Almost Wordless Wednesday

We went to Lexington this past weekend to watch my nephew play basketball in a tournament. Ty now needs Nike shoes and wants to play too.

The bathroom has been repainted and is now the same neutral color I have throughout the rest of the house. And the flowers survived for three weeks, making me very happy. 

Page one of five in Ty's first journal of first grade. It came home this week and made me cry.

Just Another Day in Paradise

Lauren called Sunday morning to tell on Taylor for pulling her fingers. She did this because I threatened him with bodily harm if I caught him grabbing her fingers again after he dislocated one last year. He quickly took the phone and whined, "but Mom! She was poking me!" and I cracked up. They are adulting.

Erin sent us word Jake stated Moe's was better than Qdoba. She hates to tell us but this means he most likely isn't "the one". She is emailing the CEO of Tinder about their neglect in not including that particular question in their screening process.

Ty gave Makenna some driving advice because he is obviously an expert on the subject. "All you have to do is ride the brake down hills and watch for cars. It is just like riding a scooter."

Saturday night Kate called Greg a Butt. Name calling hasn't been Kate's style but we were bound to ruin her at some point. Anyway, Greg quickly responded by declaring that would make her a turd. Makenna burst out laughing and told her father he says one funny thing every couple of weeks so he should just be quiet for awhile.

I tried people. I really tried. I raised these children in church, with wholesome television and homemade food. I banned Sponge Bob and chef boy r dee. I checked all the good parenting boxes and yet I spend an awful lot of time wondering where it all went wrong.

Still here

Santa gave her stilts. And it still freaks me out a bit when she walks up behind me, much taller than she should be.  She has great balance, roams all over the house and rumor has it she wants to start learning how to do tricks with them. And to that news, I have a gentle reminder. Our deductible reset on the first. Please be careful because Makenna has now surpassed all I would ever like to spend on orthopedic care. Thank you very much.

There was an incident recently involving an open and very full bottle of black nail polish. I was able to remove it from the counter, floor and toilet; however, the wall and baseboard needs to be painted. This is not a project I anticipated. In fact, the master bathroom was the one we hoped to tackle in the near future. Sigh. So we are trying to decide if we will get a similar if not the same color or take the opportunity to try something new. In all honesty, I just am not feeling very inspired right now and the fact we know there is some minor dry wall damage above the shower means this little painting project will be anything but little. Isn't this typically the case?

Lauren and Taylor had an interesting move. They encountered several glitches along the way including multiple delays in getting Taylor out of his dorm and into their house with Lauren. She was not happy but is getting more settled. I suspect it will still be awhile before they see humor in all they have overcome in just a few short weeks. They have learned a lot and someday I hope they can laugh about it.

January and February are typically difficult months for me because I require a lot of sunshine and fresh air. This year we have added the sudden loss of the kid's friend, a breast cancer diagnosis for a friend of Erin's and the New Year's terminal diagnosis of my close friend to exaggerate those feelings. I have started another gratitude journal inspired by One Thousand Gifts in hopes of focusing on life more positively.  I meet weekly with my bible study partner and try to maintain my workouts but I am not going to lie, I have felt pretty low a lot of the time. This has not been an easy couple of weeks.

Makenna's recovery has gone smoothly; much better than we anticipated. She walks around the house without her crutches already, can now shower alone (she won't miss that particular level of bonding) and is managing her days at school so well, she often spends time with friends afterward. We anticipate an excellent report from the surgeon later this week. Layla missed Makenna sleeping with her for a solid week and made sure we all knew it with her constant whining and pacing. Peace has been restored now that Makenna can navigate the stairs.

We had the opportunity to play in an elementary school gymnasium because we are friends with the teacher and he knows my son well. Burning energy on cold, rainy days is always a good option.

We wore EVERYONE out. Afterward, Makenna and I purchased her prom dress and I once again wondered how junior prom is even a remote possibility  already.

Stress Managed

When the going gets tough, the tough redecorates. The reality it has only been a week since Christmas hit me last night. A lot of life has taken place these last seven days. I am ready to start fresh with a new organized color coded calendar. (Makenna has been watching Friends on Netflix this last week and now calls me Monica as often as she refers to me as Sheryl. At least Monica suits me.) Now if everyone who loves me could just adhere to the plan, that would be great. I wish 2017 to be restful and maybe even boring. For real.

As the craziness of 2016 unfolded, I craved a retreat space for us to escape the madness. We went to Home Depot before December kidnapped my husband and bought a large framed mirror I had two possible plans for. It has been waiting in the garage for me to get some time to start moving furniture. I started on Friday night and cannot believe how much space the change created. And the overall feeling of the bedroom is inviting. Both Greg and I are pleased. But the biggest change was the addition of a smart TV so we could arrange furniture the way I wanted as opposed to the way the cable hookups demanded.

Greg and I had been discussing updating our bedroom for several weeks. It is a space that hasn't been on the receiving end of our attention like the rest of the house and serves more of a catch-all. I kept sentimental pieces and mix matched furniture in there, falsely believing it was a good place to do that since we are the only ones who see it. So I impulsively spent some money on Saturday afternoon.

I shopped online quite a bit and couldn't believe the price I found on this model at Best Buy. In fact, when I stopped in to look at it, the salesman was convinced I had the price wrong.  When I pulled it up on my phone, his eyes got big and he flagged down another associate. Not only did I leave with a new TV but so did the couple next to me and I suspect the salesman did too. It was Christmas money well spent. In fact, it is most likely the only part of the room change that Greg cares about.

The furniture was from my childhood and is still in great shape but the boxy mirror with shelves was dating it quite a bit. I was ready to let that part go. Now I am deciding if I am painting the dressers. I haven't committed to a decision either way because as I already mentioned, this past week was one of the longest in the history of weeks. I am tired.

We would like a small seating area at the bottom of the bed and need to replace the flooring but our budget took significant hits in 2016 and the TV was the extent of splurging we could do in this moment.

In the meantime, the space is welcoming and the project served me well. I stayed pretty busy the night I said goodbye to Lauren. Greg says he is glad I didn't marry a blind man because I move large things when I am dealing with stress. He makes a good point.