Well Mannered Frivolity

  It's time again for "Let's Get Real Monday."   This month Randi has challenged us to show what's in our closets that we need to get rid of.  Clothes we will never wear again because they are out of style, we will never ever fit in to them again, or are just plain ugly.  Unfortunately, Bill and I made a huge donation to Goodwill last week.  You'll have to take my word on this, but I got rid of a pair or Guess Jeans with the zippers on the ankles.  I come to realize that I will never be a size 7 again, and even if I was I doubt I would were pants from the 80s.

Here are a few things I still have--

 Note the peace sign I carefully embroidered on,  the baggy lines, the stonewashed denim.  This dates back to the mid eighties.  I embroidered and wore it when I was about 14 or 15.

My mom made this little crushed velvet number for me when I was about 18.  I wore it with my 10 eye black Doc Marten boots.  This was the babydoll dress look.  Now my shirts are longer!  Of course this was 5 children ago.

 So here is my sad little list.  I'm sorry the dress pic is so large.  Every time I try to fix it I make it worse!

I hope I haven't gotten to real!

Wendy 

We have finished painting the "Den of Home Education" floor. It only took us a week which is amazing if you consider the following: We have 5 children and 2 cats. Paint, children and cats are not a good mx. About half way through the job Bill got in a wreck and totalled his truck-that is a whole 'nother post. We found out that no matter how much ventalation we had the boys still suffered asthma attacks. Oh yeah, and in typical WMF fashion we pretty much had to do every thing twice since we did it wrong the first time.

Here is the finished floor drying. BTW when you have 2 three year old boybarians watching paint dry can be exciting!

Here is our new and improved room for getting our learnin' groove on (featuring pirate Lila)

I've just joined Summer Reading Challenge I've committed to one book per week (14 books).

Here's my partial list

1. The Latin Centered Curriculum by Andrew Campbell

2. A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters

3. Marrying Mozart by Stephanie Cowell

4. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

5. The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim

6. Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

7. Crunchy Cons by Ron Dreher

Obviously there will be a bit on concurrent reading going on.  I already have a head start on Outlander.  I started it in February and read about 200 pages.  Then I lost it.  I'm hoping I can just pick up where I left off with minimal skimming.  I thinking since it is 850 pages it's okay that I've already started :) The picture above is all the books except Crunchy Cons, because it is waiting for me at the library.  I'll put the books I've chosen in a sidebar list.

Wish me luck!

Wendy 

You Are Mexican Food

Spicy yet dependable. You pull punches, but people still love you.

I found this on Shawna Lee's blog. 

Now I want some nachos!

Wendy 

Took this from Amy  ......so without further ado....

20 years ago.....I was just ending my freshman year of high school and embarking on the punk rock phase of my life

10 years ago....I was a totally clueless SAHM to 5 month old Katherine thus embarking on the Homemaking phase of my life

5 years ago...I had three girls 5 year old Katherine, 2 year old Mary Jane and 9 month old Lila and embarking on the Homeschooling phase of my life. Oh yeah, Bill and I got saved 5 years ago!

3 years ago...I was homemaking and home educating like an old pro (ha!) I had 7 year old Katherine, 5 year old Mary Jane, 2 year old Lila, and ..........identical twin boys who were 1 day shy of being 2 months old, thus embarking on the sleepless phase.

1 year ago.....I was pretty much surviving. That period of my life is kinda fuzzy. Just one big whirlwind of childrearing. We'll call this the crazy phase.

Yesterday...Bill and I were finishing up our first room of painted floors and coming to the realization that faux finishing is not among our mad skillz.

1 hour ago..... I was finishing up organizing my vast book collection and putting our school room back in working order.

In one minute....I will be playing Clue with my husband and daughters.

Tomorrow...... I will be savoring my husband's last day of vacation.

In the next year....... I will be learning Latin and possibly Greek along with my children. Hopefully everyone in my house will be potty trained and reading.

Wendy

Yesterday we attempted to purchase paint from a well know paint supplier. I won't mention them by name, but their motto is to "Cover the Earth" in paint. This apparently doesn't apply to our house. When I told the salesman we were painting an interior cement floor he looked puzzled. He tried to sell me a kit to paint a garage floor. Unfortunately, gun-metal grey was not the look I was going for. I showed him my typed up instruction sheet along with the book I had checked out from the library on painting floors. He was looking at me curiously so I kept blabbing away at what we were attempting to do. By the time I got to the part about how we (Bill) had already applied not one but two coats of Kilz the salesman was looking at me as if I had just confided to him that we were actually members of Hamas and could he please sell us the materials to make a dirty bomb.

So we did what we should have done in the first place. We went to Lowe's. Wonderful Lowe's where weird DIY projects are down right encouraged. The sales associate I conversed with was unfamiliar with what supplies we needed but was, nevertheless, intrigued with the idea. She then did what any wise woman does when stuck on a project. That's right, she flagged down a good ol' boy (henceforth known as GOB). GOBs are great. The are generally polite, helpful, respectful of women, and (this is the important part) handy. Our new GOB painter was at Lowes buying paint (duh).  He looked at my list, and informed me that the sealer I had chosen could likely kill us if we didn't take proper respritory precautions.  He told us the materials he would use ( curiously enough, he wasn't a big Kilz fan either).  So we (Bill) regrouped, picked out our color, and purchased our new paints!  And today we actually have color on the floor!!!!! I'll post pictures tomorrow as Bill progresses through the next color and faux finish.  As an aside, Bill has yet to utter the term "faux finish."

Wendy 

As we have added more children to our family our house has paid the price. We originally started out with stain fighting, stain blocking, stain repelling berber carpet. That lasted through child number 3. We (by we I mean Bill) put down laminate. Laminate flooring has a 25 year warranty they told us. Laminate is virtually indestructable they told us. Well, "they" never met the Dual Forces of Nature known as Will and James. So what do you do when you have trashed floors, your laminate color has been discontinued, and you couldn't afford it even if it was in stock, plus your wonderful husband is on his one week vacation from work? Why you paint your floors, of course. Then you blog about it so the whole world can share in the hilarity that is sure to ensue.

First husband cleans the floor with something ominously titled Trisodium Phosphate while wife takes children to the library, lest asthmatic twins inhale dreaded chemical.

Then after said floor dries husband fills all cracks and holes with Cement Fix-All. The twins, for reasons known only to themselves, seem to enjoy dipping their toes in Cement Fix-All. Husband chases twins around house with a rag while yelling "DON'T TRACK CEMENT FIX-ALL ALL OVER THE HOUSE!" All the while wife is trying to fix dinner. Approximately every 1-2 minutes husband calls wife into room to ask if she sees any more cracks or holes. Husband finishes Cement Fix All Job. Family sits down to slightly burnt dinner.

After dinner husband applies first coat of Kilz. Cats like to walk on wet Kilz. Children helpfully suggest paw prints are cute and maybe we should go with a paw print theme. Parents reject idea.

One hour later husband applies second coat of Kilz primer. Both cats are safely outside, and both boys are safely asleep.

Family does not got to bed so much as they sucumb to noxious fumes.

BTW in most houses this room would be refered to as The Formal Dining Room. Since we are short on space (and not particularly formal types) it is the Home Education Room. Hence the maps and white board in the background.

We will continue our journey on the morrow. (And, once again, by "we" I mean Bill.)

Wendy 

Planned Parenthood Opens Quick Clinic Is it just me, or is this kinda weird? Are they trying to promote sex to drum up business for their lucrative sideline? They may add spa services? What exactly does a decorative condom carrying case look like?

Now the residents of Woodbury, MN can sleep better at night knowing they can get their "enhancement" toys and their soccer ball shaped cookies all in the same shopping center.

Two more questions--Do "well heeled" women actually contract chlamydia? and What the heck is "Chateauneuf du Pape"

Wendy

    I finished Fellowship fo the Ring!!!!!  I've decided to take on a little fun reading before jumping into Two Towers.  I've already finished a bit of sort-of Brit Chick Lit piece of fluff called Bed Rest by Sarah Bilston.  It was easy reading and completely predictable.  Just what the inner librarian ordered to cleanse the palate during a Tolkien break. Now I am working on Talk to the Hand by Lynne Truss of Eats, Shoots & Leaves fame.  I just happened upon it while standing in line at the library.  It was just sitting there on the "new non fiction" shelf waiting to be snapped up.  I didn't even know she had a new book out!  Happy happy joy joy!  So far it is every bit as good as I expected it to be.  Oh, to have that biting British wit. 

I love the library.  It amazes me that it's not packed all the time.  All those books just waiting to be read.  And they are FREE!  (as long as you return them on time, that is).  I should have a column on my budget entitled "Library Fines."   We generally have as many as 60 books checked out at once.  Those $0.05 per day fines really start to add up when you X them by 60.

Wendy 

This is stolen shamelessly from Donna's blog

I AM: up way too late

I SAID: be quiet and go to sleep (to Mary Jane and Lila)

I WANT: an IPod

I WISH: I was a morning person

I HATE: Mornings

I MISS: having a cuddly newborn

I FEAR: something will happen to my children

I HEAR: the washing machine......always the washing machine

I WONDER: if I can make it another day without shaving my legs

I REGRET: not much

I DANCE: slightly worse than Steve Martin in the Jerk, but I still dance anyway

I SING: badly, but I sing all the time. Someone thinks I'm making a joyful noise

I CRY: probably more often than I should

I AM NOT ALWAYS: on time

I MADE: dinner for my friend who just had a baby (flank steak, mac n cheese, and banana pudding)

I WRITE: to keep my head from exploding

I CONFUSE: my poor beleagered husband

I NEED: other people's approval (and spell check)

I SHOULD: go to bed

I START: strong

I FINISH: weak

I BELIEVE: in God

I KNOW: everyone in the house (even the nocturnal cats) except me is asleep

I CAN: wrangle toddlers pretty well

I CAN'T: imagine life without my family

I SEE: sticky fingerprints made by small hands on my moniter screen

I BLOG: to give my husband a break from being the brunt of all my strange ideas

I READ: because I can't not read

I AM AROUSED BY: I'll have you know that my parents and my pastor read this, therefore I am exempt from this question!

I FIND: some of these statements hard to answer

I LIKE: making things

I LOVE: my family and my friends

Donna was right. This one was a doozy.

Now it's time for me to fall asleep reading so.......

Good night,

Wendy