"Monkey With A Tool Belt"

Are you a houseblogger with children or just a handyperson with children? OK, maybe you're like me and you just really think tool belts are cool, and even if you didn't have children you would find some on the street just so you could head over to your local library and check out this cool book...



"Monkey With A Tool Belt"



I haven't taken it home for the official Molly testing, but I'm going to guess that the pictures are a little too busy for her. There's a lot going on in each page. But the art is way cool and while I feel kind of funny about some of the made up tools the monkey's self-sufficiency make up for the weird feeling created by having a snozz remover.

Picture Of The Girls With The House In The Background

The picture was taken two weeks ago. Can you see the problem we are hoping to fix this weekend?

hint: It's nothing to do with the house. Yes, that has problems, but luckily you can't see most of them at that distance.

Couple of Cute Little Girls

Thanks Jen!

My New Blog

I've decided to start a new blog for my non-houseblog related musings.

Beyond the Cute Little Farm House

Home

Elsa at 4 months with Mr. Bear her tasty new friend

Tonight we had Elsa's four month appointment so we left Molly with my mom. Elsa was going to get shots, and Molly can be a little protective when it comes to her baby sister so we decided this was the best plan of action.

Well on the way there I noticed something fall from Tim's lap out of the corner of my eye. It was Molly's blanket. The one thing she can't possibly live without. Yes, that's over exaggerating, but try to tell that to her. So I called Mom and told her where to find the back up blanket once she got to our house.

Molly check out one of the few Christmas decorations I have up so far...

With that deer-in-the-headlights, caught-red-handed look

When we got back to Mom's that night she said that when they turned the corner and headed north to our house Molly saw the lights and said, "Home." Isn't that the sweetest thing ever? Neither Tim nor I had heard her say the word before. So it was great when we pulled up and Tim went to get her out of the car seat and she opened her tired eyes and gently said again, "Home."

Thank You Jen

I've become so lazy about taking pictures since my brother-in-law Tom married Jen. Her camera is a permanent attachment which is why I was certain she'd have some great photos of the dining room the night of the party. You can check them out at Newton Boer Goats- Also...

I love how in the first picture it looks like Lyle is trying so hard to think of the answer.

And it didn't bother me at all in real life but now that I see those folding chairs in the photos they look so tacky. I really need to start going to some sales, those little bent wood chairs shouldn't be that hard to find right?

Our First Party In The Dining Room

I'm sorry I don't have any pictures. I thought of the camera right when I got everyone seated, but something came up and I forgot completely about it. Maybe Jen has a few and will post them on her site.

Tim and I agreed that it went very well. I forgot a place setting. It was stupid really because I remembered to borrow a booster seat for Connor, but then forgot to set a place for him. -sigh- If I had it to do over again I think I would have squeezed a folding table onto the end of the dining room table. I know it's less classy, but then we all would have fit into the dining room. I didn't get much of a chance to talk with Kyle and Amy before they left.

Molly had been on the road the last few days, staying at Stacyville Friday night and all Saturday and then to my moms on Sunday before the party. I was worried she'd be a real crab, but she did very well. She really didn't like sharing her toys which I'm horribly embarrassed about. I know I shouldn't expect it, but I want her to look sweetly at our company and offer up even her most favorite of toys. Instead, she'd stock piled her treasures on Grandpa Lyle's lap expecting him to guard them for her. And no mom, you don't have to say it, I know she's just like her mother.

I know it's not quite Thanksgiving yet, but last night I couldn't help thinking how much I have to be thankful for. A good husband, a beautiful home, healthy children, and wonderful friends and family (mom, thanks for watching Molly so I could get the cleaning done).

And Kelli, we missed you and the family. One of these times we're bound to get everyone together, right?

Molly's Run In With The Grate

Last week when we were refinishing the floor in the dining room we had to take the grates out. Well one of the grates is right around the corner from the door. The night we did that Molly takes off into the room and rounds the corner and BOOM, she's in the floor. Luckily she was more scared that hurt. She had just gotten a giant knitted winter hat with the braided tassels on the side that are so popular now from Grandma Ronnie and that protected her head from the sharp edge of the floor. She went all the way in, one leg in the tube. After some hugs and kisses she was down on the floor again running at full speed. But we haven't let her back in there since. But now she'll be free to roam once again because Tim got the grates refinished.

He's of course on a kick so he took the living room ones with him too.

My Aunt, The Hooker On The Corner

Since Tim is out helping my dad harvest corn instead of working on the dining room floor I'll take today to tell you about my aunt Carla's new (ok, it was a year old in July so not quite so new) quilt store.

She and some other local ladies started a quilt shop in one of the corner buildings of their town, Williamsburg, IA. Check out this link to their website for pictures (if they don't come up try clicking the about us link off to the side). They don't really do the place justice. It really does have that "country store" feel they were looking to achieve.

I wish they had a picture where you could see the back wall. On that wall there is a door to a little office they have. Instead of being a solid door they used a wooden screen. It really works well balancing separation of the space with the openness needed to keep an eye on customers who might have needs. It's such a cute idea I wish I had a use for it here at the house!

Ms Scarlet In The Dining Room With The Hammer

La Fonda Geranium Red also makes for a lovely inadvertent Halloween decoration this year!

Molly as Little Red Riding Hood

(the costume was mine when I was little)

Elsa the pumpkin

Happy Halloween!

Murphy's Law of 18 Month Olds

If you have shut to door to the dining room to paint (don't worry her kitchen set blocks the other doorway so she was not left unattended) it's bound to happen that your 18 month old decides that is the day to figure out how to work the door knob -sigh-

Oh was she proud of herself, and of course wanted to repeat the trick over and over. Luckily I was just about done. UN-luckily she just about knocked me off the ladder opening the door.

The Paint Brush Goes To A Party

Wall Street Journal alert- I took a home improvement tool to a venue where alcohol was being served! :)

Yesterday was homecoming at my college, Wartburg so we had festivities to attend. The plan was to go to the parade and do a quick walk-thru of the campus, head home and prime the walls while the girls napped. Then if was off to my roommates husbands thirtieth birthday bash. Well plans got foiled. As we were heading out we ran into a couple of friends and ended up having a long lunch with them. That didn't leave enough time to buy painting supplies and give the girls a nice nap so sorry but the nap won out.

While at the parade I asked my old roomie if she had a working garden hose (she being more normal than I, did). So I asked if it would be possible to bring the paint brush and wash it out. She, having lived with me, is not surprised by weird questions like this and agreed.

So after nap time I loaded the paint brush up in a cooler with ice packs to keep it as frozen as possible and took off for the party. Only problem is we all got to having such a good time the bush was kind of forgotten about.

Well today we have to head up to Tim's folks for a family-get-together. I know Ronnie has a garden hose so the plan is to wash it off up there. So stay tuned.

Oh, and Molly learned to parallel park...

Houseblogging With Children

Tim finally got Molly's birthday (May 6th) swing hung on the front porch.

A while ago I read an entry on a blog I enjoy reading that made me terribly uncomfortable and more than a little self conscious about the content of my site. It basically was a quick little comment at the end of a post about houseblogs that "devolve into garden or baby blogs." I don't think they meant to be mean, but it kind of hurt my sensitive post-baby hormonal feelings. I really wondered if there were a lot of others out there that felt the same way. I thought about creating another site, but I'm already not blogging as much as I should here what would splitting myself between two sites really accomplish?

So here is what I've decided. I will keep blogging here. There will be entries about my children and what I am working on landscaping wise. And this is why... I feel that the acreage and its look is important to the house. Our vision for this place when we bought it was so much more than just the house, and I think it is important to share all of it.

Also, our vision included living in the house with children. This house still bears marks of the girl who's parents built this house. I'm almost 99% sure that our children's bedroom was once hers. Our attic has her name and the names of friends written on a lower part of the ceiling during a play date. She is part of the house and someday my children will be too.

I like most owners of an old house am curious about the families that once lived here. Luckily I have been able to meet a few. I hope someday when another family owns this house they will be curious about me and my family, a kind of circle of life of an old house. I want to be able to show them how happy my family was here and wish them the same.

Life changes and therefore peoples blogs also evolve. It's not a bad thing. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

5 Year Wedding Anniversary

Yesterday was our five year wedding anniversary and so much has changed. And we talked it over and have decided that since the first five worked out so well we'll give another five a try :)

Either a year or two ago I said I would post a photo of the great old church we got married in and so true to my word here is the inside the day we got married.

Some where I have another one that the phototgrapher took from the balcanony (yes, I know he took this one from the balcony too) that shows all the pews and more of the church, but I of course can't find it any where.

Here's the outside sometime ago. We found this great old post card a year and a half after we were married. I need to get it framed.



We didn't do anything special. The girls and I headed down to Waterloo to have lunch with Tim.

Here's Elsa all spiffed up to go.

New Family Website

My sister-in-law Jen has started her own blog to show case photos she's taken. She's sure to have more than a few shots of the girls as time goes on. I love the collages she did!

Check out Newton Boer Goats! (That's where Elsa's onsie came from)

Golden Birthday

Today is my golden birthday. Guess how old I am :)

So I thought I would share my beautiful gift from Tim with you all.

New tip for my fellow remodelers out there. When you hang your light fixture make sure you give enough clearance in case you are ever the recipient of a ridiculously huge bouquet of flowers.

Toilet pictures next time I promise!

Meet Elsa Jean

Sorry it's taken awhile to get this post off, but things are pretty busy around here even though we technically aren't even doing anything.

I'm trying to get a schedule going, which is made more difficult by the fact that Tim has taken another job. He's now going to be running the privet pilot operations at the Waterloo airport. It will move him from second to first shift. Which wouldn't be such a hard transition if we could just do it, but he had the week we had Elsa off and ran a first shift schedule and then transitioned back to second. Now this week he has off at Deere and he's working the airport job and then next week he'll go back to Deere to finish his final week. -sigh- It wears me out just to type it.

So down to business.

Here's Miss Elsa two days ago. She's a very sweet baby. Much easier than Molly who had colic so bad. The only problem is while she is sweet tempered she is also VERY clingy. And she is definitely a mommas girl. That and her constantly wanting to eat. She completely freaks out if you don't feed her every two hours and she when she finally eats she just kind of munches along not really that into it. So it takes at least a half hour to feed her if not more. I am breast feeding so I am spending 1/4 of my life feeding her. Which drives a busy body like my self nuts.

Here she is on the day she was born. I can't believe we got this shot. Molly was only that close to her for about five seconds. Long enough to decide she wanted nothing to do with this thing with the silly bow on it's head. She's doing much better now. In fact she now can say Elsa and is the first thing she says when she gets up. And then she's not happy until we've found Elsa and make sue she's OK. After that she pretty well ignores her, we'll unless Grandma or Grandpa have her. Then we get a major case of the jealousies.

Here's the big sister yesterday. She was all wrapped up in her blanket trying to get my shoes on. Definitely a girlie-girl.

P.S. Tim did get the toilet in so expect a post on that soon!

On Eating and Toilets

The offical due date has now been decided. July 30th at 7:30 AM. I've been taking my mind off the fact that they are once again going to slice me open and for a while my guts will be outside of my body (OK maybe it's not so off my mind- if you can think of anything better for me to obsess over right now I'm VERY open to suggestions) by reading a really cool book Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma.

It's about the food chain and it gives you tons of things to think about. What really hit me is the sustainable ag farmer he followed said that it's not about starting a movement, but giving people who want a choice that choice. You need to read this book! And if you do and want to see a local couple's attempt at keeping things local visit Tim's cousin's web site- Sugar Creek Farm.

And on a related note, what goes in must come out.

This afternoon we went toilet shopping. We had actually been before and picked out which toilet we wanted for the downstairs bathroom. Unfortunately that toilet was $600+ dollars and now that we are a one income family that wasn't going to fly. So back we went.

Kohler's Iron Works Tellieur elongated toilet

I really wanted a Kohler. That's what we have in our master bathroom and I'm really happy with it. I don't remember what brand we have in the guest bathroom upstairs, but it's a dud. So I think this is what we are going to settle with. Although it's always hard to say until the thing is purchased and sometimes you still can't say even when it's in place.

Kohler's Devonshire elongated toilet

And to make mom happy (and maintain the plumbing theme) here's Molly a couple of months back helping load the dishwasher. She's so helpful it's annoying.

I'd Guess These to Be From Early July 2003...

What a surprise! Tim's aunt sent these two photos along with Molly's birthday present. They really bring back memories. It seems like things move so slowly anymore, but these pictures are less than 5 years old. We don't even own the black truck and silver car anymore.

I think that today I will try to make it into town to buy Molly one of these. The girl LOVES tractors. OK, yes that's a combine, not a tractor. But lets not make things confusing for the one year old.

I Quit

Last month I quit my job and decided to try staying at home with Molly and the new baby on the way (current due date: July 25). And what surprised me is that I tell people and it seems the most common comment about this is "Good, now you can start writing the web page again." So I thought about it, and here I am. I figure that I can sit down a few afternoons a week while Molly naps. At least until the new baby shows up, then all bets are off and there might be silence again. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

So far I am very happy. But probably more so than happy, I am relaxed. I didn't realize how much of work was dominated my life. I guess the biggest change is I can lay down at night and go to sleep. Before I laid there and went over what I could have done differently and what tomorrow was going to bring. Now I lay down and I'm out in a matter of minutes because I'm so exhausted. But good exhausted. To all those people who told me I was going to be bored silly: you didn't know what you were talking about. I could use a couple more hours in the day- preferably nap-time hours, but I wouldn't be picky.

So stay tuned for updates from the last nine or so months. You won't believe how clean this place is :)

What's what in Landscaping Blocks

It was a stray cat that framed Mr. Hippy. Tim found it later Sunday in the libary. I can't believe we didn't hear it in the night. Tim thinks from the way it acted it was maybe used to living in doors.

So back to the landscaping. Here's the photo of the front porch with the brackets up and our two Manards purchases. The cream blocks to the right are for edging between the gravel and grass along the house and the black blocks are going to be sidewalk. The limestone is left over from the areas where we had to replace foundation. We will be using it to make a retaining wall along the front porch.

Tim borrowed his dad's skid loader to dig out in front of the house for better drainage. Previously the ground sloped slightly towards the house.

Here's Molly and I working hard. Actually we're just trying to stay warm while watching Tim run the skid loader.

And here's Tim taking a break. He removed the rickety old wooden stairs so he could dig. So to get back in the house I had to have him hold Molly while I climbed back up on to the porch.