Phone Photo Friday

This weekend will feel completely earned.  After our Valentine's celebrations were over, we spent two evenings doing a little spare bedroom/school room/computer room/craft storage/pop fridge room makeover.  It looks so much better. 

Before...

I'm so glad I took a picture right before we started moving stuff out.  I mean, come on.  After going so long seeing the same piles of junk, I didn't even notice it.  The filing cabinets were just stuffed (to the max) with papers...some important, some not.  LES bills from 2002?  I'm guessing I can safely shred those. 

We moved the fridge to a different closet in the basement, sewing and cake decorating supplies each got toted and moved there, too.  The 42lbs of papers I shredded left space in the filing cabinet drawers for cords, cameras, craft supplies...so that entire mess is gone.

I spent $21 and put up curtains.  I'm not in love with them, but they do make the room look more homey.  Mitch spent $68 on carpet and paint.  Then, he carpeted and painted.  God bless him, he had such a great attitude about the whole thing, when this is truly not his passion.  The whole shebang took close to 10 hours and less than $100.  As always I'm left saying, "we should have done this sooner".

After...  

The filing cabinets are now stacked and in the corner to the right of the computer (which you can't see in this picture).  Trust me, it looks a lot better in that corner!  The chair in the middle (which folds out into a cot, should you ever need to spend the night, haha!) came from the play room, and so did the small bookshelf you can barely see opposite the computer.  We moved a desk and an art easel out of the playroom, so hopefully it won't feel as crowded in there.

Next up, our bedroom.  We haven't done a thing in there for over 10 years; it's time!

With extra kids today and two showings, this will be a "go big or go home" kind of Friday.  I. Can. Do. It.  ;) 

Happy Weekending!
B

Sweethearts

Our Valentine's Day(s) in pictures.

Mitch gets the kids each a new book for V-day every year, they look forward to it!  I heart stuff like this :)

Heart-shaped hard boiled eggs...can you see it?  Yeah, it's a stretch.

Homemade heart-shaped pop tarts.  {pie crust, cherry pie filling, powdered sugar glaze}

After the quartet left, I put on some makeup, straightened and sprayed my hair, and swapped my warmup pants for clean jeans.  I will just pretend that's how I looked when they showed up.  (Ahem!)

Happy Valentine's Day!  
Love, The Sallingers

Favorite Things

These are a few of my favorite things. 

It's not that every moment of day is unicorns and rainbows.  It's just that there are enough throughout the week to tip the scale in that direction.

Finger paint.

When a kid bursts an eardrum, for instance.  Or, there's a giant poop mishap in the main bathroom that nine people share during the day.

Rest time.


If I burn the grilled cheese, or we run out of ranch dressing.  When I get called a "Dummy" by Alan, from Capital Towing.  (I called your boss, buddy.  Mama don't play.)

Hello, Don Rowe.  Are you paying attention?  Millard Lumber shout-out right there.  C'mon, Dave.  Give that a high five.  Bam!

When there's a milk spill that leaks into the inside of the bench, which is storing three tablecloths, that then need to be laundered.  Again.

Rest time turned nap time.

Any time I remember, oh yes, the house is still for sale.

Premade dinners.

When my sack splits at Super Saver and I shatter a 3lb. jar of spaghetti sauce in the middle of pre-snowstorm madness at the checkout.  Then slip in it.

Fresh bread.

When nothing's fair and nobody likes anybody, and everyone has to go to bed early.

Homeschool.

When the white van has a flat tire, on library story time day.  When the white van tires cost almost $200 a piece.

Interesting stuff going on outside.

When someone throws up.  On the carpet.

Trying to convince myself he's still a toddler, not yet a preschooler.

After a 10 hour daycare day.  When we've run out of toilet paper.  Again.

When I've been on repeat all day saying things like, "keep your hands to yourself, don't argue with me, did you flush the toilet?, please go wash your hands, no toys at the table, give the baby some space."

When I've done 17 loads of laundry that week, and it's only Wednesday.  After the third load of dishes of the day, and we haven't even had dinner yet.

Empty laundry baskets, the most beautiful thing ever.

"I simply remember my favorite things..."

It's Friday, Friday... :)  We have co-op classes today, a hopefully a trip to the library.  I finally remembered to buy batteries for Ryleigh's book light, for those nights that everyone goes to bed early, but she doesn't really feel tired yet.  I mean, she is EIGHT (and a half).  Anyway, she has a fresh light and "no good books".  The horror.  DJ Steele has a really rare night off tonight, and I think...just maybe...we are going to file our taxes.  The excitement never stops around here!

Happy Weekending,

Becky

P.S. I've updated our Project Groundhog pages, HERE.  I added some links that will hopefully get you to our weather data page, etc.  If you care :)

Project Groundhog Week Two

Happy Valentine's Day to all our Project Groundhog friends!

Authors

by Ryleigh

Authors rule

They can write in the pool

Pencils are their tool

They must have gone to school!

School

by Rugger

School is very cool

It is fun to learn all day

It is awesome too

Sledding

Nothing better than being rocketed down an icy hill on a cheap piece of orange plastic in the freezing cold. 

The two odd shaped bruises on my legs are proof that I'm not a fun hater.

(Tiff, turns out, that weird painful lump behind my knee is a bruise.  No blood clot here, PTL.)  If your sister isn't a nurse, I feel sorry for you.  It's a really handy thing, to have talented siblings.

We had so much fun.  So many giant smiles, all around.  Love it when that happens.

Let's pay some attention to Reise's periwinkle blue snow pants.  I'm telling you, this girl will be the death of her parents.  She was so mad at me for not letting her squish herself into a pair of size 2T snow pants.  The 2T's had a semi-snazzy blue design on them, which were WAY better than the "plain old" black pair I bought in her size.  ("Plain old" is Reise's generic derogatory term for anything that lacks style, in her humble opinion.)  Black is so practical, especially when we're talking about snow gear which will be passed down to boys, there's just no way around it.  I'm kind of sorry, but not sorry enough to buy pink.

Lo and behold, these light blue pants were in the closet the entire time, I just forgot they were her size.  I am not exaggerating when I say she squealed in delight. 

While we're calling Reise out for her Diva ways, I'll also mention that she has a beautiful (handed-down from a cousin) pink 2-layer Columbia coat.  However, she chooses this (very worn) beige number, because it's kind of shiny, and the hood...oh, my goodness, the hood has fur.  And, there's a pocket inside for her MP3 player.

I love her so much, I can't stand it.

Rowen is such a funny little kid.  He has no fear, which is probably normal for a boy.  He'll try absolutely anything.  I hope he has enough sense not to kill himself.  Some days I really wonder.  Thankfully he's trying to keep up with his big brother, and Rugger has fairly decent common sense.

Perforated eardrum?  No problem for Ryleigh (who is aware that not a single item she's wearing matches, and doesn't care-love it!).  We were all pretty grossed out by the eardrum bursting thing that morning.  It didn't seem to bother her, and she was already on antibiotics, so I'm assuming it will heal up on its own now.  She did mention that when she drank cold water she could feel the temperature in her throat/ear.  Weird-ish.

The sled goes much faster when there's, ahem, more weight.  So, clearly the best ride of all involves me.  Piling three kids in there works pretty well too, as long as someone doesn't rock the boat half-way down.  Ask Mitch how many times he went down.  Ask him!

The best part of this whole experience was me utilizing the delay timer feature on my oven, so the lasagna I had thrown together over lunch was hot and ready to eat when we got home.  I've only used that option once before, and was paranoid we'd either come home to a fire, or have to wait another hour until dinner because the oven didn't turn on.  Whew! 

While we're here, the new winner of the 7 giveaway is...Lynne Herr! 

There's a sleeping preschooler in my bed right now, which is definitely against the rules.  Rules, shmules.  I am going to go snuggle for a good 10 minutes and feel little to no guilt about it. :)

B