Real Life Fairy Tale

Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess.

She lived in a sweet yellow cottage with her charming prince and three little dwarves.

One day, after the princess had taken the oldest dwarf to school, she bustled about her yellow cottage dusting and shining and singing a happy tune.  Late in the morning she prepared a snack of healthy broccoli.

The middle dwarf had seen the princess sprinkling lemon pepper on her broccoli and decided that he wanted sprinkles on his broccoli, too.  Real sprinkles.

Before the princess could stop him, the middle dwarf had poured about half a cup of sprinkles over his broccoli.  When the princess saw his colorful bowl she shrugged and decided that as long as he ate the broccoli she wouldn't worry about the sprinkles.

As the middle dwarf enjoyed his snack the youngest dwarf started requesting special princess milk.  So the princess and youngest dwarf snuggled in bed so he could eat.

Now, the princess was under a terrible curse.

It made her very tired, so while the youngest dwarf was nursing, the princess fell into a deep sleep.  She slept for 100 years.  Okay, more like ten minutes.  When she awoke she saw that the middle dwarf was patting her arm and saying, "You can help me get up the mess?"

The princess wiped the sleep from her eyes and sat up.  The youngest dwarf was no longer in the bed. The princess was suddenly wide awake.

She followed the middle dwarf to the dwarf room where she saw broccoli and sprinkles covering the carpet.  She followed the middle dwarf to the living room where she saw broccoli and sprinkles covering the carpet.  Finally, she followed the middle dwarf to the kitchen sink where she saw the youngest dwarf holding a little bowl with very little broccoli and sprinkles left inside.  Both dwarves had rainbow colored mouths, cheeks, and chins.

On any other day the princess might have cried, whined, or raised her voice in anger.  But you see, despite the terrible curse, the princess had been redeemed by an ever loving King.  And the King had been teaching her the secrets of what housework is all about.

So with her trusty weapons

 Vacuum,

Steam mop, 

and baby gate,

the princess restored order and beauty to her home.  Then she sat down with her little dwarves and played a game of "build a block tower and knock it down."  And they lived happily ever after.

Brotherly Love

Last night at dinner we started discussing where we should send Toby to preschool next year.  He is thriving at his current school but he'll be old enough to go to Veritas' preschool program this fall.  During the conversation Toby started bouncing in his seat.

"Veritas!  Veritas!  I want Veritas!"  Then he looked at Noah with a big grin and said, "When I go to your school we can hug each other."

It was no easy task mopping up the two big puddles of melted parent hearts under the table.

In the Bloodline

Geary (indicating a motorcycle driving past):  I wouldn't get it in that ugly blue color but that's the kind of motorcycle I want.

Jeana:  You mean when you no longer have a wife and three young children to care for?  Because we need you to stay alive.

Geary:  Yes.  That's what I mean.  That's why I never went skydiving again.

Noah:  Dad, you went skydiving???

Geary:  Only once.

Noah:  Awesome.

(A few moments later)

Noah (in a state of wonder):  I'm half skydiver.

What's that word again?

I showed my boys how my friend Christa's children play with big storage bins as nest.   They liked the idea and immediately started talking about the other ways they have played with bins.

Noah:  We've played trains, cars...boats!  Oh, and cack-eye!

Toby:  Cack-eye?  We never played that.

Jeana:  Hmm, do you mean cacti? Cactus?

Noah:  Not cack-eye?  Oh..um..oh yeah.  Khaki!

Jeana:  Khaki??


Noah:  You know!  A one person boat?

Jeana:  Oh!  You mean kayak.

Noah:  Kayak!  You're going to blog this, aren't you.

Wicking

This happened a while ago but we are still laughing about it.

Noah:  Aaaah!  Toby just wicked me!

Jeana:  What?  He wicked you?

Noah (glaring at the giggling Toby): Yeah.  And it doesn't feel good, Toby!

Jeana:  I don't even know what you're talking about.  What does it mean that he wicked you?

Noah (slicing his hand up through the air):  It's when he runs his hand up your crack like a credit card. Wick!

Hydrangea Earrings

This year I have a little goal for Ruby Willow.  I'm going to create a new design every month.  Here's what I made for January:

Hydrangea Earrings!

I have always loved hydrangeas.  

They were my wedding flowers and I had the most beautiful bouquet!

Each "hydrangea" is made from thirty glass pearls woven together to form a ball.

It is quite labor intensive but I love how simple and yet whimsical they look.

Modern, elegant, fun, beautiful.

I am going to ask my little photographer friend to put these on a model ASAP

so you can see how lovely they are framing a person's face.

Here's the etsy listing for these earrings if you're interested.

What do you think?  Do you love hydrangeas as much as I do? 

Mini Living Room Makeover

During the Christmas season I got the itch to rearrange our living room.  We were given a cute little spinet piano and suddenly the room felt very crowded.  While I was taking down decorations I decided to just go for it and give our living room a mini makeover.  Here's how our living room looked before.

 You know what's funny?  I bought the rug you'll see in the next several pictures but then returned it and exchanged it for the rug above because I was afraid it was too bold and graphic for the room.  But the rug above lasted for less than 24 hours before I took it back and re-bought the original rug.  I just loved it so much!  (And now I don't think it's too bold or graphic at all.)  So that rug was only the room for one day but that is the picture of my living room that has been on my "Tour the House" links for three years!  Hope you don't feel fooled...I was not intentionally hiding our real rug :)

Anyway, here's how I rearranged:

I love how it feels more open and airy.

From the other side of the room.  You can see our new piano.  And for those that are freaking out that we have our piano by a window, just rest assured that they are pretty new energy star windows.  And remember that it was a freebie, rescued from a church piano that will be used for little kid piano lessons.

The music corner.  I'd like to find a pretty guitar stand and have our guitar out.  Maybe then I would be re-motivated to learn how to play it.  And maybe Geary would pick it up more often and serenade me like he did in the early days of our marriage.

I'm also considering curtains for the windows.  We'll see.  I've been loving the simple bamboo shades for several years but maybe curtains would give the feeling of height to the room.

 Updated to add:  The bamboo blinds would stay and I would layer the curtains over them.  These pictures were taken at night, but in the day time this room gets a fair amount of natural light and we keep the bamboo shades up.

I spray painted the lampshade.  It's a little too turquoise for me right now so I'm keeping my eyes open for a new one.  Maybe something with a graphic pattern like one of these:

I don't love how the tan slipcovers look with the wheat colored walls.  I'd like a little more contrast.  And those slipcovers are getting worn out, too.  Someday, when I have some extra money I'd like to get new slipcovers for the furniture. Maybe this Svanby brown:

Although I'm also really attracted to the Svanby gray:

What do you think? Brown?

Or gray?

I think if I went with gray I might want a more muted rug.

Here are a few more shots of the living room as it looks today.

So my wish list for this room includes:

• New slipcovers
• A guitar stand
• A new lampshade
• Maybe some additional throw pillows (which I'll probably make on my own)
• Oh, and a clock.  We really need a clock in this room.  (I am picky about my clocks, though)

But for now, I'm happy with how it looks and feels in there.  What do you think?  Is there anything you would change, take away, or add to the room?  Do you like the brown or gray better?  Do you think I should add curtains to the windows?

It's so Binary

10 years ago on 01/11/01 Geary asked me to marry him.  I said "Yes, please!" and 10 years later on 01/11/11 I am still extremely happy with that decision.

In My Face

I frequently have little races with Toby throughout the day, mostly from the car to the front door.  Otherwise, it would take it 30 minutes to get inside while he examined every fallen leaf, blade of dead grass, and rock in our driveway.   Most of the time I let him win and we enjoy a fair amount of "trash talk."  He'll squeal in victory and say things like, "I win!  I win!  In your face, Mommy! Beat that!"

But yesterday I forgot about our little racing game and sped to the front door with my arms full of Miles and some grocery bags.   After I set the bags and baby down on the floor, Toby came hopping up the front steps behind me.

"Aw man!  Mommy, you won.  In my face!"

Duplo Towers

Over Christmas break Geary was able to spend quite a bit of time playing with the boys while I worked on making Christmas gifts. (He really is the best husband ever.)  One of their favorite activities was building things out of legos, duplos, lincoln logs, and zoobs.  One day they decided to see how tall they could make towers made of duplos.

  They started out with a tower that was taller than Toby.

 Do me a favor and ignore that pile of mess on Miles' bed.  I was sorting through all their clothes so they could have the correct sizes and seasons in their closet.

____________________________________________________

 Next they built a tower that was taller than Noah.

Check out that clever base.  Think I've got future engineers?

 __________________________________________________

 Finally, they built a tower taller than Geary!  It actually almost touched the ceiling.

 I love Toby's little happy dance here.

______________________________________________________

And then, of course, the pesky youngest brother had to come and knock it all down.  Good thing he's so cute!  And the big brothers didn't really mind.  It was just an excuse to keep on building!

The MK Christmas Special

Noah and Toby both participated in our church's children's musical this year.  It was called The MK Christmas Special and was basically a Rosie O'Donnell type talk show featuring missionary kids from around the world.  

 Here's the wreath that welcomed the audience to the performance.  

I thought the set decorations were pretty cool!

_________________________________________________

 This is what the front of the program looked like.

______________________________________________________

And a little blurb on the inside telling more about the musical.

__________________________________________________________

Here is Noah's name in the program.  He was a member of the studio audience and had two small speaking parts which he said loud and clear.  Even Grandpa Bob was impressed!

__________________________________________________________

And here he is singing, "It's Christmas All Over the World."

_____________________________________________________________

There's Toby's name in the program!  It said he was a sheep.

__________________________________________________________

 Cute, huh?  Oh...but what does his costume bag say?  Not a sheep but a...

__________________________________________________________

 Sheet!  I couldn't stop giggling about that one. 

 It was a super cute production and Toby was the cutest sheet on stage!

Happy New Year!