Look Ma, no wires!

In the beginning, there were miles of tangled wires behind my computer. And so I decided to drill a hole in the desk to push them thru so the miles of tangled wires would be under the desk instead. I wish I had before and during photos for you. But I don't. I also don't have pictures of the mess I created under the desk due to making inaccurate assumptions about where certain really thick and impossible to drill through cabinetry was below the desk. The bottom of the desk is not pretty. But the top isn't so bad. I just need one of those furniture cover things for the hole.

So after I had the mess of wires under the desk I had to figure out what to do with it, besides use it as a magnet for dog hair tumbleweeds.

And then I saw this at Ikea:

And with it I came home and did this:

They are all discreetly tucked up under the desk (except the cable wire--nothing to be done with that.) Now I just need to pull out that old speaker under the desk, patch up the drywall, and paint it. Anyone know how to do big drywall patches?

Unfinished Business

I'm not finished with any new projects, but I thought I'd post some progress photos since I need to stop decorating and get serious about that thing called Nursing School again.

This weekend we unpacked the last of the boxes--BOOKS! I picked up an Expedit bookshelf at Ikea last week, and I'm thrilled to be reunited with all of our books again. I'm not finished arranging things on it yet, but I'm really in love with the new bookshelf.

Please take notice of ALL of the picture frames resting against walls in these photos.
(Frames leaning against walls on the mantle, on the console table in the entry, on the floor next to the TV credenza, and on the floor behind the dining table)

Seriously, this is an illness. It just feels like such a commitment to hammer a nail in the wall, and then what if I don't like where the picture is? And do you know what is so ridiculous about this? I have raised and lowered the curtain rods in my "sitting room" twice now, and I think I need to do it just one more time--they need to be two inches lower. And guess how many more holes that will leave in the wall? Twelve, bringing the number up to 36. And yet I can't hang one picture for fear it might not be just right.

There are still little piles of Stuff I Don't Know What To Do With lying around. I need to just throw it all in a box and send it to Goodwill. I bet I wouldn't miss it.


And now that I've painted the other room, the family room is just begging to be painted. What do you think? All the walls? Only one wall? What color?

Happy Earth Day!

To celebrate Earth Day, I'm sharing some of my favorite ways to be green, while at the same time saving some green.

1. Use cloth instead of paper napkins. I have a bunch of mismatched cloth napkins that we use daily and probably wash twice a week (?). Yes, we reuse them a few times before washing them unless we had ribs or something. Which we don't have because I have a thing about my teeth hitting animal bones when I'm eating. I'm gagging just thinking about it. So anyway, maybe you think that's gross that we use them a few times, but it saves water, and this is all about being green. Right? And just wait until you read number 3.
2. Use dish towels instead of paper towels. I keep my paper towels under the sink so it is less convenient to use them, and then I use dish towels to wipe up 97% of spills. These get washed more frequently, and I do pull out the paper towels to wipe up stuff that I don't want festering in my laundry for a couple of days (like animal barf).
3. If it's yellow let it mellow. Yep. You know the rhyme. And also? Pee in the shower. Everyone's doing it! I promise to clean the shower before you come and we'll all try to flush like civilized human beings while you're here. (I'll warsh up them cloth napkins all nice for ya too.)
4. Use reusable shopping bags. You can't just leave them in the car either. You might have to shell out $5 to get a few, but as long as you remember to use them, you won't have to find a place to store all those plastic bags anymore. (I find it ironic that I forgot my reusable bags when I went to the store today. On Earth Day.) Kolby would like me to get him this bag:
5. Stop buying bottled water. Seriously, if you are still doing this you need to come over here so I can slap you. Buy a cute reusable water bottle or carry around an old mason jar. I don't care. But we have the cleanest water in the world, so there's no reason to make some company rich bottling your tap water up all nicely for you so you can then throw a bunch of bottles in the landfill.
6. Eat one meatless meal a week. It takes 2500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. 'Nuff said. You can save the money you would have spent on meat on a cute reusable water bottle.
7. Eat leftovers. I feel downright smug when we are eating leftovers. It saves a ton of money, and wastes less, and I get the night off! When I'm in a good routine of cooking dinner, we usually have leftovers on Thursdays. I pull it all out of the fridge and everyone fights over chooses their favorites.
8. Compost. I have to admit, I do not have a compost bin. I've tried, but I just don't baby it like you should to get good dirt. So I save all of my kitchen scraps in a bowl on the counter while I'm cooking and cleaning up, and then I dump it in our yard debris bin and let the city compost it.
9. Turn down your thermostat two degrees in the winter or up two degrees in the summer. It promotes cuddling! And you can get your money's worth out of that Snuggie you love.
10. Turn down the thermostat on your water heater to 125 degrees. I did this when we went out of town one time, and forgot to turn it back up. Guess what? We didn't notice until we were going out of town the next time.

"Better than Harry Potter."

That is Madeline's opinion on the current book series we're both wrapped up in. I don't know if you remember, but Madeline had to be "grounded" from reading Harry Potter when she was in second grade because she couldn't pull her brain out of Hogwarts School enough to pay attention at Raleigh Park School. (She was relegated to reading HP only during school breaks).

I tell you that so you know that this current series has made an impact on her.

A few months ago I read the first two books from The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. I was hooked big time. It's another young adult fiction series, but is sooooo much better than the Twilight series. For one thing, the main character, Katniss, is such a strong, brave, powerful girl who is trying to protect her family and willing to fight against a corrupt system, as opposed to sulky, clumsy, helpless Bella in Twilight who is forever lying to her parents, needing a boyfriend to save her from herself, and willing to leave her family to follow her high school boyfriend forever. (Don't get me wrong, I liked Twilight as much as the next person, I just thought Bella was annoying.)

I know Madeline will love The Hunger Games, but I'm a little nervous that it might be too mature/intense for her quite yet. So for Christmas I bought her the first book in Suzanne Collins' other series for younger readers: Gregor the Overlander. It took a couple months for Madeline to get interested in it (she's not big on book suggestions from the mama), but when she finally picked it up she devoured it in a day or two and then demanded that I read it. I did. And then we immediately bought the next three books and went through them just as quickly. Madeline enjoyed them so much she couldn't understand why other kids didn't want to sit and listen to her read to them when they came over to our house to play. Ha. We are currently waiting for the last book in the series to arrive, and I'm already feeling sad that we'll be saying goodbye to these characters in just a few hundred pages.

I don't want to tell you anything about the books except that it's set in a world under Manhattan. But if your kids are looking for a good book to read, pick up The Underland Chronicles. (And you should probably read them too if you've already read The Hunger Games and are feeling lost waiting for the next book to come out.)

Playing Hookie

On Sunday I had a test to study for and Kolby had a lot of work to catch up on, but it was so nice outside. So guess what we did instead? (Someday we might tell Amelia that she doesn't have to sprint to keep the kite in the air.)

Before and After

I just finished painting the "sitting room." (What else can we call this room? Living room and family room confuse us. Which is which? Salon sounds pretentious. Sitting room and parlour are kind of old ladyish. I'll keep working on it.)

This is the room Kolby sits in when he gets home from work and I'm cooking dinner. It's where we sit to read with the kids at night. It's where I study. It is a lovely room that has no TV and holds all of my music. It even has pocket doors that I can close to listen to music as loud as I want without disturbing the Spongebob Fan Club. And it's been begging to be painted for weeks but I've felt paralyzed about deciding on a color. The kitchen color was easy. But the color for this room was tough.

It took a little nudging from my friend Jen, who has no fear of color, and it's finally done.

Here are some evolution pictures:

Before (MLS photos):

The indecisive phase:
After:

This is the wall that will remain nekkid for months. This is another thing that terrifies me--hanging stuff. (The painting above the buffet was lucky to find a pre-existing nail. Can you see the other pictures resting against the wall on the floor? They will be there for months.)

And we should probably keep it real, no? So the first photo is what the family room looks like right now. Please note the girls pajamas from last night intermingled with the clean laundry that hasn't been put away intermingled with various TV blankets and I'm sure some dirty socks.

And this is the room where I shoved everything so I could take the "After" photos.

Marine Science School

A couple weeks ago I went on a field trip with Madeline's class on a boat in the Puget Sound for Marine Science School.


This was HEAVEN for Madeline. We caught plankton and identified them under a microscope and then got to see them on a big screen.


We learned about our resident Orca whale population and things that we can do to help save them. (It's all about watershed. Pesticides, motor oil, bacteria from dog poop, they all end up in the Sound and kill either the fish or the whales or both.)

They sent down a diver with a camera while we watched on big screen TVs as she identified various forms of sea life. And then she put the sea life in bags and brought them up to the boat where the kids were able to touch them and learn about them up close before they set them free again.







I half expected Maddie to rub that sea star all over her face. I've seen her do it with less attractive creatures.

And I was able to enjoy the day with my stylish Wonder Woman Sea Bands.