Working Double Time

There were a lot of commitments when we moved into this house of what we would renovate. Patrick is great at doing things on his own, but it comes with some patience and long hours after full days of work. Not an easy task. Let's not forget we still have 3 kids under the age of 5 too competing for his attention!

Here's the tally of renovations Patrick has complete since we moved in to our home in November...

Master (See DIY):

• Tore up very yucky carpet in the master and put in Australian cypress wood floors
• Added overhead lights (thank you!)
• Painted
• Painted the master bath

Lexi's Room:

• Tore up more gross carpet and replaced it with wood flooring
• Painted
• Added overhead lighting

Finn's Room:

• Painted and added overhead lighting

Heath's Room:

• Painted and added overhead lighting

Kitchen/Family Room:

• Painted and added overhead lighting (good-bye dingy yellow!)

Guestroom:

• Built from scratch....pics follow

These were taken in February after Patrick had already been working on the room for a couple of months. Framing the room, adding electric, and insulating.  It was just unfinished basement storage beforehand.

This corner is framing for the bedroom closet.

Fast forward to many long nights and a pending visit from my mother to push Patrick to finish.  Here's the completed bedroom as of the end of May 2010.

This is the door leading from the other side of the basement to the guestroom.

Looking into the room, here's the closet door and new wood floors/baseboard.

Custom wood beam in corner of room.

New completed electric and furniture, art, etc added

It's cozy and ready for more visitors!

Thanks to my driven and handy husband. Next project: first floor bath. Stay tuned.

What's a normal morning?

When you stop and ask others, you realize that we all have very different mornings. Those of us with kids have very different morning than those who don't. Those of us who work outside the home have very different mornings than those who stay at home. That said, you never know what a morning will bring. But the fact is that our "normal" morning has changed quite a bit since our move to Maine.

The other morning, chaotic as usual, we prepared the clan to depart for the day and just as Patrick was about to walk out the door he said, "Look, there are geese on our driveway." Interesting in that there are no ponds close by and that we have not yet encountered geese. As we all looked closer - kids shouting with glee - there were not only 2 adult geese waddling in our driveway, but 3 very soft and cute yellow baby geese in tow. Such a nice peaceful way to transition from our crazy morning.

Those of you you who follow our blog may remember an earlier post with wild turkeys on our front lawn (Wild Turkey). For those of you that have not been to Maine and really have no clue where we might live, we see cows and horses daily to and from our house (no matter what direction we drive). I'm probably painting a very rural picture, but we're not way out there. That's what makes it all more surreal. At any rate, we are enjoying what appears to be frequent wildlife surprises. We'll keep you posted as more show up and let's hope our encounters continue to be pleasant ones.

Here are a couple snapshots of our family of geese.

Peek Week

Alexia has been taking ballet and a couple weeks ago was "peek" week.  All parents, relatives and friends were invited into the classroom to watch class for the day. About a dozen girls dressed in white leotards, pink tights and pink ballet slippers.  There was one boy too! There were about 50 of us crammed into the dance studio to watch. Very sweet and I snapped lots of photos of course and even took some video for those who have that sort of patience, but I'll spare you with the videos for now. Lex was so proud, which made me a proud mom too!

Here's Alexia before class...

The bun did NOT last.  I clearly need some lessons on how to make it stay.

The class in line awaiting their hair-pieces...

I particularly love some of these where you can see the reflection in the mirror as well.

Proof she will likely NOT be a ballerina...

The bow at the end...

Showing off post show for mom

TOOTS!

TOOTS  - I know what you're thinking.  Let's put this one to rest quickly.  TOOTS is actually our local dairy producer of homemade ice cream. It is conveniently located less than a 2 minute drive from our house. We've heard rave reviews about TOOTS and we've just been waiting for it to open again for the season.  TOOTS serves homemade ice cream from an old train car window (funny because it's a farm.  Not sure why the train car, but it's charming).  Aside from the train car, their are a few picnic tables, but mostly they encourage patrons to walk around their farm and check-out the cows and other livestock.

To top off our fun Friday, we headed to TOOTS after dinner on Friday night. Both "big" kids ordered chocolate cones with chocolate sprinkles.  Definitely my kids. No doubt.  Heath declined my offer for ice cream. I've never seen him turn food down actually. They were all very excited to see the cows, but as we began to stroll, kids with ice cream in hand, Finny proclaimed, "it's too stinky to eat my ice cream!"  Funny because it was horrifically stinky of cow manure. I laughed thinking that I couldn't have eaten ice cream with the stench either. Did he inherit this too? At any rate, we parked ourselves on a picnic table where we were pretty clear from most of the smell.  Ice cream devoured, we toured the cows (and calves) and billy goats.  Great place, aside from the smell!  We will definitely be back. I forgot my camera, but I did snap some shots on my iphone. The little girl who lives next door (Nora) just told us that TOOTS was called "TOOTS" because it smells.  I wasn't sure if this was real or a 5 year old's story. 

Numero Tres

We've officially moved from baby status to toddler status with Heath. Yes, he FINALLY decided to take his first steps this past weekend (mother's day weekend I should add). It was fitting as the whole family was there watching and it was like it happened in slow motion. Everyone saw it and everyone was equally excited - Heath included. Weighing in somewhere around 30lbs, we were really wanting him to walk months ago. It's not a completely done deal yet though. He's not walking everywhere all of the sudden, but he is gracing us with 9-10 steps on his own daily. Fingers crossed that this crosses over into true walking sooner than later.

Heath's been playing with Finn more and more, which is also really cute. Finn is finally recognizing that it might be easier to just share his cars and trucks with Heath rather than fight over them. Heath wants nothing more than to be a part of the mix really. I tried to grab a couple of shots of the two of them playing over the past couple days.

You'll also note we're adding another lefty to our clan. Lex and I are both lefties and now it looks like Heath is too. He loves to color. Note he is using "magic" markers. They only work on "special" paper. We tried real markers and the end result was not good for mom. It was a special moment today to sit and watch them all silently color together.

These last couple of shots are of Heath and Finn in the bathtub together. They were both belly laughing over Finn's silly antics. The lighting was horrible for photos, but I just couldn't resist taking a few photos to capture the moment and, of course, their naked car playing post bath.

Mother's Day

I truly feel lucky to be a mom so I'm not sure if Mother's Day is really the kids celebrating me or ultimately me celebrating them. This year Patrick and the kids served me breakfast in bed and I had a lazy morning--a perfect start to the day really.

One of Lexi's schools had a mother's tea as well. The kids helped to set the tables, make place cards and centerpieces for the table. The centerpieces were made of fruit skewers and handmade butterflies--they were adorable. The kids sang all the moms a song, accompanied with hand gestures. Lexi was so excited to see me, she forgot to do most of the hand gestures.

Lexi's other school sends home a weekly newsletter with tidbits about what the kids are doing, saying etc. The one that came home around mother's day included the following:

The kids were asked: What's special about your mommy?

Alexia's response: I love my mommy because she always does everything I ask her to do. She hangs pictures up, and makes chocolate cake.

I truly feel blessed to have such great kids, even if they do run the house and make all the decisions around here.

SAHM

I have to confess right up front that this post is about me more than the kids. I might not even squeeze any kid photos in. It's ok if you don't want to read on...

It's day 2 of my Stay At Home Mom adventure. Aside from my maternity leaves (yes - 3! and most of which I've had a nanny by my side), I have had my "sacred" Fridays where I've been able to play the role of Mom, but never a true extended period of time where I've been able to focus on the kids and nothing else. Phew - that was a long sentence. Did you catch all that? Basically, my job at Abbott has come to a close. Yipee! Oops, did I put that in writing? For the time being, I'm home with the kids! Wow! This likely won't last for long, but I'm going to try and soak up every moment I can and I certainly hope to find a better work life balance in my next career step.

In these past precious 2 days, my life has changed (for the good) already.

My email Inbox only shows 3-5 new messages a day, not the 250+ I used to get at work. (I almost feel unloved although I know it's really a good thing and essentially means a lot less stress.)

This is my second official day working out at the gym in 5 years! I forgot how good it feels to really sweat. I still have to get over the guilt of leaving the kids at Prime Time (which is the kids club), but I know at some point I'll feel ok and remember that I have the rest of the day to see them. I'll be a better, likely happier, mom if I grab some me time, right? I've been on a health kick for 9 weeks now and wearing a pedometer so that I have an idea of how much I move (or don't move a day). Just to put things in perspective, I have moved more (according to the pedometer) in the last 2 days, than I usually do (when working) in 6 days! Ultimately my goal is just to feel fit again. Remember the old Sura?

I've been able to spend some 1:1 time with sweet Heath. Something I've not been able to do since his first 3 months of life.

The kids seem to be on their best behavior. I'm certain that won't last forever, but I feel lucky to have this time and I'm going to do my best to cherish every day and soak up every moment.

Stay tuned by day 8 I may feel differently and long to be working. For now I feel lucky!