Thursday Thirteen: A Summer of Learning

12 Days until school starts. I am so sad. It has been such as awesome summer. Noah has blossomed into this amazing kid right before my eyes. Everyone told me that the summer between kindergarten and first grade was HUGE, but I really didn't believe it. Noah will be starting first grade and be gone EVERY DAY ALL DAY. Aaron will be going to preschool 4 mornings a week. Even though we struggle financially with me not working full time, this summer really taught me how blessed I am am that I can teach in the evenings and be home with the kids during the day. Here are 13 of the things that I was blessed to witness this summer:

13. Noah went from sounding out 3 letter words in June, to being an independent reader

12. Aaron learned to love going to library every week as much as the rest of us. Both boys completed the reading club and got bags of prizes for the success

11. Noah pulled out his first tooth during a story together at bedtime

10. Aaron, at 3 years old, learned to jump into the deep end of a pool and turn around and swim to the side without help.

9. Noah learned to jump off the diving board and swim to the far end of the shallow end with the backstroke, elementary backstroke, and front crawl

8. Aaron learned to write his name (he FINALLY did the "R" last week)

7. Noah learned how to ride his bike without training wheels

6. Aaron got to participate in REAL school at VBS and loved being part of a "class"

5. Noah started piano lessons and is doing better than I expected

4. Aaron is finally starting to match pitch when we sing with him

3. Noah can recite the entire Lord's Prayer without help

2. Aaron learned to pump his legs on a swing all by himself

1. I learned to appreciate every day with my kids for what it is and know that these days are going WAY too quickly.

So if you tune in to this blog in 12 days, September 2, it probably won't be a pretty site/sight. I miss them already.

Wordless Wednesday: Fashion Statements

Tackle It Tuesday: Craft Cabinet et al.

I told you yesterday that this weekend turned into MAJOR home repairs. It all started with the craft closet. And it's ALL DEB'S FAULT!!! :)

While the boys and I were over there last week, Deb said to me, "I was going to ask you how you organize your craft stuff because ours is a mess." It forced me to actually think about the state of our craft closet:

Here's what she didn't know...




















and on top












UGH! All of you who were so impressed at the beginning of the summer with all of the crafty things we did and I posted about....this was the result of all the fun.

So Friday night while Deb and I were out at Lowe's, we saw some great deals of different kind of storage stuff that you see at the regular stores (Target, Meijer, etc.) and I got a great set of 10 pieces. So Saturday morning, I got motivated.

Does anyone else make a bigger mess when they organize than there was in the beginning?

So I started putting stuff on the table to get a clean slate



















But after the table was completely filled, I still had a cabinet full of stuff,.



















So then I put all of the empty containers on the floor and started sorting craft items by type



















Pumpkin felt it was very important to help by EATING some of the supplies so I wouldn't have to find a place for them...thanks for the aid, Little One.














After about two hours and warding the kids out of the kitchen about a millions times (they were so excited to see ALL of the craft stuff out), this is the final product.



















There's even space left for more stuff.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!!!

I couldn't just stop...

The top of the dishwasher

Before














After












No, I'm not a complete slob. Life just kind of took over for the last couple of weeks and I have been slipping in my household duties. There has been a lot of discussion in our household over the last few weeks lately about what I could do to bring in extra money in the mornings while Aaron is at preschool 4 mornings a week and Noah is at school all day every day. I would have thought that Steve would be the one pushing for me to find something. He surprised me yet again though (I love that guy) and said that he would rather have me be able to spend the time finally getting this house under control. Every room in our house has had a half-baked improvement project started and left to be finished over the years. This is the time to finish them. The list is growing so stay tuned for a very active Tackle It Tuesday for at least the next few months. It should be very entertaining.

But for now, anyone want to take bets on how long the craft cabinet STAYS clean?

Weekend Top Five 8/17/08

A much less thrilling weekend than last weekend for the kids. For us, however, we got so much accomplished. I don't have a whole lot of pictures to describe, because we were too busy. Let me explain...

As many of my readers know, Deb has undertaken a major house switch around that involved painting all the bedrooms, switching all the furniture and toys, and cleaning up all of the messes left behind.

Much to my shame, her messes created by major house changes were still neater than some of my everyday messes. So I decided that something needed to be done. I will share one of them one Tuesday, but the other now.

So with that explanantuions, our top five activities from this weekend.

5. A little straightening up turned into a full kitchen overload...while the kids were running mad Saturday morning while Steve was still at work (pictures on Tuesday). Along the way, I determined that the entire kitchen needs a paint job VERY BADLY and I intend to do that the first month that the kids are back to school. This weekend DEFINITELY taught me to never paint again with the kids in the house.

Along the way, I got frustrated that every room is our house has has a renovation projects left unfinished in the six years we have lived here. So after lunch and a trip to Home Depot, our second home repair project got underway.

4. Our bedroom...it originally had a "fake" bathroom, aka a toilet surrounded by paper board walls. Because the room was so small, we tore out the wall and toilet, leaving holes in the floor and nastiness where the walls had attached to our real wall. The wall had been patched, and I had repainted the walls about a year ago, but the fan had never gone back up because the ceiling never got painted. There were three different colors showing through and two different colored blinds on the window, floor boards left unpainted, and paint peeling off the ceiling. So after painting the ceiling, finding wall border, and getting the fan back up, here are the before and after shots. I still need to buy valances today.

Right after the wall came out















The bedroom this morning










Noah's quote during the entire ordeal sums up how the kids handled the whole thing
"Daddy, Mommy just turned into the Hulk."

3. As a reward for putting up with painting, etc. all day, we took the boys on separate dates Saturday night. Aaron and Daddy went to Richmond Park to swim. Mommy and Noah went to Space Chimps. Cute movie but WAY too many "stupids".

2. Sunday afternoon we needed to finish border and Aaron desperately needed a nap but afterward we stile made it to Richmond Park to swim as a family for probably the last time this summer.

1. How sad is this? The most momentous thing of the weekend was moving Pumpkin's litter and food into the basement. They are getting along well now and he can navigate the stairs well. It means that I no longer have kitty litter and kitty food in my living room.















I am quite sure that anyone reading this had a more exciting top five than me...let's hear about them.

Mystery Marker...

I got out of the shower yesterday and Pumpkin came SPRINTING to me.

This is how I found him...


Blue streaks on his back...















and face.










A true Whodunnit mystery until...



















the guilty party is revealed.