Every Year Gets Better

No, this isn't a post about aging, although the title makes it sound that way. Ha.

The adulting has started with the yardwork, friends. We're switching it up this year though, and are starting out back instead of out front.

Remember last summer when I transformed the backyard swamp into, well, a bare dirt pile? Well, we haven't done anything with that yet. But that's not the focus of this post. There's a small strip of land right behind the house, between our house and the fence separating us from the neighbors. I've ignored it entirely ever since we've lived here, and that's why it was my starting point this season.

See what you think about these small changes.

Before

After

I pulled up all the weeds and put down barrier. Eventually we'd like to put down pretty landscaping rocks, but that's low on the ole to do list.

This change is also strategic because now we can see plants and flowers outside of the living room, dining room, and kitchen windows. It makes a difference!

I'm slowly but surely building up the inside plants as well. The key to sneaking them past G is to go gradual. Not to make any sudden movements that might draw his attention. Not to talk about them or look at them too often or, God help us, not to swat at anything that might be misconstrued as a bug inside the house.

A few weeks ago a student brought me some African violets. I tucked them away in the side room and laid low while I researched re-potting tips and supplies. As G was cleaning out the gutters yesterday, I made my move. With the theme music from Mission Impossible playing in the background, I quickly re-potted them and set them up in their new home.

See the little Chinese girl in the middle? We got her in Vancouver, at the Classic Chinese Garden. She's so cute; I just love her.

Nice changes so far, right? Now we just have to foam roll, take Ibuprofen, and stretch out our muscles before tackling the front of the yard. One of these days I really will do something with the dirt pile out back. But not today.

The Details

They say the devil is in the details, and while that is true, he doesn't own all that real estate himself. There's a lot of small and significant joy to be found in the little things, too.

I spent many a day over the holiday break sifting through our stuff, taking things to goodwill, and deep cleaning all the nooks and crannies of rooms. "Down sizing" is maybe too strong a description of what I've been doing, but just barely. My goal is to move toward minimalism. Kind of like if minimalism traveled a lot and picked up knick knacks and also had a baby bun bun who loved toys all over the floor.

Over the past months I have gotten rid of extra books, organized the ones that are left, and relocated my teaching and school-y ones to a shelf upstairs. This has given us more space in the library for the books that we enjoy and want to be surrounded by. I got smaller shelves to go in front of the bay window, and for Christmas, G's parents gave us the elephant bookend. I like it so much that I bought the giraffe one, too. The microphone-looking stick in the front is from the Maasai village we visited in Tanzania last summer.

Here's a close-up. Isn't it great??

Amazon had such cute book ends that I ended up getting these, too. This is a set of funky, eccentrically-fashioned animals. I put them in the living room. They make me so happy. It's like Alice in Wonderland, the Safari version.

I got rid of our old bowls and replaced them with (fewer of) these Japanese ones. World Market to the rescue.

The details aren't just for the house - here's an infinity scarf that has key quotes from Pride & Prejudice on it. Merry Christmas to me.

And I'm able to showcase my Tanzanian necklaces much more in the winter than I am in the summer. Turtlenecks FTW. Also, it's been too icy for me to bike lately so I've looked like a human rather than a bedraggled mess all day long.

Roo Roo got into trouble yesterday. She destroyed a pillow and then tried to act like she had no idea what was going on.

As soon as I cleaned it up, she crashed.

What details are you focusing on in the new year? Don't leave them all to the devil.

A Buntraditional Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving, peeps!

I came across this card from a few years ago and had to include it. It makes me happy and pretty much sums up the day. Although, G and I were watching the Macy's parade this morning and he busts out with, "So, what do you think that an immigrant from, say, Somalia, thinks when they watch this?" Seeing it through those eyes, as like, one jumbled up and totally nonsensical commercial, was the best. I'll never look at it the same way again. Which is not to say that I had a certain way of looking at it to begin with. But when the Ninja Turtles came on, I lost it all together.

Speaking of nonsensical chaos, here's how our lil turkey spent the last few days.

It's hard work, all this laying around, you guys. She clearly hasn't missed many meals. Much to our surprise, she hasn't jumped up on the new furniture yet. It's much higher than our old saggy brown dilapidated mess, so maybe she's not putting two and two together that this thing replaced that thing?

We overshot on the size of the couch we'd need in the living room and ended up with an extra piece, so this morning we redecorated the side room. Not bad, right? It's getting cozy in there! Plus, we feel like we're livin' the high life since we got the carpets cleaned. We don't even want to go upstairs anymore because it needs to be cleaned so bad up there. In fact, the whole upstairs needs a massive makeover, but that's for the Christmas break, I guess.

Speaking of breaks, I finished a book I was reading for fun, sighed, and picked up my homework again. Which means my Thanksgiving break is officially over. I've been ignoring paper grading and that's got to start up again too or I'll have a riot on my hands next week. G says I can't mope about my break being over since I technically have two days of it left. He says I can't mope until Sunday when I have to go back to work.

Meanwhile, he volunteered at his job today. We were going to do Meals on Wheels but they didn't need any more volunteers (which is great!). His workplace is understaffed today so he rolled in for a few hours while Roo Roo and I sighed and did our school reading (and drank perhaps one mimosa).

Hope your day is filled with food and love and cuddles and TV and movies and relaxation and then more food. Oh! And naps!

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Year In The Making: Before & After

Remember how last Christmas we said we were going to get new furniture? We said that brown is a great color for people, and even animals, but not so much for All The Components of the Living Room?

Well, here we are a year later and we made good on our plans. I present to you the long-awaited Before and After in the living room!

Before

After

It's going to take a little bit to get used to sitting in a different configuration, closer to the kitchen and not to the hearth. Roo Roo has done some laps around the ottoman and for now is giving us a wide berth, but I know from experience that this is short-lived. She'll be up in our laps before bedtime.

Merry Christmas to all! From last year! And for now, let's gear up for Thanksgiving.

Safari Inspired Before & After

In my on-going campaign to add color to the living room - and to remove All The Brown - I've replaced the framed print over the fire place.

The print we've always had up there is a painting of the Lewis and Clark expedition that some family friends gave to G when we moved from Hawaii to Virginia. It's meaningful on many levels. It's also brown and has got to go.

So, I present to you, the Before and After! Ta Da!

Before

After

That was one of the first pictures G took on safari this summer. Isn't it crazy?? I tell you, a career at Nat Geo is in the near future.

Aye, Robot!

This. Changes. Everything.

We got a Roomba!

Here's the thing. These puppies cost about as much as a used car, so we did not buy the latest and greatest model. Not even close. I researched the least fancy model that is widely-available, and it got good reviews on both carpet and hardwood floors. Short of getting the servant quarters of Downton Abbey to move in with us, this was the next best thing.

G says it's only a matter of time until the cylons take over and make us do their vacuuming, so I'm going to enjoy it while I can. If I've learned one thing from Sci Fi tropes, it's to get while the gettin's good. The robots or aliens or zombies win in the end.

It arrived fully-charged (thank you, Amazon, who will actually take over the world), so as I write this, it's zooming around the living room floor and Roo is scowling at it from up in the kitchen.

Thoughts in the first 10 minutes: It makes a bit of noise. Nothing crazy, but this version (the 650) isn't silent or anything. If you have a house full of kids, you'll never even notice it. :) Also, I have it running on the carpet and it's pretty thorough. We use a lint roller to pick up clumps of rabbit hair so that none of the vacuum cleaners will get clogged up, so I can't report on how it does with lots of pet hair. Also, I can see that we have a lot of nooks and crannies formed by the way our furniture is arranged, so we'll have to watch to make sure that our robot (!) doesn't get stuck going in little circles.

Let me tell you. The thought of sitting here typing while someone - well, something - else is CLEANING THE FLOOR? Yeah. Life is good.

P.S. Roo is now downstairs, giving it a wide berth. She is not a fan. As soon as she starts vacuuming the floor, I'll happily put the Roomba away. She can be my lil ROOmba. :)

Patio Progress

 

More Color

Before

After

Color!

The past couple of days have been cold and snowy, so it was nice to get out in the yard today for the refreshing 60 degree (and sunny!) weather.

We are slowly growing the plant collection over here. My grand plan is to sneak about two plants into the Home Depot buggy every time we're there so that G doesn't notice them adding up over time. Gradual accumulation and all that.

The back yard is pretty bare (we're working on killing weeds and leveling the dirt) but every little bit of color helps. At least we can sit in the rockers and enjoy these desert beauties:

The descriptions say that these hardy desert plants are drought-resistant and can go long periods of time with very little care. I'm hoping that means they can be taken inside (please, G, please) during the winters and placed next to a heating vent and a window. I love how these dry-area plants get big, gnarly, and alien-looking over time. My dad has an Aloe Vera plant on their back deck that's as big as a car tire and looks like it belongs in outer space somewhere. Goalz.

Since G's parents left, these introverts have been hibernating in the house, in total silence and solitude. But we managed to get to the grocery store today and it was full of color, too. Look at these cute dragon fruits! Have you ever eaten these? I haven't but I bet you bucks I'd like them.

The front yard is coming along. I'm almost done with the new mulch (nothing like getting through it and realizing you still need like 2 more bags to cover the bare spots. Eye roll emoji.) and it looks like the lil things survived the snow. It didn't really freeze or frost over night so I think we're good to go.

OK, in the picture below, I want you to notice the colorful outdoor mat. See it? It's made from recycled flip flops! I've been looking for something (1) weather proof, (2) colorful (NOT BROWN), and (3) large, for our front stoop. You can't tell in the pictures, but the stoop is big, about 4 feet across. Therefore, normal-sized mats look small and inadequate out front. All the bigger mats I've found, though, aren't really rugged enough to survive for long in Colorado. Or, they say something like "Hello!" or "Welcome!"

We're not exactly "Hello!" kind of people.

But this one! It's super bright and resilient. I love it! When I start making peanuts - I mean, a paycheck - later this summer, I'd like to order one for the back patio door, too.

Things are coming together. We're starting to make hiking plans for the coming weeks. Mer is visiting soon. And by "visiting," I mean, "living with us until we go to Africa". I have two solid weeks until All The Summer Jobs begin.

Life is good.