My Amazing Middle

Parenting is hard.

Many days I feel like I am barely keeping my head above water. 

The last few weeks have been worse than normal. Maddie had a horrible October, as most of her October's in her life have been starting with her very first one at five months old sixteen years ago! She was sick every day of October. It was scary.

In the midst of this, my healthy girls get less than the best of me. It's not that they get forgotten, but everything slides. Homework, chores, bathtime.. the routine goes out the window and we all suffer.

You would think by now I could have figured out how to parent a chronically ill child as well as how to parent healthy children.

I haven't.

My heart's desire this fall is to learn how to be a better all-in mom to my middle child. Lexi is my "mini-me" and she is at a crucial age that needs me to be focused on her.  Sixth grade is tough enough on a kid without having a mom distracted by the continual health needs of an older sibling and a vocal little sister!

So how am I going to be all in? I don't know. But I'm going to start tonight by inviting my girl to go out for Starbucks after I teach my evening class. It may just be a few stolen minutes here and there, but I have to be intentional about these moments or the years will pass and I will miss the opportunity to get to know my amazing middle.

I fixed our broken recliners!

I'm rather proud of myself. I fixed the two broken recliners on our couches. Sidenote: my side is just fine. Doug has broken his side on two couches! 

We were so frustrated with them that we were looking at new furniture. But it wasn't in the budget. So I decided to try to fix it. 

Who knew it would be that easy!

And should he break another one in another 6 months, no biggie. A $10 fix is all it takes!

I was so excited about it that I made a snapguide tutorial. I haven't done that in probably 2 years!

Check out How to Fix a Broken Recliner by Emily McLemore on Snapguide.

Nail Polish Flowers.. Not a simple Pinterest Project!

I don't spend much time on Pinterest. I am too busy. However, while looking for something else, I saw "nail polish flowers" and really liked them. I have quite a few art 2 students that are not gifted drawing or painting students, so I am looking for ways to reach them using non-traditional means. I'm also looking for cheap and simple projects that can have a big wow factor. 

Nail polish flowers seemed like they might be a cool project that wasn't too hard and looked great.

Knowing that the way things look on pinterest and real life are often not even close, I looked up a couple of tutorials and found that tacky glue was a necessary, yet left out instruction on most of the pinterest pins.

I didn't have any tacky glue. So I tried Elmers. Don't. It doesn't work.

So I bought some tacky glue. I already had wire and nail polish.

I made a simple wire flower with petals that were about an inch long. This is not a big flower.

 I STRUGGLED. 

This was not easy. The center worked because it was rather small so the glue didn't have much space to span. But filling the petals was hard!

It wasn't impossible, but it took me almost 2 hours to get five petals filled with glue. Crazy.

After I finally got all of the petals filled, as they dried, the largest petal broke. I refilled it and left it a little thicker this time!

After giving the petals an hour or so to get mostly dry, I decided to go ahead and paint the petals before something happened to my flower!

I was surprised at how simple this step was.

And there you have it. One simple nail polish flower made from a little wire, some tacky glue and nail polish.

And is this a project for my students? 

Well... I haven't decided. Getting the glue to stick to the wire in one think film was hard. I don't know that I am ready to hear my name and help together that many times in one class period! But man I can see in my mind the incredible projects that could be made with this process!! 

Nevertheless, I learned something new today and ultimately, that is my goal. One new thing everyday! I'd say "who would have thought" my new thing would be making a nail polish flower, but really for me, it fits! Now I have to go finish my bouquet!

Some of our DIY Home Renovations

The work at our house is amazing. I'm saving the pictures of the work being done by the pro's for later.  This post is about our personal DIY efforts.

We started with finishing the trim work in the girls room. This was the last step in their redo's. Having the carpet replaced (added in Ky's) made a huge difference! Doug did the prep work and I painted.

 

We then moved on and painted the living room and hallway. The problem here is that now the fireplace looks dingy... guess I know what's next.

 

I desperately want to change out the doors.. but that is not in the budget this time around.

Maddie helped out by working on my bedroom painting while I worked on her bathroom. So thankful for her sweet worker spirit!

I've also worked on the laundry room. It was BAD. I looked to see if there was a before picture. Nope. It was that bad.  Here are my in progress pictures.

 

And then I decided to tackle Maddie's bathroom. The floors were being redone and I knew that while I wanted to renovate it, I couldn't afford to right now.. so I painted (am painting) the tile. It is incredibly stinky.

The before.

During.

The paint that I used previously for a tile project was a little different, so it took a while for me to get my groove. I should have started on the wall behind the toilet! Where the inconsistency didn't matter. ugh. Now I have to go back and sand paper the drip marks. But oh well, it looks soooo much better already!!

This is truly stinky stuff.

And here we are after the first few coats.

 I am in love.

I'm hoping that a new counter will just magically appear on Maddie's counter. If not, we will wait till the next round of renovations!

What a difference.

That's pretty much been my mantra these days I have been spending around 8 hours each Saturday and Sunday working on the house. It will be totally worth it. But in the meantime... I'm tired.

4:22am is a random time to get up, but that is my sweet spot

I get up early.

I used to think 6am was early. I still do, but now, 6am is sleeping in...

Nowadays I get up at 4:22am three or four days a week. Sometimes five days, but I do really try to sleep in at least one work morning a week! 

As with everything, there are seasons where I am more committed to early mornings than other times. But 4:22am seems to be a consistent time for me the last couple of years.

Why do I get up that early? Well, cause I work out early. By 5am I am either in the gym or on the road. I used to just get up and go, but with age comes a cup of coffee before heading out! 4:22am just sort of evolved. 

What is interesting is that even on the mornings that I am not working out, 4:22am is a routine wakeup time for me. It's the sweet spot I guess.  While others would consider the next 2 hours prime sleep time, these are prime morning hours for me.

UGH.

I really do like sleep. Which means I have to go to sleep early.

But, by getting up early, I have the opportunity to see and hear the world while most people are still asleep. The world is quiet at this time of the morning. I get a chance to meditate and process life before most everyone else is even up!

So for all you naysayers and poo poo-ers out there,  try it. Set your alarm for 4:22am, get up, have a cup of coffee and see what you can accomplish before the world wakes up. 

You might be surprised!