Homey

After a couple pre-packaged posts, it’s time for a general fill-in-the-gaps post.

The best thing about being married to a teacher is JULY! It’s so fun having a whole summer with all of us home together in our new house. We’ve had lots of time home together in the past back when Jeff was a-job hunting, but this kind is so much better because there’s no stress or mystery about jobs/the future. It’s just two goofy parents and two cute kids playing house!

We have been working hard on our home every day. Rose and I brought back some Ikea merchandise, and Jeff put it all together. These are our bouncy chairs.

There’s the whole room. Now all we need is a piano. [Accepting donations]

She suddenly fell asleep right next to me.

Jeff worked hard on our bookshelves this week, and they are done and organized at last! We just got those upright strips with clip-in adjustable brackets to make simple, lower-cost shelving for my Sammy Keyes and Little House books and Jeff’s Philosophy and History books. When I find the right baskets, I will line the floor under the bottom shelf with them.

Here’s the best view I could get of the couch plus some shelves. This is my favorite room (besides the kitchen). I love having ALL of our books out in one place. Some of these books have been hidden in boxes for over a year since we did not have enough space in our old apartment for our library. I felt like I was greeting long-lost friends when I unpacked them. And you know the best part of these shelves? They have plenty of room for MORE BOOKS!

Jay and his blocks. These square blocks migrate all over the house every day. I love Jay’s imagination—these blocks can be ANYTHING (but usually they’re whiteguys).

Rub a dub dub. Another home-improvement Jeff did this week was: unclog the drain in this bathtub. We had to get a special wide screwdriver to get the drain plug off, and then Jeff found the biggest clump of NASTY hair with TWO hair ties tangled in it, like someone chopped off two pigtails or something. YUCK. I’m glad we all have short hair now.

Jeff has also been working his booty off in the  yard, pulling all the spiny noxious weeds and watering it into a green oasis. It’s getting there. I still haven’t made it out there to help him, and when I went and gashed up my knees from falling on that run, he teased me by saying that I’d do anything to get out of weeding! Hopefully this week I can get out to help.

I have been working on “detail cleaning” inside the house: I scrubbed down all the kitchen cabinets because they were all scuffed and scarred from the previous occupants. I dusted all those wide wood blinds. It’s amazing how easy it was to overlook these little details, when once they were done it is noticeably brighter and better and happier in here. These kinds of things don’t really show up in pictures, or else I would’ve taken some, believe me!

And now on to the little Rosebud. She is one month from turning the magical 18 months old. Today Jeff took her to Nursery at church and sat in there for an hour before the sweet leader said he could go because Rose was doing so well. I’m glad she and Jay can be in Nursery together for 4 months. My little cutie is getting so big! I had Jeff take some pictures with his nice camera before church this morning.

Motherly boast: She’s smiling at me for this picture.

Rose kept her “pretty” in all DAY today—for like the second time ever. YAY (pretty=bow)

Rose, 1 year and 5 months old.

And there’s Jay. He is so tall! We got him some nice new church pants and a real belt, and he looks so mature in them. Jay has entered a somewhat defiant phase lately: the why’s are still frequent but he’s added “I don’t want to!” which is tougher to circumvent. It’s taking some practice for me to be able to explain things on his level so that he can understand why he sometimes has to do things he doesn’t want to.

Replace the sippy cup with a soda can and he could do a billboard. Or give him some suspenders and a tweed jacket and he could be Dr. Who.

Mr. Handsome Jay: 3 1/4 years old.

While Jeff was at it, we did another classic, badly-arranged family photo with the tripod. What is a good pose for a family anyway? We sure haven’t found one yet.

I didn’t know that the camera was clicking at this moment, but I kind of like it. Do Jeff and I always look at each other with those semi-sappy, semi-goofy smiles? Probably.

 

The SKY here is the best. It’s different every night—I love watching the sun sink in a gush of gold. I can barely resist the temptation to take a picture of it every night. We have such a gorgeous view. It reminds me every night just how blessed we are.