A+ September

It does not get better than this past weekend. Beautiful weather. Dinners with friends. New haircut, color and manicure. Fun at the park. My continued war on the brown walls upstairs. That last part may not sound like fun to other people, but with each stroke of the paintbrush I felt victorious. I felt like yelling, " BE GONE, PUTRID FLESH COLORED 1991 BROWN PAINT!" In fact, I may have done just that a couple of times before Matt asked if I'd taken my medication.



All joking aside, the entire 2nd floor of our house looks nothing like the ground floor. Shaggy carpet, banged up trim, dingy doors, cloudy windows, mildewed bathrooms. The upstairs is a bit "fixer" in style. But that's alright. I'm just taking my time, tackling things as they come.



 I'm  also planning Jane's "big girl room" and it's so fun. I'm excited for her to move out of her small nursery and into a big room with lots of space to play and run. White walls, lace curtains, twinkle lights, vintage bed frame... truthfully I'll probably be a little jealous once it's all said and done.



So that's us. We're just painting and park playing and thoroughly enjoying this A+ September.



I can't imagine a happier beginning to the fall season.

Weekends and Aprons and Desks, Oh My

It's obvious that Jane's love affair with her princess dolls is still ongoing. She's very "my precious" about them, and heaven forbid I forget to include them in meal times, or bed times, or riding in the car. So that's that.



On Saturday I had a three hour coffee date with the always lovely Jeanetta. She was my main partner in crime during Spiderpocolypse (I promise to give that topic its own proper post very soon). I have just adored her since the moment we met. Since then we've found out that we know lots of mutual people, and that our dads worked together for many years. I love that. I love it when you can just throw your hands up and say, "Yep. We were meant to be friends."



Jeanetta also makes adorable things, among which are fabulous aprons. She made one for Jane and it has been the hit of the century. Most importantly, it has pockets, and Jane likes to walk around with her hands stuck in them. All. The. Time. Even when she's trying to go to the bathroom. That's been fun.



This weekend I got my new desk settled. It's an old drop leaf table. It's banged up, with scratches and scars and it desperately needs a coat of wax. But I love it so. I've never been a big fan of traditional desks. I never have enough space and the drawers get filled with clutter and junk. But I do so love a table.



I also love that it's at the far end of the living room. I love having a writing space, but somehow, lately, I don't want a room of my own. It feels like too much pressure, too much focus. Somehow putting my writing area right in the thick of things is working, and it takes some of the pressure off. It's no longer the most important thing, with its own room and decor. It's just another part of my life, stuck in the middle with everything else. This may not make sense to anyone else, but it's been a revelation to me.



The rest of the weekend was filled with naps and fall weather and sliding at the park and the sounds of football in the living room. Matt and I put Jane to bed early on Saturday night and ate dinner on the patio, just us two. The leaves were falling from our oak tree, not a lot, just a little, and I could hear the creek behind the house. The house was dirty, I had five loads of laundry backed up, and the bathrooms hadn't been cleaned in two weeks. But I just propped my feet up and enjoyed Matt's company and decided it could all just wait.



In fact, it's Monday and all that stuff is still waiting. Cleaning will keep.



Hot husbands and fall weekends won't.

Comments Section Back Open For Business

I cannot figure out what to do with our half bath.

We got an old scratched, stenciled table for a song at a local antique store. Can't wait to use it as a desk.

The Janester has no problem expressing herself.

I spotted yellow leaves. YELLOW LEAVES!

Also, I'm headed to the Arkansas Women Bloggers Conference Unplugged  this weekend! If you're going please give me a shout. I'm excited to meet blogger ladies in real life, as opposed to email. Not that I don't love email. I mean, I can email friends when I haven't showered for days or brushed my teeth and they never know, as opposed to in real life where I actually have to make some kind of deodorant oriented effort. Be assured, I will be socially presentable this weekend, teeth brushed and everything.



On a side note, I've decided to open my comment section back up. I needed a break for a while, and honestly the troll comments really got me down. But, in the past year my skin grew a little thicker and Paxil creates a Star Wars type deflector shield for me. My emotions are still there, but not quite so, shall we say, peaked. Can the anxiety disorder section of the church give me an amen?



But a lot of you have emailed and said that you wish you could comment, and that it creates an "un-social" feel on my blog. That was never, ever my intention. So, comment away. Or don't. Or Troll. I'll be here listening, answering questions or comments, or ignoring them if they're foul. Either way, comments are back. Thank you for being here. Thank you for reading. I appreciate you ALL.

It's September. Let The Pumpkin Candle Burning Commence Immediately.

Here in the deep south we don't really consider September fall in as much as we're still wearing bathing suits and swimming. But those of us who love pumpkin candles DO consider it fall in as much as we're going to burn those suckers even if it is 400 degrees outside. Plus, they were selling small pumpkins at the farmer's market on Saturday. That was all the green light I needed.



First, I just want to say thank you to everyone who emailed me about my last post. You are some of the kindest ladies I could ever hope to "meet" out here in the blog land, and I appreciate you immensely. I'll be returning emails soon, but I wanted to give a big public thank you anyway.



So. Potty training. It's our world now. It's a new world for Jane, and a new world for us, especially considering we took her potty to a cookout with friends yesterday, and she took the initiative to go pee without prompting, was super proud of herself, and didn't bother to put her pants back on before streaking into the middle of the party to yell at Matt, "DADDY I PEE PEE." So there's that.



I still need to hem the new curtains in the dining room, but they're a lovely jersey fabric that hangs beautifully and doesn't fray, so I don't have the normal sense of urgency to hem them. This is bad. This means they could go unhemmed for some time. Because without a sense of urgency I just shrug, turn on Sharktopus on the SyFi channel and ignore my to do list.



I really do love September. The weather really does start to shift. And somehow it's all so much more fun with Jane. She notices everything. She notices "yewow leaves" and I can only imagine how stoked she'll be for Halloween. Life has changed folks. There are tutu skirts in the living room and a potty chair in the kitchen. There's a tiny wet bathing suit drying in the laundry room, and she insists on having her little toenails painted weekly when the polish starts to rub off. Saturday night I was reading her books before bed, and she reached out, patted my cheek and said, "I love you, mommy."



I cannot imagine what we ever did without her.



I cannot imagine what I did with all that time (although I can promise you I wasn't making good use of it).



I cannot imagine lighting a pumpkin candle without her following me around, sniffing the air, and saying, "Smell good mommy, smell good."



I cannot imagine a world without Jane in it.