Patting ourselves on the back

We moved in five months ago now (wow, that went by fast) and I bought fabric to make curtains for our giant sun-attracting windows pretty quick after that. That step was easy: a couple awesome coupons, a minor self-control battle to resist the fabric that was still $30/yd after the 50% off coupon, making myself fall in love with something off the discount rack and then bringing it home with a lot of enthusiasm and optimism for the easy task ahead of me. Afterall, curtains are pretty much just big rectangles, I don't even have to any piecing. One day project. One deluded mama.

Why didn't someone tell me giant curtains are so darn hard? All the blogs and how-to's I read made it sound so easy, so maybe I'm just not a natural curtain maker. Making these puppies took me ages to make and included a lot of unpicking and replanning.

Luckily I did have my one special helper. I've always hated the pinning step of any sewing project, so I turned that step over to Zeke:
Whereas I'm tempted to scrimp, Zeke knows you need a lot of pins...per square inch.

He was pretty pleased with himself.

So wa-la, curtains. They are done, that is the end of the pain right? Oh how we wish. Last night we installed the curtain rods and lets just sum that whole story up by saying it included a lot of brokenness: broken dry wall screws, broken drill bits, broken windows and broken egos. I may have even cried a bit, but hey I'm pregnant. The culprit in our troubles? The ridiculous man who decided to put windows in the corner with only two inches of wall. Just try making two curtain rods meet up there, look nice, and still keep your curtains on. On second thought, don't try, it's no fun at all. Luckily, what stinks at 11:00 at night is pretty entertaining at 3 in the afternoon. Plus, we have curtains to show for it! (nevermind that I haven't yet hemmed or ironed them, this counts as complete to me)

Now as long as Zeke doesn't go Tarzan on us, we're set!

Which brings me to our couches and further evidence that our family is not normal. We have two mismatched couches, and one of them, big and yellow, probably doesn't fit the typical description of beauty. But I decided this week that I am in love with our couches. I've heard several lessons on respect in primary lately, and the example that has been brought up repeatedly is "You don't jump around on your mom's couches do you?" My answer, "Well of course not, never...who would do such a thing?..." In reality, that is precisely the beauty of our big yellow couch. It was made for "To infinity and beyond!" and the accompanying jumps and dives and rolls. A minimum of 20 minutes a day is devoted to flying, crashing, jumping, touch-downing, rolling and climbing around the couch and the love sac. It kind of clashes with our new curtains but I realized that even if somebody offered us a brand new beautiful set of couches I think I'd have to turn them down. I don't want a couch Zeke can only sit on. That sounds awfully beautiful and dull. (see, we're abnormal). What I really want is beautiful couches and then a basement for our fun couch to live on forever. I don't think I can part with it, and Zeke can't either.

This is just a cute picture of Zeke and his friends that we got to babysit for two days. Zeke was in heaven. He loves playing with friends.

This was too cute. Zeke is going to be the best brother.

And somebody has got to teach little sister how to put on make-up, so Zeke practiced this week. He was quite proud of himself when I found him putting blush on his cheeks. He did a scarily good job. Oh heavens, this kid knows how to make me laugh.