Hiatus, otherwise known as "we had a baby"

Leighton was born on June 12, 2016, at 5:15 p.m., in the middle of our dining room. He weighed eight pounds, eight ounces, and had a FULL head of curls.

You could say he stole our hearts.

In any case, our already busy lives began to revolve around taking care of this little guy. He's nearly seven months old, much to his father's despair, and is doing cool things like sitting by himself and trying to eat all of his mother's yarn.

Things are starting to slow down a little, in the sense that I'm starting to feel like I have more free time to work on house projects. Joe got TWO drills for Christmas (thanks to Daddy, Ben, and Brian)! And I? I got yarn and promptly started knitting up a storm.

It's been cold and snowy in this part of the country, which means MITTENS and SCARVES and HATS and SWEATERS!

Okay, I'll be honest: all I've knitted in the last month is mittens and hats...but still. I have multiple projects in mind, including the Tin Can Knits simple series (which is where I found the pattern for the mittens).  If you've never really knit before, this could be a good place to start. They go over a lot of the basic knitting principals, including casting on, etc. They're great patterns for a first timer, especially since they have tutorials for "fancy" things...like mittens!

I'm a little obsessed with how easy they are. I might be on my third pair. I plead the fifth.

Another thing I have been working on is planning Damien and Connor's bedroom.  I am BEYOND tired of looking at the pink paint and weird fake tile below the window. I still need to paint Leighton's room (which he isn't sleeping in) and we still need to finish his crib (which he probably won't sleep in), but something has to change about the room before I go crazy. I'm sure they don't mind it - they haven't complained about it yet - but I care!

The image below (Pinterest) is what I plan to do to the boys' wall behind the door, and the rest of the walls will either also be dark blue or will be in a chalk white. I'm tempted to keep the walls dark if for no other reason than to hide the fingerprints... Kids will be kids!

Updates, progress, and paint

I can't decide if it's awesome or sad that out of the rooms we have made the most progress on, Nelly's has gone the fastest.

Last weekend, Joe, a "sister" and I took a field trip to ACE Hardware with the main goal to pick up the hardware we needed for the crib, and a secondary goal to look at paint.  As usual, I went with the idea that we weren't going to find "the one" that particular day.

Of course they would be having a sale on paint.  Of COURSE we would find the sweetest sales associate, who was more than happy to pull out all her books of paint swatches and helped us find the perfect one.  We went with a light pale green (specifically "Vintage Bazaar" in Valspar), which I think will contrast perfectly with the white trim, gauzy curtains and natural wood floors and crib.  Plus when Nelly does arrive (and gets his/her actual name!), we can add pops of pink and dark brown for a girl, or blue and dark brown for a boy.

I wish I could draw architecture as well as I could write.  I'd just lay it all out for you guys.

Anyway, it's going to be sweet and gorgeous, AND be something we can work with down the road.  Go Team Nelson!

Joe has been working hard on demolishing the outdated 70s styling.  We went from this

to this

It's already SO much better.

See that nice, long weird looking patch?  That's where the owners before us (I assume) removed the original windows and replaced them with "smaller" metal double-paned windows.  I assume this was with the intent to decrease heat loss.  It just makes me sad.  I keep flip-flopping between the idea of replacing the metal windows with something of similar size to the original windows (bringing back the original look), or going double-wide, but not as long.  Either way, that's still a good five years down the road.

I also *gulp* got up close and personal with the one really, really scary part of the upstairs.

It turns out it's not as scary as it looks.  There was some water damage (I hope it was water) at one point, which stained the wall, rusted the pipe, and badly damaged the wallpaper.  What I thought was damaged pipe was actually just peeling paint.  YES, that is a rusted rag wrapped around the pipe.  I want Joe and my brother-in-law to get even up closer and personal-er than I did to determine if the pipe is still actually in use.  We THINK it's a vent for the septic system.  And by we, I mean Joe.  I'll be quite honest: I know nothing about plumbing.  To me it looks like it is part of an old (no longer used) steam heating system.

I know nothing.  I admit this!  I'll stick to interior design.

Scary as it looks, it does not have a smell, there is no visible mold and there no suggestion that there is additional damage that could compromise our ability to safely house our bundle of joy in this room.  A bit of elbow grease, some repairs, and some fresh Killz primer should spiffy this up to looking like a regular eyesore.  Thankfully it's in the closet.  Guests never look in closets!

I was hoping (itching) to get in there and paint this weekend since the sun is out and we could get away with leaving the windows open overnight, but Joe talked me into mudding the walls to even out the wallpaper lines.  I'm so glad he did: this photo shows it rough, but, again, so much better!!

I know it's kind of dark; my bounce flash needs new batteries.

Week 26 Team Green update: nothing much is new this week.  We finalized names (YIPPIE!) and I fulfilled my urge to go through all the cloth diapers we own and decide what to keep and what to sell.  I'm getting rid of about $140 worth of stuff we won't use, and keeping 48 OS pocket diapers, 3 dozen prefolds, 3 dozen newborn fitteds, 5 newborn covers and pockets, 2 Snappis and more inserts than I care to count.  The only things (diapering wise) we still need are wipes and a hanging wets bag.  MAYBE a changing pad.  This is another thing I keep going back and forth on, seeing as I conducted the vast majority of the boys' diaper changes on the floor.  It's so much easier, especially when they reach the "roll over and run for it" stage.

In which Joseph convinces me to DIY all the things

I hate shopping.

Actually, I hate commercialism.  Best revoke my American citizenship, I suppose, since that's on what our country seems to be principled!  Clothes shopping is my own personal Hell, mostly due to one of two scenarios:

1) I'm out shopping with a friend and find ALL THE CUTE THINGS that look amazing on me...and I have no money in the budget for clothes for that time period.

2) I have money in the budget for clothes and everything looks about as appealing to me as a wet paper bag.  So I'll use the money to buy clothes for my children...and the cycle continues.

Baby shopping is almost as annoying to me, because there is so much CRAP on the market.  My favorite example is the Itzbeen timer.  Some people swear by it, but I don't understand what's wrong with simply using a sheet of paper for the first week or two that it's really necessary to observe input/output.  There are also free apps and websites that can be used to track this stuff.  Another product I don't get is the Bumbo Seat, but seeing as it's a very popular item, there must be some kind of draw to it.

Talking to one of my sisters-in-law the other day reminded me of my other huge complaint about baby items: the HUGE markup on them.  It costs as much to purchase quality baby clothes as it does to buy some quality adult items!  Some things make sense, but when safety standards for car seats MUST meet a certain level (as is laid out by laws and regulations), I can't understand why one bucket seat is $80, and another is $400.  Ugh.

One of the things I've been longing after this pregnancy is a beautiful nursery, but I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars for something that won't really get used.  My practical and rational side gets in the way of that!  I kept drooling over gorgeous cribs (that I know must cost more than $500 for just the frame) and Joe kept asking if I wanted him to build one.  I held off for a while.  I even looked up an IKEA crib that I would be perfect happy to use.

And then, after Pinteresting "DIY crib" on a whim, I found this:

I'm pretty sure angels were singing.  Having a Handy Husband who works with wood all day means this project wouldn't cost the same as purchasing a new or even a used crib.  Perks of owning your own business!  For those interested, the tutorial for making the crib can be found here.

The only downside (that I can see!) to finding this is now I need to make this and this and these and this and....

Nelly

Hi guys...we've been busy!!

In the months that have gone by, we have:

• Purchased a new dishwasher
• Procured a bunk bed for the boys
• Adopted a kitten
• Put up curtains in the boys' room
• Decided to have a baby

...and that's where Nelly comes in!!

Our "guess date" is June 5, but I'm not holding that to anything.  Damien came 11 days before his due date, and Connor was born the day before his due date.

Basically I'm done with the "due" date thing...my kids have minds of their own from the very start and arrive precisely when they mean to, and not on my timetable.  I totally felt like I went overdue with Connor because I was anticipating another early arrival.

Thanks for the lesson in patience, Squishy.

Like my previous pregnancies, I prayed and hoped and wished that I wouldn't be plagued by early pregnancy symptoms, like 90% of women are.  My mother was part of that 10% that didn't experience nausea, nor did she get stretch marks or anything else.

Me?  Not so much.  I fall into the 33% of women who experience all-day sickness.  What is this "morning" sickness thing?!  HAH.

Thankfully I started to feel more human (perhaps thanks to following my allergen-free diet) shortly after Christmas, and at 24 weeks, I am mostly nausea-free every day.  I consider myself very, very fortunate not to experience sickness all the way through my pregnancies.  However, because my blood pressure is nice and low normally, random fluctuations (like standing in the shower, or walking around for too long) cause me to feel woozy and yucky, so I'm one of those mostly sedentary pregnant ladies; combined with hot fudge sundaes, this probably explains my crazy weight gain in my last two pregnancies!!

Enough about pregnancy, though.

Or, maybe not.

With less than four months looming until that guess date, and the weather starting to warm up enough to allow for windows to be left open, we have started preparations on the nursery.  It's somewhat slow since Joe gets to do all the work without his favorite partner (that would be me, and yes that is a necessary statement if you know us and Joe's work partners!), which means things get done at half the pace.

While I have taken "before" pictures of the nursery before, I don't know that I've actually posted them.  I'm hoping that the "after" pictures will be an incredible difference!

Outside the bedroom...note the "strange" carpet.

I want to know what they were thinking when they added the tiny window.
"I HATE LIGHT, let's make this room as dark as possible."
"Okay!"

What isn't visible are the roof tiles (just like in the other bedrooms), but I figure we've all seen enough fiberglass to save us the view.  The TINY windows are the bane of my existence, especially with all the lame wall panelling!  I do not understand was loved about it.  It makes the room so, so dark.  I can't wait to get them out of there!  I've started pinning ideas for a gender neutral nursery (we chose not to find out!) and so far I'm - apparently - loving the idea of beige or gray walls with white trim, and adding cheery pops of color so the room doesn't get boring.  Some will probably come before the baby, but a lot will be added after to make the room his or her own.

Team Green at 24 weeks: Joe and I haven't really decided what we think the baby is.  D and C think it's going to be a baby sister.  C has made it clear that we need to "return to sender" anything that isn't a girl!

Sometimes things can't be fixed

The other night we had my sister-in-law and her family over for dinner.  My sweet husband decided we were going to have apple crisp for dessert and got started peeling the apples into the sink.

You can probably guess what happened next.

In the process of unclogging the sink, the pipes had to be removed.  Because the handy-man novice who had "fixed" the house up had a) used caulk to seal up the leaky pipes instead of purchasing new seals when the old ones wore out, and b) threaded the pipe wrong and fractured the pipe, the pipes are just done.  When my sweet husband went to swap out the old seals, he noticed the crack and declared the lot toast.

The bathtub now doubles as the kitchen sink. :/  At least I have a husband who doesn't mind doing dishes!!

Yesterday I spent some time meal planning. With the boys in school and me starting college courses again this fall, I need to have a little organization amid the chaos.  I started with the idea that I'd plan for two weeks ahead, and then this happened:

I really didn't mean to get that far ahead.  It took me maybe 10 minutes to get 2 weeks down and the meal ideas kept coming (with some help from Eat At Home Cooks and 100 Days of Real Food) and when I got home I realized I only needed 5 more meals to finish out the month (two crock pot, three regular meals and two nights of leftovers) so I just plopped them down.  My plan is to just add a meal to the bottom of the list every days so I can keep the plan going in perpetuity.  We'll see how well that works.  And for how long!

Tonight was squash chili with rice---my idea.  It was SO easy and so good!!  The boys loved it and I had tons leftover, so this will be lunches for the kids and dinner for me tomorrow night before I leave for Institute.  It helps that I have amazing neighbors who gifted us a couple of squashes.  Yum.

I also have this neat tool I bought through a friend's Pampered Chef party.  I freaking love that company...so many good kitchen tools!!

It's labelled as a seed scooper for cantaloupe and such, but I figured it would work the same on squash.  I think it's going to make pumpkin carving that much easier this Halloween!!

If you've never cooked squash before, it's literally as easy as slicing it in half with a sharp chef's knife and putting it in an inch or two of water in a jelly roll pan (or cake pan if you're like me and have somehow managed to never purchase a jelly roll pan) and popping it in the oven.

I was given two of these bad boys.  The other one (not pictured) was a little smaller than this one and cooked up in about 45 minutes.  The other one took longer, probably an hour.  I just kept coming back every so often until the fork I poked into it went through the skin without much effort.

Then I laughed maniacally and scraped out the innards with my scraper tool.  Yup, pumpkin carving will be easier.

After I scraped both sides, I mashed up the squash with my fingers a bit to loosen up the fibers and then just chucked it into my pot of chili.  You can use canned chili I suppose, but homemade is so much tastier and better for you.  It really takes no time at all.  I had canned beans, tomato sauce and diced tomatoes on standby, so that made it faster.  Next time I'd like to do it more from scratch.  Maybe not the sauce since I didn't have a bumper crop of tomatoes due to the drought and not watering them enough.  Next year.

Anyway, the kids loved it and it was a mellow enough flavor that I can imagine anyone who likes chili would enjoy it just fine.  In my opinion you couldn't really taste the squash.  I also didn't add quite enough spice which maybe explains how the kids devoured it so fast once it had cooled down!  It was a wonderful dish to welcome fall to the Palouse.  I was sick of the disgusting summer heat.  Farmer's Almanac says we're supposed to have a nasty winter...after the smoke-filled summer, I'll take it and enjoy it, just so long as it doesn't impact my drive into work TOO much....

Next time on the blog: Joey will be fixing the sink.  There will be some pictures of that, I'm sure!

Squash Chili
Serves 10 (?)
Prep time: 60 - 90 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes

Ingredients:
   1 medium squash (acorn, etc)
   1 pound ground beef
   1/4 tsp salt (or to taste)
   1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper (or to taste)
   1/2 tsp basil
   1/8 tsp powdered chipotle chili pepper (or to taste)
   3 or more cloves of garlic (dependant on size and how much you love garlic!)
   1 tsp cumin
   2 10-oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed
   1 10-oz can tomato sauce
   1 10-oz can diced tomatoes, drained
   1/4 - 1/2 cup beef broth
   Enough rice to feed your family (plus leftovers for another meal!)

Preheat oven to 350.  Slice squash in half and remove seeds.  Place in a pan with about 1.5" of water.  Bake until tender, about an hour or longer depending on how big your squash is.  Start your rice about nowish.  While the squash is cooking, brown the ground beef and add spices.  Add remaining ingredients and simmer. Once the squash is fork tender, remove from oven and allow to cool slightly.  Remove the skin and mash a bit with your fingers.  Add to the chili.  Simmer on low for an hour, or however long it takes for your rice to cook.  Allow to cool slightly and then serve over the rice.

Dirty laundry

Last Saturday temperatures here on the Palouse skyrocketed over 110F.  One of the reader boards in town registered 113 for an hour in the late afternoon.  Needless to say, I spent last Saturday locked up in our bedroom, which was the only room that had air conditioning.  I got quite a bit done (as I posted on Facebook!)  Our bedroom now actually looks kind of like a room, rather than a dumping ground for stuff.

Unfortunately, our living room adopted the title of "dumping ground for stuff" in the process.

I've set a goal to get through 2 boxes per day so that I don't feel overwhelmed, and it's worked so far.  Most of the "stuff" is storage, things that don't get used regularly but don't need to be given away or tossed.  Like my fabric stash.  Eventually (when we finish the bedroom), my "little office" will get some deep floating shelves, and the fabric will get stacked there.  Thankfully I only have 3 small boxes with fabric.  It used to take up two shelves of the built-in cabinet at my old place, so it's not like I have a problem or anything.  I just happen to own 3 sewing machines (okay, 2 sewing machines and a serger...but one of the machines belonged to my grandmother!!)

Today's topic, however, is laundry.  Before Connor was potty trained, we used cloth diapers, so I was doing laundry every other day.  When he was a newborn and Damien was still in diapers, we did laundry every day (holy diapers, Batman!!)  I'd do it again in a heartbeat--not having to lug a trash bag full of funky diapers to the trash every couple days versus tossing them in the wash...easy.  Then again, I was a stay-at-home mom the majority of that time, so it really wasn't a big deal.  Even when I was working and C was still in diapers, it wasn't bad.  I'd throw them in to soak before work, finish the wash cycle when I got home and then toss them in the dryer and have them stuffed and ready after dinner.

Now that he isn't in diapers, however, we still have two pretty PlanetWise wets bags that I've since demoted (promoted?!) to clothes duty.  Until today, they hung on the back door handle of the boys' room and was more of a hindrance than anything as it would weigh down the door and make it difficult for them to open or close the door.

So I had an idea.  And the best part was, it was a free idea since we had all the supplies already!

The closet seemed the best place for them, since that's the area the boys do the majority of their dressing/undressing, but the problem was putting them in a place that was accessible to tiny humans while still keeping them out of the way.

The bonus of having a Handy Husband is he saves every nail and screw he finds.  I dug through my tool kit until I found a couple of nice long flooring nails and hammered them in at a slight angle.  I tested the weight on Damien's side first to make sure it wasn't just going to fall right out; but thankfully the construction of our house included shiplap boards along the walls...not so good for insulation, but GREAT for nailing stuff into the walls!  They're super sturdy and not going anywhere anytime soon.  When we (eventually) pull out all the awful panelling in the room and replace it, I can just have my HH remove the nails (they're in there nice and tight) and either replace them with a sturdier hook or just use the nails again.  They're not in an area that finds itself in constant traffic (a hazard to roughhousing humans), so they're safe enough for now.

I can hear the doubters saying, "Yeah, 'cuz they're going to clean up their clothes on a regular basis."  They actually do a pretty good job (with reminders and the occasional threat or me throwing their clothes at them while they play the xylophone HAH).  They also have a chore chart where they earn rewards if they keep their clothes picked up, put their toys away, make their beds, and help feed the dog.  I need to get a new dry-erase marker for it (the old one dried out), but it's highly effective.  The boys love marking off the day's chores and get very excited when they earn something new.

What is your laundry-collection plan?  Anyone have something cool they do that they want to share?  I'm envious of this lady, I wish my laundry area was THIS organized!!  Someday....

The good, the bad, and the very ugly

We had a bridal shower here on Saturday.  I wish that things had been a little more finished (ie., the walls painted!!) but it was still very nice.  There were places for guests to sit, eat, and socialize; and the bride-to-be had a good time!  Overall, a success.

I am really enjoying my new job--I'm off early on Wednesdays and all day Thursday, so I can get a lot accomplished around the house.  Today was "let's see if the fireplace is operational" day.  Spoiler: it is!  Once we cleaned all the stuff out of it (including SEVEN dead birds), I could see all the way up to the top of the chimney.  Adding to the list of stuff to do: mesh on the top of the chimney to keep the poor creatures out.  I also closed the flue.  Not sure why it had been left half-open for three years, but there you go.

Some progress photos:

Couch console is actually an IKEA shelf set on its side!
Eventually it should have more clutter in it--games, decorative
knick-knacks and such.

The black lines on the wall are spray paint.  Your guess is as
good as mine for why it's there.  My best theory is that it was
to mark where electrical line was run.

Note the pretty pretty paint test area XD

Obligatory dog photobomb

It looks so much better than it originally did, but we're still only part-way there to a finished product.  Still to accomplish in here for the meantime: paint on the walls, painted trim, and a light solution for the living room.  Long term is new windows that actually open.  WHAAAAT?!  Crazy concept, I know.  For the meantime, it's blistering hot in here.  I can't imagine why functional windows weren't installed when the house was updated in the 70s.  Every other room in the house has them, including the basement (wut.)

Heather's wedding is this weekend (yay!) so she'll be moving out and we can reclaim her room (mixed feelings...we'll miss you, little sis!)  I think for the meantime it'll be a guest room with the eventual idea that it'll be turned into a nursery.  No pictures of it--that's the very ugly part of this post, haha!!  It's half packed, all dark brown and miserable.  Heather started pulling down ceiling tiles to get to the light so she could change it out, so the ceiling is visible.  Sadly it does a lot to lighten the room.  I still don't understand the 70s obsession with dark rooms.  I don't want to live in a cave, thanks!!

What updates are you working on in your home?  Do you have any fun (or disgusting!) projects that you'd like to share?  I hope nobody else finds seven birds in their fireplace.