Snow much has happened.

It's Friday again!  Our first snow here in Denver!

Everyone say "Hello" to the frozen precipitation.

Week one of ze new house and we're still alive.
Seven days of getting to know our home.  Such as:
. I learned how the front door creaks if it's not quite shut all the way, and that the slamming sound is not, in fact, a wild racoon ghost in feverish pursuit of the only key that can free him of the massive ball and chain around his ghostly little raccoon foot.  The key, of course, potentially residing just inside our living room.
. I learned that the aspens out front that are planted too close to the house, are super sturdy in the blundering winds of the foothills.  That's pretty good news.
. I learned that wild Colorado weather moving in looks so much prettier from our new view of the mountains. 
. I learned that paint wipes up pretty easily from the flooring that is in the kids' second bedroom.  Or maybe my self got lucky that time.  THAT time.
. I learned, after day two of painting ceilings, that our square footage looks much huger looking up from beneath a roller for 16 hours.
. And I learned that my kiddos must just despise playing.

Remember a week ago when I so high-and-mightily proclaimed that I was going to be just all 'in tune' as ever, all Super Mom Despite the Crazy... All "Mom is patient, Mom is kind... She does not boast..."  Well, that was not me.  I'm still trying to figure out who to blame for that, and so far what I've come up with is that, naturally, all blame is upon the children.  They hate playing and resent me for expecting them to carry on like children.  They can't read this well yet, so I don't have to worry about their defensive tactics.

I'm kidding, I know they don't hate to play.  But being in that new spot, with very few toys?  Well, it took a lot of mediation on my part, lots of time-ins to get them going, and more patience with each squabble than I had.  I guess I expected that they were just gonna get to the new house and just get their explore on, for an hour or four or so, while I accomplished many pertinent and brilliant things.  And what was I doing that was so important?  Putting another coat on the ceilings?  Lame, Ma.

Yesterday I had a horrible time with massive paint sprayer sputter, drop cloths that did not do their jobs, and kids who were just a little stir crazy.
I put.  My sprayer.  DOWN.
I backed AWAY from the roller.
It was time to take the edge off of us all.  I set up a couple of sections of our sectional in one of their rooms for them to snooze on.  We listened to lullabyes on my computer, watched some videos from way back when they were little, and I just rested with them.  Our new cat (did I tell you the house came with a cat?) snuggled up on me and I got him purring real good.  Kiddos fell asleep, and then I got an hour and a half of painting done peacefully, and was so armed and ready for them when they woke up it wasn't even funny.  Somehow, the evening hours of painting were magically delicious.  I totally got Roo into drawing stuff for me for at least an hour or so, dictated letters for her to write words out to describe them, and this lasted forever.   I made a big fuss of her skills, she was so proud of herself.  Knox was playing well with Howdy and the cat, and I actually loved that he brought his little balance bike inside and sped throughout the house, so proudly crashing into walls.  OH THE JOY OF CRASHING INTO WALLS.  Oh to be a 2 year old boy.  Oh I should have put a helmet on him.

When Nick got "home" last night, we had accomplished so much, the kids were happy, and all was awesome.  Maybe we were able to accomplish tons because he got home at 8pm, but maybe those extra hours were necessary for me to feel like I can juggle the house stuff, AND challenge and engage the kiddos,  AND feel like I did a good job of it all.  Good is a good starting point.  It's only been a week.  And even better?  They do not despise playing, after all!

Nick was late because he was picking up the final load of our OAK FLOORING!  We unloaded it in the dining room, and stared in awe of what we have in store NEXT.  I thought ceilings and whitewashing a navy blue room were doozies.  Well. Great thing ze bebes are spending Saturday and Sunday with Grammy... Schwing!  Hardwood floor time! Oh, and some recessed lighting in the living room.

this is not even all of the flooring, more is in the living room.  Yikes!  ps, this very blue room is the dining room. 

Hopefully soon those 5" wide, super rustic planks will look more like this:

SO EXCITED TO INSTALL!!!!

This very navy blue room turns a whiter shade of pale.  

Literally, this room could not be any whiter now, hmm?

I'm gonna pull a Best Friend Ashleigh on this room, you'll see.

The kids' new cat, Jack.  He is fairly pampered, and doesn't look at all bored with their shenanigans.

Ok bye!  Talk to you again when we have ourselves some flooring, ya'll!

Howdy Folks!

I have a feeling that most of my posts are going to be comin' at you live from Knox's Bottom Bunk.
Little Brother has a real knack for needing his mommy to lie down with him while he settles down for his nap.  It's a nice little habit RHYTHM we're in.  But, the nice thing is that I get to actually sit down, or lie down, with a warm little stinky boy next to me, for a good half hour daily.  He's wiggly and hyper and won't sit still for a good chunk of the "GO! TO! SLEEP!" process.  But some times, like right now, he's kissing my nose.  He's kissing my eyes, and my eyebrows.  And he just tried to lick my hand.  What more could I want than this stolen moment of almost-peace with m'boy, while his sweet and sleepy big sister naps in the bed above us.  It's nap time, when everything is settling down that I can really think about it and say that truly, I love today.

But YESTERDAY we did a really cool thing, wanna know what it was?
Do you?

We bought another house!  We bought our dream little plot and sweet little dream house in the most precioso town you'll ever know this side of the Rockies... Golden, Colorado!!  I can't believe it!  Did you know we could do it?  I didn't!

We've spent five years in our home in the adorable Wheat Ridge, CO... Fixing it up and making it pretty.  We are one income and we've really made the most of our budget.  One thing I don't think I've made the most of is each passing day with my kids, who are growing so so so fast.  As we start our new journey, I want my main focus to be on what I'm DOING, and not what I NEED to do.  We all have a list a mile long, posted on our fridge, in our minds, in our phones... reminders everywhere we turn that we have somewhere to be soon or ten minutes ago.  I hope this new home is my chance to reclaim the RIGHT NOW that I tend to overlook.  My hope is that this home is where I connect with myself as a mother, as a designer... Maybe as a wife.  Priorities, you know.  I might need a lot of reminders for this big, focused task ahead of me.  So I'm gonna write about it.  You guys can keep me on track.


I'm sure I'll explain way too much about our home search and how we ended up closing on our dream fixer-upper in beautiful Golden.  I'm eager to find some time to learn how to set up this "blog", so I can explain way too much about everything.  That's sort of who I am, as you know... Lucky you :)

Ok bye!