Dirty Toes and Paint On My Elbows

Well, hello, blogland. How are ya? Sorry I’ve been MIA lately. Where have I been? Well, I’ve NOT been getting pregnant, for one. So, I’ve been using all that pent up energy that otherwise would have been spent obsessing over every pregnancy nuance to generally spruce up my home – inside and out.

You know about my kitchen. I’m still in love with all the white, though I practically live with a Magic Eraser in my hand, watching for any little mark or scuff on my pristine cabinetry. This weekend I completed a project that has been bugging me for…oh, about 3 years. We have one “accent wall” in the living room that is painted a lovely red. I painted it shortly after we bought the house. And shortly after that spots on the wall got scratched and nicked through to the white wall underneath. I got out my leftover paint and attempted to patch the damage, but somehow the paint had turned and the color was not the same. So ever since I have had these ugly patches of darker red on my beautiful red wall. Not attractive. So I finally bought a new gallon of the red and painted over the whole wall. Took me less than two hours. We’ll file that one under “Should have done this years ago…”

Another project that has been on my (so very long) list for years is our bathroom. Originally, the bathroom was the best room in the house…meaning the most recently re-done. It’s an ugly green, even the CEILING (ugh), but the fixtures are fairly new and compared to all the other rooms when we moved in, not a priority. Well I’ve finally made it through all the other rooms with my paintbrush (except the dining room, which we shall not talk about lest I get depressed) so it’s finally on to the bathroom to vanquish the ugly mint green and replace it with a deep, stately pine green. All the trim work will get a fresh coat of white paint and I’ll probably spring for new towels and shower curtain. Ah. I’m relaxing just thinking about it.

I’ve also been busy outside the house during these lovely, sunny days we’ve had. I’ve been freshening up the mulch in the front of the house and extending it around to the side bushes. (This is where the dirty toes comes in.) What a difference a few bags of mulch make! And cheap! My kind of home improvement. Yesterday we purchased a beautiful yellow forsythia bush (and one ladybug, as G pointed out) which I planted myself in the back yard (read, dug a big a** hole all by myself, go me.) I also filled in some random gopher holes in the yard. Next up, the annual spreading of the grass seed to try to repair the damage done by one dog and his urine. (Umm, gross, but this is my reality.)

Family has been consuming my time, too. Last week John and I made the trek to Manhattan for the day to see a couple of doctors and have a nice Indian lunch at this cute little place we found a few months ago on 1st and 74th. It was a beautiful, sunny day and traffic was incredibly light, even when we left the city at 4pm, so we drove with the windows down and the iTunes up. Not a bad day.

Giuliana has been spending most of her days outside. She’s following mommy’s lead and digging holes in the yard, but I’m trying to just be cool with it. She’ll only be little once, why not let her do her thing? Yesterday mommy and daddy took turns pushing her up and down the sidewalk on her new red trike, streamers flying in the breeze, giggles echoing down the street. Quintessential Suburban Americana and I love it. She’s been continuing with her tumbling class. Every week has been better than the last. She still has (many) “I do it myself” moments, but overall is listening much better. She has even taken part in the warm-up stretches, and this week she barely even glanced at the trampoline while she touched her toes and reached the sky. This is major progress.

So, that’s what I’ve been up to. I’ll try to catch up on my reader to see what YOU’VE been up too, because if I don’t my reader is likely to explode soon.