29 July 2014

A Decorated Bedroom

Before we moved into our house I decided I wanted our master bedroom to be painted some shade of peach. I was inspired by some magazine I read, probably in a doctor's office. Eric willingly went along with this plan. He did most of the painting, which included painting the coffered ceilings. Pretty, they are. Easy to paint, they are not. Once the paint was totally on the walls and we'd had a chance to see it in various levels of light we both realized the peach looked awfully pink. I razzed Eric over the last few years for having a pink bedroom, but he didn't care enough to bother painting it again. Darn that coffered ceiling. (To be fair, in the daylight the wall color is definitely more of a peach color.)

At some point I bought green sheets and a green bed spread to help level out the pinkness. It certainly helped, but it was one very small step. This year I've done a lot of things to get our room looking nicer and definitely less pink. Around Valentine's Day I bought some dark brown curtains. Even when they are open they help to break up the pink. In April I brought home a fake tree from work. (We moved offices and a whole bunch of office decor was free game.) I also brought home a pretty framed print of Ireland, but we like to pretend that it's New Zealand. (It's just a hilly area with grazing sheep, so it's totally feasible that it's really New Zealand.) I painted our night stands, which Eric got at a thrift store a few years ago. I wish I had pictures of them in their original state. Alas. Finally, I bought a headboard for $25. Eric sanded it, and then it sat in the garage for a couple of months. We bought some paint and painted it last week, and now after 9+ years of marriage our bed finally has a headboard.

And the pictures:





17 July 2014

The Real Danger of Kid-Friendly Foods

I don't really buy kid-friendly food. Before you roll your eyes at me and think I'm trying to be superior, I'm really not. It's all about practicality for me. I know that if I start buying chicken nuggets and tater tots, it will be all too easy to continue to buy chicken nuggets and tater tots. One of my biggest goals as a parent is to have kids who eat a variety of foods, and so far we're doing okay with that. Also, I'm cheap, and kid-friendly food usually isn't. With that background established, you can understand why Ike is chronically confused about the difference between tater tots and chicken nuggets.

I know that my boys have those foods at the babysitter's, and like I said, I really don't mind them eating those things. It's just that I don't want to buy those things. So we're riding in the car last week, and I remind Ike that pretty soon he'll be going back to his babysitter's house while Mom goes to work. Even though he loves going over there, he whined about the return to her house. I told him not to be too sad because sometimes he has chicken nuggets at her house.

He then replied that we have chicken nuggets at our house. I told him that we don't. He said that sometimes we do. I told him that I've never bought chicken nuggets, but once we had a bag of tater tots. He realizes that he meant to say "tater tots" all along and tells me we have a bag at our house.

I told him that we don't have any, and he replied, "Yes we do. Dad got some at the store yesterday." Eric looked sheepish and confessed that he'd bought a bag.

And that's why I'm eating tater tots at 10:10 at night. And also why I shouldn't have tater tots (or chicken nuggets or other kid-friendly food) in my house.