The Boys' Room

It will never be this clean again....

Random Pictures of the House

Our back yard, driveway and side yard this past January 2011! 

 

 

 

  This is the master bedroom that we share with Leia.  The color scheme was terra cotta and hunter green. Not a good choice, so we changed it to “Manhattan Mist.” 

 

Look for these lights (above the bed) listed on freecycle sometime soon!

 

Our “schoolroom” where all the action takes place.

A Yard That Needs Some TLC

An asparagus patch right at the front entrance of side deck.  It’s the entrance we use as our main door and as much as I love asparagus, I don’t love where this is growing.  It will have to go at the end of summer 

 

A beautiful patch of raspberries that had such promise of bringing me unlimited joy this summer, however the birds and deer had the same idea- they’ve eaten every single berry! 

One of four hydrangeas we planted.

The front left side of the house.  At some point we’ll have to put a new front porch on the house.

A view of the five fruit trees the previous owners planted.  One cherry, two pear and two apple.

Summer projects

Now that we are home owners we've decided to make the house our home. During the spring months we painted a few interior rooms (well we painted two and then hired painters to paint three more since it was a slow going project for us). Now that summer is here we are busy tring to get the yard in working order (many years of neglect creates large work for us!) and fix up the screened in porch. We do our home school and eat almost every meal outside in the warm months so it's important to have a nice outdoor space in which to reside. Once the winter months arrive we'll be back to working on the home's interior which will keep us once again, very busy. Above is the "before" picture of the screened in porch. Stay tuned for updates and more pictures.

Learning Curve

“Things I’ve learned so far as a mother with a third child” or alternatively “Things I wish I had know with my first two children:”

Babies really DO like to be swaddled. 

Babies using a pacifier is fine.  They love to suck (and not always the breast).

Letting a baby sleep in a swing (swaddled and w/ pacifier) is brilliant! 

Minimal crying in the car seat while on a five minute trip to the grocery store is fine and isn’t going to ruin the parent-child bond.

Babies aren’t too picky; they will let anyone hold them (and again, doing this won’t ruin the parent-child bond and your arms will get a break). 

Let your other children kiss, hug, hold, nuzzle and touch the baby as much as they want; even when you just want them to “leave her alone already!” 

 

New Baby

I just had a baby, so please forgive the lack of posts lately. Okay, I had the baby more than a month ago, but this is one of the first times I've been able to get on the computer and type with both hands! I hope to resume posting on a more consistent basis; with a new baby, two boys, homeschooling and marriage, I will certainly have enough material.

Training My Children

I’m not sure the title is what I’m trying to convey in this post but I couldn’t think of anything else.  There are two points I would like to share with you. 

The first: one day last week my boys were…well let’s just say they were not behaving very well and I had had enough.  I was done being their referee and parole officer.  All the usual “punishment” techniques weren’t working so I tried something new.  I told them that if they couldn’t get along they were going to have to do some manual labor.  Of course they tested me (and learned once again that I do follow through on what I say) and then proceeded to spend the next hour cleaning the apartment.  Not the usual pick-up-your-toys clean; oh no.   I had them clean the bathroom (minus the toilet b/c I’m not ready for that lesson yet), dust everything in the apartment, and then clean the kitchen cabinets (something that really needed to be done and that I had been putting off for several weeks).  Now, they didn’t do the kind of cleaning job I would have done, but for 5 & 3 year-olds, they did a pretty decent job; but it wasn’t about the cleaning anyway.  It was about getting them to work together (w/o fighting) which they did quite nicely. In fact, they enjoyed the work so maybe it wasn’t really a punishment after all, but at least I got those cabinets cleaned!

The second: I implemented a new morning policy for the boys today.  Normally in the morning they wake up before me and come to the “big room” (our living/dining/school/sewing/computer room) get their breakfast, run around, play on the computer and/or watch cartoons.  Sounds fine except when I wake up and it becomes time to get dressed/ready for the day- that’s when the whining and complaining begins.  Per our new morning policy the boys are required to get themselves dressed for the day, read at least one book (of which they must present to me an oral report) and clean their room which includes making the bed, putting their pajamas away and general tiding-up. 

The goal is to get them to start doing “chores” on their own and without me nagging them to get it done.  It also eliminates the whining that always follows turning off whatever electronic device is in use in order to get dressed/ready for the day ahead.  Now, some of you may say just don’t let them use any electronic device in the morning, but then you do not know me very well.  I NEED that extra hour of sleep in the morning, and with a baby on the way….oh, I cringe to think the sleep deprivation that is coming my way.

The new policy worked this morning and we’ve enjoyed a pleasant day so far.  I’ll let you know what changes might take place, good and/or bad. Below are some pics of the boys cleaning the cabinets. 

More Baked Goods continued..

Here is a cake we made together.  Even though it was a box cake mix (insert gasp here) we at least sifted it to make the cooking experience last longer and “feel” more real.  The chocolate frosting is homemade and ohhhhh sooooo good. 

More Baked Goods

There is a fantastic French bakery down the street from us (appropriately called The French Bakery) and Olivier and I spend enough money there that we had to create a separate category for it in Quicken.  Olivier and Hayden’s favorite is the Pain du Campaign, Tristan’s is brioche, and mine is the apricot brioche…or strawberry croissants… or palmier…oh I can’t decide.  Last week I decided that this almost daily habit was becoming too expensive (it wasn’t even a decision on my part really, just reality) and thought “hey, I could make this stuff myself.”  Ha Ha Ha.  I tried and was somewhat successful but my bread baking will never replace that of The French Bakery.  I’ll keep trying but in the meantime we’ll just have to give up heating our apartment to offset the cost of the bakery habit (it’s almost summer anyway, right?).  Below are pictures of the brioche.  They look beautiful and they were edible but even Tristan said he like the ones from the bakery better (little snob). 

Reading Chairs

Recently, my mother-in-law, Syma, gave the boys their own R2-D2 reading chairs (from Pottery Barn if you’re interested in getting some for yourself).  They LOVE these chairs and it has opened a new door on our reading time.  Since we don’t have any proper living room furniture (don’t ask) we’ve been sitting on the floor for our reading time, which isn’t very comfortable (especially when you are 7 months pregnant).  Anyway, now with the chairs I find both boys reading much more on their own and to each other because they have a comfortable spot to sit!  (I still need something to sit on but that will come in time).  Thank you Syma.

 

Tristan the Baker

Tristan and I do a lot of baking together; mainly chocolate chip cookies aka "Wookie Cookies” which were inspired by our Star Wars cookbook.  When we aren’t baking for real, he likes to play with his kitchen set, making us dinner, birthday cakes, or coffee. 

A friend of mine gives her kids cotton balls to play with, so to help with his creativity I gave Tristan some to use in his “cooking” but they ended up pulled apart strewn about the apartment.  Of course that didn’t  work so out well with me and my excessive need for things to be clean and in place.  So last night I decided to let him use a Costco sized bag of Dove chocolates for his imaginary baking.  (The rule was he could play with them, NOT eat them- and he abided).  That kid played all night with those silly chocolates- and Hayden even joined in.  I’m glad we put the chocolates (which have been sitting in my pantry since Christmas) to good use. 

 

Nesting

My pregnancy “nesting” instinct has kicked into high gear!  Since they baby will sleep in our room for the first few months (okay let’s be honest, the first two years) I can’t really set up a nursery, so instead I focused my energy on decorating the boys’ room.  They have never had a “decorated” room (they spent the first years in our room and once we moved to Seattle, they got bunk beds and their own room, but we never decorated it with anything other than hand-me-down blankets and a black sheet as a curtain to block out the morning sun) so this was a real treat for all of us.  (I even want to move in- it’s so cool).  Thanks Mom for the duvet cover that got this all started.

 

As you can tell, it’s a Star Wars theme.  I made the top bunk’s duvet cover by sewing two navy blue flat sheets together (much cheaper than buying a real duvet cover).  The vintage artwork on the wall is Star Wars prints Olivier’s parents gave him when he was a kid!  Thanks Syma for sending them to us!  We framed 8 of the prints and the kids LOVE looking at them and discussing the back story to each. The sketch above the pillows on the top bunk was done by a local pre-teen who was selling his art at the “Kid Farmer’s Market” in Redmond ($12- a steal).  Another item we framed was a poster and Star Wars stamp Olivier bought at the post office last year.  We got the Darth Vader bucket at Target during Halloween last year (Hayden was Darth Vader and Tristan was Obi Won).  Our last project (although I don’t know when we’ll actually get around to doing it) is to make a Death Star “globe” to hang from the ceiling.  Now I can’t wait to decorate another room!