Mother's Day IV

Yesterday was my 4th Mother's Day as a mother!  Justin surprised me with a window picture frame made from an old granary window from my parents' farm.  There were a few old window panes from the little building that was formerly the shop.  In the old days it was a granary.  You can still see the evidence in the concrete of the floor.   A few years ago I made a jewelry holder out of one of the matches.  To start, it was white, covered in peeling paint and caked with dust.  The glass was cloudy.  Now it has shiny new glass and dark stain and some 8x10 mattes. 

 

I already ordered the 8x10s!

 

Here are my flowers.  The little bee was a hit. 

 

Speaking of flowers, gardening and planting was on the agenda for the weekend.  Unfortunately the weather was horrible and had the temperature dropped ten degrees we would have been trapped in a raging blizzard all weekend.  There was snow, in fact, that fell in big wet globs the size of ping pong balls but fortunately it didn't accumulate.  When snow wasn't falling rain was and the wind was fierce.  Last week was like summer so we went ahead and disregarded all zone 3/4 (I think we are in zone 4, but barely) gardening advice and bought plants in early May.  So now we have three trays of greenhouse flowers and vegetables living in the kitchen.  Of course the flowers are the focus of a lot of attention from two little kids.  So far, Ben has been gentle with them and this morning he pretended he was shopping for them and pushed them around in the toy shopping cart for awhile.  He is in a "no picture" phase so this was the best one I could get. 

 

 

The orange marigolds are his flowers that he picked out at the greenhouse and he loves them.  Whenever we stay home all weekend the house ends up destroyed and we were trapped inside so it's even worse.  I can't even artfully crop the photo to make it look like it's not there!  I have been threatening (only threatening myself because I don't think anyone else cares at all) to put the throw pillows away because they are ALWAYS on the floor and even end up in the kitchen and bathroom but we have nowhere to store them so they just stay on the floor.  Although the superficial clutter is horrifying in this house I promise I do clean.  I am very pleased with myself right now because I cleaned the refrigerator on Friday.  It was so bad and now it looks so good!  That is one horrific occasional chore that I am still happy I did because it is so easy to put last on the priority list.  A can of coke had spilled in there and dripped all the way to the bottom so it was a horrible sight even though I knew it was just harmless, non sticky diet coke.  I remember moving out of a campus apartment in law school and the place was spotless as the resident manager was checking me out and she opened the fridge to reveal that I had forgotten to empty and clean it at all.  I was horrified and she gave me 15 minutes to throw everything into bags and hastily wipe the shelves. 

 

Here is a tray of flowers hanging out on the metal end table I spray painted last month. 

 

I guess the sun must have shone for a few seconds based on this picture but I don't remember it happening!

 

Here is the kitchen table covered in plants!  The sun really brings out the yogurt smears on the table. I thought those were cropped... 

 

I can't wait to get these in pots and in the garden! 

Sisterhood Tag

Back when I was in college, which for me started in 2001, there was no Facebook or social media.  It was the early days of internet connectivity.  We all sat in our dorm rooms, downloading illegal music and chatting on the fabulous msn messenger.  You could hear those little "blup blup" noises ringing through the halls as girls received messages and everyone's computer always had little blinking rectangles on the task bar at the bottom of the screen.  There was also a trend of emailing surveys to people which they would mail back to you and send to their friends with lists of questions to answer so you could get to know them better.  Some people would get really in depth and serious and some would just try to make their friends laugh!  I'm sure you can guess which type I was...haha.  My friend Dana, who writes the blog The Green Acres Report (you can see it on the top of my blog roll list on the right.  It appears that I have some obsolete blog over there that need to be refreshed!) tagged me in a fun event, the Sisterhood in The World of Bloggers Award, where we answer questions about ourselves that might not come up on a blog otherwise.  As a former email survey lover, I can't turn this down!

1. Why did you start your blog?

 

In 2006 I embarked on an adventure of studying abroad in Norway with my law school classmates.  Everyone told me to email them pictures and tell them about what I was doing.  Blogs were just becoming a "thing" that a person could easily make on their own even if they didn't know how to write code and design webpages.  I found Blogger and set one up once I arrived and regularly posted on "Law School in Oslo" while I was there.  I still like to look at it sometimes because reading it and looking at the pictures brings me right back there.  I stopped as soon as I returned home but a few years later we were buying our first house and I was also unemployed and bored so I decided to make a new one so I could post pictures and talk about what we were working on.  Soon, it was a fun diversion that I looked forward to adding to whenever I could and people told me they looked forward to checking it everyday and that it made them laugh so I kept posting. It is still a fun way to use my brain when I feel like I am going brain dead from toddler B.S. on a daily basis and is a more convenient and affordable hobby than many of the other things I would like to be doing such as sewing or decorating. 
 

2. What is one thing you can’t live without?

Hmmmmmm...this is makes me a stereotype of my generation but I have to admit it is the Internet.  Also music. And the Internet brings me music in ways I never imagined as a young teenager!  I love it!

3. If you could travel one place, all expenses paid, where would you go?

This is hard to choose but probably back to Norway or to the Middle East to see the places my family frequented when we lived their for a short time when I was 6/7. 

4. What’s one of the scariest things you’ve ever done?

Taking the bar exam.

5. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?

So many different things that changed regularly.  I wanted to be an author in early elementary school and when I was really young, like preschool and kindergarten age, I loved airplanes and I don't remember wanting to be a pilot but I had this lego rescue plane so I suppose I wanted to be a rescue paramedic or something I didn't know how to verbalize at the time.  As I got older I wanted to be a fashion designer and as a teenager I thought it would be a dream job to design athletic shoes and uniforms.  By my senior year I had no idea and couldn't even commit to a college major until I had been in college for three years.  I guess everything seemed boring and unattainable compared to those old childhood dreams!

6. Who in your life has influenced you the most?

Of course my parents and family.  I think that is what anyone who grew up in a functional and happy home would say. 

7. How do you like your steak cooked?

Well!  I don't like seeing blood in my food!

8. What are some of the first things you do in the morning?

First, I wish I could sleep more even though I have never been a person who sleeps in really late.  Just ONE TIME I would like to wake up when I feel like it instead of when someone else feels like it.  Oh well.  Then I change a diaper, get my kids milk and food, and get myself food because I'm always starving.  Then I try to drink tea or coffee and watch or read the news in peace but it never happens.  Oh, and kids TV shows are always turned on during this time.  Judge away.  I don't care.

9. What is one of your favorite quotes?

I love quotes and words.  Right now I will choose a favorite old Bruce Springsteen line from the song "The Promised Land",

"There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted..."

Of course, it has more of an impact with Bruce screaming over the loud orchestration of music in a live recording (very intense) but to me this means overcoming challenging times and facing your problems head on and coming through them without losing yourself. 

Also, since I have a legal education I have to include something from law, right?  Since my 1st year Constitutional Law class I have been moved by the following majority opinion by Justice Kennedy in Lawrence v. Texas (which basically said that what people do in their own bedroom is no one's business but their own as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else).

"Had those who drew and ratified the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment known the components of liberty in its manifold possibilities, they might have been more specific. They did not presume to have this insight. They knew times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress. As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom."

It's so true, isn't it? Think of all the dumb old laws (Slavery?  No vote for women?) that we have set aside.

10. What is your favorite season of the year? 

Summer.  I'll always be a lifeguard at heart!  Now that I have little kids, I love it because warm weather greatly reduces the hassle of going places.  Not dealing with coats and hats is so liberating!

Now I am supposed to tag some other ladies but as you can see I need to do some updating in the blog roll.  These people all have jobs so I get it.  I read many blogs but many of them are about sewing and fashion and have hundreds or thousands of followers and they have no idea who I am! 

Draft (You Know You Were Waiting!)

The NFL draft is over.  To my dismay, I didn't get to watch it.  I had to pick Justin up at the airport that night (not at home-I had to drive an hour from my parents' house to Fargo) and it was just ending when we arrived back there at 10 p.m.  I thought I heard my mom say she recorded it but she actually meant that she recorded the TV show "Draft Academy" which featured John Crockett, an NDSU player hoping for the NFL. 

 

However, I was able to see some good draft footage while watching the most recent episode of Draft Academy, which was being filmed almost live.  There were only a few days of lag between the current weekly episode and real time.  It was a good show.  It is interesting to see how the players (ahem, Jameis Winston, where those crab legs worth it?  How about the soda at Burger King?  How about playing with that BB gun? And the Marijuana three days before the draft, Shane Ray?) were coached to address their various character issues and he sure had a ridiculous list of them. 

 

Part of the fun of the big production that is the first round of the draft is seeing the players in their suits (which I learned from the show are just brought to their rooms in a bag, all coordinated and styled) with their crazy hairstyles.  On Draft Academy I saw a nice style that caught my eye and it was worn by Todd Gurley, who also was drafted by my adopted team the St. Louis Rams! 

 

 

Of course all of the photos are after he was drafted when he has his new team hat on but believe me, it was an artistic display of hair that is rarely seen.  He seems very likeable.  Of course, I looked at his Wikipedia and sure enough he was suspended in college for violating NCAA rules about taking money for autographs and memorabilia.  And not just a few times.  It was hundreds of pieces of autographed memorabilia. UGH.  So many issues...

 

Once again, my opinion that having kids "specialize" in certain sports at a young age to be more competitive is pointless was maintained.  Of the players I researched, many were dominant not only in football but other sports as well.  Jameis Winston is such a good baseball player that he was drafted into the MLB right out of high school but decided to go to college instead where he also played on the baseball team.  Gurley was a track star in high school and represented team USA in some junior world competition.  Marcus Mariota, the 2nd overall pick, was also a track star in high school.  Putting in lots of time is essential, but can only get you so far I guess if you don't have some sort of exceptional underlying athleticism. 

 

Speaking of that, this guy wasn't drafted but signed with the Vikings earlier this spring.  His name is Babatunde Aiyegbusi.  He's 6'9, 350 pounds and 27 years old.  He never played in college and he's Polish where American Football barely exists!  Whaaaaat?  Where did this guy come from?  There isn't a lot of information about him out there.  He has an extensive Wikipedia page but, not surprisingly, it's in Polish. 

 



 

He was a security manager in Poland.  Gee, I can't imagine why.  No one would try to pull anything that might violate security if this guy was in the vicinity.  Hopefully we will see him playing this fall.

The best part of the draft was hearing of the NDSU players who were drafted (yeahhhh Kyle Emmanuel!) and signed as free agents.  I was disappointed about Crockett not being drafted after seeing him go through the ups and downs of being an underrated player in the draft process but I think he will prove himself with the Packers.   

Splash in to Summer

When I think back to my childhood, I recall one of my favorite aspects of summer being running around in a swimming suit all day and playing in water.  Most of this time was spent actually swimming at the swimming pool but there was plenty of activities involving sprinklers, water fights, water balloons, wading pools and the good old garden hose with it's icy water straight from the chilled underground reservoir that supplies the rural areas of Traill County with delicious and perfectly flavorless water.  Dang, do I love drinking hose water.  I know there is a library of articles saying that this is bad and hose water is full of chemicals leached from the hose.  This research is from the last few years but I am just going to pay attention to the evidence of generations of adults that are walking around who did this as children who had nothing happen to them.  The research says it's not as bad as long as you run the water that has been sitting in the hose out first.  Well, obviously, everyone would do that before drinking it because who wants the hot sun water?

This weekend we were at my parents house for farming and it was legitimately hot like summer on Saturday.  My dad took Ben with him to hook up the garden hose and of course the inevitable happened.  He ended up soaking wet and covered in mud since my parents haven't landscaped around their house yet and they live surrounded by a gravel pit full of weeds.  I only brought one pair of shorts for him and one pair of tennis shoes since he doesn't have sandals for this summer yet.  As a result, he ended up spending most of Saturday in this getup:

 

I happened to have his swimming suit with and his rain boots have been in my travel shoe tote bag(yes, I have a tote of shoes that I bring with me everywhere) all spring.  Perfect! 

 

Time to head out to the field! 

 

The morning before we came home, Ben was out in a field somewhere and picked up an assortment of dried corncobs from last year.  Now they are his treasures.

 

Yayyy...dried corn seed in the living room!  Actually, I don't mind.  The entertainment he gets from it is worth it and it's not that hard to clean up.  The challenge is keeping Tessa from interfering with his farm setup.  There was also a very traumatic incident where Allan plopped his body down on a pile of corn so he could relax. 

She's Heeeeeere!

 
 
 
 
I'm feeling a bit of a let down this afternoon.  Why, you ask?  Because after several weeks of waiting around watching for CNN updates on my phone the royal baby has arrived and all the major questions have been answered.  First, she was born quite a few days overdue.  Apparently the bookies really made a lot of money on the birthday.  And we know she is a girl now, a princess (eeeeek!). We know what Kate wore to leave the hospital and this morning we found out the name!  Now what am I supposed to obsess over?  The world won't see another picture for quite awhile unfortunately (for us, fortunately for the baby and family, I understand that). 

Now, everyone has something to say about the small glimpse we have seen into the birth of this baby.  I think we can all agree on a few things....



AWWWWWWW!  This baby, who we now know is named Charlotte Elizabeth Diana, is just too perfect.  And this little hat and snuggly white blanket are even more perfect.  It makes me excited to hold a newborn again.  I read some really outlandish theory from the Russian news or tabloids or something that some people think the baby looks older than the approximately 10 hours old that she was at the time of her public presentation but I don't think so.  Here are my own babies during their first day of life and I think they look pretty similar! 

 

 

 

The story continued to theorize that Kate used a surrogate and there is NO WAY that a person who had a baby a few hours before could look that slim and beautiful.  Which I think most people agree is a ridiculous theory, although really...

 

What the WHAAAAT?  How does she look that pretty?  I have already viewed several articles and blog posts from many humorous moms out there that are being shared all over social media who have already covered what we all are thinking...which is universally a comparison to how we all looked a few hours after giving birth and in those early photos at the hospital.  It's already been said so I won't go too in depth but I think we are all in awe of that shining, bouncy hair, perfect makeup, church appropriate dress that cost $2,000, and...

 

 

of course some nude high heels to finish the look.   A dress that is white on the lower half...she is brave.  These photos will be around forever, though, and they are exactly what all of us baby watchers waited to see so I admit I love them!  

 

And finally, the name...I like the name Charlotte and I am kind of surprised they picked it since it has been at the top of the bookies' list all along.  I read that the top choices were Charlotte and Alice and if either of those two were chosen the bookies would be losing big time.  I guess it balances out the win from the overdue birthday.  As far as the middle names, my middle name is Elizabeth so I certainly approve and Diana was an obvious choice too.  I know they deserve privacy but I reaaaaaallly wish we could see more pictures and know just a few more details!  Oh well.  Apparently there is a contingent of busy bodies out there who don't approve of the family leaving the hospital only hours after the birth.  They think other women will try to do the same which is dangerous.  Are they serious!?  No regular woman (unless she does home births) would want to go home from the hospital after a few hours!  Especially one with a toddler in the house!  The hospital is like a vacation!  Of course she went home, to her royal palace, because she has royal doctors and nurses at her disposal and a nanny and a cook and every luxury.  And why would the hospital stop her? The resources of England are being used to guard and barricade that place.  People should be happy they are leaving early and paying for one less day of  the police guarding a hospital instead of fighting crime and keeping creepy photographers and reporters from infiltrating the place.  This sure doesn't make me think I should leave the hospital the same day as I deliver.  Or maybe I should and before I go I should get to have a professional hair stylist and makeup artist get me ready to go! 

 

OK, now back to my regular life...

 

 

 

The Clothes I Love to Hate

I remember back in 2011 in the early months of my first pregnancy.  I ordered some maternity clothes and when they came I couldn't believe how huge they were and I couldn't imagine the day when those tent-like garments would fit me.  I don't remember when I went full maternity that first time.  I remember wearing some maternity jeans at the end of September because I was going on a car trip and wanted to be comfortable which would have made me about four months along so I guess maybe it wasn't as long of a wait as I thought but I recall wearing my usual t-shirts well into November. 

 

After struggling to find appropriate looking clothing in my normal wardrobe for a few weeks and finally deciding to draw the line on the circulation inhibiting jeans I decided to do what I've been avoiding and I went to the basement and found the box of maternity clothes! 

 

 

I was excited because the assortment now also contains everything my sister bought last summer when she was pregnant and due in August.  I knew she had a cute pair of jeans and a few pairs of shorts.  Well, of course they are too small so I am still left with the same old crap.  Too bad I don't have a job since she added several pairs of dress pants that I will probably just wear around the house because maternity jeans are so bad.  It doesn't matter if you get them from your favorite store.  It doesn't matter! 

 

It's going to be a long 5-6 months before wearing my old jeans again.  Well, realistically it could be months longer than that! 

 

Look what else I found in the box! 

 

Tie Breaker

In my last post I was going on and on about a famous baby, one I will never meet and will only see in official photos released by the monarchy but there is news of another baby's not so imminent arrival:

 

Yes, as most of you probably already know we are having a third baby!  He or she is due in October and I am about 15 weeks along. 

 

I planned this Easter egg announcement over Easter and of course it didn't go as planned.  I dyed the first name eggs and Tessa broke hers the next day before I could take a picture.  It was in a basket on a table and she still managed to get it and break it. Then I tried again at my parents' house and my mom didn't have an egg dye kit so instead of the clear wax crayon  that works perfectly for writing hidden messages on eggs I had to use a white Crayola and it didn't work quite as well but I think the message is clear! 

 

The pregnancy has been fine and pretty agreeable like the other two with minimal symptoms.  We don't know what we are having yet and are so far undecided about if we are going to find out.  We now just have some logistical issues such as room sharing and car seat arranging we have to figure out. 

 

Ben kind of gets it but I think he very confused by the concept of a "tiny baby that has to grow and the doctor will help it come out".  Tessa just likes babies in general but has no concept about our baby or as she says, "Baybaybaybaybeeeee!"

Royal Baby Patrol

Is anyone else just sooo excited for the newest royal baby to arrive?  I can't believe how exciting some of the royal stuff is, even though I'm not British.  Actually, all royals are interesting to me especially since I was able to see some of the royal palaces and properties of Scandinavia when I was studying abroad. 



Those tiny people are the Norwegian Royal Family!  The little white dot is a baby, the prince Sverre Magnus and there is a toddler girl up there too, the future queen Ingrid Alexandra.  This is what he looks like today, or I guess according to the Royal House of Norway website, as of 2013. 



And this is the princess.



And of course, there had to be an album of the whole family skiing!  They are Norwegian after all!





This palace was in Denmarck.  It is called Rosenborg Castle. 



This place hasn't been used as a home for any royals since 1801.  It was built as a summer residence back in the 1600s.  I guess it is just too impractical and huge to use as a normal house.  Imagine that.  It is a museum now, with lots of royal artifacts on the first floor.  I don't know what is on the other floors.  I can't even imagine.  The Royal Treasury with the crown jewels is located here.  There is a movie from 2004 called "The Prince and Me" starring Julia Styles about a college student who meets the prince of Denmark and falls in love with him before finding out he is a prince.  Some of the Denmark scenes are shot at the palaces around Copenhagen and there is even a scene where Julia's character goes into the treasury with the queen to pick some jewels to wear for a party!  I love seeing exotic movie locations and saying "I've been there!" 

Well, anyway, back to the Royal family that the whole work cares about.  I have a CNN app on my phone that alerts me with headlines and every time one pops up I get excited only to have to be informed about other U.S. and world news.  Did you know that the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency will soon step down according to U.S. officials?  Or that the Pope has accepted the resignation of a Kansas City Bishop due to a failure to report child abuse?  Or that significantly more people in the U.S. say the economy is good than poor according to a CNN poll?  All alerts from today, and none of them involve a baby!  Ugh. 

According to sources (also known as gossipy traitor friends) the due date for the baby is April 25.  I thought I read somewhere that the "books" had most of the bets on April 21st which is today!  I can't find the article to confirm that though.  Today is also Queen Elizabeth's 89th birthday.  I don't think anything is happening today though.  Also, I read in that same article that everyone is betting on the baby being a girl.  I think that might just be wishful thinking.  Hurry up baby!  Bored people everywhere need a diversion from their mundane lives!

Blue and Green

My sister bought Tessa this cute headband at a vendor show.  The whole purpose of this post is to show pictures of her in the headband since she has a shirt that matches perfectly and it might not fit much longer.  So here you go.  If you are waiting for a funny story or observation this probably won't be the post to find those things!  

 

 

I took these in her room yesterday morning.  They were OK but I knew I wanted to take some outside later in the day. 

 

Speaking of outside, look!  Green things!  

 

 

Those are irises! I hope they bloom with beautiful flowers like our irises at the old house did!  Bulbs and some scraggly grass are pretty much the only green vegetation around here so far and it is not because spring hasn't arrived.  There was hardly any snow this winter and the ground is red flag warning dry.  The day these pictures were taken there was a grass fire blazing about five miles away from us!  Then it flared up again yesterday!  I haven't heard anything in the news today so I assume it's under control today but the wind is blowing so who knows what will happen. 



 

I didn't plan it, but with the yellow ball, both kids wearing royal blue and the yellow on the headband I realized I had a nice color story happening.  However, all attempts to get a decent picture of both kids was a bust.  But you can kind of see the connection between the pictures.  I was mostly trying to get some cute pictures of Tessa in her headband.  I really wish the grass had been bright green but nothing will help that but rain. 

Silly baby.

Tessa's Room

This weekend, like everyone else in the region, we took advantage of the nice weather and headed outside to enjoy the nice weather and take care of some projects around the house.  I set foot in an Ace Hardware and Menards and both were chaotic.  Justin continued his constant garage organizing and I decided to take care of two small furniture updates that I have been wanting to do forever. 

 

 The little white shelf was in my childhood bedroom forever.  I can't remember where it came from.  I took it from there last fall and it has been irritating Justin in our garage ever since.  The metal table is some old 70's piece of junk from the farm also that I can't remember ever seeing used in a living room or anywhere else.  It is strong and stable but just never had a spot in our house.  I have been dragging it around for awhile and Justin has done nothing but complain about it the whole time.  I have been very close to just throwing it in the dumpster many times just to get him to forget about it.  This weekend I finally decided to get the paint to do what I have planned all along.  I painted the white shelf for Tessa's room, and I plan to put the table under a window near our patio door for a plant to sit on. 

So, now that the shelf is painted and in place I can finally, after all these months, post some pictures of Tessa's room fully assembled.  I know I have shared the color of the walls and the letters of her name but not the whole thing in cohesion!  It was a long time coming due to me procrastinating and also the fact that the room is generally a mess with clothes and toys and blankets strewn about.  Until yesterday, there was a garbage bag of hand me downs and also a plastic container of hand me downs needing to be sorted and put away.  There was also a hoard of diaper boxes in the corner which I love to keep for storing clothes but they really pile up. 

The color scheme is lavender with navy blue accents.  I had three weird old prints of kittens by some Japanese artist that I bought at a rummage sale many years ago before I was even thinking about having kids.  I wanted to put them in navy frames without spending what would add up to hundreds of dollars for professional framing.  Of course, finding the right navy frame was impossible so I ended up ordering some pretty cheap ones from a wholesale framing website where I was charged a small amount extra for only ordering three.  They were just what I wanted thought for a fraction of what custom framing would have cost. 

 

I love this wall collage.  Notice the fully completed "my first 12 months" frame.  Oh yeah...it wasn't done early but it has been done for a few months!  I printed photos and placed them in the frame for each month of her first year!  Ben has one too and they are both filled!  It's a small victory but it pleases me anyway.  The oval is a wicker framed mirror, also from my parents house and the other small frames are a 5x7 of Allan and a small framed picture of Tessa!  That small frame is also navy blue.  It was an oddball TJ Maxx find. 

I already shared her name months ago.  That little shelf above the closet is also a castoff from the farm.  I think it was in my sister's room. 

It looks lack like all the other blue accents, but the crib sheet is blue.  I ordered it from Pottery Barn on clearance.  So it's almost like this room could be straight out of a PB catalogue, right? RIGHT???

This little corner formerly held the pile of boxes.

 

Here is the little white shelf wearing it's new navy blue coat!  Those books don't stand a chance of being shelved for longer than a few hours. 

 

Here is the changing table area with the framed cat calendar pages that I had in Ben's room in our old house.  I splurged on a new purple fabric bin when she was born to replace the green one Ben used! 

 

Here is the newly cleared dresser which formerly was piled with birthday cards (yes from five months ago), books, and other debris that we wanted out of reach including a four pack of dead batteries from the baby swing. 

This rug is one of my favorite accents in the room!  I love rag rugs.  In my hometown, there was a resident at the nursing home who made rag rugs as a hobby.  I imagine there were several but in my youth there was one man who really churned them out.  He made so many of them which were sold in the gift store for like $8.00.  They were in every house in town.  Well, it was a nursing home so you know what happened and eventually the supply dwindled as the rugs faded and wore out.  My mom and I saw some at the Fargo street fair a few years ago priced at $35.00 and up and I was intrigued but I had to pass on that price.  Right before Tessa was born I saw these big ones at Kohl's with the typical Kohl's built in discount of 40% or 50% off which made them under $10.00!  I'm sure it was mass produced in Singapore or somewhere and not lovingly handmade in a nursing home activity room but I'll take what I can get. 

So that's Tessa's room!  I am proud of it and I love being in there when it is all neat and orderly although those times are rare.  We all know that depictions of stylish and organized kids rooms are generally B.S. 

*disclaimer:  Right before I took these pictures Tessa went in the room and opened a low drawer and pulled all of its contents out and spread them around the floor.  Also, the birthday card pile I was mocking is actually still there.  I just moved it for the picture!