The Bright Side

I'm a bit mopey today. With a side of Debbie Downer. It's been a rough year thus far and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. We learned today that the hubs will probably lose his job in the next couple weeks. Considering my current state of (un)employment, this is a frightening prospect. And there's a whole lot of backstory that makes it an even more frustrating situation.

In an effort to pull myself out of my funk, I thought I should take some time to think about all the positive things in my life.

-I have two adorable and precocious little boys. The love they have for their mama is overwhelming and they remind me each day what a joy it is to be a parent.

-Thing 2 started talking a little bit! This is HUGE since we'd just had him evaluated for a speech delay and though he was way low on the spectrum for expressive speech, his comprehension was good and he missed the mark for intervention. He started saying "papa" on Friday and has been saying "all done" with his words!

-We're expecting another little one in January and so far, the baby seems perfectly healthy. Thing 1 is already so in love with his new brother or "sisser" and kisses and talks to my belly all the time. It makes my heart soar.

-I've been blessed with a talent that allows me to do something I absolutely love that helps support my family.

-I have the most amazing husband in the world. He's so supportive and motivated and helpful and is such a great daddy.

-I have a wonderful family and am so thankful to have them all here in town.

-We have a roof over our head (nevermind that the ceiling leaks...oh, wait, I'm being positive here...)

-I have great friends who are fabulous listeners and very understanding.

The Best Laid Plans...

Apparently the second trimester burst of energy has struck. I'm keeping up with laundry (!), I've cooked a few meals and I just got done cleaning the main floor. And the ol' gears are a-turnin' in my head, too, dreaming up all the projects I'd like to get done before the baby comes.

I was inspired to finally get some photos on my wall a couple weeks ago. I impressed both my husband and myself by a) effectively using the math portion of my brain, which receives very little exercise and b) limiting the number of holes in the wall to only a few more than were necessary.

I also filled up a bunch of frames with new prints (of both newer photos and oldies-but-goodies). Now I don't feel quite so ridiculous when people who know I'm a photographer come to the house and see no photos...

In the interest of trying to keep myself accountable (pfffft), I figured I'd list what I want to get done.

-paint the powder room (I'm thinking a metallic light blue)

-choose a color and paint the boys' bathroom

-paint the notch-back in the dining room an accent color and stencil a design onto that wall. Like this:

or this:

(this will have to wait until the a-hole builder finally figures out how to fix our leaky ceiling problem).

-sand and paint the baby's dresser.

-sand and paint the raggedy heirloom side table from the family room.

-create a storage system in Thing 1's closet to accomodate both boys' clothes.

-repaint the boys' room. (the hubs is going to kill me for this one...but I'm just not a fan of the blue in there.)

-paint the front door cranberry.

I'd love a backsplash and a new sink, too, but that'll have to wait.

Lightbulb Moment!

First, you should know two things:
1) I'm a planner. A bit obsessively. (uh, hello? I was an event planner in my past life. It's what I do.)
2) I'm cheap.

Because of these two things, sleeping arrangements for the kids once Thing 3 arrives have been weighing heavily on my mind.

The most long-term cost effective solution would be to buy bunk beds that can be two twins and move Thing 2 into a big boy bed. Howwwwwever, as cheap as I am, I'm also quite fond of my sleep, and considering he only started sleeping through the night in his crib not two months ago, I'm hesitant to mess up what we've got going by moving him to a bed he can get himself out of. So, then I thought, we'll just get another crib and move Thing 2 into Thing 1's room in his current bed. But, my inner tightass screams IT'S A WASTE OF MONEY TO BUY A SECOND CRIB. On the flip side, though, it would be cheaper in the short-term than buying a bunk set and mattresses. Conundrum, no?

I had an epiphany this morning. We have, in our possession, a $100 credit at Target, thanks to the recall on our first crib (it used to be a much bigger credit, but our front room needed some love from my most favorite store). So, I realized we could get a crib for REALLY cheap.

Then I got to thinking about what we'd do for a dresser. Thing 1 still has the chest that matched his crib, but it's cherry and doesn't match anything else since I want to do white in the new baby's room. And Thing 2 has a nice espresso crib, but I want to move that with him since it matches his bed and will match the bunk beds I have picked out.

And then I realized I could PAINT it! I've been wanting to paint a piece of the kids' furniture a fun, bright color.

But that brought me to another problem. We're not finding out the sex of this baby. If it's a boy, we'll reuse Thing 2's adorable bedding, which is light blue, white, brown and orange. If it's a girl, we'll get bedding and I was thinking I wanted black/white and lavender. Lord knows I won't have time to paint the crib after the baby's born, so what color could I paint it so that it would work for either?

ROBIN'S EGG BLUE!

Ka-ching!

















I'm FINALLY getting excited about getting ready for the baby (I know, I know. I'm only 16.5w pregnant. I have plenty of time. But, I was way further in the planning stages with both boys by this point. And, I'm just gearing up for my busiest time of year with my business and then we have the holidays and the boys' birthdays, so I really don't have all that much free time).

I found some really cute bedding at Pottery Barn Kids that would work perfectly with blue.




















Then I had another epiphany.

Robin's egg blue with RED accents for a girl!

Lovedy Love Love.

So now I just have to keep my peepers peeled for stuff I can put in online shopping carts and order if we end up with a daughter. And for new little touches for if it's a boy. Gotta make it the new baby's "own," ya know.