Girls of summer

The cars were back out recently, and the girls had a blast with them. As they were flitting about, I couldn't help think that Don Henley's "The Boys of Summer" would make a great soundtrack for the afternoon (and I'm not a huge fan of the song).

Inspiration, final

The inspiration note cards can be found here, at the Kind Over Matter website. They are available for free use (all they ask is that you credit them). The idea is to print the cards and leave them randomly for others to find.

I have been posting them here, for you to find, each Friday.

Thank you, Kind Over Matter, for use of stellar quotes and eye-catching cards. Although I am not normally an "inspirational" kind of girl, I am, however, easy prey for a good quote.

Cards and stationery

Surprisingly (or maybe not), I am an admirer of Martha Stewart, although Skip tells me all the time (usually when a recipe/project/idea goes horribly awry) that I need to find a new guru.

The reason I continue to be enamored with her is because her products are classic, good, and of exceptionally high quality. Take the above thank you note we received a week or so ago. (My nephew's fiance has impeccable taste.) The card is simple, yet elegant, and I was not at all surprised to see the Martha Stewart logo imprinted on the back. I never think to consider her stationery, although every year during the holidays (upon receipt of cards from her line) I intend to do so the following year.

This lovely card prompted me to at least bookmark her site, to have at-the-ready next fall. A quick Google search revealed the obvious: Martha has partnered with Crane & Co., and the results are stunning. Most of the line is wedding-centric (therefore, not at all what I would be shopping for), but I thought this was adorable:



Crane also has partnered with Kate Spade, whose "paper" is other-worldly.

From notebooks:



To postcards:



To social calling cards:



To note pads (my favorite pick):



It's all so tempting. And with this many lovely options, why are we all so eager to eliminate paper? The above options definitely cause me to re-think forgoing social niceties.

Closet and guest room cleaning

Since the beginning of the year, we have had several projects around the house. Recently, I have started on some of the more unglamorous tasks of re-organizing (re-orging, as we call it) all of the closets, pantries and other storage areas.

A couple of weeks ago, I tackled the guest room closet. The girls' closet is quite small, but the guest room has a standard, walk-in closet. We keep the in-season clothes in their closet, and out of season and larger sized clothing (expansion clothing, if you will) is categorized by size in the guest closet. To really appreciate the challenge with the "expansion clothing," the clothes for future sizes/years, I should explain that I purchase a LOT of clothing from clearance sales and on eBay... things that may not be worn for a couple of years. Lastly (but by no means least), we are the recipient of some very generous hand-me-down clothing from an older cousin, Riley. There are a LOT of clothes in that closet.

Oh, and my old suits from a previous job are in there, as well as some stored clothing of Skip's.

The closet could withstand all of those clothes because that's what closets are designed to handle. What really derailed the guest closet is that we used it as storage for everything that might be damaged by extreme heat/cold in the attic alcoves. I failed to capture a "before" image. To give you an idea of the state of this closet, we had not seen the floor -- much less have we been able to walk inside the closet -- since about six months after we moved in. There were three large lamps on the floor. We had stored several pieces of framed pics in there. All of our extra comforters, pillows and blankets were stored in there. All of the DVD cases for the girls' Baby Einstein and Elmo collection were stored in boxes (otherwise the cases are systematically destroyed). I had three boxes of birthday decorations from the girls' first three parties. Finally, the closet also serves as the place where I stash gifts that I pick up throughout the year.

It was not pretty.

Do you remember the episode from "Friends" where Chandler moves in with Monica? At the end of the episode, he finds the junk closet? It wasn't quite that bad, but close.

First, before the cleaning commenced, the girls wanted to get out of dodge. They were rescued by their grandparents:



Next, to reclaim this area, I removed practically every item from the closet and identified it as 1) a keeper, 2) a candidate for donation or 3) trash. We donated approximately 35% of the inventory. Another 15% was trashed. The rest was re-orged. The process took approximately 8 hours, over the course of two days.

Look! The guest room floor is carpeted? Wait, do we need an outlet cover? Who knew?



I was not sure the guest room would ever be clean again. To really make it sparkle, I changed out the comforter for summer:



I can finally tolerate walking into this room again. In fact, I like this room again. The remaining amount of clutter in the closet prevents me from "loving" the room, but I definitely like it.

Back by popular demand

Lauren's quirky glasses are back (above) by popular demand. Although I am sure these types of pictures will not be her favorites when she is older, I think they really capture the carefree, spirited toddler that she is.

Gracie, on the other hand, prefers to accessorize with jewelry, and she often chooses pearls for the playground (below). She has a flare for the dramatic, always insisting on a large bow, whereas Lauren prefers the smaller bows. Gracie loves bracelets and jewelry of any sort.

Weekend update

Over the weekend, we had horrendous weather, followed by a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Saturday, following the unbelievable rains and in between storms, we ventured out to run errands and drop by the library:



Instructions were printed/posted at the entrance explaining what to do if/when the tornado siren sounded (it didn't -- at least not while we were there).



Sunday, we went to church, and then my mom kept the girls for us so that we could have a nice lunch out and do some shopping. Thanks, Mom!

Prayers for Sarah

Sarah, mentioned previously here, is having surgery tomorrow at 12:00pm EST. Please pray for Sarah; her surgeons; her entire medical team; as well as her family and fiance.

Book club

Inspiration

*From the inspired folks at Kind Over Matter

Snow

We have two very old (and very large) dogwood trees in our front yard. Because of limited sun exposure, they are the last trees in our neighborhood to bloom each year so it always seems like their blooms are fleeting. The girls call the fallen petals "snow," and it does seem to blanket the front yard.

Just keep living

So this is the famous bunny rabbit, mentioned previously here, here and here. He (she? who knows...) belongs to our next door neighbor's grandson, Tucker. When the girls are not screaming, they shout, "Dat's TUCKER'S bunny!!!" whenever they see it.

In honor of Earth Day, I am leading (above) with a pic of the bunny eating some delicious, organic leaves.



Our property is wooded on one side, and I believe that may be of tremendous appeal to our furry friend. He hops along with total abandon and is so happy to be free. (In the interest of full disclosure, there have been numerous attempts to catch him, but he's much quicker than you might imagine.) Until he allows someone to catch him, he is having the time of his life. So much so that we have started calling him "McConaughey," after actor Matthew McConaughey and his easy-breezy lifestyle. McConaughey's (the actor, not the bunny) production company is named "Just Keep Living," and I think that encapsulates the bunny's outlook and approach to life.

Target, we need to talk...

For a long, long time now Target has been a weakness of mine. The mall (ugh) is not really a temptation. Online shopping is more of a necessity than a temptation, and catalogs mostly inspire me to "shop" my own closet. I used to be somewhat tempted by the Restoration Hardware and Pottery Barn catalogs, but I finally realized that, by simply reconfiguring or rearranging items we already own, we achieve a similar look... sort of.

At least it's close enough for us.

Target, though, it gets me, what with its items being mostly under $25. There have been countless times that I have left the store carrying 3-4 bags -- really small bags only partially full -- and being $150 lighter. It is insane to me how readily I will part with money there, when I am so careful elsewhere.

Dodging the Target shakedown has been easy enough in the past: simply do not walk into the store. It's not like I NEED to go to Target (except I do; everyone NEEDS to go to Target). But, I persevered. I avoided the bull's-eye.

And then they played unfairly.

They introduced the following items/concepts over the last 3-4 months.

First, they announced the "Liberty of London" for Target line. I don't really need to elaborate here, do I? We can all stipulate that we would all like to have at least ONE of EVERY Liberty of London product, right? Even the most ardent wearer of black/dark clothing falls prey to the cheery prints/patterns of Liberty of London.

For example, if we won a shopping spree at Target, I would be racing through the women's, children's and home goods section raking all of the Liberty of London items in while Skip would be jumping up and down and yelling, "ELECTRONICS!!! Go to the electronics department!"

Anyway. Moving on.

Second, they released a Target app for the iPhone. I downloaded it immediately. Why would I access this app? I don't know. I suppose that's like asking someone with a substance problem why s/he would go out on New Year's Eve. Why would I download the app? I don't have a good reason/explanation for you.

Third, they introduced the "Daily Deals". If you are unfamiliar (how could you be?), they post 3-4 items every day, reduced significantly -- sometimes by as much as 75% -- and the item ships free. The "Daily Deals" portion of the website is addictive, pure and simple. After a few hasty daily deal purchases, I stopped utilizing the main site completely.

Fourth, they made the "Daily Deals" page the top link of the Target app.

All of the above conspired against me. I could go on and on. Don't even get me started on the sales catalog that arrives in our Sunday paper each week. More than once I have wanted to race to the car in response to the "weekly wow" featured in their sales paper. Then, they have their convenient "one click" checkout that saves the customer the time of reviewing the final invoice and total. It's all very alluring.

A few people have asked me what it is within Target that poses such a temptation. It's everything. The entire store looks tempting to me. If you were to peak inside one of my shopping bags it would seem as if I had been blindfolded, released in the store, and grabbed items randomly from various departments. The entire store is a problem.

One day at the end of March our credit card statement arrived. I brought it in thinking, "Hmmm... that's odd... why would we receive a statement when we have a zero balance?" I opened the statement, expecting to see $25 or so in charges for random items. Possibly I charged gasoline when I was in a hurry and couldn't readily locate my ATM card? Oh, Skip probably charged something minor while he was traveling.... Whatever it was, it was sure to be something small.

As I was scanning the itemization of the (much, much, much more than $25) statement, I couldn't help but notice that most of the entries were from Target. Some of the purchases were (thankfully) gift items (we had a few birthdays, a wedding shower and pre-Easter shopping in March), but the rest represented lovely Target items that added up a few dollars at a time.

The bottom line is that I am breaking up with Target. The iPhone app? Deleted. Daily deals? A thing of the past. Liberty of London? I could fabricate a vow to not purchase any additional Liberty of London items; however, the inventory has been raided, and Target appears to be "sold out" of almost the entire line. Unless they restock (I think many items were limited editions), there should be no more temptation...

...Except that a lot of the Liberty raiders cleaned out the Target inventory and posted the items for sale on eBay...

BAM!

Yesterday morning we struck out early to spend some time outdoors playing. After a lot of screaming when we saw our neighbor's (totally and completely harmless) pet rabbit hopping around our shrubs (if the volume of those screams didn't send him diving back for the safety of his cage, I don't know what will), we settled in the play area for some swinging and fun. What could be more fun than playing with mulch? Not much, I suppose. So the new fun thing to do is to make mulch pizzas. One of our newer Elmo videos has a cooking theme, and Emeril has a cameo appearance. While mulch is being gathered, they chatter excitedly with many Emeril-isms.





If you listen closely in the below video, you will hear them say "BAM!" as they add more mulch to the pizza.

BAM! from Cathi Lindsey on Vimeo.

Weekend update

This weekend we took things very easy. First, we played outside Friday afternoon on the swingset, and then had a nice dinner. Saturday, we went to a local festival here in our small town.



The girls played in a Mickey Mouse jumper:



Gracie enjoyed a pony ride:



After spending all morning in the heat, we came home to eat lunch in the wonderful air conditioning:




Sunday, we went to church, and then worked in the yard. Our neighbor's pet rabbit, mentioned here, escaped from his cage Saturday morning, and we had frequent bunny sightings Saturday and Sunday. At one point, he spent some time in our play area. He seems to be enjoying our freshly cut grass. However, he seems less fond of the girls' shrieks when he hops near them.

We hope you all had a great weekend as well.

Shoes

Plants

We are not really plant people. I have gone through a couple of plant phases in my life where, with careful coaching, I have had some thriving potted plants, and I have had some minor successes with outdoor plantings. It simply is not my passion. Skip has a similar background. He lived in Florida for a few years and then he lived in Virginia (tobacco country, as he called it). Both locations have strengths when it comes to gardens, and he had nice landscaping.

At heart, we are probably condo people.

We moved to our home four years ago, and the landscaping was essentially complete. However, the back yard needs quite a bit of work. The current shrubs are approximately 15-17 years old, and the beds need some elaboration. A month or so ago, we met very briefly with a landscape designer (this sounds much fancier (and expensive) than it actually was), and we got some suggestions on what needs to happen with our challenging back yard (it has a very steep slope). Armed with a sketch and some ideas for plantings, we are beginning to get prepared.

This morning I went to the spring plant sale at our local Botanical Gardens. This is a large local event; in fact, the sale area was so congested that I couldn't really fire off any snaps with my iPhone. Here are some pics from their site:




This is a fund raiser, and quite a bit of money is raised at both the fall and spring sales, the latter being the larger event obviously. Mainly, I wanted to scout out plant possibilities. However, I did pick up a sago palm for the deck (ferns have not survived the morning sun) and some herbs. A couple of nice volunteers helped me check out and go the car. Both were master gardeners and were chatting me up about plants. I admitted, gesturing to the boxes, that I didn't like the plants' odds, coming home with me.

Wish them (and me) luck.

Be outside

As part of our "be outside" challenge, we have started trying to eat outdoors a few times each week by having dinner on the deck. The obvious upside is the fresh air, but it's also been nice to relax the "no spill" policy.

Inspiration

*From the inspiring folks at Kind Over Matter.

Treats

We find that suckers make for a better work product:

Prayers for Sarah

Sarah is Skip's cousin, and the girls adore her. A-D-O-R-E her. Not a day passes that they do not flip open their Sleeping Beauty cell phones and "call" Sarah. They also cite her home as a destination when they are driving in their cars, as in, "I'm gon' go to SARAH's!!!"

However, given some of the three-year-old tantrums we have seen lately (they are doozies!), Sarah is fortunate to be in another state.

Sarah, briefly:

* Sarah is 30
* Sarah is engaged
* Sarah is a teacher (a really good one)
* Sarah's students love her
* She has crazy work ethic and has been pursuing a master's degree
* She sings
* She dances
* She loves

Sarah has been feeling run down and has been undergoing various testing. Yesterday she was diagnosed with cancer, and will have surgery next week. If you will, please remember her in your prayers in the next days and weeks.

Piggle tails

I have documented the girls' aversion to hair management tools and devices. We did not do headbands or bows when they were infants, and it took sheer force of will to get them to finally accept a single bow. While the bow helps keep hair out of eyes and keeps an overall look of dishevelment at bay, it does little to get the hair off their necks and actually cool them off a little. Therefore, we have been attempting to sell the idea of a pony tail, and this idea has been rejected outright. After all, a pony tail causes discomfort when they sit in a chair, and it would never work during nap.

Instead, we have pitched the idea of pig tails, or piggle tails, as the girls call them. Yesterday, they stayed in the entire day.

Zoo date

Last week, we went to the zoo with cousins, Riley and Will. This trip counts heavily toward our "Be Outside" challenge, as the temperature was 88 degrees that day.