Cub Scout "Recycling" Neckerchief Slide

This month one of the things we talked about was recycling, so I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate that in our slide.

We used squares of cardboard cut from a box that was delivered to our house (recycling in action!).

Then we colored in recycling symbols using stencils I cut out of card stock with my Silhouette. I looked all over for stickers that had the recycling symbol, but couldn’t  find any, hence the homemade version. But I think that ties in better anyway, so I wasn't unhappy with the result. 

Inexpensive, quick, and easy!

We're Having A...

We finally had the ultrasound, and the results are in!

Will we be buying pink ruffled outfits or blue plaid outfits?

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The answer?

Now we just need to think of a good name J

It's Like Riding a Bike...

As I mentioned here, LMS recently decided she was ready to ride her bike with the pedals on.

I questioned her to make sure she was positive- I didn't want to put them on and have her decide she didn't want them on.

She assured me she was ready, and I put the pedals on her bike.

She practiced riding her bike, but she wasn't super confident about her balance. This might have had something to do with her mostly riding on hilly grass in our very uneven back yard.

So we took her bike to the park and she practiced riding up and down a straight stretch of sidewalk (surrounded by grass on both sides!). After a couple passes, she was no longer putting her feet down every few feet to keep her balance. A few more passes, and she was confident enough to start going faster. Just before she stopped, she was racing a friend who was trying out his skateboard for the first time. I think she beat him :)

Half an hour was all it took for her to feel confident about her balance and her ability to ride her bike. No crashes, no injuries.

I have a distinct memory of riding my first two wheeler (blue, with a flowered banana seat) and promptly crashing into a tree when I looked back at my mom (who had let go, of course). The front reflector didn't make it out in one piece and I think I scraped my knee or elbow.

As I watched her ride (and the great big smiles as she realized she was doing it), I realized she's too big for her bike. The handlebars and seat can't be raised any higher, and her knees come up awkwardly high when she pedals.

This all happened a couple weeks before her birthday, so I knew what she was getting from us :)

We looked around a bit, and I quickly realized our options were limited since I didn't want to buy a bike plastered with princesses, kitties, dora, or any other characters. I'm picky that way.

online- more options, but assembly required
in store- less options, but already assembled

So eventually we went with a bike from Target. It's 20"and seems a bit big for her, but I think that's because of how small her other bike is. And I didn't see the point in buying a 16" bike just to turn around and have to buy a 20" one in 6 months when she goes through another growth spurt.

As I mentioned, it's bigger than her old bike, so she's ridden it in the house a few times but not been confident about it. I've been meaning to take her to the park for some more practice (it worked the first time!), and yesterday we finally had the time and the bike in the back of the car.

She didn't feel comfortable riding on the sidewalk so she rode on the grass, and did quite well. Until it came time to turn. Then she fell over. We'll have to work on that part. :)

So it's a work in progress, but it's so fun to see her gain confidence and try new things.

Do you remember learning to ride a bike?

More Food Issues

LMS and Nanny playing chess

Recently we've been eating forested pork sausage for breakfast with some veggies sauteed in the leftover healthy fat. Very filling and yummy.

Except.

It was making me nauseated and my stomach had started hurting again.

I've been struggling to eat enough as it is because of a lack of appetite, losing my go-to breakfast really did not help matters.

The other day it finally dawned on me that I should check the ingredients.

You'd think that after four years of being gluten free it would be second nature to check ingredients lists. For the most part it is, but this sausage came from our CSA and I didn't think to check.

Th ingredients are pretty simple: pork, salt, sage, black pepper, red pepper, coriander, dextrose.

So, no hidden gluten, but there were some other questionable ingredients. Dextrose is a corn-based sugar that we try to avoid, but it doesn't give me the problems I was experiencing. The red pepper and coriander (which is the seed phase of cilantro), on the other hand, have given me problems in the past.

Disappointing and discouraging, but that's my life right now. I've been doing some research and I think I've found another source for good (i.e., pastured or forested) pork. I just need to contact them about their spice blend for sausage.

If they check out, we'll do a bulk order from them for part of a pig as well as 30 or so pastured chickens. We bought an upright freezer not too long ago since our tiny chest freezer is full of beef and elk. I have {hopefully not too ambitious} plans to fill the freezer with pork, chicken, fruit, and veggies this summer. While the meat won't take any work on my part, other than driving to pick it up, the fruit and veggies will require some work before they can be chucked in the freezer. Hopefully I have the energy :)

Notice the lone pawn Nanny has captured from LMS. LMS ended up winning the game :)

Rainbow Babies

 having fun getting soaked in the downpour after history club this week

This weekend I was googling around while on self-imposed bed rest after being completely stupid and mowing part of the lawn. In my defense, Mr M has been out of town, the lawn could have swallowed LMS alive, the weather was nice and cool and windy, and I didn't think mowing was that much more strenuous than running on the treadmill- but it was. While wandering the endless warrens of the internet I came across this slideshow on Babble and found the term "rainbow baby".

It refers to a successful pregnancy after a miscarriage. I'd never heard the term before, and I think it's so cool- the promise of happier times to come. It also makes both LMS and this baby (as long as all continues to go well) rainbow babies, since I had a miscarriage almost two years before LMS was born and another about a year after she was born.

Had you heard of rainbow babies before this?

Doesn't she look like a slightly damp rainbow baby?

Adoption Update

LMS hunting for 4 leaf clovers- it was drizzling and she felt she needed to shelter under her giant pink umbrella from IKEA

When we found out we were pregnant, we knew that it would affect our plans to adopt. Not that it would change our minds about adoption, but that it could change the timing of the adoption.

I was hoping there would be some way we'd be able to adopt around the same time I give birth. Life would be crazy, but there would be several benefits.

1. I could breastfeed the adopted child- having my milk already in would make that so much easier (I've been trying to figure out how to avoid having to use commercial formula when we adopt)
2. Raising two children close in age would make for built-in playmates, something LMS has missed out on
3. We could get through milestones/stages at or near the same time
4. The Little Miss would be in heaven with all the opportunities to help

I finally got around to calling our agency (I'd waited till the first trimester was over, then ended up losing track of time) and talked with them about the situation.

Their policy is that our profile will be put on inactive status until the baby is a year old. Then we can update all our information and reactivate our profile.

This isn't what I'd hoped for, but it's not unexpected. We're disappointed, but it'll all work out. We just have to be patient. Which isn't always my strong suit....

Spring Soccer Season

We just finished the spring season of soccer. It's been a really wet spring and I think we had more cancellations than usual, but the kids still got some good practice in. LMS' team was coached by someone with actual soccer experience (all the teams in our league are coached by parents and their experience can be pretty spotty- as evidenced by the fact that I was a coach a year or so ago), and the kids made good progress with their skills.

LMS in red

LMS in green penny, left of center

Since our league has spring and fall seasons, LMS has now played for 7 seasons. Wow, has it been that long?  She's improved so much since she first started, and this season especially she made good progress. And I am slowly understanding the rules better :)

Spring 2010
Fall 2010
Spring 2011
Fall 2011
Spring 2012
Fall 2012

Nature Class

At the beginning of the month, LMS participated in a 3 week nature class on habitats. It was very affordably priced, but 35-45 minutes away, on the other side of town. Since it was only a 3 week class, I figured we'd see how it worked out. 

Since I'm allergic to so much in the great outdoors these days, I can't take her out in the woods, so I welcomed the opportunity for someone else to do so :)

The first day, I took this picture of her returning to the camp after trekking around in the woods. Note the binoculars, stick (she can't go for a walk without having a stick), and backpack. Too cute! When she saw me, she said, "Aww, is it time to go already?" When I asked if she had fun, she responded that she had "a lot and a lot and a lot of fun".

There were several other kids in the class that she knows from our various other activities. Here she's with one of her friends, all ready to go exploring.

When I went to pick her up after the second class, I could tell that LMS had something on her head, but I wasn't sure what it was. 

She made a crown out of weeds. No idea why she did that, but the smile tells me she had fun :)

One of the instructors told me she managed to find the one mud puddle in the middle of a field and fall in. Her lower half was quite muddy. 

The third class they headed to a creek to discover what critters they could find.

Here, the kids are setting out on their expedition.

LMS was again all smiles at the end of the class.

Apparently she took it to heart when I told her the week before that the dirtier you get, the more fun you have :)

And she got to hold a cicada, too.

Will we come here for more nature classes? Probably. 

There's another nature school that I want her to take classes from in the fall. In the fall they meet in town, but in the spring they meet about 45 minutes or so away from us. My thought is that we'll do classes there in the fall, and at this school in the spring (it's a little closer). We'll have to see how things actually work out, but it's nice to have options.

Master Closet Makeover

The master closet was the last closet in the house to receive my attention. Since it's a walk-in closet it required a bit more work than the other closets I've worked on. A disclaimer: it's really hard to get good pictures in cramped spaces when you don't have a fancy camera with a fancy lens. Some of my pictures are not at the best angle, but I did what I could with the camera I have.

here's what it looked like before we bought the house- two sets of rods on either side, with shelves above each rod

more recently, this was the view to the left, complete with over-long, non-matching curtain

When we moved in, we removed the lower clothes rod on the right side so the dresser would fit, but that's all we did. There was a lot of wasted space and inefficient use of space.

this was the view to the right

a peek at the shelves above

and the space on the right, behind the door

After completely emptying the closet of clothes, bins, baskets, and miscellaneous stuff, I removed the existing clothes rods and lower shelf, but left the upper shelf in place. Next I spackled and sanded where the shelves and rods used to be, and then tackled the painting.

I painted the ceiling flat white- it really does make such a difference! I painted the walls above the shelves white and touched up the white paint on the shelves. I painted the walls below the shelves the same gray I used in the guest room closet. It's a nice light gray that adds a bit of interest without being overpowering, and it complements the light blue gray in the bedroom.

After the painting was done, it was time to move on to the shelving. After measuring the space available, I drew up a plan of what I wanted where, and got started cutting wood.

I purchased 1"x12" pine boards for the uprights, then dug through my wood stash and found enough pieces leftover from the library shelves to make the short shelf pieces (I'm so happy they're not going to waste!). I cut a piece of leftover cabinet grade plywood for the wider and deeper shelves behind the door and I repurposed the old mdf shelves for the wider shelves on the left side. I will probably eventually replace the mdf shelves, but for now it works. I was starting to hyperventilate about the cost of materials for this closet, and I couldn't find pretty pine boards at Lowe's and didn't want to use boards full of knots and cracks.

After cutting all the shelf pieces to size I painted both sides of each. While the paint dried I installed the vertical boards using the same method I used in the guest room closet, then I added the shelf strips.

Once the paint was all dry I was able to figure out the spacing of the shelves and get them in place. Then I put the clothes rod holders up and cut the clothes rods to length (I re-used the original holders and rods).

view of the right side

view of the left side

upper view of the space on the right behind the door

lower view of the space on the right behind the door

upper view of the shelves on the left

lower view of the shelves on the left

We had the larger brown baskets (from wally world a couple years ago- the same as the cream ones in LMS' closet), but I purchased more of the smaller cream and brown baskets that I used in the other two bedroom closets (from Lowes). They're a good size for holding clothes yet don't take up a ton of space. I think dressers are not the best use of vertical space, but these shelves and baskets let us use all available space.

baskets on the left side

I started putting everything back in the closet to see if I liked how it looked and fit. I did, except for the section with the single high clothes rod. There was a lot of wasted space below, which I just couldn't allow to remain. So I moved the clothes rod down (with the added benefit that it's easier for me to reach) and added an adjustable shelf above. Since I was having such a hard time finding good pine boards, I went with a melamine-coated shelf that just had to be trimmed a couple inches to fit. The added bonus was that I didn't have to paint it. (by this point, I was ready to be done with the whole thing)

clothes back in the closet, left side

clothes back in the closet, right side. the file boxes are the same we used in the other bedroom closets and come from Target. we use them primarily for off-season clothes and winter gear.

upper view of the section behind the door, with added shelf above clothes rod

lower view of the section behind the door

The finishing touches:
Hooks on the back of the door. For ties, scarves, belts, etc.

2" faux wood blinds.  For some reason, this was the only window upstairs without any blinds. We've been using the tension rod and curtain from LMS' room in our last house, but it's too long and doesn't match and was supposed to be a temporary solution. Two years later, it's finally taken care...

A fluffy rug on the floor. Because why not? :) I wanted something a little larger, but it's very difficult to find 4'x4' rugs. It's not a standard size, but that was the maximum floor space available for the rug. I like this one, though.

In some ways the closet feels a bit more crowded, but since the space is so much more useable now, I don't mind.

All that's left is to hang a mirror on this wall behind the door. That will take awhile though, since I want to incorporate hooks to hang all my necklaces (there's no room on the walls in the bathroom to hang my necklaces) and I haven't quite decided how I want it to look.

I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again, I really love having a spot for everything and being able to find it easily without having to dig through piles of bags or boxes.

And I'm glad to finally be done with all the closets :)