After The Holidays Check In

Hi There,

Just a short check in after the Holidays.

I think we had all the standard typical pre-holiday stressors. But we had a really nice Christmas.

On Christmas Eve Blake and I led worship at our Church’s candle light service. It was really sweet. And it was really nice that my parents were able to be there with us.

Around our parts we had a REALLY rainy Christmas and after-Christmas. Flash Flood Warnings galore.
It definitely would have flooded our Family Room again like it had before, but Blake took evasive action and put sandbags by our wall and stuck a pump outside and drained it from behind our house to the street.

Having our deck gone is actually really helpful in being able to tell what’s going on and when to do what. There used to be a pump placed there when they built the deck -- it’s since broke. But there’s a hole there where we placed our pump (which can’t just stay outside all the time.) Anyway. Crisis averted. And that’s great. I’m so glad we didn’t have a wet Family Room all over again!

Now we just have to plan out our back yard well enough to deal with this functionally and esthetically pleasing.

Anyway,

Then for New Years Eve I was so excited. Our Children’s Museum puts on a Kids Countdown at Noon.

 I saw pictures and was so excited to go -- they do a big ballon drop. It looked really cool. I’ve always been a sucker for “When Harry Met Sally” and it’s ruined me for New Years Eve because I’ve never gotten to go to any official looking New Years Party. So I was so pumped about this. It was going to be my dreams come true AND with my kids…So fun!

In reality:

Crazy over crowded insanity. And WAY too loud and wild for most kids.

But we took it in stride as best we could

And it turned out to be one of those so-bad-it’s-good kind of family adventures you’ll always look back on with a chuckle and sweet nostalgia for the painful joy.

And apparently that’s the face I make when it’s wild and crazy and I’m trying capture it all. ha! Your Welcome.

Anyway…. Around the house. I had been working my butt off trying to get my chairs done for Christmas -- I had all these grand visions of trying to have the house glorious and be a good hostess. In reality: I just wore myself out and didn’t get them done. And I wasn’t really on top of hosting. (Maybe next year.)
I have one chair done….well done-ish, I want to adjust the cover I made, I’m not totally happy with it yet.

But I’m really pleased with the overall look I’ve ended up with.

So far Four chairs painted. (Counting the done one.)

Four more in the works. Hopefully I can knock out the painting in the next couple days.


Part of why I couldn’t finish the chairs was... I last minute threw "making doll houses" into our Christmas plans. I think it was before or during my pregnancy…a long time ago now….where I decided we needed to do this and never got around to it. So I all at once was like “GO. GO. GO. Make doll houses. NOW.”
So that took up a lot of my evening hours and kept me from sleep (since I generally love  avoid sleep like the plague in order to get things done, anyway.)

But they turned out really cute.

I used fabric and starch to wall paper them. (Just like my china cabinet recently.)

My mom made some chandeliers out of ornaments.

They are over in the corner of the girl’s room where the old too-tall dresser used to be. It works out very nicely. (Please forgive my exhaustion in not making the room pretty for the picture, or thinking to take the picture when the room actually was pretty. Whomp. Whomp.)

And one more random thing…because it really is the little, almost pointless, things that bring me joy. The girls have been piling TONS of books on the dresser I painted. So I grabbed this super cute green basket at Target to corral them and life feels more functional and more beautiful. And that’s the sweet spot for me.