Flood Damage Repair

Remember when I posted a couple months ago about how our basement flooded? Well, our friend has offered to do the repairs for us, and things are now underway!

 

Here you can see how he cut the sheet rock on the bottom of the walls, prepping to replace it. They had to drill holes all around the base in order for the big blow dryers to reach in the walls to dry the sheet rock.

 

Here, we have a cluster of closets separating the bedroom and the family room area.Really, they were not very functional for us, and quite annoying. My husband and I have been discussing tearing them down to widen the room, and when he mentioned it to our friend, he insisted that now was a good time to do it since there was all this repair needed to be done anyway.  So, he convinced us that it was more possible than we thought, and offered to do this project also! This is one of those things that we thought would not get done for years down the line. I'm so excited. He's been coming by and getting this done steadily. It's really coming together. I can't wait to post more pictures of the finished project. I still have to go through the pile of stuff in the garage and elsewhere, that was displaced during this ordeal, but for now, I'm so excited that this is getting done, and thankful to our talented friend for helping us do this.

 

Organization for Baby

Several weeks back, we moved the baby out of our room (yay!) and into her new room that she's sharing with her big brother. The problem has been extra storage space. I received this little storage shelf thing for the nursery, at the baby's baby shower, which was about nine months ago! It required assembly, which required time, (a rare comodity), thus never got put together and used... until now! I finally mustered up the time to assemble it. Needing more storage in that room, definitely was a motivating factor.

I assembled it in the living room. Notice the laundry on the couch and the toys on the floor! My life these days.

 

 

And here it is, way in the corner, in it's intended place, in the babys' room, next to the dresser/changing table, with clothes and diapers already taking residence! Oh, it's the simple things that make me so happy.

DIY haircut

I have been in desperate need of a haircut. My ends were so fried that it was getting too difficult to style my hair well. The problem was that I just could not find the time to go and get it cut. That's the type of thing you can't get away with bringing your baby and toddler to. Some time ago I watched a tutorial on how to cut your own hair, and I guess I just filed it away in my brain. Well, I could no longer stand it, and this past weekend, got brave enough to cut my own hair! I have been cutting my boys' hair for a long time now, but to cut my own? I never thought I would do it, but I did! Yay for saving time, and money!

The evidence on the floor

And the "after shot!"

Impulse Organizing

These pictures were actually taken a couple weeks ago, but here I go. A couple weeks ago, I had an impulsive organization project crop up. On impulse, I decided to organize my "office supply" box. Here is the before picture.

  I was gonna throw away this box, when I realized that it would be the right size to help me organize some of my random notebooks and index cards in my "office supply" box. I love to reuse and repurpose whenever I have the opportunity to.

 

 

As soon as I realized it, the urge to organize the entire box came about, and here is the end result:

 



 

 

Ahhhh. It feels so good when I get anything organized! Now whenever I need something from this box, I don't have to fumble through it. I know exactly where everything is! A time saver, and a stress reducer. Success!



On the run!

Life has been busy. One thing that I've always enjoyed doing ever since I was a kid, is being physically fit and exercising. In my younger years, I ran track and cross country, and participated in a few sports in high school and college. Working out has always been a part of my life. Some days are better than others, but I've never completely fallen off the wagon. Well, while I was pregnant, I ceased all exercise except walking. Carrying a baby inside me for nine months was exercise enough! Well, I've gotten back into it recently, and as of late, have established a somewhat haphazard routine. My friend Peggy and I started doing yoga together earlier this Summer. I really like it, though I'm not that great at it. It's completely brand new to me. I definitely notice the benefits. I feel stronger for sure. Also, I've gotten back into running. Sometimes on my treadmill, and just recently, outside. I've been so motivated lately that I signed up to run my first 5k since high school ( a fairly long time ago)! I'll be doing the Mermaid Run in San Francisco this November! I'm so excited. Here is the link for the race I'm running!

http://www.mermaidseries.com/home

First Week of School

Well, this week was the first week back to school. Busy trying to get back into the swing of things, and establish a new routine, and better habits for me and my boys. So far so good. The boys needed photographs of their family, and themselves this week, so I got those done. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and also print out pictures to frame and give to my husband for his office. This has been a long time, on my "to do" list. When I went to visit him at work a month or so ago, I was reminded that I still had yet to do so. You couldn't tell that he was a family man with four kids from the absence of photographs in his office. Now, he's got some framed photos. Yay! I intended to post a picture of the framed pictures, but he got excited and packed them up before I got a chance to photograph them.

I used target online for the first time, to order prints from home, and pick them up the same day at the store. I must say, I really liked the experience. Very easy, and gratifying.  I'm a bit old school, and really enjoy having prints to frame and place in albums, versus viewing them online only. I haven't ordered prints in the last several years, because of the change from film photography to digital. I guess I just needed to jump in and try it. This has motivated me to get a few of my framing and album projects done. We'll see how that goes!

Here's a picture of the first bloom from my white hydrangea plant! I'm so excited. The flowers are still not fully opened. I bought it in a pot last year, and intended to plant it in a huge pot to place on my patio, but well, as all my other good intentions of last year, this one fell to the wayside, so it is still in the original pot. I hope to get that planted this fall. Gotta go and do some laundry!

Keeping What Matters in Sight

This was a very full and gratifying week for me personally. It was the last week before school starts up, so I decided to take my kids to the park as often as I can. Honestly, this is not my favorite thing to do. For various reasons, it has always been too large of an undertaking for me, thus I've lacked motivation in doing so. Well, I found the motivation, and it did my heart good. I enjoyed watching them develop their play skills, enjoy being kids, interact well with other kids, just to name a few. And, by choosing to take them often this week, my oldest son finally learned how to ride his bike fully on his own. This has been an area of frustration for him and for me as well. Seeing him attain that huge sense of accomplishment brought me such joy. I'm glad I made this time for them, instead of giving in to my urge to try and hustle and get more organization stuff done, and what have you.


My bike riders



My toddler who refuses to use the tiny tot slide



My amazing climber

I also have been continuing to enjoy my garden. I think posting about my flowers last week motivated me to step it up with the care of them.

Here are more new blooms from a plant I have yet to put in the ground.

Here is an arrangement I made of flowers and ivy from my garden, so I can enjoy them indoors.

My mother passed away 9 years ago, and last week was the anniversary of her death, so I thought I would bring some flowers to decorate her memorial. She also loved hydrangeas, so it felt appropriate. Making time to do this has also been a challenge for me. One of those things I keep meaning to do, and never get around to doing. 

My grandparents are also buried in the same place, so I left flowers for them too. My grandmother was the one who first taught me how to garden, and first introduced me to hydrangeas, or as she called them, "million flowers."

I miss them very much, and I'm so glad I took the time to remember them this week.

 

I also helped my cousin to host an end of the quarter party for her teenage bible class students. These kids are a lovely bunch, most of which I've known since they were babies. I loved having them in my home, and witnessing them have a blast, and create memories.  It also felt good having them in my house, inspite of my house not being as clean as I like. A personal goal of mine has been to not care so much whether or not my house is "perfect," so I don't hinder myself from hosting guests when there is an opportunity.

 

It has been a good week. Although I didn't accomplish as many mundane things as I would have liked to, I wouldn't change a thing. It was a good reminder for me to stop and make time for the things that really matter. Time is fleeting, and I can't waste it on good intentions alone.