Mid-Week Musings

Every morning, I am treated to Dinosaur Train. I love Dinosaur Train -- it's the main reason my hair looks okay and I have a little color to my face. Without it, I'd be a lot messier.



But while I am watching it, I can't stop my mind from turning over a few issues that it raises for me. Like, what will the Pteranodon family do when Buddy grows up and eats them?

I mean, I'd be a little worried if I were them.


I find it funny, the way the series soft-pedals the whole carnivore-thing. Buddy's favorite food is "carrion" with no clear explanation that carrion isn't just random meat lying around in the primeval forest like so much cafeteria fare. "Buddy, do you want the carrion or the jello salad?"


It's hard to make velociraptors cute and cuddly, but Dinosaur Train does it. However, I can't escape the layering of Jurassic Park images on top of the friendly little dinosaurs tripping off to the Dinosaur Train; there's always a little voice in my mind saying "Clever girl!" followed by a shrieking crescendo of death-wails.



Sometimes my thoughts go in a completely different direction. See Don, on the far right? My mom brain looks at him and says "Whoa, look at that underbite! That kid is going to need serious dental work, maybe some jaw surgery...wouldn't want the bill for that."


I'm just sayin'.

Other times I wonder why Don and Shiny don't get to ride the train as often as Buddy and Tiny do...I worry that their emotional health isn't really considered here.


I mean, you know...in cartoon land.


It's very weird in my head.

Playset Redo

Really, I am just so proud of this re-do, I want to hug myself.

We really wanted to get a good, solid playset for our kids -- something like a Rainbow or a Backyard Adventures set with big, heavy timbers that wouldn't sag or rot easily. Of course, this type of playset is very expensive for even a base model ($1500 for a BA playset that had only monkeybars and swings; $1250 for a really basic Rainbow). We knew we needed a set with 3 swings and we were hoping to get monkey bars and a clubhouse of some sort. I scoured Craigslist for a month or more, looking for a used playset. We found several that were in good condition, but most were either too big for our yard or too expensive or both. A few were the right price and size, but we didn't act quickly enough and they were snapped up.

Finally, one day I found a Rainbow playset on Craigslist for just $700. I called immediately and left a message. Long story short, the sellers happened to live just 2 blocks from us, the set was exactly what we were looking for, was in excellent condition, and had been installed on a level yard (this is very important if you're buying a used set -- unlevel conditions mean they may have jerryrigged it to sit level and the whole set can end up warped).

Here it is when we first bought it and set it up in our yard:



The set was 6 years old, and Rainbow replaced -- for FREE -- the one board that had rotted out in that time AND the one beam that was damaged when the set was disassembled. Rainbow will do this for the original owners if they present the damaged boards and their original receipt. The sellers were more than happy to do this for us. For the record, you can still take your damaged bits in without a receipt and they'll replace them for a fee as well; still a pretty good deal to know you can always replace anything that rots or breaks with an exact match.

It needed a new stain job, so my husband power washed it (not technically difficult, but somewhat fussy as the playset has a lot of surfaces) and I stained it. I used Behr Premium Semi Transparent deck stain in Redwood Naturaltone, which is an EXACT match to the original finish on the Rainbow boards. I would probably not have chosen this color, but since we had two replacement boards that were already pre-stained, I thought it best to have everything match. When it has to be done again in 4-6 years, I'll choose a different color. I used a large deck staining pad and a little paint pad and an angled brush made for stain products. It took me about 3 hours to do the whole thing and yes, it was a pain in the you-know-what.

Here it is all beautified:



The board holding up the canopy right next to the slide was replaced, but with the new stain job, you can't really tell.

It makes me happy every time I look out my window.

I'm linking to A Soft Place to Land's DIY Day 'cause I did this MYSELF!

Fatal Attraction

Pottery Barn, Oh Pottery Barn!
Wherefore art thou so dang expensive?




My baby went to preschool today and I took advantage of my 2.25 hours of childfree time to wander through Pottery Barn. I asked a quick question about a sofa, which developed into a whole conversation, which ended with an estimate sheet detailing the exactly perfect sofa for our family room to replace the hideous mostrosity currently residing there.


Unfortunately, that estimate was for $1900. But I could have it by October 14th.....for $1900.


Not long ago, I saw some home guru on GMA or the Today Show talking about great style at affordable prices and the top pick for "affordable" was Pottery Barn. You know, with their $2000 sofas. Here's a funny thing -- the armchair that matches the sofa I am in love with costs $1100. In fact, the whole grouping I saw this morning would cost about $6000, not including throws, extra pillows and assorted tchochkes. For one room.



The heck of it is, they really do have great style. Their rooms look pulled together without being matchy-matchy. They look inviting and indeed, they are inviting. Just go to a Pottery Barn store and try to walk through it without touching anything. These places are full of beautiful colors and luscious textures that just beg you to run your hand over them. Sheepskin, chenille, pickstitching, organic cotton, sculpted metal, nubby baskets, seagrass....it's a feast for the senses. If they'd install a coffee bar, I'd probably move in.


So what, if you're trying to have great style but you have more like a Target income, are you supposed to do?



It's very, very depressing.

Not Feeling the Love

September is here, the kiddies have been back at school for 3 weeks, Baby starts preschool on Wednesday and I am feeling frustrated.

It's hard to pin down why I feel like this. It was a huge relief to send the kids back to school. The last 2 weeks before it resumed were easily the worst 2 weeks of the summer. Constant fighting, constant attitude, constant mischief, and no desire to do anything constructive on anyone's part (me included, although I tried out of sheer desperation).

But naturally, the start of school brings with it the start of other activities -- soccer, gymnastics, church activities on wednesday nights--which have to be added to piano and our weekly trips to the allergist. If my hair was on fire all summer, I am spending my days shot out of a cannon now.

My littlest has hit some kind of personality wall -- I don't remember the 3s being so grouchy/stubborn/naughty in my other two. They are excruciating with her. My husband chirped in that perhaps she needed more activity -- I should take her to the park, the play place at the mall, a friend's house, a play class... I had to point out to him that I can only do the laundry when I am, in fact, here. Also, I cannot make dinner by remote control, although I would certainly like to try. While a constant round of activity sounds great, I do have to be in the house some of the time. We do go the the library and I take her on errands -- she recognizes Target, Home Depot, TJ Maxx and Barnes and Noble and loves all of them.

Normally not being able to complete projects makes me nutty, but we've actually gotten quite a lot done over the last month. I have some indoor projects that need doing -- first up is repainting my half-bath -- but while I would like to get those done, I don't feel a huge need to do so. I think one of the things nagging at me is the sheer volume of stuff we have in this house. I am going to hit some kind of breaking point soon where I just start chucking things in the trash or the Goodwill box and get it out of here. The garage is one place I'd like to just pitch stuff out of. After that it's the basement's turn.

Maybe what I need is a good Spring cleaning. Certainly a lot of things would seem less overwhelming if there were just less of them. Like toys. Of which we have 40 million or so.

Too much stuff. Hmmm. Am going to let this idea percolate and see if that's my trouble.

Holy. Cow.

How did it get to be July?

I blinked and school was out, then my hair has been on fire for most of the summer. I have days where I feel wound tighter than a piano string because I just know there aren't enough hours in the day to get everything done.

When did summer stop being relaxing?

My major accomplishment is that I finally got my boy's room redone -- paint, window (mis)treatments, artwork, all of it. Done. That feels good. On the other hand, the house looks like a landfill in a number of areas. Everything's a trade off.

I have wanted to blog for quite some time about our vacation, potty training failures, the room re-do, my son's upcoming surgery...but I just run out of time at the end of the day and it's easier to go to bed and save the blogging for another day. Right now I'm looking at Sept. 8th...Sept. 8th looks good for blogging.

I will miss my kids when they go back to school, but I will not miss this crazy, hectic schedule.

Sweet Moment

Taking Baby to Grandma's so I don't have to watch her while my oldest gets her palate expander at the dentist today. Running slightly late, feeling a little frazzled as a result. Then, from the back seat, comes this little voice, singing

Jeeeeesus wuvs me

dis I knooooooow

for da bible tells me soooooooo

Yes, Jesus wuvs meeeee.

Yes, Jesus wuvs meeeeee.

Yes, Jesus wuvs meeeee.

Daaa bible tells me soooo.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Can I get an amen?

Proverbial Rough Spots

These are my prints from L. Herbert Designs. They are on my mantle in some frames I got got at Target on clearance. The mats came with the frames and are a nubby linen. They are just about the only thing that's making me happy in my family room right now.

Can't get properly motivated this week. Trying to potty train the Most Stubborn 2 Year Old on the Planet with little success. Trying to keep the house tidy with no success at all. Fretting pointlessly about decorating and landscaping projects that I can't actually start/complete. Frustrated by a lack of money -- great thwacking piles of it would be nice right about now, but these are curiously absent. Low-frequency panic still vibrating through me occasionally when I remember the complete lack of security my husband has with his job and the very real possibility that I may have to go back to work which I do. not. want. to. do. Baby only napping every other day which means I have looooonnngggg days in which nothing -- nothing -- gets done. Oddly not fulfilled by meal planning, grocery shopping, clothes washing and cleaning. Out of town girlfriend camping on my sofa this weekend does not seem to light the fire under me that it should. Oldest child seems to have lost the ability to fall asleep at night and this has me in a tizzy, particularly since there seems to be no easy cure and she is completely vile when she's underslept.

I feel defeated.

If I were totally honest with myself, I would have to say that being a SAHM is vast periods of boredom punctuated by moments of great love and fulfillment. But it's mostly boring. Yes, I am occasionally satisfied by the completion of some task or project, but since much of what I do is highly repetitive in nature (laundry, dishes, cooking) moments of satisfaction are frequently swallowed up by the sheer relentlessness of housekeeping. So I finished the laundry -- more is coming. Dishes are clean -- time to start dinner. Family room is spic and span --wait 'til you see the basement. It just never quits.

And I am tired.

Because of the job anxiety we have going here, my husband is working 50-60 hour weeks. Which means I am single-parenting for long stretches of time and I can't remember the last time I got to leave the house ALONE to do something other than marathon grocery shopping (which I don't think really counts 'cause it's not very relaxing).

I have this recurring fantasy where I am whisked off to a spa and massaged and facialed and foot rubbed into a light, but refreshing coma. Then I come home to a sparkling clean house which looks nothing like my own and Alice has dinner already on the table.

Frankly, teaching high school was a cakewalk next to this mom gig.