Category Archives: Home & Kids

Where we’ll be next Christmas

Just wanted to give you guys a glimpse of where we plan on being next Christmas.

Here!

My parents are building a house in snowy Stevens Point, Wisconsin, and it’s gonna be a beaut. So much thought has gone into this house, and it’s starting to pay off as the vision comes together.

I’m so glad they have the chance to build this. After years and years living in a variety of apartments across the U.S. and Spain and renovating the heck out of every place they inhabited since they were about 24 years old, they finally get to build something they like from the get-go. Which won’t require walls and doors to be torn down and shifted to their satisfaction, or bathrooms to be gutted and re-worked, or stucco on the ceiling that has to be laboriously scraped off. I’m especially happy for my mom, who has dreamed of designing a house for years, and now gets to fulfill that dream.

Mom and Dad spent about 9 years in their last apartment in Madrid making it work, redoing the kitchen themselves, spackling things, tearing holes in walls, building cabinets with their own two hands, etc. etc. (Mom destroyed her knees in the process of tiling and destroyed her arms in the process of spackling and sanding the walls) They did a great job of making it as beautiful as possible, but all their efforts aside, this apartment was a dark cave where no sunlight EVER hit.

I remember being there for Christmas years ago and never wanting to get out of bed because it felt like nighttime 24/7. Have you ever lived in a dark cave? Do you know what I’m talking about?? That feeling is no fun, man. It’s depressing, in fact. So it brings joy to my heart that now my parents will have plenty of light, streaming through the windows of the sun room Mom is so thrilled about, and through the windows of this studio.

Where she can paint!

Sunlight makes such a difference in our state of general happiness, doesn’t it?

Mom regularly posts picture updates on facebook so that we can see the whole process–the construction team just recently installed a good amount of insulation and has started putting in dry wall. But when we visited my parents for Christmas, I got to see the house in person for the first time.

 

Though these pictures are a little outdated and much more progress has been made since December, I thought you guys might enjoy seeing a glimpse of the work-in-progress. I can’t wait to celebrate next Christmas in this gorgeous space!

Is it too soon to start dreaming fuzzy dreams about the holidays? I hope not . . . because there’s no way I can stop now that I’ve started. I have visions of childhood Christmas music peacefully playing in the background, 4-part harmony happening spontaneously as we intone Christmas carols while doing the dishes, steaming cups of espresso welcoming us to the breakfast table, Christmas brew simmering on the stove, an angel food cake being whipped together Christmas Eve, the whole family gathered (spouses included) for the first time in many years . . . and of course, little James (an almost 2-year-old by then) toddling around, and other wee babies whom we’ve not yet met being passed from person to person and snuggled to death (my cousin Steve and Steph are having their first pretty dang soon, and my sister Heidi is pregnant again–yippee-yay-yay!) (aside note: looks like my strategy worked).

Ah. After this little parenthesis of day-dreaming, I think I’ll float around for the rest of the day in a cloud of peace.

Graffiti on my coat: the solution!

A number of weeks ago I tossed up a short post telling you all the sad story of how, the previous morning, I had unwittingly leaned up against some wet graffiti on my train ride into work. I have one warm winter coat that fulfills all my needs, and since I was determined that some punk graffiti artist was not going to coerce me into buying new winterwear by means of his moist silver tag, I could either figure out how to clean it or live with the streaks and splotches forevah-evah. Here is the coat in question:

And here is the damage on the sleeve . . .

. . . and on the side, towards the bottom.

Not huge marks–but definitely noticeable. And annoying.

Two days after getting the graffiti on my coat, I was at a women’s breakfast/brunch that Traci (our pastor’s wife) was hosting. During the course of conversation, she and another mom were talking about occasions their kids had drawn all over stuff–walls, upholstery, etc. And then Traci mentioned how she had removed ink stains from their beige couch with her Tide magic marker. I perked up. A magic stain-removing marker? I rushed out of the room, grabbed my coat and shoved it towards Traci. “What about this?? Will the magic marker get this graffiti out??”

Traci genially applied her magic Tide marker. And it started working.

Needless to say, I bought my own at the grocery store that same afternoon and went to work on the coat.

I worked on the stain on and off for a couple weeks, carrying the marker around in the pocket of my coat so that I could pull it out whenever I had time to sit and rub at the paint with vigor. And after some time and diligence, it is mostly gone, with only a shadow left where the original stains were. Want to see the maker in action?

Here’s a small part of the stain up close . . .

Now let’s apply the magic.

Scrubbity dubbity dub . . .

. . . three men in a tub . . . the butcher, the baker . . . Huh? Three men in a tub? What’s this nursery rhyme about, anyway?

Moving on.

See how quickly it faded the silver? I’ll show you the ‘erased’ spot in contrast with the larger stain.

It’s still a little wet from the Tide liquid, but you get the idea.

And I have to say for any Doubting Daisies–this is no paid product endorsement or any such thing. This is simply a product I pounced on when Traci mentioned it because I was desperate to reclaim my winter coat from whatever gang tried to destroy it.

I also heard from Shalice (at the same women’s gathering) that a little Hydrogen Peroxide takes care of most blood stains. Well, I happen to have this nagging little blood stain on a perfectly great dress that I haven’t been able to remove even after repeated applications of Lestoil.

So I grabbed the peroxide . . .

. . . and thus endeth the story.

Because unfortunately, the peroxide was old and had lost all its bubbles, impeding me from carrying forth with the experiment. But I will resume this topic once I get a new bottle at the grocery store!