home project:: hallway

Project renovate our yucky hallway started yesterday.

Our hallway is really long.  And dark with a tint of yellow.  Attractive, right? We live a ranch style house so every room opens into the hallway.   Currently, the hallway has three separate cased doorways; one from the family room into the actual hall, one midway down, and it ends at the back bedroom. There are seven additional doors that also open into it and two sets of closets.

Here is a picture from before we purchased the house:

We painted it a light tan when we first bought the house, and although I love the color in the family room {Sherwin Williams Rice Grain}, in the hall it looks yellow. It's primarily due to the lack of light.

Lofton and I sat down a few weeks ago and made a list of projects for freshening the hall-- recessed lights, painting the ceiling and attic fan, crown molding, wainscoting, and a new wall paint color. 

Work started yesterday!  And by work, I mean we spent an hour at Home Depot followed by three subsequent trips to pick up things Lofton forgot.  Regardless, the front part of the hallway is much brighter.  He added two recessed lights to that section and removed a fixture from 1958.  We have another fixture {bought on super clearance at Home Depot almost a year ago} ready to go, but the drywall had to be patched first. See the second photo below.

It's kind of amazing how much brighter things look with the two lights installed.  The back of the hall is next.

You can actually tell how yellow the back hall looks now compared to the front.

Then it will be molding time.  Lofton installed wainscoting in our dining room at the old house, so doing it down the hallway should be a fast process.  I've already agreed to be on paint duty for the attic fan.  

a week of grace

Lest you think when Reese turned four he became perfect, I thought we'd end February with a bang.  Or maybe I should say Reese has ended with a bang.

And this week?  This long, long week in the shortest month of the year has been an exercise in grace for this overworked Mama.

Let's start with saying that Reese wet the bed Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night.  Despite the fact that we got up with him at eleven all three nights for an extra potty time.  Reese's bed wetting issues aren't something I frequently blog about, but let's note that they are a very real and stressful part of our life.  After noting the timing and pattern of his episodes, we've determined that the bed wetting always starts after we've either been out of town as a family or Lofton and I have been gone for night {which happens once in a blue moon, but did happen a few weekends ago}.  It would appear that deviating from Reese's routine AT ALL causes the proverbial ball to start rolling.  It takes a few weeks to get back into a groove.  A few weeks and a lot of mama/daddy-o setting their alarm to take him to the bathroom.

So working with limited sleep, I pick Reese up from school on Monday and am greeted with my hug.  I ask him how his day went as I pack his bag.  "Umm good," is his response as he darted his eyes over toward his teacher.  I ask him if there's something he needs to tell me.  "Nope," is his reply as he again darts his eyes toward Michelle.  Finally, I tell him it's time to fess up.  Yep, time out for hitting someone in the eye with a toy he has thrown.  We go through the whole embarrassing display of me telling him in full view of his class that I'm sad he made a bad choice that hurt someone.  He does the walk of shame over to the child to apologize then promptly bursts into tears and cries, "Does this mean I can't have fruit snacks when we get home."  Yes, yes it does, because your mama is a teacher and she absolutely expects for you not to be that kid. You know what this stinker asks me in the car?  Do I at least get crackers and water?  Like we are going to tie him to the bed and never feed him again.

Fast forward to yesterday when he gets in timeout again for being a bad listener during circle time.  We go through all the motions again but this time I take away not only fruit snacks but his one afternoon cartoon.  I'm mean y'all.  And it's time to get serious about doing the right thing at school.  I know the dark path kids who don't listen travel down :) Lofton threatened to take away Chik Fil A Friday, but just between us Daddy isn't that tough.

We spent this afternoon at the doctor for the felon's allergy induced cough.  It's just another addition to Reese's bag of tricks that rob me of an uninterrupted night of sleep.  We are starting back the Nasonex tonight which should be loads of fun.

And all of these things are the reason I know that God intended motherhood to be an extended study of grace.  Grace for my words, grace for my heart, and grace for this curly headed blond boy.

full of life

I recently read an article about stopping the glorification of busy, so I'm not going to say that's what we've been. Nope, not busy.  But our days have been full of life.

This past weekend my parents came to keep Reese so that Lofton and I could go to Montgomery for a night out with friends.  Holland, a high school buddy of Lofton's, is a member of what we like to call a secret society.  Without going into a lot of details {because, duh, it's a secret}, we got dressed up and had a ball.

Why is putting on a pretty dress so much fun?  And my husband in a tux?  I was a smitten college freshman all over again.

Reese is keeping us on our toes.  All full of questions and stories.

How do ants build tunnels?  Can I be spiderman when I grow up?  No, I think I want to be an orange ninja turtle when I grow up. They are really fast. Will you read me a book?  What's for dinner? Did you know that a penny is worth one and a quarter is worth twenty five?

It goes on and on.

He's also sounding out words like a champ.  Since teaching is my day job, I'm trying to let this phonics thing progress on it's own.  He still has another year of pre-k to conquer, after all.  This weekend he spelled Emo without any help.

I really struggle with wanting to bottle him up.  I believe it was Cassie who coined the term "happysad" and that is what this stage of life is to me.  Lots of happy with a tinge of sad!

growing pains

It's a gloomy kind of Sunday.  The kind that makes you race home from church, put your pjs back on, and jump in bed for a nap.

Also, because your favorite little one woke up screaming with leg pains at 1:27am.  And then you tried to console him, to no avail, for at least twenty minutes until Daddy swooped in and got things under control.  And then at 4:00 he got up for good.  That's right, 4:00 in the morning.

So truthfully, by the time we got home from church and errands we had been up for seven hours.

Despite the early rising it's been a slow and easy kind of weekend here.  Yesterday Lofton ran in my sorority's annual philanthropy race.  Although he occasionally runs, it was his first timed race.  I'm pretty sure he's been bitten by the competitive bug and this won't be his last.  Reese and I had grand plans to walk, but it was so cold at 7:45 that we couldn't feel our toes.  Not my ideal conditions for exercise.  We hung out in the chapter room then booked it to the finish line to welcome our runner in.

The rest of the day was spent cleaning the yard {we had some giant trees cut down}, grocery shopping, and spray painting what is going to be a new coffee table.

And actually, Reese and I started our weekend a day early.  In addition to real growing pains, we've been dealing with some emotional ones as well.  Last Sunday night Reese decided he was really upset about the next day being a school day.  And as the week went on he became more upset with each passing day and night.  My mama heart was literally a mess.

We, of course, tried to figure out why our usual school-lover was so unhappy, but he didn't offer much in the way of information.  He didn't nap on Tuesday {always a bad idea} and there was a day that his usual morning teacher wasn't there to greet him.  Other than those few things, though, I was stumped.

I decided after Thursday morning's tear-fest to take Friday off of work to try and give him a little undivided attention.  I am 100% a working mama.  And I work a job that demands a lot of time and attention.  I also think that we've been really busy with weddings, and sickness, and birthday parties, and house chores, and maybe we haven't spent as much time just focusing on Reese as we usually do.

So although lots of people probably think I'm crazy {ha!}, I took the day off to spend with my favorite little person.  I asked him what he wanted to do and all he requested was a trip through Chick Fil A so he could eat it in the buggy at Target.  Done.  He also took a nice, long nap.

I know tomorrow might bring another ocean of tears, but at least I've tried.  It's really important to me that Reese knows, for Lofton and I, nothing is more important than him.  He has always thrived, I believe, because Lofton and I heap love and attention on him.  It's what we feel grows a strong and confident and happy child.

So we shall see what tomorrow brings.  And we shall go to bed early tonight because I am oh so tired.

home project:: laundry room

I think when last we left the laundry room it was post-apocalypse.  As in the dogs had eaten through the drywall through to my bedroom.

It's been a long haul getting things back to functioning.  Mainly because my handsome, DIY husband also works a full time job.  And there was duck hunting season.  And Christmas.

But things are looking great.  And while I won't say I desire to do laundry {because if I did you should immediately have me committed}, I will say that the time I spend washing clothes is much more enjoyable now.

The room is small so taking pictures was a bit difficult.  Enjoy your tour::

- The floor was a cost effective substitute for the hex tile I originally wanted.  We used a greige grout.

- Lofton built the shelf to go above the washer using some corbels I had to have. The shelf holds my glass containers of laundry detergent, a basket with our bounce dryer bars plus other little things, and a picture of my favorite boy.

- The built in shelves at the end of the room didn't start that way.  There was a small alcove {it backs up to my closet} and Lofton framed it out to make it more symmetrical.  The green is actually a more olive toned color, although it didn't photograph that way.  I'm toying with buying a curtain to cover the shelves, but haven't pulled the trigger yet.

- The wall color is a perfect blue/gray/green.  I love it.  We kept the original bead board ceiling.  The light fixtures were a super awesome Lowe's score.

I still need either some hooks, or a rack of some type, for hanging clean clothes.  There's an empty space next to the washer just waiting for me to make a decision.  And I need something on the walls.  But I'm not sure what type of art screams for the laundry room.  

I'm so happy to have a functioning washer and dryer again.  And I'm happy the drywall dust is no longer dirtying our floors.  And I can promise, with absolute certainty, that the dogs will never stay in here.  Ever.

birthday parties

{I promised you a funny video and then left you hanging.  My apologies.  I'll made good on my promise at the end of this rant.}

I'm not a fan of birthday parties.  There, I said it.  They give me anxiety.

Maybe it's the teacher in me that always wants to correct other children's behavior, or maybe it's the fact that some of the parties Reese has been to have been down right scary.  Case in point... In August Reese went to a campfire themed birthday party.  Complete with a real, minimally supervised fire and sticks wheedled into sharp points.  And the party was at night.  Then, last weekend, there was a party at mixed martial arts.  Lofton took one for the team and went along with Reese.  I begged off because I needed to go grocery shopping.  There was a game of dodge ball where a child got knocked off their feet and board breaking.  Hells bells, they are FOUR!

It's all too much for me. I just prefer a good, safe house party.  Play with some toys, open a few gifts, eat cake and head home.  Is it too much to ask?

And now, the video:

Yes that's my husband.  And the little one is my son.  What can I say?  Two peas they are.

hannah gets married

My sweet cousin Hannah got married Saturday afternoon. {prepare for picture overload}

It was a beautiful and festive few days, that for us, started with a ride through Narnia.

Reese and I thought the impromptu blizzard was fun and exciting.  Lofton, the driver, not so much.  Evidently icy roads are stressful and dangerous.

Regardless, we made it to my grandmother safely.  We had a short visit at the hospital, then regrouped and headed toward Madison.  Have I mentioned that Reese wants to live in a hotel?  Preferably one with a heated pool?  To say he was happy would be an understatement.

Thursday night we had dinner at my aunt's house and relaxed with the bride and groom.  We then headed back to the hotel where my mom and Reese engaged in a stinky sock fight.  Yes, you read that correctly.

Friday morning, mama and I hosted the bridesmaid brunch.  It was negative ten degrees outside and we arranged flowers in the car.  Otherwise, everything was perfect!

This girl was the happiest, most relaxed bride I've ever seen.  Makes my heart smile! Sweet Lofton flew solo while Mama and I spent the day helping with last minute wedding tasks.  Poor guy spent three hours in an over-chlorinated indoor pool.  

Friday night was the rehearsal.  Did I mention Reese was the ring bearer?  Yet another layer of excitement.  He almost burst.

buck taught him a new party trick

during her daddy's toast

And then it was wedding day! There was hair prep, makeup, and lots of pictures...

snapped this with my phone and it's seriously my favorite picture of her

The reception deserves a whole post to itself.  Mainly because I have a really entertaining video to share.  Stay tuned for that... 

And then it was over.  And yesterday we had to make the six hour drive home. With a child who spent most of the ride like this:

Exhausted and cranky from a jam packed weekend.  He fell asleep about the time we passed Exit 52, the Auburn exit.  Awesome.  I just transferred him to his bed and he napped until five.  So thankful we both had today off from school to rest and regroup.