Feathering the nest

Nope, not pregnant, but lately I have really been in the mood to decorate my home. We have been living in this house almost a year and many photos were hung. When we go the entertainment center, all 37 photos had to be taken down, the holes patched, and the paint touched up. It has been hard to get in the mood for that again -- until now. Maybe it is that I've been at friends' homes who had everything looking ready for the magazine photo shoots or that I just need a creative outlet. Yesterday, I got four pictures off the dining table and onto a wall. Will was so proud to help me -- it is such a huge help, of course, to hand me a nail when I'm ready for it. Okay, he wasn't a huge help, but I let him think I couldn't do it without him, and he was so happy to assist me. Then Allen go home, and I set him to working on the big wall of photos while I made dinner. If it looks tough, well, it wasn't easy, but they are in the same positions as they were on the other wall. To do it, I taped several large pieces of cardboard together and laid out the frames (on the floor) until I liked the arrangement. When I had everything where I wanted them, I traced each frame and marked an X where the nail would go. I also jotted a note of who was in the photo so I'd remember which went where. Then we centered the cardboard on the wall and started putting nails in the Xs, took the cardboard down, hammered the nails in and hung the photos. I was so, so lucky I still had the board in the garage from the last time we hung them all, so most of the work was already done. I love the arrangement -- just a collage of 7 generations of our families (our kids aren't on there, but Allen & I are). Today I got brave and ventured to Hobby Lobby with the four kids. It wasn't too bad since I did eventually convince Will to sit in the cart (I mean race car, wink wink) and the triplets were in the circus train. After awhile, my arms ached from steering one-handed, but such is life. I found a few things, but there were some places I couldn't get to without risk of breaking things, so I'll go back without kids sometime soon. I did get a bunch of fake ferns for on top of the entertainment center, but with the other things and Will in the cart, it got crowded. I put all the ferns around him in the seat which made him mad at first. Then I explained to him that he was sort of camouflaged, like a tiger hiding in the jungle stalking his prey. That was all it took for him to have a blast the rest of the time. He would duck low behind the leaves every time we were near someone. Then he would jump up and roar. I'd roll my eyes and chuckle. It was pretty funny, but it kept him from being cranky. My other trick -- Teddy Grahams. They work every time, but now anytime we are in a store Jon will sign cookie, say "cah-ker" (cracker) and do this pouty nod that says to me, "I know you have them." It is rough when I don't have them, but today I did. All four kids were happy with their graham crackers. And Will was especially nice since I bribed him with McDonalds for lunch.

After we left the jungle, we packed up the car and headed for the drive thru at Micky-D's. We had never had the chicken strips before, and they were pretty tasty. I had a salad, everyone else had chicken and apples. That's about as healthy as it gets at McDonald's, but I was getting tired of PB&J. When we got home, we had an early lunch and all the kids took naps while I played with the decor. It still needs something, but I'm not sure what. We'll have to go through our photos and trinkets and see what will fit. Tonight, I will try to convince Allen to help me hang our photos in our room and bathroom. Next, I want to start thinking about decorating kids' rooms, but first I have to get all our pictures off my dining room table and on the walls.

Here is a picture of the entertainment center. Notice the little TV - I think it's cute, but the furniture delivery guys looked at me strangely when I told them that was the TV going on the shelf. One of these days we'll get the bigger one ordered, but I want the blinds up first. Maybe that's what I'll work on tomorrow.