What we plan for 2018 and what actually happens won't perfectly align, but that's called life and being flexible. Time, budget, and need will all dictate what projects really come to happen, but here is at least a wish list of what may be to come, and some embarrassing photos of our disaster areas. 1. Danny's Big Boy RoomNumber one of the list for a reason, Danny needs a new room to make room for the next baby. Yeah, surprise! We have another bedroom and there's a reason this is the first photo. It's currently in a state of disaster. We don't plan on even starting until the summer, the new babe will be in our room for the first 6 months anyways, but the room does need to get finished. We've got a good idea of what we want, and Danny needs to be in it a good month before the baby needs the crib, so we don't have any jealousy issues, but we're not stressing over it during the winter. Worst case scenario, they share the nursery. My brother and I shared a room as kids and took a while to warm up to the own bedroom thing when we finally got it. Our kids will be fine. I really just want another bedroom to sleep in when someone is sick and you need to get away. That top bunk is already calling my name next cold and flu season! 2. Laundry ClosetWe really lack closets in our old house (any old homeowners not complain of that) and need to make good use of what we have. In the laundry is a random space for a closet where we are currently just throwing stuff we don't know what to do with and not utilizing the space at all. The plans have been made and now it's just waiting on the time and money. Once Danny saw the storage possibilities in my drawing, he was on board with trying to make the effort to build a closet in the space. Oh the storage possibilities seem endless... 3. Pantry ClosetAs with the above closet, we have another closet that isn't functioning very well in the pantry. We plan to build shelves, and put some thought into how best that little space can work for us. It too has a plan in place, although some tweaking may need made once we finalize everything for the laundry closet. I'd like to make it kind of an art closet for the kids, where we can store markers, scissors, paper, crayons, paints, projects, puzzles, wrapping paper and other things of the sort. I've talked too about making little shallow cubbies for in-progress art pieces and schoolwork for the kids someday, but then there is the unknown of how many kids and when we'd actually need the schoolwork space. I wouldn't want those little cubbies sitting empty for years, but then it's making something that works now and can be adapted for later needs. Basically, we're still debating a few things. 3. Veggie Garden OverhaulOur veggie garden was a big fail last year. I picked a spot that I thought was dry, but once we got rid of the grass to drink up the water it became a swamp, killing most of the little seedlings I started. I called it quits and went more the survival-of-the-fittest style gardening last summer and just planned to do raised beds in the future. We still had blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, zucchini, and pumpkins, but it was quite the eyesore and not what I had hoped for. Danny has a plan in place and wants to commandeer it as a Father-son project. With a new baby next summer, I've decided it may not be a bad thing to hand over and I can just focus on the flowers. 4. SandboxThis was something we said would happen last year and wasn't in the budget. Since it's not a real need, it could easily get bumped again, but I'd love to build baby a sandbox. I think he'd love it, since one of his favorite videos to ask for is the one of him playing in the sand at the beach. But, he's also perfectly content just happily digging in the dirt under the lilac bush. We just have to decide if we want to let him play in the chicken dirt and let our friends judge, or build him a cleaner dirt pit to play in. 5. Roll-Away Nesting BoxesAlso on the list last year, roll away nesting boxes that can be emptied without going in the coop sounds wonderful! We have the occasional egg eater, and Betty always goes broody in the summer, so having roll away boxes sounds really beneficial. I'm yet to find plans for roll away boxes that also empty outside of the coop instead of inside, so I've been working on my own creation. I think I've created a design that would work as a roll-away and outside-emptying box, but I need the mathematical eyes of my husband to approve them. 6. Gravel EverythingWell, not really everything, but it seems like it. We desperately need new gravel for the driveway and garage. We planned on doing it last year, and then when the garden flooded, Danny decided to wait until spring and gravel the garden as well and do raised beds. We're going to need a ton to fill everything (the garage is practically just dirt at this point) but if we're getting some we better get all we need. We're talking about possibly adding a gravel patch in the goat pen where it's always soggy and muddy to hopefully help keep their little hooves cleaner. We're still throwing around ideas and we don't need to decide until spring, but we're talking a lot of gravel, and not a project that is super fun, but its necessary. 7. The Embarrassing List of Still-Left-to-Do's:Is this just every homeowners life, or is it just the life of a procrastinator? There are so many little unfinished projects here and there, the staining the stair railings being just one. I'm not for speed redoing your whole house just to get it done, personally preferring to take the time to live in it, plan, and do it right, but some of this stuff is ridiculous. Things got missed, for whatever reason, and then, because they're small and easily overlooked, they just keep getting ignored. You can add, puttying and painting the crown molding, staining the kitchen door, adding baseboards to the mudroom, and finish painting the freaking laundry room to the list. However. some of this stuff has been on the list since year one (yeah pathetic,) so I'm going to be more realistic here and say whatever we get done off this list is bonus points.
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I love putting up the Christmas tree and now I'm in that time where I'm going back and forth about taking it down. It has such a fun magical feel but then I'm losing a lot of space with the tree still up. We had a great Christmas and this year was so fun because baby was into everything. He's still asking to turn the tree and the little houses on each day and loves all the Christmas lights. One thing that he loved was getting the Christmas tree. This year we took the top of a tree from one the in-laws cut down, but we still went out an cut a tree with my family. Husband Danny was sick and sad he missed it, but baby and I tagged along with everyone else. Even the dog made the cut. So many people complain about the thought of getting a real tree, it's too messy and a rip off. If you're only looking at the cost, than yes, you could argue a fake tree eventually pays for itself. Real trees drop needles, they need watered, and you have to light it yourself, but isn't kind of sad how negative and complaining we've become? As a kid, bringing a real tree in the house was exciting, probably because the whole concept is in reality kind of weird, like you're breaking some rule. Growing up we went to Anderson's every year for our tree, racing through the rows looking for the biggest one. Then we moved, and didn't have the ceiling height we did before, so we had to look a little more carefully. We all still went, typically getting our tree and my grandma's, walking around in the cold with hot cider and coffee's, smelling the crisp, pine scented air. Of course, there were the occasional fights over which tree was best, or the endless waiting for my dad to triple check it was tied to the car correctly. In high school we'd have friends over for the burning of the tree in the spring, cooking smore's and listening to the branches crackle and spark. Now, almost thirty years later we all still go help my parents pick out their tree. It's always been an option, never some guilt-trip-have-to event, but yet every year we find the one day we all will be in town and go out to get it together. My little family didn't even get a tree, but baby and I still joined the fun. People always wonder how my family ended up so close. Part of it is because my parents invested doing things like this with us. They developed the memories and allowed time to decided what would last. They gave up the Martha Stewart tree and accepted the hodgepodge tree with all different sentimental ornaments, because it's what kept us interested. The little memories and stories that came out as each ornament was unpacked kept decorating the tree from being monotonous. Our tree never had to be perfect. If we left half the ornaments in the box my mom didn't care. It was to be fun. You see the investment in that sappy, messy, unlit, thirsty tree every year is not just monetary. The priceless investment is the time and memories made in the process of picking out the tree. That tree every year gets us all out together, usually over for dinner, and helping decorate and light the tree. Then, in the spring becomes the big bonfire, another thing that gave us family time as we got older. Now it's my sister and I decorating with the occasional help from baby, any help from the boys being a thing of the past. Gone are the days of fighting over the special ornaments, but for as annoying as we may have been then, it built enough good memories that it keeps us coming around. So now, with all adult children and their own lives and schedules, my parents still get to have us all willingly tag along to get a Christmas tree. They're not alone pulling a tree out of a box, putting on the meaningless colored ornaments because years ago they began investing the time and money. So for all the other young mama's out there with kids fighting over which tree is the best, ornaments all 2 feet or lower on the tree, and daily vacuuming up little needles, remember the kids don't see those things as long as you don't complain. They'll remember the fun, the memories that were made, and we can all hope and cross our fingers that they'll never grow too old for it all. Our tree is still going strong, although not having a machine available to shake it resulted in some spiders on the ceiling. Now the question is do I get rid of it or let him keep it up? The goats will be getting it to nibble on so I know their vote. |
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