Playing Hookie

I can't believe I am posting twice in one week.  Funny thing is, I'm crazy busy this week with company coming in town and I'm still sick!  Someone told me once that if you need something done, ask a busy person.  Hmm.  I hope you are all enjoying your week.  Anyone else crazy busy? 


So, remember when I showed you our back hallway that only lacked two things?  Well, three if you count a new floor, but we're not counting a new floor, so... two things?  It needed new lights and some hooks for the kids' jackets.

Well, with the leaves already starting to turn and colder weather coming our way, I needed to get on those hooks.  Since we usually use this door to go outside,

And since the garage door is right next to the hallway,

the long empty wall to the left in the top picture was the logical place to put some hooks for jackets and purses.  I hunted around for awhile before zeroing in on the perfect hooks.  The kids and I were in Hobby Lobby looking at the hooks in their knob/pull/hook aisle, but didn't see anything right.  As we were leaving, we walked through the men's décor section.  Did you know Hobby Lobby has a men's décor section?  Isn't that sexist in some way?  Not that I care, I just wondered.  Either way, it is my new favorite section.  The kids and I had so much fun looking through it all .  They have pretty awesome stuff, like a cabinet pull that was made to look like a door handle of a classic car.  A couple of those are definitely going in the boys' room.  And in the midst of the classic car paraphernalia, sports memorabilia and hunting decorations, there were these beauties.

Perfection made better by a 50% off sale bringing them to a mere $2 a pop.  I giggled all the way to the check out. 

When I got them home it was time to give these moose hooks some sophistication {why, yes, I did just use "sophistication" and "moose hooks" in the same sentence}.  A few coats of a high gloss white spray paint did the trick. 

As I was letting them cure, I kept thinking.  Wouldn't it be awesome, I mean totally hilariously awesome, if maybe I painted them-...

Oh. Yes.  Indeedy, it is.  I can't keep from grinning even as I write this.  How awesome is it to have a manly moose, but in HOT PINK???? 

Extremely awesome, that's how awesome.

  

I love when something utilitarian is also beautiful or funny or memorable in some way.  It's those details that make decorating fun.  I felt I could get away with doing something outrageous since the hooks are in a back hallway and not by the front door.  But, really, wouldn't a hot pink moose make your day no matter where he was?

Yeah.  I know.  Me, too.

 

 

Oh, what a night!

We've had one of those weeks.  Handsome Hero had a major project going on at work and logged over 100 hours {at times like this I wish he was hourly!} and the kids and I headed down to mom and dad's on Wednesday to make it easier on all involved.  We had a great time even though Nate and I both got sick. 

Yesterday, I was feeling pretty puny.  Mom and dad took the older kids to church with them while Nate and I bonded over our puniness.  After lunch we drove the 1 1/2 hours home.  When we got home, I had reached that point {moms, you'll get this} where I just needed to keep going so that I could make it through the evening.  If I stopped to rest, I wasn't going to get back up.  And because Handsome Hero was still at work, I had no choice.  So I put everything away and started straightening up the house. 

After dinner, I put the boys in the bath downstairs.  I forgot towels, but they were already in the water, so I ran as fast as I could to get them.  When I got to the top of the stairs, Ella said, "Hey, mom, look!  I pulled out my loose tooth!" 

I congratulated her, but had to run back downstairs to check on the boys.  As soon as I got down, the doorbell rang.  I called to Ella to come stay with the boys and went to the door.  It was my neighbor inviting us to a pumpkin carving.  Very fun, except that in less than thirty seconds, screaming ensued from downstairs.  Jack was yelling, "Mom!!!  There's a bug in the tub!!!!!"

I excused myself, closed the door, went downstairs, and there was Jack, soaking and buck naked, running around screaming, "It's a bug!  It's a bug!"  Ella was saying, "There IS!  There IS a bug!"  and Nate didn't care one way or the other.

This. bug.  It was big.  It was over three inches long.  I couldn't believe it.  Where was Handsome Hero when I needed him??  I do not do bugs over half an inch, thank you very much.  But there it was. 

I put on my big girl pants, grabbed a cup that was sitting on the sink, scooped up the monster and flushed it down the toilet.  Problem solved, right?
 
No.  Ella started screaming at that point.  What is it with my kids and screaming?  I was about to get on to her when she said, "My tooth!!!  You flushed my tooth!  I put my tooth in that cup to keep it safe!!"

You have got to be kidding.

I was busy apologizing all over the place when I noticed something in the tub.  Her tooth must have fallen out right before I scooped up the dinosaur bug.  I reached in and got it.  I was now a hero.  Crisis averted.

Well, that crisis anyway.

I washed and put Nate to bed, leaving Jack to play in the tub for a minute.  I was on my way back downstairs when Ella started screaming again.  It is so hard to be sympathetic when they're screaming.  I found her in the kitchen, her hands covered in blood.  I thought it was from her tooth, but no.  She had hit her head on the corner of the desk and her hair was matted in blood.

I made sure it wasn't a huge wound {it wasn't}, was properly sympathetic, put her on the couch with an ice pack, and ran downstairs to take care of a very pruny Jack.  I gave him his clothes and told him to get dressed while I went back up to Ella.

I washed her hair salon-style, while my three-year-old streaked around, still with no clothes on, pretending to be a Robin Hood/soldier/warrior. 

Finally, all were clean, all were dressed, all were in bed.  I may have forgotten to brush their teeth, but teeth are highly overrated anyway.

Oh, what a night.

Lighting up the stairway

The stairway to the basement {not to be confused with the stairway to Heaven} is one of those spaces that is usually forgotten but it could be an absolute gem.  I plan on making the main wall into a family photo gallery.  I have been collecting frames since we moved here {it's a big wall}.  I want the space to be really unique and interesting, more than just a way to get from one floor to the other.

We've been working on updating the lighting throughout the house.  Lighting is one of those details that we feel is really important to the feel of a space.  Well, I feel that, and Handsome Hero loves me, so....

In the stairway to the basement, there was this dinky little pendant with one bulb that had been hung too high anyway.  It seemed like an odd choice to me, but, hey. 

We found a cheap brass chandelier at ReStore and painted it yellow.  Handsome Hero hung it a couple of weeks ago, and it's amazing the difference in the light and feel in here.

It's fun and funky, but will likely be the last painted chandelier we do for awhile.  Handsome Hero is at his painted-chandy limit.  He says I'm about to be a one-trick pony.  I actually agree, so we'll call two painted chandeliers good for awhile.

Eventually, this room will be painted a putty-gray color called Fawn Brindle.  It needs it.  Badly.  Picture flat builder-grade white paint with kids going up and down the stairs many times a day.  Nasty and unwipeable.  Obviously, I am really looking forward to having it painted, but it's a tricky proposition. With two story ceilings and a stairway, it's a difficult space to paint.  We may hire it out {we got a quote when we had the trim painted back when we moved in and it wasn't bad}, but we may just tackle it together.  I haven't been able to get on a ladder or swing since having Nate without being absolutely sure that I'm going to fall and die {I sure hope this pregnancy-induced vertigo goes away like it did with the other two} which means Handsome Hero will have to paint all the high stuff.  He's still fine with heights, though.  No sympathy vertigo or anything.  hehe.

I'll go ahead with the gallery wall and other things I'm able to do by myself, and I will enjoy my fresh and funky and very happy chandelier.  It will get painted eventually.

Nasty kid hands.  Sheesh.