One check off the bucket list

I have always wanted to walk or bike my children to school.  Its been on my only-in-my-head bucket list.   Problem was that my real house is too far away and the route is on busy streets. But today the rental house was close enough yet far enough from the school, the weather was perfect, all kiddos can ride their own bikes and it was our last chance - the last day of school.  So off we went.....

and it was as great as I always thought it would be.  Here's the funny thing about the rental house:  as homesick as we are, as much as I hate the rental furniture, and as much as we miss our own things- there are some things I will miss about this house where we have healed.  Which makes me think - how long until a house feels like home?  And does it feel like home just because you are familiar with the space and the people who fill it?

Cha-Ching!

This weekend has brought progress.  We bought a gas range, refrigerator and built-in microwave and got a great deal.  Hallelujah!  We don't have to bring our almond side by side with the broken shelves back into our new pretty kitchen!

The rest of my weekend has been dedicated to "the list".  You know when you first find a hobby and you can't get enough of it?  That is how I am about the list.  On the list are the 1,085 items in our house that were destroyed by the fire.  We add a few to it daily as we remember things that were in William's room or the attic, our bedroom, etc.  This is contents only, nothing structural.  It took me a long time to even be able to view this list.  Bart and I would work on it together each night and then stop when we started crying.  Now, I'm totally over that and see it for what it is - money in the bank!

Every day I go down the list, enter an age, value and replacement for each item and then I either re-buy it  and submit the price to be reimbursed or I submit it to be paid the depreciated value.  Some the items to re-purchase are easy to decide: toys important to the kids, gifts from Santa in 2010, new bedding and toiletries, clothes for this season.  Other things that we don't care about we submit.  Example:  3 boxes of Halloween decorations become, Voila! - a new sink for the kitchen.   Its like magic!  Of course its alot of fire and smoke followed by magic but at this point, we'll take the sink, thank you.

Its also interesting when things are deleted (i.e., the Build A Bear dog that we listed in William's room and then came back with Owen's stuffed animals) and things are added (when William admitted to having hidden Owen's Nintendo DS under his bed which is why we never found it).

The list sort of has a life of its own.  Every item, even if its no longer important to us, has a memory attached.  The list has been my mission because I know where and when everything came from - as any mother would.  There have been a few sentimental items that we have repurchased for no other reason than it hurt my heart to see it on the list.  The one I bought today was this:

The big rainbow turtle on the toybox (in Caroline and Owen's original nursery).  I had admired him for years when I worked at FAO Schwarz, longing for a baby and waiting five long years before Caroline finally arrived.  Santa brought the turtle for her first Christmas.  She loved it and today, I had to have it.  I had to keep that memory and not have it end with "the turtle was black and crispy."  I need to have this next baby roll over it and love it too.

Must get back to the list.  Mommy needs wall sconces!

Random thoughts

Only Martha would call a carpet color, Pip.  But yet it makes me like it all the more.

And on another note, I've noticed that my boys are always asking me to take pictures of bugs that they find.  I smell an idea for a photo book!  Here's today's entry:

Check out that face!  Like carpet shopping, bug finding is serious business.

White noise

Lately, I've been feeling the pressure of choosing paint colors.  The fact that a professional painter is going to paint every inch of the the inside of my house is mind-numbing.  The fact that we will move into a move-in ready house for the first time in our marriage is exhilarating.  Sure, not a great path to get to the new house, but still, I"ll take the silver lining.

To help chose the paint colors, I've been looking at fabric and if you know me, you know I am drawn to every hue in the rainbow.  My most dreaded question to answer is what's my favorite color - I really can't chose.  I'm sure this confetti colored syndrome of mine must have a name.  As I was checking out fabric samples at Calico Corners today, I looked down and saw this:

And I thought to myself "Julie, get a grip!  Choose something!"  But really, how could I?  They're all fabulous.  And then - brainstorm!  How to people calm their sleep?  White noise.  How do I calm my love of the whole crayon box?  White walls.  I came home wondering if I would love white walls - walls that would be the stage for a supporting cast of colored accessories and fabrics.

As luck would have it, I came home to find this beauty in my mailbox:

Matthew Mead's beyond beautiful seasonal magazine, that I had pre-ordered during the first few doldrum weeks at the rental house.  This magazine is artwork in itself - full of summer recipes, party ideas and home decor.  Every page is more inspirational than the last - and then near the end, I spot this:

Meg Duerksen's house.  Gorgeous home centered around her children, filled with many of my same quirky collections and fabrics and .....white walls.  I e-mailed her right away and introduced myself and she was so cool that she responded right away pushing me to go for it!

So my friends, with the exception of the kiddos rooms (because they have picked their own colors), my house will be white.  When we walk in the empty house on the first day, it will not look like our own, but its personality will slowly emerge.  The yellow will shine, the orange will shout, the green will flourish and the red will dance.  So, if you visit us - and we hope you will - know that our house will be a work in progress.  As we make new memories there in that same, but different space, our life will show on the canvas of the peaceful white walls.

So, now off to pick a white.  Yikes.  Any suggestions?

P.S.  You can find Meg's blog, Whatever, on my side bar!

Whisper gray grout

Is it crazy that I thought this was cool when I saw it today?

First of all, love that there are little stripes of grout to help you decide which color to choose.  Second, love the metal strips that have the name of the color engraved on the back. Third, love that its labeled.  I had no idea that these existed.  I recognize that I need a life!

This short post is brought to you by today's paint colors: Repose Gray and Grayish - the two final contenders for the upstairs and downstairs hall.

Hi, My name is Slacker

Yes, I know I've been a slacker.  Actually, in my defense, my slacking has been limited to my blog.  In all other aspects of my life, I have been immersed in details.   The color of towels for the master bath, the placement of the dining room windows, the salad supper for the PTO, teacher gifts, backordered sconces, laundry and field trips.  I am counting the days until school is out because I need to check homework off my list!

Today, I went fabric shopping and everything else shopping with my friend Missy, who was my neighbor and BFF from my old neighborhood.  We actually spent all day yesterday together too when she came to our house to help me pick out paint colors for the second floor.  She was a HUGE help and today we starting looking at fabrics to help chose paint colors for the main floor and shopped at HomeGoods (heaven on earth.)  We both found lots of goodies there.  I bought two fabulous pictures that I hope will fit in my kitchen, lamps for the master bedroom and toy bins for the boys' room.

It is a gift when a friend recognizes you are overwhelmed and takes action to help.   Also this past week, Owen made his First Communion.  I had been somewhat dreading hosting this special event in our rental house because I so love our fancy dishes and setting up our table in our own dining room.  We were without the family punch bowl and the Eucharist banner that we hang at every family sacrament, but we had a really nice time anyway - with my mother-in-law's pretty dishes, both sets of grandparents, neighbors from our real house and Owen's friends.  He went to bed feeling full of love and very special and that made it all okay.

And then came Mother's Day and I had the most wonderful day.  Bart and the kids gave me a fancy pair of needlepoint scissors, as mine were swallowed by the fire.  Since my parents live far away, this was the first year I have spent Mother's Day with my mom since I have been a mother.  Mother Nature gave us perfect weather that night and we had a yummy dinner outside at a beautiful restaurant with beautiful company - the five of us and both mine and Bart's parents.  Then we headed to our new favorite frozen yogurt place.  Bart and I both commented at the end of the day what a perfect night it had been, spent in easy conversation with our parents and escaping from the daily weight of the fire restoration.

Check out these three lovelies!

I promise not to be a slacker anymore.   I will try to post daily - even if its just a paint color!