the big day

you do know what day it is, don’t you?

jael does!  it’s the royal wedding!  jaelly belle and i watched it live at 4 a.m. this morning.  it was so fun.  i think my favorite part was the trees in westminster abbey.  it was a nice, delicate, tasteful, spring wedding.  not at all like i would do, but i guess that’s okay.  …i’d probably try to fill the abbey up with pink balloons.  yes, there’s no telling.

you wouldn’t believe the hard luck i had digging up fellow anglophiles in this town.  my friend ada settled for a lunch party.   she thought i was a little off my rocker when i tried to come over at 6:00.

one princess to another.

and it’s time to break out the royal doulton.  the girls did enjoy their tea.  they didn’t even break anything.  …spilled, but didn’t break.

we also had a little english breakfast.  fried eggs, sausage, fried mushrooms, english muffins, and cream cheese stuffed mushrooms.  and for dessert ada whipped up some coconut sticky rice.

it’s nice to have friends.  i mean, it’s obviously a national holiday and i’m sure everyone wants to take off work and school, eat fried food and cheer on the monarchy.

you have to start them young.

it was just so romantic.  and i think i want the sound track, the music was lovely.  especially the song “jerusalem,” written by william blake.  (p.s.  i cooked the sausages.  that’s why they look like that.  if you were wondering.)

here they all are entranced and below shouting, “rule brittania!”

i hope they all had as much fun as i did.  it’s a happy day.

breakfast

it’s only going to get ugly from here.

hello 7:30.

eggs from annie and clarabelle, our backyard chickens.

personally, i am not a breakfast eater.  it’s much too utilitarian of a meal.  but since i started working out in the morning i’ve had to give it a go.  besides steel cut oats and eggs, we’ve been having things like yogurt with honey, toast with grandma jam and tea, smoothies, oatmeal spread with peanut butter and jelly, yogurt blueberry parfaits, sunday morning waffles, and “british bread” with fried eggs and fake bacon.  hooray for fake bacon.

yum.

plus there is nothing like cleaning up after the most important meal of the day.  is that what they meant when they told me to “start my morning right?”  i’m sure they had no idea.

quite contrary

i don’t know why i didn’t think of it before, but i want this for the girls’ room.

and i’m usually pretty up on my wants.  so it’s a mystery.

ebook

this looked kind of interesting.  well face it, i just liked the cover.  plus it’s a free download today for people who blog it, if you want to try your hand.

i’ll let you know what i think.  *m

valances

okay, so maybe it wasn’t the next day.  but here they are.

they used to be a crib skirt, but after i got it i decided it was too frumpy.  so i turned it into valances instead.  which makes things cozier indeed.

rahab is the first otto baby to have her own nursery.  i am sure she likes it.

and we like her.

the plan

i’ve been playing with schedules for a while.  and mostly i’ve given up.  i mean, how could i govern my multi-tasking mastermind anyways?  but one can do something with the droids.  so this is where we are at.

my goal is to get the boys doing certain things every day without me telling them.  i thought putting on pants would be an obvious way to start the day.  but i was wrong.  so now, they eat breakfast and then they put on pants.  end of story.  they don’t build lego speeders on their way to get their pants, and then forget and reenact the battle hoth in their underwear.  i find that once they get used to doing things in order they are easier to get to do things at all.  now they know that when they come in from running they grab their school books and go sit at the table.  (i hope to work them up to 5 miles by the time they are in junior high.  i just feel so evil.)

but it’s been a very encouraging week.  after a bumpy three months life is coming together.  not to mention, monday they are coming to clean my carpets.  i will be a new woman.  the only thing that really bites is having to go to the gym.  i’m bound and determined to stick it out but truly, it’s just no way to live.  wednesday morning i remember coming into consciousness on a cycle listening to hip hop wondering, “wasn’t i just in bed?  what am i doing?  for the love of god!”  i don’t want to think about it.  although coming home at 7, reading and singing with the kids, and then jumping in my jacuzzi tub while marc babysits is the highlight of my day.  then he goes to work and i have to chip the corn chex off the floor by myself  and notice the baseboards i haven’t painted yet and wonder what i’m making for dinner and evaluate if the sound emanating through the floor vent is for good or for evil.  i’ve got quite a sound bank cataloged.

to sum it up, here are some things i’ve learned.  schedule the first things first.  set my anchors.  meals, bedtimes, school times, reading times, exercise, etc.  i had to bump my study time with my gym time and haven’t quite found out where to put it.  i’m too tired at night.  not to mention, the only way i can convince myself to get out of bed in the morning is the assurance that i actually did have 8 hours of sleep.  so my next strategy (and it is pretty sad) is to put my bible by my computer and every time i visit google, my email or facebook i can read a chapter.  that’s just mercenary, i know.  that and i am bumping prayer time to bath time.  which is even worse.  but sad to say, my morning cup of tea has been sacrificed to lady gaga and the elliptical.  there’s not much for it.

the other thing i’m trying to value is a decent breakfast.  my friend jessa makes a quinoa mush for her kids with mashed banana, almond butter, hemp oil and toasted coconut.  so we’re trying that and my own take on mcdonald’s new oatmeal.  i make mine with steel cut oats and cream, golden raisins, craisins, and chopped apples.  the egg cups are back out too now that the chickens are laying again.  oh yes, and another thing i have learned (that everyone else seems to already know) is to clean my kitchen immediately.  i mean, how hard is it?  (that’s why my mother-in-law has to tip the waiter 20% anytime she takes my kids out to eat and still feels compelled to apologize.)  what i want to know is who is going to tip me?

also, i’m trying to automate as many things as possible.  i don’t have time to tell midgets to brush their teeth three times each for a total of nine.  put on pants, brush teeth.  and i’m sick and tired of telling people to clean up toys.  so i schedule it before mealtimes.  i’ll feed them when i can see the floor.  another things i like is setting boundaries for toys.  thus far shall they go and no farther.  no toys upstairs and no toys in the bedroom.  which helps with my other goal of keeping at least one room in my house clean at all times so i can receive guests.  i try to hit the living room first in the morning and then the dining room, branching out from there.  so far, i’m mostly an army of one.  i’ve noticed that a lot of people give their children more chores than i give mine but frankly, i don’t trust them during the pupa stage.  i let them try to make their bed but it is a total mockery.  however, i have found that there are a few things a 5 and 6 year old can do decently.  they can clear a table, take care of the compost, unload a dishwasher, put away their own clothes, and unpack groceries.  beyond that i’m rather stumped as to what they are good for.  i have no idea how old they would have to be before i would let them clean a bathroom.  marc can’t even clean a bathroom.  speaking of bathrooms, total genius.  his and hers.  all the way.  i’m getting little signs to make it more clear.  it’s magic.

and i can’t believe how long it took me to learn this.  do my hair.  i don’t feel human until i am put together.  i don’t do anything until i’ve flossed and hit myself up with finishing spray and lip gloss.  my pants may not fit but i have fabulous, assassin hair.  another thing i’ve had to prioritize is the boys’ reading.  i just set the timer and point them to the couch.  i’ve pretty much given up reading to them.  i try to always be working through a chapter book with the boys, but marc does most of the reading.  which is why i love daddy time.  he makes up for most of my neglect.  books on tape make up the rest.  it also keeps going to bed bickering at a minimum.  they go straight into little, fascinated comas.  another thing i like is having a no toy rule after dinner.  they play with daddy, not their toys.  which helps them focus more on him and stalls the decay process.  plus, i am able to blitz the house some more while he has them distracted.  which brings me to the holy grail of motherhood.  going to bed with a clean house.  if i can go to bed with a clean house i can totally rule the next day.  if not, it’s a miry pit that leads to the depths of hell.

so those are some thoughts.  i know i don’t think much on this blog so i hope it’s not too much of a shock.  don’t worry, tomorrow i’m just going to do a post on my new gingham valances.  yay.

sisters

the baby’s shirt says “mommy’s sweetheart.”  jael, on the other hand, took her “child safe” scissors yesterday and halfway sawed the lid off my new nalgene bottle.

red cent

i have an ongoing romance with the ugliest paint color in the world.  i love it.  just not necessarily in my basement.  it really works better in lots of light.

i saw it in someone’s house 8 years ago and was enamored.  i asked her the name and when i got to the paint store and looked at the chip i was like, that can’t be it.  that’s brown.  and ugly.  but in the right light it can be pink, coral, orange, or red.

in my basement it just looks like rust.  apparently.

to liven it up i want to throw in a huge map above the couch.

i think hubby actually wants a raven map.  they’re cooler i guess.  although it would probably look better in the toy room.  which means i still have to think of something for above the couch.  any ideas?

and my brother is bringing me a sheepskin rug from argentina, for in front of the fire.  at least that is what i have told him.  and i still have a bazillion plans for the toy room (mostly involving built-ins).  but i don’t want to think about it right now.  it’s past my bedtime.

although i do need to refinish that huge coffee table i drug in.

and one thing i am going to do before i can’t stand it another second is have my carpets cleaned.  i am going to stick a post-it-note to my forehead.  “clean your filthy carpets you sick animal.”

bedroom

just a little more tour.  i have been feeling ambitious lately and have started projects in every room of the house.  it’s funny though how these things get the last of my energy.  i think i spend more time moisturizing.  (they call it a regimen for a reason.)

not to mention flossing, styling my hair, exercising, menu planning, nursing, teaching retards how to read and count past 19, people who randomly wet their pants and people who wet their pants regularly, laundry, reading through geronimo (which i have discovered is not actually a children’s book), weeding flower beds, windexing french doors, feeding the crock-pot, and gideon’s perpetual memory work.  (which always ends up being my memory work.  for the record, i can now say all 66 books of the bible in 47 seconds.  and i will never forget that 8+6 is 14.  it’s something that i’ve never wanted to say about myself, but it’s true.  i am sure worse things are bound to happen.  i mean, i’ve lived this long without having to learn my multiplication tables.  it’s not fair.)  anyways, that’s my life.  sometimes i try to decorate.

for the bedroom i still need to change out a few outlets, repaint all the walls, trim out the door,  patch some holes, and sew some white/sheer balloon shades.  and can you see my lovely fluted vase?  my mother picked it up for $5 and it values at $130.  i am sure the progeny are just lining up to see who breaks it first.

i am also waiting to get this picture hung.  it’s just ridiculous how much it costs to have something matted.  then i need to paint the frame white.  i still think it’s funny how this picture i made in college turned out to be so prophetic.  love, true love.

and then i have two more pieces of furniture to paint white.  an easy weekend warrior project.  in the third picture from the top you can see the piece i’ve already done.  as well as the piece i did and accidentally left out in the rain….

and soon i will break out my white spring bedding and my mother is bringing more milk glass to display on the hutch.  it will be loooverly.

p.s.  it’s true about the flossing you know.  i spend about an hour of my day just trying to get around to it.  “can i floss yet?  what about now?”  and yes, we do call our children retards.  or tard munches with “munches” for short.  jael is just “jael tard.”  i think it’s more of a term of endearment though.  jael came up to me the other day and said, “i love you mommy.  tard munch.”  and really, it’s a kind evolution in the realm of nicknames around here.  when we only had boys we called them scrotums.  it’s true.  scrom for short.  or scrommit.  retard it much more gender inclusive and therefore more politically correct.  that’s how i think of it.