Dear James,

A few days ago you turned nineteen months old.  And right this second you’re sitting next to me stirring some imaginary soup in one of my pans, with a spatula.  Your Dad and I love watching your imagination grow, even knowing that soon enough it will lead to that quintessential parents-of-a-boy moment when you leap off of something high with a bath towel tied around your neck, in your best impression of Superman.  Or, in your case, most likely Ceiling Fan Man.  He has those rotating wings, you know.

James, you may still be a peanut as far as the growth chart, but your mental progress this last month is off the charts. You’ve learned at least three dozen new words and can imitate almost any sound (so we’re holding off on teaching you the word ‘spit’ for a while, just in case it doesn’t come out as we planned.)  You’ve also begun to grasp concepts like cause and effect, recognize dozens of objects by name, correlate animals and the sounds they make, and follow commands.  Your Dad and I are frequently surprised at how much you understand and it never stops being funny to watch you automatically start spinning in circles if one of us uses the phrase “turn around” in our conversation.

You’ve also become very good at letting us know what you’d like. Ever interested in having polite children, we taught you to ask for things by saying “please”.  And smart guy that you are, you figured out pretty quickly that you if say “peas” you will likely be given the object of your desire.  So now you go through your day with a running tract of “peas, peas, peas,” as you stretch for things out of reach, struggle with things too heavy, ask to be picked up or helped down, or strain with all your might against the fridge door trying to get to your “milt” (milk).   James, I love hearing you use words, to point and answer “I wan dat” when I ask what you’d like, or whisper “night night” when I lay you down for bed.

MAFFLE!

Wait, what?  Your absolute favorite thing in the world right now, more exciting than chocolate milk, light switches, or even the illustrious fan is your morning waffle.  MAFFLE!   The second your feet hit the floor in the morning you take off for the kitchen, round the corner on one foot, skid to a stop in front of the fridge and ask at the top of your lungs for your MAFFLE!  And not just once, but again and again and again until it’s been removed from the freezer, toasted, and cut into pieces for you.  Just a glimpse of the toaster in the cupboard or butter tub in the open fridge is enough to start a rousing chorus of MAFFLE!  It’s my favorite part of morning, James.  You may not have inherited much of my looks or my build, but by golly if you didn’t get enthusiasm toward carbs.

Speaking of inheriting, your Dad was rummaging through some of his childhood things we have in storage and among the GI Joes and matchbox cars that are still a bit old for you, he found a set of four rubber dinosaurs that are perfect for your age.  It took about four seconds for you to fall in love with these new-to-you toys, partly because you haven’t had much variety in your toys since your birthday last April, and partly because you’ve become enamored with a cartoon on PBS called Dinosaur Train.  It did this Mama’s heart good to see you and your Dad sitting in the still-green grass (it’s November!), playing with toys passed from father to son.  I know I’ve said this before, but your Dad is a really fantastic man, James, and anything you can glean from him, right down to his dinosaur toys, is a bigger blessing than you realize.

I think it’s fitting James, that as I end this letter I focus on something you’re really good at: saying bye-bye.  We hang up the phone and you say bye-bye-bye-bye-bye.  We close a door and you say bye-bye-bye-bye-bye.  We walk away from someone, anyone, and you say bye-bye-bye-bye-bye.  Leaving the grocery store or church has started to resemble that final scene from The Sound of Music where they’re slowly and agonizingly leaving the stage in Austria for the last time. You never have been short on drama. 

Though it breaks your Dad’s heart a little, you’re so used to Daddy leaving to go back to work that if he steps out the back door to take out the trash you automatically start chanting bye-bye-bye-bye-bye.  But this month your Dad and I took the first steps to a lot less bye-byes on Daddy’s part; your Dad signed a contract to work for a clinic after he graduates from residency next year.  And though it was tempting to pursue a position with a higher compensation in exchange for a bigger time commitment, the thought of less bye-byes and more chances for you to run toward the backdoor shouting “Da-DEE!” at the first hint of a key in the lock; well, it was no contest James. 

Also, MAFFLE!

Love,

Mama

How about some happiness? 

Travis and I had our realtor friend (the same realtor who helped us buy this house) over for dinner last weekend to talk about our selling/buying plans. After discussing what we're looking for , she suggested we start looking at homes sooner rather than later.  She thinks seeing some homes in person will help us narrow exactly what we're looking for. We spent a large chunk of the past few days poring over listings and compiling Must See and Might See lists from the 70ish homes in our price range and disered size. The Must See list is significantly shorter, but has some really exciting possibilities. We start on Saturday with four homes.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

She also gave us the dose of reality that we'll very likely have to lose some money on this house because of the current market and what houses are selling for in our neighborhood.  Thankfully we purchased small and made a decent downpayment, so it won't be as much as it could have been.

I'm so excited to go see homes that it makes my stomach go all fluttery.  I love, love, love to look at houses and seeing a few at a time over the next few months will be such a fun, low-stress way to look for our next home.  As opposed to the last time when we had two days to find this one.  I will admit I'm a little nervous that we'll find what we're looking for right away and then have to wait several months to move on it, risking someone else making an offer.  But I'm also confident that God has chosen our home and if it's currently on the market then it will stay there until it's time for us to move.

Let the fun begin!

I've been looking for some time for a jewelry box to hold and display my smaller jewelry on my dresser.  I've priced them in stores but wasn't ever willing to pay the $30 - $50 pricetag for something with lots of individual compartments and drawers instead of just a small box with a lid.

Have I mentioned how much I love to garage sale?  Because this little beauty was all of $3.

Oh, you don't think she's beautiful with her scratched wood and gold hardware and tan velvet lining? 

Yeah, me neither.

But she was cheap and I knew she could be pretty with a little paint and creativity.

See?

I gave the outside three coats of white paint and used black craft paint, a coat of polyurithane for shine, and a teeny brush to update the little brass hardware. 

Befores and Afters:

 The top lid flips up and to add contrast and pop, I painted the inside of the lid black instead of white.

A little flair comes from black and white patterned velvet wrapping paper, cut to fit and used as liners.

Not bad for $3!

This is our last post on Small Space Living and it's about keeping the clutter in your home under control.  Corraling clutter is applicable to living in a home of any size, but is especially important when you live in a small space.  You only have so much room in which to do all your living, eating, playing, storing.....why spend your time working around things that add visual stress and take up that precious space?  A few tips for corraling the clutter in your home:

1) When you have things that need to stay out for easy access or because you're out of drawer/cabinet space, contain them.

These are my not-yet-read magazines and scrapbook idea books that I want to keep.  Instead of a stack on the floor, they live in this basket tucked into a corner next to my love seat. 

These are James' daily eating supplies - silverware, bowls, cups, oatmeal.  I cannot cram them into my full cupboards so they live on the counter.  And they drive me bonkers.

But don't they look better in their own little container?  I can live with it this way.

2) Sacrifice valuable cabinet/drawer space to keep your uglies out of sight. 

I like yellow as much as the next person but my phone book does not need to be kept on display on my counter.  And cell phone chargers may be necessary but leaving them plugged in and snaking all over my kitchen isn't the vibe I'm going for.  Instead I chose to give up a valuable drawer to hold things that I need to access regularly but aren't attractive.

This is the shelf Travis made for our desk, as a temporary solution for our make-shift office space.

This is the pile of receipts, user manuals, important papers and bills, all of our spare paper, lables, folders and various sundry office supplies that used to live in a stack on top of the printer.  Hiding it away from the guests who sleep in this room gives me great pleasure.

3) Create a phone station.

It's so easy to let coupons, mail, pens, scraps of paper with phone numbers scribbled on them, that spare pair of scissors, To Do lists, post-it notes, and pads of paper take over that little corner of your home dedicated to the phone.  And next thing you know you're sifting through Arby's coupons and doctor's appointment cards looking for the recipe you jotted down last time you talked to your Grandma.  Or maybe that's just me.  Enter, the phone station.

A $.50 ceramic planter from Menards, a $1 napkin holder from Big Lots, talking the husband into mounting the phone on the wall, and a quick Do-it-Yourself message board and voila!  A clutter-free counter.  Coupons and note pads go into the napkin holder.  Pens and scissors live in the jar.  And the message board is just package of cork board and a simple black frame bought at Wal-Mart for about $3 total.  I just trimmed the cork to the right size and stuck it in the back of the frame instead of the plexiglass.  Now all my phone numbers, jotted notes, and business cards have a place to hang out until I don't need them anymore.

And that ends our series on Small Space Living!  I'm sure some of you are quietly sighing "finally", but I've enjoyed it.  Go forth and corral your clutter!

Our next-to-last Small Space post is about finding the balance in what you keep out and what you keep away.  When you have limited storage sometimes it makes sense to find the pretty things and rather than find a hiding place for them, put them on display.  Small Space Tip:  Display your disposables (Cavaet: If they're nice to look at. A box of Kotex isn't going to add much to your aesthetic.)

Remember this?

I have two drawers in my bathroom.  So instead of filling one of those precious drawers with disposable makeup supplies I arranged white cotton swabs and q-tips in candleholders, spray painted a little shelf, and made them decor.  Not only are they easy to access on a daily basis but they look purposeful instead of like clutter.

No room is better suited to displaying disposables than your kitchen, with all those groceries.  Fresh fruit arranged on a $1 Goodwill candleholder that I painted white makes a simple centerpiece. Plus, have you noticed that fresh produce, like a living plant, adds a little life to your room?  It's an easy, organic touch that freshens a room and chases away that overly-arranged look.

This cereal dispenser gets more comments than anything else in my house.  It was on clearance at Brylane Home last year and holds an oversized box of cereal in each container.  My Mom calls it my continential breakfast station.

What to do with all those jars of food for your little one?  That's a fruit bowl of baby food tucked away under the cabinet.  So much tidier than stacking all those little jars in rows and technically it's still holding fruit.

Get the idea?  What pretty disposables do you have that you can put on display in a creative way until you need them?

The other side of this coin is figuring out what to hide.  I am a big, big, BIG proponent of hiding most of your media.  DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs, and video games all come in bright plasticy packaging that usually adds visual clutter to a space.  And when you're dealing with a small space you should try to minimize clutter.  The exception to this rule is books - I love to see books on display, especially if you remove the brightly colored dust jackets to show the muted cloth covers.

Anyway, how to hide all those DVDs?  In our apartment we had an open-shelved entertainment center for which I bought baskets to hold our DVD collection.  When we moved here we gave up the entertainment center for the floor space so I had to come up with another way to hide our media.  After a few weeks of looking I found these two cabinets (yep, there are two squished together to look like one) at Big Lots. They were leftovers from one of those expensive modular closet systems.  (Shockingly, I put them together myself and they're still standing 2 years later!)

And doesn't that simple exterior look so much better than if we had this on display in our living space?

Our CDs found a new home here:

This chest sits behind our couch in the living room, like a sofa table.  I was originally going to use it to store extra blankets but instead decided to hide away all of our CDs.  This as come in super-duper handy now that we have a small person who looooooves to seperate those shiny discs from their cases. 

What creative ways do you hide your media?