Just Another Day...

I have been sitting down for about ten minutes. I just had the realization that this is the longest that I have sat down (other than brunch and dinner) all day. My back is killing me!

However, the pain is worth it...because I feel super duper accomplished!

This morning, the kids let us sleep in a bit, which was nice (and much needed for such a long day), then we went out to brunch, followed by shopping at Meijer and Walmart. We restocked our laundry room with laundry detergent, bought a few months worth of ketchup and more cereal, stocked up on some hygiene products for the kids, and got some cleaning products (oh, how ironic!). Then, Walmart to buy some food for dinner tonight, some decor for the upstairs bathroom (a new shower curtain and a bath rug mainly), and some other random items.

These are not our actual bags from shopping, but ya know, bags are bags, eh?

The arrival home led to some cleaning. Jose made dinner to put into the crockpots while Isa and I cleaned the living, dining room, and basement. Teo napped (he doesn't feel well...boo!). After Jose finished food, Teo continued to sleep and we cleaned the upstairs hallway, some of Isa's room, the bathroom (and added the new decor), and cleaned through the books. I got a bag of books for the yard sale from it.

This is not our bookshelf, but pretty much resembles how it looks most of the time. We do have the Olivia book though!

We threw the dirty clothes down the stairs, then to the laundry room. I began to fold the laundry that filled the pool table. Jose's sister and her kids arrived for dinner, so we began to set the table, get food together, etc. Then, I sat down for dinner (and seconds!). After filling my gut with yummi-licious food, I cleared the table, did dishes, cleaned up the leftovers, wiped down the kitchen, and returned to the basement to finish folding laundry. I did the whole pool table, and now, the clothes are all folded waiting for the hubs to put them away. I ended up with about six bags of clothes to get rid of that have made it to the pile growing in the kitchen.

Got this from a google search, but it pretty much sums up how we deal with laundry...

I came upstairs to say goodbye to the family and cleaned up really quick what was left out, before finally sitting down to watch a movie with the hubby man. Now, the only thing I am making myself do for the rest of the night is match socks. There are three shopping bags worth to sort through....have I mentioned that I hate sorting socks? At least I get to sit down!

I gotta put the laptop down, refill my coffee, and get at it! Lazy Saturdays are the best! Hahaha!

Flood.

When it rains, it pours. When it pours, it floods. That's basically where my life has gone....flooded.

I can't even put things together enough to write a coherant blog post...there is so much going on in my mind...so, to spare you all, I'm not even going to try.

Here's just an idea of what I will be explaining in detail at some point of time in the future:

• My dad called, but I didn't accept the call. I need to write him a letter.
• My sister-in-law called and we are going to help her out. We need to re-arrange some things in the house.
• Isa woke up this morning with a 102.7 fever and then threw up. She will be home with me tomorrow.
• Our sleep patterns have been shot to hell this weekend. Friday night, we went to sleep at 2 AM. I got woken up at 5 AM by a phone call requiring me to leave. I returned home and went back to sleep around 11 AM and I slept until about 2 PM. Last night, we didn't fall asleep until 4 AM and woke up around 8 AM, but went back to sleep until about 10 AM when Isa finally woke up. We returned to take a nap around 1 PM and slept until about 5 PM. Now, it's 11 PM and I know I need to go to bed. But my brain seems to think differently.
• My son broke a wine glass that I painted for heARTworks, now, I need to redo it. It pretty much rocked too.
• My home needs some loving attention. The dust on my mantel is high enough that you cannot see the original wood color (mostly thanks to all the sanding that Jose did to the house in January). The laundry pile that needs folded is large enough that an elephant would be scared. The craft room's mess could hide small vehicle. Ugh. I need a maid.

I'm pretty sure that I jinxed myself last week when I stated that I really want a boring life. When I can think straight, I'll fill in some missing pieces...if you pray, please just shoot out some little prayers for our little family. Thank you.

Sometimes, I Think Our House HATES Us...

Never in my life have I expected or realized the weird and random problems which arise from being a homeowner.

In four years, we have seen more weird crap that I didn't even know COULD happen. Like this week.

On Wednesday, we got this snow storm. It left us with this pile of snow about a foot tall outside. It also left a pile of snow on the little section of roof that is like a widow's lookout off the master bedroom. There is a door that allows us to walk out, but after the storm, we were unable to open the door.

No biggie...until Thursday night, when I went into the downstairs bathroom, only to notice that there was water dripping down the light fixture. So, upon thinking and investigating, we realized the culprit...the roof.

Because of the snow, we were unable to get out the door, so we cut the screen out and I went out onto the roof. That's when we realized that after the snowfall, the heat from the house had caused the snow to melt. There was about 6 inches of snow on top of three inches of ice which was sitting on top of about two inches of water. Add to the fact that our gutters are straight frozen and it just let the roof hold the water. Just sitting there. And finding it's way into the house.

So, at 9 PM, we went out and took the shovel and removed all the snow and ice and as much of the water as possible from the roof. And the leaking stopped. For the moment.

This morning, the kids were getting ready and I noticed a large puddle on the bathroom floor again, so Jose went back onto the roof to remove the snow and water that accumulated after the small storm that came yesterday.

So, I guess we have a new project to add to our to do list this spring... Boo!

Miracle Health & Spontaneous House Projects

So, when I woke up today, I felt like death. Live in the bathroom death. I hated my body and everything that it was putting me through, but I scraped myself off the ground and pushed forward. It worked fairly well, until around 1 pm. That's when I decided that I needed to nap. The two hour time span in the middle of the night when my body decided to keep me awake and running to the bathroom for no reason really had taken its toll on me. So, I called and made sure to cancel an afternoon appointment and when I did, was able to speak to one of the most amazing women that I know.

When I told her that I was ill and wouldn't be able to keep the meeting and asked her to pass the message along to the right person, she immediately asked to pray with me over the phone. I swear that this makes no sense whatsoever, but immediately, as she was praying, I felt like my insides were being pieced back together and aside from being sleepy, my ailments were diminished.

[Let me insert my side note here. I am not, by any means one of those people that believe that you can speak in tongues or lay hands on people and taa-daa, they are healed, but this woman has a spiritual gift with prayer. I know it is true. She continually offers prayer and always, always, always calms my nerves with her words to God. And today, there is nothing else that I can think of other than her prayers and it sends shivers down my spine.]

I went to sleep only to be woken an hour later from a deep sleep. A friend had texted me and I felt like I needed to respond. Then, after laying there a moment, I realized that I wasn't tired. And I felt wonderful.

I texted Jose and said that I was hungry. Like, haven't eaten in five days hungry and requested going out for dinner. Soon, he got home from work and Isa got off the bus and we went out for an amazing Mexican dinner, then went shopping at Menards. While there, we decided to buy paint. One gallon of paint for the dining room. For about a year, we have had paint cards tucked into the doorway of the french doors trying to decide how to best match the walls so that you couldn't tell we made the repair. Today, on a whim, we bought a totally different shade of green and came home to paint the entire dining room.

Yes. It's true. We came home and after tucking the kids into bed, repainted the entire dining room in two hours. And, the best part is, we even took a break. The break came when we were painting and I said that I really wanted a snack, and I was thinking that mint chocolate chip ice cream sounded amazing, and before I could finish my thought, Jose blurted out that he wanted mint chocolate chip ice cream. Our walls are the color of mint (it's called Spring Green). The trim is a beautiful chocoate stain color. I am in love.

The best part, and the part that I want to remember forever is this:

As we were painting, Jose was uncertain at first. He's not the biggest fan of my color choices and he steers away from bright colors, but as we began to see the walls come together, he admitted that he liked it. A lot. And he said, "It's not that the old color was bad, but it was just sad, like we were all gloomy and sad all the time...."

To which I replied, "Maybe we were sad all the time, so it suited us, but now, we're not, so this is better."

He agreed.

So, cheers! To new health. To new walls. To new life.

God is amazing!

House Projects: A Vent. Not About A Vent.

So, Jose has been continuously working on the wood trim in the dining room. I have been amazed and in awe with the persistance that he has put into this project. And despite it sucking him away from me at times, and despite the dust through out the house, and despite the noise and the smell, I have remained amazed. Of all the days that he has worked, I helped him once. One night only. The rest of the time, it has been his project. He has stripped paint. Sanded wood. Stained. Applied polyurethane. Sanded some more. And I have remained very proud of him.

But, since starting to stain last week, I have noticed spots where stain is thin or nonexistant. Where he has slacked off a little. And while I have spoken up slightly, such as "Honey, why don't you take off the doorknobs instead of staining around them?" I have not said much. I let him do his thing.

Except yesterday. He began to reassemble the room and I asked what he was doing.

"I'm done."

Oh. Really? I bit my tongue and looked around. There were spots that were completely forgotten. There were spots where the stain was uneven. There were spots where he just plain didn't seem to notice. So, I contemplated what to do.

Do I speak up and make him mad? It's been his pet project all month and he has done well on it overall, but these areas needed fixed. Or do I suck it up and not say anything? But then deal with it constantly bothering me until I insist in a year or two that we redo it.

So, I spoke up. And he got mad. Which caused me to shut up and shut down. I returned to my work upstairs and didn't say another word.

But then, he came upstairs. I was still on shut down mode though, so communication didn't exist and I ended up crying and he ended up leaving the room. But then, I felt bad, so I went to talk to him.

First thing to note: this would not have happened like this two or three years ago. We would have remained mad at each other until the issue was past us enough that it was shoved under the rug. Most likely, he would have gotten mad enough that he didn't finish the project at all and it would remain undone for months, until I got frustrated enough that I did it myself, all the while cussing about his lazy ways.

I pointed out, at his request, the areas that I was concerned with. Areas where the stain didn't take right or where he seemed to do one less coat of stain. And although he accused me of being "nitpicky," he listened.

And he fixed it. Less than an hour later, he called me downstairs to show me that he had fixed it and asking if it was better. And it is.

Second thing to note: I thank God for allowing us to communicate better now. Obviously, there are still leaps and bounds that we need to travel to make communication work for us, but this is way better than it was before. And for that, I am extremely grateful.

The Future - Month 1

For New Years, I wrote this...however, they were more of goals than resolutions...

We have finished the first month of 2011...and here's where I stand with these goals.
1. I have continued to go to therapy and work on boundaries. I have obtained a borrowed copy of the book, but have yet to open it...can we say February goal? I have been able to draw more lines and say no a little more often.

2. We have been spending at much time as possible with the kids, but it's been a busy month. However, we are trying to read together more, cuddle more, etc. I miss them a lot on the evenings that I work.

3. I am still dealing with my issues. I have blogged a lot more lately to sort through the thoughts. I have also been talking to Jose more and as mentioned above, still doing therapy.

4. We have began the O.W.L. group with some special ladies. I posted about it here. I haven't done the best, but at most, I am at least much more aware of what I am putting into my body now. I have begun to eat breakfast. Have basically cut out all soda other than diet. Am eating much less as far as late night snacks. And of course, I am drinking more water and eating a lot less junk food. There has been a drop in weight so something must be working...

5. As time allows, I have tried to increase my physical activity...I am not to a consistant three times per week yet though...soon. Soon.

6. I've done 15 scrapbook pages in January! The all day scrapping event helped a ton! See the newest pages here. Only 35 more to go to reach my goal...hehe!

7. Since the first week of January, I have been unable to work on cleaning out electronic photos or getting any more printed...I plan to work on them again soon.

8. I still haven't touched my ipod files. If anyone wants to volunteer to organize them all, the project is theirs!

9. The house projects are huge and will take a lot of time. At the first of the year, my dad and Jose got two windows in. Since then, Jose has been stripping and staining the dining room trim. See some photos here. And here.

10. I have become a lot less focused on facebook. It's just not necessary...

11. The house exterior and fence will wait until spring has sprung.

12. I have been going to bed fairly consistantly around 1 AM (or earlier), except on weekends and times when we are kidless, but those nights are different because I am able to sleep in.

13. I have 2 tin orders to complete, a mini mural and a canvas painting. I have also hit 100 followers on heARTworks facebook page! Whoot whoot!
14. I continue to have discussions about affairs and it has definately been laid upon my heart to do more in the form of a website...I am still hoping for a launch date of my wedding anniversary.

15. I finished one book in January. Father Fiction by Donald Miller. I have also read about half of another and have a list of three or so waiting for me. I need to count pages, but I feel accomplished already.

16. Jose and I took a mini-vacation to Columbus, Ohio. It was a renewal kinda thing. You can read about it and see photos here,

17 & 18. Haven't done a darn ditty thing in regards to sewing or knitting...maybe once the dining room is livable, we can find my craft room again...it's kinda buried.

19. Again, doors will wait until at least spring.

20. And, I have been so focused on drinking water that milk is just a pain...but I am focusing on getting more dairy in general, so hopefully in the next few months, we can start working milk in.

One month down, eleven more to go! Now taking bets: Can I do it? If not, which do you think I will complete and which will be deemed as "failures"?

Update: We Dine In Our Dining Room (Well, Not Right Now...)

Remeber THIS from a few days ago?

Well, as of Thursday, our dining room looked like this:

As of right now, it's looking like this:

I am so eager to have a completed dining room...once Jose completes the staining of the woodwork, we will be repainting the walls. Most likely, the walls will still be a green color, but a lighter green, since the wood is so dark. Add to that replacing one outlet box so that it'll work and then... Then, quite possibly we will have a fully completed room! Whoot whoot!

We Live in our Living Room. We Dine in our Dining Room.

Surprise, surprise. Well, we try at least! Sometimes, we have to dine in the living room and live in the dining room or something like that...

When we moved in, the open floorplan of the living and dining room was one of the first things that caught our attention. We loved the layout. We hated the color.

In this photo, the entrance is to the right, next to the stairs. The stairs...every other stair...and multiple corners of the house had this "awesome" gold metallic stencil work. The baseboard on the left was not attached. You can't barely notice, but the light fixture above the stairway landing has been removed..completely torn from the ceiling.

And the white "box" on the right has been jokingly been named The Shrine...it contains built in lights that are actually car headlight bulbs and the best part is that for the first month or so, we couldn't find the switch to turn on the shrine lights. Then one day, my uncle found it. Stick with me here: to turn on the light in the shrine, you must walk through the living room and dining room, through the kitchen and head down the basement stairs. Off of the basement stairs is a pantry closet. Open the door and the switch is a dimmer switch inside the closet. Yes, I am serious.

This is the other half of the living room. The first photo was taken while standing in front of the fireplace. The beautiful fireplace that had this white paint, stain, thing going on. Plus, the windows were pretty much the original windows...complete with a million layers of chipping paint and the worst drafts in the world. Again, notice the cool gold stenciling.

This is our dining room. Basically, the fireplace is immediately to the left. The weird square on the floor is where there was at one time a heat register, we belive. To the right, that doorway leads to the kitchen. Another fun fact that cannot be seen in the photo is that the previous owners were smokers...hard core. Judging by the tar on everything, at least 2 packs a day. The ceiling fan, windows, and everything was covered with this gross layer of yellow crap (which is saying a lot since I smoke)...we didn't even try to clean the fan. It was promptly removed and replaced.

Within the first month or so, we painted. It needed to be done. The pinkish purple was going to kill me.

Immediately after painting, we were forced to put things back into place without much decorative touches....looking back now, I want to puke! I can't believe we thought that was "decorated" well! Oh geesh. Please note the new landing fixture. Please ignore the awful entertainment center and the horrible posterboard makeshift frames on the wall! Interestingly, we have *yet* to paint the railings on the banister!

Since then, we have changed furniture and decorations. We have a "summer layout" and a "winter layout" and basically leave it like that. One thing that I can say with honesty and great joy is that in the last four years, we have strived to simplify and organize to a whole new level, making the house more manageable (at least, as manageable as it can be with two small kids) and making me a much happier mama!

About a year ago, I came home and found that Jose had begun to stain the fireplace on a whim...it ended up turning quite well, despite the fact that he had no idea what he was doing...hehe.

And here is the fireplace as a whole, including random crap shoved in the corner from our recent project of putting new windows in the living and dining room...and below is the rest of the living room, including the stairs (it's true, the banister is still not painted) and the foyer.

And, the dining room has also gone through continuous changes. Here is a photo of the dining room right after it's new paint job.

We were disappointed by it's plain look. After a day or two of dicussion, not much planning at all, and a frustration with our plethora of dvd shelves, we decided to add a built in shelf. Wall to wall. Floor to ceiling. Here is a glimpse at the hard work that Isa Jose put into building the shelves.

And then, we were done...at least for a year or so. This is basically how our dining room looked until last spring. That's when we finally took another remodeling project plunge. And now, we are in the midst of yet another remodeling project. I do believe we may be crazy...

Last spring, one of our projects was to tear out the wall in the dining room and build a doorway to the craft room (which was much needed after other projects were completed, as you will better understand as you follow this home journey with me over the next couple weeks). Again, another project that was not the most thought out, but after about two years of talking about it and having a set of doors that my mom snagged for $5 sitting in the back room, it was time. I left and went to work on a Saturday. Then, came home and there was a huge hole in the wall! (A million thanks again to Cliff for helping with this project!)

And for the last few months, we have lived with the door frame unstained...because we were anticipating our next project, which we are currently neck deep in...



Yup, and this is what our dining room looks like...right...now. Seriously. However, hopefully by the end of this weekend, we will be done sanding and to the point of staining. It will be the same color as the fireplace. I'll definately post pictures then!

This Old House: Kids' Rooms

So, I FINALLY found the disk which houses photos of our house when we bought it. I have been seeking out these photos forever and am so excited to have found them because I continuously try to tell people about the insanity that our house was when we bought it, but sound as if I am full of exaggeration (although I totally am not).

First, a little prelude: We started our marriage in a one bedroom apartment. A year later, we moved from the apartment to a two bedroom townhouse in the same complex. When our lease came time to renew, and we found out that they would be increasing our rent, we foolishly giggled about the idea of buying a home. Soon, however, after talking to some "real" adults, we realized that buying a home wasn't so far fetched afterall and that, in reality, the cost wouldn't be a large difference than what we were paying. Of course, we didn't think about the projects...oh, the projects!

We began our search at the start of March 2007. Our lease expired March 30th and if we didn't sign a new one, we needed to be out at that time. My dad has a wonderful friend who is a real estate agent and quickly, he jumped on board to assist us. We told him about this house in a nearby suburb that we wanted to look at, so he made arrangements to meet us there.

We went inside. At first, it didn't seem too bad, but after going into a second or third room, there was no way that we could have lived there. The kitchen cabinets were falling apart. The walls were stained. The ceiling in the back rooms was caving in. Despite the beautiful fireplace in the master bedroom, the graffiti of 'shrooms having sex painted on the walls by squatters took away from the lure, and the basement was in the midst of collapsing. Add to that the fact that on the other side of the small backyard was an army thing, complete with huge containers that seemed to house explosives or something fun. Our realtor told us that there was "no way in hell" that he would allow us to buy that house and that the place should be condemned.

The second house that we looked at was much closer to our apartment. We walked in and fell in love. We immediately put in our offer and on the second to last day of the month, we closed on the house and began to clean, clean, clean. Then, we moved, moved, moved. And went to the apartment and cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. Then, we were homeowners and we didn't end up homeless in the process. It was definately a God thing.

However, it was far from perfect. The potential was there, but it needed work (and it still does). As a foreclosure, the previous owners seemed to be quite upset upon leaving, as was seen by the removal of all appliances (stove, fridge, washer, and dryer) as well as nearly all the light fixtures. Add in that the owners had a slightly...unusual...color scheme. We were facing a ton of tasks in the first few months.

So, let us begin with my two favorite rooms: Isa and Teo's bedrooms.

Before we moved in, one of the panels in one of the windows in Isa's room was broken out, so my dad had to replace it. The paint in her room wasn't too horrible, but wasn't much for a girls room and surely didn't suit our tastes, so we quickly got to work.

Her room was one of the first projects that we did. Here is her room when we bought the house. Plain white walls. Okay blue trim. Ugly rainbow ceiling fan without even a globe. Notice the cardboard in the window where it was broken.

Here is a photo of her room once it was completed (aside from curtains). Her bed and furniture was The Backyardigans, so her room is based off of the character of Uniqua.

And here is her room now, complete with curtains and a big girl bed. However, I just wish it would stay this clean...

And now, nearly four years later, I'm considering repainting her room to better match her brother's. She seems envious of his bedroom (as you will soon see why) and I would love to do something similar for her too...

Teo's room was a longer process. He wasn't even a peanut of a thought in our mind when we bought the house. So, for the longest time, the room looked exactly like it did when we bought the house, only full of boxes and junk...aka storage space.

Yes, you see that right. When we found out that my brother-in-law needed a place to stay, we quickly primed the walls and left them white. We threw a mattress on the floor and shoved the boxes off to the side so that he could have a crash pad. Then, in 2008, we found out that Teo was going to join our family. We pondered and thought and pondered some more as we cleaned out the room and began to change it from storage to a nursery. During the last half of my pregnancy, I began to paint....and I painted pretty much until lil' man was born...

However, despite it all, the room wasn't quite done when Teo joined the world. It was probably 98%, but not quite finished, however, with a newborn...it took a long time until I was able to get it completed, but I did.

And, now, it basically looks the same. The furniture has changed as he has grown up. The crib is now a toddler bed. We switched out the changing table for a dresser. And the rocking chair has been switched with a nice rocker with an ottoman. But the walls have remained the same. There is nothing as amazing as sitting with him before bed and hearing him talk about (or better yet, to) the animals. His stuffed monkey, adoringly called "A-Ha" is his favorite non-human friend. And just tonight, as I tucked him in, he told me all about the "ird" (bird) on the tree.

So, there ya have it...two rooms in our "new" house....betcha can't wait to see what we've done with the rest of it, eh? Oooh, the suspense! Hehe.

And A Makeover...

SURPRISE!

Discussions with a good friend, Jill, has led me to think for the past 24 hours or so about giving my blog a makeover. She said it bothered her that I had the same generic layout as many other blogs she read. And encouraged me to check out a few free sites for layouts. I hated them. And the ones I did like, I couldn't get to work.

She also encouraged me to pay someone to design my blog. I don't care that it would be inexpensive. I am cheap. And it was more than I wanted to spend on something like a blog. No offense to the 14 followers that I have. Hehe.

So, I did the next best things...dove in.

Yup, that's right. I just went in head first to figure out the layout, design templates, and for fun, created my header and a footer. So, taa da! Welcome to my new page!

(I think it fits my personality perfectly!)

HeARTworks, Working From the Heart

I know I shouldn't be blogging. It's three minutes until midnight. I really have nothing to say...but, yet I do.

I have been working on art. Paintins to be exact. That's what the name for the gift card tins is.

As of this exact moment, I have about 20 orders. Of those, I have about 7 done. lol. But, I just started last night. I have created another blog for the art "business" that I am working to establish. This includes the murals and the Paintins so far. As of now, there's not much on the page. It is midnight, by the way. I will work to incorporate all the projects I do onto this blog for portfolio sake.

I also look forward to painting mini-murals in the church nursery soon. And I have a mom friend needing a small job. This may be the start of something beautiful. :) It keeps me awake at night. And it's a nice balance to the other jobs that I hold. When you put them all together, it's like a full time job, but way better because I can do all the things I love in each element. Yay!

As of now, my ideal weekly schedule will be this: 15 hours of Community Connections Director for Anchor, 10 (9 starting in January) hours of Fatherhood Coordinator for the Fort Wayne Fatherhood Coalition, 5 hours of Program Promotion (Marketing) for the Fort Wayne Fatherhood Coalition, and 10 hours of HeARTworks Painting. That equals a full time job of 40 hours per week. And, it ties all the things I love and am passionate about: serving people, helping, loving them, coordinating and facilitating things, making flyers and publications, and painting!

A year ago, I could have never imagined this...how AMAZING is our God?!

Just Call Me Ms. Entrepreneur

Yes. Yes. Entrepreneur I am. I just don't have a cool crafty name. LOL!

I desperately want to call them "Tintastics" but that may be slightly cheesy. Speaking of cheesy, my cell phone wall paper has a cartoon of a corn cob telling a piece of cheese, "You're so cheesy." And the cheese is telling the corn cob, "You're so corny." Ok, I digress. Tintastics. Yea. Kinda dumb.

Either way, I have a new endeavor. Yes, another. I'm a starter, I know. Let's get this party started so hopefully, we can finish. Hehe.

So, handpainted, personalized tins. They are originally for gift cards, but would also be perfect for those of us who need a small, compact way to carry some cash or an id or as a business card case.

I'm going to figure out how to set up an Etsy account. I will be selling these for $2 each (plus shipping if applicable). I have already had some people tell me that they want these for Christmas gifts to hold gift cards or lottery tickets, etc., so if you want one (or more), let me know soon and place your order.

I'm so excited!

:: EDIT: Thanks to a wonderful neighbor who is creative with her words, these gems have found a name: "Paintins" ::

Quick Start, Never Finish

So, as I have mentioned before, I am a "starter"...but I struggle to finish projects.

At a conference I attended a few months ago, they discussed this. There are people that are wonderful at creating and getting a fire going and burning strong, but there are other people that are great at keeping the coals hot and not letting the flame burn out.

I'm a starter. I can think up these huge projects and get them into motion. I can start wonderful things. But then, the flame gets smaller and I don't know how to keep it from burning out.

My house, my life, is full of half-finished projects.

There is a half knitted scarf on the end table. My daughter's mural is half done. My computer houses a book that is half written. There are rooms that are half decorated. My scrapbook projects are all sitting in limbo, half completed. I have a half-completed concept of a mural business.

Half of me is filled with new projects to start. I have a desire to write a book about being a child of an alcoholic. And a book about how God has used an affair to save my life. I want to start *something* to work with family members of people in jail.

The other half of me wants to complete the projects started. To have that sense of accomplishment that I had something that I did from start to finish.

Maybe I should work on the scarf. It'd be the easiest battle to win...

This Old House

Let me begin with this intro: I love my husband. I swear I do. I love him dearly. But he is just not Tim the Tool Man Taylor. Nor does he come close sometimes.

Around 7:30 PM tonight, he retreated down into the basement, which we are in the lengthy process of finishing. So, drywalling the ceilings is one of the things we are in the midst of. Well, he decided that today would be the day to change the light fixture. To remove the crappy 1930 one and replace it with the awesome florescents that we removed from the kitchen when we moved in.

So, at 7:30, my television shuts off and my laptop stops charging. He shut off the power to the front side of the house. Yes, I could have just moved the laptop to the dining room and continued on, but I choose to talk on the phone. For two hours.

Around 9:30, he asks me to come downstairs. "Oooh, yay!" I thought to myself. "He's done!"

He is standing in front of a piece of drywall. He tells me that he's ready to put it on the ceiling. I ask if he checked the fixture. He said he did and it worked. So, we put up two pieces of drywall where the new light will go, right over the pool table.

(Let me just backtrack and say that this was an extremely uncomfortable feat, as I got the job of holding the drywall...while kneeling...on a slate pool table.)

Then, a little more work (aka, my husband supervising while I kneel on a pool table with a long florescent fixture carefully balanced on my shoulder and use both hands to connect wires while he hands me pliers and electrical tape) and the fixture is up. Before screwing it up on the ceiling, I asked if we should check it. "No, it'll work," he says. So we screw the fixture into the ceiling.

I finally am able to sit down and he goes over to the fuse box. He switches the switch. Darkness.

"Oh," he says, "The switch upstairs is off." So he goes and flips it. Darkness.

So, we look at the fixture. A wire is loose. He pushes it back into place and tries again. Darkness.

We put the old fixture up, thinking maybe the bulbs blew with all the wiggling we were doing. Darkness.

We proceeded to flip switches, check electrical currents, change bulbs, etc. Darkness.

We take the drywall back off the ceiling and undo the new wires, leaving just the old ones. Then we reattach the florescent fixture to the original wires (the same ones that allowed it to work the first time). Darkness.

Maybe the wrong wires are paired up. The old ones are both black, not the cool color coding we have now. So, we exchange them. Darkness.

So, we attach the original fixture to the original wires. Darkness.

We gave up for the night. And what do we have to show for it? The original fixture with original wires and a huge mess.

Ugh. Men.

Ugh. Houses.

I Can't Believe I'm Saying This...

...but I am.

This weekend is my birthday weekend. Wow. And the thing is, I now FEEL like an adult. This weekend, Jose was wanting to take a weekend away, go to Indy or Chicago and get a hotel, do touristy things, and relax. I, instead, requested a weekend at home with no kids so that we could work uninterrupted on finishing the basement and building a pantry for our stockpile. I said I would rather spend whatever money we would have spent to have a weekend getaway on the house instead. No partying. No friends over. No relaxing weekend away.

Instead, I asked to spend money on a basement and work all weekend. What has happened to me?! :)

I think that the worst part is this: I'm so excited to do it! Haha!

Our plan is this (but of course, I realize that it is not all going to occur this weekend)...

• remove all the "stuff" from the room under the foyer and move the deep freezers and the mini fridge into there. Also, build/assemble shelves and cabinets for nonperishable foods. Buy a dehumidifier for the room. Remove the door and put in a 2 way swinging "bar" style door. Install electrical outlets
• Tile the floor that will be in the "main room" of the basement and put drywall up for the ceiling. Plus, we need to determine where we will be building a wall for our "utility room" and mark it off
• Tear out and rebuild our stairs to be less steep and more stable. Build awesome understair storage.
• Move washer and drying into the back room of the basement. Create a drying area and a folding area, as well as a place to keep the sorted dirties. Make a cover for the sump pump.
• Move Jose's "man cave" to merge with the "main room". And find a good location for the kids' toys.
• Hang the giant mirror that we have gotten
• Do something with the bar that was given to us (either restructure it, tear it apart and use the wood, or dump it) and build a ledge around the main walls by the pool table.
• Eventually paint it into a giant mural. This truely makes me excited to think about...

Plans? Fail.

Today was a ridiculous failure of planning. Everything I planned ended up basically the opposite. It was still a good day nevertheless, but was difficult for my insane necessity for preparedness.

Lunch plans got cancelled. So I asked a friend to do a couple of yard sales with me. She couldn't leave yet, so I piddle paddled around the house. At two, I went to Subway. She still couldn't escape. I went alone.

Sale 1 was MIA. Sale 2 was MIA, but I found a sale on the same road. Nothing amazing. Bought a couple of sketch pads.

Came home to finish up some work. But no response from people caused me to reach a standstill point. However, my mom took the kids.

Had originally planned a girl's thing here, but lack of response or availability cause me to cancel. Jose had a boys night out that he went to, so I was alone.

Made plans with a friend to do dinner and just chill. She wasn't able to leave due to a car situation, so my mom called and asked if I wanted to join her. I told her about my plans with my friend. She told me to grab her and the kids and come anyways.

So, we all went to dinner. Then, I came home, had possible plans with two separate friends, but as one was getting ready to come, Jose arrived home way earlier than expected. The other never made it.

Instead of having any social interaction, I decided to clean the back room which houses a lot of my scrap stuff, and put the new bureau thing in there that the neighbor gave us for free. I was about 3/4 of the way through cleaning when I took a break...and fell asleep. Jose came to wake me up. I finished cleaning and Jose got me a frappe.

Then we watched Book of Eli. Great movie. But, nothing that occurred today was planned as such. It's exhausting to change plans like that.

Hopefully tomorrow is better. :)

I May Fail...But I Never Give Up Permanently

If you know me, you know I have these crazy detailed plans and projects...Oftentimes, they rarely go much farther than creation...

I'll admit it. I'm a notorious starter...I lose focus easily. Am easily discouraged. Get distracted. And find a new project. It's a great skill to have in management when you have minions to do your work for you. I would be able to start something great with all these awesome ideas, then pass it along to someone else to actually make it happen. (Yes, I watched Despicible Me this weekend.)

One project area that I am continuously working on is my health. Mostly my weight, but my health overall. I formulate these amazing awesome plans to start working out, eat better, etc. but just never make it past a week or two. So, a lightbulb hit me today. I can't do it the way others do it.

I can't focus too much on WHAT is being eaten right now, because I am not eating enough. Even my biggest loser game on the wii told me that, even with all the junk I eat, my caloric intake was not enough. So, what does that mean? For me, it means eat more. Not more junk, but more nutritious foods. Trade out my unhealthy meals for healthy ones. Snack on veggies or fruits more. Drink juice. Drink milk. Make a conscious effort to keep track of foods.

I fail miserably at food journals, but I have another idea. It's a secret idea though. :) I will, hopefully, go week by week taking horribly small baby steps, but changing some habits, some processes, some actions to create a healthier me.

Hopefully, I don't post in a week that this one failed too.

Thought Provoking - Thoughts Needed

I have been toying with a few ideas in my head, but am unsure of how to work them into reality. At some point last week, I went to pick up a freecycle posting for paint. The woman said that they had gallons of paint (some brand new, some half full, some nearly empty) up for grabs. I grabbed them in hopes for using them for a mural in the basement. I sent her a couple of photos of Teo's room just for fun and she said that people would pay lots of money for paintings like that.

I have thought about it before, offering to do murals and such, for a small amount of pocket money, but wouldn't have a clue what to charge or how to go about doing anything like that.

Then, yesterday, my mom said that a coworker of hers wanted to know what I would charge for a drawing that she could frame and hang in her nursery of a jungle theme. I don't have a clue what to charge! I would love to do it, but do not know what those would be worth. Basically, she wants a colored pencil drawing approx. 10 x 12 inches. My mom showed her photos of Teo's bedroom and of a drawing I made my mom for Christmas one year.

So, what should I do? Should I try to market my art, either as murals or framed art to match up a room? How does one do that? How much would you pay for personalized art and/or a mural?