Back Door Makeover

While I was at Joann's the other day getting the material for the fort kit I made, I saw this fabric.  I loved it, and it was 30% off.  I decided I wanted to make new curtains for our kitchen and breakfast room with it.

Then, it made me think of this color, Teal Lake by Glidden, which I am obsessed with.  So I decided to paint the interior of our back door Teal Lake.

We've replaced the back door since we moved in. 

When we moved in, we had a thick, solid wood door that was not protected at all on the outside by a storm door, etc., so the moisture over time caused it to swell, crack, and start rotting.  It was a great door, but it needed to be replaced.

We replaced it last year with this fiberglass door that can be painted or stained.  And didn't paint or stain it.  The window makes a HUGE difference in the room and lets so much more light in.  I also really like it because I can easily see the kids in the backyard and (duh) can see who's at the door when someone rings the bell.

This is what our breakfast room looked like Sunday morning.

One coat already made my heart happy.

I got started on the curtains and my husband told me that the night before the dog had gone into our dining room (where my sewing machine was set up) and got tangled in the power cord.  That made him rip the machine off the table and it broke!!!  I seriously started sewing curtains for our kitchen on Henry's Pixie Plus sewing machine....  The good news is that Chris thinks he can fix the sewing machine.  He's already taken the whole thing apart, and he's pretty confident he can repair it.  And he feels awful, because I had the door to the dining room closed so nobody would get into the sewing things and touch the machine.

This was the breakfast room Sunday night.  

I l.o.v.e. it.  

I did two coats of the paint in a semi-gloss finish.  It looks so great!  

Next up in that room is some bead board on the walls, paint the upper portion of the walls a deep khaki,  and Chris is going to build a banquette and a farm table.  

DIY Gift - A Fort Kit!

Jack is going to a birthday party today, and it's the first even party that just he has been invited to (not a tag-a-long invite from David and Henry).  He's SO excited to go.  I decided I couldn't stomach buying one more Lego set for someone's birthday, so I poked around on Pinterest for a bit and decided to make a Deluxe Fort Kit.  This is my new favorite gift to give.

What you need is:

Twin flat sheets (I used 2)

Bias tape or some sort of rope for the ties on the sheets

Clothespins

Clamps

Rope

Flashlight

Glow sticks

Either a pre-made drawstring bag or tote to put it all in, or make your own

So, the first thing I did was take the sheets out of their packaging.  They came in little cloth bags, which I almost threw away but didn't at the last minute.  And I'm glad I didn't, because I used those little bags in the finished product to store the little accessories.  I think they'll be good for the clips and clothespins once it's all been used and it's time to put it away, instead of having those fifty little clothespins and clamps loose inside the bag.

The sheets were very wrinkled from being folded in the package.  If I wasn't so lazy pressed for time, I would have washed them and ironed them.  Instead, I threw them in the dryer to tumble with some damp clothes I already had in there.  (Mom and Grammy, stop shaking your heads at me!)

While the sheets were tumbling?

I made Buffalo Chicken Nachos.

Next I got the ties ready.  I sewed looped ties onto each corner of the sheets and one on each side on the middle of the long side of the sheets.  I didn't want to use bias tape, because I started the project the night before the party and didn't want to be up all night sewing.  I looked around at the store and decided on Piping Cord.

I measured 20 inches of cord and cut it.

The I cut eleven more, so you'll have a total of twelve (six per sheet).  Obviously if you're using more than two sheets, increase the number of ties by six per sheet.

Next, I tied the ends of each tie into a little knot to prevent fraying.

I made a loop and sewed through the middle (the "x) on the corner of each sheet and onto the little tail a bit on each side.  I went back and forth two times on each side of the X, so a total of four passes over the middle, to give it more strength.

I stacked it all up with the accessories and wrapped my material for the bag around it to eyeball how much I would need.  And stopped taking pictures.  

If you're going to make a drawstring bag, this is a good tutorial.  It's super easy to do.

Once I finished my bag, I just put it all inside and made a little tag for the front.  

I hope he likes it.  And doesn't open it at his party and think Jack brought him a big pillowcase for his birthday...

Cost breakdown:

Twin sheets - $4.97 each x2

Clamps - $1.00 each x2

Clothespins - $0.49 (I used half of a $0.97 package)

Flashlight and batteries - $2.00

Glowsticks - $2.00

Piping cord - $1.99 (I used half of the $4.00 package)

Fabric for bag - $2.80

Hang tag - $0.20

Total price - $21.42 

*If I made these for my own kids (which I will be doing for Christmas), I would use flat sheets from Goodwill.  I don't know the people who are having the party though, so I didn't want to go all Goodwill on them!  Obviously using sheets that are $1.25 each would significantly decrease the cost.*

I already had the ribbon for the tie, the thread, and the blue card stock I used for the tag.

There are some much better tutorials for fort kits here:

Bloom

meg & andy

Saltwater Kids

A Day in the Life

I love to read other people's posts about a day in their lives.  Voyeurism at its best perhaps?!  It's just interesting to me to see how people spend their time.  I've never done a similar post before, so thought now would be a good time!

I cannot tell you how many times I have had someone say to me, "I don't know how you do it."  I'm never exactly sure what "it" is, but I always assume it means work full-time and have four children because that's usually what the conversation is about.  {I'm also never sure what people think my other option is....I have the kids.  It's not like now I can stop taking care of them!  That comment always makes me giggle a little.}  

I should preface this "A Day in the Life" post by making it clear for anyone who does not know, my husband does not work.  While our stay-at-home-dad set up would definitely not work for everyone, it works well for the most part for us.  We are so fortunate to have Chris home, and I think him being with our children so much is something that is so good for them, both now and in the future.  I was fortunate enough to stay home with them (meaning the boys) for four years, and now it's Chris' turn.  It's not always easy, and sometimes I really, really wish it was me home with them still, we have made it work for four years now.  I do what I can to make things easy for him while he's home, and while there was a definite learning curve involved for both of us when he first left his job, we've gotten into a good routine.  

I tried to take as many photos throughout the day as I could, when I remembered, so here we go!  

I am, by nature, a very early riser.  I always have been.  I am the most productive in the morning.  And, by morning, I generally mean I get up at 4:00 a.m.  Yesterday Jack wet the bed and came downstairs upset at 3:00 a.m.  By the time I got him cleaned up and settled in our bed I was wide awake, so I just stayed up.

Remember when I did my juice fast and drank no caffeine?  Right, the no caffeine is out the window.  The juices remain, but the caffeine is snuggled up right next to it.  This is my favorite coffee cup.  Ridiculous, I know, but I love it.  I get mad when it's not clean.

I paid some bills, organized some of Katie's medical and school paperwork, checked my email, checked my facebook, read some blogs, looked on Pinterest for a crafty idea for a birthday gift for Jack's little friend, reviewed the calendars of the guys in my office to make sure there was nothing crazy that I was unaware of on them for the next few days, made a to-do list, and started a grocery list. 

I checked everyone's backpack to make sure there was nothing I missed the night before, repacked them, cleaned out all of the crap my little hoarder David has stored in his backpack, cleaned everyone's eyeglasses, and found everyone's shoes for the day.  (You'd think that with the cubbies under that bench the shoes wouldn't be an issue....think again.)

I started packing lunches, only to realize that Jack's lunchbox had somehow gotten wedged behind the lunchbox drawer.  See it way back there?  You can barely see the bat signal!  I figured out how to remove the drawer (which was MUCH easier than I anticipated - WIN!) and got everything reassembled.  While I was sitting on the floor up close and personal with the cabinets, I noticed how dirty they are, so I quickly cleaned the bottom row of cabinets and drawers.  Yes, this is the ridiculous stuff I do at 4:30 in the morning.

I packed lunches for David and Jack.  We had some slim pickings!  I really need to go to the grocery store, so their lunches were a bit creative.  Henry bought lunch, and Katie was home for lunch.

I took a shower and got breakfast started.  That day the children had strawberry muffins, scrambled eggs (ahem - a dozen scrambled eggs. . . good thing we have an egg connection!), and clementines.  Chris gets up around 5:30 and generally takes the dogs for a quick walk while I'm getting breakfast ready.  The big boys also started swim practice, so I packed their swim bags and got everyone's clothes out for school.  (I sometimes do this at night - it really just depends on what I have the motivation to do!)  I remembered it was picture day for Jack, so I swapped out his shirt and quickly ironed a nicer one for him.  Chris got back from walking the dogs and woke up the boys.

I got ready for work and got Katie up.  She is SO not a morning girl!  I snuggled her for a few minutes and we sang a couple of songs.  She was in a fantastic mood and was very cuddly.  I got her face washed and hair brushed, grabbed some clothes for her, and got her dressed.  (She's doing SO great with her potty training.  Is it still training if she has no accidents?  I think she's trained.)

I did one last check of everyone to make sure their teeth and hair were brushed, faces washed, clothes matched and everyone had clean underpants on.  Just trust me.  You don't check unless it's been an issue before....  

I was out the door to work at 6:45.  I live about thirty minutes from my office.

This is most of my drive.  I may see five other cars in the ten miles between my house and the interstate.  I love it.

I stopped at McDonald's for a coffee and ran through the drive thru.  When I got to the window to pay, the cashier told me the woman in front of me paid for my coffee and wanted her to tell me to have a blessed day.  That's NEVER happened to me before!  I was so excited - it's so silly to get excited about not having to pay for a $2.00 coffee, but it was more exciting to me that someone thought to do that.  I will certainly be paying that forward.

I parked in the parking garage and walked up to my office with an attorney from down the street.  I work with his office a lot and he's one of my favorites to work with.  We talked for a little while about his family and his daughter, and I headed up the street to my office.  I got to my office at 7:20.  This is my view for the day.  I love my cozy little office, and especially love the photos of my muffins hanging on the wall in front of me.  Do you stick post-it notes on your computer?  I always have a bunch.  I think that one is for a warrant I need to pull, and that little paper on the bottom of the monitor is from a goldfish bag.  It's a happy little fish named Bert, and the attorney I work for is named Bert so I had to keep it.  Like my purple chairs?! This picture doesn't accurately convey the hideousness of the color.  They're very comfortable, though exceptionally ugly.

I am almost always the first person to my office.  I get all of the lights turned on, check the fax machine to make sure nothing came in after we closed the day before, check my voicemails, print emails that need to be reviewed and filed, return emails, check voicemail, pull files for the day, do a little filing (which I am SO behind on!), and get started for my day.  Throughout the day I took and made thirty-three phone calls yesterday.  I kept track for this post, and because I was curious.  It felt like a very slow phone day, so I'm going to do it again for a couple of days to see if that's typical.  I met with a couple of clients, drafted some letters and court pleadings, emailed (fifty-seven emails. . . maybe that's why there were no phone calls!), did some bookkeeping, ate lunch at my desk, and repeated the same for the afternoon.  I got my bank deposit together and was out the door at 4:30.

I walked back down to the parking garage and headed out for the day.  At this point at home, Chris had picked the boys up from school, came home and made their snacks, started to go over homework with them, did a practice spelling test with David, and got them changed for swim.  Swim started at 4:30, so as I was leaving work the boys were getting into the pool.  Chris took Jack and Katie to the playground while the boys were at practice, mostly because Katie would be impossible to keep out of the pool.

I ran through the drive thru at the bank to make my deposit for work.  I love the girls at our bank!

I had to get the things I need for the birthday gift I'm making for Jack's friend.  It would be so much easier to just buy him a Lego set, but I won't do it.  I went to JoAnn's to get some fabric.  

It was hard for me to only buy what I needed for this project, but I did it!

Next I walked over to Dollar Tree to pick up a few more things for the gift.  I'm going to do another post about the present - it's going to be so cute!

I ran over to WalMart to pick up something for dinner for Chris and me and also to get one last piece of the present.  I also stopped in the paint section to look for a specific color that I had seen in a blog post. Guess which one it is - it's one of the ones in this photo!  I have several projects up my sleeve at home now that the weather isn't 100 degrees out and the paint would actually dry on something if I put it outside.

I picked up the rest of the things on my list and headed home.  Traffic was not great, as there was a four car accident right by the onramp to the interstate.  It took me about twenty-five minutes to go probably a quarter of a mile.

Finally I got back to the nice slow part of life!  I got home at 6:00.  The kids had already eaten, so I quickly put my things from the store away and we got ready to go out and play.

Jack went outside first and Katie wasn't happy about it.  She couldn't reach the lock we have up high on the door.  You know, to prevent her from getting out of the house when she's not supposed to!  She dragged the stool from the bathroom into the breakfast room and got up as far on her tippy toes as she could to try to unlock the door.  Moderate cognitive delay?  I don't think so.

I told her to get some shoes, so she put on her rainboots and headed out the door.  In her underpants, white shirt, and boots.  That's how we roll.

After some outside playing, we came back in and got the kids washed up.  They changed their clothes and went potty, and everyone headed up to bed.  Henry and Katie are always great about getting ready for bed when I tell them it's time.  Jack is easily distracted and needs several reminders.  David can be as slow as Christmas, especially if the television is on, and needs to be asked about 1,346,028 times.  So that television quickly got turned off.  Our kids are some early to bed children.  Chris took Katie up to bed and I brought the boys.  The boys were in tucked in their beds at 7:30 and were allowed to read for ten minutes.  I popped into Katie's room to kiss her goodnight, then came downstairs and cleaned up from the quick dinner Chris and I had.  I flipped through the mail, checked the papers the boys brought home, reviewed their agendas, packed their school bags, watered our plants, and went back up to turn off the boys' lights.  I loaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the toothpaste from the boys (seriously?  How many people brushed their teeth in there?  It looked like enough toothpaste for 17 kids.), checked my facebook and email, got my project stuff organized, checked the lunch menu for Friday and decided Henry and David can both buy lunch, and got ready for bed.  I was in bed at 9:00.  That's an early night for me, but I generally don't get up at 3:00!  Chris watched football and came to bed sometime after me - I had fallen asleep with the light on while I read in bed!  

I'm linking up with Holly and Amy!

I Am Her Mother

See this girl?  {the big one!}

I am her mother.  

That's all.

Just her mother.

Mother

moth-er  

A female parent.

Did Chris and I adopt Katie?  

Absolutely, and we are so proud that we can say that.

Are there instances in which it should be noted that we are her "adoptive parents"?

Yes.

Such instances are really probably limited to when medical information is provided or when a social history is provided.  For example, it is noted in her file at the pediatrician that she is adopted.  Well, duh.  Otherwise, there would be no medical history for a five year old girl with Trisomy 21.

You know, at the pediatrician I {her mother} researched, selected, and have scheduled all of her appointments with.  

It is noted that she's adopted and that "parents are unable to provide medical history re: birth parents."  

It is also noted in her occupational therapy notes that she is adopted.  And that "mom advises that Katie previously lived in a Russian orphanage for nearly five years".  {you'll note, the term "orphanage" would indicate she had no family.}

Such social indications regarding adoption are certainly necessary in an occupational therapy evaluation.  Living for four years and 11 months in an orphanage, without a family, will do a number on the sensory perception of a child.  

Four years and eleven months.  Without a family.  How long is that?  

1,490 days.

35,760 hours.

2,145,600 minutes.

Without a family.

I am her mother.

Do you need to refer to me as her "adoptive mother"?

No, not unless you are making a note in a medical or therapeutic chart.

To imply that I am somehow less her mother because she is adopted is ignorant and insulting.

Her first mother?

She didn't want Katie.

You know, because Katie has an "inborn deficiency".

She looks deficient, right?

Her first mother made what I think was a difficult decision to leave her baby behind.  To walk out of the hospital with empty arms, because the child that was born was not the child she expected.  I have convinced myself that she did so because she thought she was helping Katie.  I have to believe that.  For my girl.  I have to believe that her first mother didn't walk out those doors because it was easier for her; easier for the first mother.  

She had no idea what she was leaving behind.

He is her father.

The only father she has ever known.

The first father she had? 

He left her at the hospital when she was born.

He also signed a letter that said he never wanted to be contacted regarding any future information about her.  Never.  He left his newborn child at a hospital and went home.

I do not pretend to understand how that happened, and I hope it happened because her parents thought it would give our sweet Katie a chance at a better life.  And it has.  Being left at the hospital when she was born, like a set of keys that someone forgot, was the best thing that ever happened to Katie.

This is what was noted on a parent evaluation sent home from school by the school psychologist.

The line through "Adoptive"?  Yes, that was made by me.

Please just refer to us as her parents.

The name on that folder from school?

We gave it to her.

Her parents spent months talking about what her name would be.  Her parents spent many nights laughing over crazy name combinations until they finally settled on the perfect combination of family names.  

Family names.  

From the only family she will ever have.

After eleven months of waiting, of filing out paperwork, of having multiple medical exams on two continents, of flying back and forth over 36,000 miles in 90 days, of providing excessive proof of our ability to parent a child (when we already had three...), we were thrilled to announce to everyone we know that we are the parents of Katherine Ruth.

Katie's first parents left her in a hospital bed and walked out the door.

Katie's family worked their asses off to give her a home.

To give her a chance.

Katie's parents went to court in Russia, relying on a translator to ensure that the answers to the Russian judge's questions were answered correctly.  To accurately convey how much Katie deserved a family.  

A mother.  

A father.  

Not an adoptive mother and father.  

Just a plain old mother and father.

Katie's family went to court in the United States to make it even more official that she is part of our family.  

I am her mother.

I make her doctor's appointments.

I research her therapies.

I fill out her school paperwork.

I spent weeks deciding on the paint color for her room.

I filled a closet and dresser with clothes for her.

I hold her at the doctor while she gets shots.

I read her books at night when she goes to bed.

I cook her breakfast, make her lunch, and clean up her dinner mess.

I give her a bath and wipe her bottom.

I fill her prescriptions and dispense her medication.

I wash her hands and find her missing shoes.

I teach her sign language so she can communicate.

I hug her and kiss her so she knows she is loved.

I jump on the trampoline with her.

I ride my bicycle around the neighborhood and pull her in a bike trailer.

I brush her hair.

I get up in the middle of the night with her when she's scared or needs her blanket pulled back up.

I clip her fingernails.

I strap her into her car seat and drive her to the park.

I push her on the swings.

I could not love her more if she grew in my body.

He is her father.  

He swings her up high, just one more time.

He hugs her when she falls down.

He painstakingly clips her hairbow into her hair.

He matches her outfits, even though it is so far out of his comfort zone.

He pushes her baby in the world's smallest baby stroller.

He taught her how to use the potty.

He makes her feel safe.

He snuggles her at naptime.

He wipes her nose.

He cooks her dinner.

He sings ridiculous songs to her.

He picked her name.

He is her grandfather.

She's never had one before.

He lights up when he sees the face of this little girl.

He swoops her up for big hugs and kisses.

He is more proud of her every tiny achievement than I could have ever anticipated.

We are her family.

Not her adoptive family.

Just her family.

Nobody asks me if I am Jack's birth mom.

Nobody notes on a school form that I am David's biological mom.

Nobody says that Henry is "mine".

I'm just the mother.

No further description needed.