Spring Cleaning and Sleeting

The calendar says "spring," yet it is sleeting.  I suppose March is one of those months that can go either way weather-wise, but it seems that this winter simply won't call it quits.  The past few days, though, have been good for getting work done around the house.  Maybe it's the nesting, but, man,we've done a lot.

Chris is great about doing yard work.  He never complains and is rather proactive.  I always tell him that it can wait, but he does it anyway.  Our shed has a pergola, which looks nice, but it also had all of this... plant? ... growing on it.  In fact, the vine or whatever had gotten so out of control that it rotted the roof of our shed!  We knew when we moved in that we'd need to tackle it our first year here.  Over the past couple of weeks, Chris has been hacking at it by himself.  Then this weekend, my dad gave him an extra hand and got alllll of the growth down in less than an hour!  And next comes repairing the shed....  Oh man....

I've been trying to get the boys' rooms more personalized.  The rooms have been "together" for some time, but they didn't have any pictures on the walls.  To me, pictures are really what adds the final touch to a room.  I had Chris help me find the frames I needed for both Eliot's room and Jack's room.  Then began the fun game of measuring and leveling.  I'm not the best at hanging pictures in a line, but it sure drives me crazy when they're crooked.

I also hung these two pictures above Jack's crib.  I know it looks slanted on the left, but it's just because I didn't take the photo straight.  I have a couple more pictures to hang in Jack's room and then his room will be mostly complete.  We just need to order a cushion for the rocking chair (never got one with Eliot and reallyyyyy regretted it), find a place for Chris's surf board, and eventually buy the bedding for Jack.  Clothes are another story.

Then came the room I have been dreading.  I love to clean, but I am so bad at organizing.  I hate going through boxes of "stuff" that I don't know what to do with.  Chris has been encouraging me, though, that we should just tackle the room over the garage.  It's another "play room" of sorts for Eliot and guest bedroom when we have company (even though we don't have a bed for it...), so it has been easy to ignore over the past three months.  However, we finally did it!  I know this picture is dark (darn sleet) and non-descriptive, but that room used to be full of boxes.  Eventually I'd like to bring more life and function to it, but for now it just rather empty.  I'd like to get a couch of some kind or maybe a daybed for guests; at this point, we're just not looking to spend money on furniture that isn't really necessary.  I know some day it will be Eliot and Jack's video game room.

We recently bought ourselves some new sheets too.  All of our sheets had holes in them thanks to Dexter's puppy gnawing habit when we got him and were discolored.  I guess letting dogs sleep in bed with you kind of wears sheets down faster.  I think we last bought sheets around the time Eliot was born, so we were due.  These sheets were just $20, cheap ones from Target, and although they aren't the most comfortable ever, it really makes a difference to have new sheets.

 

 So, it has been gloomy outside, but we've been making the inside of our home pretty.  My heart is hoping for warmer days so much, in fact, that I bought that summer hammock I've been telling everyone about.  It was on sale half price, so I told Chris it could be my Easter present (not that we exchange Easter presents).  I have to justify everything that I buy for myself.  I will sit in that hammock forever--we're going to hang it under the shed's pergola by pool.  Yessss.

Re-purposing for the Mantel

The other day, I decided to do away with the remaining Christmas decorations.  Really, Katie?  Still?  Yeah, yeah.  The stockings were still up.  After I pulled everything down, I went to put up the old decorations on the mantel.  But I couldn't find them.  What?  I hate to sound incredibly old, but I am becoming more forgetful.  I couldn't find them anywhere.  They were these little boxes of fake grass, which sounds silly, but they worked well to hide where our tv plugged in.

With the mantel looking plenty messy with cords showing, I was a little frantic.  I searched everywhere I could think of, even weird places.  Nothing.  And I didn't want to go buy new ones.  Instead, I decided to "re-purpose" a few things from around the house.  Here is what I came up with.

This is what our mantel used to look like.  Clean.  Simple.  Green.

And here it is now.  In the photo, it looks like a little less simple and "clean," but certainly more interesting and a nice change.

On the left side, I have a terrecata pot (that will eventually hold a mint plant), a jar of corks topped with a bird, an old envelope with a Christmas letter from Christopher's great-grandfather, three Faulkner novels tied together with twine and a little rosemary, and a teacup.

On the right side, I have a teacup, two books (The City of God and Wuthering Heights) topped with an incense burner and a necklace (that will certainly be moved), and an old camera.

Today I did something a little bit daring for me.  Just a little bit.  My friend Stephanie (who is expecting her first babe at the end of June) invited me to go along with her to this mom's cafe thing.  It sounded cool enough and I had been hoping to find some playdate groups for Eliot.  He is such a sweet and social boy.  When he sees babies or kids, he stares and stares.  Poor baby needs some friends!  So, I went along and it was really great to meet new people (all of them moms) and hopefully get connected for a play group.  I knew there were a lot of like-minded, young moms in Lynchburg.  It was just a matter of finding them.

Prioritizing and Multitasking

Eliot pulled open the kitchen cabinet door next to the fridge.  This particular cabinet holds our cutting boards, tupperware, baking supplies, and breakfast foods.  He pulled everything out.  And once everything was on the floor, he pulled every packet of oatmeal from the box and every breakfast bar from its container.  Normally, I would fret the moment he opened the door, but I let him have at it while I prepped the bread machine for rolls and narrating the entire situation to Eliot.  "OK!  Now we're putting in four cups of flour!  One!  Two!  Three! Four!"  You get the idea.

Before, I banned Eliot from the kitchen.  It was dangerous!  He could get into the dogs' water bowl!  When Chris and I made dinner, it was either a one-man job or an event full of baby tears by the baby gate.  But I gave all that up and let go of my mess phobia.  Eliot now plays in the kitchen while we cook.  Sometimes it takes longer.  Sometimes we have to fight a little bit to keep him away from the hot oven.  Overall, though, we're much happier.

And did you know that paper towels are one of the coolest baby toys?  Eliot loves to wipe the floors with a paper towel.

Also, did you know that messes can be cleaned up?  After I finished making our bread, Eliot and I put everything back in the cabinet together.  It only took about three minutes.

By the way, I have made a lot of progress in the office/playroom.  Here is the office side.  It isn't there all the way because I plan to get rid of that bookcase (we have another bookcase in that room, so I think we can get it down to one) and replace it with Eliot's basketball goal.  However, this room used to be just one, big mess, so, yeah, we've come a long way.  Sure would look a lot more orderly without the jogger there.  Hm...  I'll make it work.

New Freedom

Yesterday was one of my most productive days yet.  Maybe ever.  Eliot and I...
-bathed first thing
-watched an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba in bed while I made sure Eliot was plenty dry and warm
-made pizza dough in the bread machine
-installed the hook and hung up the hiking backpack in Eliot's playroom
-cleaned up and organized some toys
-took down the baby gates
-Eliot napped and I did my hair and make-up
-paid all of the bills
-ate lunch
-took down the Christmas tree
-swept and swept and swept

Sometimes it is hard for me to simply shower and do my make-up when it's just the two of us, so I was feeling pretty good yesterday.

Eliot has been loving his new freedom.  I took down the baby gates....  While he used to be limited to the den and dining room, he has free run of the house now.  He is only cut off from the stairs going down to the basement and the downstairs bathroom.  He went nuts about it.  He crawls between all the rooms laughing and shrieking and screaming and then climbs up the stairs.  Part of me doesn't know why I didn't do this sooner.  Oh yeah.  Because the downstairs bedroom needed to be fixed and the kitchen seemed dangerous.  I am thinking of maybe blocking the stairs off.  He climbs great and keeps getting better.  He has never fallen (but I am always right behind him), but he doesn't know how to get down.

Here is the little guy playing in the kitchen.  He was having so much fun.

When Chris got home, he said, "Oh wow!"  And I agree.  He mentioned that everything feels much more open without the baby gates.  I think there is something to the flow of a house.  Plus, the dining room was feeling really crowded with the Christmas tree.  Is it bad to be kind of glad that it is gone?

Here is a video I took this morning of Eliot exploring. Don't you love how I tell him to go after the cat and he just takes off in the other direction?  He loves the cat; he's nuts about her.  For him to ignore her for the sake of exploring...  You know he has to be way into it.

Eliot's Playroom: Commencing Step Two

Step One of Operation Playroom is kind of complete.  Kind of.  Step One was to re-organize and purge in order to create a blank canvas.  I've gotten there with most of the room!

Step Two:  Re-purpose.
I moved our black bookcase (Target) into the playroom.  The bottom level is baskets with toys.  The second level is Eliot's books.  The third level is our books.  I'll be finding a new home for those books.

I moved the white toy chest (Babies'R'Us) from Eliot's room into the playroom.  It seriously had hardly nothing in it.  And since we spend most of our time downstairs, it didn't make sense up there.  I did like it in Eliot's nook, though, to serve as a window seat some day, so I plan to move it back up there eventually.  I just didn't see the point in buying another toy chest quite yet if we didn't need it.

I moved this other natural-wood bookshelf (Target) in as well.  I used it as my dresser in undergrad.  It then became an end table and bookshelf.  I picked up those baskets from Target.  They will hold toys and someday art supplies.  I must confess that the top basket holds some of our books, but I plan to change that too.  It's hard to organize books alone without Christopher's input.

Lastly, I hung Eliot's hiking backpack up with a hook from Target!  This will get it out of the dining room where it has been sitting on a trunk.  It is too wide to hang up in a closet and we do use it a bit on warmer days.  Also, it looks cool.

I need to work on condensing the books and put away one of our bookshelves into the basement.  I want to wait for Chris, though, because I want to know which books he wants to keep out and which are fine to put away.  Then I can set up Eliot's "basketball area".

I'm waiting for some prints to come in the mail and to pick up a rug.  That's pretty much it!  So, Step Three is Beautify!

Lots of Little and Big Goals

I have so much going on in my head these days.  And that's a good thing.

I got to work on Eliot's play room right away!  I hadn't touched that room before for so many reasons.  We weren't sure if we should turn it into a guest bedroom, office, library, or maybe need a second nursery some day.  In the end, we are keeping it half office (and library) and playroom.  Whenever we have a second baby, I'm sure that he or she will stay in our room for a long while like Eliot has.  Then we'll get some awesome Ikea bunk beds and have them share a room.  If we eventually have a girl, I think their mixed genders will be fine until we move into a larger house in a handful of years.  See?  So many thoughts...  Anyway, I cleared out a bunch of "junk" and got the room going.  I am moving some storage things around (boxes and such), ordered prints, and bought some frames.  I didn't take a before shot (that'd be too embarrassing), but I will post some photos of my progress as I go along shortly.

Chris has finished up day two of his intensive.  Three more remain.  Eliot and I miss him like crazy when he is gone.  We are so spoiled by how much time we have together.  However, Elizabeth has been hanging out with me as my in-laws spend some time with Chris's grandma.

Elizabeth napping with Eliot

While everyone does seem to be going in different directions, we have had dinner together every night and Elizabeth and I have met Chris for lunch every day.  Then Elizabeth went with me to pick up a few playroom supplies.

 

Eliot went from normal to super passed out in only two minutes.

 

Eliot had his first pickle, which was cute, but also oh so gross.  We called this the Ernest Hemingway sweater.

While picking out prints, I was thinking about how cute they all were.  And then I started thinking about how I'd like to make illustrations.  And then I realized that the only thing stopping me is, well, me.  I always loved to draw.  I was one of those kids that walked around with a sketch pad in middle school.  I'm pretty all right, but I stopped after high school.  I'm better at little cartoons (or what you could call illustrations) than real-life things.  I guess I have more of imagination in that area.  So I have decided to give it a go.  I'm going to start drawing more.  If I make something I really like, I'm hoping to liven it up some with water colors.  And then maybe, just maybe, I'll open an Etsy shop and sell prints of my illustrations.  I think I could do it.  There's a small (or huge) New Years goal.

First Christmas

This is where I say that our first Christmas together was a "slam dunk" or something cliche like that, but, my goodness, it was!

Eliot slept later than most boys and girls, not knowing what to expect.  As soon as he woke up, we went downstairs for present time!  He opened a sweater first, and then Chris said to give him a toy.  He pulled the paper back slowly and then smirked when he realized what was behind the paper.  Each time, we would open the presents slowly together and then that same smirk would appear.  It was so cute!  Eliot received a baby lap top, a tool work bench, a set of four cars, and clothes.  Later, I felt a little bit bad that we kind of just gave him three things, but I knew a whole new world of toys was to come--followed by his birthday in about two and a half weeks.  Plus, I'd say his bike trailer certainly counts as part of his present.

"Why are you guys looking at me like that?  What is going on?"

The smirk.

I think this table saw might be his favorite toy.

I can't believe how quickly he gets things.  I only show him how to play with each toy once and then he takes off doing exactly what I just did.  It's amazing to watch him grow in understanding!  Christopher made biscuits for breakfast, we all showered, and Eliot snuck in a small nap.  Then we headed "up the mountain" to my aunt's house for lunch.  I hadn't seen my cousins (Zach and his wife, Christa) in a while, so it was great to see them.  Eliot received even more toys.  By then, we knew Chris's parents were getting quite close.  Back down the mountain to our house!

Eliot then opened more presents and even got his firstttt basketball goal!  His Robinson grandparents know how to spoil a baby boy.  The basketball goal might be a little old for him, but he actually will be able to reach the rim once he gets to standing really well.  I got some awesome new shirts (my wardrobe has been seriously lacking lately), new eyeshadow from Bare Minerals, and L.L. Bean slippers.  Chris got a nice sweater and about a year's supply of Starbucks K-cups--we also got a Keurig coffee maker.  We headed to one of the few places open for dinner:  Ruby Tuesdays.

Christmas definitely isn't just about the presents, though.  This year has felt mountains more special and enjoyable than the holidays have in a long time.  I honestly didn't want much of anything, but received a great bread machine from my parents that I plan to use to help keep our family healthy with fresh baked goods and also was given about seven new articles of clothing to help ease some of that "blerg-ness" that I have been feeling lately.  It all comes back to family, though.  I have felt so grateful for my family members (immediate and extended), the ones I got to see and the ones I didn't.  And we have been so beyond blessed with our beautiful, healthy son who steals everyone's heart.  As we celebrate the birth of Christ, I am nothing but humbled and thankful for His grace.

Rocking horse from my parents

Chris told me that he felt like we really need a new house with all of these toys.  I assured him that even people with much larger houses feel crowded with kid's toys.  After living in this house for two and a half years, I'm going to convert that darn downstairs bedroom.  It has been an office/storage room this whole time, so making it into a playroom isn't going to make us lose anything, but an eyesore of a room.  I honestly hadn't done earlier due to cost, but I plan to buy nothing more than a few rugs, frames and prints, and hooks.  I have it all planned out in my head; you'll see.  With two weeks off from teaching and Chris taking a class all this week, today I start the purging!  I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on the process.  Hurray, right?