The menfolk are off texturing and painting at the new house, and so I'm home alone on a Saturday morning...watching a three year old whose love language is Elmer's glue. All the kid wants to do is cut (with big kid scissors) and paste (with Elmer's).

This isn't my favorite kiddo activity. It's kind of adorable, but it also requires near constant supervision. It does. At least with my three year old. I left him alone with his Elmer's the other day for five minutes and I came back to find him attempting to glue his feet to the floor. I have a pretty high tolerance for mayhem if it guarantees some minutos alone with instagram in the bathroom, but even I draw the line somewhere.

So yesterday when I hauled out our kiddo craft box and set him to slicing and sticking and shuffled through the ever growing pile of toddler artwork, I remembered something that as a mother it would serve me well to remember more often: If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

And truth be told, I'm a sucker for crafting so Jake comes by it honestly.

I started with a stack of Jake's artwork, and began some clipping and some Mod Podging and some Eric Carle channeling.

 And pretty soon, voila.

   

Here they are, chock full of sentimentality and ready for me to write some words on the back and send them off to a grandmother or two.

Happy Saturday Crafting!

7 Quick Takes: Water Kefir, Crocheting, and My 3 Year Old Astronaut

- 1 -

Are you an Arrested Development fan? We are. I probably should've written Arrested Development into our love story. Did you see these motivational posters inspired by Lucille Bluth?

- 2 -

I ordered more Kefir Grains from Cultures for Health. I haven't made our own Water Kefir (or Tibicos) since I was pregnant with Lucy June. But I'm very excited to start again. I've dispatched Jacob to buy and consume some Grolsch Beers, so I can reuse the bottles for Water Kefir.

Any other Water Kefir lovers out there? Or are you Kombucha people? In the great Water Kefir vs. Kombucha debate, I stand pretty firmly in the Kefir Camp. It's easier to make than Kombucha because it involves no heating, and it doesn't taste...well...so Kombucha-y.

- 3 -

Thanks for your feedback on my closet doors post about our house remodel. There is absolutely no consensus over what we should do...but you all gave me a lot to think about, and I love you for it. I bring you up when we're having little meetings about the remodel. And don't you know I feel fancy. I get to say things like: "Well, my readers think we should..." Which is very useful in the perpetual game of Me vs. The Boys, and elicits no eye rolls at all.

Jacob actually said I was getting too emotional over the design choices. Which is ABSOLUTELY UNTRUE AND UNFAIR!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!

!!

- 4 -

I've been crocheting again.

Last Sunday, the temperature dropped below 80, and all I could think about was my crochet hook. So I put down my beach reads (the last of which was quite the disappointment) and I've picked up work on a blanket for Lucy June. I started it before she was born and haven't worked on it in months and months. I've always planned to finish it before she turned one. That's next month.

- 5 -

With crocheting comes TV watching. I watch a lot more TV when I have yarn-y projects to finish, and the shows have to fall into a nice little zone of entertaining enough but not so good that I get distracted away from my work. Shows like Downtown cannot be embroidered through. The recent episode of crocheting has been brought to you by Once.

Do you watch Once?

 I liked Season 1 but then cooled to it in Season 2. Now I'm watching season 3 on Netflix, and I'm liking it better than I remembered.

[Never was there ever a more brilliant Quick Take: So there's this show, and it's OK, and I like it.]

- 6 -

Jake is currently obsessed with all things Rockets and Space. He's constantly throwing me imaginary tethers so I don't float away. He builds rockets and launch pads and docking stations with legos. His favorite planet is Jupiter. He manipulates his voice so he sounds like he's coming through a radio. The only way I can put a diaper on him for naps is by calling it a space harness. And then I get lots of variations of this:

8  9  40  7  8  4  BLAST OFF!!!!!

My son is a boy. And a nerdy one?

- 7 -

Did I tell you we took the kids to Bluebell Creameries in Brenham a few weeks ago? I can't remember. Probably. But since I just pulled the pictures off the camera you're going to get a rerun.

We went to Brenham to see the Bluebell Factory. I'd never been there despite my native Texanism and Bluebell fanaticism. We couldn't take any pictures of the factory so instead we took lots of pictures of the kids with their hands on an ice cream truck.

- 7.5 -

I'm sure you've all read Blythe's post about taking her kiddos to watch her brother's band. But if you haven't...Off you go. Off you go. It's so great.

Happy Weekend!

Linking up with Jen

Closet Door Makeover Ideas. Help?!

One of the fortunate things about the little ugly house we bought is that the bedrooms don't need too much attention.With the exception of the master bedroom. The roof was replaced a few years ago, but not before some serious damage was done to the drywall in the master and so we're having to replace half of it. And the closets are terrible.

They are huge, and there are two of them. Each closet has more space than we've ever had in a closet, and the two together rival the square footage of our first house.

This is nice except they're huge in a very ineffective way. Long and deep. Unnecessarily deep. It's like a walk half-way in closet.

Take a gander.
  
I know. I know. A vision splendor.

There are separate his and hers closets that line the whole wall, divided by a (not) lovely inset mirror/glass shelving unit. They have these folding doors that catch on the carpet. We will rip out the carpet and the raised floor in both the closets. We will also do something drastic to the shelving unit. Jacob however tells me we can't move the closets. Buzz. Kill. So since they must stay where they are, what does one do for doors?

My preferred doors would be some kind of french or swinging door except I don't think we can afford to lose that much floor space. The space issue makes bypass doors seem pretty handy, but otherwise they seem pretty inconvenient.

      

{source 1}    {source 2}    {source 3}

I had bypass doors on my closet in my first apartment in Los Angeles, and I felt like I was opening the door to the ark every time I needed a fresh pair of socks.

Are they all like that?

There's always curtains. I don't mind curtains as closet doors, I actually quite like them, but I doubt you'd find this option on one of those "How To Make Your House Look Expensive" Pins.

      

{source 1}    {source 2}    {source 3}    {source 4}

We will probably stay with some kind of bi-folding doors - despite how awkward they are - and try to find some way to spruce them up.

   

{source 1}    {source 2}     {source 3}    {source 4}

Mirrors on the door would brighten the room up. Light = always nice. Paint or wallpaper are bold but interesting. I do care about how they look, but I care more about how smoothly they open and close, but I didn't source any images of hinges. 

So. What do we do? What do we do? Bypass? Curtains? Folding? Turn one of the closets into Lucy June's room?

I'd really love to hear your thoughts!!!

Before I Had a Seven Year Old: Dwija of House Unseen

It's 7:15am. Jacob is currently making baked oatmeal muffins while watching both children, so I can get this post up. I'm perched on our bed - strategically missing the pee spot that our little cosleeping angel left us last night. Jake is yelling (he is a MORNING person) about the day's discoveries (BAKING POWDER IS FOR BAKING!!!!!) And I'm once again musing about how parenting is the most fun and the most trying thing I've ever done.

So it is with great delight that I bring you today's Before I Had Seven Year Old in the words of one of my (and probably your) favorite bloggers: Dwija of House Unseen, Life Unscripted. I've always felt a kinship for Dwija because I imagine we have a similar Catholic conversion story that goes something like: Once upon a time I went to the University of Dallas. She is here today, talking about her parenting early years, and I'm so excited about it. I've already read the whole thing out loud to Jacob.

How many kids do you have and how old are they?
We're raising 6 kids in our house right now, and by raising I of course mean "mainly trying to keep alive." The age/gender list goes like this: girl, 13; girl, 12; boy, 7; girl, 4; girl, 2; boy 3 months.

What are the biggest differences in your home life now that you have slightly biggers running around and not just really littles?
It's hard to decide which one of the many biggest differences to note here, but I guess the most important one to me is that I don't feel like it's me fighting a losing battle against a tiny army anymore. I don't feel alone. The loneliness, the mental game of all small kids, is the hardest thing for me. As soon as I started feeling like I had Team Reasonable to combat Team ThrowAFit, life started seeming way more manageable.

What's something you miss about that stage of only really littles?
This is a really hard question to answer because having my big kids around is SUCH A JOY. I mean...I can't even use words to convey how great it is. But I guess if pressed I would say that having the house to myself or ourselves for many hours every evening is something that doesn't exist anymore. My big girls are awake until 10:30 or so every night, so I can squeeze in maybe an hour of alone quiet time if I want a reasonable amount of sleep and two or three hours if I'm happy to rock the bloodshot eyes the next morning.

What was your hardest transition after having a newborn? 0 to 1 kid? 1 to 2? 6 to 7? Why?

Oh girl. I have to take my watch off to answer this one. My transition from being a working mom to being a stay at home mom happened when we had our third baby (you can read more about that mess right here if you want) and it. was. brutal. First of all, it was crazy to go from having two kids, which you can sort of manage with mom and dad vs. teeny and tiny, to having three, which requires "zone defense" or something. I used quotation marks around that phrase because I don't really know what zone defense means except you ain't got enough players on your team and life pretty much sucks. But in HINDSIGHT (capitalized to indicate that everything makes sense in hindsight but you have to survive first in order to get it. Tricky tricky.) the problem was really that I could micro-manage every detail of two peoples' lives, but when a third got added in, all my systems and control freak methods went on the fritz and I was seriously at a loss. How am I going to micromanage and schedule and hover over three people at the same time?!!? I don't have to tell you what the answer to that question was. Anyway, I guess the point is that so often the struggles in my life are rooted in my preferences and demands and not so much in what's actually going on, you know? Once I stopped preferring that the impossible become possible, life got a whole lot more fun.

How do you conquer nap strikes?
This is tricky. So much of parenting is tricky. I guess now that I've met so many different kid personalities, I know enough to say that I can't always say how I'll handle them. Some kids you just need to push through. Let them stay in their crib, even if they're playing, for two hours and then go retrieve them and pretend like they had a nap. Some kids won't play, though. Some will scream and scream and scream, and their faces will get red and they kinda start gagging like they're gonna throw up and no, I just....can't leave them alone like that. I gotta go and soothe or help or chat. Give them a drink. Something. Maybe those kids are extroverts with quality time as their love language compounded by their lack of or need for lots and lots of sleep. For that kind of kid, being in a room alone to them might be actually a little terrifying. And before I ramble further, can I say that I hate that I'm writing this? I used to pride myself in ruling with an iron nap fist! But God is clever, as always, and provided me with a couple of lovely opportunities for sympathy and kindness and I got over my obsession with "everybody napping for 2 hours a day every day until the age of 5, no exceptions." I used to say that when I had two kids. I'm glad you didn't know me then.

How did you build community for yourself and for your family?
We hit the jackpot at our current parish. There are so many families there - families with a few kids, families with lots of kids. Older kids, younger kids, adult kids, newborns. But in order to take advantage of that, to become a part of that, I had to push myself out of my learned comfort zone a bit. I wrote a little thang that I called Confessions of a Closet Shy Girl the other day because I really used to not be good at making friends and now I feel like the most friend-blessed person in the world....and it makes life lovely. And I want others to experience that too. Oh, and also - saying "yes." Someone you barely know invites you to a bonfire? Say yes. Someone you just met is organizing an underwater basketweaving seminar? Go. You hear about a St. Martha's Day party with competitive vacuuming on the schedule? Doooooooo iiiiiiiiiit. Even if the thing doesn't turn out to be that fun, you and other people can commiserate about how un-fun that day was and can you believe that's the first day we met? So glad I went to that.

*********

Now here is a bit that doesn't have a question to go with it, but I wanted to share it because it is just so apt. When I first got the email invitation to participate in this series, my son Paul was 6. Since that time he has turned 7 (in August, if you're taking notes) and almost from one day to the next, from age 6 to age 7, he suddenly became so much more helpful. It was really remarkable for me to take note of the transition in light of this discussion. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's still a scatterbrained little boy, and I like it that way. But he can get things and put things away and check on things and be trusted with stuff that just a few months ago I know he wouldn't have been able or willing to do. He made the leap from "little kid" to "big kid" seemingly overnight, and I am so grateful.

*********

Thank you SO SO much to Dwija for participating in Before I Had a Seven Year Old! Head here to read the other posts in the series!

Before I Had a Seven Year Old: Kathryn of Team Whitaker

We're back for another installment of Before I Had a Seven Year Old - my series where moms of slightly older kids talk about their experiences as mothers of only littles. Today we get to hear from Kathryn of Team Whitaker. Most of you will already be familiar with her, but for those who aren't you should check out her posts on surviving the NICU with their fifth child. If you like Before and Afters (cough...Jessie) then you can glut yourself here. Or perhaps be inspired by some of her organizational tips. I'm very excited to have Kathryn with us today!!   

How many kids do you have and how old are they? 

I have six great kids, Will (13), John Paul (10), Anna-Laura (9), Clare (7), Luke (4) and Gianna (4 months).

What are the biggest differences in your home life now that you have slightly biggers running around and not just really littles? 

Helpers! And, a serious amount of carpool. Instead of me having to wipe all the hineys, fix all the meals, fold all the laundry, dress all the people and assist with all the homework, I now have some fantastic assistants. In the early days I remember falling into bed exhausted from all the things I did throughout the day. I felt so very isolated when my husband went off to work. Seeing friends was so difficult back then. It felt like such a chore to get everyone up, ready and out the door. Now, even though we have an army of kids, I now have an army of helpers which makes all the difference. We spend a decent amount of time in the van heading to different activities and while it's mostly great, we call it our other house. My kids even suggested, "Hey Mom, if we got a bathroom in here, it would be perfect." Yeah, that and a vacuum cleaner. Oh, and we have lots more birthdays, but that's okay, because you've never met a bigger fan of birthdays than me. True story.

What's something you miss about that stage of only really littles? 

I miss the simplicity. While we try to do activities together as a family, like 4-H, my kids have varied interests and activities. As they get older, that translates to more schoolwork, more extracurriculars and more places to be. We really rein in a great deal and say no to lots of things, but we're still busy. That's life. Back before any of our kids made First Communion, life was just simpler. There was no eating in dinner shifts to accommodate things like baseball practice. We also had everyone in bed by 7:30 and the rest of the evening to ourselves. WHAT? I don't even know what that life is like anymore. But, BUT I do so love this season of parenthood. My kids are growing up and the conversations we're having are priceless. I mean, when my oldest asked why we don't eat at Hooters, our conversation ended with him saying, "When I am President, I will shut down all the Hooters!" Will for President 2044.

What are some things you did with your first baby that in hindsight seem a little ridiculous? 

Oh man, this is a good one. Wasn't everything we did ridiculous? My diaper bag was a backpack and carried twelve diapers, four outfits, a shirt for me, two packages of wipes and a half dozen toys. Now, I'm lucky to walk out the door with my driver's license. Naptime was quite the 45-minute production. Who was that Kathryn because she had WAY too much time on her hands! Now, it's a "It's naptime!" followed by a kiss and hug and a walk out the door. Bottom line? I just over-thought everything. I just don't him time to over-think things now!

What's one specific thing you're glad that you've taught your older children? 

Be a problem-solver. In the early days, when a fight would erupt, I was quick to solve the problem, figure out who the instigator was and then enforce discipline. Now, unless it involves blood or bullying, my standard response is, "Well, you should probably go talk to {insert sibling name here} and work it out." We're big advocates of teaching our kids how to work things out themselves. When they ask or if they're stuck on a solution, we give them some options to choose from to mediate the situation, letting them come to some natural and logical conclusions on their own. WARNING: This is not something you teach overnight, nor in the produce aisle at HEB. It takes time and a healthy dose of patience, but it will pay dividends in the future.

How did you build community for yourself and for your family? 

For everything in parenthood, there is a season. Early on, I assumed that friends I made when my first-born was little would be my friends for life. And, while some of them have remained close, I neglected to consider that my kids would grow and change (as would I) and it wouldn't necessarily be the same growth as those friends. AND THAT'S OKAY. I'm a firm believer that God puts different people into your life during different seasons. Our charge is to choose those that build us up rather than those that tear us down. You have to walk away from the toxic and drama-filled relationships and invest your time into those that nurture your spirituality and bring you closer to Christ. I've found great community in our neighborhood, our parish and through our kids' activities. Not all our friends are Catholic, but they are loving people who want the best for their kids. We never hide our faith, but we don't discriminate our friends because of it.

What was your hardest transition after having a newborn? 0 to 1 kid? 1 to 2? 6 to 7? Why? 

That's an easy one, 1 to 2. With one, while there was definitely some major role shifting and I left my full-time job in the communications field, we had an awesome community at our church and neighborhood. That made all the difference. With the second baby, we had just made a major move, I didn't know many folks and he was such a hard baby - colic and reflux. It was brutal. I remember sitting on the couch one afternoon when he was just a few weeks old. I looked at my husband with tear-filled eyes and said, "I cannot have anymore children. I can't." Aaaand, now we have six kids. Proof that you should never make big life decisions when you're sleep-deprived. Kid 4 to 5 was probably the most drama-filled, but primarily because he was a preemie. Another blog post, another day on that one.

If you could go back and tell something to your new mom self, what would it be? 

Listen to all the advice and only practice about 10% of it. Whether you breast or bottle-feed, choose cloth or disposable, co-sleep or not, start solids at 6 months or later, use baby sign language or choose public/private over homeschool - NONE of it matters. Really and truly, it doesn't. As my mom reminded me many years ago and a Bishop we love is known for saying, "you'll bloom where you're planted." Focus on the big things, how your family practices its faith, how you instill self-worth and love within your children, how you practice charity and stewardship - THOSE matter. And, stand your ground on the things you're passionate about. Don't cave just because it's your best friend or a mom or mother-in-law who questions your choice. Always lean on your husband and make choices that are best for your family. Give it all you have and when you're tapped out, coast on God.

Thank you so much to Kathryn! And if you want to check out more moms of older kids throwing back to their early years VISIT HERE.

Rhodes Remodel: Kitchen Progress and Pinspiration

So I've been attempting lots of posts over here, but I'm getting stuck because this Mean Kate on my shoulder is like: "You know you already wrote about this, right?" and then Nice Kate on my other shoulder is like: "Awwww. Be nice. But she's right."

I thought I would wait to do serious remodel pics until things were done, and I could do these snazzy big reveals or something, but things are...a long way from done, and I'm sitting at home, antsy, excluded, picking raisins out of our wicker benches while Jacob spends his spare time working on a dream of ours. So. I've decided you all get to come along for the ride.

This is the Remodel from my Seat. The Pinterest Seat.

Kitchen Pinspiration

Like virtually every ranch house in Houston, our's is a wide, single story rectangle. (Yay architecture!) The kitchen in the house was tucked back in a corner.

The kitchen was walled off from the dining/living area. It was like a little cave. Old creaky cabinets that stuffed up into furdowns that felt like they were all going to fall in on you. We decided to open up the whole thing. When we purchased the house we knew we'd have to replace the appliances, but we hoped we'd be able to keep the cabinetry, if we could just replace the doors. But instead we went the way of most overeager remodelers and our kitchen that used to look like this:

  

  

now looks like this:

Oops.

But really it's OK. It's like a Tabula Rasa with a Gas Hook Up.

So now we're left to make all these design decisions. And that mostly means Jacob and me arguing and my brothers attempting to keep the peace. But here are some of our/my pinspired photos.

   

{source #1} {source #2} {source #3}

We're going to go mostly white. The cabinetry will be white. The backsplash will be subway. I'm thinking our subway grout will be a light gray. I like a little more definition over straight white grout, but I prefer it faint. We will have some open shelving. We'll probably use some old oak shelving that Jacob scored when doing work on a century old house in Galveston.

We will also put in an island. I grew up with a big island in my parents' kitchen and I'm very pro island if you have the floor space. We barely have the floor space, but we're gonna make it happen.

The biggest discussion is COUNTERTOPS

Right now we have a bit of battle going on between Quartz and Butcher Block. The biggest talking points are price and durability. I love the look of butcher block, but I'm a little nervous about upkeep especially since we might very well lease this house out someday. The quartz is more expensive but will stay looking nice without us ever having to oil it or sand it down. We're also considering a blend. The island in butcher block perhaps? Change it up and have a segment of butcher block countertop right next to the stove? I would love to hear your countertop thoughts.

7 Quick Takes: Spaghetti Squash Carbonara and Nap Strikes

Just another naptime. Just another case of writer's block. So...Quick Takes!!

- 1 -

We ate this Baked Spaghetti Squash Carbonara for dinner one night this week. It was delish. I love The Kitchn. I also regularly use her thin crust pizza recipe, because I like my pizza papery thin but I have absolutely no skill when it comes to baking, and she's been like my little guardian pizza angel. 

- 2 -

Hopefully most of you already follow Kelli Seeley. I met her at Edel, and I've gawked at her photos ever since.

Do yourself a favor and pay her a visit!!

- 3 -

Half of the internet seems to be on the Whole 30.

I tip my hat to you!

If I Whole 30ed, I would eat so many hard squashes and potatoes. I do not do well off carbs. I feel terrible. I think the longest I've gone without heavy starches or grains is like 36 hours and it was basically the worst 36 hours of my life. Shaking. Sweats. Headaches. Weakness. Jacob got home from work, took one look at me, and then force fed me spaghetti.

#goodman

Do you just have to power through that initial carb withdrawal??

- 4 -

NAP TALK

I'm really only a good mother when my children nap simultaneously. The occasional missed nap is not a big deal because I typically have some reserves to get through the day, but when the missed naps start compiling, things get bad fast. Jake will spend his nap yelling from behind his closed door "Is it all done???" and then the rest of the day having overtired fits, and I'll spend the rest of the day about to cry/crying. I have no patience for either kid or my husband or my brother who lives with us. It's no bueno.

After one of these afternoon fiascos, I was driving the kids to my friend's house for a get together. Jake was getting very excited about all the school buses we were seeing on the road. From his car seat in the back, he said: "Someday I'm going to go to school and you're going to stay home and then I'm gonna get really big and go far away."

And...I really thought that sounded just fine.

Umm....Nope. Not feelin you, mama bunny.

- 5 -

MORE NAP TALK

Yesterday I was determined to break the napstrike from hell. I told Jake that if he followed his naptime rules (lying in bed quietly) we could do something special after naptime was done - WHATEVER he wanted. He then decided he wanted to make cookies and eat them in a tent in his room with tea and milk while watching Diego on my computer. I said yes to everything and the kid was asleep approximately 75 seconds later.

Bribery in the name of sanity. Maybe I'll stop this by the time I have a seven year old.

- 6 -

So. I'm kinda into reading about parenting at the moment. Often my desire to read up on certain subjects doesn't coincide with my life events, and so far into parenting I've had approximately ZERO interest in reading up on child development. But my three year old is stretching me big time, and now I've got the itch.

Also, Jacob has agreed to read exactly ONE book with me. He will listen to it in the car, but whatever, I'll take it. So which ONE will it be?? Give me your recommendations.

- 7 -

On a final and very different note.

I posted yesterday about my dear friend, Wendy, whose 17 year old brother has Leukemia. He was diagnosed less than a month ago, and he is doing really really poorly. Please please pray for John Kozak.

Have a lovely weekend, my friends. Go see Jen for more takes!