Playing with Daddy

Father's Day turned out to be a second version of the Mother's Day agenda: a picnic and a park. We decided to do a breakfast picnic and a park closer to home, since the weather looked a bit iffy. So it was simple, bagels and fruit and coffee, milk for Bert. A couple of donuts from the farmers' market. Leftover Cheerios for the ducks, water shoes and a change of clothes for creek walking (and creek falling), and a couple of hours just to relax and enjoy each other's company with none of the chores about the house whispering that we should attend to them.

Bliss is a blue-sprinkled donut...

The family sign of concentration: tongue sticking out!

 

------ break for a wardrobe change ------

Accessorizing with sunglasses found on a park bench

The next couple photos are pretty amazing to me. Keith showed him once how to put his hands and feet on the "rocks" and he had it, no help necessary.

And let us not forget the inherent entertainment in a big stick!

A great day, hands down.

On Dads

I have been incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by strong male figures throughout my whole life. Not just my dad, but a brother I count as one of my best friends; three grandfathers who are so different from one another but who have all been incredibly generous with their time, resources, knowledge and experience; and uncles who show over and over again the value of lending a hand and hard work.

But it's Father's Day, so let's take a little closer look at my dad, who wants to know what's up with the abbreviation when I write "Dad" instead of "Daddy." He's a man who has always had a lot on his plate (the debate rages over what constitutes "too much") and has to be ten hours from home to actually relax. He is among the smartest people I know, though he will tell you he can't do algebra, and he is the hardest worker I can think of. It's amazing how the things my brother and I thought were ridiculous expectations growing up turned out to be some of the most important shapers of our character. Some of my favorite Daddy-isms would have to be:

     • Do as I say, not as I do.
     • Don't make it harder than it has to be.
     • Do it right the first time.

For all his demands of us, Daddy was the one to give it to our whims: puppies and horses, motorcycles and rifles. He has always been a very in-the-moment kind of person, which sometimes still runs counter to my plan-oriented nature and difficulty switching gears (mental gears, but now that I think of it, the lesson on driving stick shift didn't go so well either). He sees the value in everything, deeming what I would consider junk as rusty gold and calling it our inheritance. He's also really amazing at seeing the value in people and extending his help and his knowledge again and again.

Daddy is a great people person. It's rare to go anywhere with him without bumping into someone he knows. Even on vacations several hours from home this happens. He can talk so long with anybody we even had a little rhyme about it as kids:

Just sittin' in the car
While Daddy talks and talks.
He knows just where we are
But still he talks and talks.
We try so hard to be patient
But sometimes it gets pretty boring.
By the time he comes back
We'll probably all be snoring!

Daddy is a great story teller too. He has stories from growing up and his college days that crack me up every time he tells them.

Keith likes to tell me I'm a lot like my dad, usually meaning that I can be stubborn and get a certain tone to my voice. Those things are true, but I'd like to think that I'm the hard worker he raised me to be, someone who is open to adventure, and who sees value where others haven't thought to look as well.

...............

Speaking of Keith, I can't let Father's Day pass without talking about him. Keith was always on board with having a family, but I think he really worried that he wouldn't enjoy the baby stage. It was amazing to watch him soak up every moment along the way with Bert and find that every stage has been fun so far. I know he looks forward to watching both these boys play sports, but I am so grateful that he has been incredibly involved since the moment Bert arrived. He doesn't give a second thought to coming home from a long day at work and spending the evening playing with Bert, taking him on bike rides or walks through the park. His patience astounds me and even though I'm the one here with Bert all day, I definitely can learn something about parenting from Keith.  He is such an essential part of raising these boys into good men, and it's a big responsibility but he tackles it the way he does everything else: honestly, head-on, and with a good dose of humor. I couldn't be happier with the partner I have in him and the support he gives me every day is what keeps me going.

................

Let's not forget a more-than-honorable mention to my brother, who chose to become a dad when he didn't have to, and never looked back even when it didn't all work out the way he planned. I couldn't be prouder of the  man he is today, and the great parent he is to the most fun and exuberant girl I have ever met. He is like my dad, one of those all-in, in-the-moment guys, and still able to keep the big picture of what an important job it is to raise a child.

So here's to all the dads out there, and all the men who have helped to shape my life into what it is today. Happy Father's Day!

Rain, Rain, Come To Stay

When we started looking for a house, we emphasized to our realtor that room for a garden was an absolute must. Although our garden still feels small in terms of what I was raised around, I am continually amazed at how much food we can produce in such a small area.

We all know the essentials for plants to grow: soil, sun, water. The soil and sun haven't been a problem, but when we have dry spells, using the hose and watering our plants from the borough water supply never sits well with me. Besides the fact that the water is treated with all kinds of chemicals and is considered pretty hard water, we have to pay for all those gallons running out of the hose, which certainly cuts down on the cost-benefit of having a garden.

The first year we had a garden, we did invest in a rain barrel from a local hardware store. We never rigged up a very efficient system for filling it, just setting it under the overhang of the garage and catching what we could (it has a roughly 4 to 5 square foot top with a screen in the middle for the water to run into). It was usually enough to fill the watering can out from for hanging baskets and potted plants, and occasionally after a big storm, we could run the soaker hose from it. It didn't really put a dent in our mid-summer water needs though.

At the end of April, the borough commission that I am a member of sponsored a rain barrel workshop. For $40, participants were able to see a presentation on making and using a rain barrel, and the importance of water conservation, as well as come home with their own barrel made out of a retrofitted 55-gallon plastic food grade barrel (the ones for the workshop actually came from a local Coca-Cola bottling facility). Keith was the first person signed up.

It took us a little while to actually get around to setting up our new rain barrel, because we had to get supplies to connect it to our downspout at the back of the house. Keith came up with a really great system to utilize both barrels, and to handle overflow.

First he placed some cinder blocks under the barrel to create more water pressure utilizing gravity. Because the patio is several feet higher than the garden, and the barrel is up on the blocks, the soaker hose is really effective.

Once the height of the barrel was established, Keith used his reciprocating saw to cut the downspout.

Then he used a flexible piece of spouting to connect the downspout to the opening in the barrel. The green "receiver," the red-handled spout at the bottom of the barrel, and the brass overflow nozzle at the top were provided through the workshop.

In an ironic move, he used the hose to put some water in the barrel because it was a really windy day and we didn't want it to blow away.

Then, in an inspired moment, he brought our store-bought barrel up to the patio and used a piece of hose to direct any overflow from the white barrel into the tan one. We had a few tenths of an inch of rain between when I took the picture above and the one below, and the barrel started filling up.

Keith's one remaining concern was that small debris from the roof would get in the barrel and be hard to clean out. We found this little mesh bag from one of Bert's toys that could easily be cinched around the spout into the barrel to catch anything. You could also use a small piece of screen or an old pantyhose.

In the heat wave we had the other week, we did decide to water a lot of the garden. Mostly we fill the watering can or use the soaker hose because there is not enough pressure to produce an actual spray from the hose.

With the storms that passed through the end of last week, both barrels are full to the brim. There is also a hose from the second barrel that passes back into the pipe that the downspout originally went into (situated behind the barrels), so any overflow is diverted away from the house and out into the yard. Though you can't tell from these pictures, the barrels are only collecting rain from the roof over the laundry room. Maybe this photo will orient you a bit: the barrels sit to the left, directly in front of the downspout. 

The laundry room is only about 6 1/2' x 13', so it doesn't take a lot of surface area to collect enough to rain to fill up both barrels, which total approximately 100 gallons.

I'm not looking forward to the hot, dry weather of summer (especially with this growing belly!) but at least we have our garden water needs covered.

This and That

Just a few random photos of the little man and what he's up to for you to enjoy this afternoon!

Building with his great-grandpop...

Watching the Memorial Day parade here in town...

Checking out a little bird that must have fallen out of its nest...

He has really been enjoying walks around the block, bike rides with Keith, and just being outside to play and explore. On the hottest days last week, he was thrilled to be in his pool, and got a huge kick out of going down his slide and splashing into the water. He is all the entertainment we need lately!

A-Tisket, A-Tasket

...six vintage locker baskets.

I had been hunting around online for some kind of metal bin or basket for the shelf in our laundry room. I saw a few things I liked, but they all seemed a bit pricey. Then my friend Claudia, peruser of all things vintage, old, antique, and otherwise interesting, sent me a text that a store near her had a stack of vintage locker baskets. The size was right, I could get the six I wanted, and the price was reasonable, so I jumped on it. Well, I asked her to jump on it and she kindly went and got them for me.

Six fit nicely on the longest side of the shelf, and Claudia was able to get consecutive numbers, which makes my orderly self very happy.

Now we've managed to corral those odd-ball things that get stashed in the laundry room into matching bins that are a manageable size to get on and off this high shelf.



And though we definitely still have a ways to go in here, these are a major improvement over the previous situation.

The new baskets had the added benefit of spurring me on to sort out everything that was on that shelf and in the brown cabinet  you see below and determine if it really belonged in the laundry room. And, surprise surprise, many things really belonged in the garage or the basement. The sorting, putting away, and discarding actually allowed us to move that cabinet out of the laundry room entirely, freeing up even more floor space.

Two of the baskets are still empty, and I'm not sure what will end up in them yet (but I have no doubt they will get filled eventually). My long term goal is to move most of the things out of our coat closet into this room, leaving the closet free for more toys and games since it is in the middle of our living space. There are plenty of hooks back here for seasonal coats and jackets, and out-of-season things can go to the cedar closet upstairs. So that's the goal and eventually we'll get there. Still have to pick that paint color though...

Riding the Rails

As we anticipate the arrival of Baby 2, most of the prep work involves getting Bert into his big boy room and making the nursery available for his little brother. We already had the furniture (it was mine as a kid), and the room had been functioning as a guest room. Because the furniture is dark green, we opted to work with what he had and go for a woodland/rustic look. We aren't totally finished, but Bert has already moved in.

The first step was replacing this beauty of a light fixture. Not only was it ugly, it only operated by the pull chain. Not the most ideal function in a child's room.

So after much cutting, climbing in and out of the attic crawlspace, and grumbling,

we had a light switch,

This is what happens when Keith does home decor shopping at Cabela's.

 and a working light.

The new fixture looks kind of funky here, but it actually has a really nice aged copper look in person.

Now, on to painting. We went back and forth on color a bit, but finally settled on a light tan called "Blonde Wood." I washed the walls and taped off the room one day while Keith was at work, then we edged the room together and he rolled it on a weekend. For the second coat, I edged during the day and he rolled it in the evening when he got home.

Next up was blinds. Like almost every other room in the house, the were old roller blinds that were really grimy and brittle. I found some room-darkening cordless blinds online from JC Penney, and they were really simple to install: just screw two brackets into the window frame, and snap the blinds in.

They really do darken the room and the color almost exactly matches the walls.

Here's a sneak peek at the art that will go on the walls. It is all in frames but we haven't hung them yet. Keith and I are in agreement that we both really hate hanging pictures, mostly because of our old plaster walls. That and one of us must have one leg shorter than the other because we can't agree on what looks level.

All of that leads me to my now-it's-funny story. We had everything done in the room that needed to be done prior to Bert moving in, except for one thing: bed rails. Since the bed doesn't push up tight against the wall, we wanted a set that had a rail for each side. So last weekend, we headed off on a shopping trip for a bunch of things, one of which was the rails. We found a double-rail at Babies R Us and though I was a bit vexed that I couldn't find the 20% coupon that I knew came in the mail just days before, we went ahead and got them. We planned on putting Bert in the bed that night so later that afternoon, we opened up the box and deciphered the confusing assembly instructions, only to find that they wouldn't work on the bed. Because it is a "captain's" bed, with drawers underneath, there is no box spring. Which means sandwiching the rails between the mattress and box spring is impossible. We tried every configuration we could think of, contemplated buying a box spring or building something to allow the rails to fit below the mattress before finally calling it a day and putting Bert to bed in the crib.

After the little man was settled in for the night, I started searching online for a different bed rail option. On Amazon, I saw some foam bumpers that went under the fitted sheet. Then a lightbulb went off: in one of those forwarded emails about household tricks you wished you had thought of, I had seen pool noodles used as bed bumpers. I told Keith and he looked a bit skeptical at first, concerned that a single pool noodle wouldn't be enough to keep Bert from rolling out of bed. Then we hit on the idea of putting three together in a sort of pyramid formation to create a higher bumper. At this point, it was after 9:00, but we were so anxious to see if this would work. Keith called the first of our town's two grocery stores to see if they had pool noodles. We were cracking up as he waited on hold, picturing the guy who answered the phone searching the pasta aisle for pool noodles. Strike one, they didn't have any. So he called the next store. Yes, the girl said, the did have them, 2 for $4. Score. So Keith went out and got an armload of them. He said the women working were very intrigued as to what kind of fun he was going to have that late at night with a bunch of pool noodles, and the bed rail idea was kind of a let down.

But here's the thing: they absolutely work. A little duct tape, a half dozen pool noodles, 5 minutes, and we had bed bumpers for a fraction of the cost.

Bert has two nights and three naps under his belt and they stay put just fine and he hasn't rolled out. He has climbed out, but that's to be expected. The only disappointing thing is this morning on our walk, I saw pool noodles out front of the dollar store. It could have been a $6 project instead of $12.

All that's left for this room is painting the inside of the closet, hanging art, figuring out some curtains, and putting his quilt on the bed.

I got a little teary on Monday afternoon, laying him down in his big bed for the first time. He's our baby, and he's growing up.