Life got in the way

I took a three-year, unintentional break. Life got busy and Samantha hit 4th grade. And so here were are in 2017--Alyssa is heading into 4th grade and Samantha 7th.

In the last three years, Al has transitioned to a job he loves, working for a local elementary school. McGraw-Hill sold CTB in 2015. I spent the first year struggling with the unknown. I was one of the few "long-term" layoffs, which meant the new company could lay me off at any time or could decide to hire me. I spent the first six months turning my depression and anxiety into work. I learned how to be patient at I updated our crappy builder-grade kitchen from this into this.

Original cabinets and counter

Painted cabinets, new quartz, tile backsplash

In the last three years, Samantha has learned to play the flute. She's a natural with just about any instrument. In fact, she spent the last week playing about 10 hours of flute for fun. We had to tell her to give her mouth a break.  She stopped dancing last year, but played basketball with her 6th grade class. She also joined the inaugural robotics team at SHPS as the only girl. She loved it.

Harlequin dolls (Alyssa on right)

Alyssa is still dancing and has advanced two ballet levels in the last three years. She's got her eye on a pair of pointe shoes. She danced the Nutcracker in 2016 and had a prized role as a harlequin doll. Recently she's taken up the violin. 

I am now content with my new role with DRC, the company who bought CTB. I am working with a few folks that I've known for over 8 years, which makes things a bit easier. In August I'll be marking my 18th year in educational assessment. Yikes, I'm old!

I love reading home decor blogs. I'm attracted to spaces that are kid-friendly, practical, and pretty, which can be a difficult combination to achieve. Our dining room was repurposed a couple of years ago when we decided to make it work for us.

We opted for a couple of doors on our bookcases to hide kid clutter. One of those bookcases hides coloring books and all related accessories. However, the mess started to grow and the doors weren't
closing, not to mention I was tired of picking up half broken crayons.

Still working on my chalk finesse

I liked the idea of a see-through container for crayons and markers. I found two cookie jars at Target and filled them with new crayons and markers. Suddenly my girls were coloring for hours every day because they could see the colors and they weren't hidden from view.

Samantha suggested I do like we'd seen on Pinterest and paint a chalkboard label on the jars that said crayons and markers. (Smart kiddo.) My mom then suggested that we paint a mailing label with chalk paint and stick it on the jar so we could change our mind and color whenever. It worked really well.

When we bought our house the instructions to the original fireplace were still hanging in the firebox. The house was about 10 years old and the fireplace untouched. We used that fireplace religiously until Samantha was a year old and she started to get bronchitis. The box was so small that the only way to get heat out was to first, buy walnut because it burned easier than oak, and to leave the doors open. (Not exactly child-safe.)

When neighbors were moving we bought a fireplace insert from them. It was still in the box--they never got around to installing it and weren't about to leave it with the new owners. We bought it for around $300 and thought it was a steal because the unit costs approx. $1500. It took us 4 years to get a contractor to install it because no one wanted to touch a unit that wasn't purchased from a dealer. Turns

out there was a reason for that. 

The contractor started in January and was done within a week, but the unit wouldn't stay lit. So we had to figure out what the issue was: flue venting, piping, etc. And we had to buy more parts because the unit came as itself. There was no remote to turn it on, there was no interior vent, the flue venting needed adjustment. And meanwhile we refused to pay the contractor because the fireplace didn't work properly. (The contractor wasn't at fault it was the wholesale unit!)

Finally, after forking out $800 more in parts and a three-month wait for the contractors to finish another job, it was installed. By then it was mid-April and the temperature was in the 70s! 

Three months later I'm still staring a drywall hoping that we get it tiled and finished before next April.