ahhh, but therein lies the problem. In modern times, we've turned to solvents like mineral spirits to dilute tung oil by half to make it penetrate the wood better and dry faster. But mineral spirits aren't exactly non-toxic.

The current alternative to mineral spirits appears to be orange oil. Like, in Goo-Gone. There is actually a kind of orange oil solvent, called Citrus Solvents, that is 98% orange oil with 2% water emulsified into the orange oil. It is used as a non-toxic, eco-friendly thinner for tung oil, but also as a general cleaning agent, goop-remover, brush cleaner, and thinner for oil-based paints and stains. Of course, the big box stores like Home Depot and Lowes don't carry this special stuff (although they do carry lots of bogus orange oil products). Woodcraft doesn't carry Citrus Solvents either. But they do carry pure orange oil which seems to have the same properties as Citrus Solvents. So, yesterday I bought Woodcraft's tung oil and their orange oil and mixed them together and tested some on scraps from Brynn's floor. The oil seemed to penetrate well and dry quickly. I think I've found a way to avoid using mineral spirits on this project!

Now, the issue of color...tung oil alone makes the wood a bit more orange-toned than I think I would like. Of course, the samples aren't totally dry yet, so maybe that will change, but I doubt it.

Here is a photo of a milled barnwood floor that was finished with tung oil. Tell me what you think.

Today and tomorrow I think I will experiment with using a super-thin white or maybe gray stain under the tung oil and see what happens. Wish me luck!