Toes and Play-Dough

We painted toenails this morning. Mine needed an update and the girls had been asking me, every so often, if they could get theirs painted too. Miss Bubbly's reaction when we were all done was the best: "Thank you for the jewels on my toenails, Momma!" There was such sincerity and happiness in her voice that I can't help but think that she's my girly-girl. I still intend to teach the girls how to build a treehouse and throw a ball accurately, just to balance things out....

And don't mind The Eldest's poor beat up feet. She tripped during a family walk a few days ago and scraped up the one side. Then, yesterday, we were at the park and stepped off the trail and into the grass just briefly to get to the sidewalk. Unfortunately, The Eldest must have stepped in the midst of some fire ants, because a handful were quite offended at her foot's very existence. There was some screaming and "Ow, ow, OW" on her side, and some kneeling on the sidewalk and flicking/smooshing ants on my side (not easy when you're six months pregnant, let me tell you).
I think I need to get her better shoes, something that covers the top of her feet a little more.




Here are our adventures in Play-Dough from last week:
The Eldest built a desert island, complete with palm tree and giant duck.

Miss Bubbly made an octopus. I tried to convince her it looked more like a squid, but she was having none of it. An octopus is what she intended, and an octopus is what it was.

And now I must go and finish my to-do list for today, so I can take my nap.

I Should Be Feeding My Children

Want to get a definition of what your decorating style is? Go play here! www.sproost.com


I'm 60% Mountain Lodge, 40% Nantucket--and the Mountain Lodge description is dead on.

Update: I took it a second time and now I'm 40% Mountain Lodge, 40% Rustic Revival, and 20% Traditional Asian. This is a fun game!

And for those who are wondering, here's the Mountain Lodge description, as yanked from the Sproost website:

Mountain Lodge Style

You love nature! And really, how could you not? The more exposed wood (be it in log form or paneling) the better. And having natural stone in your home is a must! Especially at the fireplace, but stone top tables work too. If you could clad all the furniture in wood and stone you would, but splinters aren't fun and stone is cold! So when you need a place to sit (or recline in!), it should be comfortable and warm. Bigger is better when it comes to your favorite chair for watching TV or reading the newspaper. Leather is great (go natural!), but soft fabrics in warm tones also suit you well.

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Materials

You prefer the simple things in life and you want natural materials over man-made whenever possible. The key feeling your space should invoke is warm and cozy. Whenever possible you let the furniture reflect the item it was built from - so come on, bring on the logs! But hey, where the full log isn't possible, at least expose the wood... the key here is to let it remain rustic when it should because nature isn't about being perfect, it's about being real! You enjoy patterns that highlight our natural surroundings such as plants, trees and animals. Because really - if you can't be outside, bring the outside in! Pieces should be large and sturdy, and encourage the whole family and all the friends to join in the fun.

Colors

When it comes to color you follow the same rules that apply to all other elements in the home: stay true to what is found in nature. You love earth tones, warm browns and reds that mimic trees and wooded forests, greens that reflect the leaves and grasses and dark blues that mirror the dark of sky and the deep blue of lakes and ponds. Colors that are dark and saturated are very appealing to you as they mimic the feelings of being in a heavily wooded area.

Space Planning

When it comes to arranging rooms, it's all about cozy! Combine a comfortable sofa with chairs that rock and/or recline and accessories that highlight the activities you love (fishing, hunting, hiking... you name it). You do not like ornate or frilly, and you avoid cluttering up spaces with items that are not necessary or do not remind you of the nature you love.

Wishing for Beauty, Revisited

Wonderful friends, thank you for your comments! And just to make it clear, I do NOT want a showroom house. I prefer the lived-in quality too. But there is a line between functionally lived-in and "Wow! How do you get anything done in here?"

After being whiny in my last post, I got my rear in gear and shuffled things around in my sewing corner, revamped the positioning of the artwork in my girls' room, and set up a music area in my living room--you know, actually rearranged our movies and freed up a shelf for CDs and a CD player, etc. Amanda asked on Facebook if I took before and after pictures, but I am just not that type. You'll have to trust me that it feels better in here, though. More functional, anyway, which is what I was going for.

I still long to have more beautiful artwork on the wall, and I will have it at some point. Part of my problem stemmed from the fact that it took me six months to accept the fact that we *live* in this apartment, whether we like it or not, and I may as well settle into it. If all goes according to my new plan (ha!--we know what happens to anyone's best-laid plans), we'll be out of this place in a year. A year is too long to have boxes lingering in the corners and artwork languishing in a pile on my desk. Eventually, when the child growing inside me needs to sleep in a crib, I'll have to revamp the girls' room once again. I'm not thinking about that right now, because I have NO IDEA where I'll put their toys. I guess that's what under the crib is for. It'll be easier to homeschool when the kid's asleep anyway. Yeah. That sounds good.

So thank you for bearing with my whining and suggesting solutions. They were all good! If I get around to beautifying my plain muslin curtains or making up the artwork that I want to make, I'll post pictures. In the meantime, there's the project list I *must* conquer before the small child is born. Artwork can wait.

Wishing for Beauty

I need help. Possibly of the professional variety. Part of my dilemma stems from my nesting instinct, but some of the dilemma comes from my lack.... I don't know what it is I lack, but there's something.

Recently, I discovered the blog, oneprettything.com. I love trolling craft blogs, getting ideas for future projects, and One Pretty Thing brings them all together for me. And I love crafty decorating blogs, like Joys of Home, though she's a little ambitious for my taste! But somewhere, somehow, I got overwhelmed and sidetracked and my home is a cohesive theme of clutter--too many items for our tiny living space. And it stretches into my decorating theme as well--my bookshelves are stuffed with books and photo albums and nick knacks and so on.

Just in the last year did I finally figure out that I love autumnal colors--that's my living room now. Our master bedroom is now done in blues and browns (for the most part!), but I wish I could incorporate some dark green. The girls love dark blue, yellow, and pink, which actually works out fairly well in their room.

But it's more than colors. There's collections and pictures and balancing everything. My favorite artwork is by the Pre-Raphaelites. The Hub's not so on board with them--he prefers bolder and more practical art, like Van Gogh or a picture of the earth's city lights at night. We do agree that we like nature artwork, so yay for mutual ground! I like trees. A lot. I would decorate with tree pictures everywhere if I could.

There's the balance of functions in my living room, though. My sewing supplies take up SO MUCH ROOM. That's the duty of fabric, I believe, to keep me feeling like I just don't have enough space. Add ribbon and beads and crochet thread and perl cotton and notions and patterns and projects in progress and there's a virtual explosion in one corner. And the office, in an opposite corner, takes up just about as much room. And homeschooling materials are starting to take over their own corner and it just ALL ADDS UP.

Maybe I really just don't have a lot of space. Maybe I should get rid of a few things. I don't know. All I know is that we have people coming over tomorrow night and suddenly I realize that our apartment isn't beautiful--it's cluttered and overflowing. Oh help.

TV is Not Evil

So I was reading one of the "mommy blogs" I follow and today's entry was 20 things to do besides let your kid watch tv. The opening paragraph included the opinion that tv "can easily suck away imagination, energy, and the innocence of our kids."

IN MY OPINION, oh my goodness no. Granted, this all depends on what you let your kids watch. If I just left Nickelodeon on all day, I think I would deserve to have sarcastic, back-talking kids. But since I limit their tv-watching to PBS kid shows that emphasize vocabulary and problem solving, or Noggin shows that talk about ecological and cultural diversity (yes, that would be Go Diego Go), I'm often surprised by my kids' insights. One of their favorites is PBS' WordGirl, which emphasizes words like "incognito" or "redundant" and defines them correctly, multiple times, throughout the episode. And it sinks in! The Eldest may not use "incognito" in her everyday conversation, but she knows what it means when I use it. (She's even called me on being redundant before. I may have stuck my tongue out her, being the mature adult that I am.) And through the miracle that is the DVR, we have these shows recorded for the kids so that they aren't limited to whatever is currently showing.

As for tv sucking away my kids' imagination, I wonder what the blog's author would think if she could listen in on my kids' fantasy play for a day. They use the stories they've watched as launchpads for their own adventures, taking turns being the "hero" and saving the day. (I did have to teach them that it's not fun for one person to always be the bad guy. My youngest brother probably knows that all too well.) But the play is not restricted to just what they've seen on tv--right now I have Miss Bubbly as a cowgirl sitting on the couch getting ready for her first day at school. The Eldest is playing her mother.

The energy used in this imaginative play is astounding--there's lots of running and flying about, jumping over obstacles and climbing up bedframes. It's more energy than I can bear to endure sometimes in our small apartment. As for innocence, I'm not concerned. I watch the shows with the kids (unwillingly sometimes, but I do watch!) and I'm pleased with them. We've even had a good discussion on why Wordgirl has to keep her secret identity a secret from her parents to protect them from the bad guys and how that's different from lying to get away with something. We often have opportunities to discuss characters making good choices versus bad choices and the consequences. Since the kids are in the midst of learning how to make good choices, these are very helpful discussions.

So, Ms. Oxenreider, tv is not evil. Used responsibly and wisely, television programming can enrich our children's educations and imaginative play. But the responsibility lies with the parent to direct their child's tv viewing, to be involved with it, and to keep it to reasonable limits (two hours a day seems to be the right amount for my kids--one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening. It's usually less, since I fast forward through commercials/promotional material/boring credits).

And now I shall step off my defensive soapbox and listen as my cowgirl/doctor gives her sister an insulin shot and some immunizations. I should also say that Ms. Oxenreider's list of indoor activities is pretty fantastic and a good resource. But I get so tired of the "tv is evil and rots your brain" position that I find myself needing to argue back every once in a while.

The Eldest Says the Darndest Things

As we're unloading the dishwasher on Saturday, The Eldest turns to me and says, "You know, Momma, I'm really good at chores. You should give me more."

There, kid. It's down in black and white (well, brown and blue at the moment). I'm coming back to this in five years when she whines about all the dreadful chores I've given her.

Nothing Earth-shattering

The Eldest as a butterfly, also sporting a stylish scarf.

The butterfly and the Robin Hood/cowgirl/pirate, enjoying her birthday costumes.

The Eldest, post-haircut. This is a typical happy face.

Miss Bubbly, pre-haircut. This was the length that inspired the sentence "Momma, I want my hair this short" with a finger pointing to her earlobe.

Miss Bubbly with her short hair and in her new birthday outfit with her birthday loot--a doctor's kit, a tiny Littlest Pet Shop, numerous books, and a sneaky sister popping up into the picture.
 (Hmmm....Miss Bubbly still has thank you notes to write. Thank you, pregnant brain.)

Miss Bubbly the cowgirl (thank you, Nana!)

Miss Bubbly the Hood (or Miss Bubbly Pan. Depends on the time of the day and how she's feeling at the moment).

The girls "camping" in the living room. This time around was much more successful, as it did not involve actual tents, bugs, or the outdoors in general.

Thankfully, not much has happened in the past few weeks, a precious quietness that I wouldn't mind continuing in forever. But nothing lasts forever--barring other events, a little brother will interrupt the serenity in three months (give or take a week). Anyway, I was a bit behind on posting actual pictures, so I just dumped the contents of the camera on this blog entry. Hope you enjoyed it!

I Forgot!

I was reading through some old entries and realized I forgot to post something very important--the new kid's gender. More on that later.

Also, that paycheck I got a while back? Yeah, I totally got maternity clothes. Much relief to have clothes that actually fit over my expanding abdomen.

Anyway, yeah, Miss Bubbly's diabetes has taken over our lives, but not completely. In case you haven't heard already, about a week after Miss Bubbly got out of the hospital, we went in for the sonogram.


We're having a boy.

Not a Foodie

First, a Miss Bubbly update: She's fine now. After the bathtub entry, I consulted with the diabetes nurse and we took her off insulin completely while she was sick. We're still working her back up to normal insulin levels, but she got better much more quickly when she had control over what she was eating. What can I say? The kid's a control freak.



Speaking of food, I've decided I'm not a foodie (person who is very particular about the food they eat). I have cravings from time to time, especially now that I'm pregnant, and I've got a few preferences, but overall, I'll eat just about anything. This makes for conversations with The Hub as follows (usually while we're driving):

Me--"Oooh! A Pakistani restaurant! We should try that sometime."
The Hub--"I don't think so."

In Tempe, there was this fabulous Ethiopian restaurant I went to a few times with some good friends. I miss it. Miss the friends too. And I'd like to try Greek cuisine, more Middle Eastern cuisine, Indian cuisine...the list is long. I gotta find me some adventurous friends, too.

Here at home, I don't experiment much. Some of this is because if I don't know approximately how the end result is supposed to be, I tend to mess a recipe up. Also, there's a limited tolerance from all parties for "weird" food (that's how The Eldest would put it). Thankfully, I've been experiencing intense fresh fruit and vegetable cravings, which the rest of the family is more than willing to put up with, and for cream soups. Most of the soups I've made have had potatoes in them, so I just use the handy immersion blender my mother-in-law gave to me and presto-bingo! A nice, creamy soup. I've made roasted red pepper and potato soup, potato and mushroom soup, and a Spanish tomato-rice soup that The Eldest's actually requested again--twice! With slices of homemade bread or garlic toast, that's been our meal (so easy!). And it's been good. Sometimes I'll add a spinach salad--I don't care for lettuce of any variety, but spinach is great. Especially with a little homemade honey-mustard dressing. Mmmmmmm. I love simple meals.

I get most of my recipes at allrecipes.com. I love this site because the recipes are rated by people who have made them, so it's really hard to get a dud if you pay attention to the ratings and reviews. And you can search by ingredient, so if you happen to have an extra leek on hand at the end of the week, you can find a few recipes that will help you use it up. In fact, that's how I discovered the wonder that is pre-made pizza crusts. Wally-Mart sells them in a two-pack, sauce included, and we've been able to experiment with our favorite toppings for a couple of weeks. The hands-down favorite in our house is cheesy pepperoni, though I'm partial to roasted red pepper (had to finish off the jar!), mushroom, and mozarella. Maybe I'll try some spinach on there next time. Then I'll have a pizza guaranteed to be ALL MINE.