Creature Bug

Week 205: The weekend the sun came out

Just after I'd complained about how cold it was, the weather decided to warm up for the weekend and it was fabulous. So fabulous. I think I could have sunburned my nose if I hadn't put on SPF 25 (protect your skin! very important!).

Although it would have been tempting to go to the beach for the day, instead we spent the hours of sunshine working on our backyard. If you aren't acquainted with the whole process that is Operation Backyard, then you should catch up at this post, where there are some nifty before and after pictures.

To catch you up just a little bit, here's what the backyard looked like a few months ago:

But then little backyard fairies flew in and transformed it into this:

 

Of course, those fairies had a lot of help from Lowe's, Home Depot, and my hardworking husband. In fact, come to think of it, those fairies didn't actually do anything. Except make sure that Operation Backyard went smoothly and no one was injured, and no boots got stuck in cement, and no one cried. I guess that's worth something.

This weekend our major task was weeding, as well as putting down wood chips and bark dust. In fact, for the first time in my life, I went to the garden store and got a yard of bark dust. Jason coached me through the whole thing, so I ended up looking like I totally knew what I was doing. I went in, asked for a yard of fir bark dust, drove the truck around back, and waited while the bark guy (not to be confused with "barking guy"...yikes!) took his tractor with a front end loader and dumped in two loads of bark. I didn't make a fool of myself by driving off after one tractor dump (that's only 1/2 a yard!), and gave the guy a thumbs-up after he was finished. I was so cool.

Other than all that work, we've been hanging around watching the grass grow. Literally. We're watching it grow.

We had planned on laying sod down and then voila! we'd have a lawn. But then for reasons which I cannot fathom right now, I said, "Let's just plant seed instead. It'll be cheaper."

Learn from me: don't plant seed. You think it's smart. You think you're saving money. But then two months later after snow, hail, sleet, and frost, your poor little patch of lawn looks more like a "la" than an "lawn." I have to give it credit though--it has survived and is working very hard at trying to grow. By the time real summer rolls around I think we might actually be able to walk on it. In hindsight though, I should have agreed with Jason when he said, "Should I go get sod?" Yes, he should have. Yes, I should have kept my big mouth shut about throwing down seed.

And that rhododendron bush in the picture? It was planted up above the retaining wall, but we had to move it. Jason dug it up, transferred it, added some fertilizer, and miracles among miracles it lived! I really want to take that rhody with us when we move because it has yellow flowers, and I hardly ever see yellow rhodies. Do you think the new owner would mind? They certainly won't appreciate a yellow rhododendron as much as I do.

As for the wood chips:

They make the play area nice and safe (no splinters! no icky mouthfuls of dirt!). You may notice that the retaining wall has two different styles going on here: manor stones and cinder blocks. The manor stones we bought back in November; the cinder blocks we already had. It would have looked nicer to have manor stones all the way around, but those babies aren't cheap. So we recycled what stones we had and called it good.

Just to get you oriented, across from the play structure we have the patio.

Here's a view a little farther back that takes it all in:

And then from here, if you turn to the right, you will see what we have yet to do. Brace yourselves.

I think we have some kind of plan for this area, but we haven't been able to sufficiently kill off the weeds yet. We've tried, and only now, after multiple spraying of poisons that are probably responsible for melting the polar icecaps, are we making headway. The bank of ivy, blackberry thickets, grass, and other assorted awful plants is a massive project. Care to volunteer to fix it?

I'll make you lunch. I'll make you dinner. I'll pay you $100, which, by the time you're finished will probably only be worth $72.14 considering inflation, but think how proud you'll feel after a hard day's work. Consider it, will you?

This picture. That's all we have left to finish our backyard. If only I could Photoshop the backyard to perfection. Wouldn't that be nifty? Ah well, we have accomplished a lot.

A lot.

And that is amazing.

Week 201: Spring Broke

Dear Mother Nature,

Here's the thing: when we talk about "Spring Break" what we're actually referring to is a break from activities during the spring. Not--as you clearly mistook the directions--a break in spring weather. I'm not talking about the rain. Sure, sure. It's Oregon, we get rain, fine. I wasn't asking for a miracle of sunshine or anything. But to give us hail, to give us frigid temperatures, to give us SNOW is just unkind. And then to give us all that repeated, over the course of several days? Seriously. It was the most craptastic weather week ever.

If we lived on the East Coast, or Alaska, or even Minnesota...I'd understand. Snow happens. But here? SNOW?! The end of March? I think you've got yourself all turned around and upside down. Clearly this must be the case because I see that global warming is affecting Antarctica, what with part of the Wilkins Ice Shelf collapsing and all. I'm just saying, why don't you give Antarctica and us Pac NWers a break and warm us up instead of those poor drowning polar bears. (Or rather, as my geography-smarts husband pointed out, poor drowning penguins. Polar bears are North Pole; penguins are South Pole. Meh.)

I'm even doing my part to help you out. Just last night we observed Earth Hour, albeit with a few minor changes. Obviously we couldn't really be expected to turn the tv off at 8 pm, not with NCAA games going on. But the lights were out, I was reading by candlelight, and to make up for getting a late start on the whole affair, we kept those candles burning until almost 10 pm. See? I'm trying.

And while this week there was more of this...

than this...

no matter what you threw at my man (sleet, hail, snow, torrential rains), you couldn't keep him from doing this:

That's right, no thanks to you, my becoming-handier-by-the-day husband finished a fabulous railing around the patio. So there.

Of course, the weather didn't prevent me from going to see The Other Boleyn Girl with Rachel on Tuesday. It didn't keep Sydney from returning to the farm on Thursday to visit her grandparents, and it didn't keep Jason and I from having a nice relaxing evening on Friday watching 3:10 to Yuma. There's only so much you can do to dampen our Spring Break.

Just for future reference, however, school ends for me the first week of May, and so I fully expect some sunshine around that time. Otherwise, there will be serious grumblings going on around here. Thanks much. Don't think it doesn't go unnoticed that next week is supposed to be nicer weather, which coincides quite nicely with Washington's spring break. Why do you have to go and be all unfair like that?

Well, that's about it. Sure, spring break was more like spring broke, but any week that none of us is working is pretty good week afterall.

Later gator,
Stephanie

PS: Give my regards to the Easter Bunny and the Toothfairy.

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Week 200: Babycakes

It's been 200 weeks since my sweet faced, curly-haired, Singing In the Rain singing, ballet dancing, book memorizing, chatterbox of a daughter made me a mom. Technically, 200 weeks and two days, since she was born on a Saturday after all.

From this moment:

To this:

Curly haired, chocolate face, flower in her ear girl. You're not quite grown-up. Yet. But you are certainly getting there.

And to celebrate 200 weeks, I decided to spend some good ole' bonding time with size 1 diapers. Oh little size ones...how tiny you are and how sweet you smell and how much I miss you. No, scratch that last part. I don't miss you. Nevertheless, you are quite useful, especially for baby shower gifts.

Last week, when I was at the first annual MOPS auction (whereby I got to finally put my public speaking skills to use and act as the MC) I saw many a lovely items, some of which I even bid on, although I didn't win anything. One thing I didn't bid on but examined quite closely was a diaper cake. Now if you are anything like my students, you know nothing about diaper cakes. You have not heard of diaper cakes. You will even look at me with a skeptical, slightly grossed out expression on your face when I mention the words, "Diaper Cake." At least, that's how my students responded.

However, I have heard something about diaper cakes and after seeing the one up for auction, I thought, "I can make that."

I should say that this thought crosses my mind more than once when I am out window shopping. I see something really cute, think, "I can make that," then go home and promptly decide...not to make it. Or even worse, I'll get all the stuff to make it and then don't. Which explains why I have a couple bins full of craft materials that rarely get used.

Sometimes I even have "I can make that" moments when I'm out grocery shopping. I see a cake; I'm hungry for a cake; I go home, unload groceries, am too tired to make a cake, so I pull out a stack of graham crackers and slather them with frosting instead. Because really, it's all about the sugar anyway.

This time, this encounter with a diaper cake, was going to be different. I was determined. I was focused. I had a baby shower I was going to the very next week. I bought the diapers, Googled "how to make a diaper cake" and decided that because no sewing machine, skill saw, modge podge glue, or knitting was required, quite possibly I could do this.

Well, what do you know? I did it.

I had it all wrapped up and ready to go before realizing that I needed to take a picture of it or no one would believe me. My diaper cake consisted of 56 size one diapers, and then a dozen size 3 diapers to fill out part of the bottom layer (well, I guess technically they're all bottom layers (heh), but you know, the very bottom tier of the cake).

I wrapped up each tier with some ribbon, stuck in a couple toys, my favorite Baby CD, my favorite hand sanitizer (because I suspected the new parents-to-be wouldn't have heard about Purell warnings, being out of the parenting email loop and all), a hat, and a product that I'm reviewing (and giving away two jars of) next week.

If I had thought of it sooner, I would have used Seventh Generation diapers, and used organic cotton ribbons, and then nearly the whole thing would have been environmentally friendly. However, since I haven't yet tried out Seventh Generation diapers, then I stuck with Pampers Swaddlers. They may fill up the landfills, but at least I know they generally do a good enough job doing what they're supposed to do.

Any day now, little George will be making his entrance into the world. When that happens, Gavin and Preeti's life will be forever changed, just like mine was 200 weeks ago.

Carl Sandburg would agree: The world is going on.

*smile*

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

Week 196: Flowers and Fires

One way to work your way out of a melancholic slump is to spend time outdoors. I'm not the world's most outdoorsy person (it's not a coincidence I don't ever write about our camping adventures...that would be because there aren't any), but I do love a sunny day outside.

Even though there were things I definitely could have been working on inside (like grading papers, which is actually what I should be doing right now), I decided to bag it all and just work on the backyard. After church, we decided to shop around for a backyard fire pit. We had seen one that we liked at Home Depot, and thought we'd check out Lowe's. Didn't actually make it to Lowe's because I remembered that we needed ice cream, and 30 minutes later we were walking out of Walmart with coffee ice cream, milk, and a fire pit. An hour later, I went back and bought a bag of marshmallows and some roasting sticks. I also picked up 15 of the most adorable little primroses you ever did see. Because I wanted to. And because they were so ridiculously cute.

So the afternoon was spent putting together the fire pit and planting primroses in the backyard. It did not escape Jason's attention that I managed to buy yet another pair of gardening gloves on my primrose buying trip.

J: Are those new garden gloves?

S: Yep.

J: What's that...four pairs you own now?

S: But I didn't have pink ones. And the other ones are dirty.

J: You know that's what happens to garden gloves. They get dirty.

S: Which is why I always have to buy new ones.

It's true. I have a thing for new garden gloves.

The weather wasn't exactly what I would call 'fabulous,' but it wasn't raining and it wasn't freezing, so that's always a plus for February. Sydney played away on her newly installed play structure--the one that has been dismantled since last November when we decided to put the new shed where the play structure used to be. I have to say, it's very handy having the slide and swings working again. Sydney would probably swing all day if someone was there to push her. Jules, on the other hand, is terrified of the swings. That's okay by me. I get a bit weary of swing-pushing anyway.

Simply put, it was just a nice day hanging around outside as a family. Sydney helped me plant/fertilize/water the primroses, donning her mismatched Dora gardening gloves for the occasion, and finally deeming the flowers "beautiful and so nice smelling too!" Julianne wandered around emptying bottles of bubble liquid all over the patio. Jason managed to outwork all of us by assembling the fire pit, chopping up wood to burn, and putting in a fence post which involved things like digging a hole and mixing cement.

After I planted the flowers, I had a small moment of conflict. According to my beloved Sunset magazine, when you plant flowers you are supposed to snip all the flowers and buds off so that the plants can focus all their growing energy on roots rather than feeding the flowers. I might have done this except that we're having a family shindig at our house this weekend in celebration of Jason's brother and SIL visiting from Rhode Island.

I just couldn't stand the thought of all those guests at our house, admiring our new backyard, yet wondering what in the heck happened to our flowers. I want the backyard to look pretty, not like a pack of deer (team of deer? gang of deer? ah, herd of deer) wandered through our subdivision on an evening stroll, pausing only to nibble all the petals off my flowers. So, I fertilized the flowers, and Sydney and I whispered words of encouragement to them. I have faith they will survive. If they start looking weak, then next week--after the guests are gone--I'll invite the deer over for lunch.

As it started to get dark, Jason got the fire going and I brought out the bag of marshmallows and box of graham crackers.

Now, I ask you: is there anything more lovely than spending a Sunday evening roasting marshmallows in your own backyard? I even got so caught up in how fun and exciting it was that I totally forgot about the Oscars (even though I had been planning all afternoon on watching them, drat it!). I didn't realize my forgetfulness until this morning, at which point I was, I admit, kind of bummed. But then I remembered what Sydney said to me last night when we all headed inside after filling our tummies with sugar:

"That was so. much. fun. SO much," at which point she smiled and sighed and turned her eyes to the heavens in sheer bliss.

Well, if I had to miss the Oscars for anything then I'd want to miss it for something that was so much fun.

*****

(c) Creature Bug 2008. All rights reserved.

My Clarification of My Publisher

Last week I mentioned how I'm on a conquest to organize all our photos and get them in photo albums. One of the things that has held me back from doing this before is the cropping. I send my pictures off to Costco, but then Costco crops them to 4x6, which usually means a little off the top and a little off the bottom. It's not their fault, but if I'm not careful then I get photos back where people's heads are chopped off.

To avoid this issue, in the past I have manually cropped all the photos that I wanted printed. I hate this. It's tedious. It's too many decisions for one little photo. I don't want decisions. I just want it done.

That's where My Publisher came to the rescue. I just take the photo, drop it into the photo box on the template, and voila! I instantly see how it's going to be printed. I can zoom in if I want to crop it closer, but if it looks fine--no heads chopped off, no missing feet or hands--then I call it good. My Publisher has saved my photo sanity, and I'm just as tickled as a kid in a candy shop. With real sugar in the candy, mind you. None of this hocus pocus sugar free stuff.

 

However, I wanted to clarify what I said last week about the books being $35. Turns out, as I learned when I went to buy the book, the first 20 pages are $30. Then every page after that is $1. Somehow I had overlooked this little fact. My Publisher even has a feature in the program that lets you know how much your book is going to cost, but I failed to use it.

So. When I took my gorgeous photo book to the "check-out," I was a little distraught to see that my 91-page book was going to ring up as $100. I'll confess now that I would have paid $100 because I'd spent all that time and energy and enthusiasm and prayer in that one book, there was no turning back. But I was seriously bummed that my plan of creating a book for every six months wasn't going to work.

However, the silver lining is that because I'm a Costco member and had downloaded My Publisher from the Costco photo site, then I got a discount. Their coupons may change at any given moment, but it appears to be that currently the deal is 45% off orders over $100. For orders under $100, the discount is 25%. This means that if I had a 90-page book (totaling $99) my total would have been somewhere in the ballpark of $80-ish dollars (there's shipping to take into account). My 91-page book (totaling $100) cost $62, with shipping.

Thought you should know since I had even verbally mentioned to a few of you how amazing it was that I was getting nearly 100 pages of photo album for $30. I lied. Or rather. I was mistaken, and now I am correcting my ways. The lessons learned: if it seems too good to be true, maybe it is. AND, it's worth it to be a Costco member. I'd say, even if you weren't interested in buying toilet paper and diapers in bulk, if you're planning on doing a bunch of photo albums, it's worth it to get the Costco membership. Plus, who can beat their $1.50 deal of a polish dog/hot dog with a soda? Brilliant.

If you're interested in looking at more family photos than you ever thought you wanted to see of my family, here's a low-res version of the album (it takes several seconds to load). I'm taking a break from putting together 'January-June 2007' because clearly this is a project that once I start, I can't keep away from.

*****

(c) 2008 Creature Bug. All rights reserved.

Starting with the dream

Even though I looked at approximately five bazillion house plans on the Internet/in magazines/in books, I never found the perfect one. I think it's probably easier to find a plan when your options are limited. If you're building on a regular city lot, with a street in front and a backyard in back, well, you just look for a plan that you like and there you go.

But when you're building in a field where there are views out every window, when you know that to the south will be where the girls will play, to the east is where the gorgeous sun will be rising, to the north is the fruit orchard, and to the west is where the garden is growing--it's a lot harder coming up with plan.

A lot.

To complicate matters slightly, there is the whole "having a budget" and wanting to minimize our carbon footprint. It's enough to make my head spin.

Ultimately we knew we'd just have to hire someone to draw up plans for us. We interviewed a few different designers and chose the guy who specializes in Bungalow style homes--as opposed to the guy who specialized in Modern but said he could design Craftsman because "it's not that hard." Even though we're leaning more towards the Craftsman style than the Bungalow style, they have enough commonalities that we knew we would be speaking the same language.

We talked with Todd, our designer, and I pulled out The File that holds all the ideas and dreams that I've been storing up for ten years. Ten years of magazine pull sheets, ten years of sketching, ten years of determining what exactly I wanted in a house. Of course, a lot of ideas have been thrown out over the years because what I liked ten years ago isn't necessarily what I like today. And after living in my own house for seven years I have learned what works and what doesn't.

What doesn't work?

• A laundry room in the garage. I hate this about our house, but I have had THREE men visit our house and mention what a great idea it is to have a laundry room in the garage. Yeah, boys, you can do my laundry for me when it's 25 degrees in the garage.
• Hanging cabinets in the kitchen that obstruct our view. We couldn't tear them out though because we wouldn't have any place to store our plates otherwise.
• Carpet in the dining room. We managed it for five and half years and then finally replaced it with wood floors (LOVE THEM).

Other than that, we really like our house. All 1440 square feet of it. I honestly could live here for the rest of my life, but moving to the Family Farm is where we're headed. There are pluses and minuses to moving, but right now I'm focusing on the pluses (because the biggest minus is leaving town, and can't think about that right now). It's exciting, but also nerve wracking, trying to decide what you want a house to have. A house that you will more than likely live in for the rest of your life. We want to make smart decisions that we won't regret as soon as we move into the house. Decisions like:

• Having a kitchen island, with bar stools, where the kids can eat
• Having barn doors separate the office from the dining room (I'll have to scan the picture I have...it's one of the things I'm most looking forward to)
• Having a pantry
• Having a master bedroom on the main floor with an old-fashioned claw foot tub in the master bathroom
• Having lots and lots of built-in bookshelves
• Having an interior wall for the piano
• Not having areas that will be hard to clean

Last week we got some preliminary designs, and we've been poring over them every day. We're still trying to decide which direction the front of the house should face (we're thinking west), and then also decide where to put the garage and driveway. The biggest issue right now is square footage. We love what Todd came up with, but we could never afford it. Without a basement it's almost 3000sf, and we are tentatively planning on putting in a basement even though concrete has skyrocketed in cost. I'd rather not have a house payment that prevents us from ever going on vacation. Or, you know, buying food.

Nevertheless, a dream starts somewhere. Best to start big and then tailor it back from there. When Rachel was over earlier this week, we brainstormed about house possibilities and things that work and don't work (as Sawyer and Sydney played and reminded me that I TOTALLY want a place for kids to play that isn't my living room!). It's good being able to bounce ideas around with someone else, and hear from others about house features they love or wish they could change.

So...in the spirit of gathering wisdom, I'm asking for advice.

Even though I know that people live differently in their homes, I'd love to hear what features you love/hate about your house. Things like: is it really worth it to have two sinks in the master bathroom? Is having a sink in the kitchen island something you wish you had, or couldn't live without? Do you think a mud room needs to be separate from the laundry room? Do you think the laundry room should go upstairs with most of the bedrooms (a big debate in our house right now because our main floor needs square footage trimmed off, but I feel panicked about the very thought of putting the laundry room so far away from the kitchen)? If we end up having three kids, what sized bedroom is optimal for sharing (we had planned on three bedrooms--plus ours--but that will probably have to be trimmed down)?

Here's your chance to impart your housely wisdom on a very receptive person. No idea is a bad one. Except carpet in the bathroom...that's a bad idea. Otherwise, I'm taking it all in.

*****

(c) 2008 Creature Bug. All rights reserved.

Backyard Update

Although it's the middle of winter, that hasn't stopped Jason from working tirelessly on our backyard. Between studying for his graduate exams, training for a marathon, watching football playoffs, and the ever constant "amazing husband and dad" role, he gets out there and works in the rain and cold.

If you need refreshing on the story--is it possible you don't have the whole sad story memorized by now? that's odd--here are those details.

But now, much progress has been made.

A brief photo history of the project:

As of this weekend? Behold the glorious muddiness of our future backyard.

 

The fence line has been changed, part of the cement path has been torn up, a tree stump removed, a blue tarp discovered a foot beneath the ground, and five million trips made between the driveway (where the pallets held our backyard goodies) to the backyard (where the goodies needed to find a home).

Once the muddy ground has been prepped appropriately with sand and gravel Jason will place the paver stones that look like this:

Aren't they splendid? We love them. Oh, and just to remind you, that deck that they're sitting on is gone. Gone, gone, gone. Gone are the splinters. Gone is the funky wood smell that would soak into Daisy's fur. Gone.

Another significant step was completing the retaining wall.

 

This was a huge project, not because of the stones, but because Jason had to excavate a few feet of dirt by hand. He spent many evenings in the cold, dark, rain shoveling that dirt away. And those who live in the Willamette Valley can shudder appropriately when I say: Red Clay. Good for vineyards. Not so good for backyard excavation. Except! Don't have to worry about mud slides because red clay doesn't slide. Not much, anyway. There's the obligatory silver lining for red clay.

The next big step?

Putting these piles of materials to use. There are other steps beyond that--like getting sod, and moving Sydney's play structure--but that's still a couple months out.

In the meantime, we do the dance of joy in the muddy pit that will soon be a dream yard.

*dance*

One thing I'm good at

Not to brag, but I think I'd say there are a few things that I am capable of doing better than the average person. Which isn't to say that I do them exceptionally well, but probably better than 50% of the population. Or at least, 50% of the people I know. Okay, let's just say I can these things better than Sydney and call it good:

• sing
• clean
• apply mascara
• organize

Although I'm not talented enough to do all of these things at the same time, each thing individually I can manage without too much trouble. The one thing, however, that takes a bit more thought and determination is the area of organization.

I think growing up with a mom who was a professional secretary taught me the importance of organization. My parents gave me filing cabinet when I was still in middle school, and I used it faithfully to organize and file away everything that I thought was worth keeping. School art papers. Old book reports. Articles from magazines that I had found especially interesting (or worth looking at again, like that Seventeen article on Kirk Cameron that I held on to for...much longer than I should have). Saving papers ended up serving me quite well because when I became a teacher I used some of my old high school and college papers and hand-outs as examples.

Even now, we have two massive filing cabinets in our garage that hold all my old teaching materials. I can't exactly imagine myself using them again, but I keep all the lesson plans anyway. In the house, however, I keep all the information that I deem important and necessary. Bills, paper work, employment stuff, etc.

So, when Parent Bloggers Network wanted me to try out an organization system from Dayrunner, I was curious to see what new organizational tricks I could learn. My fingers were crossed that I would get a big, erasable wall calendar that I could post in our kitchen. I had seen one someplace and wanted one with all my organized heart.

I got one.

And I do love it.

Even though there are computerized versions of calendars/organizational systems that people use--ones that I've even reviewed--I find that I am a paper and pen kind of girl when it comes to calendars. I love the one that Dayrunner sent me because (1) at 17" x 24" it's big, (2) I can include notes to myself in the sidebars, and (3) I can look at it and always see 35 days out. For me, this means that it doesn't look like a traditional calendar with day 1 at the top because I'm weekly erasing the old week and inserting the new week that is still four weeks away (sound confusing? just check out the photo here to help clarify). I still use a hanging month-by-month calendar for long term events and appointments, but for more immediate things I have fully switched over to using this one. I still use the other product for my screen saver and email reminders, but Dayrunner is much more my style as far as calendars go.

Even if you don't want to give up your computerized day planner, Dayrunner also helps with the mountains of paperwork that perhaps infiltrate your household like they do mine. SO MUCH PAPER. I'm good about recycling junk mail before it even gets in the house, but still. It's crazy how much paper we collect, and we don't even have kids in school! I try to weekly file away important papers, but there are some papers that need to be out for easy reference.

Enter Dayrunner's color-coded folders and storage boxes. As soon as I got them, Sydney and I assembled a few and put them on top of the filing cabinet. Sydney adopted purple as her personal storage box, and said I could have yellow and Jason could have blue. We don't actually need that many storage boxes because we don't have that many important papers per person, but Sydney does try to put all her art papers in her purple storage box. I mostly make use of the color-coded folders: green for bills, purple for professional, blue for family. Within days of incorporating the color-coded folder system I was able to easily answer Jason's question of: "Where is that professional development paperwork from school?"

"It's in the purple folder on top of the filing cabinet, my sweet." And he found it all by himself. Of course, he's a very capable and intelligent person and might have been able to find it on his own anyway, but the point is now he knows the new system and doesn't have to wonder where I might have filed away some paper of his. He can also file papers into the color-coded folders on his own without worrying that he might mess up my filing system. It only took us 10 years to figure out how to work together on this, but hey, we still have another 60 years ahead of us so better to start now than never.

Finally, the Dayrunner product that deserves points for cuteness and cleverness:

Hanging reminders!

Their designed use is to hang on doors, but I'm not putting a marker at any level Jules can reach. Plus, we always have things hanging on our doors that aren't important so I knew I'd overlook it even if I could magically train the girls not to play with it. Kitchen cabinets at eye level are so much more effective for me: right next to the phone and the keys to the car so I can write both phone messages as well as reminders of things not to forget before heading out the door. The trick is to write the reminders on this little guy otherwise he won't help you out. Like, Tuesday I was supposed to take a few things to the party, but forgot all but one because I hadn't written myself a note.

There are all kinds of uses for organizational systems, but because our family doesn't really have that much going on then I am not at the point where I can fully maximize everything Dayrunner has to offer (like the set up pictured here). However, I can say that what I tried out has helped me keep events, papers, and partial memory-loss in order.

The Beginning of the Middle

All right. Let's give you an idea of all the backyard excitement that is keeping my husband outside, even in this terribly cold and rainy weather. And while it's true that he is doing all the work, I'm still the one inside. With the kids. Who I am inside with every day of the week. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. No sirree. No complaining. Just saying. My job isn't easy either.

For review. This is what our backyard used to look like.

Oh, sweet pool. We had some good days. Swimming, frolicking, sunbathing in my smokin' hot pre-pregnancy body. We had lots of not good days too. Ones filled with moss and green water and yucky mildewy ickiness. And in the end we had to let you go because we had a child who threatened to fall in at every moment. Plus, I didn't have a smokin' hot body anymore, so what good were you? Sorry.

So, in the spring of 2006 (that's right...the year of our Lord, two-thousand SIX), we ripped it out.

Of course, by "we" I mean Jason, his dad, and his uncle. I did my part by taking pictures, also equally as difficult.

We thought we would fix the backyard that summer, which would have made the most sense since most normal people would rather not have a big ugly pit in their backyard. But then there was the other house ordeal that tied up all our money. We hoped our tax-refund was going to help us out, but then that had to go to...yes, you guessed it...the other house ordeal. So we waited for Oprah to help us out, and when that didn't materialize we just waited.

Ah ha! The wait is over! Sort of.

There is still the issue of, you know, doing the work. But Jason and Sydney are getting it done. I know some folks like wood decks, but in these parts where it rains approximately 10 months out of the year, it takes some work keeping decks in good shape. My solution! No more wood decks! I want concrete! I want stones! I want to walk around in my barefeet without getting splinters so that I don't feel compelled to overuse exclamation points!

The decking to the left of the picture is gone now too, I just didn't get a picture of it because it's been dark and dreary around here for ages. But where all that dirt is? That's where the patio is going. And the area between the patio and the former-pool pit? That's where the retaining wall is going. And the former-pool pit? Probably grass.

I'm sure our neighbors are rejoicing almost as much as we are because they have had to look at this eye-sore of a backyard for more than 18 months. Every time I see them I feel compelled to apologize. As well as talk about what fun I have with my kids just so they know we aren't terrible parents and didn't sell our pool for meth or something. "We're teachers," I chatter on. "We go to church! And our house isn't full of 25 miniature poodles. That has to count for something. Would you like some chickpea chocolate chip cookies? "

Oddly enough, our neighbors don't seem to be around much these days. Funny.

Here's proof that I'm not just making empty promises about fixing our backyard. The Eagle Has Landed.

So, the first thing was to build a new shed in our side yard so we could get rid of the old shed in our backyard to make room for Sydney's play structure and a garden.

Jason had to hold onto the power tools or Sydney would run off with them. Power tools are so much fun.

And when the power drill's battery gets low, taking an ax to the old shed is good fun too. "I probably should be wearing eye goggles," he said as he swung the ax through the metal shed. "That'd be a good idea," I said.

As of this morning, all that junk has been hauled off, and Jason has begun digging out the area where the retaining wall is going. After that, there's more deck to be torn out before the paver stones get to go in, but we're making progress.

ROCK ON, little backyard. Rock on.

Anticipation

Yesterday, a Lowe's truck delivered seven pallets to our house. Our driveway is full of manor stones, paver stones, bags of crushed rock, and a box full of nuts and bolts and sheets of metal.

We are building a retaining wall.

We are building a patio.

We are building a new shed.

We are getting a backyard.

I promise pictures will come, but for now I'm just basking in the glow of delight. Finally.

Blog Organization

I think my original goal today was to organize our hall closet that is home to both our coats and our filing cabinet. I have bills to file and gloves to match up. And, of course, there's always laundry to do. Always.

Instead, I decided to undertake the humongous project of adding category labels* to all my blog posts. Nearly four years of blogging, and not once putting my posts into categories. Even though I could make it easy on myself and just start categorizing from today's post forward (or I could make it even easier and just forget doing it altogether!) I find myself searching through my posts looking for a particular one. I hate searching for things. Organization is key to my sanity and survival.

And let's face it, organizing four years of blog posts is a million times easier than organizing four years of photographs. Someday I'll get around to that. Eventually.

-----

*If you don't know what category labels are, just look at the bottom of this post and you'll see a link that says "Projects." If you click on that, then you'll find all the other posts that are related to projects (or at least, through August, since that's as far as I am at the moment). Also, you can find posts by topic by using the Category Cloud located on the right sidebar. For whatever it's worth.

To Twirl

I finished Sydney's green and pink tutu, and have already gone back to the store to buy supplies for a few more--including mine, which will be predictably pink. I'm thinking that tutus are the next big thing at our house. Sydney and I have already made plans for red ones and white ones and maybe even an orange one for Halloween. I think my inner crafter has been locked up too long, and now that I've found an easy and inexpensive project (no sewing! under $10!) I'm going off the deep end. Also, tutus coincide nicely with our current dancing obsession. If you're interested in making your own tutu, I used the looping technique from this tutorial (found through Mopsy) and the rubberband tip from this tutorial. [Sidenote: if you haven't perused the Kiddley site, I must encourage you to. Even though they stopped posting months ago, it's still full of wonderful ideas.]

Of course, Jules only gets to wear hers for limited amounts of time since she is mostly keen on ripping the tulle up and putting it in her mouth. If there's a way she can make something a choking hazard, leave it up to her to find it. She's so *smart* like that.

And tomorrow, to round off what has turned into quite the princess week, I have Disney DVDs to give away. Yay for prizes! Princess movies, in fact. But since we're more brains than beauty around here, I have a Little Einstein DVD to give away too. And, because I'm in a fit of tulle around here, I'm throwing in a little extra something for the winners.

I'm off to twirl around with baskets of laundry. Exciting.

Week 169: Tutu Nice

Mopsy inspired me.

 

Turns out I can be crafty if I put my mind to it. It felt good to make something, to keep distracted, to feel the fabric between my fingers as I looped and looped and looped. "We're going to be princesses!" Sydney exclaimed. Indeed we are. All three of us because if you think that I'm going to let them have all the fun you are mistaken. I can twirl with the best of them.

Now I'm off to fulfill Sydney's request of a green and pink tutu.

A Cozi Life

When I was in college I had a day-planner with everything color coded. Assignments were highlighted in yellow; quizzes in green; papers in red; tests in blue (a soothing color to combat test anxiety...no, not really). Went on to become a teacher and my lesson plan book became my daily calendar since I actually didn't do anything other than teach (social misfit that I was).

Became a mom, and threw out the day planner since weeks would go by without anything happening. Decided to just invest in a pretty monthly calendar to record anything important, and called it good. I like using a wall calendar. I find it very succinct. Everything going on in my life fits on one little page. Depressing? Not really.

So when Parent Bloggers Network asked me to review Cozi Central, a calendar/list maker/family organizer program, I hesitated for a moment. Could I give up my wall calendar? Would putting everything on the computer really make my life simpler? Hmmm.

First off, I have to tell you that Cozi Central is free. Free! That's very clever. But if something doesn't work it doesn't matter how much it costs. They could pay you to use it, and it still might not be worth it. However, Cozi Central is a nifty program, and worth every free penny it costs. You can use it both at your PC and on the web. The menus are uncomplicated and visually attractive. It can send emails and text messages, as well as deliver vocal messages to your cell phone.

For all the amazing things that it does, my most favorite feature about it is the photo collage screen saver. It's so super duper fabulous. I'd download the program just for that. You just tell it where you store all your photos and then when your computer pops to the screen saver, you see all these wonderful photos that you forgot you had. Pictures of Sydney's first birthday. Pictures of our vacation to Hawaii. An afternoon at the park. Mother's Day two years ago.

As an added bonus, you can email the collages to your friends and family. In fact, you can even enter them in the collage contest over at Cozi Central's blog. I'm proud to admit that one of my collages was chosen as a finalist for this week's contest (of pictures that Sarah took). If you'd like to help me win a tshirt (which I need since I still can't fit into all my old tshirts on account of my baby-ready bust), go vote on their sidebar. Or vote for someone else. *cough* traitor *cough*

One final word about the photo collage thing: remember that it does cycle through all your photos in your photo folder. I say this to spare the potential embarrassment of, say, having guests over and halfway through a conversation looking over at your computer and realizing that the photo collage of the moment is you, with your legs propped up, pushing a baby out your yahoo. It's a long 10 seconds, my friend. Very long.

Anyway (gosh, I'm not going to be allowed to review anymore products if I can't sum this up), aside from the photo collage thing, here's the deal with the program. It's a free downloadable program where you can enter in things on the calendar (each person in the family can get a different color), create multiple grocery lists, and email or text message your family. I tried out the email feature by sending a little note to Jason while he was at school. He got it, but the downside is that as of right now the receiver can't email you back.

The calendar is very intuitive. I would enter in "Stephanie: CO102 every Tuesday and Thursday 1:30-2:15" and presto! it would show up on the calendar. I entered in "Sydney: Overnight every Thursday through Friday" and there it would be. It's a smart calendar. Looking at the calendar does take a little getting used to, however. It's just not the same as looking at a wall calendar.

The grocery list is also intuitive, completing words as you type them up. I had some trouble accidentally deleting lists, as well as deleting every item off a list, which I found frustrating. It was mostly my own fault, but it would be nice if he had a "are you sure?" question which I normally find irritating but would have been helpful. Extra amazing about the grocery list: Cozi Central has a toll-free number you can call from your cell phone and have it read off or text message you your grocery list. I tried it, and was amazed.

I know there are lots of features I'm not taking full advantage of, like the text messaging aspect. But we don't use text messaging, so while I find it to be a neat aspect of the program, it's not one I can use. Also, we really do have a rather uncomplicated schedule, one not prone to things like "who's picking up whom?" and "oh I forgot to tell you we have this going on" problems. I'm mostly home; Jason mostly is at school; our girls don't have extra-curricular activities. For that matter, Jason and I don't have too many extra-curricular activities either. We're kind of boring that way.

Plus, I'm really trying to find ways to step away from the computer, and so using a computer program for calendar things is a bit counter-intuitive in that regard. But I can see how, as the girls get older and we become unable to fit everything on a wall-calendar, Cozi Central would be really useful.

In the end, I'll use it for the grocery list feature because it's so easy to just add things to the list as I'm at the computer instead of walking 12 feet to write it on the fridge list (like right now, I just added eggs). I'll also keep it for the photo collage screen saver.

I just need to remember to move those labor and delivery pictures to another folder.

Accomplished

I realized the other day that I sometimes write about things I'm going to do, but then don't post the results. So, here are a few of the things we've been working on around here.

The curtains I referred to in my last post. I'm awfully proud of myself for getting them done, and they do wonders for blocking out the early morning light.

A few weeks ago I redid/updated almost all the framed photos in our house. My big project was to get new frames and pictures for our hall photos. I managed to include 8x10s of both girls, as well as me with Jules, and Jason with Syd. The 5x7s are of our parents and our siblings. And the center photo are black and white photos of my grandpa holding Sydney when she was just a week old, and Jason holding Jules' hand when she was a month old.

Since I'm still holding to my no chocolate/no candy resolution for Lent, I have started finding alternate forms of dessert. Here are some delicious--if not proper looking--lemon scones. So yummy, especially with the mock clotted cream I made for them.

I've saved the best for last: stage one of our backyard plans. Sydney has a place to play! A swing! A slide! An area surrounded by wood chips that Sydney takes such joy in shoveling around! Even though it's on the far end of our backyard--so I have to look out our bedroom window in order to see her--it's still such a treat for us. With all these lovely near-spring days we have already made good use of our play area. Hooray for us!

Seeing Green

The laundry (dirty and clean) is threatening to take over the house. More toys are visible on the floor than carpet. The coat closet is in the middle of a reorganization project. Our bedroom? Well, it needs work. I could have been working on any and all of these things over the past four hours, but instead...

*cue drumroll*

I FINISHED OUR TAXES.

Oh yes. My house may be a wreck, but someone pat me on the back because I spent four hours working on our taxes and finally finished them. Last week we picked up Turbo Tax Deluxe, and this morning I devoted myself to a file folder full of W2s-1098s-1099s-403(b)s-"thanks for your contribution" letters, and a hundred questions about not buying a hybrid vehicle-living on environmentally protected land-losing all our income to a failed corn crop. I smiled when I took the $250 educator tax credit (just for being teachers, so make sure you take it, my fellow educators), and I laughed when I got the $60 Federal Telephone Tax Refund for having a land line for our long distance service. I don't know whose idea that refund was, but I'm guessing it was someone who wanted to stick it to those cell phone users.

Four hours later, all my effort paid off with a pretty sweet refund (yay for two kids! yay for overpaying mortgage interest! yay for having pity on the high school students tromping around our neighborhood in their band uniforms!) Some of the refund is going into our savings account, but some of it--I negotiated more than half of it--is going towards a little dream I have.

You've read about this dream. I've complained long and loud about not having this dream come true. But now? Well, who needs Disneyland when we've got Uncle Sam to make our dreams come true. It's a little dream a have called "The Backyard."

Can it be? After all these months? The deck, the grass, the manor stones, the bulbs, the barkdust, the woodchips?

It's true.

As I type, Jason is wandering around the backyard tallying up all the materials he'll need. (And in looking up that link, I rediscovered this cute video of Sydney in the backyard.) Perhaps you think he'd be less than thrilled that his weekends are now spoken for, but he doesn't see it that way at all. In his own words: "Hallelujah. Now I don't have to hear you complain about the backyard anymore."

I spent a full 15 minutes dancing around the house, singing about the backyard. Lalalalalala...a backyard for MEEEEEEEEEEE!

*

Okay, well. Uncle Sam isn't going to help me fold the laundry, so I better get on that.