Tuesday, January 28, 2014

State of the Blue House

While political analysts are discussing tonight's State of the Union address, I know what you really want to know is what's going on at the Blue House. Well, even if that wasn't what was foremost in your mind, here are a few things that have been happening lately. {grin}

1) Two more signs I'm officially old: First, I've made coffee every day for the last two weeks. Now, before I ruffle the feathers of my coffee-loving friends, I'm not saying drinking coffee makes you old. It makes me old, because I almost never make coffee for myself. I've been fine my entire life without coffee, although I do love the occasional treat from QuikTrip or (if I'm willing to spend the money) something from Starbucks, but now I'm finding I just can't make my brain work without a little help.

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But even more humbling than having to resort to a daily coffee fix, is that I have to use a magnifying glass to check my daughter's math homework. Because of the two days at home schedule of the girls' school, I'm supposed to check Grace's math homework, so I have my own copy of the teacher key. But the answers in the teacher key are so stinkin' small I can't read them! I have an eye doctor appointment on Thursday, and I think I know what the result will be.

2) We pretty much see deer every day at the Blue House, but this year there has been an abundance of wild turkeys in our neighborhood. Love it! I quickly snapped this shot through the window of one in front of our house, but they don't stay still long enough for you to get a good picture.

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3) I am the mother of a 16-year-old now. A 16-year-old who has no interest in driving. But I love her anyway. ; ) For her birthday party she had some of her friends over for an epic battle of catch-the-flag in the back yard, complete with weapons. I want to be 16 again!

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Ryne was invited to the battle.

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Speak softly and carry a big stick.

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The birthday girl in action.

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Take that!

4) The transmission went out in Marc's car last Friday. While I'm not happy about what it's going to cost to get it rebuilt, it has turned into a wonderful blessing for me. It will take a week to get it fixed, so we are down to one car. Marc will rent a car Thursday and Friday because we have too many things going on those days, but yesterday he took the girls to school and he picked them up so he could use my car all day. Folks, that was two extra hours in my day!!! Today he mostly worked from home, but took Anna to the office with him in the afternoon and then took her to her indoor track practice because it's just a few minutes from his office. Normally, I would have driven her to practice, stayed for the entire practice, then driven her home -- total of 2.5 hours. Woo hoo! Yes, I've gotten a few more things than usual done this week. I could get used to this . . . .

5) You know when you have one of those "small world" moments when an unknown connection between you and someone is revealed? Today was full of those moments for me today. I won't go into all the details, because it would completely bore you, but it just kept happening and happening through emails, someone who stopped by the house, phone calls, etc. And everyone involved was a Christian. I have no idea what God's purpose was in revealing all these connections, but it was so cool.

Anything interesting happen in your January?

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

What my true love gave to me . . .

Happy New Year! Did you stay up until midnight or are you a celebrate-at-ten o'clock type person? I didn't quite make it to midnight; I was asleep by 11:30, but it was a very enjoyable evening. Anna was at a friend's house, and the rest of us played Apples to Apples: Bible Edition. Sometime during the evening, Ryne asked if I was ready for the Christmas break to end. No. Definitely not. I could use another six weeks of this, couldn't you? So I think I'll talk about Christmas just a bit longer . . .

Some time ago, I fell in love with a jewelry organizer over at IHeart Organizing (one of my favorite home blogs). I'm really not much of a jewelry gal (I wear the same small silver hoop earrings and a simple necklace 90% of the time), but I have enough that I was starting to have trouble containing it all. Long necklaces were getting hopelessly tangled, and I was leaving earrings all over the place because I was running out places to put them.

But when it came to making one of my own, I kept holding off mostly because of cost. It's not an expensive project (the decorative sheet metal is between $15-$20), but it was going to come out of my own spending money, which I try to reserve for caffeine fixes and my book addiction. But when Christmas rolled around, I asked Marc if he needed any gift ideas for me, and he was relieved delighted to have some help.

So now I have a new jewelry organizer, and I just love it!!! And I love it even more because my hubby made it!

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Go to Jen's post to find out the details on how to make your own. The only things Marc did different was use glue to attach the decorative sheet metal right to the frame in addition to using the frame brackets, and I asked him to attach some hooks along the bottom so I can hang necklaces. I was able to get the frame at JoAnn's for 65% off, and it was almost the same size as the metal. Marc just had to trim a little off the edges.

The biggest bummer was that one of the kids accidentally knocked the frame over and now the top right corner has a little gap that won't close up. Oh, well. It's just in my closet where no one will see it. Except for the entire internet, now that I've posted this. ; )

I had so much fun arranging everything!

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Am I the only one who keeps a single earring for more than two years, hoping the match will someday turn up? I lost it at church, so the likelihood of that happening is slim, but you never know.

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I decided to hang those sweet baby bracelets on one of the hooks, so now I can see them every day, and ponder over whether my girls were ever really small enough to wear those. {sniff}

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This isn't the only jewelry storage I have. There is a lingerie dresser squeezed into the closet, just to the left of my new organizer. In the top drawer I keep a couple of those clear plastic eggs cartons to hold bracelets, rings, earrings with backs, and other odds and ends. Like I said, I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but it's just a nice place to keep all the things that collect over the years.

Something I've been wearing more lately is my mom's high school class ring that still has the original box. It was fun to go through some of those old treasures that had been buried in the mess.

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Thank you, Honey, for a wonderful Christmas present!

Now if I could just get the rest of my house this organized! : )