::dead civic, cats, summer PE, underbed chilling, orphan ducks::

Emma's SUPER old civic Pat died on the side of the highway the other day.  Josh and I got the trailer out and went and got her.  

Let me tell you that Broccoli the barn cat is always living her best life.  She knows how to straight chill.  She catches mice and hangs out by the back door because I feed her pieces of hotdogs all the time.  

Sometimes I think that Josh has magical powers.  He can fix anything.  He picks up the Civic, orders $85 of parts and gets the old girl back on the road.  

Lily took PE online over the summer.  For real - online PE.  It was as easy as it could possibly be.  She has to go take her final at an area highschool.  The entire point of this was to open up her schedule so she can take more theater electives.  

Q decided that in his effort to relax as well as possible he would climb under Lily's bed and play the Switch on her trundle bed.  

Our Mama duck may have died but we were able to hatch 5 of her little orphans.  They are so cute and are thriving.  

::Max's Room::

Oh my precious baby stud Max.  He is so soothing to my heart.  I adore him.  BUT THAT KID IS A PIG.  He spends his time within his mind, working on creations, and exploring the colorful landscape within his brain.  Telling him to clean his room is something he is never going to do at top level.  He's got my number.  I tell him to do something and he calmly does it halfway and then peacefully waits to someone else to cause a diversion that gets it me distracted enough that the job I had him on doesn't get full follow up by me. 

Lily had a friend over and she walked in Max's room and looked under his bed for the dog.  She stood up and with all the honesty of a young girl said, "This room is really dirty."  She meant no offense and this is a kid that I adore.  But her saying anything within the house is dirty made me about have a seizure.  Next thing I knew all his furniture was in the hall and I had swept or scrubbed every inch of that room.  I found about 6 billion Legos in every spot available.  May I never see another Lego. 

This post was really supposed to be about Max's room at this point, but I got lost in how cute and dirty he is.  Refocus!

Wall between two small rooms torn down

His room started out life as two rooms that where about 9ft by 12ft.  These rooms interior walls were defined by plastic paneling walls.  Most of Max's room had subfloor that had been painted to look like a football field.  I thought the paint was actually pretty cool, but the room had so many other problems that full gut was the only way to go. 

They had the smallest closets in all the land. 

It had an old chimney in the the middle of the exterior wall that could not be saved for design purposes.  It had to come out.  Trust me - I gave saving it a hard sell but was shot down in all directions. 

Down came the chimney 

It has several awesome things going for it to counter act the negatives.  SUPER tall ceilings and huge bright windows.  The plan called for two closets in here so that if it had to be for two kids it was set.   

When we first moved in I used my old bed (hand made by my father) and an old chemistry counter my dad bought from a remodeling highschool in the mid 70's as Max's main furniture.  I got a wall map from Hobby Lobby and a wall garland from my talented friend.  I liked this set up because it had him staring out the window from his bed.  

But - with the great cleaning event discussed in the beginning of this post I wanted to try something new.  

I turned his bed to the other wall and put it under the wall map.  He has the crazy broken reading lamp that he wants on at all times and he pulled it out of the trash to replace it on his bed.  Yes - that is him all sleeping in snuggled into that big old bed. 

   

Seriously, look at how cute he is?  Books thrown all around him and Lego creations near by.  I just adore him.  

Similar view as below

I look back at the plans and the old video's of the house and I get so pumped about what we have managed to create.  It't not a big house but it works hard in every space.  This winter I want to move the puppet theater in the second closet out and turn that in to a built in desk for Mr Max.  The ceilings are so tall that there will be a little ready loft on the top level of the closet.  Stay tuned for that!

::july 4th, sangria, sunday funday, sunflowers

I made my first batch of  homemade sangria for our family July 4th part.  BIG FAT FUN.  It was so much fun to play bartender.  

There are two random sunflowers that came up with my zinnia patch.  Who could resist their cuteness? 

Auntie Rachel accidentally broke a pot lid in our driveway, leading to Josh vacuuming up glass out of gravel.  There is just something about him vacuuming the driveway that was cracking me up.  

An attempt at a jumping picture.  

We made sure we had our July 4th theme rocking hard in our wardrobe choices.  

I found a new favorite store.  It's a consignment store that speaks to my cheap heart.  I finally got a new couch, which was well overdue.  The old one went straight to the burn pile.  After Quinn claimed a pillow as his own, with tears running down his face because he LOVES that old couch.  His heart is such an interesting place of strong emotions.    

  

We have a few design projects we are working on that required a Goodwill run.  Lily found this canvas to repaint.  

I have been in love with this bag for years and carry it everywhere.  It's super cute and durable.  When running around with the kids today we happened across a shop that specializes in British goods and they had my bag on display.  My kids freaked out.  You would have thought we spotted a movie star.  They just can't fathom that anyone but me could ever have this handbag.   

::cleaning the art studio::

I seriously love having an art studio.  The old workshop from back when our farm was a working dairy farm have been converted into some awesome living space.  The room I demanded is the best part of the shop.  It has the best light.  I love working in there.  It's an awesome space to work on my Disney ears or anything else that seems like fun.  

Things where starting to look a little messy and we decided to devote some time into a deep cleaning this weekend.    

 With all this stuff laid out and ready to create with, how can you not just go for it?

This is the sign that my parents hung on their very first shop back in 1975ish.  

I'm working on a project for my laundry room and I bought this fabric to make some curtains.  Lily and I are in love.  We used a scrap to make a sewing machine cover.  

::flowers, naps, theater, pigs::

My zinnia patch is starting to bloom.  I adore zinnia, really who would not?   There is a part of my personality that sees the zinnias in this little patch and feels critical for not planting them in more places.  We still have way too much blank space around the house.  My landscape dreams for this year have not been what I was dreaming of.  Of course my expectation is to surround the house in lush half edible/flower beds, but I have the next 40 years to get it just right.  At least I hope so.  

This dog is such an asshole and a snuggle bug at the same time.  She keeps chewing the corners of the trim, which may result in her death.  But then she snuggles in for nap time and I decide not to take her to the pound.  

Listen - I need you to understand that Josh is 44 now.  The man is getting a little silver in his beard.  But holy hotness, look at him carrying out two 50lb bags of chicken feed.  No, thanks we don't need a cart.  My hot husband will just carrying them out.  He is seriously everything that is attractive about a man.  I respect that everyone who is attracted to men has different things that they find attractive, but I've got a double take in my heart for tall strong men.  Beards are bonus points.  

Lily had her theater summer camp.  Of course she made her candy bag rainbow.  She has loved rainbows her whole life, good thing it suits her teenage years so well.  

Lily killed it as Miss Hannigen in Annie.  The little boys say she acts like Miss Hannigen whenever they are home alone with her.  There may be some truth in that.    

These fat pigs are living their best lives.  I think they have the cutest little faces.  

The deck continues to move along.  Next week we pick up our hot tub.  I've got some ideas for decor and furniture.  

Two more little ducks hatched from our second bath of babies.  They are so cute!  Maybe not in the picture because they are still wet from hatching.  Once they fluff up they are adorable to the highest degrees.  

This is summer breakfast to the max.  Crazy hair.  Relaxing with screens.  Straight chilling.