Wordless Wednesday

While I Was Blogging.

Yesterday, I was typing away and listening for screams or silence. Typical day. I hear the boys get into their piggy banks and just kind of yell, "Stop it! Put your money back!" A few minutes later I hear some kind of tearing. I go in to check on them and an entire box of packing peanuts has been dumped all over their room! And most of the box was dumped behind the bed. Here's how my brain responds:

I'm goING TO KILL...where's my camera?

So I had to bring in the shop vac. The giant R-2 Unit lookin' shop vac. Which I had to go out into the rain to get.

I started scooping up the mess into the box and discovered that underneath the peanuts were dimes and quarters. They had also dumped their piggy banks behind the bed. Which meant I had to push the packing peanuts around and find the change before I could vacuum.

I finally get all the change into the banks and all the styrofoam vacuumed up and start to put all the bedding back. (Did I mention I had to vacuum their beds?) I was looking for the all the paper money that was missing from the banks and asked Hartwell where he put it. Why, in the wipes, of course! They had emptied the baby wipes and filled it with cash and some change. (They seem to understand the value of a dollar these days).

I was pretty happy with myself for not totally exploding and screaming. Filled with my sense of self satisfaction, I walked by the living room and saw that they had somehow managed to get the box of packing peanuts into the living room and were throwing them all over.

I'm having another whoopie pie. I deserve it.

Painting Tips for Moms

My house is peeling. The paint, that is. The whole thing needs to be exfoliated and painted. But that takes time and time without kids underfoot. Which, as a stay-at-home-mom, is impossible. I was telling my neighbor about my idea to spend a few months painting my house myself. Like painting a couple of hours during the day and then cleaning up and doing it again the next day. She's an artist and a teacher and has been painting her house for 5 years, so she had some tips for me.

1. Use a Cart. Keep all of your supplies on a wheeled cart or wagon. Then you can take everything with you as you paint and have a place to store it out of a kids reach when you're finished. I was going to keep mine on my front porch and then I won't have to run around for an hour looking for all my supplies.

2. Use Glad Press'n Seal Wrap for Brushes. When you are done for the day, wrap your brush/roller in the Glad Wrap and pop it in the freezer. When you're ready to paint, put the brush in the sun to thaw while you prep your wall and then it's ready to go. And since you don't have to rinse your brush every night, it wastes less paint.(Not a paid endorser, just a wrap lover).

3. Use Clear Coat. When you're painting between wall and trim, tape off your trim and apply a clear coat to seal the tape. Then paint the wall. You'll get a nice clean line.

I should mention I'm not a professional. These are just things I've learned from painting things. And in my house, everything has a coat of paint on it. Except Barkley. Unless he gets too close to my paintbrush.

 

 

Fun with house painting at Sherwin Williams.