I'm Over It

My birthday, that is!  And the hill...

by Natalie

Up until my actual birthday, I tried to relish the fact I was still in my 30s.  Then the day came and went and nothing really changed.  So I don't know what to say about turning 40 except that I think that whole "40 is the new 30" thing is a joke. But it isn't all bad.  No one drew me any pictures like the one above when I turned 30!  My son didn't make me pancakes for breakfast when I turned 30 - but he did this year!

The big girls made the cake with a little help from me.  We had a moist vanilla chocolate chip bundt cake.  The kids couldn't agree on how to decorate it, so they decided to section it in 4ths and each decorate their area with toys.  They went a little overboard!

No pesky candles to blow out!

Anyone else think Caleb's 4th looks a little generous!

All in all, my birthday was a pleasant day :)

Christmas Goodies

We had a joyous and exhausting Christmas day. The kids' choir sang at the Christmas Eve service at church and eventually got to bed more than an hour late - and then couldn't fall asleep (meaning Santa couldn't come before Santa fell asleep!) We did actually take some gifts downstairs before we went to bed, but I just reasoned I'd set my alarm really early and beat them downstairs to stuff the stockings...I fell asleep, but woke up at 1:30 and hastily stuffed them. Good thing, because the kids were up more than an hour early.

So this year, I didn't do quite as much baking as I have in the past.  During November, I made 8 batches of peppermint pinwheels to gift as neighbor/teacher gifts.  I double wrapped them and froze them.  It made it easy to slice and bake them and they tasted excellent.

I did not plan to make a gingerbread house, but Caleb wanted to make one very much, so I told him I would help him if he did most of the work.

We had some support issues - that is we had patience issues.

We did finally get the icing to dry and the house to stand, but then we had patience issues dealing with the candy and then with bits of the roof.

Note the Nativity Set backwards and askew.  With the house out of sorts from construction, there is no good place for our decorations and they just move from place to place.

And when it got to this point (the next day) I took this picture and took the house apart.

On Christmas morning, I made cinnamon rolls, which were delicious.  These are not the ones I made, however I did make these and they are not edible!

I am so pleased with how these turned out!  They look absolutely real.  The girls and I found a deeply discounted doll table a few weeks ago and for Christmas morning I wanted to set it for their American Girl dolls.  I found polymer clay cinnamon rolls on Etsy costing $10 for 2 and thought, surely I can do this.  Six YouTube tutorials later...I did!

Christmas Eve

This year, Christmas has raced at me with such speed that I have not given much concern to materialism.  Buying gifts felt like items on my to-do list.  Sending cards was an impossibility (I tried...).  So as my to-do list is finished I had a few thoughts about gifts and gifting - mostly in the middle of the night during my nightly "thinking time" (i.e. 2:30am when I wake up almost every night).

More than half of Christmas gifts is anticipation.  It seems impossible for the contents of a wrapped box to meet its expectations.  I could give my children a piece of candy unwrapped and they'll be happy, or give them a beautifully wrapped box with an expensive toy inside and they'll be let down.

With multiple children, I see that one child will be happier with a less expensive gift (and that's ok) while another child won't really be happy with any one particular thing (because I know that child and that they don't enjoy "things" as much as experiences, but we can't not give that child a material gift - they are just too young to understand that part of their personality.)

I know some things we paid hard earned money for will not be used.  This is always true and not just at Christmas time.  I just have to let that go.

Sometimes cheap toys (or paper dolls or pet rocks) get played with more than expensive ones.

Despite the cost and frustration, I want to give my children gifts.  There is a satisfaction in giving them something they really really wanted - or at least what they thought they wanted, because the anticipation of Christmas goes both ways - I am almost as eager to watch them open their gifts tomorrow as they are to open them.

Skeleton Details

So by now, you understand that this project of ours is going to take a while.  Even the kids know that!  The room interior is done so far as structure.  There is still some work to be done under the room between the trusses, but the room is ready for inspection.  There are separate permits and inspections for the different parts of the construction.

Here's the doorway:

And here is the closet:

It is smaller than the closet in the other room, so we are going to need to do some creative thinking, because, this would not be a spacious closet for one girl, let alone 3.

I opened the window on the west side of the room today - it may be the first time what window has ever been opened!  It opened very easily and does not lock!  Something that will have to be remedied, it is a two story drop.

Coming Together

Another work day on the room!  The floor is now completely done and the 4th wall is going up - well, at least the skeleton of it is.  The drywall comes after the inspection.

View going up the stairs.

Checking it out!

The balcony came down today - this is a milestone I've been looking forward to.  It make the whole thing seem more advanced. 

There is still a long way to go - the room has no lights or electricity and no air conditioning vent.  (Oh and no carpet!)

To keep us out of the house today we:

Went to a cookie decorating party!

Went to Walmart - Meow

And picked a few (small) wildflowers.

Frost Art Museum

I knew I would need to get the kids out of the house for the day while they worked on the room Friday.  I didn't really have a good plan as I went to sleep Thursday night, but it came to me when I woke in the night - as if in a dream...  I suddenly remembered we hadn't been to the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University since a few weeks before Natalie was born!  This was an oversight because it is free and because they have an excellent children's area.

The kids were impressed with FIU's campus, I was a little overwhelmed because they have built so much since I worked there (1999-2001).

I'll credit the inspiration to googling Knud Pedersen the night before.

Knud Pederson was a Danish artist and founder of an art lending library where people could borrow (or rather rent very cheaply) works of art for a limited time.  My interest in Mr. Pedersen came from reading a book about his life during World War II called The Boys who Challenged Hitler.  As a young teenager he organized groups of boys to sabotage German military vehicles and sites and steal weapons.  He also spent a while in prison.  Denmark had given in to the the Nazis early on and many of the citizens were not happy about it.  However in the beginning, not much resistance was made.  Knud's Churchill Club's actions and imprisonment inspired his fellow Danes and by the time he was released from prison, Denmark was very much resisting the Nazis.

I got the book thinking it would interest Caleb and I think about half of it will interest him.  (Mostly because they blow more stuff up in the 1st half!)  But I liked the whole thing and highly recommend the book.

So the Frost Museum

There is a room called the Family Room at the museum filled art supplies and creative play toys, it is not big enough for a large school group and no one was there, so we spent an hour or so there before looking at the gallery.  The kids were not that impressed with the actual art gallery!

In short, it was a great way to spend part of our day out and hopefully we won't wait 6 1/2 years before we come back!

More Floor

They got another work day in this week, so our floor in the new room is now all covered.  Almost half of it has a double thickness of plywood and is finished (structurally). 

No 4th wall though.

Here is the view from the hallway - the part of the balcony past the bend is where the doorway will be. 

The floor has made the biggest difference so far as far as light obstruction and air flow.  We can tell the a/c runs a little different now.  The lower room (now the dining room) was very dark, so we got an inexpensive florescent light for now.  It is really bright and really changes the appearance of that room!  Let's just say, now you can see how dirty it is!

Caterpillars

I planted a passion vine in the back corner of the backyard.  It is a hearty plant that grows very quickly, but the caterpillars keep it in check! 

Gulf Fritilary  See those yellow dots on the leaves - I think they must be nectaries on the underside of the leaf because there will be ants lined up at each one.  The flower is only open during the shadier times of the day and wilts in open sun.  There are several different passion vines, this one has a medium sized white flower.

Crummy focus - these are zebra longwing.

The passion vine is also a host plant for Julia butterflies, but they are the least common of these three.

I'm not sure how it got there, but a milkweed grew up at the base of the passion vine.  It got very tall before it flowered and was the largest one I've grown.  (Although, I can't take much credit!)  We got a big generation of monarchs and that was the end of that!

It's been a very interesting corner of the yard, and I often found a kid with their nose in it just watching the caterpillars. 

New Room Update

Still a long way from moving in day, but we have some floor now!  These holes will not be there when the project is finished.

The balcony is where the door will be.  It was kind of surreal being "in" the room!  I have stared up at this space for 13 years!

The big kids all got a chance to go up.

Dining room ceiling - lovely :)

Imagine a bunkbed and a toddler bed, a desk, a dresser, a dollhouse, and a whole bunch of other toys.  Doesn't look very big does it! 

Nothing hasty about this room!  I think we all envisioned the floor work going more quickly, but we are happy to have what is there.  Rob is hoping to be able to work more on it later this week.

Irene-speak

stairsteps - I love it!

Irene - who I have mentioned before - is speaking clearly a little later than her siblings, has suddenly caught up.  About a month ago I noticed I could understand almost everything she says.  Some words,  however, she is very unwilling to correct.  Most notably are her siblings' names.  In her language they are:

Ro-ro (Caleb)
Etee (Annalise)
La-la (Natalie)
I-nah (Irene)

The Death of Fidel Castro

I read on another blog that you should blog about your life.  Well, my life is set in Miami-Dade county where more than 34% of the population is Cuban.  On our street, of the people I know, it is probably about that percentage too.  So Cuba is all around me.  My next door neighbor was born in Cuba and came here as a young adult, and - kind of unusually, because this has not happened to me before - she is somewhat isolated at home with 2 small children.  I am the adult she interacts with the most during the day.  And I've found that we have a lot in common - maybe that is because we are in similar life stages, but that's ok.  I like her.

So when I found out Fidel Castro had died (btw, I think Americans call him "Castro", but Cubans call him "Fidel"), I couldn't wait to talk to her about it.  If you have seen the news, you have to notice the complete opposite reaction in Miami to the reaction in Havana.  In Cuba they are crying, in Miami they are throwing a party.  My friend said two things I think are notable - 1.  She was glad, but would have been more relieved if Raul had died!  2.  Most people in Cuba are glad he died, but are afraid to show it.  Political dissent is just not tolerated there. 

The thing is, the news did a couple of days about Castro's death and I'm sure it will pop back up again when his funeral happens, but I can't think that most of America gives half a thought to Cuba.  I know I never did until I moved to Miami.  When someone told me there was a large Hispanic population in Miami, I assumed it was a Mexican population  (about 2%).  I understand its significant location in regards to national security, and I believe people care (or would care if they knew) that our neighbors live with such fear, but I think people are overwhelmed with suffering on the news and can only really care about so much - so I think it's significant for me that I have someone in my life who I care about who has lived there.  All the news from places I've never been about people I've never met usually just interests me for a moment, but when I heard this news I couldn't help but feel glad - even though his passing doesn't change anything, he is a symbol of something that has hurt my neighbor and I hope that someday soon the people in Cuba can be free.

Garage Sale Conquest

Although I had made a resolution not to buy anything for the new room until we have a new room, I recently made 2 garage sale purchases with the room in mind.  Both because I decided they were deals too good to pass up on things we were going to need anyway.  One was a large mirror with a decorative frame - it is usable as is and is easy to store (being flat).  The other was a small desk.  It is going to be a bigger room than the other one, but not too big, so I've been keeping an eye out for a small desk and this one caught my eye when Caleb and I were hitting some garage sales in early October:

The seller wanted $20 and I wanted to pay $5, but I ended up paying $10.  The following experience will make me a more aggressive bargainer!  To a great extent, I payed for an education this time!

What I liked about this desk mostly was its size and I also liked the classic look.

The back board had a decorative onlay that I hoped to be able to keep.

My biggest bargaining point with the seller was that I was clearly going to have to strip and repaint the desk.  She breezily said "piece of cake!".  I was not convinced it would be that easy - and I was right!

The kids helped some, although I did not want them dealing much with the chemical stripping agent.  What I learned here is that to use a chemical stripper, you should use a nice thick layer.  The desk turned out to have a thick, rather messy white layer and a neater, thinner pale blue layer.  Underneath, the wood was raw.

After using the stripping agent, there was still a lot of sanding and detail work.  Annalise and I worked hard to remove all the paint from the onlay.  This turned out to be educational work too because, in the end, it broke and I threw it away.  But we did remove almost all the paint - so that proves it can be done if it needs to.

After removing all the paint, it was obvious that the top had water damage and had to be replaced, so off that came and I decided I would paint the body of the desk and stain the top.

This is just primer.

We replaced the top with a piece of plywood, the kids helped sand it and round out the corners.  Rounding the corners was a breeze.  At least something was a piece of cake!

Since it will be the girls' desk, I let them pick the paint - Annalise wanted green and Natalie wanted lavender, they compromised with a blue color (not far off the original color!).  Inspired by an online tutorial, I decided to stain a lotus flower onto the top.

Voila!

In the end I decided the flower would make the backboard add too much extra busyness to the design and since the desk will be against a wall, it isn't necessary.  I really like the flower and it was very easy to make - honestly!  A piece of cake!

Leaning Tower of Pisa

Our latest article project was on a recent earthquake in Italy. The article was an especially rich one and involved many different subjects. Because of Italy's many historic buildings, we made Leaning Towers of Pisa that I think turned out nice!

Natalie - note the clouds!

Caleb

Annalise