A Fresh Coat of Paint

We rearranged our great room to make it more kid friendly for cousins to visit (a babyproofed section, blocked off from other, less baby-friendly areas) and I realized I never wrote about updating this space. I'd been wanting to paint the room since we moved in, but it wasn't high on the priority list. Finally back in March I decided I was tired of staring at beige walls and old yellowed light fixtures. I bought several paint samples, painted stripes on the walls to compare colors, then Bryan and I made some choices. I painted the room in a weekend, it took longer to switch out the light fixtures and buy and install the TV cabinet and storage cupboards. We still need to add knobs for the furniture and a top for the TV cabinet.

I love the way it turned out.

Before:

In progress:

I've now painted so many walls that I don't need to use tape, I can just paint the edge freehand. It's a longer process, but seems to give a better result. We went for the bold, dark blue because we thought it went well with the brick. We chose a warm gray for the other walls because we were concerned if we painted them all dark blue the room would be too heavy. That cupboard in the corner is holding all our board games and most of our art and school supplies. I love that we can tuck them away. Once we put the extra cubbies (brought down from Topher's room to create the baby barrier) away, most of the visual clutter in the room will be gone.

Eventually I'll hang pictures back on the walls, but for now I'm happy to see their pretty painted surfaces.

Keepsake

Topher delivered this note to me recently. I figured out everything except the first word. I asked him to read it to me. "Dear Mom I love you." And then he told me I need to keep it forever.

What a World, What a World*

Apparently my front door got so hot that my wreath melted. For real.

*Anyone know how the title connects to this post?

Sooooo Close

Here we are again, limping our way to the end of the schoolyear. I'm ready to put aside the role of taskmaster (at least regarding school). The kids in school are ready to be done with assignments. Topher is ready to have siblings that have time to play with him again. Peter has one week left, the others have two.

We can do it.

I'm pretty sure we can do it.

I really hope we can do it.

A Long, Long Time Ago

Yesterday had some rough patches. After more yelling and arguing than I wanted to be part of, this picture popped up in my memories. It helps to see them when they were tiny and sweet. This brown-eyed boy is 16-month-old Peter. I'm putting it here so I can find it easily to look at and calm myself when the 17-year-old version is out of sorts.

Read To Me

Make Your Bed

Peter worked off his prom tickets (and outfit) last week by cleaning up the basement and working in the yard. We need to regrade the backyard to prevent the basement from flooding, so we decided to see how much we could accomplish. Peter and I worked on this for several days. His job was to break up the grass so it could be pulled up. He kept saying he was playing real life Minecraft. Spoiler, he prefers the computer version.

Bryan suggested that since we were going to pull the grass up in that section of the yard anyway, it would be a good place to put a garden bed. He gave a major part of his Saturday to getting this task done, with Peter assisting. Once they had the bed placed, I filled it with soil and planted a few of our seedlings. It was after dark when we finished.

It makes my heart happy.

PROM!

Peter checked off a high school milestone on Friday evening. He and his friend Amelia went to prom!

They joked that this was what social distanced prom pictures look like. 

According to Peter (and Amelia, we talked after church on Sunday), the dinner that came with the dance wasn't great, the music was mostly hip-hop and R&B which was hard to dance to, and that led to only a few people dancing. The good news? Peter and Amelia were in that dancing group (when the music allowed) and still had fun chatting with friends.

Lady M

Phoebe is currently reading Macbeth for her Language Arts class. They were given the assignment to either draw or find a picture online that represented one of the characters. She chose to use her drawing tablet to create a picture of Lady Macbeth. I think it's amazing!

Don't Fence Me In

When people at church comment on how busy Topher is, I usually respond with some variation of, "Oh, Peter was way more active, I'm used to this." Often that's true. And sometimes it's not. Tuesday afternoon brought a new adventure that we hadn't experienced with any of the other kids.

A sweet family with two boys Topher's age moved into the house next door last June. Between waiting to be fully vaccinated, finally being able to spend time running errands, and the cold winter that wouldn't go away, we haven't been outside much to wave at them in their yard. But over the last two weeks we've been out a lot more. Their boys have played in our backyard several times and Topher has played in their yard as well.

On Tuesday, after traveling in and out of our yard through their gate several times, the neighbor boys had gone back to play in their own yard for a bit. Their mom was working on an outdoor project that required her attention, so I told Topher he needed to stay in our yard. He was not pleased with this answer. I had my own project, but I looked up regularly to monitor Topher.

At one point I saw that he had taken off his hat and hung it just inside their fence. I thought he was going to throw the hat into their yard so he would have a reason to go over. I focused again on my work for a minute, then looked up again. This time, instead of just his hat on the other side of the fence, it was his whole body, except for his head. I watched as realization dawned on his face that his head simply would not fit through those bars.

Peter and I ran to Topher, so did the mom next door. Topher was starting to panic. So was I, but I was able to keep it on the inside. I tried to slide him back through, but he was solidly stuck. Peter crouched down and studied the issue from a different angle. He saw that Topher had twisted his torso and that made it impossible to slide back through. Peter gently shifted him back, then tugged and encouraged and coached Topher to suck in his belly as much as possible. Finally, Peter was able to get him back through.

I hugged Topher as soon as he was free and thanked Peter several times. Then I pulled up Topher's shirt to examine the damage. He had the beginnings of bruises on his chest and several marks on his stomach and back. He was very shaken by the experience and looked scared. I felt the same way.

I apologized to the neighbor, and offered to replace the fence panel when he discovered he had actually bent the bars apart when he maneuvered through. She said it was no big deal, that they could pound it back into place with a mallet, and that she just hoped Topher was okay. Then I took Topher inside, gave him a quick bath to wash away the sweat and dirt from playing outside, then sat him on the couch with an ice pack for those bruises.

I think it was a pretty traumatic experience for him. I asked him about it yesterday and he got really quiet and still when he talked about what had happened. He has told me that he won't do it again. I hope he remembers that resolve.

Modern American Gothic

One of Sophie's recent art assignments was to reproduce a famous piece of art, but to make significant changes. She chose American Gothic by Grant Wood. She told me that she changed it by making it modern, and making them happy, and adding a pig. Yes, those changes count as significant. I love that she kept the gothic style window in the background.

Progression of a Mother's Day Photoshoot

Mom's Day

My Mother's Day was full of:

• sleeping in while Bryan got up with Topher
• getting ready for church mostly uninterrupted
• seeing someone upset that their handsome hair (done by Bryan) was too high

• getting to church on time
• hearing the Primary kids, Young Men, and Young Women (so, all of my children) sing More Than Enough to all the mothers in the congregation
• teaching a Relief Society lesson that went well
• coming home and going on a walk around the neighborhood with a friend (and Sophie)
• getting home just in time to find everyone sitting around a beautiful Mother's Day meal of panang curry, prepared by Bryan

• being gifted with cards made by Topher and Sophie and this cool Shrinky Dink bracelet that Sophie made

• enjoying this beautiful bouquet that Bryan gave me

• and getting a Mother's Day picture with the people that get to call me mom

It was a good day.

Good Friends

"This is my friend, Bells. (points next to him, then pauses) Well, actually he's pretend, so I have to talk for him." -Topher, introducing us to his imaginary friend.

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

Sophie has made an ecosystem diorama each year for the last three years. This year she decided to make a rainforest scene. I was impressed with the effort she put into the assignment. As soon as she found out about it, she got to work. Then she worked consistently until it was done. She didn't put it off and then rush to finish it at the last minute. Some of the rest of us (myself included) could learn from her example.