The Three-Volume Novel

Have you ever read or watched "The Importance of Being Earnest"?

You can read it here, and the 2002 movie version with Colin Firth is worth watching.

In one scene, the nursemaid who was caring for baby Jack admits to writing a three-volume novel. Lady Bracknell disparages it as a "three-volume novel of more than usually revolting sentimentality."

That line brought to mind the ubiquitous trilogy. It seems like almost every author (young adult in particular) out there is planning and writing trilogies. When I read a debut novel and it's touted as the first in the "blah blah trilogy", I can't help but think of three-volume novels. And then I wonder if this particular trilogy is of more than usually revolting sentimentality.

Anyone else see the parallel between three-volume novels and trilogies?

How to Downsize Your Household in 5 Easy Steps

our basement bathroom is the dumping ground for items we're getting rid of

1. Apply for an overseas job that would require shipping our household goods overseas (with a weight limit) and living in a much smaller house than we currently do.
2. Second-guess ourselves and ask "Are we crazy? Could we really do this?"
3. Make a list for each room/space inside and out and sort everything into categories: "take with", "store", "sell/donate/toss", and realize that it would actually be doable.
4. Don't get the job.
5. Decide to go through with the downsizing anyway.

When we moved into this house I went through and found a spot for everything and got rid of a lot of junk that we'd been hanging onto. Finally unpacking every single bin and box made it possible to see just what we had (like the duplicates of some books because I forgot we already had them since our books were in boxes for so many years). As the years go by, the amount of stuff we have has gradually increased, and inevitably it does not all get used. Having a large house has allowed the amount of stuff to creep up on us because there's random spots throughout the house that we can squirrel things away in. Especially in the basement.

So, after living in this house for more than 3 years, we're sorting and getting rid of a lot of stuff. Some of it survived the last purge, but some of it has only been around since we moved into this house. We're really trying to only keep things that have a purpose and will actually be used. If it hasn't been used since we moved here, there has to be a really good reason for keeping it. Since Mr M and I both come from pack rats who like to keep things "just in case", this is actually a challenge for us. Realizing that we can replace something if we really need it (even though we haven't used it in the entire 13 years we've been married, so the likelihood of that happening isn't very high) makes it a little easier to be brutal when sorting.

Just one example: this means that the majority of my fabric stash got put in the "sell/donate/toss" pile. I find myself buying fabric for specific projects and rarely use what's in my stash. So why have a stash if I don't use it? There's no reason to keep things if they never get used. I did keep the cutest fabrics that might actually get used (I'm teaching Sunshine how to sew this year, so I need to have some fabric on hand), but they're a small fraction of what I had. I also kept a few pieces of clothing to be repurposed, but got rid of the rest I'd been saving, since I still haven't done anything with them.

In addition to all the smaller stuff, we'll also be selling some pieces of furniture. I've been trying to get the furniture situated in each room, but some of the things we have just aren't working as well as we'd hoped. So I'm currently building some more pieces, mostly for better storage options. Between the decluttering and the building, I've been pretty busy, but I'll try to get pictures posted as I finish each project.

What are we planning for all that stuff in the basement bathroom? We'll be having a yard sale in a few more weeks, I'm listing some things on ebay, and whatever doesn't sell will be donated to the thrift store or tossed. That's in addition to what has already been thrown away as we've sorted through everything. We also have a mountain of old papers to shred. We're hanging onto all our old tax info, but there's no reason to horde old electric statements from 2004. Yes, we were, but not any more.

The challenge going forward will be to be more intentional with our purchases and not allow the clutter to accumulate again.

How do you keep the "stuff" from taking over your house?

Sunday Funny

River got pretty excited about the tiny camo hoodies at Bass Pro Shops a couple weeks ago.

Just look at that face- doesn't it look like he's asking "Please can we get it? I can't wait for my first camp!"

Unfortunately for him, we didn't get it. Maybe when he's a bit older :)

Second July Race

it was an overcast morning

I ran another 5k on Saturday. As the half marathon approaches I'm getting nervous about my mileage, so adding in an extra race or two should help me keep on track with my training.

I finished in 35:27, just over a minute slower than the 5k two weeks ago, and my second-fastest time this year. I had half-hoped to finish faster than last time, but I wasn't expecting it and I'm still happy with the time. This race was out and back, with the out being mostly rolling downhills and the back being mostly rolling uphills. Not the easiest course, but cooler temps made it a little easier than it would have been. The humidity would have been unbearable if the temps had been any higher, though.

My knees were bothering me last week, so I only walked during the week- no running. Since my knees are feeling better this week, I think the knee pain was from standing for hours in the basement while decluttering. Laminate over cement provides no cushioning, especially on the occasions when I neglected to wear shoes, which was very stupid of me. In any case, I wasn't sure how my knees would handle actual running on Saturday, but they did ok. The first quarter mile or so they felt creaky, but then they warmed up and didn't feel too bad.  I was able to run the first mile in 10:50, the second mile in 11:09, and the third mile in 12:23, with an overall pace of 11:24. I managed more consistent pacing than the last 5k, but I still need to work on it.

My next race is in a week and a half, but it won't be competitive at all. It's a two mile parent-child mud race that Sunshine and I are doing, and we're just going to have fun and finish :)

2nd July 5k:             35:27
July 5k:                     34:15
June 5k:                    38:11          Ran with jogger
May 5k:                    39:23          Ran with jogger
April 5k:                   37:40         Color Run
March 5k:                 37:33  
February 4.5 miles: 1:49:55  Mud Run
January:                    ---

New Shed

When we bought the house, I built a wood base and attached our collapsible shed to it to store our bikes. Over the last few years we've used it store various items. In the last year the shed has really been showing its age as rips appeared in the fabric and this happened this winter:

It collapsed under the weight of the snow every time it snowed this winter, and several of the support poles shattered.

We've still been using it to house the generator, recycling bins, and a few miscellaneous items, but it's  been such an eyesore. We draped a tarp over the stuff inside, trying to compensate for the massive hole. Not sure if it added to or detracted from the overall trashy factor.

We shifted the shed and platform to the left a few feet when Mr M re-did the kitchen stairs.

We've been looking for a replacement, and thinking about our options. The original plan was to build a small shed, but after pricing materials, we decided it would be cheaper to buy one. And it would be a lot quicker to put together a kit shed. Time is an important consideration since we never seem to have enough of it.

We finally purchased a shed from Sam's (we looked at Lowe's also) and spent an afternoon putting it together. Before we could build, though, we first had to tear down. Not that it took much work to tear down the old shed that was barely standing. 

With the platform cleared off, we moved it a few yards away from the house and deck. I think the longest part of this project was getting the platform level. Seriously, that took a lot longer than we anticipated. 

We finally got the platform level and started putting the pieces together. It was pretty easy to do- even Sunshine helped screw in screws.

River supervised :)

By that evening we had the shed put together and the side of the house looked like this:

So much better!

And there's the new shed, off to the left. It's slightly smaller than the old shed (5x8 instead of 6x8), but it's quite a bit taller. A little extra headroom makes it feel a lot roomier than the old shed. That and we can install shelves and use some of the vertical space more effectively.

We need to clear out the dead leaves and bring in some gravel to level things out a bit now that we can actually see this space.

It just looks so much nicer. We can't get over how good it looks!

Sunday Funny

Just kickin' back and chillin'

Second Grade Thoughts

title: mama cat and her two babies

medium: chalk on blacktop

artist: Sunshine

I discussed our school year back in December, and there's not a lot to add to that post. We finished up our bookwork and second grade in June and have been enjoying a few weeks off. We'll be starting third grade in a week or two and I wanted to write down some thoughts before we hit the books again.

We had a laid back year for most of the year, though we did speed things up a bit this spring to get caught up and finish everything in time. I anticipated having to go with the flow and be flexible, so that wasn't unexpected. This coming year will be more structured so we should be able to include in our schedule some of the things that didn't happen this past year, like sewing, cooking, art projects, and field trips.

Cooking
It's hard for me to allow Sunshine to help in the kitchen because we're usually in a hurry and I don't want to stop and take the time to show her what to do. I need to work on scheduling things better so we have time for Sunshine to help and still get to where we need to go on time. Our ongoing food issues add to the problem, since she wants to learn how to bake and we are currently eating grain free. Small amounts of coconut flour are ok right now, though, so we can do some baking this year.

Sewing
We need a block of time in order to do some sewing, but we haven't managed to find that block of time. Projects that need longer chunks of time don't fit as well into our schedule, so having all morning or afternoon or even all day to work on a creative project will be much more effective than squeezing in 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there. That's just enough time to get the materials out and start, and then put it all away again.

Art Projects
Pretty much the same deal as with sewing projects- not enough time to sit down and get a project done. I had a list of projects for her to do, but I didn't have all the materials on hand, so they never happened.

Field Trips
This year we did take a pretty epic field trip to Boston, but we can't always take a week and a half to explore somewhere.

The Plan
Since we do school on a year round schedule, I've divided our year into 6 terms of 8 weeks each, plus 3 weeks off in July and an extra week off in December. Each 8 week term consists of 6 weeks of schoolwork and 2 weeks of vacation time. I'm hoping to keep to our schedule instead of taking off a day here, a day there, like we did this year. If so, I want to use our off weeks to do sewing projects, cooking projects, art projects, and field trips.

I have a book of sewing projects and as we work through them Sunshine will learn how to sew. I'll have her help me more in the kitchen. I have a list of art projects and I've purchased all the materials for them, so all we have to do is pull out the instructions and materials and get started. I haven't made a list yet, but I plan to, of historic locations (local and semi-local) to visit on field trips over the next two years. In history this year and next we're covering the Pilgrims all the way up to the Cold War and there's a lot of related sites we can visit to reinforce what we're learning.

In a week or so I'll talk more about our plans (books, classes, etc) for third grade.

Small DIY Rubber Band Loom {Stash-buster Project}

I recently found this idea at a blog I follow (she always has super-creative ideas, though hasn't been posting much lately). My parents made me a "knitty knobby" when I was a kid, using a wooden spool with nails pounded in one end. You then use yarn and a crochet hook (or bent bobby pin, as I did) to "knit" a bracelet, necklace, etc

This is basically the same thing, just using a piece of 2x3 instead of a wooden spool.

As soon as I saw this idea, I knew I had to make some. I have TONS of small pieces of wood that are perfect for this project, and I thought it would make it easier for Sunshine to make bracelets. She has a larger loom, but she can never remember which direction and order to do things. Since I have the same problem (I blame our fuzzy celiac brains), I completely understand. The great thing about these looms is that you do the hard part once (the initial set-up), and then it's smooth sailing till the end. And the set-up takes two seconds, unlike with the larger loom, so I don't mind helping Sunshine over and over if I need to.

I drilled holes of various sizes into several chunks of scrap wood, then I hammered in small nails in pairs. I ended up making looms with 2, 4, 6, and 8 pairs of nails.

Then I looked up some tutorials. I discovered that the quickest way to find ones specific to this style of loom is to search for the "Monster Tail" tutorials. I found several for 2, 4, 6, and 8 pins here.

I started out with the easy fishtail  (2 pin).

Then I tried the (top) single band quad fish  (4 pin) and the (bottom) cross quad fish  (4 pin).

Next was the  python  (6 pin).

And I followed that with the compact triple fishtail  (8 pin).

this makes a cool flat bracelet

After making looms with different numbers of pins and then making bracelets on them, I have a couple thoughts.

1. Hammering the nails in straight makes it much easier to work with the rubber bands. The rubber bands kept sliding down the looms with the angled nails. 
2. Hammering the nails in a square or rectangular pattern rather than a round pattern would make it easier to set up the various bracelet styles. The tutorials I watched used the Monster Tail, which is set up in a rectangular pattern, and it's a lot easier to keep everything neat and orderly when you can clearly see where everything goes.
3. Using two nails for each pin is a must- they make it super easy for the hook to catch the rubber bands and loop them around each other.
4. The size of the hole doesn't really seem to matter much, except a larger hole does make it easier to hammer 16 nails around it.

Sunshine was very interested as I worked on these bracelets and helped finish a couple of them. She's already made one and is looking forward to making more of her own, now that she's seen how easy they are.

FitBitting My Way to Fitness

I've been struggling with increasing my mileage while still struggling with low energy levels and I think I've finally come up with some ideas.

I recently started using a FitBit, and it's made me much more aware of how much exercise I am/am not getting each day. Which is, of course, why I got it. So, at least it's not wasted money :)

I don't always have the energy to run, but I can at least manage half an hour or so of walking on the treadmill, with the added bonus that I reach my goal steps earlier in the day.

I've been running two or three times a week, but it's really not enough to get the mileage I need at this point in my training. I'm not quite ready to run more often because I want to avoid injury, but I still need to be increasing my weekly mileage. So on the days I'm not running, I'm still going to spend time walking on the treadmill. Spending time every day on the treadmill will also make it easier to transition to more and more running as my stamina and energy increase.

Before River was born I used to spend time on the treadmill most days, but I just haven't had the energy to do so since his birth. And I have a bad habit of staying up later than I should and then getting up later than I should. So in addition to spending time on the treadmill daily, I'm working on getting up earlier so I actually have the time to exercise and still get the rest of my tasks accomplished.

What about the FitBit?
I can track my progress throughout the day by double-tapping the FitBit. More steps= more lights on. Being able to see my progress at a glance is a major reason why I chose the FitBit over some of the other brands of fitness trackers.

still early in the day, and not many steps taken yet

When I reach my daily goal for steps, I get a "party on my wrist"- it vibrates and the lights swirl around in a pattern.

I can sync it using an app on my laptop or my phone, which allows me to quickly see the number of steps, distance, "active minutes", calories burned, and so on for the day. You can manually input info to track food and water intake, but I don't.

You can also put the FitBit in sleep mode and it'll track your sleep patterns. In the morning I like to check and see how many times I was restless or awake during the night. Now if I could just figure out why I'm so restless some nights, I might be able to improve the quality of my sleep, which would help with getting up earlier in the morning.

---

Do you have a FitBit? Do you like it?

9 Months

I was going to post this last Tuesday, but River was running a fever that day and I hadn't taken the pics yet, so I had to postpone the post.

the sun has shifted since I started taking these photos, so after two months of substandard lighting, I switched rooms, hence the different colored background

Three quarters of a year old already- how did that happen?

River is growing well, still average for height and weight, though he seems big. Maybe we just know a lot of petite babies?

He has improved his crawling skills and now crawls very fast.
He pulls up on furniture, legs, walls, whatever he can grab onto.
River has even let go of my leg and taken a step, then promptly fallen. He'll be walking soon. Sunshine cruised early and we thought she'd start walking before crawling. However, as the months passed, she was content to keep cruising. She did eventually start crawling, and finally took her first steps on her own at 14 months.

Mobility= lots of bumps and bruises.
Arnica is great, I first used it here, and have started using it liberally on River.

He likes the pool. Maybe a bit too much. He keeps trying to drink the water from the sprayers, and when that doesn't work he settles for licking pool water off his hand. So gross. But at least he doesn't have a death-grip around my neck like Sunshine did when she was his age.

trying to catch the water to drink it

River can pick out the one item in a room he shouldn't get into (my painting paraphernalia, the plant on the window sill, whatever) and make a beeline to it. If you call to him to come back, he'll turn and give you a mischievous smile before continuing on.

playing marker lightsabers with Sunshine 

it won't be the last time- many more battles are sure to come :)

He's an easy-going, happy baby unless he's tired, then he's not afraid to let you know that he wants his bed now! And he definitely prefers to sleep in his bed, as did Sunshine. I had hoped our variable schedule would help him be more flexible than her, but that has not been the case so far.

he and Sunshine frequently sleep with one leg crossed and up in the air, which we find hilarious

He likes eating what we do. We were eating bowls of fruit at dinner the other night and I'd chopped some up and mixed it into his glork (Sunshine's term for his mixed up food mess), but that wasn't good enough. He wanted what we had and kept complaining till I fed him bits of a raspberry out of my bowl. Then he was happy.

first spaghetti. squash, that is

Speaking of eating, he still nurses 7-8 times a day. This is a huge change from Sunshine, who was down to 1 or 2 times a day by this age. My milk supply was a lot lower with her and she completely weaned by her first birthday. We nursed one last time on her birthday and that was it. She never asked for more and I never got engorged, so I don't think she'd been getting much at that point. I can totally see River nursing past his first birthday- he really enjoys it, and it's a lot less stressful for me than it was with Sunshine. I credit my improved health and gluten free status for my improved milk supply.

River needs a haircut. I was hoping to make it to his first birthday, but I don't know that that will happen. He's getting pretty shaggy, and his hair is a lot thicker than it used to be. Sunshine had her bangs trimmed around 18 months and lost her baby mullet at 2 for a cute little bob. Obviously boys usually have shorter hair, but if he was a girl he'd still need haircuts long before Sunshine ever did. I'm just sad about losing the wispy baby hair look. I need to google how to cut baby hair without scalping him. How do you cut a wiggly baby's hair?

Finished Art Frame

Remember how I was on a building blitz back before River was born? I built several pieces of furniture, but didn't paint or stain them. I'm finally finishing those projects.

After painting the shoe bin doors, I did the finish work on the art frame that I constructed last year. They're both in the kitchen, which has enough issues without my half-finished projects added in. I still haven't finished the kitchen (I pooped out last summer), though I am building up steam and finally feeling motivated again to work on it.

note the rough corners with visible gaps

I sanded, puttied, and caulked the corners to smooth out the imperfections and give it a clean look. Then I touched up the paint (white chalk paint) and followed it with a coat of wax.

crappy nighttime lighting

It looked much better at that point, but I thought it needed a little something more. So I dug through my washi tape stash and found a pretty turquoise patterned roll. I stuck long pieces of that tape on the raised portion of the frame. Instead of trying to make the corners all nice and neat, I left the ends a little long so they hang over the edges.

I like how it turned out. And if I get bored of the tape, or it doesn't match the paint once I re-paint the walls since yellow walls make white cabinets look dingy :(  it'll be easy to switch the tape.

Now it's time to fill it up again with artwork :)

Sunday Funny

We were driving in the car, and I heard River coughing or choking - I couldn't quite tell which, so I asked Sunshine:

"Is he choking on spit up?"
Sunshine (calmly, not concerned at all)- "No, he's just choking."

So, as long as he's not choking on spit up, it's ok? Sunshine and I obviously worry about different things :)  Luckily he stopped coughing very soon after that and was fine.

Did you know that 8 US Presidents were born and lived in Virginia?

Sunshine's cousin's class did a Flat Stanley unit, so to help her out we took Flat Stanley to visit Thomas Jefferson’s home Monticello, James Madison’s home Montpelier, James Monroe’s home Ash Lawn-Highland, and Zachary Taylor’s birthplace Montebello. Since I put it off till the last week of school, we didn't have time to visit the rest of the houses, but we did manage half of them.

1^st George Washington- born at his father’s plantation near Colonial Beach, VA. He inherited Mount Vernon when his older half brother died and he lived there the last 45 years of his life.

3^rd Thomas Jefferson –born in Shadwell, VA. Started building Monticello when he was 26 and was constantly working on it and expanding it throughout the rest of his life.

4^th James Madison- born in Port Conway, VA. Spent most of his life at Montpelier, which his father built and he expanded.

5^th James Monroe- born in Westmoreland County, VA. Lived in various locations around Virginia and Europe. Lived at Ash Lawn-Highland (which is just a couple miles from Monticello) for 24 years.

9^th William Henry Harrison- born at Berkeley Plantation in Charles City County, VA, where he spent his childhood.

10^th John Tyler- born at Greenway Plantation in Charles City County, VA. He spent his childhood there and a number of years as an adult after inheriting it from his father. He later purchased Sherwood Forest Plantation and renovated and expanded it. The house is still owned by his grandson.

12^th Zachary Taylor- his family was traveling from Virginia to Kentucky when some in the group came down with measles and they had to be quarantined. He was born at Montebello while they were in quarantine (the actual house he was born in is no longer around).

28^th Woodrow Wilson- was born at The Manse in Staunton, VA, but left at one year old when his father accepted a job with a church in Georgia. He spent childhood summer vacations with relatives in Staunton and briefly attended the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

We have lots of field trips planned for the next two years as we study the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and other more recent historic events. We spent the last two years studying ancient and medieval history and have now moved to the more modern stuff, which gives fun field trips a bit more context. So along with early Pilgrim settlements and Civil War battlegrounds, we'll also be visiting the houses we haven't gotten to yet.

Do you like visiting old houses?

Fourth of July 5k

the ubiquitous port-a-potty line

I didn't run with my phone, so this is the only pic I have

Friday I ran my July race. It was my first time running this course, and I kind of like it. Last summer we were out of town, and I missed it the year before that because they don't allow jogging strollers. With Mr M home, I was able to leave the kiddos with him while I ran the race.

I ran the race in 34:15, which is a lot faster than I anticipated, though at the beginning they said this tends to be the fastest race of the year that they organize. The course is hilly, but not as hilly as I thought/was afraid it would be. We used to live in the neighborhood the course runs through and I ran the trails and knew what it could have been. It was hot and muggy, but it could have been worse. If we'd started a half hour earlier, before the sun rose above the trees, I think the weather would have been perfect.

I started out a bit faster than I should have, so while my first two miles were at a pretty good pace, I pooped out during the third mile. I felt strong the first two miles, but just don't have the endurance yet to keep it up. Still, I'm making good progress with my speed and endurance, so no real complaints. 1st mile- 10:16, 2nd mile 10:55, 3rd mile 12:21, with an average pace of 11:09.

My 5k PR is from January 2013- the New Year's Day 5k that I ran in 29:36. 34:15 is closer to that than any other race I've run since. My goal is to get my 5k time below 30 minutes and keep it there, and I'm slowly getting closer to that point.

July 5k:  34:15
June 5k: 38:11          Ran with jogger
May 5k: 39:23          Ran with jogger
April 5k: 37:40         Color Run
March 5k: 37:33  
February 4.5 miles: 1:49:55  Mud Run
January: ---

4th of July

We had a busy Fourth this year.

I ran a 5k first thing.

waiting for the parade to start

Mr M photobombing River and me

We went to our local small-town Fourth of July parade. Always lots of fun, and we even met up with some friends from our homeschool park group.

juggler on a unicycle

colonial re-enactors

patriotic kiddos

River and Sunshine with our friends

We went home for a few minutes of quiet time (Sunshine)/nap (River), then headed to our friends' house for swimming. Sunshine and Mr M hung around for fireworks, but River needed a(nother) nap, so I took him home.

Mr M (black shirt) and Sunshine (pink shirt) enjoyed the pool, while I chased after River

so cute :)

but so full of mischief!

There's a good fireworks display in town, but the parking and traffic is insane. Combine that with River's early bedtime, and we opted to stay home.

More fun with waterlogue