January 6 - Day 6

Our new sensory tub. It's only part of the way full but the boys begged to play with it anyway. A mommy friend of mine, Elisabeth, pointed her blog reader in the direction of a super informative site, 1+1+1=1. I pulled some helpful information regarding sensory tubs and crafts that Ian and Aidan can do at home. The site is mostly about homeschooling and all of the posts are adaptable to your family's situation. Ian and Aidan both attend preschool but since I am not in their class everyday, I often feel left out of the loop. I've decided to take some of their home time and turn it into an extension of their schooling. We do that mostly anyway but now it will be a more regulated schedule. 

This tub is my first venture. Ian LOVES sensory tubs at school and I have no idea why it didn't cross my mind to have one at home until reading a post on the homeschooling site. I went to Michael's and gathered up some pipe cleaners, feathers, pom poms, and a few clearance holiday items that went with my theme (which is just Winter, by the way). Most everything in the tub is blue or white. There are some silver ribbon, felt, foam board, and sponges in there as well. I just need to get those cotton balls in there to fill up the lower half.

The boys took to the tub immediately. Halfway through playtime I tossed in some flat glass marbles as well, and we made felt snowflakes and flowers and glued them to Popsicle sticks (a la puppets!). When the bucket is fuller, after this weekend, I'll take a more proper picture. In the meantime, here's a close up of the inside.

January 5 - Day 5

Tonight the kids and I got the cat off his lazy buns and put him to work with his new Christmas catnip toys. Bones is 9 1/2 years old and has been with me since Oct 2001, when he was 4 months. I often joke with Dan that Bones is my longest relationship.

This evening, Bones went crazy over his new feather toys. Ian had fun tossing all of them around and watching Bones chase after. The best part was listening to the boys giggle and laugh and shriek over and over again. I never tire of hearing their happy angelic voices. They are so good with the cat too, and the cat is as equally nice in return. Bones is the best (and only) cat we've ever had and I am always appreciative of his high tolerance to my kiddos' shenanigans.

January 4 - Day 4

Today I switched out some photos. I have been trying to rotate layouts every season, to keep it fresh. This is just one of my 8x8 frames on the wall, and I apologize for taking this 365 photo at such an unflattering angle. I made this layout last year and the photos were taken in October 2005, when Dan and I were dating. We had just finished a trip to Newport, Oregon and stopped in Tillamook to tour the cheese factory. Before we went inside, I snapped a few shots in the car. It was really random but turned out neat. I love this photo because it reminds me of who we were as a couple before we were parents - a connection that seems to get lost once tiny feet pitter patter around the house. One of our goals this  year is to take more time for us, have more date nights, just be together. This digital scrapbooking layout will be a beautiful reminder over the next few months.

January 3 - Day 3

Dan and I sat down this weekend and created a schedule. I was getting pretty stressed out by all the randomness going on during the week and a schedule sounded pretty darn good. In the midst of it all, Dan and I decided to carve out some "us" time that didn't warrant errand running, house cleaning, or kid talk! Our original plans for today dictated getting Ian on the bus, dropping Aidan off to school, and then killing an hour or so at Starbucks until Aidan needed to be picked up.

Well, we all know that things NEVER go as planned, right? Upon waking up, I realized we hadn't made a bank deposit that needed to be in, ASAP. The bank account it needed to be deposited into was clear over on the north side of town, near Division and Indiana. So away we went. With the roads being not so forgiving, the bank run cost us 40 minutes of that hour. We got to Starbucks at 10:14, I sat and Dan ordered. At 10:20 we were finally settled into the comfy chairs with our drinks and had five minutes to sit and enjoy one another's company. Five minutes. It was the quickest five minutes ever and we're planning a do over this week. However, it was pretty nice to just sit there and not do ANYTHING. A five minute vacation. 

Later today, I took Ian to swim therapy. I couldn't resist snapping this pic of him in Spiderman goggles. How adorable! His fear of water is subsiding with each session. Love this kid. 

January 2 - Day 2

Today we stopped at Barnes and Noble. I really could live in this store. I worked here when I was going to school in Boise and loved it.

This stop was to pick up some reading material (magazines!) that we have a hard time finding elsewhere. Love the BHG spin off magazines: Storage, DIY, and 100 Ideas for Real Rooms. All 3 had some fantastic ideas for revamping our rooms.

Of course, the kids require a stop in the Children's section of the store. Ian browsed the books for all of 2 minutes and then headed off to the train table to play. (Even though he has one at home!). Aidan went another route and picked some books off the shelves. Since I was supervising Ian, Dan hung around with Aidan. We were on two separate ends of the kids' section when I spied this cozy moment between dad and son. I couldn't resist the photo op and thank goodness for zoom. They didn't even suspect a thing.

January 1 - Day 1

We started the year off at Home Depot. We have plans to redecorate to increase the amount of livable space we have in our little house. Some of the upcoming projects include window seat benches (with storage) in the kitchen, complete with a smaller, thinner, table. The handed down oak table and chairs from my grandparents aren't cutting it for us anymore. Don't get me wrong, it's a great functional and classic set, but our less than large kitchen isn't equipped to handle a circular table. So out to storage it will finally go, most likely in the spring.

Secondly, we have this small not-really-a-bedroom for a bedroom. It's in part of the house that looks like an afterthought. Like someone said, "Let's put a mudroom at the back of the house, off the deck." That space is our room. Our queen bed just squeezes in and the area actually looks inviting thanks to some string lighting brought indoors and new bedding. I am going to keep the actual plans for this room under wraps but nothing we change will be a permanent change. It's just going to help in the day to day function of this household.

So we hit HD in hopes of finding some inspiration. I am excited for all of the newness to come.

2011

I only made it 3 weeks last year! I took more photos than I posted but I was disappointed in not keeping up with this project. So this year, I am embarking on a new 365. My goal at the end is to print 2 books. One will simply showcase a picture each day, along with the date. The other will be a spiral bound book with each of my blog posts for the year.

I didn't want to delete the photos from last year, just to restart this blog, so they're still here in the 2010 posts.

I hope to work on the design of this blog a little bit. All this white makes me want to throw paint on the canvas.

I look forward to 2011!