Quick Takes #184: Stream of Consciousness 800 posts later!

1. Have of course been following the coverage out of Charleston; so impressed with how the church community has pushed forward and how the victims families have already been able to talk about the power of forgiveness
2. Summer so far is going well with daily trips to a local playground or time spent biking or scootering around the neighborhood. The pace is about to pick with community camp starting today; and July brings a week of gymnastics camp for the two bigs and later an enrichment week for Elisabeth. As always hoping to strike the right balance between planning activities and allowing for downtime. 
3. The house a year later has that familiar home feel to it; and while there is less pictures hung and more book boxes still to unpack then I would have guessed a year back I also know a lot of livin happened in the past year and bit by bit the filling of book shelves and hanging of pictures will happen.
4. Soon I plan to enlist Lisbeth's help in pick-up her room sufficient for pictures to be taken and perhaps a post about how we transformed her room since moving in. Regardless of whether I ever post about it ~ I'm very much feeling the pressure to capture this moment for something tells me that her room may look very different by next summer. 
5. If the Blogger post counter is to be believed this is my 800th post which is something I can't quite wrap my brain around but promise a more fleshed out reflection on at some point soon. In the meantime thank you for all of you who have read along on this adventure.
6. Prayers for all those without power especially our hostess.
7. Plans for the weekend include swimming lessons, shopping and general charging after a couple of tough weeks.

Please head over to Kelly's for more 7QT's

Quick Takes #165: End of an Era, Advent, House Stuff

1. End of an era: Jen of Conversion Diary announced today that she will no longer be hosted the 7 Quick Takes link-up and is passing the baton to Kelly of This Ain't the Lyceum. Am feeling a bit thrown by this announcement but already knowing and loving Kelly and her writing I am now channelling Olaf and thinking "All good things!, All good things!!"
2. Checking back into my archives I find that my first Quick Takes post was January of 2009 and 160some post later it has been such a touchpoint and means to find my way in writing this blog that I suppose the feels of being off balance are to be expected.
3. Blessed Advent! Ours is going well ~ so far we've (I've) remembered to have us light a candle and say a prayer every evening.  Lisbeth has even mostly dropped the topic of when do we light the pink candle.
4. Getting calendars proved a bit trickier but Wednesday we had succeeded and while Caitlin clearly doesn't understand what is going on, she also definitely doesn't mind being handed a piece of chocolate. We will hopefully be setting out our shoes tonight. Since I have my explanation all ready for why Saint Nicholas/Santa Claus comes twice ~ no one will ask.
5. House stuff continues and seems to be going well though prayers welcomed that this continues through closing; it just this time of year is crazy enough without adding inspections, assessments and clearing the final random remnants.
6. This weekend we are hosting a Christmas party for our local Church family which means today will a wild ride of excitement and anxiety of getting everything ready made all the more fun as Caitlin has learned from her big siblings the fun of trashing a room while Mommy is off cleaning another.
7. Congratulations Kelly!! Jen ~ Thank you more than I can ever say!!

New Home: Caitlin's Room

Next on the mini house tour is Caitlin's Room.

   Since I couldn't consult with her color wise I went with my preference and the color we had painted Lisbeth's 'big girl' room at the old house; Behr's Misty Violet ~ and I haven't heard any complaints.

 Sorry both 'before' shoots are actually mid-painting but hopefully you get a sense of the taupe we were again trying to cover.

The crib we have had since Lisbeth, and the bookcase was my youngest sister's originally but has been mine since my first apartment.

A dresser given to us from family members and a print that has been since hung (promise).

The nightstand and glider have been ours for awhile; the rocking horse I found at a local thrift store that specializes in kid's clothes and toys for Caitlin's first birthday.

The littlest of the bedrooms but hopefully a cozy, fun room for our littlest!

 

Prior Post:
Liam's room

New House: Liam's Room

   Will be sharing over the next month or so some of the fun we had this summer getting the house ready to move in.  All of the bedrooms were painted a dark taupe with a brown carpeting so it was always our plan to repaint the kid's rooms.

   First up Liam's: When asked what color he wanted his room he said "Geen" and with the help of Behr Color Smart and bringing home some paint chips we were able to narrow it down to three which we then bought samples and tried out on the wall.

the before shot...

my assistant posing with our trial patches.

  We settled  on Key Lime and got to painting; given that we were going over a dark color I opted for the fancy Paint&Primer and am very glad I did as it is a good size room and already the two coats it took was quite plenty (especially since I still had two more rooms to paint before moving).

   

We then headed to Tar.get for new sheets. Liam choice was Dinosaur sheets.

We are largely reusing furniture we had except for a Peel&Stick chalkboard and firetruck storage bench both new for his Dinosaur/Fireman room!!

Quick Takes #158

1. State of the house is actually ok; there are still many boxes to open and not enough pictures on the wall but overall we are settling in well and making it our own.
2. Caitlin is currently a bit miserable getting four teeth at once but also marking the milestone of 18 months with a language explosion, starting to go down slides by herself and insisting on feeding herself ~ which while cute is also turning almost every night into a bath night.
3. Had fun 'interviewing' the kids for this post.  May attempt to make this a yearly thing.
4. My sister release her latest book this week; with the moving craziness starting to calm down I'm looking forward to reading it soonest.
5. Yay for summer produce; while the mess of fruit salad and smoothie prep is a bit annoying I'm so happy to see my kids happily eating so much good stuff.
6. Weekend plans include anchoring some bookshelves, emptying boxes and if the kids have anything to say lots of sprinkler time.
7. Some latest pictures:

Please head over to Conversion Diary for more Quick Takes

5 minute friday: Exhale

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.

2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community..

Exhale

Start:

   The rooms all got painted that needed to get painted, and the furniture got moved with only minor bumps and scratches.  It was definitely a race to the finish and there is still so much to do, but not right now. Right now in the lavender nursery surrounded by boxes but sitting in the glider just as I had envisioned I'm rocking my baby down to sleep and exhaling. Because however much more work there is to do both here and at the old place; evening has fallen and we're in, and it is time to rest in our new home.

Stop.

please head over to Lisa Jo's for more 5 minute friday

Quick Takes #157 ~ super quick cause I really should be packing version

1. The closing on the new house was interesting and the very definition of 'all's well that ends well' ~ not expecting all the craziness Dr. Daddy had only taken a half day off so that evening when he got home we scooped the kids in their pj's and went for some quick glimpses of our new place.
2. Packing and purging is continues to go more slowly than I would like but bit by bit getting done.  Speaking of purging anyone know of places (other than libraries) that takes VHS tapes?
3. Potty training success ~ finally and with reproduce-able results. Which means he can go to camp ~ Yes!!
4. Caitlin's guardian angel is still doing a great job as she (Caitlin) has a few times been found upstairs at the new place but so far has never gone down intentionally or otherwise on her own.
5. Nothing will prompt you to figure out where the thermostat lives and how it works to cool the house down like a couple of day in the mid 90's.
6. The painting fun has begun with several samplers tried out and I think we have narrowed in on some great colors for their rooms ~ more later.
7. And thank's to this wonderful post by Ana of Time Flies, I'm largely keeping all the craziness in perspective ~ Crazy Exhausting Fun!

Now please head over to Team Whitaker guest hosting again for Jen

Five Favorites Vol 12

linking up with Moxie Wife and sharing some of my current faves:

1. Behr Color Smart~ our new house is largely painted in a nice beige but finding it a bit dark plus wanting to let the kids have input into their rooms we decided to paint. This feature helps tremendously to narrow down the options when your three year old says "Geen".
2. Have enjoyed the traditional Skinny Girl for the last couple of years; last time I was shopping I wanted to try something new so I tried the Grapefruit Margaritas.  The description of sweet & tart is right on the money.
3. Teach Me app an app with many levels; pre-school through 3rd grade. We downloaded the kindergarten one last summer and it held Lisbeth's attention the whole summer.  We just downloaded the first grade one for this summer. Liam is still working through the levels of the pre-school one. 
4. Twilight turtle; Liam has always been tough to get to go the sleep ~ as in having to lay down next to him till he's asleep however Sir Turtles night sky of stars in rotating colors has proven a great help towards our goal of having fall asleep by himself.
5. Wonderful friends who come and help pack or help wrangle the littles so I can pack!!!