My New Favorite

I have no words to add to this short video. I hope you'll take a minute (and forty seconds) to listen to this message.

Love it.

Color Drama

Remember last Presidents' Day weekend, when Chris lovingly painted my dining room for me? Click here if you'd like a refresher on that post. Anyway, that was last year. This weekend, I decided I wanted to paint the wall a bright and cheery yellow. You know, to kind of welcome Spring, to mix things up a bit. So, off to the store for a can of paint. Here, Brian gets started on the first coat. Corriander over Paprika, if you go by the paint names.

Only problem was, it ended up looking hideous. And I do mean, hideous. Like, there was no chi or zen in our home when the wall was that color. I did my best to give it a chance, I even completed 3 coats, just in case it looked better when it was really done. Yuck. The only good thing about it was that it looked amazing as a background color for these bright roses from my Valentine.

First thing this morning, I dropped the big kids off at school, ran to Lowe's, and picked up something new: This one is called "Mocha Syrup." Next to the walls in the living room, painted a color called "Coffee", it's a bit ironic to find such a combination in a little Mormon house. :)

Anyway, these pictures are not great as far as color goes, since it was dark when I finally finished up. The bottom line is, I love love love the milk chocolate brown we ended up with. Casey says it reminds her of Ovaltine.

I'll post more pictures when I can take some in the daylight. It turned into such an adventure. Our wall now has about 12 coats of paint on it...

Chris is teasing me that we don't have to insulate that end of the house so much anymore, with all those layers of paint we should be just fine. :)

I have another gallon to start on tomorrow: This one is for the bathroom. I've been dreading all the taping off for that room for a while.

Might as well get started while I'm still good at it, though.

It's really a lot of fun to have our own little home to nest in.

Make Something

Spent our Presidents' Day creating.

Brian with watercolors, in a project to be shipped off to baby Lily.

Casey, borrowing Brian's paints. Loved her color creations.

Abby's painting style requires two hands. Craft paints on canvas with sponge brushes. Lovely.

And I put together a little something for Lily as well. We'll ship off our gifts, along with love and happy thoughts, to Trent, Steph, and Lily in Arkansas soon.

Was a fun way to spend the better part of an afternoon.

Wish I could do it more often.

Brian Built It

Purchased this little shelf for our bathroom.

Came in a kit.

Including 40 screws, 20 dowels, wood glue, and instructions in roughly-translated English.

I thought: Too many pieces to mess around with. I'll wait until Chris gets home from work and ask him to assemble it.

Brian said: I can do it, Mom. Let me try.

He knew where to get the tools, and how to use them.

Including a drill, two screwdrivers, and a hammer.

And, he cleaned up after he was done.

I am pleased as punch, and so is he.

Baking Day

While grocery shopping, Abby convinced me to buy some Granny Smith apples.

"For apple pie," she said, "like Mrs. Leingang makes."

Not wanting to be outdone by Mrs. Leingang, I took Abby up on her challenge and bought the apples. I hoped she'd forget about them.

She didn't.

On Valentine's Day, she reminded me of my promise to make apple pie. So, we whipped up some pie crusts, something I have not done for at least 10 years. And, my 4-year-old and I peeled and sliced 6 apples. I was patient, and so was she. Then, we filled the crust and made a lovely lattice top, complete with hearts cut out of pie crust.

The pie was delicious, if I do say so myself.

Later I sarcastically told Mrs. Leingang "thanks a lot" for showing Abby the magic of pie making, thus forcing my hand to try it for myself. I certainly couldn't sit idly by and be outdone by Mrs. Leingang! Mrs. Leingang laughed, and told me that she was happy that Abby had encouraged me to try something new, but that Mrs. Leingang had not made an apple pie herself in years and years.

We decided that Abby just wanted to make an apple pie, and she figured out that if she got my pride up, she'd get her way with little fuss. She was right! That Abigail. Tsk, tsk.

Mister Fix-It

I came home from a class at the gym on Saturday morning, to find my kitchen completely torn apart.

I mean, really. The dishwasher was out of it's home, tipped on the side. All the "stuff" that is usually housed under the sink was now in the middle of the floor. And there was some sort of nasty (disgusting) water junk and a bunch of towels on the floor.

Chris had found a problem (a penny in the garbage disposal), traced it to fix it, and ended up finding quite a big project that needed fixin' right away.

It took a few hours, a couple trips to the local hardware store, and more patience than I would have had, but he got it all fixed up and looking pretty.

I am so thankful that Chris has what it takes to do all he does for our little family. Beyond the usual stuff, here are a couple of the projects he's done in the recent past:

Fixed our furnace.
Fixed too many stopped up toilets.
Fixed the brakes on the van.
Changed oil in vehicles.
Changed tires (summer and winter studs, seasonally)
Installed new lighting in bathroom.
Removed old mirror, hung new mirror in bathroom.
Replaced alternator on van, twice.
Fixed heater on van.
Fixed the dishwasher.
Rebuilt computer after major meltdown.
Fixed my slow-cooker.
Solved slow drain problem in shower.

There is a story behind each of them. (Also, when I compiled this list, it made it sound like everything is just falling apart around us! It's really not that bad, I promise!)

I'm always impressed (surprised, sometimes) at the challenges Chris takes on. Sometimes he gets help from Dad and his shop, or from some online whiz, or the guy at the hardware store, but often he just figures out how to do it on his own.

We're working now to have the kids participate in the Fixing whenever possible. This is a talent I'd like to make sure gets passed on to the next generation of Goochlings.

You learn something new every day

You learn something new every day...

One day last week, Brian and Chris were going out target shooting with Brian's new (BB) gun. In preparation for such adventures, they had stopped off at the grocery to pick up some targets... Apparently a 6-Pack of the cheapest root beer ever made was just the thing.

When Brian was gathering their gear, he set the 6 Pack up on the table and asked if Casey would grab a pair of scissors for him so he could get the cans out of their little plastic ring things (what are those called, anyway?). I watched as he got the scissors ready to cut the cans out, thus releasing them to make them into individual targets.

So, here's the thing I realized in that moment:

Up until just now, my 8-year-old has never pulled a can from a six-pack of soda.

Nor, apparently, has he seen it done. He does not know that you don't have to cut the plastic, you just kind of lift the can free.

And, while I was a little surprised, I was also pretty happy about the fact that he's made it this long without all that nasty carbonation being a huge part of his life.

A few caveats, in pursuit of honesty:

It's not that we are soda-free to the extreme. The kids do have soda, on special occasions. But then it's the sort that comes in 2-Liter bottles, or (on extra-special occasions) it comes in glass bottles in the form of Henry Weinhard's Root Beer.

And, we did give the kids the obligatory speech about cutting the plastic rings so that any little critters that happened upon them, once disposed of, would not be entangled.

Oh, in case you were wondering, the boys had a great time shooting up the countryside. They came home happy and smelling like the campfire.