We went to a local toy store the other day. When I was back in the game/puzzle section it hit me that we should get a puzzle for the kids. They have a 2 50 piece puzzles which they mastered and have not touched in a while. I was thinking about maybe 150 pieces or 300 pieces. I looked around, but make no decisions.

We happened to return to the same store later on with Daddy. I mentioned the puzzle idea to him. He later happened on a 400 piece puzzle that had 3 sizes of pieces – large, medium and small – sized for the whole family.

And so we brought it home. I love, love, love there being a puzzle out on the coffee table! It is so fun to see the kids wander over and work on it, one of the adults, all of us, or we come and walk away at different times. It is so cool. The mixed sizes were nice, though leave it to Quinn to work with the smallest ones. She has such good fine motor skills and is keen sight, that I was not surprised. It is bringing a lot of joy. Quinn already wants us to go back and get the castle one she saw!

How is it even possible to have any kind of sanity when your house looks like this? And mine was like this for over a week. It is a combination of stuff moved out of two rooms and kids trying to play amongst all these out of place items. I must say my most favorite, “let’s play with what is out” moment was when Tyler turned the drying rack for the dishes into a printer and the table mat was what it was printing out.

Still, this was crazy. Our rhythms have completely fallen apart and I miss them so. And man, I am tired. It is like I get stuck in a tired place and have the hardest time getting myself out. It is very difficult for me to stop – it is a strength and weakness all in one. However, I have hope that fall, the very best time of year for me, will help right this ship.

Oh, in case you didn’t know – we were having the kitchen textured and painted. Wallpaper, don’t let the door hit you on the way out…buh-bye! Oh, and enter grateful hubby who has lived in a house for almost two years with wallpaper half torn off walls on a job someone (er, me) started and then lost all motivation to complete. Even though I have painted every wall in this house, this job was just too big for me, so we hired a painter. Little did he know what he was walking into.

Let me start by asking you, is it a bad thing when your painter tells you “it has been an experience” as he is collecting his payment? I thought so. So yes, I changed my mind on the color of the kitchen not once, but twice. I am not good at this stuff and there were three other colors it had to work with. The grey blue was too cold and well, awful. The yellow MIL picked out was closer, but too bright. And leave it to my hubby to pluck a candle off of our mantle and say this one. And he was right – a deep, earthy gold. The second I put it on the walls, my gut knew – we found the color.

I am now wanting to make curtains and will start saving my pennies for the bench seat and table that I want to eventually put in there. All in time. You should see what the kids have done to my college dinging table – really, I shouldn’t be in a rush to upgrade.. :-p

I still have some work to do in the entryway and the bay window and I am hopeful that by the end of the weekend, I will have those done. And I need to move on because I am tired. God, I am so completely tired. I see it in my parenting. {icky, icky feelings here} But, fall is on the way, soups, pumpkin pie, apple sauce, warm tea, cider, hikes, pumpkin patches, gnomes – there is just too much goodness to be down. I just want to get to a place where my biggest stressor will be making enough gnomes for the nature table.

And with that, I will drink some more wine, knit and literally fall into bed…. Oh, and before I sign off, here is my painted kitchen..

Today was a busy day! Our wonderful painter finished up phase 1 on our painting and the door man is ordering a new door for us today. I spent most of the day after the painter left in deep cleaning fall spruce up mode. Oh my gosh – the house looked so good! It is amazing what a little love can do. I had to take the pictures because the kids could wreak havoc on this in a matter of minutes. No matter -their play doesn’t undo the good deep cleaning that I did. It makes me feel good.

Of course, for every room I finish, I get closer to having to tackle the miscellaneous box of crap – which I should just trash without going through it, but I won’t. Then there is also the other stuff sans a home that needs to be dealt with. That part will suck, so for now I bask in the glow of accomplishment… :-p

The Stairs are Done!!

I think we have a winner!
So the top color, Misty, is my top pick. It is more of a grey than a blue, which was a concern. Too dark and dreary I thought, but I was still drawn to it. I picked some lighter, more blue colors in case. While the middle color has a lovely creaminess that would bring a lot of cheeriness to the kitchen, that top color demands your attention. Our color choices tend to be earthy and rich. Since I am using this color on an accent wall over by the entry, it needs to hold its own with the other colors and it totally does. And with all the windows in the kitchen, I think light will not be a problem. It wasn’t as dark as I was thinking. I have 3 votes so far and will get one more from a friend tomorrow. Hopefully I will be buying paint tomorrow!

More updates to come!!