7QT: Back on the Blog Bus with Old School Quick Takes

Alright. The baby is asleep maybe for another half hour and the big kids are playing and I only have about eight things I want to get done before the baby wakes up...so blog for the first time in months it is!

- 1 -

We've been poking along with the remodel.

Yesterday we took out the ratty old fireplace that was a big black scar in the living room. Immediately after Jacob pushed it out, it started pouring rain. We felt PRETTY stupid because it's only rained every day this week and it's only supposed to rain every day for the next week, and there was no reason we needed to do the fireplace project right away. So...let's just say that got done more quickly than most things around here.

But now it's done and the rusty black metal box is gone! Don't mind the wall art - it's all out of wack because we used to have the TV where we now have...a skull. Trendy but also kind of a gnarly skull because we found it while tromping around my folks' place.

- 2 -

Remodeling with babies = barricades

- 3 -

Speaking of babies, ours is walking and therefore falling a lot. The other day he fell and hit his mouth and started bleeding where he's cutting a tooth. Ouch, right? He really wasn't bleeding very much, so we weren't concerned. I took a closer look at his mouth yesterday, and where there is supposed to be one tooth, it's like he has two teeth coming in?

Could he possibly have chipped the tooth? Or split it? Or is this its natural shape and maybe that's why a little face bonk made him bleed?

We have a pediatrician appointment Monday, so we should have answers soon...

- 4 -

Gretchen Rubin in Better than Before talks about how some people are stressed by the prospect of running out of something and other people are stressed by having too much. I think she uses the terms "abundance" vs "simplicity."

She says people who like simplicity will feel a little stressed when they buy a big bag of oatmeal, but a sense of relief when they've finished it all. People who like abundance will have the opposite experience.

I'm like 1000% the kind of person who prefers simplicity. Not that I'm some kind of Marie Kondo Master. My house isn't a paragon of elegant minimalism with the pristine fig tree in the corner of the living room. But emotionally speaking I find "abundance" stressful.

She also says people who prefer simplicity will even feel relieved when things break and have to get thrown away. Me to a T.

- 5 -

This is one of the reasons I love the library. Yesterday I renewed my library card and went on like a thirty book hold spree. It's all the fun of shopping without any of the stress of new things!

- 6 -

I had to renew my library card because we've been living in Houston for three whole years now. Three years! It feels shorter and it feels longer.

We're approaching our one year anniversary in this house which means we've stayed here longer than any other house in Houston, and we don't have plans to move until next summer! But that is another story...and maybe I'll even tell it to you now that I'm blogging again (ha!)

- 7 -

We went to Hawaii with a big group of dear friends and my whole family. The experience was too perfect for words, but thankfully my very talented friend took a lot of pictures. Here's a photo dump:

Happy Weekend! Go see Kelly!