Ugly, peeling, broken, cheap Ikea furniture that is FREE and therefore I can do whatever I'd like with it.
Even though getting this done was quite a challenge considering that the kids wanted to be in the middle of the glue I was trying to adhese the fabric to the wood with (should I really call it wood?), I did eventually use my fabric scraps to make this piece a brighter and more fun addition to our bedroom.
Pintrest. Serious addiction and inspiration for home improvement. Unfortunately, my home improvement ability is limited by the fact that we are renting, and that this "home" will be bulldozed to the ground in less than a year. But since we still live here, we've got to find a way to give it some charm. And so I drool over the DIY ideas that others do with their living spaces and get inspired to make changes.
Nooks.
I might not be able to paint or build or really I'm not supposed to nail anything into this place... but pinning up some fabric on the dark underside of the stairs where my computer desk is makes this nook a little more livable. Not anywhere near a pintrest pin, but hey, at least there's some light under here now!
Bounty that I picked walking home from the bus stop.
To be more accurate, I only picked the blackberries and put them on top of the blueberries we had bought at the produce market. BUT earlier in the day we made a trip to the Old Barn and indulged in eating blueberries from the bushes that are available from community picking. Splendid. Simply.
Big bottom lips.
Brother sister love
And kids that enjoy eating seaweed for snacks.
Who doesn't love that?
Simple crafts for kids. We made this one this weekend for the children's programs in our community. This is my rather ghetto nature mobile, but Asher does point it out every time he sees it.
Well, it's good to be reminded of the things that make me happy on a day like today. Because it was one of those days... broken glass, biting, scratching, pushing, pulling, crying, and refusal to nap (and all these apply to BOTH children)... The kind of day that I called Dave and begged him to come home early. Which he did. And we rode the bus together to do our shopping and even grabbed dinner out for a treat. The day got better and better let me tell you! Probably the biggest highlight was watching children totally jam with full body dancing to the techno music at the Japanese restaurant. Who can't love those little munchkins?
I was a bit dismayed to return from our 3 week vacation and go to the garden to find it had been pillaged. The promising zucchini plants: empty. The budding lettuce: gone. The peppers: fruitless. The weeds: flourishing. I was expecting something to be amiss when I received an email while we were in Ohio that people's garden plots we beginning to be thinned by someone or something without the owner's permission.
Since then I've happened on a group of unsuspecting children admiring maybe a little too much the bounty from the little plots. (They were admiring the taste of carrots and tomatoes of gardens the told me they "had permission" to savor). I would like to take their word for it, I really would. But I'm doubtful.
So, it was time to take some action on the one plant that I seem to have left that promised any kind of production. The tomatoes I've been nursing along since May 14th. They are finally bountiful, but green. There are 2 in the garden plot, and they seem to be doing ok, and 4 outside my front door. In an attempt to keep them coming along I moved them to our back patio for easier watering and more observation.
I'm afraid it's not a gang of kids I have to be worried about.
Nope, the tomatoes are still getting eaten before their prime. And the prime suspect:
I recently told a friend that she must be bored if polling others whether or not tinker toys or legos were the best engineering toys for kids was the main blogging topic of the day.
Well, I guess I do have $0.02 to add.
CARDBOARD.
Who needs to purchase any more plastic anyway? We've all got lots of diapers and wipes boxes laying around (well, that is, most of us. And those who only use cloth, you've got to have some cardboard accessible to you!)
Josie was first introduced to a real dollhouse at a friend's house in Seattle. I was surprised how much she played and played with it. And her grandmother bought her a really nice one in Ohio. As a parting gift, Nai Nai gave Josie a little wooden family and Josie has loved acting out her life with these dolls. Maybe it's a sign that we lost the tiny baby doll during our flights. What's left is a Mommy, Daddy, Josie, Asher, Nai Nai and Grandpa (or Pawpa) doll set. And boy do those dolls have lots of fun conversations. They were playing on my bed with Josie as I woke up this morning.
And now, they have their very own house. Made of a recycled baby wipe box. And scrap fabric from Dave's ripped corduroy pants, and other little scraps I had laying about along with construction paper and tape.
It's got the essentials. Windows, carpet, wallpaper decorated by Josie, a sleeping loft and crocheted blanket. Even curtains. We've got a makeshift table of sorts, but the rest of the furniture might have to be another day's project. For now, it's seriously clean up time and later and trip to the beach before summer is entirely over.
But my vote.
Cardboard for sure. The ultimate construction tool.
Yes. This is Asher every day. Believe it or not. Except when he's making a mess of everything in sight.
This is Asher dancing while Josie has escaped to our neighbors house to play. The video is running as I'm washing dishes after an impromtu dinner I made for the ladies of my small group and all of our children. (4 adults, 6 children, lots of pasta!) and our husbands... well, they were off displaying their manhood whilst climbing the Grouse Grind.
I think Asher will be there soon. Climbing the mountain, that is. If the speed he can climb our stairs is any indication, he'll be climbing the mountain in record speed in no time.
**The Grouse Grind is a Vancouver speciality. I climbed it with my exercise group earlier this summer. I was thinking it would be a nice climb... well, it's more like a grind-- the name suits it well. People booking it up the mountain as fast as they can just to beat the record. Some people do it multiple times a day, with weights! I think it took me 70 minutes, and that was going steady, with as little stops as possible. Some do it in 30 minutes. We're talking steep and straight up folks! Dave is thinking that he'd like to go for the record.
We'll see. His wheels are turning.
Like someone else I know. Maybe a father son expedition is in store?
Do you ever feel like you need a vacation from your vacation? We returned from our three week family vacation a week ago yesterday. 4 flights and a drive home from the airport later we were home. But it has taken a whole week to feel like we are home and back from vacation. So glad to have time with family, so glad to actually feel like we experienced summer with a week at the lake and 10 days in hot and humid Ohio(it was rainy and cold when we left Vancouver a month ago!) But now that we have returned it is beginning to feel like summer here. A cool kind of summer, one that you wear pants and sweaters out in the morning and take off layers as the sun comes out. Today it is lovely and the kids are asleep so I thought I would try and write a couple of the thoughts I have been having.
First, I am still trying to get used to this new life of coming back from a summer vacation and feeling like I am in worse shape than when I left. Growing up until the time I have had children actually, summer was the time for being outside (preferably in a canoe, on a mountain, or hiking in the woods somewhere in the world) as much as possible. The result of that would be ending the summer in great shape, tanned and relaxed, and a bit more centered from months of being out in the great outdoors, spending hours in reflective quiet, as well as testing the limits of my physical condition on whatever challenge was presented. Summers generally ended with a shopping trip to spruce up the teaching or school wardrobe as excitement for my vocation, seeing old friends and starting a new school year had increased with a couple months break and reflection time.
Lets just put it mildly to say that is no longer my current experience. Besides the shopping part. I did go shopping this summer to purchase non-maternity or post maternity summer clothes (that has not happened for 3 years now!) The rest.. well... I gained 6 pounds on my vacation, spent a good deal of it sitting (inside and outside; the two might just correspond) and have returned to a week of jet lag, feeling out of sorts, and hit with the reality that I now am once again a stay at home mom with the responsibility to care for 2 small people in my little home most of the time. That is the grouchy part of me talking.
The encouraged part of my experience is that for the first time since arriving in Vancouver now a year and a half ago, we arrived home. Considering that the idea of home has been a constantly changing experience for me since leaving NY at 18, I was encouraged to feel that. We are home, in a place that people from all over the world land for a short or long period of time. We are home in a place where I can say hello to my neighbors in at least five different languages. We are home in a place that I will indeed begin a new season of my job as a mother and as an activities coordinator for the children in the place we live.
Besides the ebb and flow of feeling overwhelmed at times with the weight of family responsibility and lack of free time, I have had more glimpses of inspiration for being a wife and mother. Thanks to the inspiration of other mom friends of mine who keep their blogs fresh with ideas and their own experiences with motherhood, as well as my friends here, I feel like I can tread water for the time being. I just got back from an evening with some friends from my mom's group to look ahead to this coming year and what our mom's group will look like. It is certainly encouraging to be with women who are seeking to grow in their faith, encourage one another, and reach out the community of other moms in the area.
Dave and I are also trying to carve out time to grow as individuals and as a family. He took a class in Benidictine Spirituality earlier this summer and learned a lot about creating space and rhythms of life that help us deepen our faith and walk with God. (Things that we've learned in the past, but a good reminder of what we would like our family to look like) So, as we gear up to start a new season for this school year, we are trying to keep a couple things regular in our schedules. One, a Sabbath. That means a time to really rest, not only physically (or maybe not physically, if rest might mean exercise), but a day each week that we spend with God and enter into His rest. I recently read The Pastor by Eugene Peterson (author of The Message), and was challenged by this idea of Sabbath (especially as a Pastor and his wife), and encouraged that while he taught at Regent, he and his wife frequented one of our favorite beaches to do just that! We're even planning on taking a retreat of sorts at a Christian retreat center at the end of the month. I'm certainly looking forward to that!
I have a couple more thoughts, but those will have to come at another post.
And just for a smile... Since I know you're will read this at some point Kim Smith, you'll be amused that Josie has really grabbed onto the "thank you Jesus" version of Johnny Appleseed. :)
