A WALK AROUND MY HOUSE

For some reason I got the urge yesterday to just walk around my house, snapping pictures of anything that grabbed my attention. Then I got another urge -- to share them with you.  Big news first. TaaDaa!

At last! We finally have a matched set of undamaged chairs, and it only took them six months and three tries to achieve it!

Down at the other end of the living room, near the grandfather clock, is a spare dining room chair. This is where we always stash anything that we need to remember to take to one of the kids, next time we see them. More often than not these days, it's usually something like this...

some snuggly-cute onesie outfit for that funny little fellow in the photo. It was half off! How's a grandma to resist?

If you're looking for something good to read, might I suggest this novel on the sofa table?

It's about an aristocratic young count who manages to avoid the firing squad after the revolution, but instead gets sentenced to a lifetime of house-arrest in the attic of the finest hotel in Moscow. Fascinating!

Back in the bedroodio, there's more exciting news. The Sudan/Barcelona travel journal is finished, and has been packed up and mailed off for adventures of its own. Who knows where it might end up?

I'm just so happy to see the surface of my art table again! 

Meanwhile, out on the balcony, it's definitely time to replace that rug. We have a resident squirrel who loves to lounge in our damp window boxes when he wants to cool off, and chew on our rug when he can't find any buried acorns in them.

Hopefully he won't be quite so tempted by this plastic one.

Since we have to go outside to get downstairs, I might as well show you what Hubby has been up to.

First he installed this gorgeous screen door for me, then he went on a mad painting spree, including all four outside doors, an old TV cabinet on the downstairs porch that we store gardening stuff in, and a couple of rocking chairs -- all in triple-digit-temps!

The Laundry Room Attached To Our Garage

I know you've all heard about my bedroodio, but did you know Hubby has one too? Unless we are expecting house guests, the downstairs bedroom always looks something like this.

Remember the new wall shelves for photos that I shared recently? The ones I chose in order to remove some of the clutter from our upstairs walls? Well, Hubby took that idea and ran with it! Now every surface of every wall downstairs looks something like this...

even the ones in his tiny little closet-sized office.

That's one happy boy!
 

THE BEST/WORST AGE

Sherlock is on the case!

We've been lucky to see a lot more of Lex and Little Goober this week than usual, thanks to Lexi's hubby being in Vegas for the huge annual hackers convention, Def Con. Being alone with a rambunctious toddler 24/7 can be exhausting, and we were more than happy to give Lex a break now and then.

Gone are the days when he was content to just sit on the floor playing with a toy or snuggling with his puppy dog. Rather, he is now the famed "object in motion" who has discovered the joy of climbing...

which is why the sofa cushions have to stay down like this, relegating poor Izzy to the much less comfortable sofa arm. Poor Izzy.

One heart-melting development is that, as soon as he spots us at the door, he immediately reaches his arms for us to take from his mama, seeming very happy to see us. Squee!

Calvin and Izzy vie for attention. Poor Izzy.

 
Another big plus is that he will finally pick up a book and bring it to us, wanting to be read to. Yippy Skippy!

 
In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit of a book fanatic, and usually have several going at once. When the kids were young, I never had any problem whatsoever saying "NO!" to the hot new toys, video games, or trendy clothes they asked for. However, I could never say no to books. They didn't even have to ask for that first Harry Potter book. I pretended to buy it for Austin, when really I just wanted an excuse to read it myself, and when each of the sequels came out, there were three of us fighting over who got to read it first! Needless to say, between his parents, grandparents and the book shower the Muses gave me, Calvin already has quite the collection.

Unfortunately, the book-reading sessions only last for a few seconds, then he's right back to being a whirling dervish. On top of his non-stop running from one room to the next, he has now learned to open drawers, cabinets, dishwasher, etc., and delights in pulling everything out of them. Which is why Papa John usually ends up like this, halfway through a visit.

Still, we love and appreciate every minute of being able to watch him explore his surroundings and try to figure it all out.  Izzy, on the other hand, is not so sure about this latest version of her baby Calvin. In fact, she's starting to resent being plopped on and tugged at by this much larger kid, and is feeling the need to reclaim some of her territory, so Lex and Nate are being careful never to leave them alone together.  We went through the same thing with our son and dog 30 years ago. Fortunately, our Munchkin was smart enough to get up and take off whenever she heard Austin coming. Hopefully, Izzy will soon learn to do the same -- at least until Calvin figures out what the word "SOFTLY!" means. Poor Izzy.

Bye-Bye!

 In the meantime, good thing God mad babies so darn cute, huh?