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Here It Comes

Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

There are library books strewn across my kitchen table and bottles of nail polish in the living room.

Babies have been put to bed all over the house and the kiddie pool has just been emptied of it’s suntan lotion scented water–all over the deck.

We drank all the sweet tea yesterday, but there’s some adults-only lemonade left.

I think it’s summer.

Today is our first official day with no camps,  no post-planning, no daycare, no grandparents.  Just me and the girls. 

And the Tinsley boys because we went to Jazzercise and then graced Wendy’s in our workout clothes because Mary Lynn and I are cool like that.  Well, sweaty, really, but who cares?

It’s summer.

Madelynne at Jazzercise Camp

Time for the babies to sleep.

While we’ve been anticipating it’s arrival, we’ve also been planning for how we’re going to incorporate me back into a stay-at-home position that I haven’t occupied since Madelynne was smaller than Amelia.  So here’s a look at what we’ve been up to….

This is all the junk we took out of the office so we could take down our existing furniture and replace it with some sleekly modern IKEA finds.  This picture scares me even though all this isn’t still in the living room.

This is Madelynne and Mimi sorting all her kindergarten papers for her portfolio.

This is the old desk….I forgot what it looked like under all the clutter.  Do you want it?  It’s for sale. 

And this is the other desk that was “mine”.  Not really.  Really it was another place to gather clutter.  We’re working on that.

And this is Joshua putting the baby to sleep after a long day of furniture removal and assembly.  I think it’s sweet.

No, there’s no picture of the new furniture.  You’ll just have to be surprised.  Or wait until tomorrow because it’s current state is fantastic for Imperfectly Perfect Wednesday posts.
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Project 52.14

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

I’ve lost track of what week it is and just had to pull the calender down and count to get back on track.  Story of my life.  Always regrouping.  Hopefully, though I’m learning at least a little discipline and a lot of patience with myself by trying to make this a weekly post.

Maybe someday I’ll succeed.

The girls and I have been hanging out a lot more together lately and the result of that is I’m exhausted.  Kudos to all who face motherhood without a partner.  It’s at best overwhelming.  Joshua’s been gone a lot lately with work (amazing how much they need from someone who’s ‘temporary’) and his volunteer positions and I’m trying not to grudge him the new avenues he’s trying.  So while he’s been busy with banker business and theater thriftiness, I’ve been trying to keep the girls engaged in life beyond the DVD player and Mommy’s frazzled nerves.

Here’s some highlights from the past couple of weeks.  And I know there are no pics of today’s adventures at the Payne Plantation, but I think those might be worthy of a whole other post.  Especially because I’m ready to call it quits for the night and don’t want to open up Picasa and deal with loading the ten thousand photos Kelsey-parazzi took.

Hunting Fairies at Magical Gardens on the Square
Convinced Hannah is a princess in training.
Beautiful Fairy Belle
Happy Birthday Ella!
The new door!

30 Blog Challenge · Home · Manic Monday

Manic Monday..or Tuesday…or Wednesday

Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

Yeah, it’s not Monday but the holiday week threw me off.  That’s my excuse for everything all week 🙂

Monday actually wasn’t manic.  It was meltdown.  Not from the five year old.

They were good all day. In and out, playing and climbing trees, and trying to eat their way through all the Phineas&Ferb yogurt I bought recently.

Amelia was good.  Cuddly and a little whimpery, but who wouldn’t be when cutting three teeth?

Daddy Joshua kept his cool even when he and his father broke something (I don’t want to know) while installing a shower in our master bath as part of our Making the Sale campaign.

That leaves mommy.  So I confess.  The meltdown was me.

But I feel justified.  I spent TWO HOURS (that is precious time I could’ve been playing with my kids or writing or hanging out with friends) organizing our closet.

It was gorgeous when I was done.  Well, to me at least.  You didn’t see it before.

I was nursing Amelia when it happened.  I heard the crash but assumed it was the shower head or handle or pipe.

Oh, no.  The shelving pulled out of the drywall and crashed to the floor.  All of my clothes in a heap.  Luckily the shoe rack survived.  And I lost it.

It was 4:30 in the afternoon and my holiday suddenly seemed wasted.  No matter that I had also sorted all the girls fall/winter clothes, folded five baskets of laundry, cooked a real breakfast, cleaned a bathroom, and vacuumed the floor.  My closet was in shambles.

Thank goodness my in-laws were there so Joshua could deal with me and they could deal with the closet.  It’s back up now.  And truthfully, the silver lining is that now it’s reinforced into a stud and Tom hung my shelf a few inches higher so my dresses don’t drag.

I think I was just overdue for my own meltdown.  Too many irons in the fire, you know.  Or hangers on the closet rod.

See how a couple of days gives you perspective?


And if you’re visiting thanks to Helping the Little Guy, welcome to the randomness!

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Random Acts of….Selling

Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

I’ve done most of the stuff HGTV told me to when it comes to selling my house.  It’s clean, uncluttered (as much as a home with three kids can be), and smells decent.  However, until today, we haven’t had one person walk through the door.

Since this showing occurred after a couple of interesting events in our life, I figure HGTV forgot to tell me to do these things in order to ensure a potential buyer.

First, you have to make peace with the idea of staying in the the house you’re in. We’ve done that so much that we’re now considering just remodeling and have chosen new kitchen cabinets. Good thing we haven’t bought them yet.

Next, if you have hardwood floors like mine, you should give them a good polish.  Like maybe with an entire bottle of olive oil that fell out of the grocery bag the 5-year-old was toting.  There’s a puddle of EVOO on my floor and all my husband has to say is, “Kathy called.  The house is being shown tomorrow.”

Figures, huh?

.

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Random Acts of….Home

Lindsey P. Brackett4 Comments


There’s a For Sale sign in my yard. With my agent’s name and number and everything. So, it’s official. We’re FOR SALE.

I dream of the call where Kathy says, “We got an offer. Asking price. Close immediately.” And of course we say yes, yes, yes! and pack up and move on to a new phase in our lives that may or may not include pink countertops and hardwood floors. (Hoping for one, can do without the other.)
But, let’s be realistic. Or maybe not. I mean, after all, we’ve done the house-on-the-market-forever deal so it’s our turn to get a little bit of luck, right? If only life worked that way and you really were rewarded good for bad in even doses. But so often (to modify a Little Dreamer’s phrase) you “get what you get and shouldn’t pitch a fit.”
So, I’m going to hold onto Hope (literally because it’s Amelia’s name and so fitting for right now in our lives) and make peace with understanding that the sale will happen when it happens and God’s timing on it will be as perfect as He desires it to be.
In the meantime, our agent asked me to list all the things I like about our house, so the other night at our dinner date, Joshua and I did just that. I think we were both surprised by how long our list was.
We love our backyard. It’s a great space for the kids to play and it’s fairly level with enough woods to make Joshua happy.
I love our hardwood floors. If I had my way there would be no carpet in any house I own, ever. Wood has so much personality AND is easier to clean when juice gets spilled. Ours are wide planks of honey gold and make our house unique. In fact, it was what I fell in love with when we first saw the place.
We love that even though it’s small, we have 4 bedrooms. Until Amelia, we actually had an office AND a guest room which seems like a luxury.
I love my big tub. It has jets which I can take or leave, but it’s huge enough for me at 9 months pregnant! The girls love it too. It’s like a mini-pool. I love my kitchen sink for almost the same reasons, except I don’t fit in it. But Amelia does. It’s deep and cast iron and can hold a LOT of dirty dishes.
We love our location. And that’s something no amount of HGTV can change. This end of the county is fantastically rural and charming, but still captures the small town suburb feel. There are lots of friends nearby, the church and my school are both 5 minutes away, and we are just that closer to other NE Georgia places I love like Unicoi, Hiawassee, and Anna Ruby Falls.
It is a great little house for a little family. But our family is growing and then there’s extended family and new friends and the girls want an inside pet…..It’s time for more. Square footage that is. I’m not sure any house can top the friendships that we’ve found and the memories we’ve made on this little road in northeast Georgia.