Ibbie :: 9 months

It's summertime in Delaware! I've been taking the girls to the pool and Ibbie loves to play in the water, just like her sister. She and Cole splash in the bath tub but the swimming pool takes the splashing to a whole new level. We've also been to a few parks and zoos. Ibbie happily strolls along! Our goose is nothing if not a happy girl.

This month she survived the arrival of her two top, front teeth, her first night/weekend away from us, and sleeping through the night (10:30pm-6:10am). She's still pulling up and cruising but gets around much more quickly when she crawls.

month one, two, four, five, six, seven, eight

Cole at nine months 

Nook Beautification

Since moving, I've become a regular Craigslist peruser.  I have a laundry list of things I'm looking for to outfit the new house. At the top of the list were table and chairs for the kitchen. After having little success finding a table, we took a trip to the Habitat ReStore where we found a pedestal table crying out for some TLC. A few days later, I found some chairs on Craigslist that fit perfectly with the table.

For the last month, we've lived with them as is with the plan to do something eventually.  When I finally got around to figuring out that the something meant adding a pop of color and painting the table blue, my mom had the perfect color suggestion: Aubusson Blue. Well a can of Aubusson Blue paint sat on the shelf for a couple of weeks. When my step-dad offered to paint the table one evening we jumped at the opportunity.

When my mom brought the table back to us, it was as good as new! The peonies from her garden in the vase she found at Goodwill were just icing on the cake. My mom is so skilled at creating beautiful things! I added a rug from Overstock, with a smaller one by the sink. It's worth pointing out that with little ones in the house, the only kind of rug I'll buy for the kitchen or dining room are indoor-outdoor rugs. They are normally less expensive and can be washed off with a hose.

There's also a paint sample on the wall. I went ahead last week and put up paint samples in every room. It may take us a year (or more) to get everything painted, but we've got a vision.

This

Jack King's recent post Why Scruffy Hospitality Creates Space for Friendship really struck a cord with me. Every single word of it. Especially as we settle into this new house, I'm so grateful for his perspective. Hospitality means own arms and open doors. Nothing else. 

"Scruffy hospitality means you’re not waiting for everything in your house to be in order before you host and serve friends in your home. Scruffy hospitality means you hunger more for good conversation and serving a simple meal of what you have, not what you don’t have. Scruffy hospitality means you’re more interested in quality conversation than the impression your home or lawn makes. If we only share meals with friends when we’re excellent, we aren’t truly sharing life together. 

Don’t allow a to-do list disqualify you from an evening with people you’re called to love in friendship. Scheduling is hard enough in our world. If it’s eating with kind, welcoming people in a less than perfect house versus eating alone, what do you think someone would choose? We tell our guests ‘come as you are,’ perhaps we should tell ourselves ‘host as you are.’"

In this spirit, we hosted a small cookout on Friday. Our guests came, with toddlers in tow. We ate Costco-made food on paper plates in an 'as is' house and the kids played in an un-mowed yard. It was wonderful! Nothing makes a place feel more like home than being able to invite friends in.