Happy 30th!

Happy 30th Anniversary,
Grandma & Grandpa!

We love you, and hope you'll celebrate 30 more! :o)

Enjoy your week in NYC! :o)

Geometry & Kiddie Pools

One of the fun things we did this weekend was bring out the kiddie pool! :o) The kids enjoyed it with one of their favorite babysitters Saturday evening while Chris and I enjoyed an evening out. :o) (For the record, Hannah was so excited about her babysitter coming that when she woke up Saturday morning, she asked if we could eat lunch first so that she could come sooner!)

However, as anyone who has set up a kiddie pool knows, they quickly become an attraction for the local bug population as well as your children! :o) And so, Hannah and I used some household materials and high school Geometry this afternoon to create a very effective pool cover! :o) I'm going to include instructions here for anyone who'd like to try the same. :o)

Supplies:

1. Bubble wrap (You can buy it at office supply stores. We had put it in our yard sale pile!)
2. Scissors
3. Packing tape
4. Measuring tape
5. Marker

Instructions:

(Sorry I didn't think to get pictures of each step!)

1. Measure the diameter of your pool. (That's the distance across for those who are rusty on Geometry!) :o)
2. Cut strips of bubble wrap about one inch longer than your pool's diameter.
3. To determine how many strips of bubble wrap you need, measure the width of your bubble wrap and divide your pool's diameter by the bubble wrap's width and add one more to accomodate overlap. Our pool's diameter is 4 ft. and the bubble wrap is 1 ft, so I needed five strips.
4. Lay the strips long sides together with the bubble side down (flat side up) on your table and overlap the edges by about an inch. Secure them together with packing tape. (I used about 8-12" strips of tape and then overlapped each strip of tape by about an inch or so.) Handling packing tape in much longer strips than that becomes difficult.
5. Now here's the part where high school Geometry really comes in handy, and I almost made my life MUCH more difficult by not thinking of this!

• Once you have a big blanket of bubble wrap, carefully fold it in half (bubbles together) and then fold it in half again to find the center.
• From the center corner, use your measuring tape and marker like a compass to mark out an arc the length of your pool's radius (1/2 the diameter). For me, since my pool's diameter was 4 ft., that meant drawing little marks every couple inches that were 2 ft from the center corner.
• Cut along the marks you've drawn and unfold your blanket to reveal a nice circle just the right size for your pool! :o)

Put your new, insulated blanket over your pool! Bugs be gone and warmth/water stay in!

And here's my illustrious assistant who's very glad that the bugs will no longer be so interested in her pool! :o)

Hopefully this will be helpful to somebody! The idea for using the bubble wrap came from my husband--I just executed it this afternoon. And I love seeing such practical uses for high school math! :o)

Organization Returns!

It was bad. Very bad.

I can honestly say that I have never had a "non-construction zone" under my domain in such a state of total chaos. Ah well. The worst part was that the kids still wanted to play in there! Thankfully they always managed to find their way back out! :oP

The storeroom wasn't "organized," but it was at least navigable. Just a little tough to find things or get at that box on the bottom of the pile! :o)

However, in a household where efficiency tends to reign, the empty space on this wall above the boxes was, well, not an "efficient use of space!" (Sorry folks, yes, we really do think this way. For better or for worse, we at least think alike on the subject!) :o)

I started Friday evening with an attempt to bring some organization to the guest room. I did make some progress, but it quickly became evident that the shelving we were planning to add to the storeroom needed to happen sooner rather than later. Mainly because we needed a place to store the extra twin bed, and the top of a double-wide shelving unit seemed like the best option.

I was organizing while the kids and Chris built the shelves, so I don't have any "in progress" pictures with the kids, but here's the final product.

Peter's expression of "this isn't all it's cracked up to be" is unfortunately pretty accurate. It was a long day for them. They did really well, but playing on their own and staying out of the way of moving boxes and piles gets old after a while. Thankfully these kind of projects happen once and then they're done. Maintenance is so much easier!

Here's the vast majority of the storeroom moved out and stacked in the basement area . . .

So that we could position the new shelving.

And many hours later, I now know where all of my storage boxes are, what's in each of them, and like items are generally sitting in the same area of the room. :o) And it's MUCH easier to get to them! :o)

And . . . ta da!

Our guest room! :o) Hannah is very excited about her "dolly corner." She has her dolls, cradle, stoller, and rocker all set up in one spot. :o)

And here's the kids' play area. :o)

Whew. It's done. We probably bit off more than we should have tried to chew, but we all survived (including the kids), and it's so much nicer to have that done! :o)

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

Happy Birthday, Grandma!

We love you and hope you have a wonderful day!

Four People

"I can see out the window from my feet,

and if I lift up my feet" (i.e. stand on tiptoes)

"Because I'm four

and four-people can see outside windows."

Gotta love it!

Have a wonderful weekend! :o)

A Boy and His Tools

Peter continues to expand his vocabulary with "down," "done," "mine," "mama," "dada," "hi," and "woof-woof" all being regular conversational items. :o) However, right now, without a doubt, his favorite activity is using his tools, with the drill being high on the preference list. :o) (For those who are concerned, it's a very tired battery, and he only has a screw bit--no drill bits!) Chris has given him some screws and styrofoam to screw into. Self-entertainment--it's great! :o)

As is his personality, he is very serious about using his tools. Everything must be properly gathered and set up before launching into action. (And on an amusing note, notice his footwear in these pictures!)

"Mommy, I'm busy. Are pictures really necessary?"

Anything with a screw is a candidate for "fixing." And we are working very hard to enforce the policy of "no tools in the house." Tools stay in the basement, on the porch, or outside. We're wondering how long it's going to be before we're repairing a window or walls from the well-intentioned, but misguided efforts of our young man's hammer!

Somehow I suspect that he'll be changing tires before he's ten!

He'll do his daddy, grandpas, and great-grandpas proud! :o)

Ready, set, . . .

Ready, set . . .

Go!
Ready, set . . .

Go! (or not!) :o)

The Missing Piece

So, what DO you do, when you really, really, really want the "dog" from your sister's puzzle?

You replace it!

Thankfully, he has a patient and gracious sister (most of the time!) :o)

Slowly but Surely

Slowly but surely, organization is returning to our home, and it continued in Chris' workshop last Saturday with a set of drawers . . .

We have had these drawers sitting around filled (or not filled) with various items and stacked on top of each other ever since our first kitchen remodel a couple years ago. They're good solid drawers, so you hate to throw them away, but drawers are meant to be drawers . . . not boxes.

Well, in a project enjoyed by everyone involved, the drawers are now once again . . .

DRAWERS!

Nice work, honey! :o) (And thanks to Grandpa H., it even rolls!)

A New Friend

Mrs. Debbie had her baby yesterday, June 8! :o) A healthy baby girl, Evangeline Constance, who weighed in at 9 lbs. 3 oz! Hannah and I went to visit this evening--we had a great time!

On the way over, Hannah commented that this was "the first time going the 'new way'--we went the 'old way' to see Miss Crystal and baby Nate." (That was back in December, and "new way" vs. "old way" was distinguishing the route from our new house vs. our old house.)


What was special for me was to see some significant signs of maturing between the two visits. :o) Hannah was more interested in what she could give to baby Evangeline than in anything she might get. (Definitely not the case in December!) She ransacked her buddy stash for a special buddy she could give her. She was so excited about it! And we talked about it nearly the whole way to the hospital. :o) "I'm showing God's love by sharing my buddy with Evangeline." Praise the Lord! It's so exciting to see some seeds of budding understanding! :o)

Here we are with baby Evangeline . . . forgot to get pictures of Debbie and Dan! And Evangeline's is holding her new buddy. :o)

Hannah even worked up the gumption to hold her! :o)

"Do we get to ride the alligator, Mommy?" (No, I did not mistype that. The "elevator" has been an "alligator" since she first started talking!)

And here's the lovely fountain at the hospital . . .

And we stopped to get this picture especially for Daddy on the way home as he enjoys seeing the towers on the mountain and the sunset was such a beautiful backdrop.

Before we went, I asked Hannah is she wanted to draw a picture of Mrs. Debbie and baby Evangeline, and she said she didn't know how to draw a baby. (That's when she decided to raid her buddy stash.) However, when we got home, this was the first thing she did:

We now know how to draw a swaddled baby! :o)

Congratulations Mrs. Debbie and Mr. Dan! Evangeline's a cutie! :o)

Happy Birthday, Aunt Barbi!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Barbi!

We love you and hope you've had a wonderful day!