What a Life!

It’s the longest weekend of the year.

No football. They’re taking a week off before the Super Bowl.

And NASCAR season has yet to begin. Though, as I write this post, I see we only have 22 days, 25 minutes and 57 seconds until the Daytona 500. So near…and yet so far.

Whatever am I going to do with myself?

When I think of a “closer,” I think of the guy comes in after everyone has done all this negotiating and seals the deal.

But that’s not what this post is about.

No, we have this cute little boy who has discovered the joy of closing doors. Such fun it is!

And he’ll play nicely for quite a while behind the closed door (which is usually in his bedroom, which is theoretically “safe”).

But then I’ll hear this sweet little coo that means, Mommy, I’m tired of playing by myself. Please let me out. [Wish you could hear it!]

Then he sees the open door and is unable to resist the opportunity to close it. Such fun it is!

And we repeat the whole scenario all over again. And again. And again. And again.

These are the days…

I love this wreath. It was actually a wedding gift from one of my college friends, Mindy, who stood up for us at our wedding and who just had a little baby boy on January 10, but who is (alas!) blogless.

The wreath is made with corn husks, which seemed appropriate since we live in Nebraska. It’s rather rustic, yet pretty at the same time.

In our basement, we have a long room that goes down the entire length of one half and takes up half the width as well. The stairs and office are on one end, the family room (a la, tv, couch and Steve’s new recliner) are on the other end. In between is this wide open space where we keep the toybox (which makes it the main play area).

Along the play area is this long blank wall which I think would be the perfect place to hang all of our family pictures. Except that I’ve never gotten around to doing it. And besides, I had the wreath hanging there, and it looked so nice, and I enjoyed seeing it every time I came downstairs.

A couple weeks ago, my dear husband suggested that, since we didn’t have anything hanging on the walls of our guest room, we could hang the beloved wreath above the bed. I thought, What a clever idea. It is just the right size, and it goes well with the rustic, country decor I have in that room. So I gave him permission to move it there.

It certainly does look nice hanging there, if I dare say so myself. He centered it nicely, and hung it just the right height above the bed. All without my help. I could have not done a better job myself. I was so impressed with my husband’s interior decorating skills. After all, most men are not known to have talents in this area.

A few hours later, I came down in the basement. The guest room and utility room take up opposite ends of the other side of the basement, with a bathroom, a closet, and a small hallway in between. When you come out that hallway after going to the guest room or the utility room, you look directly at the wall where the wreath once hung.

Imagine my surprise when I found this hanging on the same nail from which the wreath had hung.

Does that not scream, white trash?

I must confess, I was horrified.

That item had not been seen since the 2001 Colorado game in which the Huskers played poorly and after which Steve went home and took down all over his Husker paraphernalia. Yes, all of it. The walls in his apartment were bare. He went to Hobby Lobby to find something else to put up, by chance his mother was there at the same time, and she helped him pick out some fishing-themed wall hangings, which are quite nice and hang above the couch in our living room.

Well, Frank Solich was fired a year later, then Bill Callahan came, and now he was fired, too. But hope has been reborn with the hiring of Bo Pelini, the new Nebraska head football coach. In fact, apparently my husband’s hope is so renewed that he decided that some of the Nebraska paraphernalia must be restored to its former glory, at least in terms of being on display.

But, did he have to choose this?

Yes, I know it’s a bad picture. I really did try. The wall in this one is a very pale beige, and the helmet is supposed to be white. Yes, supposed to be. The whole thing is wood and then it’s covered with this acrylic stuff, like they put on your fingernails. Thick and shiny. And the white is discolored. As in, yellowed. But not evenly. Nope. In patches. It’s awful.

My husband has always complained that he needs a man room where he can hang his things and arrange the furniture the way he wants it. I think he’s right. Maybe I could turn the family room end of the long room over to him for that purpose. I don’t use that room much anyway. And it’s kind of off to the side, so I wouldn’t be confronted with that ugly helmet-thing every time I go downstairs.

I really, really, really need to get our pictures of the boys framed so I can hang them up on that wall in it’s place. And finish putting those photos in albums so they can be enjoyed. Must. get. with. it.

Remember my whining about wanting my own header picture like other people have on their blogs? Well, maybe you don’t remember, but I did whine about it. More than once.

And yesterday morning, I figured it out. Quite simple, in fact. Embarassingly so.

That’s okay. I have a header photo now that I am in love with.

It’s from a picture I took during one of our visits to Steve’s grandparent’s farm. The fence hasn’t been painted since Steve was in high school (which was the last time Steve painted it – it was his job to paint one side of the barn and a few other things every year – go figure). And the yard has been mowed but not trimmed.

Just the same, I love that picture. I love old clotheslines. I love those flowers. They’re peonies, and my Grandma Hagele used to have them lining her garden on the south side – they were my favorite. I love being on a farm out in the country – the peace and quiet, the wide open space.

And after losing my two grandmothers in the last year or so, I am fascinated with how they lived their lives – they were homemakers, after all, just as I am – and gleaning the elements I loved most about their lives and making them a part of my own.

That picture embodies what I loved about my grandmothers and so much more.

And it looks great with the rest of this design. I keep navigating over to my blog just to look at it and soak it in. Ah!

I’m also adding a new category to my blog: homemaking. Self-explanatory, in a way. But I think, in many ways, homemaking has gotten lost by the wayside in today’s society. I want to bring it back. At least at our house. More on that in coming posts.

For now, feel the stillness of the country as you look at that picture, and let your soul be soothed.

Okay, I’m being silly today. Participating in one of those blog things that spreads like a virus. But seriously…

I got it from Alissa over at Life’s Little Adventures. Here’s how it goes:

If you’d like to take part, be one of the first three to comment mentioning that you’re signing up for the PIF exchange. You’ll have to agree to this pledge:

I, [insert your name here] will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange, and who make the same pledge on their own blogs.

[We’ll see if anyone other than Alissa – who is always so kind as to leave a comment – actually reads my blog. I really do have little projects planned…just in case.]

Cheers!

My mom wanted to know what the boys do when they play together. Here’s your answer.

And yes, life at our house is always this nice. Yup. Ben’s hair always looks like that, too.