Tag Archives: day-to-day

Ginny Vs. The Drill

20 Tuesday Apr 2010

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When we moved into our house seven years ago, I was teaching full time. Not long after, I became pregnant. Life was busy, and my decorating skills are minimal, to say the least. I hated the ugly wooden blinds in our kitchen, but I didn’t take the time to change them.

Finally, this fall the blind on the left side broke, and I took it down. The time had come to get new window treatments. But then…life got crazy, again. And again. So the window has been bare for most of the winter. When Lily had a play date and her friend’s mom came over, I was so embarrassed. Her house is perfectly decorated; my house looks like a dump. She has granite counter tops and beautiful kitchen cabinets; my cabinets are original and falling apart. She has shiny hard wood floors; I have old brown apartment-style carpet. The least I could do was have something covering my naked windows!

One blind up, one blind down

My window frames are full of old holes, old spackle that has never been sanded, and are generally a mess. My first task was to fill the holes, sand them, and then paint the patches.

Connect the dots…
Lily picked out the new curtain rod. It had to be fancy, of course.

Fancy is as fancy does.

I procrastinated. I wanted my new curtains up by Easter, but I was afraid of the drill. What if I picked the wrong bit size? What if I drilled in the wrong spot? WHAT IF THE WALL FELL DOWN?

My desire for new curtains finally overcame my drill fears, and yesterday I made the plunge. It was an all day project with interruptions from the girls, (you know, they had to be fed and all that) but I did it!

Success!

Next…I’m tackling the dining room windows!

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Linked to Tackle it Tuesday on 5 Minutes for Mom.

I’ll have the cup of Patience with a side order of Time, please.

14 Wednesday Apr 2010

Posted by in motherhood

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When I was a little girl, my mom would say to her four kids, “Do it now before I run out of patience!” I would imagine a little patience thermometer, with the red line going down lower and lower as Mom’s patience ran out.

Last night as I was rocking Emmy, I heard the dryer beep.

“Get us, get us OUT!” my pants cried, “Or we’ll WRINKLE!”

Emmy was wriggling and jiggling as I held her, just like the spider that the old lady swallowed. She has to wiggle around before she goes to sleep; she can’t just rest against my shoulder and relax. Ed and I call it her “tired dance.”

My patience thermometer was very low.

I heard the ice maker drop the ice into the ice bin. I remembered the dirty pots and pans from dinner that I still needed to wash. Was this kid ever going to be ready for bed?

Emmy was finally ready to go in her crib, and she closed her eyes as I kissed her goodnight. Now on to the chores I needed to do. I brought my load of laundry upstairs to shake out those pesky pants. Lily was still not asleep. As I peeked in her room, I saw that her eyes were wide open.

“Mommy, it seems too early to be my bedtime,” she told me.

Darn that daylight savings time!

I lay down with her for a few minutes. While Emmy wiggles and jiggles, Lily twists my hair when I’m close to help soothe herself to sleep. “Be gentle!” I had to admonish her.

I wanted to go downstairs and have a glass of wine. Better wash those pans first, though, or they’d never get clean. Lily took her fingers out of my hair and started to whisper. Her hands moved in the air as she did a finger play.

Here is the church,
Here is the steeple;
Open the doors
And see all the people.

I finally stood up. I didn’t have the patience to lie there any longer. The red line had reached zero. I kissed Lily and told her I’d check on her after the pans were washed. (Confession: I checked Twitter first. Lily got out of bed and I put her back in bed. Then I washed the pans.)

By the time my pans were clean and dry, Lily was almost asleep. As impatient as I am with them sometimes, both my daughters very good at going to bed, and are asleep by 8:00. It was time for me to recharge and get my patience built up again for the following day.

Lily’s first night in her big girl bed.

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