I added semi-sheer light cotton drapes for the season (Target). I think they lift the room and make it feel pretty and more seasonally appropriate:
Two summers ago we had some loose stones in our chimney reset, and we are lucky that the mason who originally created it 20 years ago lives a few houses up the road. He's retired and aging, but very skilled. For a ridiculously low hourly rate (as long as my husband agreed to do the heavier lifting and dealing with the scaffolding...which was fine by me - the dude is like 150 years old and the thought of him teetering near our rooftop was rather unsettling) he fixed the chimney and re-did our crumbling back steps to match. The same stone work surrounds our pellet stove inside - our mason friend told us it all came from the mountain behind our house. Even cooler.
Here's the chimney (before we re-did the deck). You can see the newer mortar is much brighter...all those stones had to be taken down, cleaned, and re-set.
Here's the back steps. The walkway (which is done now, but in progress here) is new too...there was old rotting decking there before, which we removed, and Tim added the pavers. He's so awesome. He really really is, and I adore him. Even though he doesn't clean up after his messy projects. He just figures things out and does them - from plumbing to carpentry to electrical stuff. If I were on my own with house issues such as we've had, I'd either a) moved into a condo, b) called my daddy and cried, or c) put a tarp down and called it a day. Permanently.
I'm proud to announce that I did some minimal weeding today (I hate yard work). I think maybe if I get really cute gardening gloves, possibly with matching gardening clogs, I might do it more often. We'll see. Anyway, in the scheme of all the overdue landscaping that needs tending to around this place, it's nothing, but it was satisfying. I also trimmed and tacked to perfect length the new drapes pictured above. Even more satisfying. Here's some cute floral pruning gauntlets. Yes. I think if I could ask, "Now where are my linen pruning gauntlets?" I might find myself doing yard work more often.
I let Sam play outside for about half an hour with no sunblock so he could make some vitamin D for the week - they really overdo the sunblock at preschool even though I wrote "only as needed" in his file...perhaps I should have been more specific: Allow him to be outside without sunblock for the first 5-10 minutes, then apply, and only May-September months. I suppose with multiple pre-schoolers to track, my request might be kinda picky. Then again, considering the tuition, they should be feeding him caviar...
He's finally more interested in non-scribble coloring and writing letters now too - all in all, he's slowly getting to the 'capable of entertaining self for extended periods of time' stage, which I've been waiting for, it seems, my whole life. One of these weekends I'm gonna count how many times I hear "Mommy". Just for kicks.
Hopefully his more consistent independence will allow us to actually do a little more outside this summer (ok, that was a lame excuse...whatever). Last year's garden was an epic fail, but I have high hopes for this summer. Not that I fret - if something doesn't do well, I don't try to slueth it out (is that even a legit term? Again - whatever. You know what I mean). No, I can't deal with trying to mitigate pests and diseases...I'm just not interested. My mantra is that if a plant can't survive under my basic care (water and sun), it just wasn't meant to be. I will really relish my 2 tomato crop...I'll let you know the day they are picked.
