Happy Father's Day!

We're crazy about dads in this house! And are abundantly blessed by the fathers in our lives! I'm so proud and humbled to be on this parenting journey with Peter, a man who seeks to teach our daughter about the love of our Heavenly Father every single day.

On The Agenda

Our house is a bit disheveled at the moment.

We're converting the guestroom/playroom into a big girl room for Cole. Converting the room is turning out to be a bit more involved than it initially seemed and somehow the project is taking over our entire house. Here's the working list of tasks to be accomplished:

• empty the closet in the playroom
• relocated the items in the closet to other closets throughout the house and the attic
• repair a bracket on the attic stairs so they are functional
• relocate the items from the shelf in the playroom to the living room
• move the shelf in the playroom to our room
• consolidate the clothes in my dresser to fit in Peter's dresser
• paint the big girl room
• move my dresser into the big girl room
• get the twin beds out of the attic and assemble 
• outfit the big girl room with new window treatments 
• find headboards, footboards, and accessories for the big girl room
• childproof the big girl room

The plan is not to force Cole to move into her new room before baby sister arrives. Of course, if she shows interest we'll encourage the move. As it is, we have a bassinet and pack n' play that little sister can sleep in for months so Cole won't be asked to give up her crib prematurely. Stay tuned for more updates on the room.

For A Tuesday

I meant to get this post up yesterday but, I did not. Just a few thoughts from the weekend.

1- Our weekend was full with loads of grown up activities: cleaning the house, tidying the yard, detailing the car. Just lots of cleaning in general. We did manage to spend some time outside which was lovely. 

2- Cole developed a new routine this weekend. After waking, she now likes a bit of alone time with her books. We'll greet her then she'll ask for books and take 10-15 minutes to peruse her in-crib library.  It's very endearing. You've got to respect the introverted child who needs a bit of me time before taking on the world.

3- This weekend I received my first purchase from Very Jane and I learned about Brickyard Buffalo. I'm not a shopaholic but these websites are trouble! Are you familiar with the sites? If I just introduced you, you're welcome and I'm sorry.

4- Finally, I read this opinion piece on Loving the Midwest that was in the NYT on Saturday and found it wildly relatable. While many of the details are different, the range and sequence of emotions is quite parallel to our lives in Memphis. You could replace "St. Louis" with "Memphis" in the following excerpts, I'd be none the wiser: 

For one thing, it’s so easy [living in St. Louis]. If I complain that I had a hard time parking, what I mean is that there was no space waiting for me directly in front of my destination and I had to drive another 50 feet to find one. If I say a restaurant is hard to get into, I mean that when I called on Thursday, they had no reservation open for Saturday night at 7:30... My husband’s commute is 20 minutes in “bad” traffic and 10 minutes otherwise. 

WHAT I like best of all is that the size of St. Louis means we now run into people we know at the playground and the post office and the farmers’ market. In several instances, we’ve developed friendships after we bumped into the same people in more than one setting — the mother and son duo my daughter and I took a baby music class with, then saw again two years later when the children were in the same preschool, or the couple we met through my college classmate before we all happened to move onto the same street.