I Learned A Little About Myself

This past week, I have been busy looking for jobs and getting ready for the end of the school year.  In this process, I’ve learned a few things about myself…and relearned a few things as well.  The first thing I learned is that it is hard being a stay-at-home mom.  I mean, I always knew that it was hard, but I didn’t know it was THIS hard.  Also, I’ve learned that I love it.

Another thing I’ve learned is that I when I’m home all day, clutter seems to multiply, and it makes me crazy.  And when that happens, I can’t write.  I just can’t.  So, today, I rearranged the furniture in order to create more homes for things, so maybe the clutter will stop…maybe.

Finally, I re-learned that I am really quite creative.  And I realized that I really don’t like to purchase art for the house.  I went around the house today and found that almost everything that we have hanging on our walls has a story.  And, I thought I would share those stories.

This hangs above our tv in the living room.  We each painted one of these paintings about 2 years ago.  The first is mine, the second is The Boy’s (he was about 2 years old), the third is The Girl’s (she was 4 years old, and yes, that’s Spongebob), and the last one is Brian’s.  This was a family project, but we painted over some canvases that I had painted a few years prior.  We used extra paint that we had, and ended up with a fun conversation starter.

This is above the couch.  These are family photos that we add to now and again.  While the stories here are sometimes “We went to the photo place and got our pictures taken”, they are personal because they are family.

This is in our hallway.  The small photo in the top shelf is of my father, who passed away in 2001.  The center photo is a collage of pictures of the kids that I had framed, and we gave it to Brian for Father’s Day, 2007.  The bottom shelf holds a sculpture of a mom, dad, and new baby that I recieved when I was pregnant with The Girl.

This is in the dining room.  The butterfly was given to us by some very good friends for our wedding.  The “simplify” I got at a garage sale.  The photos are all of family.  And the buffet was my Great-Grandmother’s.  I found it in my Grandma’s basement when she was moving, and I begged her for it.  I’m so glad I did, as it’s my favorite piece of furniture.

I was going to include a photo of something that is very dear to Brian and I, because it was made by Manu, but then I realized that it had our last name on it.  It is a beautiful work of art, and I’m sorry that I can’t share with you here.  Instead, here is something that Manu’s mother made for me:

And finally, here is the thing that inspired this post. 

I went to Michael’s the other day to try something to hang on a big ugly wall in our dining room.  I came home with 2 pieces of srapbook paper, a package of red tissue paper, a piece of foam board, and some Mod Podge.  Word to the wise, Mod Podge makes foam board curl a bit, so if you decide to do this, you have to put Mod Podge on the back of the board too.

Now, if I can just get the apartment manager to let us paint this obnoxious white walls…..

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