Dandy.

So...a bit of catching up...

1. In addition to a lovely day on Father's Day (more on that to come), the boys and I saved up to get Nathan a new grill. We ended up telling him a week early, so we could include the old grill in the garage sale. :) So, we'd already set up and been using the new grill by Father's Day. (We grilled ribs and corn on the cob and asparagus for its inaugural meal. YUM!) Yeah, it's dandy.

2. Know what else is dandy? Having an 11 year old carnivore who also knows how to use the new grill so that he can make me a burger for lunch. ;)

3. And...having the basement back:

If you'll recall, it looked like this not so long ago:

4. Also dandy is the fact that we managed to fit everything left over from the storage room (and elsewhere throughout the house) into this closet:

...which once looked like this (scroll down...the stuff came from that third room and the closet is pictured below that). Trust me when I tell you that it was sincerely questionable whether it would fit. Nathan and I took turns trying to reassure each other that it would and alternately bemoaning that it was impossible. :)

(We've decided, too, btw, that we're apparently very good at making things fit...because even after getting rid of all that stuff in the garage sale, we feel like you can't see a difference at all in walking through the house, lol. We must have just had it packed in, kwim? And, even while complaining aplenty about trying to consolidate and store everything, we know we're so very blessed to have the space and the stuff. Still watching our local fire and praying for all those directly affected.)

5. And that all means that next weekend we'll begin painting what will become Noah's bedroom. ;) And the boys all think that that is very dandy. :)

Father's Day.

We had a good one. ;) 

Yes. That most recent pic isn't of miniature golfing. We *did* go miniature golfing, too, though. ;) My pictures of that just aren't great since the light was going about then. 

Anyhow. Have lots more pictures and updates from our weekend...will post soon. :) Just wanted to get this up so you'd know that we kept the tradition alive, lol...

Lessons learned

Since I need to stop dwelling on the sadness of the High Park Fire and since I really need to get motivated to actually straighten up my house now that the garage sale is over...

Here are some lessons I learned from our garage sale:

• There's a fine line between buying stuff "just in case" and being a hoarder. ;) (as evidenced by the boxes and boxes of extra supplies purchased with the intent to make gifts and the actual extra ungifted gifts, lol...)
• Putting up a big, neon sign that says "If it's not labeled, it's $1" does not mean that people will stop asking you how much everything is. (Note: I did label more than half the stuff. But even those clearly labeled things brought questions of how much they were. Argh.)
• Even if your kids are old enough to fend for themselves for a morning, you still apparently need to expressly tell them to eat something.
• Cute little kids are my downfall...I tend to just give things to them. :)
• One man's trash really is another man's treasure.
• After your garage sale is done, you inevitably find more stuff you should have included. ;)

Okay, off to tackle our front room (one of the two places I'd been piling things while shuffling stuff for the sale) before coercing boys to do the rest of the day's schoolwork...

Miscellaneous Monday

1. First and foremost, please join me in hoping for rain. For those who don't know, we've got a fire going on here. It's more than 36,000 acres now (having just started Saturday morning, likely due to lightning). It's already destroyed homes and forced evacuations aplenty, and officials are saying that containment isn't likely yet. To be clear, we're in no danger here at our house. The fire is about 15 miles northwest of town and we're in the southeast part of town. But. The smoke is everywhere and we have friends who are directly affected. So. Rain please. :)

2. Our garage sale is done! Woohoo! Though I neglected to take a picture once we got all set up, trust me when I tell you we had a lot of stuff. :) Counting the $150ish that Noah managed to take in on his own (selling his netbook and RC truck and some lego sets, all of which he'd bought with his own money), we brought in more than $850...which will contribute nicely to the bedroom projects. Yay! We took the last loads of leftovers to Goodwill today and it feels awesome to have all that stuff out of our lives. ;) (Now just to put the rest of the house back to rights, lol...)

3. I'm officially the cool mom for the summer, according to my boys. Why? I bought a snowcone maker...because, hey, snowcones are yummy. ;) The boys have been asking for snowcones with great regularity and we even set up a table toward the end of the garage sale:

We'd have done better if it hadn't gotten so hot (over 90 before noon) that the boys all retreated back indoors, lol, but it was still fun (and we all got to enjoy snowcones during the sale, lol). Going to start experimenting with using things like orange juice instead of the syrup stuff...any ideas/recommendations are welcome. 

4. Just so you know, Noah now has shorts for the summer. Every single pair is black, grey or dark denim, but the boy has shorts. ;)

Okay, off to shuffle more boxes around in the basement (trying to figure out how to fit it all in the closet, lol)...

37 Reasons...

Happy birthday to me! Have a post up over on the Ormolu blog today (go look!)...in case you can't read my list there, here are the 37 reasons why being 37 is going to be awesome:

Because…

1. I get to watch the Olympics.

2. I’ll be more fit than before since I’m going to exercise more.

3. My boys are getting to be old enough that I don’t always need to find childcare or drag them along.

4. My dad would want it to be.

5. I feel like I’m getting the hang of this homeschooling thing.

6. I won’t be weighed down by the mountains of “stuff” we’ve been housing once we have our garage sale.

7. I have no current family obligations that will require travel.

8. I’ll get to run a 5K with my son.

9. I’m abundantly blessed with good health and a healthy family.

10. I’ll get to do a Mud Run with my hubby and friends.

11. I’ll finally finish my sister’s wedding album that I’ve been promising her for five years now (and no longer have that hanging over my head, lol).

12. I get to celebrate 16 years of marriage to the love of my life.

13. I get to shoot my new bow.

14. I’m hopeful that I’ll get more scrapbooking done now that I’ve purged so many supplies…fewer choices will hopefully mean less time spent deliberating.

15. I’ll get to experience the joy of seeing my boys create and enjoy their own spaces (bedrooms).

16. I get to anticipate my 20 year high school reunion (and use that as fuel for my exercise habit).

17. I get to watch as my oldest embarks on the journey toward becoming a teenager. (Hopefully, being twelve won’t be too rough, lol.)

18. I get to enjoy our homeschooling group without the added responsibilities of leadership.

19. I’m not yet forty. ;)

20. I have a better sense of self than ever before.

21. The glass is more than half full. ;)

22. I don’t yet have to deal with braces for my kids. (That’s one of the things that will make being 38 awesome, lol.) 

23. I’m looking forward and will continue trying new things.

24. I’m surrounded by good friends and family.

25. I love watching my boys learn and grow (yes, even while I’m wishing they would stop).

26. I have some fun plans for our next school year.

27. It’s my turn to stay home and hand out candy at Halloween rather than trudge around the neighborhood in questionable weather. ;)

28. I don’t have to suffer the summer heat this year at full morning swim meets.

29. I’m still cool enough to say “awesome.”

30. I’m more fiscally responsible than ever before; being able to actually have and (for the most part) stick to a plan feels good.

31. My kids are post-potty-training and pre-drivers-ed. Pretty much the perfect age. ;)

32. I live in this day and age. Indoor plumbing = always awesome.

33. I can still take each of my boys in a wrestling match or water fight. I cheat, but that’s beside the point, right?

34. I’m still younger than many of my friends…and always will be. ;)

35. It’s almost definitely the last year I’ll be taller than all three of my boys. 

36. Hair color still nicely covers up all my white hairs.

37. Because I’ve still got many years ahead of me…

Yay! 

Well, off to price more stuff for the garage sale. ;) Things on that end are progressing nicely, btw. And. Amid all that, Asher and Micah also managed to start summer swim lessons this week, we viewed the transit of Venus using our handy eclipse glasses, we managed to get some shorts for Noah, and the boys (well, the younger two) have been reading up a storm. Whew...