this weekend: the little things

I spent this weekend trying to lighten my load, of both things in our house and tasks on my to-do list. I finished up all of the painting in the kitchen, you know the tiny spaces between cabinets and window frames that often get overlooked.  I also sanded and oiled the shelves over the sink and painted in between them.  Everything is finally starting to feel complete and that is a great feeling.

I also purged about two trash bags worth of clothing and shoes from my closet.  I was able to move my sweaters back into my closet from their most recent home under our bed, as well as a lot of my shoes which have been living in our coat closet.  Making space for the things I use and love is also a pretty great feeling.

And, though I accomplished a good bit this weekend, I still felt a bit mopey on Sunday afternoon.  I'm the type of person that always wants to do more (and has a lot more to do), and so the small dents in my to-do list often fail to fulfill me.  And you know what?  That's just a shame.

I celebrate Ella's accomplishments, no matter how seemingly small, every day.  Whether its getting dressed all by herself, eating without making a mess, or building a tall tower . . . I celebrate her.  I celebrate my husband when he braids Ella's hair (well), bowls a good game, or gets a great grade in class.  They aren't balloons-and-cake type celebrations, but we do hug, high five, and I try to express to them that I am one proud mama and wife.

I should give myself the same credit, for working on making dents in my to-do list when I can and as best I can, for not sitting idly by and wishing for things to just, poof, be done for me, and for pressing forward no matter what frustrations or setbacks I might encounter.  I should be proud of myself too.  And, as it turns out, the research agrees.  Celebrating the small accomplishments is critical for maintaining motivation and feeling good about oneself.  So, if you don't mind, I'm going to go give myself a pat on the back (maybe a few M&M's) and get back to work.

this weekend: bowling!

The weather around here has really become quite a drag!  I have learned that, in order to survive (meaning stay sane) winters here, one must become comfortable with driving on snowy and slippery terrain and bundling up to keep warm in below freezing temperatures to make it out of the house.  Because, let's be honest, staying inside for more than a day with a toddler is just, well, insanity!

This past weekend we did just that: bundled up and headed to the bowling alley.  This has become a new favorite, family activity.  My husband got a ball and shoes for Christmas and he's been quite intent on getting the most use out of them as possible.  I'm not gonna argue, because frankly, it's a great activity for all of us.

For the first time, though, they had shoes in Ella's size (6)!  She was so in love with them, she didn't want to give them back.  I kind of liked them too.

Sometimes we just help her to push the ball down the lane, but this weekend she used the ramp contraption where she could place her ball atop a metal frame and simply push it, down the metal frame where it would pick up speed and continue on down the lane.  Handy for all so that her balls didn't take several centuries to reach the pins!

this weekend: next weekend

This weekend I spent a lot of time thinking about next weekend.  Next weekend I will be left alone at home to patch, sand, paint, and stain my way to a completely finished dining room and kitchen.  It's probably too ambitious to think I might get to the living room too, but that would be quite awesome.  And all of the painting had me thinking about the color palette for this house.  I don't want to spend my entire weekend contemplating colors in the paint swatch aisle of my local home improvement store - I'd never get anything done.

So here's what I have so far . . . 

I've already used Behr White Truffle for our master bedroom.  And all of the existing wood trim upstairs has or will get a coat (ok, several coats) of Behr White Fur.  We don't have many doors on our first floor - only exterior doors.  All of the upstairs bedroom, bathroom, and closet doors are Benjamin Moore's Midsummers Night color matched in Valspar.  And then, we picked Valspar Winter in Paris for the bathroom before we knew that we would be renovating it as well.  I think we'll stick with it for now.

I think that using White Truffle for the kitchen and dining room makes a lot of sense.  It will keep the space really light and neutral, especially since the minty backsplash is already providing a nice dose of color.  I'm not sure if I want to go so far as to paint the inside of the exterior doors in Midsummer Night on the first floor.  I'm leaning more toward painting them in the White Fur trim color.  Most of the trim on the first floor is unpainted and I plan to keep it that way.  I want to strip the old, crackled varnish off  most of it and re-stain and seal with Minwax Polyshades, a stain and polyurethane in one.  

this weekend: white christmas

Ella and I took a quick trip to Chicago at the end of last week to visit family.  My husband has been busy studying for his final exams and, with the kitchen still unusable, I decided a little trip was just the thing to keep me from bubbling over with stress.  We made sure to hit up the Shedd Aquarium, one of my favorite places in Chi-town, and throw our hands in the air and wave 'em like we just don't care by the lake before we left to beat the snowstorm home.

On Friday, we enjoyed the crazy snowfall, heading outside early to shovel.  And since that morning, Ella has been asking if she can walk in the snow every time we go out of the house.  I had  thought that asking for snow boots for Christmas would work out since last year we barely saw a flake before January.  Obviously, that plan hasn't worked out.

But Sunday was the highlight of our entire weekend!  A few weeks ago I was reading one of my go-to blogs, Mom Explores Michigan.  She helpfully compiled a great list of holiday events and activities in and around Ann Arbor, and while reading through them, I was immediately taken with the idea of a Christmas train ride.  Ella loves trains (right now) and I thought it would be the perfect Christmas surprise for her.  As expected, she loved the ride, so much she asked to go again.  She even survived her first visit with Santa Claus.  And had it not been so bone-chilling cold, we might have stayed longer to stroll through the entirety of the lighted village.  It was super pretty.  

Hope you all enjoyed your weekend as much as we did!

this weekend: photo wrangling

I spent the majority of this weekend trying to wrangle all of my photos from the past year into some kind of order so that holiday cards and calendars could be made and ordered.  Every year, about this time, I make a pledge, albeit silent and only to myself, that I will get my photo management issue under control and another year passes before I'm faced with the issue again.  It's a horrible, compounding issue that left unattended for several years, has become a daunting task of Everest proportions.   

But here, I will make the pledge again, loud (I'm yelling) and for all to hear (or read) that I will get this issue under control this year.  Promise.  Somehow, in between a graduation, a move to a new city, finding a new school for Ella, and renovating the bathroom in our current home, I WILL do it.  And here's the plan:

1_rank the best images on iPhoto (I mean, they have a built in ranking system so how hard can it be)

2_edit all of my 5-star images in Photoshop and upload to my online photo management account

3_create a yearly book of the photos for the bookshelf

4_archive all of the years photos on my external hard drive

5_repeat . . . for the past, oh, 3 years

On a positive note, I found these gems from last Christmas that made me smile and laugh, a lot!  Last Christmas was the start of the Ella-thinks-she's-smiling-but-not-actually-smiling phase.  Evidence below . . .

I promise that in both photos I requested a smile and this is what I got!

And between all the wrangling and laughing, I made some progress on the kitchen.  More on that tomorrow.

Hope you all had a happy weekend!

this weekend: thankful

We traveled last week to my in-laws' home to celebrate Thanksgiving and Hanukkah.  We survived the preparation and eating of not one, but two, big holiday dinners.  We danced, laughed, and even braved the mall on Friday afternoon.  We visited with friends home for the holidays too, and made it to a class at our favorite training studio - thank you Fitnext, especially you, Tes, for giving us the perfect post-holiday eating workout.

I tried to remember to stop and take some pictures in the midst of it all.  Here are the ones that look decent some of my favorites.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and a Happy Hanukkah!

this weekend . . .

This weekend . . .

I didn't step foot in my workroom.  In fact, I didn't even turn my computers on.

I assembled 9 cabinets for the kitchen.

I put makeup on two days in a row.

I danced.

And I slept . . . a lot

I also watched this little girl dance around the house and listened to her make up amazing songs.

This weekend . . .

He took Ella for a daddy-daughter breakfast.

He studied.

And he played a bit of flag football (and scored a touchdown).


This weekend . . .

We had family photos taken to capture this moment of our lives, together, and with her, and I am surely blessed.

this weekend: you, me, us

We (Ted and I) kicked off the weekend with a delicious dinner at The Common Grill in Chelsea, MI (you should check it out if you live in the area and haven't been).  It felt particularly indulgent since we haven't been eating all that well at home these past few weeks without a kitchen.  And we finally had a moment to talk about holiday travel, our fast approaching move to Cleveland (I cannot believe he is almost finished with this semester), and a schedule for this weekend.

Discussing a schedule for the weekend is not our norm.  We usually just seem to naturally fall into them, exchanging parenting duties when one seems to be working or taking a break.  But getting more focused around a set schedule for work is a new goal of mine and so we made a plan for balancing  both of our work/study time with spending time with Ella.  I appreciated waking up each morning and knowing my role for the day.

We were also able to fit in some family time.  Raking leaves is a lot more fun with company!

this weekend: new project and empty kitchen

My head is spinning after this weekend.  I took a quick trip to Cincinnati to measure for a new project (an entire house renovation), and returned to a completely gutted kitchen thanks to my husband and his friends.

I see a lot of work ahead and I'm wondering how I will juggle it all while keeping my little one healthy and happy.  She will be starting pre-pre-school this coming Thursday morning and, hopefully, it will be as great for me as it will be for her.  A few hours isn't a lot of time but as a stay-at-home Mom for the past two years, I've gotten pretty efficient.

Stay tuned for lots of exciting transformations!

* In case you were wondering, here is a link to the before shots of the kitchen.

this weekend: pumpkins and packing

Finding family time when a spouse is in school is tough.  It's probably been made more difficult for the simple reason that I didn't expect that his third year would be so intense.  Everyone told me that the third year would be a breeze, especially if he'd already been offered a job.  Well, even with job in hand, his work load has seemed almost equivalent to his first year and I've been struggling to make plans for us as a family because of the unpredictability of his schedule.  Not to mention the fact that we just miss him.

Waiting for his schedule to free up had only left us with this one last weekend to go pumpkin picking, donut eating, and cider drinking before Halloween.  And I finally realized that, between Saturday's gloomy weather and Ted's Sunday class (yes, I said SUNDAY CLASS), waiting around for him to have even an hour of time that aligned with Ella's schedule was a waste of everyone's time.  So, on Sunday, Ella and I braved the chilly weather and went to the pumpkin patch and cider mill on our own.  I tried to remain upbeat while we were there but it's difficult to see other families making memories together when one of yours is missing.  It hit me.  Hard.  And I've been cursing law school ever since.

I spent the rest of the weekend packing up the kitchen and rearranging our lives on the first floor of the house so that we can begin demolition.  The contractors will be here on Friday to disconnect the utilities (yay), and so Ted and I made a date night trip to IKEA on Saturday to get all of the cabinets, the sink, faucet and microwave vent hood.  What I thought would only take us an hour took us two!  We both left feeling a bit brain dead, but excited that this project is officially underway.  We're going to have a new kitchen next month!

this weekend: hello fall!

Fall has arrived.  I know because we spent Friday afternoon raking and bagging the leaves that had already blanketed our front yard.  We pulled our Halloween decorations out of the basement.  And I was even tempted to make a trip to Dexter for pumpkins at Jenny's Farmer's Market and cider and donuts from Dexter Cider Mill, but we'll save that for next weekend!  I learned, after our first year here, that if I tried to buy a pumpkin early, the squirrels would eat it before Halloween even arrived.

So we spent our time playing outside (on Sunday anyway) and watching daddy play softball.

this weekend: just play

This weekend wasn't really my weekend - I got a migraine late Friday night and proceeded to have a difficult time getting any rest.  It pretty much ruined my Saturday and now, as a result I've developed a pretty bad cough.  But enough about my "I'm sick" sob story.  The fact that I wasn't feeling particularly well and it was raining was enough to keep us in the house all day Sunday.  With my husband in his office reading and studying all day, Ella and I got to enjoy some momma-daughter time and we just played.  I had zero energy to setup any activities or make any suggestions, so I let her take the lead and we played whatever she wanted to play.  First we got out the Play-doh, then crayons and her Pooh coloring book.  We threw plastic balls around the living room, got messy with an ink pad intended for her animal stamps but more often utilized for her hands and fingers, and splashed each other with water while washing our hands.  

I had a great time with her!  But at the same time, I found myself feeling guilty that I hadn't planned some great activity to do with her over the weekend.  Saturday was beautiful and would have been perfect for apple picking, or the petting farm, or a myriad of other things, but a walk to the neighborhood playground was as far from home as we went. 

I was quickly getting hung up in the guilty-parent trap last night when I remembered scanning this article from The Atlantic several years ago.  At the time Ella was just five months old and she couldn't do much of anything without me, but now, I have a child who is most certainly her own person.  I cannot forget the importance of just letting her have time to play, whether we're at home or on the playground. It IS, in fact, extremely important for her to just have time for unstructured play.  So it's OK if I can't fill every morning with a planned activity or every weekend with a fun adventure.  This weekend was a good reminder for me that a day filled with "just" play is definitely OK.  

this weekend: from Bay Village to Beachwood

This weekend, we were all over CLE - from Bay Village to Beachwood.  I finally got up close and personal with Lake Erie, attended an official CLE event - The Cleveland Flea, and explored a few new parks on the east side of town.  Here it is . . . in a nutshell (of photos).

this weekend: oh, to start off with a bang and then fizzle out

This weekend was a long one, not literally . . . it just felt oddly long.  And not in a good, we-have-an-extra-day-and-we've-done-so-much-already kind of way, but in a what-the-heck-have-we-spent-our-time-doing-all-weekend way.

It started off well enough with a Friday night date of sorts for my husband and I.  It wasn't really a date exactly, because all the fuss and arrival of the babysitter was spurred only by the fact that he had a work event to attend, but we went out, sans Ella, so I guess I'll stick with date.  It was actually our first time spent in Ohio City since arriving in Cleveland in May and we had a great time eating local food, touring a few of his co-workers homes, and then finally ending up at Nano Brew Cleveland, playing a life-sized game of Jenga (and by life-sized, I mean about 4 feet tall and made of 2x4's).

We continued our local exploration on Saturday morning for brunch at The Katz Club Diner.  Great food, zero wait, and a pretty good cup of joe.  I think Ella's french toast took the cake (though the waffle was a solid second in my book).

And that's where our weekend hit a wall . . . we were all a bit shaken up after an unfortunate incident on Saturday afternoon, and so, the rest of the weekend was a bit blah.  Which is too bad since our time here in Cleveland is winding down quickly.

On the upside, I checked off another freelance design project from my list Sunday night!

this weekend: back in CLE

 After a LONG week in Cincinnati cleaning my house in preparation for new tenants, it was nice to be back in Cleveland with my husband for the weekend.  We had a great pancake breakfast at Eat at Joe's on Saturday morning, followed by an emergency eyeglass shopping trip (always have a backup pair that isn't broken) for Ted.

On Sunday, we checked one more thing off my CLE To-Do List with a trip to On The Rise Artisan Breads in Cleveland Heights.  The fresh bread smelled amazing . . . actually everything smelled amazing.  We ordered up a few pecan rolls, a plain croissant, a raspberry croissant, and one very large oatmeal raisin cookie (Ella's favorite).  Some things are just meant to be eaten right away.

this weekend: to CLE we go

This weekend, we (or my husband) officially relocated to Cleveland for the summer.  We loaded up the entire family, including the dog, Ted's summer uniforms (suits), and some basic necessities, and drove the 3 hours to our summer sublet in Cleveland on Friday afternoon.  We arrived only to find the current tenants scurrying around, trying to finish packing up their things and clean up as much as they could.  Despite this initial frenzy, I must hand it to my husband for finding us a great home for the summer, in a quiet neighborhood with friendly neighbors.

We spent the remainder of our weekend running errands and driving around.  Actually, I think we spent most of our weekend in the car.  Enough time, at least, to be clearly noticeable to us.  And it was at that moment that I REALLY began to miss Ann Arbor.  I mean, I was sad leaving our house on Friday, trying to remind myself that this move, for now, is only temporary.  And the idea of leaving this community that I've grown so fond of has been difficult to wrap my head around - it's the most established I've felt since graduating from college.  But to really BE in a new city, where things are unfamiliar and you're not sure where the best place is to go grocery shopping, or get a coffee, or the nearest playground is . . . well, that feeling is so incredibly isolating.

Ella and I returned to Ann Arbor Sunday evening to wrap up a few loose ends and pack up the remainder of our things.  We'll head back to Cleveland next week.  But for now, I must remind myself how it is I got to this place here, in Ann Arbor.  How did we create comfort for ourselves in this place when it was new and unfamiliar?  How did we become part of the community?  How did  we make friends and find the places where we felt a real sense of belonging?  

I've been able to do this before and I will be able to do it again.  

But a girl can still be a little sad too.  

this weekend: striving for balance

As the weather continues to warm and we move more and more of our life outside, my ability to set aside time for blogging has become exceedingly difficult.  I find myself hoping for a rainy day just so I can sit in my workroom and not feel guilty that  I am wasting the warmth and beauty of a beautiful spring day, especially after such a long, frigid winter.  I suppose this is what I used to feel when I worked full-time and didn't have the option to ignore work and head outside (unless of course I was lucky enough to have scheduled a site visit that day).

And I look ahead to the weeks and months to come . . . my shoulders droop and I begin to slouch into my chair, realizing all of the things I need/will need to do that, up until now, I have conveniently neglected to add to my to-do list.  The biggest task, of which, will be moving and settling our little family in Cleveland for my husband's summer job that begins in exactly two weeks.

I love blogging (and all of the opportunities it has opened up for me) and it's been so good for my spirit.  But trying to find a good balance between blogging, freelance design projects, raising our daughter, being a wife, maintaining a home, and enjoying all of my other hobbies is an ongoing challenge.  With all of these things to do, it doesn't take much to throw me off kilter these days.

Striving for balance is difficult, in and of itself, but just as my daughter changes and grows day to day, so too does our life as family, and it can completely throw whatever schedule or routine or semblance of achieved balance into a complete spiral.  New challenges and opportunities pop up and what would life be for if not for embracing these events and finding the best (and most fun) ways to navigate into and through them.

So, it's time to reevaluate and perhaps, set a more realistic goal for this blog for the summertime so that 1) I don't become discouraged and stop writing altogether, and 2) so that I can take full advantage of this summer with my family in a new place.  Daily posts are probably not going to happen, but I'm going to strive to document this little summer adventure as best I can and will continue posting on some of the design work I've already begun and projects currently in progress.  I hope you'll stick with me for what I am sure will be a great summer!

this weekend: hanging at home

This weekend we stuck close to home, and mostly, in our home.

But that doesn't bother me so much, especially when you get to hang with this kid!

this weekend: birthdays, bowling, bench building and ...

This weekend, I celebrated a Birthday (mine - technically today), went Bowling with friends, Built a Bench (partially), and listened to stories about Bowels (courtesy of David Sedaris).

It was all fantastic!  A huge thanks to every who helped me celebrate, whether with me or sending wishes from far away.  The love was certainly felt!

this weekend: the everyday

On first thought, there wasn't anything particularly special about this weekend. This weekend was the truest to our everyday that we've had in a while, and in it, in it's normalcy and routine, there were moments, I have now realized (while writing this post), that were truly special.

My husband accompanied Ella and me to our Saturday morning Stroller Strides class (Ted deserves a round of applause because he was the only daddy there - that was definitely special).  We stayed at the mall afterwards to let Ella play.  She was especially insistent on playing with her Daddy and seeing that really does something to me - the bond they have formed is so incredibly special and I am so lucky to be able to sit back and watch it grow.

After debating a list of places for lunch (he wanted a burger, I did not), we ended up at our usual compromise place (Panera) for soups and salads and discussed the ever relevant topic: the correlation between type of car owned and profession.  OK, maybe not so special.

With the appearance of the sun and slightly warmer temperatures, we took a family walk to the park in the afternoon.  I am still in awe of how much Ella has grown this winter.  Seeing her tackle new obstacles and climbing structures on the playground without fear is pretty special.

And following a hilarious dinner (with Ella's new favorite sentence, "I don't want to" repeated often) and the putting of Ella to bed, I got to watch a movie with my husband (that we actually agreed upon, no less).  These occasions, I know, will become much more rare with the end of the semester looming and so, they are definitely special.

Sunday morning was a lazy one.  Ted went off to the gym and Ella and I stayed home and made pancakes.  I feel like we're always rushing off to be somewhere in the mornings, and so this Sunday was very special - a sort of mommy-daughter date at home.   

We watched CBS Sunday Morning (or I tried to while Ella played), and then we decided to make the FaceTime rounds to first my mother, then my sister, followed by Ted's mother, sister and father.  I hope that making the time to talk face to face with our family, all of whom live in different cities, will allow Ella to stay close to them and them to her because those relationships are incredibly special. 

We again took an afternoon walk to the playground, though it was considerably less sunny and cooler than it had been on Saturday, and collected an assortment of treasures on the way home - pine cones both big and small, pieces of bark, and rocks.  I am so happy that Ella has a curiosity for discovering new things - truly special! 

So here's to finding the "special" in the everyday!