Things I love: in the guest room

As part of the continuing "tour" of our home, today is Guest Bedroom Day!

This room used to be painted yellow, and I had a floral duvet cover on the bed. Then a couple of years ago, I went dark brown ... this is one shade lighter than our kitchen on the same paint chip, actually. I know a lot of people aren't into brown, but it's probably my favorite color ... at least as far as paint goes.



Over the bed hang three original pastels, which were my first-ever purchases at the Bluff Park Art Show. (If you've never been, you really should go.) The quilt, like 80 percent of the other furnishings and soft goods in my house, is from Pottery Barn.



Here's a close-up of the pastels. They came framed, and one day I'm sure I'll change out the gold-tone frames, since they're really not my favorite.



On the other side of the room, you can see the TV on the chest of drawers my grandmother gave us as our wedding gift 14 years ago. That wall also houses the room's only window.



The bed is flanked on each side by mismatched apple crates (from Haywood County, N.C.), topped with matching lamps. If I remember correctly -- and there's only a 17 percent chance of that -- I bought them from The Linen Source catalog about five years ago. Could have been The Company Store catalog. I know for sure it wasn't PB, for once.



I think the little tin trash can on this side of the bed is actually a planter from Southern Living At Home.



Here's a close-up of the chest of drawers.



And these little Southern Living At Home beauties live on top of it. They come empty, and you have to THINK HARD and FOR A LONG TIME about what to put in them. I put some stuff from Linens & Things in mine. L&T went out of business here. [sniff sniff.]



At the foot of the bed is one of my favorite things in the house ... a red bench from somewhere other than Pottery Barn. Oh, who am I kidding? It's from Pottery Barn. It has a special meaning for me now, since we had Jake photographed on it when he was one week old.

It holds a basket (Longaberger, for those who know what those are) that we received at our basket shower when we were engaged.


And, um, that's it! It's a small room, and since none of us live in there, that's all I have to show you. Thanks for looking around!

Just checking

Last night before bed, Grayson asked me, "Does your alarm HAVE to go off 50 minutes before you're supposed to get up?"

[blink. blink.] Is that a rhetorical question? What ELSE is the Snooze Button for?

Public service announcement, part deux

Danielle (blog designer extraordinaire) asked her readers today which summer shows we're most looking forward to. (I was going to be grammatically correct and type "the summer shows to which we're most looking forward," but that sounded asinine. Agree?)

So here's my contribution to her Fab Friday request, complete with premiere dates (!) -- because I know you depend on me for exactly this type of critical information:

6/7 - Next Food Network Star
6/8 - My Life on the D List
6/10 - Top Chef: Masters
7/19 - HGTV Design Star
8/20 - Project Runway

Two shows I'm ALREADY enjoying this summer are So You Think You Can Dance (also known as SYTYCD, for those "in the know") and The Fashion Show (which is Bravo's replacement for Project Runway, since the Weinsteins bolted for Lifetime). And of course I'll be watching the previous season of Weeds while THIS season debuts, because I watch it on iTunes, which is always a season behind. But Weeds is "racy" -- to say the least -- so I'm not going to recommend it. It doesn't exactly fit in with my Core Values, but it IS entertaining TV to me.

If I'm missing anything that YOU love, let me know!

Public service announcement

Remember last Fall, when Chick-fil-A did this to me?

Well, they're at it again. This week they're introducing a new, limited-time milkshake for the summer: PEACH.

They're offering their newest "hand-spun" milkshake (I've seen the machine. I don't know who they think they're kidding.) from June 1 through Aug. 22.

Also in the news release was the exciting tidbit that they're ALSO introducing a smaller milkshake option that will remain on the menu permanently. "Chick-fil-A milkshakes will be sold in 14-oz. or 20-oz. cups and priced at $2.49 and $2.89, respectively, at most locations." That's good news for us, because the 20-oz. versions are really large, and until now that was all that was available.

Truett, this MIGHT be enough to make me forgive you for being closed on Sundays.

He's thinking of taking away my Mommy Card

The front of our fridge recently got WAY out of hand. In May, all of the teachers sent home what seemed like all of the artwork and crafts that had accrued since January, and my boys love to have their wares Displayed in Plain Sight ... so that means that our fridge was covered. COVERED.

Now, I will preface the following confession with this: I take pictures of ALL of their best artwork and put them in their scrapbooks, so it's not like it gets trashed, never to be seen again. Having said that, after we've displayed said artwork for about three weeks, I throw it away and rotate in new things, OR I leave the fridge clean for some blissful period of time (usually about two days).

Last weekend I did one of the nice cleanings, in which all the art was photographed and thrown away.



An hour later, I was cleaning up after the kids' lunch when Nicholas went to throw his plate in the trash. He stopped, mid-throw, and looked over at the fridge:

Nick: "Mommy, why is the fridge so clean?"

Me: "I cleaned it up a little bit."

Nick: [holding up his glittery magnet, pinched between thumb and index finger] "WHAT I MEANT WAS, WHY IS MY WATERING CAN IN THE TRASH?"

Me: "Oh, well, I was making room for all of your NEW artwork. Ms. Jackie has been sending a lot home lately."

Nick: "Well, I want my watering can back on the fridge. RIGHT HERE IN THE MIDDLE."




And he stuck it in its place of honor. And there it will stay ... for at least three more weeks.

Batman is very complex

Shortly before bed last Sunday night, the Big Boys were playing in the den and Grayson was idly watching one of the Batman movies in the kitchen.

They heard intriguing sounds, so they ran into the kitchen to see what all the excitement was about.

Nicholas: "Can we watch this for a minute?

Grayson: "Um, sure. I don't think there's anything too scary coming up in this part."


Friends, we've had talking children for some years now, so all I have to say is, he got himself into this. HE KNOWS BETTER. Here is what occurred over the following 90 seconds:


"Who are those people?"

"Who is she?"

"Are they in love?"

"Is she a good guy or a bad guy?"

"How does he KNOW she's a good guy?"

"Is anyone else standing there a good guy?"

"How does he get poisoned?"

"Did you say he makes it?"

"Is he the one who dresses up like Batman?"

"Why isn't he Batman right now?"

"Will this give me bad dreams?"

"HE'S having a bad dream?"

"Where's Batman?"

"Is this a tiny battle?"

"Why?"

"Daddy, can you put this in KidZone [on TiVo]?"

"Why not?"

"Daddy, NOW is he poisoned?"

"Why does Batman look like that?"

"IS THAT HIS REAL FACE?"

"IS THIS GONNA MAKE ME HAVE BAD DREAMS?"


It seemed as though they hardly took a breath. I don't even see how they were able to watch the screen, with as many questions as they were asking. They almost completely obscured the dialogue ... come to think of it, if they'd been able to HEAR the dialogue over the sound of their questions, they might have had fewer questions.
They ask a lot of questions. Daily. By the minute. WE HAVE A LOUD HOUSE.

It was a good one

Sunday was my birthday, and even though we didn't have anything special planned, it was a really nice day.

We'd hoped to go to the pool, but it drizzled and thundered periodically, and we decided it was way too much work to head down there only to be bumped out of the pool all afternoon because of the weather. Instead, we took a walk around the neighborhood during one of the drier periods (although it did thunder part of the time), then cleaned up and went to an early supper around 5:00.

Just before we left for supper ("WELCOME TO MOOOOOOOOE'S!!"), though, I opened my gifts from my parents and Grayson/the boys.

Grayson and the boys chose two books off of my Amazon wish list, which I'm looking forward to reading. They're a little different than my normal homicide/mystery fare, but I've read good reviews of them over the past year, and I am happy to have something new to enjoy.





Then I opened the gifts from my parents, which started off with two MORE books off of my Amazon wish list. (Yea!)




And THEN, I got to the box that held THIS:



And there was a sharp intake of breath ... I couldn't BELIEVE it! I've been wanting a Kindle for a while, but I never would have bought it for myself.

As I opened each layer of the multi-faceted packaging, I got more and more excited. The packaging, by the way, was like a little gift in itself. Coming from a public relations/marketing background, I pay attention to the way things are presented. And this was REALLY NICE PACKAGING, befitting the gift inside.

This glossy black number contained the instruction booklet and power cord. (The instruction booklet only holds the information to tell you how to charge it initially, because all of the registration, book ordering, etc., is done online. You just can't use the Kindle until it's charged, so that's the reason the booklet exists.)



HERE IS THE POWER CORD.



This beautiful box cover with the imprinted glossy black letters holds THE KINDLE ITSELF.



And HERE'S THE KINDLE! It is so pretty.



It is so thin, and it's really only about the size of a real book ... somewhere between the height and width of a paperback and a hard-cover. But it's much thinner than either of those. So lightweight!



Comparing these two pictures, you can sort of see how it compares to the hard-cover book -- although not really, because I zoomed in closer on the Kindle, which makes it look bigger. What can I say? I was smitten.



Anyway, it was a really fun birthday in what's been kind of a lean year. SO. MUCH. FUN. to be treated to some surprises and to enjoy a full day with the people I love most.

I am blessed!

Good things

1. Remembering to take your umbrella
2. A freshly washed car
3. Finding a swimsuit that fits just right
4. Catching someone (even a stranger) singing their heart out and grooving to the beat in their car
5. Intermittent windshield wipers

Things I love: at Williams-Sonoma

Let's be clear: I love to look at the Williams-Sonoma catalog, but I'm not a baker, nor am I a cook. Most of the things in the catalog are simply eye-catching to me, but not things that I would ever buy.

However, that doesn't take the joy out of virtual shopping!

Take this item, for instance. I can't think of anything that would make my backyard more of "The Place To Be" than our very own Beehive Pizza Oven. I mean, this thing ROCKS! A place for firewood, a neato-bandito flat pizza spatula thingie, and the oven actually bakes the pizza. However, it's the sort of thing I'd admire on a friend's patio, but would never actually use at my own house. Sort of like a chiminea ... I always love them elsewhere but have never really wanted one of my own.



When I flipped the page and saw THESE, my heart fluttered just a little bit. HOW CUTE ARE THEY? If I'd ever used a single one of the many specialty serving pieces I have, I'd be SO TEMPTED to buy these Ice Cream Cone Bowls. Festive colors, precious shape, and it would limit my ice cream intake to what could reasonably fit in the bowl. Unlike when I eat it straight out of the ice cream container.

Next up, the Glass Cappuccino Maker. I LOVE GAS STATION CAPPUCCINO. However, I am a gas station capp snob ... I don't like Starbuck's, Panera's or anyone else's capp. But if I DID want to branch out, wouldn't it be nice to have a maker for it in my own kitchen? Of course, I love milkshakes but don't have a blender. I'm great with the vision, not so good with the follow-through.

Toward the back of the catalog, I stumbled onto the Mode Premium Home Recycling Center. Now, we are a house that could totally use this. We recycle cans, paper and plastic, and it all goes into one bin (which my surrogate grandfather made for free), and we fill it up at least twice a week, if not more often than that. The Mode model has a built-in compactor (A BUILT-IN COMPACTOR!), doesn't require electricity, and has three separate compartments for all our different types of recyclables. IT ALSO COSTS $269.95. Did I mention that my little bin was FREE? If you can afford a $270 recycling bin, I salute you. I aspire to BE you.

And just across the page from the recycling center is the Simplehuman Steel Bar Step Trash Can. (When I typed it in the search engine to find a picture to post, I inadvertently typed "Superhuman." Which is probably more accurate.) I didn't pay $225 for my plastic trashcan, but then again, mine doesn't have a "fingerprint-proof coating to reduce smudges." SMUDGES are the least of my trashcan's worries, let me tell you.

I am TAKEN with these soaps. Now, I suffer from migraines ... pretty severe ones ... and one of my key triggers is strong odors. Doesn't matter if they're pleasant or not ... as a matter of fact, flowers will give me a migraine faster than a poopy diaper will. But the one scent I can stand in mild doses such as handsoap or dishwashing liquid is Anything Citrus. For whatever reason, I can handle citrus scents with (usually) no trouble at all. So I'd love to try ALL of these:

Persian Lime

Pink Grapefruit

White Tea (not citrus, but just sounds CLEAN)

And I'm TOTALLY BEFUDDLED BUT CAPTIVATED by the possibilities of THIS:

Olive Oil. OLIVE OIL. REALLY? I am bursting with curiosity. Does it smell like olive oil? Does it leave your skin feeling like you just rubbed pure olive oil on it? Does it make you crave Italian?

This month's catalog wrapped up with some Pretties. My favorite among them is the Square Mixed-herb Wreath. It wouldn't last long inside OR outside my house, what with our cat and curious children on the inside and our Birds Who Take Anything That Isn't Nailed Down outside, but it sure is nice to look at. Welcome, summer!

Thanks for wishing with me! Until the next installment ...

Six songs that have no business being on my iPod (but are)

I'm really more of a singer-songwriter gal, more of a Bruce Hornsby-Shawn Colvin-Derek Webb-Miranda Lambert-Alison Krauss type. BUT:

6. This is the Night - Clay Aiken
5. Breaking Free - Gabriella & Troy (High School Musical)
4. Best of Both Worlds - Hannah Montana
3. I Fly - Hayden Panettiere
2. The Climb - Miley Cyrus
1. When You Look Me in the Eyes - Jonas Brothers

Because sometimes you just need a little candy. And yes, SET, it's OK to be embarrassed that you're related to me.

Being very helpful

You know how sometimes you run across Web sites that aren't very helpful? THIS ISN'T ONE OF THOSE.

RunPee is devoted to making sure that those of us with small bladders (or people like ME who have the holding capacity of 20 men but who have small children with tiny, inefficient bladders) don't miss The Good Parts of movies.

Click a movie name on the left, then check the chart for the exact moment in that movie when it's "safe" to run to the restroom for a few minutes. They even estimate how many minutes you can be gone without missing anything critical. Some movies, such as Star Trek, even have MULTIPLE Pee Times. So helpful!

And don't miss the note at the bottom left that reads, "Follow RunPee on Twitter and get updates when new Pee Times are added." AN INSTANT CLASSIC.

What a happy coincidence to find such a wonderful site as we begin a holiday weekend! Happy movie-watching (and peeing) everyone!

Opening and closing

I have lots of idiosyncracies. LOTS.

One of them is that I can't stand to see a door or drawer that's not completely closed. I mean, if you're getting something out of a drawer or cabinet, go on with your bad self, but when you're done, CLOSE IT. ALL THE WAY.

Note to pre-schoolers who live in my house: This includes the refrigerator. Its drawer-closedness is the very thing that keeps those sacred cheese sticks and yogurt smoothies chilled for future consumption.

So this particular idiosyncracy is a difficult one to have when you live with four boys -- even if one of them is a "grown-up." On any given day as I pass through any room in our house, this is what I see:

In the foyer:


It may not LOOK open, but trust me, it is. And Scout knows it. He's sitting there waiting on the tiny little gnats and mosquitoes that squeeze themselves through the crack that's left when someone runs out the door, hoping it will slam shut behind them. It won't. It pops back open.

In the kitchen:



In the den:



In Nathaniel and Nicholas' room:



Therefore, I close a LOT more doors than I open. (Is that a metaphor for my life? I hope not.) Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon in their house?

Oh no he did'n'

The reason that Jake's crib looked like THIS yesterday morning ...

... is that he woke us up screaming, because he'd taken his diaper off at some point during the night and had been rolling around in poop and pee for who-knows-how-long before he fully woke up.

And I don't know what was going on in there before he started crying, but I suspect that he wasn't initially that BOTHERED by the excrement in his crib. I say that because when we went in there, he had it on his forehead, his nose, and of course all up and down his arms and legs. IT WAS ALSO UNDER HIS FINGERNAILS, which to me is indicative of some PLAYING WITH THE POOP.

I threw him in the bathtub and gave him a good scrubbing while Grayson put the bed linens in the washer, the pacis in the dishwasher, and disinfected the crib and changing table. (I have saved you from all but the CSI-approved picture of the clean crib. I didn't want you to lose your breakfast as a result of seeing more.)

I remember when Nick did that when he was a baby, and I wanted to duct tape his diaper to him every night TO PREVENT IT FROM EVER HAPPENING AGAIN, EVER, IN THE HISTORY OF OUR FAMILY, AMEN. I have the same feeling now.

What kind of mom are you?

I took a Mom-to-Mom quiz that supposedly nailed my Official Parenting Style.

I must say, the quiz was better-thought-out than the Facebook quizzes of which I'm so fond, AND ALL THE WORDS WERE SPELLED CORRECTLY, which is a bonus that Facebook doesn't usually offer.

Here are my results:

The "analysis" that came along with it was:

Oh yeah, you remember what it was like to be a kid, thinking no one listened and no one understood what you were going through. You sympathize with your kids and validate their feelings. Throughout the great times and the rocky times, you stick together.

What's funny is, that is exactly the kind of mom I always HOPED I'd be, but all the "experts" say that you're not SUPPOSED to be your child's friend ... you're supposed to be their parent. I honestly don't think that my answers pointed exclusively to friending-not-parenting, but I DO agree that I try to put myself in the boys' shoes as often as I can so that I can answer them or discipline them in a way that they understand and that commands respect, at the same time.

I may be almost-36, but I remember vividly wanting to be understood, to have my feelings validated even if the decision ended up going the other way. I constantly use the "Feel-Felt-Found" approach with our boys ... "I understand how you feel ... I felt that way myself when ... But in the end I found that ..." And even if they don't like my (or our) decision, they can at least leave the conversation knowing that I understand WHY they want to go wherever, and that I don't discount their feelings. It's not perfect, but it works for us.

Take the quiz and report back in the Comments, or post the results on your blog so I can check in! Oh, and it's geared toward moms of teens, but you can do what I did and mentally modify them for elementary schoolers or, I guess, imagine what answers you'd give when you have teens.

Actually following up on something, for once

Remember back in April, when I linked to Ryan's cool project?

I was so impressed with the low-cost, high-impact idea, I decided to try it for myself.

Only I didn't want to do LOVE, because -- although my boys are very loving and lovable -- I knew there had to be another word that would better sum up their personalities and ages right now. And Megan suggested JEDI, which I loved!

A couple of weeks ago I bought a five-pack of white Hanes T-shirts at Kmart for less than $5. I already had a fine-tip black Sharpie, so I skipped buying the laundry Sharpie. THAT WAS PROBABLY A MISTAKE. I bet the reason Ryan used the laundry marker was so that he wouldn't feel like he was banging his head against a brick wall With Every Stroke of the Pen. Noted.

So the Saturday before Mother's Day, I worked on the shirts. I printed off the letters (Trebuchet typeface, for inquiring minds) as large as they'd fit on 8.5x11 paper. The J, E and I were all about the same size, but the D was so wide, I had to print it a little smaller and then freehand it a little bit to make it the right size when I traced it on the shirt.

It took about two hours to trace them and fill them in on the shirts, and I'd definitely invest in the laundry Sharpie next time. The filament kept getting all nubby on my regular fine-point Sharpie, which made some of my borders less sharp. And it just didn't work well, in general. However, it was close enough, and I kept telling myself it didn't have to be perfect ... although it goes against every molecule in my body just to type that.

At any rate, I got the shirts finished on Saturday and asked Nathaniel and Nicholas to be cooperative on Sunday as their Mother's Day gift to me. As it turned out, Sunday was overcast and rainy for most of the day, but we grabbed the 30 non-rainy minutes mid-afternoon and ran out to the backyard to get the shots. I don't LOVE them, but I like them enough to use them. This is what they looked like straight out of the camera:



And here's what they look like now that I've tried to mess around with them in PhotoShop to make them brighter and more glow-y, like Ryan's:


Unfortunately, I'm a PhotoShop Ignoramus, so I also had to darken up my letters when I brightened up everything else, because the brightening action totally bleached my letters out. I'll go back and work on the originals a little bit, to try and find a happy medium in there somewhere "in my spare time."

So THANKS, Ryan, for the awesome idea! I plan to print them on canvas and hang them in a grouping in the boys' room. And when I can afford that part of the project, I'll try to remember to post a picture of the finished product!

Bad things: Fast-food edition

1. Ordering two kids' meals with fries and receiving one with fries and one with applesauce.
2. The one that came with applesauce came with no spoon.
3. Ordering a warm roast beef sandwich with Swiss and getting a roast beef sandwich with no cheese of any kind, cold.
4. Receiving two Capri-Suns with the kids' meals, BUT ONLY ONE STRAW.
5. Using my pocketknife to open up a hole in the lame Capri-Sun big enough for a regular straw to fit in (sacrificing my own straw -- and I LOVE straws), and spilling a quarter of the fruit punch down my shirt because those blasted tin-foil Capri-Sun containers are so flimsy.

I MIGHT have wanted to utter a few words that definitely shouldn't be uttered on a Sunday.

All of this happened yesterday when I drove through Arby's, by the way. So even though I could have gone inside and remedied most of it, I was with the kids by myself and didn't feel like dragging everyone in to deal with it. So we just coped.

I admire Truett Cathy and all that, but sometimes I just want to kick him for keeping my beloved Chick-fil-A closed on Sundays.

TODAY is Sunday

All day yesterday I felt like it was Sunday ... I mean, I REALLY felt like it was Sunday.

Last night we went to supper at our favorite restaurant (Thanks, John and Leslie, for our gift card!), and during the meal I said to Grayson, "It's so strange. I've been feeling like it's Sunday all day."

After we finished eating, I suggested we pull the stroller out of the van and walk around the area for a while, because it was only 6:45 and the weather was cool. (The restaurant is in a nice outdoor mall, so we had sidewalks.)

As we were walking past all the stores, I kept noticing that a lot of people were in them. And I looked at the stores' signs, which said that they closed at 6:00. I said, "This is just so ODD. I can understand the stores letting people stay in them until 6:10 or 6:15, so they could check out with their purchases, but it's 7:00! That's just CRAZY."

We kept walking, and we passed a store that must have had 20 people in it. I said, "Look! THAT STORE HAS AT LEAST 20 PEOPLE IN IT. IS THERE SOME SPECIAL THING GOING ON THAT I DON'T KNOW ABOUT?"

And Grayson started laughing uncontrollably, and he squeaked out, "IT'S SATURDAY, NOT SUNDAY. The stores don't close until 9. You're just assuming that you're RIGHT and everyone else is WRONG. "

Huh. He was right.

It's as easy as 1-2-3 ... right?

I'm not a coffee drinker. I'm strictly a gas-station cappuccino gal, so I don't generally pay a lot of attention to the various coffee makers on every floor of my building. However, I was working at one of our other buildings yesterday, and The Signage, My Word The Volume of Signage, literally stopped me in my tracks.



ONE COFFEEMAKER. FIVE SIGNS.

If it's that difficult, it's probably best that I stay away.