Alone for the night

I'm having a highly unusual night. My boys all went on a Father/ Son campout tonight. They left around 5:00 and I have had the last 9 hours to myself. I honestly can't remember the last time I have been alone for this long. It doesn't really count when you are staying up until all hours of the night to get some "alone" time when everyone is still in the house. This is different. It's a nice glimpse, for a moment, into what it might be like to not have a family and 3 babies (I'm counting the dog) that need me at every moment. Just for a moment I get to pretend to feel what many people in the world feel like. You mean I get to cook Whatever I want for dinner? You mean I get to leave the dishes out if I want and stay up as late as I want and watch whatever I want and DO whatever I want... in my own house?? And I can watch a romantic comedy and no one will make fun of me? I can turn off the air conditioning and no one will complain? I can listen to loud music and no one will wake up and make me put them back to bed? And the best one; You mean I can sleep in????!!
When Paul got home from work I had almost all of the camping gear packed. Paul gave me a sort of smirk and said, "are you a little anxious for us to take off?" hmmm? um, just a little.

It's a gorgeous spring/ summer night. Ideal temperature in every way. Our yard is absolutely stunning. It's too picturesque to believe I really get to live here. I'm still pinching myself every day.

We have 15 chibunkun fish in our little pond in the backyard.

My 2 new 4' x 4' gardens are actually growing. It's been a bit of a test of my faith to plant seeds in a garden for the first time and try to really believe and expect that they will grow in to actual plants that produce food. I have sweet pea vines and lettuce and pumpkin and watermelon and squash all growing from seed. I think there are carrots too, but they are a little too small to tell. The rest I bought pre-started. I couldn't take chances on tomatoes. I'm too excited for more tomatoes and peppers. My salsa and canned tomato soup were amazing last season and I can't wait for more.


I also have lots of potted herbs. I bought lemon verbena this year because it reminds me of my Aunt Julie who inspired me to have an herb garden. I loved walking around her garden while she pinched off herbs for me to have and to smell all the way home in the car.
By our pond we seriously have a FIELD of Lily of the VAlley. When I used to work in the floral shop this stuff would sell for $10 for 5 stems and I must have 1000's of stems. I feel like a princess living here.
So I have had a night to myself. How have I spent it you ask? Well, I could have gone out to eat with no kids, or gone shopping or ... anything, but here's how I spent it. I got a Red Box, and not one Paul would have ever watched with me. I built some hedges around my new watermelon seedlings and took some pictures of the yard. I finished up the present I made for my sisters new baby who will be born any minute (and took a picture of it.)

I'm counting on my sister not checking my blog until she receives her package. (Amy, I hope you are surprised by the mail first!) Welcome Emily Claire!

I skipped dinner completely and I painted all evening. I'm working on this fun pieced together canvas that my friend gave to me in college that I have had forever. I mod-podged newsprint down over the canvas to give it a lot of texture and then I am painting it, sanding it and trying my first crackle finish. (My attempt #1 tonight didn't produce the crackle results I am expecting.) The archway will have a mother hen with her little chicks and gilded moth designs in the frame. The floral pattern is really going bonkers at the moment, so don't judge too harshly yet.

When I started to mess up the painting with the "too bright" flowers and Tor started to chew on me, we went out and took a long bike ride. Tor kept up and kept me "company". We rode through our lovely neighborhood watching the hundreds of birds and squirrels and rabbits and I felt kind of lonely and missed my family. It's such a rare feeling I sort of liked reveling in "lonely" for a minute. I would live life so much more slowly if I didn't have kids. They just require that you are 1 step ahead all of the time or you are in a complete disaster... which I am in most of the time anyway. After the bike ride, I tried to keep painting, but mostly I just stared and thought, "how am I going to fix this." Then I watched my movie and made a bowl of spaghetti and wished it was Thai noodles instead. I took Tor out a few minutes ago. It was dark and someone was walking by in front of our house. Tor barked at him protectivly. He Never barks and I have never had a dog try to protect me before. It made me feel close to him in a whole new way. I think he might actually like me, and maybe we might even end up being friends instead of just dog and caretaker. He has grown so fast. He is only 4.5 months old and he is over 45 lbs. He is much bigger than Joren now, but that does not intimidate Joren in the least. Joren pushes Tor around, pulls his hair, sits on him and loves to grab him around the middle in a big hug while saying, "your so cute Tor, You're so cute". I love to watch them interact. It baffles me that Joren is so unafraid of such a big creature. At his age I would have been terrified, as many of the girls are that come over to play at our house. Some of these pics of Tor and Joren are a few months old. He's much bigger now. :) Big Hug

Now that I am finally blogging. :) I have some pictures of our new house to put up. For some reason I love this crazy ugly tablecloth. I found it for free at a garage sale still in its original wrapper. It just makes me so happy!
This is the studio. I have so many plans for how i want to decorate this amazing room, but it will just have to wait a bit longer. I am going to get a big "tree" branch that will go floor to ceiling; mount it in a big pot with plaster and then attach fabric leaves and some birds. I want it to go across the ceiling. I would love the walls to be white and the ceiling beams to be painted to look like walnut wood beams. I think I could faux them to make them look real. Then the ceiling needs to be some great color, maybe with a touch of luster glaze in it.. possibly very pale turquoise? Of course, the art leaves much to be desired.. I have lots of plans. And I have to stop coveting rugs. I still have a puppy that is not potty trained and I spend hours dreaming about rugs. For this room it would be really cool to have a yellow and grey striped rug, or that great West Elm one.. I do love my new green lamp and that afghan I found for $2 at a thrift store. Those crazy turquoise chinese urns are going to get a paint job. I want them more green with some drippy rust and ochre colors coming through. Unfortunately the pillow with the yellow flower that I made got destroyed by Tor. Darn him! Also, my favorite green bamboo table that i spend hours refinishing ... destroyed... and my favorite secretary chair! ARGGHHH!
These doors on the other side of the studio look out at the garden and patio. I think I am going to stain the unfinished doors walnut.
This is a picture of my boys room. Since this picture I did buy a rug and I cut down the stools and painted them red so they fit under the table. This table is where we have preschool a couple of times a week. My boys love preschool and so do I. We have a wall where we hang all of our artwork for the month. (on the left of the picture). At the end of the month I staple all of our work into a book for each child. The kids love learning a scripture of the week, the days of the week song, learning about the weather, seasons, months of the year and crossing days off the calendar. We also do articles of faith and the pledge of allegiance. Then we have a lesson and a craft of some kind. It's my favorite thing to do with the kids. I'm really just too controlling and like to be in charge and preschool is a time of day when I get my way. :) Oh yes, the kids are wearing diapers on their heads. Hey, I can't control everything. :)

I have had such big plans for this cute "farm" room. It bums me out because I have cut corners on cost so much that it's just not turning out as cute as I imagined it. And I kind of chose the wrong yellow for the walls, which really makes me mad since I'm supposed to be great at picking out paint colors. I just wish it were more gold like hay. I decided to buy the $100 square braided rug from Target since it was huge and the right colors and looked "farmhouse.. ish" but what I really wanted was a green shag rug that felt like grass. Ikea has one, but I just couldn't talk myself into it because it was just a bit too fluorescent and shiny. And it was $100 more. I think the furniture would be better in dark rustic brown and I would do a chair rail with bead board and the black iron hardware. The doors would be made to look like red barn wood with white X's on them. I want to get round metal rings to hang on the wall like hitching posts for the boys' hobby horses. Anyway.. can you tell it's 2:00 AM? These are the things my mind obsesses about when I should be in bed... well who am I kidding? This is the kind of thing I obsess about ALL the time! Sometimes I just wish I could turn it off.

I'm impressed if you read through this whole post. You must really like me. :) Thanks for being my company on my night "alone." :) It was sure a fun one.