I Currently Own...

... more shoes than I ever have at any given time in my life.

I'm a little embarrassed.  I'm not even exactly sure what happened, but it seems that at some point, this year, I decided to join the "you know I'm a woman, because I have a ridiculous number of shoes" club...  I hope it's not a sign of the beginning of a mid-life crisis...

Here they are (minus the two pairs that have now been designated "work" or "play in the mud" shoes):

Miah wanted me to take a picture of her shoes, too...  I mean, she was relentless:

Don't worry too much, though.  I doubt I will start carrying color coordinated purses anytime soon...

L.

Materialism At It's Worst...

For some time now, I have talked about getting rid of the enormous piles of children's clothes that have accumulated over the past 13 years.  Sometimes I have even sorted through a box or two and actually sold or given away a few items.  In my defense, I did actually do a good job of saving what I thought we would use for future children, and that has saved us some cash over the years.  But more often than not, what I have done is hoarded clothing items that someone else could be using, because every one of them held some sort of aesthetic power over my senses, brining to mind memories of times and places that are long since passed.

There comes a time, though, when enough is enough.  I mean, who has 41 plastic bins of clothes in their basement?  FORTY-ONE...   Well, I did.  But I don't anymore!

I admit that I still saved quite a few things, but you wouldn't believe the piles... upon piles... upon piles we dropped off at The Salvation Army, while waiting for Seth and Grace to finish up quiz practice.  In addition, I took a couple of bins of stuff to Once Upon A Child, and they gave me a check for a few dollars after rejecting most of what I brought (no surprise, but give me a break...  I didn't walk in there with anything that was not brand name and in excellent condition)...

There are some things, though, that I didn't even feel guilty about keeping.  The best example is here:

Who puts their child in something like this?  Oh wait...  I'm the one with my hand straight up in the air again...  This one made the "keep" pile, and one of these days I'll sneak back down to the basement, bury my nose in it, and smell my baby Grace in Iowa...

L.

Happy Spring...

... Finally!!!

Well, on this first day of Spring, I can't say it's amazingly warm. Actually, there's still frost... ugh... But we must be getting closer to nice weather... I hope...

It's time for some home improvement... ahhh...

I am just about jumping out of my skin over the excitement of painting! Ask me if I still feel that way after a couple of rooms... See, here's the deal... For the past several years, we have been living in rentals with all white/cream colored walls. I am so sick of boring rooms! Our new house has plenty of color already, but I want it to be my colors... For example, the pepto pink living room walls have got to go... quickly... I am looking forward to painting multiple tones of purple in Grace's room, clouds and airplanes in the boys' bedroom, and dark blues and reds to go with the sports theme in Seth's playroom. This is probably going to take me all Spring... and maybe Summer... and perhaps Fall...

I am also getting ready to undertake a huge outdoor project. I'm putting in a fence... well, if I can ever manage to reach anyone at the office that's supposed to be able to tell me about permits and such... Then I plan to put up a new trampoline with an enclosure (am garage-saleing the one that came with the house, after finding that it cannot be enclosed)... and maybe a big play fort/swingset if I can "swing" it... yeah, pathetic pun intended... After that, I'd like to plant a garden, but I don't know anything about gardening, so I may have to wait until next year if I can't find anyone to help me...

All of these "plans" kind of hit me the other day, and I realized that I am never going to be satisfied with what I have...

Just a few months ago, I was crying (tears of joy), because we were going to be able to buy a house at all. We ended up with the closest thing to my dream house that I ever could have imagined, without building, and now I have to "improve"...

I don't really feel badly about wanting to do all of this. Maybe I should, but I don't. What I do feel badly about is that I know when I've completed it, there will just be something else I want.

Lisa