Friday, February 18, 2011

Now you're 14

 You came with the rain and the lady bugs. A tiny creature with so much power. Power to change everything. Schedules and priorities and balance and hearts.
 You grew too quickly. And to say you brought nothing but joy would be a lie. Because you also brought frustration, knowing your mind before you could even talk. Demanding a new mom when you were angry with me. Playing your games of "Mommy, please I want to talk about it" as I left your room but refusing to talk when I turned back in.

You also brought worry. Like when you passed out right in front of me as I told your great-grandma on the phone that you weren't that sick. And as you grow, the worries have grown...and changed.

 But you've always been wise beyond your years. And you've always known the way
you want to live your life. And so you've also brought pride. Pride in your strength and your values and your confidence. I'm so proud of the young woman you are becoming.
And yes, you have brought joy. So much joy into my life. You are witty, intelligent, silly. You make me laugh almost every day. You are AWESOME and I hope your 14th birthday is just as awesome for you. I love you so much, my sweet girl.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

I'll smoke...

this carrot if you won't let me drink!
Yep, she's still trying to convince me to let her have a wine cooler.(See previous post.)
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Hey Mom, can I get my drink on?

Yesterday I bought a box of 12 wine coolers to take to a party. This morning, G looked into the box and saw that I had only had two at the party. G has always been precocious with her language--she said funny stuff since about the first day she spoke. Now she's about to turn 14 and she is just as funny, but it is her logic and reasoning that cracks me up. This was our conversation this morning:

G (looking in the box): You only drank 2?
Me: Yes, I was a good girl. I had to drive home.
G: Can I have one?
Me: No!
G: But it's Sunday.
Me: What does that have to do with anything?
G: That's my day to get drunk. Can I split one with you?
Me: No!
G: Why not?
Me: You are only 13.
G: I'll be 14 in a week.
Me: And then I'll say you're only 14!
G: C'mon, please? Besides it's opposite day, so I'm really 31 today.
Me: Yea, right. I don't think so.
G: Plus I'm double covered 'cuz on opposite day the legal drinking age is 12 not 21!
Me: Keep trying!

Then later she says to me, "Hey, mom, if I can't get my drink on today, can we go get French fries?"
I wish you could see the twinkle in her eyes as we have these conversations! She cracks me up!

Friday, February 4, 2011

“If you want to become full, let yourself be empty.” ~Lao Tzu

I love the show Hoarders on A&E TV. I love it for a variety of reasons. Whenever I watch it, I am compelled to clean my house during the commercials. That is one reason I love it. My house is not the neatest or the cleanest house. Watching Hoarders makes me feel better about myself because I can see that, while I'd love to have a neater, less cluttered house, it is not as bad as it could be.

And I really do fight an almost losing battle, because as much as I try to keep things in order, my husband is a hoarder. I don't think he's as bad as many of the people featured on the show, but without me around, I know he'd be much worse. And now that he has become self-employed and is working from home, it is getting worse. He's selling on E-bay and though I gave him the built in desks in the front room to use for this purpose, his packaging spills over to the dining room table. And stays there. And stays there. And stays there. You get the picture.

One of the items he sells is fishing lures. So there is a box of lures being prepared for sale...in the living room. His paperwork has absolutely no organization. I bought a cabinet for him to file paperwork and keep his records in some semblance of order. But it spills out of his cabinet and slowly creeps along the living room floor like an iceberg. He's also doing small engine and boat repair. So my laundry room has engine parts ALL over it. And oil. Lots of oil. His hoarding has also led to a yard full of boats and boat trailers, old cars, and various other pieces of equipment.

All this mess and clutter is driving me to look at becoming minimalist. I would love to strip us down to the bare minimum of belongings. Yesterday I began cleaning the basement. I got rid of two big trash bags of junk to the dumpster. I have a giant bag of crafting items to take to school for kids to use there. And I have a giant stack of items to take to Good Will. Cleaning and de-cluttering always makes me feel like a weight is lifting off me. I hate feeling like I am buried under meaningless junk. Clearing it away gives me a sense of freedom and power. I don't need stuff to rule my life.

I know that my husband understands that this mess and clutter bothers me. I don't know if he realizes how high on my scale of unhappiness it ranks, but he has been trying to clean things up. Sometimes it seems that this just means moving mess and clutter from one place to another. But he's trying, and I do appreciate that.

Now, I think I should go find more clutter to get rid of.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Making of a Teen Room

My 13 year old decided she was ready to say goodbye to her Fairy Castle bedroom. Her Grandma and I painted this mural on her wall when she was 3 and moved into her big-girl bedroom as her baby sister was on the way.
It was so hard for me to do it, but I covered that sweet castle wall with several coats of primer and paint.
She had to spend a couple of nights sleeping on the floor during the painting process. She picked out this striped bedding set and we designed her new room around it.
Once again I enlisted the help of my mom. She is the Design Queen. Here we are painting stripes on half the wall.
I painted the backs of her bookshelves the same color as the stripes. After the stripes dried, we added a chair-rail border above and filled in the border with circles in the colors that are in the comforter.
She decided that she wanted a new desk and to get rid of some of the other furniture in her room to make more space. It is a pretty small room. This desk was a great buy and fits the updated look.
On the wall behind her bed we made some fun circles she can write on. These are made from chalkboard style Contact paper. She's been having fun looking up quotes on the internet and changing them frequently.
Jeff found an old speed boat side-rail and used this as the rod for her bed curtain.
Her Grandma made the bed curtain and the matching window valance.




You'd think after all this we would be done, but there are some finishing touches we still have left to do. I have some crown molding to put up around the ceiling. And we have some pictures she chose that we are going to cut into circles and put up on the wall behind her desk. We will be using repositionable Contact paper so that she can change the pictures. After the pictures are placed, I also plan to add some colored circles in paint to add a little zing to the whole thing.

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