Squishy.

My Dad has always done private contracting and when I was a kid, one particular house he built was fairly close to our own. After school, my Mom and brother and I would drive over to the work site to hang out for a bit. My very favorite thing on the site was a massive mountain of dirt that was leftover when they dug out the foundation. My brother and I would climb that mound every evening and get completely filthy, digging and burrowing through the soft, freshly dug dirt. One of those really great childhood memories.

So, when the storms from last weekend left an impromptu shallow pond in our backyard and the kids ended up in it fully-clothed, I acquiesced.

What had started out as an innocent game of throwing rocks in the water soon turned into a mud-slinging free-for-all. And all I could think about was that dirt mound as a kid--the soft, squishy mud between my toes and how absolutely glorious it felt.

Needless to say, I was thrilled that my kids were feeling the same thing.

Naomi's white tutu is now brown, but, it was worth it. Kids being kids--it doesn't get much better than that.

Have a lovely day.

Oh, y'all. I am so tired. After a day full of flight delays that resulted in a midnight flight to an airport way out of our way and a night spent in said airport (by "night" I mean from 2-5 in the morning ... oy), my brain is fried. I'm so glad to be home.

I do plan on expounding the details of the trip, but for now I will leave you with some snapshots. These span from Maine to New Hampshire to Vermont and highlight the beautiful home of my Aunt, sore feet, the joys of the sea, a visit to Seventh Generation headquarters, reuniting with family, and, most importantly, Memere's 90th birthday party, thrown by my Mom and her two sisters. This was really a very special trip.

Enjoy the pictures and I promise a post is coming, after I recover.

Have a lovely day, friends.

Startled.

On Sunday afternoon, I settled happily onto our couch for a much-anticipated nap. Naomi was napping, my husband was at the store, and Caleb was spending the afternoon with his grandparents, so I stretched out on the cool leather, let my eyes flicker shut, and bam. I was out.

I'm not sure how long I was asleep, but at some point I began to hear a screeching and squawking in my dream. I drifted in that weird in-between stage of sleep and wakefulness before realizing that I was actually hearing screeching and squawking. My eyes popped open as I heard what I'm sure was every one of our chickens, crying and crowing in the backyard. I leapt off the couch, flung the back door open, and beheld a frenzied sight. The chickens were running in circles in a panic. In my just-woke-up stupor I looked back and forth to see what could have startled them. A hawk? A dog? I couldn't see anything, but boy, the girls were freaked out.

As they ran in circles before me, one of the especially ambitious hens took off in a dead sprint, flapped her wings, and shot straight in the air. I followed her with my eyes and saw her determined self flap forward for about three feet, stop, and drop.

Right into our above-ground pool.

My jaw dropped open and I charged towards the pool. Remember, our stairs are not attached for the safety of the kiddos, so I had to hoist my (pregnant) self (in a dress) onto the deck to save the chicken. I frantically looked over the edge to see the poor panicked poultry hysterically flapping, yet floating.

Who knew chickens could float? Hmm.

Anyway. I knew she wouldn't last long in there, so I reached in, swiped her out of the water, tucked her under my arm, and scooted off of the deck. She flew out of my arms and made a beeline for the coop.

Now. Let's just remember that at this point I've been awake for maybe a total of 45 seconds. There was still a small part of me that wondered if perhaps I was dreaming all of this...I mean, they've never acted this way before! But, I shook my head, shrugged my shoulders, walked back inside, and shut the door behind me.

And saw this:

Oh geez.

I did a double-take before realizing I had left the back door open when I ran outside. This smart chicky must have felt a waft of cool air from the house and decided to check it out, and, once inside, decided the cool granite was the perfect place to perch.

Oy.

After much chasing and clucking, the hen ended up back outside, and my exhausted self ended up back on the couch. And then I laughed. Really hard.

Oh, the joys of country living, friends. Oh the joys.

Have a lovely day!

Don't Worry, There's An Abnormal Psych Book In There, Too.

So, this little bookshelf in our front room seems to be quite the conversation starter.

Apparently, storing books in such a backward manner seems a bit, well, backward, and more than once we've had visitors do a double-take while passing by. They typically pause, point at the bookshelf, look at me, and raise an eyebrow. To which I respond with What? I mean, what's the problem? So you can't actually see the bindings on the books! Meh, what's the big deal? I've seen books displayed like this on several home decorating shows and in home decor magazines, so, to me, it makes perfect sense!

Except that it's completely non-functional.

Well, okay, not completely. It looks nice and muted. That's its purpose. The front room is soft and muted and I didn't want bright red and yellow book bindings compromising the overall look of the room. Call me crazy, but that's my reason.

That and the fact that I can't part with books. Ever.

You see, these books are just a sampling of the volumes my husband and I have accumulated over the years. Textbooks, advice books, novels and the like. Our attic is full of them. Our closet is full of them. And we need a place to keep the strays that continuously spill from their storage bins. They aren't books that we read anymore, but they are books that I refuse to sell or give away. So, here they sit, with bindings dutifully facing the wall. Would you like to see?

Here's a gem:

Eek. Just the sight of this book gives me nightmares about t-tests and chi-squared tests. Statistics was not my forte in college. Even with Excel. Sad.

Here are some beauties:

My husband, bless his heart, is very much into thoroughly researching every hobby or subject in which he finds himself even remotely interested. Hence, superfluous books on backpacking, blackjack, real estate investment, and golf. Upside down. Thank you, Blogger formatting.

And, of course:

This book was my right hand man in college. And, I mean, why toss it? Someday someone might come by and ask me to write a paper using APA stipulations, right? I mean, that's totally plausible. Really.

And, lastly:

My old lit book. This poor baby no longer has a cover. But who can lazily toss away such epic stories like Homer's Odyssey or Kafka's Metamorphosis? Not me. If I'm keeping the stats book, you can bet I'm keeping this one.

And, of course, there are many more stuffed on that shelf. Call me a book hoarder. It's just my weakness, I suppose. So, if you visit my home and walk through this room and notice my bookshelf, you will at least know now the somewhat ludicrous reasoning behind its existence. And when you point and laugh, know that if you need to know what to do when the dealer shows a ten or how to navigate through the Himalayas, the answers are right there. :)

Have a lovely day.

Before and After: Guest Bathroom!

We've been in the house for a few months now and I'm finally over the moving funk, ready to stretch my wings and start taking ownership of decorating this house and making it our home.

My first little project was the guest bathroom. Behold, the guest bedroom:

While the walls remain blank (and I don't really mind) and the bed needs some pillows (they'll come eventually), you can see the overall mood we're going for here: Calm, clean, and peaceful. Our guests have a quaint window seat that overlooks the front lawn and the pond, and the white Shabby Chic bedding is begging for someone to climb beneath its fluffy folds. The suitcase side-table emphasizes our rest-for-the-weary-traveler theme, and overall I love this room.

Then there's the bathroom.

The sink and cupboards are just fine ...

(Sorry the picture is dark, I took these with my phone!) I love the white cabinets, the neutral walls, the silver fittings ... it matches the quaintness of the bedroom well.

Then. Then there's this:

This gem of a mistake was hanging over the toilet. I'm not sure what the previous homeowners were thinking with this last-minute addition, but not only is the color terribly wrong from the wood stain to the gold fixtures (gah), but they also hung it UPSIDE DOWN. Last I checked, the arches on cabinet doors are traditionally at the top (this is the kind of stuff that my Dad, a private contractor, embedded into my brain as an INEXCUSABLE MISTAKE). Our cupboard looked like an unfortunate mismatched piece of laziness adorned with two very pronounced "U"'s.

I tried to take it off of the wall so I could paint it and hang it properly, but this beauty was stuck tight. So, I taped around it and painted it right where it was, using a dry-brush technique to give it an aged look. I removed the cabinet doors, bought new silver hinges and sparkly clear knobs (note the rings on the shower curtain, continuing the Shabby Chic/New Romanticism theme I'm in love with), and with the help of my Dad, Humpty Dumpty was put back together again.

Back, and better than ever. :)

One project to check off the list! The den is our next endeavor ... stay tuned!

Have a lovely day.

Hotter Than Hot.

I don't know about y'all, but we're definitely enduring a stifling heat wave here in Oklahoma. Couple the August-like temps with good ol' Midwest humidity and you've got blazing hot days and not much relief at night.

My friend did a little survey on Facebook to see how the temps were in other places, too, so I thought I'd give it a go on my blog to see how the weather was treating my fellow bloggy friends!

This is what I want to know:

1) What part of the country you are in (regions are good--I never give the name of my specific town and don't expect you to, either)

2) The current time

3) The current temperature

You can list the heat index, too, if you want to, although I don't think it makes much of a difference once you get past 100, ha ha. :)

Here's my info:

1) Northeast Oklahoma

2) 3:26pm

3) 104 degrees

Yeesh. The temps keep climbing! What's it like where you live?

Have a lovely day!

Blast. Off.

I jumped in the car this morning to grab some coffee at my new favorite coffee joint in town and, rather than turning on the kiddos' CD, I instead tuned into a local country station (I live in Oklahoma, remember). As we neared our drive-thru destination, the host of the morning show announced that a viewing of the space shuttle Atlantis launch could be seen at the Planetarium of a local Air and Space Museum and as I turned up the volume, he shared about the poignancy of this launch, the last manned shuttle launch of the space program.

Last manned shuttle?

I peered in the rearview mirror, saw my two kiddos smiling back at me, and decided that the Planetarium was exactly where we needed to be. It was still early, but I was now on my own mission of making this mini trip happen, in a blaze of the-kids-need-to-experience-this glory. I called my friend and told her about the launch and asked if she wanted to enjoy a historical adventure (and a chaotic one), a challenge which she graciously accepted. I came home, packed some snacks, put on makeup, and went to pick up my friend and her daughter. As we cruised in the minivan to the Planetarium, we reminisced on what the space program was like when we were kids. Who didn't want to go to space? Most kids, at some point, want and expect to experience space travel. When I was Cub's age, the Challenger shuttle had just been lost and the country mourned together the brave souls who were so close to space but never made it there. The space program was an important part of our education and it was a little sad to think that our kids, while they will probably be exposed to the exploration of space, won't necessarily live in a country that budgets for its own astronauts to go there. An understood cut, but a sad one, nonetheless. The end of a chapter in an endless book.

We pulled into the parking lot, put the girls in the jogger, and headed inside. By this time it was standing room only, the dark room full of spectators and local TV crews filming the launch on the large screen. We got there with nine minutes to spare and watched as mission control gave the go and charged the shuttle with safety and "godspeed". Those few minutes were punctuated with switching the babies and taking trips to the lobby to walk around, but when the twenty second mark came, we were all in there together, standing at the very back, watching history unfold. Cub held onto his Bullseye horse and watched in complete silence and astonishment as fire poured out of the burners. When the countdown came to ten, everyone in the Planetarium started counting out loud, the excitement building with each number. When it came to ONE! all of the cell phones came out, snapping pictures of the shuttle as it poured smoke, trembled, and all 4 million pounds of fuel and ship slowly rumbled and lifted off of the ground. There were cheers, and, I'm sure, a few tears.

And that was it. Within a few minutes, the moment was over.

We gathered the kids and schlepped them back to the car, and drove home.

I know that the kids won't remember what they saw today (although Cub loves saying, "Today I saw a space shuttle fly high in the sky!"), but I love that they were able to experience the poignancy of sending their fellow countrymen to space for the last time, for a long time. To enjoy, for a few moments, the unifying excitement that it brings, in that small Planetarium, full of strangers who, on a countdown from ten, cheered for the same thing.

To remember that, no matter how frequent, it is a bit of a miracle to witness men piercing our atmosphere, forging into the vastness of outer space.

Have a lovely day.

Wednesday With A Few Words: Party Pictures From My Phone.

(Maybe it was more than ten boxes.)

(You can see the second flag in the background.)

(Yummy Marshmallow Pops! I found the idea here, but omitted the peanut butter and used white chocolate instead.)

(It was quite toasty outside.)

(Part of the group!)

Have a lovely day!

A Happy Fourth.

Ten boxes of fireworks

+

Sixty-five guests

+

Kiddos splashing in the pool

+

A ferocious game of backyard volleyball

+

Lots of laughing and chatting with friends and family

+

A few children's tears from the fireworks' BOOM!

+

Lawn chairs

+

A table filled edge-to-edge with pies, cookies, cake, chips, deviled eggs, cobbler, and homemade ice cream

+

Disc golf and Bocce Ball in the front yard

+

Tiki torches

+

Flags and sparklers

+

Bug spray

=

One heck of a Fourth of July.

(And two very, very exhausted hosts. YAY for coffee.)

(And yay for a home where we can do stuff like this--a dream come true for us. Exhaustion is a bit more tolerable when it's accompanied by joy. What fun memories were made!)

I hope your Fourth was a good one!

Have a lovely day.

Puddle Jumper.

(Look! I put a random stock photo of a child that is not mine on my blog!)

Our house came with a circular above-ground pool. It wasn't anything I was necessarily wanting, but my husband, ohhhhh my husband, he saw it and fell in love. As long as he was cool with the maintenance, then I was cool with using it! :)

Having the pool has turned out to be an amazingly wonderful thing. The kids and I can swim during the day and every night after dinner, we all go for a family swim. It's kind of like being on vacation every night. So fun! Now, the random stock photo image above is to give a shameless plug for these amazing floaties known as Puddle Jumpers. These awesome floaties have revolutionized the swimming experience for our little man. Our little Cub has always been a bit of a fish, firstly with a little inflatable boat before he was a year old, then with holding on and swimming around with us last summer, and now these things. When the hot weather arrived, I first bought Cub a pair of arm floaties. He didn't like them one bit and was afraid of going underwater. Some friends of ours had a Puddle Jumper for their daughter, so I went to our local Wally World to get one for Cub (I found it in the life jacket section, but I do not think it technically qualifies as one ... at least we wouldn't use it as one on the boat!).

Oh my.

Within a few minutes, he was swimming by himself around the pool. The floaties are made of the same material as a life jacket (not inflatable, but foam) and the section across the front gives them extra support to stay above the water. Oh my goodness, it has been so amazing to see Cub flourish and swim on his own when he wears his Puddle Jumper. He also feels safer about going underwater and will jump in by himself. How fun!

Sadly, I don't have any really great pictures of him wearing his Puddle Jumper, so the stock photo will have to do. But trust me, the smile is the same!

Have a lovely day, friends!