I don't think I'd recommend moving during the holidays. It seems like it's sort of crazy. While we still work on getting settled in here, we're trying to get in some of our usual December traditions. Two weeks ago we were off to the Lazy Lay Acres farm in Dade City to chop down our Christmas tree.
You might remember, about 5 years ago, we picked out this gem. The boys liked the weird trunk, and didn't mind the lack of any needles in the middle of the tree. I was looking for the perfect tree, nice and symmetrical and pretty. The boys argued that every tree should get to be a Christmas tree, even the ugly ones. And so we got the tree, and a tradition was born.
This was our tree in 2012.
2013 was more Charlie Brown like.
2014 was the bush tree that split in two.
2015 was the three that held about 1/3 of our ornaments.
This year we walked to the very back of the farm, passed all those perfectly trimmed pretty trees, to find a row of pretty scraggly looking ones. Notice Ellie, she came along, since the boys said this was going to be the first tree we picked out since adopting Ellie. (When we adopted her on December 22 last year, we already had our tree). Anyway, this tree looked pretty awful in the field. I loved the trunk, because it is pretty squiggly; it reminded me of a Dr. Suess tree.
We all agreed pretty quickly, and Asa chopped it down. Sometimes we get a discount on the ugly tree. This year the guy that cut it down, just rounded down on our measurement (since you pay by the foot), so we did get a foot for free.
Peyton and Hayden and I visited with the chickens, rabbits, pigs, and goats while they wrapped our tree and tied it to the car for us.
Ellie really wanted to come into the pen too, as she'd sniff anything that came near the fence, but she was really good and pretty gentle with the goats and pigs. We did find one pig that had made himself a little straw fort.
I was pleased with how terrible the tree looked even tied to the car.
Calib got it off the top of the car when we got home. He's standing there for perspective. (Calib's just about 6 feet tall these days- Asa say's he's 5'11'', but I think he's just saying that because Calib is quickly approaching being taller than Asa.)
Anyway, the tree lacks any sort of needles on the front side of the top half, really showcasing that weird trunk. But, once it was all decorated, I was a little disappointed in how not-ugly it looked.
I guess the good part about moving so close to Christmas was that I didn't have to dig for the ornaments. I knew right where that tote was.
Look how pretty our ugly tree is!
Of course, per Sattler family tradition, we had to have Chinese food after we put up the tree. We ordered from a new place, right at the entrance to our subdivision. It was actually really good. Not Peaking good, but still pretty good.
While I knew were all the Christmas totes were, I really dragged my feet on getting out the decorations. I'm still finding homes for all of our stuff, so putting some of it away to put out Christmas stuff just seemed weird. The boys bugged me about it several times before I finally got out some of our decorations. But, for the first time we also decorated outside. (I don't have any pictures of that though- and really our little porch of lights is dwarfed by several of our neighbors who are all Griswalded out.) I am lacking a good plant shelf for the stockings too, so I just threw them on top of home school central and called it a day.
Oh, and I used my Kohl's cash to get some cute Moose throw pillows for free. We're considering keeping these out longer than Christmas, but we'll see.
In the tote I found these awesome pajamas. We made Calib and Peyton put them on. Calib was not as thrilled as he looks about this (and yes, I know, he doesn't look thrilled).
Speaking of Calib, he threw a bit of a wrench in our usual December traditions too, when he had his wisdom teeth taken out last Thursday. He was originally supposed to get them out the end of December, but he had another issue they decided he needed to get it done before he went to Ohio for his December trip. Since he got knocked out for it, they took out one of his baby teeth that never came out while he was under, and transplanted one of his wisdom teeth in a gap towards the back. He kept telling everyone about his 'operation', and that he was a 'transplant survivor'. Anyway, there was all kinds of prescriptions to keep track of, and Asa mostly handled it, until he had to be in the office- then he left me a note to remember everything. Calib had a rough few days, but he's doing much better now. (I mean I assume, he's in Ohio, and we haven't heard too much from him, but he was much better the day before he left.)
By last Sunday he was still only eating soft foods, so we made a soup and sandwich bar, which was actually pretty awesome. Potato Soup with oyster crackers, yes please.
Also worth noting, I did get some cookies made. We're not going to Ohio this year. (Thank God, have you seen how cold it is there?! Meanwhile, we're dealing with near record highs!) But, I still try and do my part in the cookie department.
And you guys, for the first time in the like decade (at least) that I've been making oatmeal scotchies, I didn't screw them up! I used those silicone baking sheets and it was AMAZING. Plus, I think my new oven might have something to do with it.
I also made a few other Christmas cookie box cookies, and sent them off to Toledo to be dished out in all the boxes up there. I'm hoping my oatmeal scotchies make it ok, since they are actually good this year.
On the non-holiday front, otherwise known as house projects, we've had a lot to do. When I last left you, I think I had only shown you the walls in the Harry Potter room. We've since added to them with the coolest dressers around.
So, we bought those cheap as you can get Ikea dressers, and Asa put them together for me. Then, I painted the outsides of them grey, and the drawers all varying colors. (Valspar makes these cute little sample size things of paint that were perfect for this!)
That dried overnight, then I painted some designs on the drawers, either with a stencil, or just taping it off. It's not my best work, but it's pretty good. We nixed the drawer pulls that Ikea gives you with the dresser, and instead had picked out six different handles at Lowes. Asa drilled the holes and attached them for me.
Then we added some latches, to make our drawers look like luggage!
We bought a couple of boards, and painted those grey as well, and attached them to the bottom. That was less aesthetic and more for function. I wanted wheels attached to the bottom, but without the boards, there wasn't much of anything to attach them to. So we added two of those, one in the front and one in the back, and then the wheels. To complete the look of a luggage cart, we added those cheap ikea bars to the top to look like handles.
And now, you guys, check it out, we have luggage carts going into Platform 9 3/4! (And Peyton & Hayden have dressers!) It looks so cool, and Peyton and Hayden love them. (We still need a platform 9 3/4 sign) Truth be told, there are some imperfections, but they are one of the coolest things I've ever made.
We're getting to know our new neighbors, and a couple houses down, there's a kid (I say kid, but he's like 20) who gets those LootCrate things every month. (In case you aren't familiar, it's one of those subscription boxes for cool nerdy stuff). He was super thoughtful and brought down a whole box of stuff he'd kept of things from the LootCrate he wasn't into for the boys (and Asa). They were excited about all of it, and Peyton knew right where to put the Platform 9 3/4 bag tag.
I did want to get some awesome Gryffindor like curtains for their bunk beds, but as it turns out, that would be really expensive, so I settled for these Ikea curtains. They're actually pretty awesome. Since their ceiling is on a slope (a pretty big one, even though it's hard to tell here), my mom suggested getting hooks, since a curtain rod wouldn't work. The hooks worked, and the boys really like them. All we have left to do in their Harry Potter room is decorate, but I'm super excited about how it turned out. Fun side note, all of this Harry Potter room mania has made Hayden super excited about reading the books. I've caught him all over the house reading his books on his own time. So, that's pretty cool.
The whole room isn't Harry Potter though. The boys have some other non-Potter related things, so we made their bunks like their own little rooms. Hayden really wanted to keep the Greek Gods from Greek week when we moved (they had been on his ceiling.) I did my best to get them off the ceiling, then laminated them, and used command strips to put them on the ceiling of his bunk bed. We added bars for their hats, and shelves for all their little collectibles. Peyton's is still a work in progress, but Hayden's is all done. He loves it.
We've had a few other projects too. The cats really like to sleep with Peyton and Hayden, but they also like to come and go. Sometimes that's a problem, as the cats will bug Peyton to come and go. We solved that by installed a kitty door in Peyton and Hayden's door.
You can get these on Amazon, then all you have to do is use a jigsaw, cut the door, and install this cute little cat. Porkchop can fit under it, but it's pretty difficult for him to do so, and he's only done it once. Other than that, the cats have really liked being able to come and go, and you don't have to worry about leaving the house and accidentally shutting them in there. It's awesome.
My other big project is still in progress. You might remember the giant chalkboard wall we had in our last house. I need something like that from homeschool, but there isn't really a good contained wall like that, so I came up with an idea. We bought a 4 foot by 8 foot piece of plywood (I splurged and got the already primed one). Then, we chalkboard painted it.
Since those boards worked out so well in the Harry Potter room, we decided those would be a nice frame for our giant chalkboard. We screwed it into the studs, then put the chalkboard above it, and then added another board up top.
Plus then we put our pen and pencil cups down at the bottom. It looks good now, but there's going to be a 1 by 8 foot corkboard on top, then another board to frame it, and then we'll frame out the sides. It's going to be really great for homeschool, so I can't wait to get it all done.
We tackled a few other small projects. I've been trying to find something I liked for our coffee mugs, but I still hadn't found anything. We decided just to do the bar from the old house and do that for now.
We also made an Ikea trip for a few more shelves. My dad's stuff is off the bookcase and has it's own little spot, which is nice. Asa's diploma and Top Performer award are on the other side.
And after deciding it wouldn't work to mount the TV in the office, we decided to put it on a shelf.
We got a few small odds and ends at Ikea too. I got a nice little cart to make transporting homeschool stuff a little easier, and a new end table for the printer.
Oh, and we have a spot for indoor plants too. Look how cute! They don't get a lot of sunlight here, so we'll have to see how they do. We might end up having to take them outside.
In non-house related projects, I got our calendar done for next year. And yet again, everyone said I needed to put President's birthdays on there, so we have them all, even Donald Trump.
In 2017, in case you haven't heard, our big project is to celebrate every country (or at least the one's recognized by the UN). That's 193 countries, so we're going to try and get to around 17 a month. Anyway, I'll share more about that later, but I've been working really hard on making info sheets for every country. I think I have somewhere around 75 of them done. Asa got me this awesome book to help out, and I've set the wall in the kitchen for everything we'll need. It looks pretty bare now, but it'll start filling up in a couple weeks.
Last night one of our new neighbors insisted we stop by their Christmas party. Asa went down there on a break, and brought back a plate of food. The hummingbird cake was delicious! Anyway, I wandered down awhile later with Peyton and Hayden. We had a really nice time, it was nice of them to think of us!
We ran errands this morning, and now we're watching some football. The Bucs aren't on until 8 PM, because they finally got a Sunday night primetime game. It's the first time in like 8 years, so we're all very excited about it. I doubt we'll win, but if we just don't embarrass ourselves, that would be great. Unfortunately, Calib is flying back in right in the middle of the game (it's unfortunate timing, not that he's coming back!), so we aren't allowed to start it until I get back with him. While we'll all be happy to see him, I think Ellie will be the most excited. She really pouts and misses him when he's gone.
Asa is in the office this week, but Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday we're hoping to do SOME Christmas related stuff. I usually make a punch board for all of December, with activities for each day. But, between moving, and the wisdom teeth, and Calib's Ohio trip, we didn't get around to it. The boys really wanted me to make one, so here we have the tiniest one ever. It's only six days, but at least it's something.
That's it from here.
Next Up: Christmas 2016!
No comments:
Post a Comment