I'm Turning Into My Mom and Dad!

Hi there!

How's that for a title? LOL I've been wanting to blog all week, just to let you know I'm still alive (although not crafting). I've had a busy week (but then, don't we all have busy lives?) but a very satisfying one. I've got no pictures but lots of thoughts to share, so if you aren't interested, feel free to exit now. I won't mind (much...hee, hee)

So what have I been up to? Continuing the deep clean of the house, actually. I decided early this week to tackle a project that I've avoided for years. Yes, years. When we put together Amy's room/nursery, I chose a Little Suzy's Zoo theme as I love those characters. We put up molding about half way up the wall and just above that we put up a wallpaper border of those fun critters. It looked very cute, if I do say so myself. Well, as Amy got older, she got a little destructive, and she pulled off portions of that border. Just enough that it no longer looked cute. So, I don't know how many years ago now, I pulled the rest of the border down and attempted to clean up the remaining glue. For some reason that I don't remember now, it didn't work completely and I always meant to go back and finish the job. I think I attempted it, but it was going to take more time and effort and chemicals than I had to devote to the project at the time. So for years, I've looked at this remaining mess and thought I really need to get that job done.

This is the project I started on Monday. I wondered if my homemade cleaner of 1/4 cup of borax, 1/4 cup baking soda and 1/2 tablespoon of ammonia in a gallon of warm (okay hot) water would work, or would I have to go get some special glue remover? Lo and behold, it worked! Armed with lots of white cleaning rags, a Dobie scrubber (which is a sponge encased in a plastic mesh), a Pampered Chef scraper, and the cleaning solution, I started behind the girls' bedroom door, just in case. I don't know if the cleaning solution was the trick or the years of drying out time making it easy to get off or a combination of both, but I made terrific headway in the time I had that day. I finished the job on Tuesday and then started to wash the walls and ceiling. That was fun (not). Jessica had a tendency to write on walls when she was younger. Enter a magic eraser to the arsenal (God Bless the person who invented that!) By the end of Tuesday, that job I had been avoiding for years was completely done and I felt a huge sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Not that anyone else in this house has noticed or said anything, but seeing the clean walls when I go into their room brings a smile to my face. This week I also washed down the walls and ceiling in our hallway, which took a little longer than I thought it would for a relatively small space. And yesterday I started in the living room. I have one and a half walls to go. What a wonderful feeling it is to see the progress I've made with this project.

In addition to this project, the girls' school had a Walk or Wheel to School Week. The students were encouraged to walk or ride their bikes to school. Each student that did got their name entered into a raffle and a healthy snack. I volunteered to help three days this week. One morning I helped at the table passing out snacks and filling in names on the tickets. The other days I walked down to a designated spot where the kids who ride the bus were dropped off so they could walk the rest of the way to school and qualify to participate. Yesterday, the girls and I rode our bikes to school. It was a very positive experience. Although I do think it's sad they have to promote this, something that was a given when I was a kid-I know it's a different world today)

As part of this event, the school had a bike rodeo that a local company called Bicycle Colorado helped sponsor. They set up an obstacle course on the playground using cones and things for the kids to ride a bike through, demonstrating their newly gained knowledge about bicycles and safety. Kids who participated in this event got a free bicycle helmet! It was offered for students in 2-5th grade, so Jess didn't participate in this one. It was very cool, but unfortunately for me, I forgot my camera.

The reason I forgot my camera? The new session of swim lessons started and I had to change the days we go because Jessica's class was full. So, in addition to this bike rodeo after school, we had to go to swim lessons straight from school. I thought the girls had to have their bikes and helmets for the rodeo (turned out they didn't), so I rounded those up, in addition to all the swim stuff they would need. I had to pull all that together pretty quickly and I forgot to grab my camera. Oh well. It was so neat seeing Amy show off her biking skills. She wanted to go through the course a couple of times and I was worried we might be late for swim, but it worked out just fine.

On Wednesday, we had the school's Chick Fil A fundraiser night, where a portion of the proceeds from that night's sales goes to the school. After that I went to a friend's house for the evening and had a lot of fun.

In amongst all this, I've been reading a book I borrowed from the library (I've been reading books while I eat breakfast rather than the newspaper, which tends to depress me) called Stay Home, Stay Happy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It reconfirmed something I've been feeling these days. And that is I really, really enjoy being at home mom. I'm proud of the time I'm investing for my family. I don't mind that I'm working hard at getting this house in shape because I'm doing it for the people I care the most about. I am actually enjoying this cleaning process, which may sound crazy, but the feeling of accomplishment I have after I've done the work is well worth the effort required.

How does all this make me turn into my mom and dad? Well, my mom used to go to bed pretty early in the evening (I thought) and I've been doing that, too. And my dad was notorious for sitting on the couch to watch TV and he'd nod off, complete with the head drifting down (or back) with the jerk at the end as he woke up a bit. Guess what I did last night as I was relaxing on the couch? Yup...I'm turning into my mom and dad. LOL

Thanks so much for stopping by. I know I haven't been crafty lately, and I appreciate your willingness to read what I've been up to despite that. I'm hoping once this big project of washing down the walls and ceilings is done, I can devote some more time to crafty pursuits. As it is, I've been busier now that the girls are in school all day than I've ever been, I think!

Have a great weekend!