December 30, 2007

A beauty of a backpack

While my brother and his family were visiting Eden coveted quite a bit her cousin Joanna's pink Hello Kitty backpack. So since I did not have a present for Eden to open with the Knuts' in Atlanta, I took a backpack that Josiah got a gift in last Christmas and I coverted it into a girl pack for Eden. I turned the bag inside out, and hot glued this cute fabric to the front panel and back panel. I said a little prayer and turned it right side in. Awesome, it worked. Again, recycling in it's perfect wonderful heart-warming form.

Posted by at 6:18 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 28, 2007

This is the only way recycling actually works

I do recycle, and when it wasn't insanely troublesome I put out my recyclables on the curb to go where they needed to go. I do not have a lot of faith that recycling does a lot of good in the grand scheme of things. I won't go on about the points Joel has on recycling, I'm sure some of you have heard it already. Tee Hee. Joel thinks of the financial reasons to recycle or not, very often too much money is spent to recycle products that are not really important to recycle. But I said I wouldn't go into that so I won't. To make my conscience calm down a bit I do a couple things to reuse things in our house. I use paper bags all the time. They carry food from Aldi, they carry school supplies, food for special events, they hold rags, they get used to wrap art for mailing. I reuse all those plastic containers that luncheon meat comes in. I hardly ever throw away the plastic bags from Walmart unless they have meat juice or milk products all over them. I use them to line garbage cans and I use them to pack up things for mailing or moving. Someday I hope to learn how to crochet these plastic bags and make cool stuff like floor mats, reuseable shopping bags, baskets etc. These things are no-brainers, a lot of folks do these things.

If you haven't checked out a mag called Ready-Made you should. It has lots of practical ways to recycle things in your own home. This is the only way you know the products you don't need anymore become something worthwhile. My neighbor Jan gave me some lettuce before she left for Christmas vacation since it wouldn't last much longer. We couldn't even finish most of it before it went bad but I knew I would use the container. I stuck it in the dishwasher and accidentally stuck it on the bottom rack. The dishwasher melted both sections flat but not goopy. I remembered a project in Ready-Made that had a bowl made out of construction site fencing. It was cool all orange and hexagony. But I thought I could do the same thing with my wonky lettuce container. Show Nuff. I turned the oven on at 400 degrees and when it was pre-heated turned off the oven. I stuck a bowl with tin foil over it on a funky cookie sheet and centered my plastic sheet over top. I turned the oven light on and watched the plastic melt. The plastic turned out kinda milk glass looking(cool!), with little dishwasher splotches on it(not so cool). I did melt one edge a little too much but I still love how it turned out! It will grace our table for a while. And so kid friendly!

Posted by at 3:38 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack

July 25, 2007

Deconstruction

Well, little playground, it's kinda sad to see you go. You served us well everytime we came to visit our house under construction. There were days I just couldn't believe I would live across the street from a playground. The duck and the chipmunk will be missed the most, you almost can't find those anymore. The new playground will have recycled tire pieces as the ground and will be shiney and new. There will be new swings, slides and no more wood chips!! Do what you will with the rest of the park, I will be so happy to have a playground again. I'll miss the unique weathering of that old playground, but as a mama, I'd love a new one. Maybe when we return from HHI there will be a new playground? Is that too much to hope for?

Posted by at 9:10 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 23, 2007

things to forget and things to remember

Hello, my blog reading freinds. I have returned, do not be afraid. Yeah. I have my internet now, and Ihave to say its been nice to not even have the temptation around. I do have my vices, but when they're gone I find I'm not missing them quite so much. This photo is from Thursday after the movers did their duty. Our house is so new and sparkly that bringing our rag-tag furniture into it is kinda odd. But this I must remember: this house is the gift of all gifts. I think it's up there in the top 5 with my husband and my two kids. It's up there. We do not deserve this house, God gave it to us. Now, I have to believe that other great things will come. Don't get me wrong, we'll pay for it. Big time. But ever so often you just sit back and marvel at how good our Heavenly Father is.

Since I am human, I immediately compare my stuff to other peoples stuff. I'm embarrassed that I don't have have have. But then I am reminded of what I have been given. I have been given fertile ground to grow. I've been given a home that is envied by many who love good real estate. I can sit on my upstairs porch and dream of the conversations and laughter that will go on there. I am humbled as I open box after box. I hate stuff and I have a lot of it. I also love to purge and have filled 3 boxes with things to sell (hopefully). I haven't touched my arts and crafts boxes though and I'm sure I'll unload that stuff too. Maybe a fun blog give away in the future? I do have many many beads that I really want to get rid of. I can't just give them away and I hate pricing them. Maybe a swap is in order?

These new walls intimidate me. I cannot keep this shiny home this way. I will bop the walls with boxes and shoes. I will find chocolately fingerprints all the way up the stairs. I will step on sticky places and bits of cheese on my floors. It's my house, and I have not become super-cleaning-freak, nor will I ever be. So I feel like the house has been humbled too. It's gone from a prime jewel of real estate to a nest that will receive bits and shreds of a home all over it. It will become less echo-ee to the voices that it hears so often. Maybe it's become more valuable now because it's our home.

The kids love it here. Not a wimper of fear since we've lived here and for that I am glad. They had so much trouble going back a forth a couple times from Marietta. Josiah especially. This is home now, they know it.

We'll have to earn the need for new window treatments and new bits of furniture. I have my eyes on some projects to make current furniture look better. But even so, my hand-me-downs and bargain basement furniture works and it's making us feel more like ourselves. I don't know much about how to make my house look awesome, and even though that hurts a little, I really don't care. I care about what God will do inside these walls and inside our neighborhood. I hope and pray that I become more like who God made me to be and not feel that pull to be "cooler" now that I'm in this new neighborhood. That sounds dumb, but it's there. Thanks for all your encouragement and I'm sure I'll have alot of you over sometime.

Posted by at 4:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 17, 2007

Giddyup

We're done. Signed, walk-thru, moved in etc. Now, we will sleep in our beds with boxes floating around us. We will enjoy the freshness of paint and clean flooring under our feet. Then, tomorrow, we'll dirty it ALL! We'll drill holes for mounting paintings. we'll load food into the new fridge. We'll tramp the outside inside and the inside out. We'll flush toilets and wash hands. We'll hang curtains, fill cabinets and forward mail. Exhausting and exciting. It was pretty painless, but I don't want to do it again for a looooong time. We'll let you know when you can come over. Until then, come see me at the Clothesline!

Posted by at 3:02 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack

May 16, 2007

update-O

Mother's Day brunch, check. Teach Pre-K class at NRV with 3 LaRose's, check. Kiss kids good night, check. Drive to Marietta, check. Show off my packing prowess to my husband, check.

Eat breakfast at Martin's (yum), check. Converse with cleaners, check. Pick up rental truck, check. Meet movers, check. Meet cleaners, check. Trip to the dump, check. Call to Haz-Mat, check, although unsucessful. erg. Multiple calls to Live Urban. Gotta love Caroline! check. Pay Movers, check. Last thrift store trip, check. Drop by Venture PT and say Hey! check. Pay Cleaners, check. Idiot check the house and say a fleeting goodbye, check (no tears here!). Check into hotel, check. Park Rental truck oh-so cautiously, check. Clean up,check. Drive to IKEA. Get Josiah's bed, coffee table, and a chair, check. Eat Indian food to celebrate 8 years of married bliss, check. Enjoy a freshly made kingsize bed, check. Place Kinko's order for clothesline at 1am, check. Get call from Kinkos guy at 1:30 (freaky!), check. Write Mary about getting signs, check. Write Jen with art list, check. Sleeeeeeep (barely).

Eat hotel breakfast, check. Get directions to closing, check. Drive the Prev to closing, check. Sell our house and sign a million papers!!!, CHECK! Get the call that we will not be buying a house today. Drive to Chattanooga, check. Buy fridge, and washer/dryer, UGH, check. My fridge is pretty bitchin'. Park rental truck at Paul Rhudy's shop, check. Go back to Mom's and sleeeeeeep. Greet my happy children after naps, check. Eat and get back to business. Go by house and count windows for much needed blinds that we can't afford, check. Meet another neighbor, finally find out where Daniel and Brooke Baker live. Go to Home Depot and buy temp blinds, check. Put kids to bed, eat icecream, pack a suitcase, find favorite tank tops (yeah!), boo-hoo about money spent, watch Entourage season 3. Yeah. Sleeeeeeeep.

Posted by at 12:42 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

May 12, 2007

Grace is Enough

As I drove to AVA today to work I was a huge crazy bundle of nerves. Trying to stay cool over the whole moving process and feeling about to burst wanting to be in my own home again, makes me not so pleasent sometimes. Chocolate is my friend as I self medicate. I've tried all kinds these past 6 months. It makes me crazy that we are closing on Tuesday and the front windows in my brand new, Earth-Craft house are still BROKEN. It took everything in me to not scream about it all evening yesterday. We need to do a "walk thru" to check if there's any boo-boo's before we close and the builder's cannot be reached. I mean, what the hell. Nice day for golf I guess. I'm ready to hand them a contract for money and they aren't answering the phone? huh? It makes me feel sick. I might have to move my closing date because the builder's (who have been nothing but sweet and friendly) didn't finish my house. Our agent gives us great confidence that if we do have to move our closing date the builder's will pay for the extra time the truck has to be rented. Whatta pain.
Then as I sat with my kids eating breakfast Eden became more and more lethargic. She felt warm, etc. I gave her Tylenol and felt very uneasy that my daughter was convieniently getting sick right before we make our final trek to Marietta. I left for work feeling like I was panicking. I knew that a long afternoon at AVA was going to be the cure for all the busy-ness surrounding me today. I called Joel earlier today and asked about Eden. She's doing great. He was romping on the playground with her. She conked out in her bed before I left and the nap has revived her. Hallelujah!
When I have moments where I am losing it I am asking God just to be with me. I don't expect Him to make my life easier, but these days when hard things arise He does answer that prayer. He is with me, and He has made my life easier than it could have been. His grace is enough for me. Grace is an awesome thing.
We will go down to Marietta after church tommorow, honoring Mom with a brunch earlier that day. We will celebrate our eighth wedding anniversary this week. By Tuesday we'll see if the builder's pull their heads out of the sand so we can buy our house finally. I can't wait to live there it really is a wonderful community and news of more and more folks are making the move.
Alli Crumley has honored me and the Clothesline Show with a short article in her informative blog Chattanooga is Home. Keep yourself posted thru Alli's info!
As I sit here at AVA is am falling in love more and more with Elizabeth Rose's prints. They are gorgeous. If you have time to come down and check them out, do it. If you have $200 to burn take home some wonderful art. And it's framed!!

Posted by at 4:40 PM | TrackBack

May 1, 2007

Empty and Full

The end of Impermanence at AVA

The end of order at our Marietta house

Posted by at 4:18 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

April 7, 2007

The Offer!!

Last night we were watching Empire Strikes Back with the kids while eatin' piza and we got a call from Patty. Someone made an offer on our Marietta house! Yeah Yeah Yeah!! Now I know we're not out of the woods, we're going to counter-offer, but this is the home stretch! Keep praying everyone, the next hurdle in my mind is whatever the home inspector for the bank might say. Because yesterday morning our lovely housesitter told us that the whole drainpipe fell off of our house! I had her and her brother move it to the basement. Ugh. And we've had handy-people tell us that our deck (even with brand new railing) still is questionable. Ugh. Prayer has worked and God is so faithful. We're expecting awesome things. The funniest thing, is part of their initial offer is that they want all our appliances, our washer and dryer and our lawn-mower. Kinda funny, but dude, take 'em!!

Posted by at 9:36 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

March 20, 2007

Commodity

They say that as soon as your house goes on the market you have to think of it as something you are no longer personally attached to, it's a commodity. We went down to Marietta this weekend to do some touch ups and just check up on what our house was like. My ficus was pretty much a goner. I mean it's been 8 years in the same pot, time for it to retire. Looks like the neighbor kids have done their worst by tearing a whole in my brand new screened in porch door, flipping the latch, taking out Jos' kiddie basket ball backstop and laying it out across our backyard. Then when I further investigated, there was red spray paint on one of the window panes of our basement window and they decided to get violent with the fence in between our properties. Broken pathetic fence across the side. Whatever, it wasn't a pretty fence anyway. I kinda wish I had an opportunity to talk to our neighbors this weekend. They were gone alot. It's just troubling. But it could have been a lot lot worse.

We had three people come see our house while we were there. The first came while we were at IKEA, the next couple came without and agent and talked to us for a little while. I would love it if they decided on our house because we got to talk. The third group came in while Joel was painting the living room ceiling and we just smiled and welcomed them to the humungoid mess. We're asking God every night at bedtime to sell our house. Josiah loves saying, "Jesus, sell our house!" It's precious, and helpful.

We had a nice little visit. We went to IKEA and built up a real "I want, I want, I want" list. We will need a bed system for the kids. But all I left with were some little birdie lights that were less than $3. We went to Trader Joe's with only 20 minutes before closing. It's so great to have more glycerin soap, Charles Shaw wine, yummy green curry tuna and awesome coffee. While Joel painted the living room ceiling I took the kids to our favorite park in Marietta, Laurel Park. What was so wierd was this:

This open field used to be used for school activity and now it's filled with rows of electrical poles. They are close together and there are also fresh poles with meters attached. This is so strange! And I really hope they're temporary because it was a pretty field.

Posted by at 12:27 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

November 5, 2006

Our House

This is the lot we want to buy in the Jefferson Heights neighborhood in Chattanooga. There will one day be a 3 bed/2.5 bath house on this spot and we will live in it. Across the street is a well loved playground. Nothing to write home about, but it's safe and fuctional. There is a large field and a pavillion with 3 picnic tables. While we were there we met a neighbor of ours. He and his wife live down on 16th street and have been here for 2 years. He was walking a beautiful dog named Charlie.

It was a really good sign to see someone walking around and it was someone who also saw the potential in the neighborhood. He filled us in on more info about the neighborhood.


The two 2bed/bath homes next door to our lot

We walked from our 'house' to the Choo-Choo and talked about all the development that will happen there. There will be new sidewalks and sculptures up and down Main Street. The Union Mission and Flat Iron Building are being renovated and ownership is changing. Niedlov's and Mojo Burrito will have places on or close to Main. It took us 20 minutes to walk to the Choo-Choo and it would be cool to take the Shuttle other places with the kids. We peeked inside Battle Elementary and told Josiah that it will be his school. And it would be so easy to walk to Cat's place from our little home.

Nice little jaunt this afternoon, we will hope that this house gets built sooner than expected. God can do anything. And we'll expect no less! Ok, now we're off to North River Vineyard!

Posted by at 4:56 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

October 1, 2006

The Market

I hope that all of you had a more interesting weekend than we did. I don't think I get great parenting points these past couple days as Joel and I have been working like mad to get the last few things done on the House. We met with our real estate agent this afternoon and we now are on the market!!

It's very scary, it's like getting engaged when you don't really want to be married. It's kinda awesome that your life has changed so suddenly but at the same time you're scared that everything...has...changed. For me the hardest part (so far) is keeping my house clean and uncluttered for people to come. Now Joel wants me to be optimistic all the time and never say peep about what might not happen or if things are long and drawn out. I mean I do believe in every ounce of my soul that God will sell this house. It is unlikely that a ton of people are going to come. Unlike some lucky folks, houses in our area are more like 3 months or longer. Because our garage is a closed in unusable bleah we're pricing our house below 160K. This was kinda a bummer for me. I had so set my mind on 160K. We're in a bad high school district. And we aren't around the corner from a brand new 700's housing development of McMansions. 155K is a lot more than we paid, but we paid it with our sweat and our aching muscles. So enough about that. I'm praying that this process goes smoothly and I don't have too much trouble getting myself and the kiddies out for buyers to mosie about. In the back of my mind I'm hoping our sweet neighbors have some more Katrina refugee family members that need a home. We'll see, God's good.

I am so tired. I have been wearing a uniform of jeans and tennies for over a week now because my poor veins (thanks Mom) in my legs cry out in pain with all the truckin around I'm doing. But my house is so clean because I've been working. I've been packing, my garage is a quarter full of boxes. I'm wondering if I'll fill the whole thing. I cleaned it, swept up insect parts and sawdust. Filled bag after bag with garbage and I put a bunch of stuff on freecycle. I washed my floors until 1am. Got up and cleaned more. Then after all that, I went to Joel's office and cleaned until about 11pm.

I long to do fun things like drive up to Chattanooga for my birthday. I'm going to be 30 in about 2 weeks. Less than 2 weeks. More than anything I'd love my birthday present to be a sold house. We'll see!! I'd love to move into this one. I mean this house rocks! My easel with unfinished Eden begs me to paint on it. How can I be a neat-freak? It's in me but not enough to last. I have to believe that grace will be given me and the mess will stay at bay. But I also long to make a mess! Paint and rags and paper. Masking tape and play dough. Flour and bananas, flour and zuchini, and then there's the can of pumpkin I bought today. Sorry J-nette I'm not up for the real thing. I am a mess maker. I'm not a neat freak. I love cleanliness, don't get me wrong. I love the feel of steam when I open the dishwasher. I love folding clean laundry. I love the smell of Murphy's oil soap. It's all the things I don't like doing that make it hard to like clean.

I wonder if I can justify taking a nap today. It feels good to see so much progress. The little progressions that we needed to take. Now I want to crawl into my made bed and go to sleeeeeep.

Posted by at 11:50 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack

September 16, 2006

My Latest Painting

There's my porch door. Very Conceptual brick red.

This is my screen porch, it's a gaudy blue color, I thought I'd get good shock value. Repulsion from the more artistically inclined.

And this is my bathroom, kinda a work in progress still. The paint isn't covering as well as I like. It's pretty dern hot in that bathroom because of the light fixture I chose, whew!

And let me introduce you to my new camera! The Nikon CoolPix L2 was a mistake. All the indoor pics, no matter how I messed with the settings, always were orange! Not acceptable. It hadn't been 30 days yet and the lens jammed! So bye-bye! The Office Depot that offered assistance with my last Powershot was not very helpful and had very little selection. So since I had the receipt for the new camera's exchange etc. I went to a different Office Dept and they had the Powershot I wanted. I can't figure out how to get the pictures a little smaller though. My memory card gets used up quick! But this $280 camera cost me half as much because of Office Depot's screwing protection plan, whatever. I finally have an upgrade!

Posted by at 8:51 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

July 19, 2006

The Big Blue

Our house is getting painted! Yeah! Our chimney is getting fixed! The hole in the side of our garage is gone! My front door is a bright shiny new red. YEAH!


As we pay for people to come and fix what has long needed care, we just kick ourselves that we didn't do this sooner. What a rush it is to see your house that is your baby, the house you have tended and mended to the best of your ability fully restored by trained professionals. We found good people to paint. They are not the cheapest, but with the cheapest, you get cheap work. This family owned company is clean, quick, friendly and very caring about our situation. I've only taken a few pictures of the out side, when they're done I'll post some more details. I don't want to get in anyone's way this morning. Steve Brockman, the owner and operator hobbles around my house on his bad knee and bonds with me talking about when his girls were small and how parenting is hard. He asks me about my art and tells his men that I'm an artist and I know my colors. Well, Steve, my artistic skill didn't go into the decision for this house's colors. He's a dad type, so he gave us some great price breaks and drove out of his way to match the siding that needed replacing. He has good carpenters that fix stuff in a split second it seems. I just know I'll turn around and they'll be done!

Our chimney on the inside is A-OK!! We could have been having big roaring fires in this house we just always thought it wasn't smart, seeing that the house was abandoned for up to 2 years before we bought it. There was no evidence of little Fifi, the bat, he must have found a better home. Good luck Fifi! May your new home annoy the next person to have their chimney inspected!

Posted by at 10:09 AM | TrackBack

July 10, 2006

As for me and my house...

what we've been doing

That verse just keeps popping up in my head as we plug away at the chores of making this house more restored. It is fascinating though, as we start again after 2 years of living here, to work on it how things come up, things that I wonder would have happened at all if we were not working on the house.

Now I really don't care how spiritual you are about things. But I believe that there are things from God that cover, protect, bless your life and then there are things from the Enemy, the ruler of this world, that make things break, make things sick, make things happen. Cuz after all as Jesus said (in so many words), "In this world you will have trouble, but I have overcome the world" and then there's "He that is in you is greater than he who is in the world". These things go through my head when something breaks, gets sick, etc.

We found some great guys to come and restore our deck. I love that word "Restore". It kinda means, I mean in the deck-fixing business, that your deck is bad, but not bad enough to be destroyed. To restore it means to give it another chance, to repair so it can continue to exist, continue to bring joy. So now our deck is restored and we have the safety and joy of a deck on our house!

When the workers were done, all of a sudden my dryer stopped working. Now, I dunno if what they did with the porch lights had anything to do with the dryer not working, but the guy who was in charge said that the switch they turned off was not the one hooked up to the dryer, and the outlet the dryer was plugged into had a charge, in fact the guy personally shocked himself a few times trying to reset the outlet. So I guess we'll try to call an electrician. *sigh*.

And as Joel and I rested last night I heard some scuffling sounds coming from our chimney, who knows what that is. We have a chimney guy coming next week. I hope it's just water, or maybe just waterbugs (which I am too familiar) I guess those creepy suckers are big enough to hear scratching.

Our new Previa is quite a blessing, costing us only 3500 but has had to need about 800 bucks repair, it will need new tires and the sliding door has seen too many swings. BUT it is a blessing and will run run run all the day long!

Our printer has decided not to work as well, it'll just take some trouble-shooting and new, non-generic cartridges. Maybe a call to HP.

I believe that speaking positively is the way to live. I have not been known to be a positive person most of my life (and Joel will testify to that). I am learning that the words of my mouth are more than important, they are life altering. If I speak good things about my house, my property, my children, God will honor my words. The blessings I speak over what I have authority over will be stored up and will happen. I believe that. It increases my faith.

When I clean Joel's office on the weekends I have started listening to sermons. Usually ones from Trinity Vineyard, I really like Kris' preaching style. They are having a Spiritual Disciplines course right now and it's awesome to hear how our physical actions are not just physical but spiritual as well. Our words, our loving actions, the way our bodies were made are all spiritual as well as physical. They give praise to our God and glory to what we are, in His image. This isn't news to me as I work on this house, change diapers, wipe noses, cook food, make art, even type on my computer, these acts are influencing my relationship with the Holy Spirit. Cleaning my house shows I care for it. Loved things ooze love! My kids are the tested example. If I tend to my children, and their every need these acts give glory to God. Even if my mind is sour, my loving faithful hands give glory. Interesting to think about. It's still sinking into me.

So if you think of me, pray for my house. It's a part of me still as I work on it. Pray for my laundry, hey at least it's the dryer and not the washer!! Close line here I come!

Posted by at 4:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 26, 2006

The Dirt and Labor

Our plans for the future have been slowly making me feel numb and I haven't been able to get past the fear of tackling so much. I know many of you think I have like super-mom powers because I do all these little projects, paint, go to school, keep house, take care to two kids, etc.... But I bet if we all made lists of the things we do everyday we wouldn't be so different. Anyway, I feel like my feet are in cement with how little I get done. I tell myself I will accomplish things to get the house ready to sell but I find myself recoiling from it and finding other less important things to do. It's gotten to the point of many tears, many prayers, and conversations with Joel that involve sharp honesty and that love that tests and burns and polishes your character so much your tired from all the buffing.

So I've been praying that God would give me the will to do something to get us to our next point. That next point is selling this house and moving to Chattanooga for the fall semester at Covenant College. So that means by August we need to have a plan if not be moved up to Chattanooga, have jobs, a place to live and sanity left.

After all the rain yesterday we were a discouraged couple of parents who really wanted to take our kids on a bike ride Sunday afternoon in our new bike trailor. But alas, the rain, the rain. I'm actually thankful for the rain, it was way to hot this past week. Anyway, we stood outside planning our yard-plan-for-sales and decided to get a buncha pine straw. As illogical as it sounds, Joel wanted to just plop pine straw over the rocks that now adorn the base of the three red maples in our front yard. Craziness!! I mean, the rocks are ugly. So ugly. They are a step up from dirt road gravel. They are a plague and make our house look like the ugliest one on the block (well, our house also needs a paint job badly, and the bushes Joel hacked down to nubbs are pretty sad too). But I HATE these rocks, and I'd love to agree with Joel that plopping pine straw on top of them would do the trick, but it just doesn't work for me, "What if after a while the rocks show through?" "So what, we'll be gone." I know that makes Joel sounds really lazy, but he's not, it's just that ugly white gravel rocks in the front yard are the least of his 'sell your home' worries. So I promised him that I, yes ME, I would remove the ugly rocks to at least a lesser amount so that they would not create such a huge layer. This my friends is hard labor.

Continue reading "The Dirt and Labor"

Posted by at 5:21 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

April 3, 2006

Wonders of Spring

It only takes one small visit to someones house that doesn't have small children to realize my house is gross. Let me be the first to say that the extra 500 sq feet I have in house (not including garage, porches and basement) that I didn't have in my former apartment almost 3 years ago, is enough to be an abyss of uncleanliness. Of course, my son was not walking when we moved in and now I affectionately call Josiah "Josiah the Destroyer" because the moment I clean something or put something away Wah-Lah it's out, it's dirty, it's craziness! My little daughter will soon be adding to the chaos since she is 11 months old. I can't believe that, 11 months.

Anyway, my pysche goes through a maze of emotions. Denial first of all, then grief. But I feel I must do something everyday. Cleaning the highchair is the minimum. Last night my weary bones at 11pm was washing my floors and after doing that I bought Murphy's Oil Soap for my hardwoods this morning. You can't just clean them with anything ya know. Our master bath is small, I'm not really complaining about that except it's just a little bit too small to clean comfortably. A broom, a mop they basically just clank around in their looking for a smooth stroke. But today I did it. I cleaned my 2 upstairs baths. I did the showers (which I HATE HATE to do) and the toilets (which do get cleaned often, thanks to potty training) the mirrors, the floors and even the little shelves that have rings of cough syrup and toothpaste creating lovely patterns no one can see but me. But my moment of pride was I removed the former toilet set in the master bath and put in a shiny new white seat and lid. Who knew it takes 5 minutes! The house came with a black, padded seat. Yep, you can visualize, no need for the grusome photo. It matched the black non-skid swan stickers in the bath tub. Those have been fun to remove one by one.

It came to me that I was cleaning, in the spring. Whatdoyaknow! I still have to vacuum my tiny carpet in the living room to make this weeks straightening complete.

So here's to the Spring! It's lovely wind, green and pollen to go with it. I no longer have 1,000 dead ladybug carcasses on my bathroom floor!

Posted by at 6:23 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

March 13, 2006

Fire

In celebration of the warm spring weather and the fact that the Perkins won't be with us much longer, we got together and burned stuff in our backyard. Two Christmas trees, about a dozen long cardboard boxes, and all our boxwood bushes that Joel hastily chopped down a while back. We burned until 1am. And boy those Christmas trees went up with a bang! Very pretty. Something about sitting around a fire reminds me that I can be still, quiet and what words I do say get absorbed in the orange flame.

The next day was so beautiful, but I can't say I did much enjoying of it. Joel was hacking kudzu vines off the fence and I tried to poison the new fire ant hills and rake rocks off the horrid landscaping in our front yard. I met the little girl next door who is a Katrina refugee. She asked me if I was from New Orleans too. Her family seems pretty broken up since the hurricane. She grabbed a shovel and helped me load rocks into the radio flyer.

Josiah found some fellow destructors in Luther and Marcus. They managed to throw every ball that still held air out of the window without screen in our screen porch into the spikey yucca plant. Oh well, now we have a bunch of deflated balls. He had so much fun though, what can you say.

I have sold all my pods! They were living so happily on my windowsill wondering where they were going to go. Heck I was wondering that myself. I think they are so cute, so fun. There is something so rewarding about having a small original piece of art that you can put up over your desk, in your half-bath, or around a corner. You can glance at it and grin that it's the only one and it's yours. Three are still waiting for Austina. But 4 were purchased by NCF friends Greg and Amy Bagby. I'm thinking maybe it's for a birthday present or something for Amy. No worries though if you wanted a pod but just couldn't commit. While burning on Friday night, we found a good batch of blocks from the hardwood floor. And I already started some paper pods. Basically just pods painted on top of cool paper scraps.

I'm hoping to make progress to create one last Metro piece by Friday. Sheesh. It's not large at all, so hopefully I'll have a jolt to put more on canvas. It's all in the image. Contrasting glowing blues and haloing oranges. Whether it's blurry or not who cares. But I have this buzz in my bonnet that maybe I could get 3 paintings voted into our class show. That would be fun.

I have lots of thoughts and feelings mulling around in my head. I need some music and song to get it all in one flow so I can paint. But the clutter of the weekend and unaccomplished tasks piles up around me can I justify escaping it and painting. Sometimes I just can't ignore it, sometimes cleaning is that music to flow by as painful as that might seem.

Posted by at 4:19 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

January 29, 2006

I have arrived!

So I've been trying my hand at my sewing machine and I have found that it isn't as hard as I thought it would be. I wanted to make Josiah a pillowcase and a blanket with the guitar fabric that his Lola Nancy sent from Manilla. The pillowcase was my first thing ever to sew and it felt more like trying to learn a stick-shift really. Getting the groove of the pedal. I finished the pillow case, it has a nice contrasting red stich, it works. Great. The blaket is what I'm going to continue to work on after I finish this post. To practice a bit before I hack into the large remainder of guitar fabric, I wanted to make some things with some cool faric I've been collecting from various scrap bins at Joann's. One was the coolest multi-colored batik flannel! Fun. I knew something cozy had to be made with it. But it wasn't the right dimensions for a blanket and Eden sure doesn't need another one, so I practiced my hand at more stuffies.

Behold! I wanted to practice a simple shape that was kinda lovable so I thought I'd try to make one of Hillary's wee's. This doesn't have the flat bottom though. What helps him stand is that I filled him with Basmati rice! The problem I have with sewing is it is such a thought process before you even put needle to cloth. I do not work that way. I do it and then fix it. So I pulled out thread over and over trying to get the ribbon going the right way and trying to sew him up after the rice was inside. It's kinda messy but the great thing about this guy is since he's filled with rice you can pop him in the microwave for a minute and he's toasty warm! He'll hold his warmth to put on any sore spot or cold kiddie toes. I like to think of him as a menstral cramp releaver. hehehe. And I love how I fixed my crooked stiching around the face with more crooked stiching! I think it's my favorite part.

On another happy blog finding note: I love this blog I found through Andrea's blog, My House is Cuter than Yours. It's domestic, it's 100% vintage and it's a funny read. I especially like this one (because of my felt adventures) and this one (because I am also a thrift store addict). Check it out! I read a whole months worth of entries.

I have solved Eden's new shoe problem. She has disintegrated the lovely Chinese shoes Lynn bought her in China town and all she has now are fancy black MJ's I found at the thrift store and a pair of little girl Chuck's. I hate to put hard shoes on her feet (the Chuck's), and the cute wool felt shoes that Catarina makes are too rich for my blood. Then guess who came to my rescue? The one and only Martha. Stay Tuned!

Posted by at 9:49 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

November 9, 2005

Return of the Critters

Every winter (is this winter? 74 degrees?) we have a whole family reunion of ladybugs at our house. Part of me is kinda grossed out since it is almost like the plague of locusts at the Knutson house. Their favorite places are the northern most spots: above our front door, the office windows. I actually got to sweep my floors last week when atlblogs was down and now my clean floors are littered with dead ladybugs. I heard that they congregate because they are actually from somewhere where they find white cliffs to nuzzle in, breed and hibernate for the winter. I dunno, could be wrong. But these poor insects all end up in my dustpan eventually. Or the dinner for a happy long-term resident spider. As I sit in a quiet house, my children both napping (yeah!) all I hear is the click click of ladybugs running into windows and light fixtures. Either-way, they are much better than wheat moths, or waterbugs. *shutter* those things are GROSS!

I'm starting a new piece that is over top of a nude I tried a while back. The canvas has rectangles of foamcore mounted to it and squares drawn with caulk. I've added some flowing wax and modge-podged it all together. The nude was red and black and I've contrasted that underneath with a bright cerulean blue. All my experience with clouds in my watercolor class has lead me to spray clouds across the top, and of course some pods make an appearance. I'm sorry I have no photos, my Canon is in the mail as we speak.

Rudy Schmidt died last night. The end of a Covenant College and NCF era. He went quickly and peacefully. I remember he and Collyn making candy bags for all the kids at NCF until we moved to Westminster and then the kids outgrew their efforts. It was something I looked forward to greatly, strange since the bags were full of good for you treats like stove popped popcorn, oranges and the occassional butterscotch. Ed Kellogg has a painting that still hangs at NCF of a African American girl wearing her hair in those cool spiral pigtails, knee-socks slouching, standing outside of the old YMCA in Chattanooga. In one hand are her things: Bible, sweater...in the other a candy bag made by the Schmidt's. I remember thinking it was funny hearing him sing the gospel songs we all grew up with in his traditional older-guy vibrato. My AP would do the sound the same. It still makes me smile to hear it. Enjoy heaven, we'll meet you there Mr. Schmidt.

Posted by at 4:01 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

May 4, 2005

Growing a Green Thumb

We all know by one look at my belly that I'm growing something, but what you might not know is that my mother is helping me grow a functional green thumb.

I have about three plants: a ficus (sp?) that Matt and Jerah Kirby gave us as a wedding gift 6 years ago, an african viloet ith no blooms, and a philadendron that has slowly been dying since we got back from Norway about 3 years ago. My grandmother is a plant junkie. She has such severe osteoperosis that she takes methaone for the pain. Yes my granny does crystal meth. She's up and about at 90 yrs old, and a back made of broken porcelin, tending to plants everyday. It makes her very happy and her plants and flowers thrive under her expert care.

My mom is more of a functional gardener, maintaining what she can and not ever doing too much. She's done herbs and easy to care for hanging plants. She knows a lot about plants (like my buddy Cat) but invests her time in other things mostly. I have a black thumb. I think plants are beautiful and the idea of a garden is something I dream of acquiring the way Neo learned Kung-Fu in the Matrix.

I have no mental energy for it and if a plant is out of my eye shot it will most certainly die. But the past couple years I've been able to tend to a basil plant used for yummy summer treats, i.e. pestos!!

So my Mom and I went to Lowe's yesterday to buy some realistic tools and plants.
For our "Accursed Ring of Bushes" we bought a pair of loppers to begin to take back the land that the Lord gave us!! She also bought me a hanging petunia that makes the front of our blue box of a house look a bit more happy.
I bought some dill, basil and chives because if I can use them to cook I will most definately frequent them.
Our house was so poorly planned as far as landscaping and we are discovering more problems every day. But the one that must must be solved before the summers end is the fire ant suburbia that is living in our front yard.
We've baited it with toxic grits and moved the rocks that built the fortress around the fire ant community so WE WILL WIN! This past weekend when it rained the GA red clay wandered down the cracks in our sidewalk and by Sunday morning the ants had built little mounds all the way down the crack so you couldn't walk across without stepping on them. Cursed insects! My mom has been on a mission, she's a great little soldier in the war for curb appeal.

I went to the Midwife today, my due date, and she said I'm 3cm 70%. She said I'm progressing and everything's cool I just need some good contractions. So I went for a walk with Josiah and Mom after naptime and Joel and I went to Scalini's tonight for dinner to have the "Go into Labor" meal: EggPlant Parmesan. It's yummy and I ate it three days before Josiah was born. Whether it works or not it's yummy.

Posted by at 6:07 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

June 17, 2004

Crazy Southern Heat

my mind moves very slow in this heat. It's wretched, just wretched. Our house is an oven. And since I am somewhat of a slave to the practical, I sit at home in the heat of these Atlanta days baking, stewing in my own juices. It does remind me of so many movies I've seen of large older men sitting on porches with a large sweat bib decorating the front of their shirt. Or how Black churches always had fans with enlarged popsicle sticks stapled in the middle--their was always a nice picture of an Afr-American adult reading the Bible to a sweet smiling Afr-American child on the front and on the back it had the sponser as a funeral home somewhere in Georgia-- Sorry.

my brain is fuzzy in the humid thick air...

But I'm a bit like that chick in Lost in Translation. Although I doubt she was hanging out in her underwear because it was so hot her pants stuck to her thighs.

Yeah so Andy bummed me out about my pretty pinky-red water bottle. Telling me it's poisonous! Well, if it is as hot as I am it's bleeding poison then! Because on average it's 85 degrees in our house and I'm sure the plastic is glad it's submerged in cold water (before it goes down my gullet).

Yesterday I took two showers and a bath. The bath was with Josiah. It's very interesting how a weaned child responds to his naked mama. He has a clever smile on his face like "I know what those are!" but dares not go there anymore. "I got to much to do in this tub with the foam letters and squirting hippo to pay attention to the past Mom!"

The South Beach is treating me right y'all! I felt like poop the first day but then I realized I could eek past those ugly snacky periods with decaf hazelnut ice coffee and fat free dairy free creamer! Also when I discovered those Cream-Savers came in Sugar free I yelped with glee. I dunno though. Sugar free stuff leaves that "I'm not from this earth" taste in your mouth. I think I'd rather have sugar grit on my teeth. No weight loss yet, but I don't have that much to lose. I'd like to lose 5. It would be crazy if I lost ten. So somewhere in between would make me my pre Josiah, pre Norwegian fresh baked pastries weight. 125 baby, 125.

Our AC will be fixed tommorrow. A quick $3200 later and we'll be back to 75 degrees. We found a neighbor of a boss who has a family business. He's gettin us a better machine and charging us $500 less! More house debt but, it will be soooo worth it. When all is said and done, I'd rather be hot in the summer than cold in the winter.

This must be what graduate students feel like when they've studied too much

Posted by at 9:46 AM

June 4, 2004

Criminal Service

This past week I had the pleasure of something very unpleasent happening to my cyber self. I had a little bug. A hacker. They invaded my ebay account puting stuff on illegally. They also invaded my hotmail account. Therefore my email address has changed. And I must say that MSN has done a disservice to me. I tried over and over again for somebody at Hotmail or MSN to care about me at all and they ignored me until I sne them a mail that began and ended with "PLEASE HELP ME!" I finally received an 11 question quiz that had me answer my personal info (which had been changed by my parasite hacker). Of course this quiz didn't work and I was sent an email that said I failed my quiz. I've had this account for almost 4 years. My whole address book is gone. So boycott MSN with me. Down with Hotmail!

I've gotten used to my boys haircut. I think he looks quite hansom.

The love for our house is blossoming again. Our AC had been out, we got a fancy pants company guy to come out and look at it. I'm all for businesses but I like the self employed better. He quoted me three things. My system is 25 years old. It needs to be replaced in full. That means new AC, new furnace. 4 grand. To replace just the AC would be $1700. To fix the AC would cost $426. None of those is pretty. Two box fans from Target sounds a lot better. On the flip side our friendly electrician Mark Naugle came out to look at our electrical problem. We have had no overhead lighting in our kitchen, dining and laundry rooms. And recently a whole slew of sockets stopped working. Mark came and within an hour he fixed our lights and our sockets for $100. I asked him if it was just him working and he, being a man of few words, just sighed and nodded. Yeah for the little man.

I've been painting. I started with the touch ups on my dining room. Then I took down the fug-ly wallpaper border in our master bath. Today I put fresh white paint on all my upper cabinets. I think I will put a cream center color on them all.

We housed Infradig last night. They rolled in around 3am and didn't wake a soul! 6 adults and a little Juden. They plugged in their RV out front and the Greens crashed upstairs. Juden didn't make a peep! They went out to enjoy a day in ATL and then to Little 5 for a show. Great Summer tour ahead.

Posted by at 9:39 AM | Comments (1)

April 14, 2004

The Projects

Well as I said in my earlier post we finished our floors. I cleared most of the construction stuff and tools out of the way for these pictures. They're a bit ebay quality but that's what you get with the ancient digital camera I have! But now that we have accomplished this huge task, we have lost speed for the other projects that we have yet to do. I would love to have the super strength to move our couches from the basement so we can sit in our beautiful new rooms. Also I would love to have some moo-lah to buy a few pieces of new furniture. Ikea seems so far away...geographically, and financially. And as I type Dr. Phil is talking to some poor overweight couple about how fat, stupid, broke and irresponsible they are. That makes me feel worse.

Some other projects:
1. Baseboards and moulding for floors and ceiling and windows in living room.
2. Paint walls around the staircase
3. Tame our backyard (Our beautiful dogwood has poison ivy growing up it now and its all over the ground in front of the deck stairs).
4. Fix our deck (lattice is falling down and it needs to be safe for Josiah)
5. Get electrical work done so we have light. Especially since I finished redoing the chandelier!

6. Insulate attic
7. Tile back wall of kitchen

I'm SO glad that the weather is better. I was seriously having the blues during the cloudy windy weather. I just remember those days in Scandinavia, it was hard to get out of bed and stay out of bed. I have been listening to my new Cd's and feeling very inspired to work. So get me that stuff I need Andy!I begin to get reflective again about where God wants us. I feel the call to serve in a greater capacity someplace that challenges me spiritually. It makes me feel very vulnerable to have these feelings.
When I feel vulnerable I'm not a good mama. I am so introspective that I try to shut out everything that is distracting. Josiah included. I love my little boy.

This weekend will be a busy one. Joel wants to go to all kinds of conferences. One that's about empowering your children for ministry. The other is Jason Upton, worship leader extrodinare! But between all that we have a funeral in Chattanooga, and Joel has a basketball game. Whew!

Did some mystery shopping. I think I screwed it up. We'll see, I can always try again with another company. It was nice to hang out with Jenny at Candler Park today. It was too beautiful to stay inside.

I love my husband, he cut the grass tonight. He's also way too into reality shows. He's commenting on Survivor and Apprentice like he's the Donald.

Posted by at 4:23 PM

March 21, 2004

WOO HOO!

Here's some photos of the floor we finished today. It's just the hall but we were pumped.
> Posted by at 4:11 PM

March 8, 2004

Hardwood is Hard

So after having boxes of solid hardwood flooring sitting all over the downstairs of my house there is some in place!! Just about 2 or three square feet. Since Joel and his willing helpers are all novices at house repairs it was a bit slow going. But isn't that part of the joy of working? Learning-oh yes.

But before that Friday we ventured to the Perkins house to have our periodic gathering. They are super easy to hang out with. We are both very low matinence families so going to their house is nothign more than fellowship and that's OK. We usually end up playing games at the end of the evening and we play until the late hours- sometimes until 2 or 3 am. Which is saying alot since we both have little tykes. We played with Andy's latest toy-which the name escapes me at the moment. I think it's like Astro balls or something like that. Anyway, after many attempts I figured out some rhythm, a sloppy vertical orbit. Andy says a bored scientist evented this device with nuts and bolts on string. Something I wouldn't put past Andy himself! They're a big hit in Europe. I can just picture the kids I spent hours on Norwegian buses with playing with these things and commenting to one another in very gutteral Bergan Norwegian. Lots of back of the throat "rrrrarrrrrgh".
We eventually settled into a game called Mexican Train. It's dominoes with plastic Monopoly sized trains. I must say I enjoyed it very much until 1:30 am. Except when in a fit of pregnant rage Lynn threw her plastic green train at me and nailed me right between the eyes. I don't take being the butt of the joke very easily but with the Perks who cares. A little pride bruised but my nose is fine.

Saturday Joel went to get pumped up about Real Estate investment at a seminar. I was supposed to go shopping with my mom but she's going to the hospital pretty regularly to visit my 93 year old great aunt. She has pnemonia and we wondering when Jesus will take her home. I hope it is soon, she'd be so much happier. I went to Harry's Whole Foods with Josiah and spent a lot of money on good food. Brie, animal crackers, Merlot, all natural root beer, Mexican hot chocolate. Josiah enjoyed the free sample ginger snaps and got pretty mad when they were gone. I wanted to get more prenatals but unfortunately the all natural organic herbal prenatals cost WAY too much and you have to take 6 pills a day. \/\/hatever! So I'll have to buy the artificial, chemical, one pill a day brand from Kroger.

John and Jenny W and their kids came over Saturday night along with John G and Jonathan to help with our floor. I spent the evening with Jenny and the kids upstairs (praise God for Nemo) it was cool, but I'm glad my boy is only 1. I have a few years to get used to a 4 year old. John W while helping move my fridge from the garage to the kitchen slashed open his finger and created quite a bio hazard on my garage floor. No ER needed but I got the willies over all the blood droplets especially on my frozen deli slices (in plastic bag-whew!) It was fun having the guys over working-it brings out so much humor over every hurtle. True community masks all discouragement. I know they hoped to have more floor down but what is down makes my heart very happy. My fridge is finally in my kitchen! I could kiss Jonathan for putting down the trim in my kitchen, Joel was gritting his teeth in fear of cutting all those angles.

Last night at VSN, Jon's friend Lightning was visiting and he did some prophetic ministry. I look forward to questions that people will ask about what went on. Met one of John and Jenny W's friends Carrie. Met a girl who is attending AI of Atlanta for Interior Design. Talked to Joy about her future plans and she's selling off all her Mary Kay inventory (alright I needed some face cream!) And I'm selling Haitian art! I'm happy because it's such great stuff!

Josiah spent about 2 hours from 3 to almost 5am crying last night. He was hungry. After giving him some whole milk he passed out on my chest. What a beautiful thing. To know that your heart beat and the rhythm of your breath sings a lullaby unmatched. Parenthood is awesome. I recommend it to anyone.

The weather here is amazing. I need to soak up some sun

Image for today: Toilet papering Levi and Spencer inutero

Posted by at 3:59 PM