Monday, June 29, 2009

New room, meeting Stubby, and a day off

Blog readership is down by 75% as all of us are in the full swing of summer. Life is busy, busy, busy for most. Around these parts it is no different; we are busy, but not with typical summer activities. Jeff  works his normal long summer hours and I do my best to corral the girls while maintaining some kind of order around here, and get something done.... is that possible?

Last week we moved the girls upstairs to share the big room and us downstairs to our old room. This will make Mandy's old room the new baby's room, and the little room upstairs as the guest room. I could go into detail about all the reasons for this switch-er-oo, but I fear your eyes would start bleeding with the tedium. Suffice to say, the house has been in a complete disarray as I try to organize and sort and clean. I was able to contribute to a garage sale put on by my sister-in-law and her husband in town and I am so thankful for their willingness to sell my stuff for me -- it was good motivation.

I have a list still a mile long of things to do, but I'll share what I have done so far. The big room upstairs just "needed" to be painted (my dear hubby would disagree that the girls really cared). I painted one wall Robin's Egg Blue, arranged the girls' furniture about 14 times, put some pictures on the walls and spent a rediculous amount of time hanging curtains -- these are the times I miss my Handy Man so much! I found cute twin sheet sets on Amazon.com for $4.99 each and need to make curtains for three windows and the closet out of the extra set that I bought. I also bought matching headboards for their beds on Craig's List for $20 total. They will be painted, but will be great once they are done.

You know I live for a deal, I can't even imagine admitting if I bought something that WASN'T a deal! Like the sheet sets were $5 each, but the ones that inspired me from Serena and Lilly were $189 for a set. No worries here, my budget and my conscience won't allow such things. Check out this deal on wall art:


Picture frames from Goodwill: $4
11x14" prints $1.99 each
Photography: snap shots turned black and white
Spray paint: free leftover from another project
Ribbon: $.99c at Michael's

Total: $9 for eye catching wall art



Here is another peak at the room. I'll post the finished project after I finish all the sewing and painting sometimes before 2019.





Leaving the residual moving/organizing mess inside, we were outside on Friday afternoon when Emma came running to me saying, "Mandy put her finger in the door and now there is blood. There is a lots and a lots of blood. She needs a bandaid."

That was the understatement of the century as I ran to find Mandy on the steps in the garage with blood flowing everywhere from her hand. After getting the bleeding stopped, I determined that Mandy's finger was in the hinge side of the door when Emma closed the door. The door frame acted as a knife and filleted a piece of skin from the bottom of the nail to the tip, taking off the entire nail and about 1/8" of the end of her right ring finger. I actually found the intact nail and finger tip in the door later, confirming my theory. I would say I am now ready for CSI, but my constitution can't handle it. This was the nastiest thing I've had to deal with and it was all I could do to not pass out.



The poor baby will be in pain for quite awhile I fear. She doesn't sleep well at night, frequently waking up needing comfort and more morphine... I mean children's Tylenol. She is also cutting 2 top teeth and life is rather miserable at times.

This is why on Sunday, my wonderful husband said, "You need a break. Let's go to the beach!" We didn't have to teach Sunday School this week, so we headed off to enjoy the sunshine. It was terribly windy, but we went to Newport and looked at boats, ate at Mo's, bought salt-water taffy and some sugar-free chocolates for me, went shopping, and took naps.


It was windier than I've experienced at the OR coast in many years, so we carted our sand toys right back to car after Emma melted in tears with sand in her eyes and blasting her legs -- or was that me crying. It is all a blur now.

It was such a good day and just what I needed. The summers on the farm do not get shorter or easier, but a good attitude makes all the difference.  I realized that there is no way to be both bitter at my husband's absences and also glad for his limited presence. If I wallow in the bitterness when he is away, it permeates our time together like a poison. We fight and everyone is in a bad mood -- guaranteed. This would apply to anyone whose spouse is gone often for work. It is very easy to think of how hard it is to have him gone instead of how wonderful it is so have him there. I have much to be thankful for. My goal this summer is to make our limited family time a joy, filled with happy memories for the girls and for me... tears of bitterness not included.

Now back to work.... :)
signiture3

12 comments:

Cooking with Big E said...

I hope poor Mandy's finger heals quickly! I can't imagine how awful that would be to deal with, body fluids are most definitely not my thing.

Can't wait to see the new room pictures! I bet they all turn out great :)

Grace said...

Poor Mandy! It's so hard having our little ones hurt!

Thanks for the reminder about being thankful! My hubby's been busy too.

Kari said...

I have been concocting new fruity ice creams for the farmer's pleasure. Let's just say he comes in a bit more happier and checks out the selection, then helps himself to at least two bowls! (he even knows that I'm making them with rice milk and splenda, STILL loves them!) He even gave me 2 thumbs up and a score of 10.5!!! Kudos to mommy, not wallowing in his absence!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing! Kelsey

simplykersh said...

Can't wait to see the girls new room. I am glad to hear you found so many deal on things to pull it together.

If you need to kill any long summer days, lets meet at Helmick or Nesmith (I think that is how they are spelled) and take the girls swimming. We are very open this summer!

Dan & Hillary said...

Poor Mandy! I can't imagine that poor girl's pain- or the scar tissue that will be left.

I know it is difficult for you during the summer months (esp. being preg)... I'm sure Jeff feels bad, too.

Lindsay said...

Ouch! My niece had a very similar accident with a door jam when she was about that old. Looks like it's Mandy's right ring finger so no worries there with her wedding ring someday :) I am so sorry that happened. Not fun.

The sneak peek of the girls room looks SO DARLING. You are such an amazing decorater, I need some tips and inspirtation, so be sure and post more pictures!

Peters Family Farms said...

I'm surprised you can handle the paint smell, just the thought, yucky =P But oh so very cute!

As far as having a busy summer, think of all the fun things you get to do in the winter time! Like going to Africa for a month, twice, don't know many employers that would let you get to do that fun adventure!!! Woohoo for hubbys who can spot a hard week when they see one!

Linds and Manda said...

Ah Mo's. I'm glad you got to go and have a break at the coast. I love what you've been doing in the decorating department! I might steal the ribbon idea for Libby's room and I've been wanting to use those same letters for her name since I first saw Emma's in her room. Again, well done my creative friend! Love you.

Choco Girl said...

Oh my gosh I have so much catching up to do with your blog...for some reason I was blocked..sad! Looks like you all are doing well

Cathy said...

Ahhh, the joys of mommyhood. Good job for not passing out. It's amazing what us mommies can handle when we HAVE to! Your new rooms are going to be oh so cute, I know, as always. Glad to hear that you got to go to the beach. We also are also getting wind-burned in Depoe Bay. My, I've never seen it like this. So beautiful, but, really, really cold!! Tomorrow, we go to Lincoln City for two nights. Hoping that it'll calm down a bit before we go back home to the blistering heat. I love summer!

Sara said...

The room is looking great!

Poor Mandy! I don't know if I could handle going through that - I'm sure I would totally freak out! =)