Upcycled Chair

My town has two clean up days a year. You would not believe what people put out for trash on those clean up days! My neighbors last year went garbage picking, and I was envious! This year I joined the adventure. We spent HOURS driving around our town checking out the ridiculous amount of things people had thrown away. Frankly it's just an opportunity to get things out of your house for free and not have to deal with trying to sell them. So there's usually a great deal of items that can be re-purposed by someone else. Some items need a little clean up and are ready to go, others you have to have vision to see their potential. Most of my items were ready to go, but this chair, as you can see needed some vision. I liked the era/style of the chair and figured if I could spruce it up, it might be awesome. And let's face it, if I couldn't spruce it up, I could pop it back in the trash.

The first step was taking the chair apart, and cleaning up the frame. Then I removed all of the gross plasticky upholstery and the OLD cushions. I cleaned up the wood bases, cut the proper shape of the cushions. I sprayed on some spray adhesive and stuck those babies in place. Looking good already! (or so I say myself, I like to give myself positive reinforcement while I'm working on a project).

Acquiring the upholstery was really the hardest part of this adventure. I went to Joann's Fabric and found this awesome pattern, but of course is was a special order fabric. I tried to order it once but was told it could only be done on a week night because the distribution center isn't open on a  weekend, blah blah blah. Ugh, super annoying. I went again, on a weeknight, and the manager just popped in the numbers to the computer ordered my upholstery and we were making progress. I asked the manager why that couldn't be done on a weekend, and he seemed a little perplexed at what I was told. NICE! That lovely experience only set me back two weeks!

 I wanted to paint the frame a deep navy blue, but the spray paint with that color top, comes out cobalt, really.bright.cobalt. I changed my mind and went with black, looks good even if it weren't my first choice. After I had the backing of the top piece put together with upholstery nails, I screwed it all back together.

Oh note on the screws: They were old and yucky looking, which wouldn't go well with my nice new shiny chair. I poked the screws through a cardboard egg carton so they would stand up and I spray painted them black also. worked great!

So now the chair resides in my kitchen, looking fabulous. The steps fold in and out, love it! The girls think it's the best place to go read books now.

A little piece of adulthood, a little too soon for this Mama!

On Saturday night, during dinner, Lourdes lost her first tooth! We've been waiting for this to happen for WEEKS. The tooth first got wiggly the last week of March, so it has been a long time coming. I've been squeamish about the wiggling and the possible tooth pulling. I was clear this was a job for Oscar. But, of course, when the tooth started bleeding and I tried to stop the bleeding for her, out came her tooth.

I thought she would be excited. She was excited but she was also frightened. She cried and felt scared by the whole event. I gave her lots of hugs and played up how big this was. I told her she has her first piece of adulthood now. And with that, I got myself a bit scared and upset too! ADULT TEETH ARE IN MY BABY'S BODY! Somehow this is more than I can handle on Mother's day. How about some sort of gift that makes me feel like they are still small!?

She got over her fright, and joined in the excitement. The toothfairy came and gave her a dollar. I think we can expect a letter in the mail from the toothfairy, who was taken off guard and not expecting it this weekend while away in Upstate NY! (even though the toothfairy went to CA with the toothfairy pillow, only to bring it home).

Here's her announcement video of her big news!

Fiona the Kindergartener

Fiona remains a character. She is so animated. I love to watch her hands move when she talks, she is so expressive with her hands and her body. Sometimes she is trying to speak the way adults speak and it just cracks me up. She also is fully aware that she's so adorable, and she uses it to her advantage. She's theatrical for sure, but she uses her cuteness to try and get out of responsibility. This is something we're working on quite a bit.

Beyond her hilarious personality Fiona is adjusting to kindergarten. This year at school hasn't gone as smoothly as it did for Lourdes. And I don't like to compare them in a sense that one should be doing what the other did, I know they are different children and I love that, I'm only saying for perspectives sake that it was more of an adjustment for Fiona. Usually Fiona is a bit reserved, and quiet when she starts out at a new place. She'll observe and take in her surroundings, try and figure people out before she interacts. I love this about her, she seems to make good decisions about situations and just being observant is a great trait to have. Unfortunately Fiona was under the impression that if it weren't for kindergarten she and I would be at home together each day. So this school thing was really bumming her out and ruining a good time at home. She was "sick" a bit frequently in the beginning of the year. And sick here is certainly a loose term. The school nurse and I have since had a discussion about Fiona's realization that the nurses office is the wonderful portal home. We are both on the same page that she'll be a frequent flyer there, and that most times it's better to say, "oh I'm sorry you aren't feeling well. I think Mommy's in a meeting right now. Go back to class and if you still feel sick later we'll try giving her a call." Amazing how she seemed to be so much healthier after this! But now the year is almost over and she's doing really well. Her latest report card says she's a leader in class, organizing games and making a lot of friends. She has a bit of a chatting problem (hmmm, where does that come from?) but she's learning and advancing. She's finally started reading and now that she can, she's actually getting into it. I think more she's getting into writing but hey, being literate is pretty awesome!

Lourdes One Heck of a 7 Year Old

Lourdes- Man is she a smart gal. She is inquisitive and understands on a level far beyond her years. Since the beginning of first grade she's been reading chapter books. I'm not talking short like 50 pagers, this gal is reading 200 page chapter books and usually within a day or two she's on to the next one. She and I are currently reading Little Women together. It's so fun to experience these books with her. There are some words and phrases that are above her but we talk them out and she gets it. It's a lot for her to "listen" to a book nowadays, she wants to be the one reading. Next up for us is the Harry Potter series!

She's still a bit cooky, but that makes her a lot of fun and very interesting. To just listen to her thought process takes you to a whole different world of understanding her. She remains just like me with her awkwardness and lack of grace. But boy does she try. I love her picture poses! Oh gosh, who know limbs and fingers could get so angly and oddly position for a picture. 

Lourdes is learning the ropes of friendship. She's struggling with the idea that not everyone deserves to be given your friendship. Some "friends" have been taking advantage of her for her toys and then pushing her aside and alienating her. It's tough, there's a lot of discussions we have. She has a huge heart, she wants to share that with everyone. I have tried to let her learn these lessons on her own, come to her understanding that these girls aren't nice to her and aren't worth playing with. But she's convinced next time, they'll be nice. If she lets them play with her toys, they'll like her. It's heartbreaking and I had to step in we had a big heart to heart. She was very grown about it. But it was heartbreaking to see her be hurt, and she was heartbroken to realize these girls would not be her friends no matter what she did. On the other hand, she has begun some really lovely friendships and those we are working to foster.

All in all, she is one special seven year old gal and I am over the moon to call her my daughter.

Gosh It's Been Awhile

Gosh, it has been a long time since I have blogged at all. I guess being a mom, wife and having a career are kind of taking every moment up. Then those moments that aren't scheduled or spoken for I crash on the couch and watch mind numbingly trashy television (Oscar might say those moments are too frequent). Well I do have hopes of always keeping up a better record of our lives. Perhaps it will actually happen. I did want to get some things down about the girls as they grow (too fast, seriously, TOO FAST). So here's some updates on them, their personalities, and anything else that pops in my head about them right now.

Making Some Changes

My neighborhood book club is a ton of fun and I love the variety of books we are reading. This month we are reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle. This book has honestly influenced me in a way very few books have. It is probably a combination of this book and the documentary Food inc. Both really discuss and show the way in which food is produced in the U.S. and problems within this system that make it less healthy.

In an effort to create a healthier life for my kids and family I am now making all of our bread at home, as well as making a concerted effort to eat as locally as possible. This is my happy little bread maker that has almost paid for itself now. Am I going to the lengths that Barbara does? No, we like fruit too much to let go of it until Summer. We are however making the most of our backyard garden and CSA from Great Country Farms. I have made a couple different tomato sauces to freeze, frozen some raw tomatoes and frozen some blanched corn from the farm. I even made peach freezer preserves.

No Longer a First Year Teacher

It is hard to believe that my first year has come and gone and that I started my second year yesterday! I am so happy with the decision I made to go with the district and school I am in. I work with some really amazing teachers and I feel like I have made some great friends. My first year was not without its bumps but they were far fewer than I had been warned they'd be. My students for the most part were fantastic and really interesting to work with. The great thing about my job is that I worked with seven different teachers and co-taught with each of them. So I was never to the point of annoyance with any students, I would have had to move on to my next class before that could happen.

In the beginning of the year we had to make professional goals. I am not one who is comfortable tooting my own horn but I am really proud of myself and I want to remember that in the future. My principal felt I'd set some pretty lofty goals for myself and was concerned I would actually be able to meet them. I had planned to make the ESOL department's time used more efficiently. I worked all year on a plan and eventually it came to developing a whole class for each teacher to teach themselves. I'm so proud of the outcome and I think our productivity with our caseloads this year will really show in their scores.

I was also nominated for First Year Teacher of the Year. I didn't win but honestly it felt great to know that people did really value my teaching, my efforts and me. I was loving my first year and having fun, so to see that people responded to that meant a lot. I think this year I also gained some self confidence that I'd been lacking for awhile. And again that's something I'm really proud of myself for.

My second year is starting now and I'm really excited to put into place this new class and step up my teaching. I've thought long and hard about improvements I can make and I'm excited to dive in and do that.