Comfortably Hideous: A Tour

I've always thought our basement was ugly. It was certainly not a mark in favor of purchasing this particular house, though it wasn't quite ugly enough to outweigh all the good things about the house.

Our big project of last week was cleaning out and rearranging the basement in preparation for a new semi-long-term house guest who will be living there for a few months. I must say, the new organization has served to spruce up the place a bit...but I still think it's ugly.

Perhaps you'd like to judge for yourself?

The stairs themselves aren't so bad.

At the bottom of the stairs and to the left is the utility room. I don't really expect this to be pretty, and for sure, it isn't.

To the right of the stairs is the guest bedroom/my craft and writing room. This is where I go when I have moments of free time away from the kids. I thoroughly enjoy this room. Or at least what I can do in this room.

Straight ahead at the bottom of the stairs is this bookcase. Side note, I own all of the Work and the Glory books except volume 7.

To the right again is the laundry room. Currently, we've moved some portion of our food storage into there.

And back out of the laundry room...Hello brown linoleum and wood paneling.

Dining room. I guess. When we're not using this as an apartment, this space is fairly useless.

Basement bathroom.

Nothing amazing, though it does contain this cupboard that is quite annoyingly deep. Not helpful to a short person. I can't actually reach the back.

The second kitchen. These cupboards were originally upstairs. The man who built our house was an accomplish carpenter and built three sets of cabinets for this house through the years. He also did a lot of the finish work in the chapel where our ward meets.

Last but not least, the puzzle room. At least, that's what it was. Back when we kept working on the puzzle. Someday we'll finish it. Hopefully.

Ugh. I hate the wood paneling. Whenever we have the time and the money for remodeling, that'll be the first thing to go.

I'm sure there are uglier basements out there, but this one very much meets my standards of hideous. Even if we do arrange the furniture nicely.

The Mush of Life

Ben has shown increasing interest in everything the rest of us have been eating, so I figured it was about time to give him his own taste of semi-solid food.

He was less excited about the prospect when we began the adventure.

He perked up after the first bite, though.

And he was quite satisfied when all was said and done.

This boy loves to eat. Just like his dad.

My Apologies

Once again, I have seriously slacked on the blogging, much to my dismay and to that, apparently, of many, many other people who keep asking why I haven't blogged recently.

Someday, someday, I'll write about what's actually going on at our house. Oh, the stories I can tell. For the moment, just know that I am not myself and our household has been under extreme stress for many months now. Slowly but surely, though, we're getting a grip on the situation. I look forward to the time when I can finally write it all down and stop keeping quite so many secrets.

I'll write about it soon. I promise.

In the meantime, I have written and back-dated several posts, including one all the way back in 2011. Yep, I was so far behind I had to go back to a completely different year. Sigh.

Happy commenting!

Through Jane's Eyes

Happy Birthday 

to our newest 

FOUR-YEAR-OLD!!

In honor of the occasion, here are several pictures from Jane's new camera (it's a kid camera--forgive the blurriness, it's not the highest quality, though she absolutely loves it), as well as some of the more amusing and interesting things she's said of late.

"Mom, I'm feeling very selfish today."

"Really? Why?"

"Selfish means that you didn't eat your dinner and that you're STARVING. I'm pretty selfish because I'm hungry."

About her preschool teacher:

"Miss Vicki came back to school today with a new hip. She had to get a new one because her bone didn't work anymore, so the doctor took it out and put in a metal bone instead. Now she can walk, but she has to use a cane. Sometimes Grandpa Jeff uses a cane, too. I can use a cane. Except I don't have one. Here, I'll use this stick and show you how to walk with a cane."

And so she did, all the way home from school.

"Megan is my sister. Yep. That's about all I can say about her."

"Oh, Mom, I'm so glad I had that candy. Now I don't have to eat lunch."

"You must call me Princess Jane because I am a princess and I am in charge of the world."

"Let's just skip Christmas so Claire can come over."

Panda in Pink

Rather than a party this year, Jane's birthday celebration was a date with Mom and Dad--Megan and Ben not allowed!

Clothing Choice: Pink Dress

Dinner Choice: Panda Express

Activity Choice: Discovery Gateway

Happy Birthday tomorrow!

Ringing it in

Party!

Happy 2012!

Note--all these fireworks were lit in front of our house. Thanks, Tony! Fireworks are pretty awesome when all my kids are asleep. ;)

For just a moment, I would like to step up on my soapbox and give a short rant about New Years' Resolutions...basically, I am opposed. For three reasons:

1. It's a horrible time to start something. Honestly, you need time to recover from all the holidays. It always takes me a few weeks to get back into the groove of a regular routine and if I'm trying to jumpstart all kinds of new resolve at the same time, suffice it to say that I don't expect grand results.

2. There is a huge connotation of failure. How often do you hear about people actually achieving their resolutions? Now, don't be offended, I know there are people out there who really do set their minds to succeed and succeed they do. But that's not what you hear about. You hear about all the people who join the gym and only go twice, those who vow to read 100 books and quit after three, or what have you. I don't like the idea of setting a goal like that at a time when society generally expects you to fail, no matter who you are or what your goal is. I just don't like the connotation there.

3. If I have something that I really want to be doing or working on or changing about myself, I just do it. The idea of waiting for a convenient date seems like a stall or a way to be lazy and not commit right away. It also implies that starting anything during the rest of the year doesn't really count because you haven't worked on it for the whole year.

HOWEVER.

Before you come flying at me with torches and pitchforks, let me state my view of the other side of the coin.

1. Goals are always a good thing. Life is much more productive if we have something that we are aiming for. I would certainly say that it's better to set goals at the beginning of the year than never at all.

2. New Year's does provide an excellent time for taking stock of the previous, making note of the things that went well and what might need to be improved. In light of improving over the past, New Year's is a convenient time stamp for switching old to new...I know, that's the whole idea.

3. Despite the messages of imminent failure, there is a lot of talk about setting goals and deciding on resolutions. It can be really nice to remember to take a few moments to evaluate and set some goals.


I've been reading a lot of resolutions on friends' blogs, and I must say, I'm impressed. I read goals that I hadn't considered before that I think are really good ideas and will eventually work their way onto my to-do lists. Thanks for the inspirations, friends! I do have several things that I am already working on right now, and I hope to keep going with them until I achieve my goal, then we'll pick something new to work on. Here's to self-improvement.