Our Every Other Year Road Trip

Monday night we returned from a four week road trip. Two years ago we did a five week trip, but we didn't have quite that much time available this year. We're now in unpacking/laundry/getting settled/gotta start our school year mode.

Like last time, this trip was a combination of family reunions/drill/sightseeing/visiting with friends. Unfortunately, the drill portion of the trip took up more time, which reduced our sightseeing time. We were still able to hit up a couple national parks though. And the family reunions and visiting with friends was fun, of course.

I haven't had a chance to sort through all the pictures yet, but I have a couple posts planned where I will share some of them. In the meantime, here's a photo of LMS sleeping in the back seat of the truck as we drove across country.

Doesn't she look so uncomfortable??

Helicopter Parenting and Free Range Kids

On Friday I mentioned this book and the post I'd been working on for awhile, and I thought it was time to finally finish it and get it posted.

I find myself being overprotective of our daughter- but why not? We waited and prayed for her for years, so when she finally became a part of our family, we were unintentionally over-careful.

Several years ago one of the blogs I followed talked about how her kids were free range, and she let them run all around the neighborhood, even at a young age. At the time, I was very put off by it and viewed it as just a bit irresponsible of her.

During the last year or so though, I've been thinking more about hovering and helicopter parenting. LMS is getting older and much more independent. At the same time, I can see her hesitancy to do certain things by herself, some of which is due to what we've allowed/not allowed her to do, and some of which is due to her personality and the fact that she's an only child.

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Awhile ago I read Free Range Kids: How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry). I was caught by the "no worry" part of the title when I saw it in a store and realized I needed to read it because I am a champion worry wart, which has hindered my ability to let LMS be more independent.

One point the author makes is that our children are actually safer than they were in previous generations, but we don't have that perception because of how widely reported crimes are these days. I found that very interesting.

As I read, I also thought about my childhood: was I a free range child?

I think so.

In 4th and 5th grade I rode my bike with two of my sisters two miles each way to and from school (along busy roads), picking up a friend and his sisters along the way. I rode my bike to and from the library occasionally. I didn't enjoy it much because even as a child I was terrified of being kidnapped (I have no idea why), but I still did it.

At the end of 5th grade we moved to an old house out in the country, surrounded by farmfields. We lived way too far away from school for us to ride our bikes, so we ended up on the bus an hour or more every morning and afternoon (great time for finishing up homework!). When I was in 7th grade, however, every Friday after school I got to wander around town. Friday afternoons I had flute lessons at the local music store, and I would walk over from the junior high, but I had time to stop by the library or the dollar store on the way over.

In 9th grade I started seminary, which was held at the house of a family in our ward that lived near the junior high. The other two 9th graders and I would walk to school after class while our older brothers were driven to the high school by our teacher.

The high school was on the other side of town, and not convenient to much, so once I hit high school I was dependent on my brother to drive me around. Which usually meant I had to go where he wanted to go. I didn't get my license till the summer before my senior year (the VW rabbit I drove wouldn't pass inspection because the horn didn't work and the windshield was cracked and I had to wait till my dad got his Volvo fixed so I could use it for the driving portion of the exam), so I didn't do a lot on my own through most of high school.

During the summers though, I was a lot more mobile, despite the fact that we lived in the country. I got my first job at age 12, picking strawberries at the U-pick fruit farm a mile down the road. I'd walk or ride my bike every morning to work. I worked there every summer till I graduated, at which point I got a job at an amusement park 45 minutes away.

I remember riding my bike and going for runs on the narrow country roads that criscrossed the area we lived in. I always took my pepper spray with me for the odd dog that wanted to chase me (usually the great dane two lots over). Even after I got hit by a van while running (we were both at fault), my parents still let us go running and biking by ourselves.

LMS won't be biking or running along our very narrow and busy road anytime soon. I barely go running on it, and I won't bike on it, so that's just not an option. On the other hand, I am working on encouraging her to be more independent and not hovering. She's still young so we have to make sure we're being age-appropriate with our expectations, but I anticipate that we will be allowing her more and more freedom as she gets older.

Were you a free range child? Do you encourage your children to be free range?

Sunday Funny

enjoying a non-GAPS legal snow cone

As I mentioned, we're not sticking to GAPS right now, so LMS has been enjoying the opportunity to make sandwiches for herself. She loves the independence and I sure enjoy not having to make every single meal :) And I like that she actually can prepare a meal for herself, since that is not the norm for us.

However, some of her sandwiches have definitely made me a bit queasy. Some recent concoctions:

Peanut butter, cheese, and pickle on GF bread
Peanut butter, cheese, mayo, and ketchup on GF bread

Sound appetizing to anyone?

Old School Children's Books and the Parenting Styles they Reveal

I've been reading The Happy Hollisters to LMS, and as I did so, I realized some things. The Happy Hollisters series was written in the 50s and 60s, and you can tell the difference in what the children do versus what children do in books written more recently. We've listened to several other books that were also written quite some time ago, and the difference can be seen in them as well.  Gone-Away Lake was written in 1957, the first Betsy-Tacy book was written in 1940, and My Side of the Mountain was written in 1959.

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The Happy Hollisters- The kids wander around town (theirs and those they visit) without their parents worrying about them- as long as they make it home for meals, they're good. Despite the fact that each story has a mystery in it and bad people, the kids accept rides from strangers they just met. Perhaps because the bad guys don't really hide that they're bad? Bullies do mean things that would get them thrown in juvie these days.

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Gone-Away Lake- Again, the kids wander around, completely free, only returning home for dinner. In this book, they make friends with an elderly woman and her brother and then keep it a secret from their parents. They explore deserted houses and make one their clubhouse.

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Betsy-Tacy- The girls have the run of their neighborhood and again, only return home for meals.

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My Side of the  Mountain- Sam (14 years old, I believe) leaves his large family's crowded city apartment to go live in a hollow tree on a mountain. He learns all sorts of things about being alone and surviving in the wild.

The main thing that jumps out to me is that none of these kids had parents hovering over them. Have you read Free Range Kids, How to Raise Safe, Self-Reliant Children (Without Going Nuts with Worry)? I read it awhile ago and started writing a post that will eventually get finished and posted :).

I will admit to being a helicopter parent who's working on reforming. I blame our fertility issues and LMS being an only child for so long: it made me more protective than I probably would have been otherwise. As such, I found Free Range Kids a very interesting read. It definitely opened my eyes to how much many parenting styles have changed in the last generation. Reading these old books reinforces the idea that things have indeed changed.

Have you read any older books that show a difference in parenting styles or expectations?

My First Kreg Jig Project

We received a Kreg Jig for Christmas a year and a half ago, but I've never sat down and figured out how to use it. This isn't the first time this has happened: I did something similar with my Silhouette vinyl cutter (which turned out to be pretty easy to use).

Once I finally got around to working on finishing our master bathroom, I knew I'd have to figure out how to use it. As I showed yesterday, our bathroom mirror was huge and plain.

And it has an outlet in it.

Why couldn't they have scooted it over just a couple inches?

In preparation for this project, I watched a couple videos, including the instructional dvd included with the jig, and felt that I could probably figure it out.

As I mentioned yesterday, I made a frame out of 6" pine (the nicer boards because they have a better grain and finish and way fewer knots). After measuring and mitering all the corners I was ready to actually use the jig.

I drilled two holes per corner, though I may go back and add one more to each corner for added stability. As recommended, I used a clamp to hold the pieces in place- definitely a good thing to do.

It was raining outside (a frequent occurrence lately), so LMS helped me hold the pieces in place in the bathroom rather than going outside to do it. Such a good helper!

After putting the frame together, I started the laborious process of cutting and sanding the holes for the outlet. In the picture below, the frame isn't quite flush with the outlet, but once it's properly installed it'll be a tighter fit, though the outlet will still be recessed.

View from further away:

Since I haven't painted the frame yet, it's currently being held in place by the screw in the electrical outlet and by the piece of wood wedged between the mirror and the medicine cabinet. (whatever works, right?)

View from the bathroom door:

View from the shower in the corner:

I love how the frame turned out and am kicking myself for not figuring out the Jig earlier. It's not difficult to use and didn't take too long to figure out, and it makes projects go so much quicker and easier.

Have you used a Kreg Jig?

Master Bath Reveal

 Here's the master bath in all it's apple/lime green glory before we bought the house.

The paint looks a little more muted in this picture, but believe me, that's not what it looks like in real life.

Hideous light fixture, massive boring mirror, boring vanity with no knobs or pulls (just like the hall bath).

I painted the ceiling (flat white), walls (the same blue gray I used in the master bedroom), vanity (white), and medicine cabinet (white). I switched out the light fixture for a much nicer one. Then I installed knobs and pulls on the drawers and doors. Seriously, a few pieces of hardware make such a difference! I also replaced the toilet paper holder, since this one was also like the one in the hall: constantly getting bumped into and knocked to the floor.

I also installed a row of hooks on the back of the door where a towel rod had been.

The most recent step (and actually one that's not quite finished) is framing the huge mirror. It's 5 feet long and about 3 feet tall and definitely needed something to make it more finished. 

However, for some unknown  reason, there's an outlet a few inches from the lower right edge of the mirror. There was a glass faceplate over it (scroll up a couple pictures and you'll see it), but I knew if I framed the mirror the faceplate would have to go.

After some thought and some measuring, I chose some 6" pine boards (the nicer, more expensive ones) and cut them to the sizes I needed. Anything narrower than 5" was going to run right through the outlet, so standard moulding was not an option here. After using my Kreg Jig to put the pieces together (more on that soon), I used my Dremel to cut the holes for the outlet. That took some patience, but I eventually got it right.

I need to paint the frame and then adhere it to the mirror, but for now it's wedged into place with a piece of scrap wood, and it already looks so much better.

we have a squatty potty in this bathroom also

It looks so much better than before. Unfortunately, we recently discovered a leak in our shower head that has affected the wall and will need to be taken care of. I have visions of this turning into our tearing out the shower stall (it's a one piece liner thing) and ripping out the affected areas before rebuilding it. If we do that, we'll probably tile the shower area and make it look nicer.

Needless to say, I've lost motivation to do much more until we find out just how bad (and expensive) the damage is.

Have you had to fix water damage in the bathroom?

Craigslist Furniture

As I've worked on making each room in our house look nice, I've realized something about our furniture. Most of it we found on craigslist, some we built ourselves, and only a few items were bought new.

the awesome vintage step stool I found on ebay. my grandmother had one just like it, only it was red.

LMS' room:
log bed: craigslist
lavender chair: craigslist, but reupholstered
nightstand: I built
sling bookshelf: I built

Guest room:
4 poster bed: craigslist
dresser: craigslist, then painted
chair: craigslist, still waiting to be reupholstered

Master bedroom:
log bed: we built about 9 years ago (in our apartment parking lot, much to the amazement of the other tenants)
dresser with hutch: craigslist
nightstand: Goodwill, then painted
bench: craigslist, originally a coffee table

Library:
built in bookshelves: I built
love seat: craigslist
cabinet: craigslist, then painted
piano: craigslist

Living room:
couch and love seat: purchased new
cupboard: craigslist, then put back together and painted
chair: last of a set of 5 that came with our scratch and dent dining set (sold the other 4 at our yard sale)

Kitchen: (not as many pics since this room is still a work in progress)
step stool (see pics above): ebay, still needs to be cleaned up
dining table: I built, but it will be going out to the shed to be used as a work table and I'm building another, slightly smaller table
settee: auction, still need to reupholster
two green chairs: bought new at World Market
shelf unit (no pictures yet because it's not quite done): I built

Basement: (pics coming soon)
couch: we bought new more than 7 years ago
sewing machine table: my parents bought it at a thrift store when I was a teenager so I could use it with the antique treadle sewing machine they also found for me
china cabinet: craigslist, then painted
work table: top was part of a scratch and dent dining set we bought about 10 years ago, storage bases I built
toy cupboard: I built

Once upon a time, I thought we could only afford cheap mdf furniture that doesn't last and falls apart after a couple moves. I never would have thought that we could have found so much of our furniture on craigslist. The fact that we paid way less than retail (which is way higher than it needs to be given the quality of a lot of items) and have some nice pieces is just icing on the cake. Building furniture to our specs when we can't find what we want has also been very gratifying (ana-white.com is my favorite source for furniture plans).

Do you buy new? used? build your own?

Feedly versus Bloglovin

As we all know, Google Reader died recently. I was sad, since I really liked how Reader was organized and the convenience of the Next button.

After doing some reading and googling, I decided to sign up for Feedly and Bloglovin so I could see which I preferred.

Feedly
Feedly shows in a "magazine" format- title, first paragraph and first photo for each blog post.
         This makes it easy to skim through posts and see if you want to read more in depth.
         But if you do want to read more, you have to click on each one, which isn't very efficient in my opinion.

Bloglovin
Bloglovin also shows in a magazine format, but if you click on the title (not the blog name) of the top post, it'll take you to that blog post and there will be a Bloglovin bar across the top that lets you move backward and forward through your unread posts.

yes, I took a picture of my screen. 

I have no idea how to do a screen capture, and no time to figure it out right now :)

     
           I like being able to move back and forth between read and unread posts, and since it takes you to the site, it's easier to see changes that are made to that blog's format
           However, some sites don't work well with Bloglovin- random blogs plus craigslist (I'd saved several craigslist searches in Reader and new posts with related items would show up in Reader) have a hard time loading properly. This could be because of my connection, but since it seems to be the same blogs over and over, I don't think that's the case.
           Bloglovin also has an iphone app that I've used quite a bit. I think it's more functional than the old Google Reader app was, so I like it.

In case you couldn't tell, Bloglovin is the winner so far. What are you using these days? What are the advantages and disadvantages you've found?

Sunday Funny

LMS: "I'm trying to give the ants swimming lessons."
Me: "Huh?"

I went outside to see what she was talking about- she'd flooded an ant colony while playing in the mud, and as they emerged she'd flick them into the water so they could go swimming. With only limited success, I might add.

Family Pictures

Way back at the beginning of January we did a photo shoot so we could update our adoption profile. A few weeks later we found out I was pregnant and a lot of things got put on hold. Like posting those photos. So, now that they're 6 months old, here's our most recent family photos.

The Three of Us

Mr M and I

Mr M and LMS

I love this view! I've taken several similar pics over the years of the two of them- I need to make a collage or something to show them off. (the second pic in this post is my favorite in that group)

LMS and I

Little Miss Sunshine

Sewing with Little Miss Sunshine

The Little Miss has been asking me to teach her to sew for some time now. With all the painting I've been doing, though, I haven't been in sewing mode. The other day I sat down to shorten the straps of some tank tops (benefit to being short: long layering tanks still cover my pregnant tummy- yay!) and LMS asked if we could sew a blanket for Nanny. 

Rather than putting her off again, we sorted through my fabric and picked out a piece of lavender fleece and a piece of flannel.

We cut out two rectangles, then pinned them right sides together. LMS sat on my lap and we sewed almost all the way around all four edges. We left just enough of a space to turn it right side out, which we did after clipping the corners. Then we sewed around the edges, making sure to close the hole completely. 

We could have stopped there, but I wanted the fabric to stay in place. With only the edges sewn, there was a lot of potential for movement. So I sewed around a couple of the larger butterflies, then did a couple random swirls, almost like butterfly paths. LMS had lost interest in actually sewing at this point, so I was on my own :) She did say that "if we want it to be really pretty, we should add some pink." No surprise, since her favorite color is pink.

So I did the stitching in pink on the fleece side with white on the flannel side. The fleece is thick enough that you can't see the pink thread though.

I've got the blanket laying on a bit of a curve, which makes it look more wonky than it really is.

It's not perfect (I actually dislike sewing with stretchy fleece like this one because it's a massive pain to keep everything straight), but LMS is happy with how it turned out.

Nanny likes it too :)

 Next up: helping LMS sew some clothes for Nanny. 

Hall Bathroom Reveal

The initial reveal of the upstairs hall bathroom was here, but that was just a partial reveal- I hadn't actually finished the bathroom.

 Here's what it looked like before I got started- blah and boring.

It looked like this after the initial reveal- new paint on the walls and ceiling, new light fixture- much better, but still needed more work.

The bathroom looked like the above pic for quite awhile, but I finally got around to painting the vanity and medicine cabinet and installing hardware. There were no knobs before, so we were always scrabbling around the top edge of the door to open it- very annoying.

I used a cabinet painting system by Rustoleum to paint the vanity and medicine cabinet, but I'm not sure I would use the product again. I think it would be cheaper to just buy some shellac-based primer (like Zinsser BIN), some primer, some paint, and some polycrylic to seal it all. I did that in the master bath and think the results are just as good, if not better. The polycrylic included in the Rustoleum kit has caused a small amount of yellowing, though it's not supposed to. 

The bathroom was looking pretty bland at that point, so I added some color with a shower curtain, bath mats, and towels I found at Target. I love the teal color! I initially thought the whole shower curtain (there'll be a better picture in a little bit) was the darker teal color, but realized when I hung it up that that wasn’t the case, unfortunately. I still like it though.

And then I didn't make any more progress for awhile. So it looked like the above picture. Notice the toilet paper sitting on the counter- I removed the TP holder, but hadn't gotten around to replacing it yet.

Not too long ago I was pushing to finish all the little details around the house (upstairs at least) so I could finally cross them off the list as DONE. I finally buckled down and took care of the finishing touches in the bathroom.

I hung up a row hooks (from IKEA awhile ago) to take the place of the towel rod I removed at the beginning of this project.

I also installed a frame around the mirror, which I think makes it look a lot more finished. I installed a towel hook between the mirror and the window. It's a tight fit, but I think it works better than putting one on the wall on the other side of the sink. The medicine cabinet eats up a lot of otherwise useable space.

Not the best lighting, but you can see the valance I sewed (from a much-larger one purchased at Target) and the 2" faux wood blinds that replaced the nasty mini blinds.

Behind the door you get a view of the ombre effect on the shower curtain, as well as the robe hook I put next to the tub and the hooks on the back of door.

Above you can see the old toilet paper holder. The rod that supported the tp just sat on the little hooky things. Every time we bumped into it, the tp and rod fell to the floor. It was annoying, to say the least.

Here you can see the nice, normal toilet paper holder I installed, as well as get a better idea of the placing of the row of hooks on the wall.

Overall I'm pleased with the results- I love the color of the bath mat and shower curtain (though I do wish it was the darker color all the way up).  The thing I noticed after painting the vanity is that it blends into the wall a bit more than I'd like. I'll probably end up repainting the walls at some point to provide a bit more contrast, but at this point I don't have any ideas about what color. Possibly a light gray? Or maybe I'll do just one wall in a teal that matches the linens. Though that would make it a lot harder to just switch colors in there. So it'll stay as it is for the foreseeable future.

Wondering about the white thing in front of the toilet? It's a squatty potty- it's supposed to help with proper positioning for elimination (how's that for innocuous language?). LMS and I like it, but Mr M hasn't been won over yet. He's got longer legs and is a lot less limber than us, so it's harder for him to use it.