What cha readin’?

It is a question I often ask. It is important to me. It kinda gives me a gauge of the conversation that will naturally follow. I don’t care if you answer Boynton or Dostoevsky. Just as long as you’re reading something. I believe reading is important. My hubbs does not read much, he prefers visual stimulation (i.e.: video games) but he will read periodicals. That is good enough, it is still reading.

I have read to my children since before they were born. Before my life became kid laden and ultra busy I could pull down about 1000 pages a week. I know, right? N-E-R-D! Nowadays its more like I am lucky to grab 300. To me the gift of literacy is one of the most powerful talents a person can posses. Just think, you would be missing out on my ramblings without it!

I have two babies. One who is too smart for his own good and a bit on the ADD side of things. He must constantly be busy. He eats information like I eat potato chips (hey! they’re like kryptonite!). Also much like me, if he is being fed he is at peace. My little one has a blissfully average intellect with a bit of a mechanical streak. He is totally interested in putting things together (or much my bane, taking them apart) and has no interest in ever singing his ABC’s, not that he can’t, he just doesn’t want to. He is 4 and wonderful in as many ways as his big brother just in the opposite direction. It always amazes me that polar opposites can be made of the same ingredients.   

My big boy, who is in Kindergarten, has just discovered the joy of reading. How he finds it is a mess since he finds it to be extremely frustrating. He wants to just know things instead of taking time to learn them. His greatest challenge is that he can’t read like I do, but instead more like a kid. It irritates him to have to start from scratch. He told me once that when he understands every word his life will be so much easier. Pretty profound, if you think about a 6 year old making this statement.

This is an oldie but too sweet not to share.

They are 7mos. and almost 3 here.

A couple of months ago I attempted a chapter book. I introduced Judy Blume’s Freckle Juice. It was a short book with a cute story that they both enjoyed. Since I am reading to two, each with a different level of patience, I must choose wisely. I couldn’t dream of picking up Harry Potter or Artemis Foul (yet) because I would never be able to hold my audience with such a demand on their imagination. Though they can watch Mr. Potter with no trouble, actually they can last through just about any “big kid” movie (Percy Jackson and Last Airbender are our latest faves), I have to be careful to read something that they both can sit through.

I am a regular at no less than three of our local library branches and while wandering through the other day I decided I needed another adventure to read to the boys. I wanted one that was far fetched and fast paced. I landed on The Spiderwick Cronicles by Tony Di Terlizzi and Holly Black.

I started the series two nights ago and we are already deep into the second of five books. I even worked last night and surprisingly my hubby read two chapters without my asking. The boys (all three of them) are hooked! My beloved came in to listen the first night and he came back again tonight even though there was a show on in the other room that he didn’t want to miss.

These books are wonderful! The story is very entertaining, clever enough to keep their attention, and the bonus for us all is there are amazing sketches every other page or so. No one is happier about this than the baby. He has to examine every inch of the illustration before I am allowed to continue.

This excites me in a big way. I am moved to tears. I can’t wait to grab the other three and find out where the Grace children end up. I can’t think of a better family activity than some good ol’ storytelling.

 

So… drop me a line. Let me know what you are reading! 

-The Happiest Bookworm in the House

Movin’ right along, ditty dum-ditty dum…

Does anyone remember that song? Muppets? Now it is lodged in my brain. Grrr…

I am sure my friends on Facebook are getting pretty sick of me by now but it has only just begun! Actually, just by the one-liner updates it is hard to decipher whether we are building a house or a lame porno! First I had a hole, now we have wood, and so on. tee hee It really is pretty easy to entertain me lately, think 5th grade.

 

Check out my wood. Yeah, it looks small here but in person it makes a big impression. tee hee

In other news… my backsplash is D-O-N-E!!! My loving and ever encouraging *ahem* husband really loved it too. No joke. Probably because it turned out exactly just as I had planned. It is the same lovely color as the kitchen sink and all the painstaking labor made it appear that I changed the color of the grout as well. Is that even possible? Sounds like a pain in the arse. I would have just started from scratch but I didn’t have to. It worked out just fine the way I did it. Now look at some pics. Don’t judge. I am no photographer and we actually live here.

You remember where I left off, right? This is washed, sanded, and primer/painted with two coats.

 

 

Here I am mid-way, washing over it to help relieve some of the “bright white” issue.

Yes. I know. All of you who are actually good with a camera, who happen upon this page. I know things always look better when you don’t use your flash but there was hardly enough light in that spot and I do not have all the time in the world to navigate my Photoshop program that my super cool sister (who is an actual photographer) gave me to use. Get over it. 

Here is a little close up of the wall behind the stove. Remember? Check out the before HERE. See? Much better.

Ta da! Hey… don’t snicker at the ghetto stove! I happen to love it.

 

 

…Footloose and fancy free…

It’s been awhile…

Have I really gone months without an update?! Sheesh!

We have been super busy around here, that is my only excuse. Lame, I know. Between trips to the ER and big life decisions it has been a little crazy around here.

I know I have gone on before (way back) about my fun job and how it ended. I have not worked outside the house since April 2010, which is kind of silly to complain about since I am a stay-at-home mom. For my fun job I worked in a restaurant a couple nights a week for some social time and a little mad cash. I served tables, bartended, sometimes managed the place in a pinch. I worked for a wonderful family who I love and became good friends with. I miss them dearly.

I finally got antsy enough to look for work and have started a new fun job, which isn’t really all that fun yet. The money is great and the people (well most of them) are really nice, I just really hate being the new girl. This will change and it is only a couple nights a week anyway. I have already noticed the change that a little out-of-the-house responsibility can bring about. The kiddos actually miss me, the hubbs sees how much weight I carry around here, and I am happy. Hope it lasts.

We have also decided to move into a new home. I know, right?!

We looked high and low. We fought about it. We made up over it. Then we decided to build. We found a great little neighborhood which is just a little out of the way and set the gears turning. I have been annoying all on this jobsite with my daily picture taking. They either think I am psycho or have seen this a hundred times. I haven’t asked, I’m still too chicken. So…I go by my lot, a lot, and was pleased when I had more than a lot, I had a lot and a hole! But it gets better because now…

We have a foundation!!!

“Hi guys. Me again.”

This also means that we had a fire lit under our butts about the fixing up our current little shanty needs. In the end we will either need to sell it or rent it out so basically someone new will be living here. Fueled by a wild hair the little fire under my rear sparked and I found myself wandering the isles of Home Depot. Duh-da-dummmm.

I, alone, and all by myself had then decided to re-do the backsplash in our kitchen. If I were a better blogger I would have all kinds of advice and a step by step pictorial of my process and progress with full detail of every step taken. Sorry, you will have to get over it. Instead you get me. Flying by the seat of my pants. As usual.

I have shades of white in my kitchen mixed with wood. I decided to paint the circa 1972 tile that is my backsplash. I picked white. After a lengthy lesson from the hottie working the paint station I now know the difference between white, white, and white. I bought a paint and primer in one, in white. I really like Behr paint and the Premium Plus Ultra interior paint and primer in one in a semi-gloss enamel is what I am using. In white, no joke this time, he had to mix the paint to make it White (#1852).

  

This is a “before” to show just how amazingly awful this tile was. I guess you just get used to something and don’t realize how bad it was until you change it. Ignore the grime… I am mid-project. Besides that is the wall behind the stove.

I cleaned the wall, roughed it up a little with some sand paper and after one coat with a brush and two with a roller I get this:

No judging the filthy sink, you.

To this my dear sweet husband replied “that’s too freakin’ bright”. Yes, dear, I know. I am only getting started. I need a blank slate. I fully plan to diminish the glare with a little Antique White (#1823). I will make this super bright and shiny backsplash match the rest of the many shades of white in this kitchen where I live. It has to gel better with my almond sink at least. I know this. I’m working on it.

I will have an update on how it turns out in a day or two… hopefully.

I am off to go stalk my new house.

Have a great weekend!