Latest Project

Since the cleaning bug hit, I've rearranged my room, turned the Ball jars into candles, sewed valences for my windows and bought tension bars (one of which I've broken already.) After sewing the curtains, I decided I didn't like how it looked with the tension rod so I went back to the drawing board. Last night I stopped at Jo-Ann Fabrics and picked up 6 unfinished wooden birdhouses. I gave them a multi-colored base coat, a thin layer of crackle paint and a top coat of white paint. The colors underneath show through the cracks, but overall the birdhouses are white. I'm going to put one at each top corner of the windows in my room, then drape the valences over them. Here are the birdhouses...I'll post what they look like in my bedroom when I get everything done later tonight:

 

Dork Alert

Notice anything wrong with this picture?

Yep, I went to work like this today. Didn't even realize it until 2 p.m. Went to the grocery store like this, TJMaxx, gas station...totally oblivious. Gonna send this to my doc and tell her I think I might need stronger medicine! Haha.

Fresh Cuttings

From Our Yard

My Girl

My girl is growing up. I can't believe the difference in just the few weeks since I last saw her. She's talking up a storm, understands pretty much everything I say to her, has the cutest little personality that just bubbles over and is FINALLY saying my name. I'm "Tee." That is the part that comes out when you ask her to say "Auntie." So last night it was "Tee" this and "Tee" that. I think she figured out that if she said my name in her sweet little voice, she'd get whatever she wanted :-) Theo-boy is a doll baby, too, but I couldn't get any pictures of him yesterday. Every one I took was either blurry or he wasn't looking at the camera. So this post will be about Baby Girl, I guess. She woke from her nap first, so we did her nails before Bubba woke up. (BTW, Auntie chose her clothes and did her hair! I found the clothes Momma set out for her after she was already dressed. I love piggy-tails on little girls and she sat so still while I played with her. My own live doll!) We painted our nails the same color and put white dot-dots over the blue polish. I painted flowers on MJs thumbs and my toes. Look at her, sitting so nice and still.

Showing me her nails. See how they match her outfit?

Blowing bubbles

Coloring a picture for Auntie

Putting together a puzzle while Bubba swings contentedly in the background

Counting to ten

My beautiful nail art

I read this on a Savvy Auntie website:

All the ways that aunties interact with their young "nieces and nephews":  playing alongside them, reading to them, baking cookies with them, playing ball outdoors, even bathing them or changing that dirty diaper — can be critical to their cognitive, social, and emotional development and future academic successes. Whether or not we realize it, we’re teaching them language, science, math, and social skills simply through play. In fact aunties (uncles, grandparents) may be one of the few adults in a child's life who can provide that playful early education because our visits are set aside to spend uninterrupted time doing just that. And the best part is that it works whether or not we realize it. They know they are safe with us, physically and emotionally, and that we will always do our best to inspire them to be their best. It must be added that the way they run toward us, jumping up and down with excitement, when we come to visit them is the very best feeling on earth.

Funny Sayings

Since I spend the majority of my time with ESL kids, I get asked for clarification about lots of different things. Here are some things we say all the time that you can imagine are quite confusing for someone just learning our language:

Make no bones about it
Mind your p's and q's
Cry wolf
Fly the coop
Down to the wire
Head in the clouds
Clean as a whistle
By the seat of your pants
In the nick of time
Spitting image
Your name is mud
Spill the beans
Raining cats and dogs
Missed the boat
Throw in the towel
Bee in your bonnet
Get your goat
Beat around the bush
Turn over a new leaf
Chip on your shoulder

There are so many more...I'll make another list later if I remember.

Curtains and Candles

I wanted to make valences for my bedroom windows but decided I am not a fan of how they turned out. It looks like something out of Country Living Magazine. I feel like I'm living in a farmhouse - which is not a bad thing - just not the look I'm going for. I already have the material, so I'll probably finish the valences for the other two larger windows but as soon as I have time I'm going to do some more work and experiment with simple white material. I already have another idea. Much better. MomMA will hate it because it involves the wavy bleached wood pieces I used in my old apartment bedroom.

I also brought back old blue Ball canning jars that were in Gram's garage. I filled the bottom with white sand and seashells and added glass votives. They are really pretty and remind me of my grandma. I miss her. The pictures aren't great. I had to take them with my phone because my camera battery needs charged. I will try to get better ones when my room is finished.

Dear Toby

So, I wasn't excited about the decision to get you. You are a dog. A little dog. You yap. You have hair. You have skin so you have dandruff. You pee and poop in front of people. You lick your butt and then in your excitement will try to lick my face. You have your own odor. You will live in a carpeted house. Your hair and your smell will become part of the carpet. You will take time and attention and training. You will tie down my momMA. It will be like she has a child to work around and she was my only friend who didn't have that responsibility. I will constantly be thinking about the fact that your breath is floating in the air I breathe. Your hair and germs will be on my skin. Small dog owners are strange (except for you, Megan). I can see the WA parents being one of those couples who takes you everywhere and expect you to be treated like a family member. I resorted to drugs for anxiety. It's not that I haven't been around dogs before. I had my beloved Chessie growing up. I couldn't have asked for a better pet. I have a rat, birds and fish in my own house. There are plenty of animal germs and feathers floating around but momMA's house was different. It was clean. It was quiet. It smells good...ALL. THE. TIME. It was a haven where I didn't have to think or try to compartmentalize dirt and mess. It was home and peace, whose value -- for this misfiring, rapid, tumultuous, chaotic brain -- can not be underestimated.

Then, I started thinking about you...so little. Black...so black it's hard to know if you are looking at us...according to momMA. You've been taken away from your momma. You jump at painted toenails. You have your own little personality. You will bring happiness to my WA parents. You will be a companion, loyal and loving, even when your people don't always behave. I will see you and you will worm your way into my heart. You will have me wrapped around your little paw, just like Sadie and Daisy. You might get sick. You might even die before I think you should. My heart will hurt. I will be angry that I allowed myself to love a dog. I sobbed through Marley & Me and that was just a movie. I refuse to watch Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, Homeward Bound, Lassie, Fox and Hound, Bambi, Dumbo...any movie that has anything to do with animals that might get hurt, sick or die. I've had five fish. Fish have a short life span. Every time one dies, I cry. 

So, here you come. You are on your way into my life. I can't avoid you. Well, I could but that would be living a closed, small life. You have caused a lot of turmoil. You have dredged up a lot of obsessive-compulsive thinking. You have created conflict. You were also the trigger that finally made me get help. I have been slowly regaining control of my thoughts. My brain is quieting down. I am able to focus. I am getting things done. I am taking small steps toward talking to God. You are intended for WA Dad but I have an idea God's intentions might be more complex. No, I wasn't excited about the decision to get you but you might turn out to be one of the best things to come my way.