Gallery Wall April 19, 2012

I have seen and pinned so many beautiful examples of gallery walls that I decided to attempt my own in our stairwell. I stockpiled a bunch of frames and canvases I already owned and laid them out in a configuration that made sense on the floor, then started nailing them up on the wall. Most of them haven’t been filled with our own photos yet, and I need to paint the green ones a different color (or neutral), so someday I might post an “after” picture of this, too. It’s a start!

Since this photo was taken those patched portions have been re-painted, and I have some more things to hang, too.

Have you ever done a gallery wall? Or seen some ones online that you like?

Family Room Before-and-After April 18, 2012

This room was a LOT of work. It was very 1970s when we bought it. We thought about just painting over the paneling, but it was very grooved and porous and wouldn’t have worked well, so….

Before:

After:

The List:

• Took down ugly curtain thingy and patched the holes
• Painted ceiling
• Painted walls
• Painted and installed new wainscoting (ended up having to have that professionally sprayed…long story!), baseboards and trim
• Painted the top of the ledge around the room
• Installed new vent covers
• Installed new outlets, outlet covers and switch-plate covers, as well as door knobs
• Painted (professionally) and installed new doors
• Had some strong friends help us move the piano from our old place to here (thanks, Strong Friends!)

We didn’t really get to finish this room until after we had moved in because we used it as a main place to paint the trim we used in the rest of the house. It is SO nice to have a family room space to keep the TV (it used to be in a 3rd bedroom/office where only 2 or 3 people could watch at once). Having the couch in the middle of the room also creates a nice little “track” for the kids to run around during the long winter months. Gotta burn off all that energy somehow, right?

I still haven’t figured out what I’m putting on the mantel or some of the other walls, but it’s a work in progress.

Kitchen & Dining Before-and-After April 17, 2012

Though I didn’t get most of these shots from a similar angle, you can still kind of see what went on here. This is before spring cleaning the dining and kitchen area, too, so ignore the clutter you see on the kitchen counters.

Before:

After:

The List:

• Took out light fixtures and re-wired (It was a MESS in there! So thankful for my father-in-law’s skills. He was surprised the house was still standing with how fried the wires were.)
• Mudded walls that were not smooth
• Tore out linoleum and installed engineered hardwood floors
• Painted the walls
• Painted the ceilings
• Purchased and installed new light fixtures
• Bought a new fridge (thanks, Mom! The old one was a side-by-side, and when you opened the freezer door you could barely get anything in or out of it.)
• Painted and installed new baseboards and trim
• Took down the old curtains and installed new rods and curtains
• Installed new outlets, outlet covers and switch-plate covers
• Thrifted some letters for the “Rejoice” sign…I hope to hang some mis-matched plates and/or platters around it once I find enough to make it worthwhile

Living Room Before-and-After April 16, 2012

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything about the new house…mostly because this year has been one project after another. I took the month of March off for my business and did some spring purging and cleaning (thanks, Tsh! I still use your e-book!), and though I haven’t finished all the rooms yet, I don’t think I’ll ever get photos up if I wait until they are completely “finished.” So this week will include some before-and-after shots. Hooray!

Before:

After:

Just for reference here are two posts about the projects we did in the 6 months leading up to our move. It was a lot of work (thanks mostly to Husband and my father-in-law!), and there’s much left to do, but what I’m learning with home ownership is that there is always something to do. A list of what we did in the living room:

• Tore out trim and found mold
• Chunked out the wall and the floor and replaced dry wall and floor, then mudded and re-laid the carpet (thanks, Dustin!)
• Mudded more of the walls that were not smooth
• Painted the walls
• Built up a portion of the window sill where it didn’t match up with new trim and stained it
• Re-built the railings on the balustrade and installed a new handrail, stripped and stained the newel post (the old railings were so far apart the kids could get their bodies through them–NOT SAFE!)
• Painted the ceilings
• Painted and installed new baseboards and trim
• Bought a new couch
• Took down the old curtains and installed new rods and sewed together some IKEA curtains
• Cut old vent covers to fit
• Installed new outlets, outlet covers and switch-plate covers

There might be more I can’t remember…

Markus, 27 months April 13, 2012

Ah, how the milestones creep up on us! Markus, at 27 months, you:

• Can deliver a pretty solid joke. You make us laugh so much!
• Have been potty trained for 2 weeks. We took a 3-day boot camp approach, and you did SO WELL! We are very proud of you. You transitioned from the potty chair to the big potty yesterday without so much as skipping a beat. I love that you are so game for trying new things (at least, when they aren’t food…).
• Like to yell. You and Anja sometimes have screaming matches, most commonly in the car. Mom turns the music up loud.
• Have memorized several Bible verses. It is so precious to hear the Word of God coming out of your mouth (hopefully as it is being written on your heart).
• Call yourself a “Big Daddy” all the time. You used to argue with us calling you anything but a boy (“No! Markus is a BOY!”), but it has changed to “No, Markus is a Big Daddy!” Eeeek.
• Can climb like nobody’s business. Even though you aren’t that up-to-speed with most gross motor activity, you use your noggin as a climbing counterweight excellently.
• Have started eating more green things. We have a secret: ketchup. It makes salad disappear. Sad, but true! Though you did eat some of my homemade dressing the other day and declared it yummy.
• Are starting to engage in creative story-telling with your toys. Your cars and trucks become “friends” and have little conversations. I doubt you’ll be telling elaborate tales like Anja anytime soon, but even your short story lines are fascinating to me.
• Are thus far not athletically inclined. You can’t catch worth a hoot no matter how many times we play, but I’m not giving up!
• Gave up your pacifiers shortly after turning two. We put them in a baggy and gave them to the clerk at Target to “buy” your new stuffed elephant, which you quickly dubbed “Warthog.” Warthog the elephant, it’s true.
• Are taking shorter naps in the afternoon due to getting rid of the pacifier, but you still sleep a good 2 to 3 hours each day. Can’t complain!
• Love it when your sister includes you in her play, but you definitely aren’t one to be a doormat if you don’t like what she asks you to do. Since you’re so tiny, I’m glad you’re learning to stand up for yourself a bit.
• Need a lot of attention. We think your love language may one day be quality time. Two commonly used phrases, “LISTEN to me, Mama” and “LOOK at me, Daddy”!
• Transitioned to a toddler bed since you were climbing out of your crib an average of 12 times a day/night anyway. It’s been pretty good, though sometimes you and Sissy get into trouble together since you still share a room.
• Love being outside! You don’t care what the thermometer says; you simply want to get out. the. door. as fast as possible.
• Think you’re a super hero. Even though you have no idea who Batman or Spiderman are, you go zooming around the house in your blue cape, dubbing yourself “Super-Boy” or “Super-Markus.” You can rescue me any day.
• Picked up the very polite phrase “May I” from somewhere. Daddy and I don’t use it very often (shame on us!), but we think it’s adorable that you do. Keep it up.
• Are tiny. Not uber-tiny, but quite short and round. You are still wearing mostly 18-month pants, though you’re finally growing too tall for some of them. Hooray! But your chunky thighs are still fair game for squeezing, thank goodness.
• Are quite attached to your hammer and saw. You’ve actually been brought to tears a couple of times when you couldn’t actually help with one of Daddy’s projects. We ask you to “fix” things all the time just so you can pound and saw and feel useful. Again, adorable.
• Have begun copying your sister’s sassy phrases. We don’t like them any better coming out of your mouth.
• Continue to be quite verbal. And you still mostly talk in the 3rd person. Love it. Here’s a conversation we had at snack the other day…
  You: “When Markus is big, he will have a wallet and put it in his pocket and drive a truck all the way to Grandma Pam’s house and go to Culver’s?”
  Me: “All by yourself?”
  You: “Yes, without Mommy and Anja.”

We love you, our funny, precocious, big-noggined boy!

Baby Fix March 8, 2012

Markus is over two, and my biological clock is ticking, but since we don’t have any plans for a baby in the near future, I borrow my friends’ babies to get my fix. Can’t say the kids mind, either!

The Rainbow Game March 7, 2012

What do you do when you have some colorful paper and a long-ish morning with the kids? Make up a game, of course!

I cut a bunch of 1″ strips of paper and glued a “rainbow” of them onto 3 white pieces of paper, labeling the colors because I want Anja to start identifying written words with everything.

I grabbed the nearest receptacle, which happened to be a paper bag, and tossed the rest of the scraps in. We took turns drawing paper strips out until someone covered all their colors and completed their rainbow. Anja got frustrated that a couple of her colors had a stack of strips five high and she wasn’t drawing the color she wanted, but it’s a lesson learned in patience, right? Both kids loved it, and it was a nice little departure from our usual Candyland-Go Fish-Memory-Hi Ho Cherrio routine.

I was surprised how well Markus did with this, neatly stacking his colored pieces on top of the correct color. He knows all his colors and has for some time, but the fact that he was able to get them pretty much lined up made me very happy for him.

Winter March 6, 2012

Winter waited until the end of February to show up this year. And now it’s supposed to be in the high 40s/low 50s all week, melting the rest of the snow. Can’t say I mind, but those brand new snowpants I bought in November for the kids? They got used 3 times total all winter. Hopefully they’ll still fit next year. Fat chance!

Anja, 4 1/2 March 1, 2012

Four and a half, you are much less dramatic than 3 and a half. You still have your share of fits and screams, but me oh my you are much more bearable.

Anja, at four and a half, you:

• Like to draw. We’re fairly certain you skipped many developmental stages, going from scribbles-only to drawing people and animals with all their parts. Sherman “drew” me the doggie on a napkin below along with his name and you delivered it. As far as I can tell it has six legs. So sweet.
• Like taking care of your babies. Sherman has slipped to #2 in the ranks behind your soft baby doll Malia. She goes everywhere with you and doesn’t miss a thing.
• Enjoy dressing up, especially in princess dresses.
• Still get out of bed 4,967 times each night before falling asleep. Discipline matters very little to you when it comes to bedtime.
• Are starting to allow your brother to play with you. As long as you get to lead in the type of activities you do, you’re okay with him tagging along (usually). We’ll see how long this lasts. I’m pretty sure with my little brother it lasted a couple years, but your little brother is more strong-willed than mine was.
• Are becoming more responsible, willing to do your chores when asked and helping direct your brother when needed. Sometimes you take this role a bit too seriously and his actual parents need to step in, but we appreciate the help on occasion.
• Are becoming more responsive to correction. We don’t have to discipline quite as often as we used to. I don’t miss it one bit!
• Are exhibiting compassion on different levels. I love to see you emotionally develop, learning to put others first and understand their feelings. It’s the sweetest thing when you give Markus turns before yourself just because you know it is the kind thing to do.
• Are concerned (deeply!) about who you will marry and if you will marry. We have a conversation probably at least monthly, if not more often, about how you have MANY YEARS before this needs to be addressed, but you often have tears over it.
• Love to be outside. Whenever we have fresh snow you ask to go stomp, play and roll in it. Lucky for you your mama likes to play in it, too!
• Continue to have boundless energy. Just when I think you’re winding down for the night you ask to have a dance party or do gymnastics or climb tall things. When did I get so old?
• Are learning to write most of your letters. You figured out a lot of them on your own (so cute!), but you’ve also started doing printing worksheets at preschool.
• Told me that you want to be a singer anda ballerina when you grow up. You’ve wanted to be a ballerina since you were two, but the singer thing is new. And it is to be on a stage, you specified. We don’t even watch American Idol, so I’m not sure where you got this idea, but dreams are okay. We encourage dreaming here.
• Are growing right before my eyes! I want you to grow, of course, but it is hard to see it happen so fast.

Love you so much, my precious girl!

February recap February 22, 2012

This winter has been a little busier work-wise than normal, so this blog, which normally sees much activity in the winter months, has languished.

I long ago gave up hopes of making regular appearances here, but I definitely miss the time I used to have for visiting others’ little spaces on the interwebs.

Here are a few February highlights:

Husband and I got to attend a marriage retreat, which was fabulous and just what we needed. This is at the “dress-up night” banquet.

I’ve had that skirt since high school. It fits a little differently now, but it was nice to get another wear out of it.

Markus transitioned to a toddler bed (since he was climbing out of his crib 10-20 times a day/night anyway, we figured this just made it slightly less dangerous).

Anja and I made a bunch of valentines for her classmates. We used this printable butterfly version.

I made a spur-of-the-moment decision while the kids were napping on V-day to have a tea party as our snack. Nothing too special, but it seems special to them! The cupcake frosting had been frozen, so its texture was a bit iffy, but both kids and Daddy assured me it tasted fine.

We’ve had out the marble run a couple more times. They both enjoy it.

Anja and Daddy went to the Daddy-Daughter dance again this past weekend. She has talked about it–I kid you not–probably weekly since she went last year, describing what a good time it was, so she was stoked to go again. Her hair was too short to do any fancy up-dos this year, but I dug out my old curling iron and was pleased with the results.

Husband wearing a tie twice in one week has never happened before, I don’t think. He’s not a fan, so we appreciate him being such a sport! Markus came out the door after them and decided he needed to be in a picture, too.

She is SO hard to get decent smiles out of right now! I ask for a smile, get some sort of weird face, and then tell her just to keep her face straight. I crack a few jokes, and then I can at least get something genuine-looking, if not “perfection.”

That’s about it so far. How has your month been? I wish I had some great craft, or even some clean house photos, to post, but my crafting has been finger paints and cotton balls and glue and popcorn and rice.