He-Man & Friends -
I should have been super excited the other day, when I saw the Real Live Skeletor - you know, from He-Man? That show from the 80's that my brother and I watched probably way too much? Skeletor was the bad guy and he looks like this:
Unfortunately, the Skeletor I saw was a woman who lives up the street from me, most likely in her 40's, with a young child (I know because she walks him to preschool across the street from me). She was out running, and it's obvious that she is really into losing weight. She seriously looked TERRIBLE. She had on running shorts and a sports bra thing, and her ribs were quite apparent. She was not running fast, so I could see her facial features, which were bony, too. Honestly, it is ridiculously sad that there are people like her too far into "thin is in" to see that they have gone way past their personal attractiveness.
Birthdays -
This 3 yr old:
Turned into this 4 yr old: (Overnight, do you even believe it??)
And 17 days prior to that:
This guy turned 11. Eleven!
He is a mere 5 inches shorter than me, and we trade shirts and shoes ALL the time.
This is the time of year that I stumble over their ages if anyone asks. Since all 4 birthdays are within 3 months' time (a June, July, August & September), I really get tripped up during that time. But the good news is that once September 23rd is past, the update is complete, they are all a year older, and I can catch up my brain.
Homeschool Update -
We started. Early, I know. Just to make sure it's really for us, and that all the people we know aren't actually right, to see if my kids' ability to talk to people their own ages disappeared, things like that.
We're only doing a little, as it IS still summer. Chase is actually doing the Math packets that were sent home by the school for summer review, plus a cursive handwriting program that is free on the web, and of course his spelling words every week. Indy is doing a wee bit of every subject from a BrainQuest curriculum supplement book (clearance rack score!) plus her words and Riley is doing Kindergarten Money Math (education.com), along with a Scholastic Grade K activity book and her sight words. The problem I continue to have with her is that her ability is well above her age, and so the concepts she is ready for are in a format that doesn't fit her age or attention span.
House Renovation Update -
The girls' room and our hall bath MIGHT actually get drywall next week. Maybe. The drywall crew is scheduled for another job, and if we can swing it timewise, we'll have them come over and bang out our much smaller job. Here's what we gutted back in February:
Old Master Bath - 1958 original?
Hall Bath w/leaky shower, tiles falling off, ceiling peeling and a hidden empty old chimney slot just waiting to be repurposed...
Same ugly tile as the old Master Bath....
So we turned it into this. The two former baths plus the chimney space will become a laundry room that leads into the new hall bath. We had a lot of thought on how to use our space, two toilets? two showers? how many sinks? We decided on a bathroom with a double vanity, one pooper and one tub/shower combo, as eventually the house will have a basement bathroom and possibly one by the garage. So yes, we went from 3 crappers to two, but hopefully not for long. The laundry area will also have its own sink, so you have to brush your teeth in the stench right after someone bombs the can.
Old Master Bedroom, had become a playroom.
Gutting in progress.
All this gutting meant I had to give up the water connection for my second washer downstairs.... :( So we just decided to keep on gutting and rip out some dividing walls in the basement.
And this is what you get when you start moving stuff around and gutting rooms and have NO WHERE to put anything. There's an air hockey table sitting on top of a pool table somewhere in that mess...
So anyway, yes, we MIGHT get drywall next week. We found a really great paint color on the Oops rack (paint that was not the right color or has been returned unused, sold at a super low price!) at Home Depot yesterday, which was one color number away from the one the girls picked out... how friggin awesome is that! Giant savings. The girls are pretty excited about moving into their new space soon. And I am ready to have another bathroom for people to use besides the Master Bath...
So that's it for now. The small boy is awake, some amount of children are hungry (I've borrowed some nephews for the day) and the wee-ist one (7 months) is upset because I'm not looking at him...
