Just a Small Project

We didn't start small with our first remodeling project.

The house had hardwood floors in the entry and adjoining dining room.  The family room had beige carpet, always my favorite (said with much sarcasm but with two kids carpet never stays beige in my world).  The kitchen sported whitish/beigeish tile with grout that was very light.  Again, grout in my kitchen especially never stays white.  Given our fondness for hardwood and DIY projects, we decided to rip out the carpet and tile and put in new unfinished hardwood.  We could strip the existing hardwood and finish it all at the same time.  And we could do it all in the 10 days between our closing date and the new tenant moving into our rental house.  Easy peasy lemon squeezey as my 7 year old says.

Oh, the best laid plans.

It started off great.  Until the Hubs discovered a sheet of linoleum under all that tile.  And approximately 10,000 nails through the linoleum that had to be pulled up.  He even broke an indestructible crowbar pulling up all that tile.

And he has some amazing friends who stayed up into the wee hours of the night to help lay some of our beautiful new hardwood.  They did an amazing job!

This helper didn't get to stay up into the wee hours but I think he's the cutest!

You can see the existing hardwood through the doorways and our new unfinished going in.

The stripping of the existing finish wasn't quite as easy as anticipated until we rented the second big floor sander.  Even Andrew got in on that action!  

Grace however was less than impressed with the noise of the sander and hammer.

Then it was time to stain and seal the new gorgeous floor.  That's when it went horribly wrong.  We plan to replace all the upstairs carpet with hardwood as well and thought we had a brilliant plan to install pre-finished hardwood upstairs.  So, we picked out a gorgeous chocolate brown floor that would look great with soft white trim and warm walls.  Again, the best laid plans.

This is the dye stain that the oh so helpful Sherwin Williams guy claimed we needed to match the finish we liked.  This is an in-progress shot of the first step.  There was a reddish toned wiping stain to go over the top after this dried completely.  The problem?  When it dried, it was BLACK!  It turned my love open family room/kitchen into a cave.  I hated it.

So, we quickly came up with Plan B.  One that involved moving everything into the upstairs, basement and garage.  A plan that led to renting no less than four additional sanders.  That's in addition to the 3 sanders we had already rented.  Because apparently newbie DIYers and dye stain don't mix well.  When they say deep penetrating, they mean it.  That stuff did not come up without a fight.  In fact it didn't come up 100%.  But we added a medium, neutral brown stain on top and we love it.  It's a little rustic, hides dirt well and transitions seamlessly between the new and old hardwood.

Did I mention that we couldn't move our new appliance into the house until the floor was finished?  I didn't?  Probably because I'm still traumatized by the two weeks we spent without a single kitchen appliance.  The only thing that saved my sanity was a 20 year old fridge we've stuck out in the garage of our last 4 houses  It's now my best friend.

We ate meals like this:

The kids thought it was a grand adventure.  Of course, being able to spend a week at my sister's house while we sanded, refinished and sealed was the best part for them.  And, really, the reason we made this trek back to the Midwest.  The kids had a blast playing with their sweet cousin and were relatively oblivious to the chaos going on in their new home.

It ended up taking about three times longer than we first anticipated, which we're discovering may be a trend for projects in this house.  But we did it!  And I still think it will look great with our soft white trim and new wall paint...

Home

Yes, my blog is sorely neglected but our household has experienced a few changes in the last few months. Apparently moving cross-country wasn't enough for us. Mommy went back to work, just part-time but even that was a big adjustment for a household used to mommy home 24/7.  This mama couldn't be happier. Yes, I miss my babies when I work but Grace was ready for preschool, Andrew is in school full-time and really, absence makes the heart grow fonder. I feel like I'm enjoying my family time more now that I have a little time away to remember who I was before kids and renew my passion in social work. Finally putting that masters degree back to work!

Our big news is that we found our home!  We told ourselves we wouldn't be in a hurry (really, we tried) and we would get to know the area to figure out where we wanted to buy. Well, we did get in a bit of a hurry but we didn't want to move the big kid mid-school year again. Our search was a little discouraging at times but relatively easy. We found a great house in the country, in a great school district. It was a bit out of town And needed some major renovations but it was going to be worth it, right?!  As I obsessively searched houzz.com for ideas, Kendal called the realtor. Less then 24 hours earlier they had gotten a contract. After sitting on the market for well over 6 months.

Being the glass-half-empty kind of girl that I am, I immediately decided we had lost our dream house and would spend months searching for a home to move into this summer.  Really I'm not a pessimist I just tend to jump to worst-case scenario on occasion.

Then we saw it.

 What...you're not overwhelmed with the awesomeness of the inside of this house?  Yeah, neither were we.  But we had traipsed through many other houses and more importantly had driven through a ton of different neighborhoods.  We researched schools and timed the drives to our offices and shopping.  When we drove through this neighborhood we saw trees...and kids playing outside...and a park within walking distance...and sidewalks...and couples walking their dogs...and close to shopping and work...and, well everything we said we were looking for.  We fell in love with the neighborhood.  We liked the house but didn't really fall in love with it until we started realizing the potential.  And realizing that it was just what we were looking for.  It's big enough for our family of four and a guest room but not a overwhelming amount of space.  We wanted a house we could DIY.  We love projects and wanted a house we could work on as a family and really make our own.  This house is a huge blank beige and honey oak canvas just screaming for our woodworking and painting skills.

We haven't wasted much time with the projects either.  Stay tuned for and update of our first remodeling projects but for now, we are glad to be home!

Craftin'

Ah, Pinterest.  Like a siren's call, it beckoned me to create a wreath for my sister for her birthday.

We both love how it turned out.  Just a little orange burlap...

a stack of felt...

a few random buttons...

and there may have been a glass of wine or two involved.  Oh yeah, and a bag of chocolate.  Drinks and snacks, that's what sister bonding time is about right?!

Motherhood

Motherhood is hard.  And not, "OMG trig hmwrk is HARD."  But, bring you to your knees hard.  Panic and second-guess and make your heart stop hard.  I knew things like watching my little ones suffer with a fever or get hurt would be hard.  I anticipated that letting them go to school would be heart-wrenching.  What I didn't anticipate was how hard making decisions for my family would be sometimes.

Before kids, I wouldn't have said that I have a particular difficulty making decisions.  I'm a fairly practical person.  I gather knowledge from so-called experts, compare & contrast ideas.  Then make a decision based on my priority of needs and wants.  Simple, right?

Except, suddenly I'm the expert and it seems like what I decide to feed my kids for lunch will directly impact whether or not they are accepted into Harvard.  Don't even get me started on the big stuff like what school to send them to or how exactly to go about teaching them integrity, altruism and loyalty. 

But, I'm the perfect mother for my children.  They are meant to be mine and their father's and we know them like no one else in the world.  So, we know the right things to do for them, we do.  And I believe that, I really do.  Until sometimes, for a little while, I don't.  And I stumble to my knees.  And I spend a little time there.  When I stand up again, I know it.

Resolutions

Do you set New Year's resolutions?  I don't usually bother.  Really, who needs one more expectation that demands time and attention I don't have and then the guilt that comes with my lack of follow-through.

I made my first real resolution two years ago.  I resolved to declutter.  Original, I know!  But what started as a simple resolution to clear out some closets and the playroom evolved into selling our house and moving cross-country to start a new career.

Two years ago we welcomed the new year in what should have been the perfect life.  We were raising two healthy, gorgeous kids in a huge house.  The hubs had just gone back into what is a very sought-after position in his company.  I was a stay-at-home mom with days full of music classes, soccer, playdates and preschool.

Perfect, right?!  It was really except that...it wasn't.  Life felt cluttered and chaotic.  I spent too many days scrambling to meet expectations from other people and obligations that pulled me away from my family.

As I cleaned closets, I realized that we needed to declutter more than the house.  It wasn't a dramatic lightbulb moment but rather a series of events and conversations.  And through each of these, God began revealing his path for us.  A path that would lead us to a feeling of peace.  Peace in knowing that we are raising our children with the values we intended.  A life focused on family.  A life at a slower pace with plenty of time to stop and play.  A simple life.

So, here we are, two years later.  We sold our huge house and downsized.  We moved cross-country to be closer to family.  But we've changed so much more than that and our family is ever-evolving through this process to reprioritize.  And, it was all worth it.

Hide and Seek Math

Incorporating math lessons in toddler and preschooler activities have been pretty easy.  You know, count stairs when you climb...buttons on a shirt...dividing sandwiches in halves and fourths.  But moving out of basic math principles is so not my thing.  Ask my husband, I still don't have my multiplication tables memorized.

But, my big one likes math and numbers and needed more challenge.  Here's a fun beginning addition and subtraction activity that he loved.

I took a stack of index cards (one of my keep-on-hand tools) and wrote out the numerals 1-10.  On another stack of cards, I wrote out 10 basic math problems whose solutions corresponded with the number cards.  Make sure you have each number covered or it kind of kills the game.  Not that I know from experience or anything...

While I was doing this, my big kid was given the task of drawing out his ten favorite Sesame Street characters (I gave him a size restriction) and writing their names on another piece of paper.  We are huge Sesame Street fans in this house!  This kept him busy while I figured out the math problems.

The buttons are what I had on hand to use as "counters."  We've used pennies, beans & beads too.

After the big kid finished cutting out his pictures and names, I sent him into the other room while I hid the characters under the number cards.  I put the names next the coordinating match problem.  Trying to sneak in a little literacy lesson too.  The big kid was seriously fighting me on the reading thing when we did this activity.  I didn't push him to read the name but just implied that it was a hint to who he would find.

My big kid thought this hide and seek activity was great fun.  I loved that it met my criteria for a successful activity: fun, challenging for developing brains and the energy expended by mom to prep the activity didn't exceed the time and energy spent by little hands enjoying it.

Keepin' it fun...

In an alternate reality, I am an awesome homeschooling mama.  I get up at 5am to lay out our lessons for the day, which I have spent hours researching and planning.  For the rest of the day I engage my brood in activities that promote their creativity, problem solving and higher order thinking skills.  In that reality I don’t have cellulite or an addiction to chocolate.   Hey, it’s my alternate reality I can be hot if I want!

In this reality, I drag my butt out of bed at 6am kicking and screaming to try to squeeze in a workout before my kids jump out of bed 100% ready for their first adventure.  Homeschooling is not the right choice for my family.  I know it and I’m okay with it though I still aspire to that most days.

So, we do a lot of educational activities at home.  The goal is always fun b/c children learn best in the context of play.  And they learn when the lessons are relevant and meaningful.  That means that we do very little drill & practice type activities.  The kids' interests guide our exploration which means that we've done everything from dinosaurs to robots to castles.  I see princesses & babies in our future!

Of course, all our fun activities serve another purpose.  They combat boredom, and not just the kids'.  This is one of the secrets of being a stay-at-home mom that I wish someone had warned me about.  It can be mind-numbingly, want to gouge out your own eyes with a fork for a break from the monotony, boring.  Or maybe it's just me that gets bored.  So, selfishly, I like doing a variety of activities to keep myself entertained as well as feeling a little like that awesome homeschooling mama from time to time.

I'll share some of our ideas for activities so maybe you can keep yourself from getting bored your kids challenged and stimulated!