Distractions

Today my littlest started preschool. It will only be 2 mornings for 2 1/2 hours and considering pick-up and drop-off, more like 2 hours alone but this is still more than I've had in almost 6 years. Some mamas might crave this. I thought it was productive yet all too quiet. I wanted to stop and watch the forklift at the hardware store but realized I didn't have a little buddy to watch with me. With both my boys starting school within 2 weeks of each other it's been a big adjustment.

So instead of crying and wallowing, I figured I'd fill my time with projects to distract myself from the silence. Day 1 project was: project under kitchen sink. It turned out just as I wanted! My mom would be so proud. :)

Sweet Boy

So much has been going through my mind the past year regarding my big boy. Because of our infertility problems, I have found myself wanting to stop his growth and maturity perhaps more than most other parents. I remember my father-in-law talking about parents that cry when their first-born goes to preschool or Kindergarten and how he thought it was ridiculous because they should be happy they're growing and progressing and that is the point of life. I nodded in agreement at the time. My, how things have changed.

I love that my boys play and imagine all morning long together. I love that we eat lunch together, often outside, enjoying our conversation about what trucks are strongest, what cars are fastest, and who was eating their lunch the best. The other day he said, "Mama, did you know that grasshoppers are plant-eaters and are very destructive, eating everything in their path?" quoting his encyclopedia book. In the past few months he has changed so much: learning to read, swapping his naptime for quiet time, learning to swim with his face in and arms and legs moving, and outgrowing all his church pants.

It is a double-edge sword because while I love seeing him learning and his mind blossoming, I find myself craving his little 8-pound self. We watch movie clips of when he learned to walk, when L was born and he met his best friend, his first day of preschool, and I find my heart overflowing with pride, contentment, fear, and the strong desire to keep him home in his innocent sweet state forever.

I considered homeschooling for kindergarten because I couldn't bear my little 5-year old going to school for 7.5 hours every day with only 20-minutes to run and play; I couldn't bear having one seat empty at our lunch picnic every day; I couldn't bear having kids make fun of him. Yet at the same time I saw his eager eyes excited to meet new friends and try things on his own so I decided to send him. The day the teacher letters came gave me such relief: he got the teacher that we heard so many great things about and would be with our neighbor, the sweetest little playmate ever.

We went a few days ago for his 5-year checkup and our amazing pediatrician casually conversed with him as she discovered his developmental progress. "What do you want to be when you grow up?" she asked. "Um.... a zookeeper," was his response. "And what do you like to play with?" "Hm... I like hide-and-go-seek. That's pretty much it." "Do you like to play pretend?" "No, not exactly." Then I interjected with, "Oh. Tell her about the volcano you found in our living room yesterday." He then proceeded to tell her of the maps they drew and the volcano they found and she smiled, nodded, and continued typing her notes about him. This went on for about 15 minutes and as I observed and chuckled, I realized he is ready. No matter how much I want him to stay my baby, he is ready. No matter how I wish I could snuggle him and keep him in my grasp forever, he is ready. And no matter how much L and I will cry when we realize for the 50th time that day that he's not here, he is ready. Ready or not, here he comes.

Mending Days

We are currently on day 7 of L's stomach virus. Yesterday he was finally able to keep down 1 oz of pedialyte without immediately throwing it up. Hallelujah! But with all this home time it did give me the chance to make a dent in my mending pile. Now Boozle's pants drawer has more than 1 pair of jeans and various track/sweat pants. I found this tutorial and loved the look of it more than a traditional patch.

One tip: green thread looks rather like a grass stain from far away...

Roman shade lessons

The moulding in our new/ancient house is all original to the house, including original color (i.e. never been painted). While my modern aesthetic yearns to paint it, the history and cost have prohibited us from doing so. In the main living spaces we've made it work by using light greige almost white paint and using color in accessories but in the bedrooms it just felt so dark. So I decided to make light roman shades for the boys' room and to make them outside-mount to cover most of the trim. It was quite the project. Every tutorial I read said it was a cinch and maybe if you have an ideal sewing room/workspace, lots of free time, and sew a lot it would be, but for me it took many evenings. I love how it turned out though and that's all that matters, amiright?

Mostly I used this tutorial and thought it was fabulous but I did end up using velcro up on the mounter board instead of more eye rings for ease. So far it's holding up great.

Here are some of the lessons I learned while constructing:
1. It's very hard to cut a perfectly straight line when it involves fabric pieces bigger than 4"x4".

2. Use a huge workspace. Otherwise it's nearly impossible to fudge your not-perfectly-straight lines to match up.
3. So much measuring to so little sewing. Very tedious.

4. When marking for dowel placement, start measuring and marking from the bottom. (unless you like to erase many errant pencil lines)

5. Hand sewing the rings after a long horrible day is therapeutic. (it also means you're almost done!)
6. If using a cord clamp, install before the shade and header board are hung.

Friday

Here are a few more updates with some more details. This is how it looked on Friday:

This is the the view standing in the new laundry room and looking into the new mudroom. They closed off the old window, put the new door in which is 3/4 windows so lots of light!

This is the sewer pipe in the basement which may seem unimportant to some but the previous pipe was most likely from when plumbing was first invented and had a hole plugged with a clothespin! It was on its last leg and the plumber replaced all the plumbing in the whole house in one single day.

Here you can see the new sewage pipe connecting to a piece of the old. Quite a difference.

This is the view from the laundry room and into the new bathroom. Next to that new window will be a pocket door closing off the bathroom and to the right of the laundry plumbing will be a 30" closet/cabinet.

This is the new bathroom and the new plumbing in the corner. Amazed and thrilled at how quickly it's all coming together.

Framing!

First update in photos of many.

It's Begun!

It's been over a month since we closed on the new house and since then, T has been very busy every single evening ripping up flooring, taking down wallpaper (with huge help from Jim & Deana!), demolishing plaster, repairing cracks, etc... After all that, today was the big day and the contractors started working. I can't wait to get over there and see what they got done today. They said they should be ready for inspections by Monday so it's really happening! Hard to believe. I'm the spending committee and so far I've bought a vanity, a kitchen, all the appliances, a shower, faucets, and more. Today I ordered the flooring for the mudroom/laundry room as well as for the bathroom and we're excited about what we went with.

For the mudroom/laundry room we decided on honed travertine tile. It's gorgeous! Then for the bathroom we looked at many many options but decided on the classic 1" hex carrara marble tile. Also gorgeous. And last night I started packing up our house so it's starting to feel official. Hard to believe that in 3ish weeks, we will no longer live here. Such good memories here but we're excited for the next phase!