In the spirit of self-motivation, I'm going to keep these "before" pictures of our house as an inspiration to find time to get my long list of projects completed. I actually walked around, room by room, and took pictures (most in the dark!) of each room in the house. This is real life, baby!
Starting with the boys' room, here's the upper level of our house...
This is Matthew's bed on the left, with a play area beneath his sleeping area. I have intentions to make curtains to go around it to enclose the play area and hide the massive pile of stuffed animals. He has a cute blue tent that goes on top of his bed, but (as with many things) I still haven't unpacked it yet.
Joshua's bed is an igloo on wheels. He loves penguins, in case that's not obvious! I'm not sure what it is about sleeping in tents, but I used to do it too until I got married. But that's a whole other post...
For this room my goals were to get curtains up, put up a ceiling fan, and paint the walls. So far, I've installed the fan and halfway hung the curtains. I usually get distracted in the middle of my projects and so I have things unfinished in each room. In the boys' room they have curtain rods that are not completely screwed in yet. That's life.
I don't like these bookshelves and I miss our built-in shelves back in Georgia. But we'll have to figure out a way to make these work. I wish they had sides or a back to keep the books from exploding all over the place. And I need to add a shelf to them too.
Next door to the boys' room is the girls' room. They each sleep in a little dollhouse bed for now and at their size, they'll likely fit in them until they are teenagers.
Their room just got a new ceiling fan because there were actually no lights in any of the bedrooms when we moved into the house. (Foreclosure, remember?) Now we just need curtains and paint in here. I have the fabric and my aunt is graciously sewing the comforters and curtains since at this rate, I will likely never sit at my sewing machine again until I'm a grandmother.
The boys and girls have bedrooms at one end of the upstairs hallway. On the other end of the hallway is my room and in the middle is the babies' room, a bathroom, and the stairs to the foyer. At any given moment the foyer does look like this.
The babies' room has a new fan, a fresh coat of paint, and new blinds. Ironically, this is the only bedroom upstairs that has never been used. The babies still sleep in my bed and so they don't even get to enjoy their sea foamy retreat yet.
I picked the paint color to coordinate with the froggy fabric I picked for their comforters and curtains. And yes, my aunt is sewing those too. I usually sew all of the window treatments myself but that just wasn't going to happen this time. I do intend to finish painting the canvas art that I started to match the froggy theme. If I can't find time to sew, I don't know why I thought I'd find time to paint. Oh, well. By the time they go off to college I should have the artwork finished and it can grace the walls of their dorm, right?
This is the view down the hall, looking from my room toward the girls' room. That's their door at the end on the left and the boys' door is adjacent to it on the right. That's the bathroom door halfway down the hall on the left, right next to the babies' door. I replaced the light fixtures p here and I intend to paint it the same color as the (unfinished) foyer.
The kids' bathroom can be easily located by following the scent of doo doo. At any given moment, at least one person is using the bathroom and it's a constant battle to keep it sanitary. I wipe it down frequently with disinfecting wipes from Shaklee. This room needs a coat of paint in bright yellow, to match the rubber ducky theme. It could also use a full-time cleaning crew to hose it down after the boys hose it down. Raising boys is such a messy job!
In sharp contrast, here's my bathroom. You can't see the giant soaking tub that would be perfect for birthing a baby. That's over to the left, next to the shower stall. This room needs a good coat of paint and curtains. There's two windows above the tub so that the neighbors can watch me as I go about my day. It's a good thing I don't shower often.
Inside my room, this is the view looking towards the master bathroom. I've hung curtains in here and Jason put up a ceiling fan for me when he was home for Christmas. Now I just need to clean that crap off of my dresser, paint the walls, and put my bed frame together.
This is the view from my door, looking to the left. That's our free leather couch that Jason scored a few years ago from work. Those are the pillows from my bed, which is never fully made.
And here's the view from the door, looking straight ahead. My bed usually looks like this, except at night when there are at least 4 people sleeping in it. Stack of laundry is an added bonus.Tomorrow I'll post the pictures of the middle level of the house. By the time I finishing posting the pictures, maybe I'll be motivated to actually start the work!
I want to thank Kim from awarding me with The Lemonade Stand Award. It's supposed to be awarded to someone who shows great attitude and gratitude. I'm not convinced that I'm totally worthy of this one, but I'll accept anyway. I have been really struggling lately to keep my whole "woe is me" crap to myself and not let the kids see how frustrated I am. It's not easy.
I've been dreaming about mortar attacks, and terrorist bombers. I don't even watch the news, but I still can't help but let these scary thoughts creep into my head. I'm terrified at the thought of something happening to Jason. I know he reassures me of his relative safety, but I'm a worrier. And he's in a war zone. He's carrying a gun. It's so surreal.
Anyway, I'm trying to be cheerful and optimistic. I'm dosing myself up on Hershey's Kisses (and Red Bull) which will likely ensure that I gain 20 pounds before Jason comes home. I should be running but it's too cold to take the kids out with me and I don't have anyone to sit with them for me. I'm going to start virtual running on my wii. I promise I'll make lemonade with my lemons!
I'm going to pass this award on to some bloggers who really inspire me:Our Journey of Faith
The Amazing Trips
Made To Organize
Raising Olives
Where Laughter Lives: The Riggs Family Blog
I also received an award from Erin and I'd like to thank her too! This is the Happy Award and I'm supposed to list 10 things that make me happy. So, here ya go...
Things that make me happy:
1. my children playing with each other
2. sunshine
3. a hot shower
4. Starbucks caramel brulee lattes
5. talking to Jason
6. writing
7. snuggling under the covers of my bed with my babies
8. my house being clean
9. the babies giggling when the dog licks them
10. knowing that I'm loved
And I'll pass this on to any of my readers who feel inclined to grab the award and post it on their blogs. I'd love to know what makes you happy! If you leave a comment with a ink, I'll go over to your blog and read it when I have a chance. I stay up until 3 am sometimes and that's when I go blog-exploring!I'm going to go make lemonade and be happy!
