I Got A Present!

Look at what my wonderful friend Heather sent me today. She discovered chalkboard spray paint and I am the recipient of one of her homemade chalkboards. She finds these old silver trays at thrift shops and paints them. Idaho must have fantastic thrift shops because I wanted to try this and couldn't find anything here in Maine. She hangs hers in her kitchen and writes her nightly dinner menus on them. I don't think that will be a good use for mine. No one wants to read "Mommy is tired so we are going to Denny's". I think it will be used to write notes between the kids and I and Tim. I saw this black toile ribbon at one of the craft stores so now I just have to buy some and I'll be hanging this right up. Thanks Heather. By the way, I think you should go to Etsy and search chalkboard trays and you could start a whole new business.

Thanksgiving Brought To You By The Boys

See this little boy? As of today, he already has making Thanksgiving Dinner under his belt which is more than his mother can say. Part of his 1st Grade "homework" was to help make Thanksgiving dinner. Declan took this very seriously and told Tim he was going to get up with him at 3am to start cooking. We just nodded and agreed with him but didn't really think it would happen. Imagine Tim's surprise when Declan showed up in our room at 3am telling him it was time to get up.

We had to eat early because Tim had to work that night so they got right down to work. I stayed around long enough to take his picture and then I went back to bed. Tim has always made our dinner and I make the desserts and clean up. It works for us. When I woke up again later, Declan had cooked the stuffing and helped prep the turkey.
He also did the only decorating we had for Thanksgiving. The boys spent hours making our meal which was eaten in about 20 minutes. That's the part that really gets to Tim and hopefully he will want to cook again next year. I told Grace it was her turn next year to get up early and help but she made it clear that it wasn't going to happen.

We're Redecorating

"We're redecorating!" That is all I've heard from Grace and Declan all weekend. These poor kids still share a room but they don't seem to care much. I care very much but I can't find that $300,000 I misplaced so we won't be buying a bigger house anytime soon. Anyway, they have been saving their money for a hamster and they have decided they want their room to look beautiful before it comes to live with us. It's sort of driving me crazy but I'm trying to bite my tongue because I remember how good I thought all my Duran Duran posters looked in my room growing up.

It started with Grace but she quickly recruited Declan to help her. They dug out every little plastic toy they ever got and some string and tape. I love when they tape things to wallpaper.
There are now a lot of things hanging off the wall and ceiling. Grace thinks it all looks lovely.
She's been beading like crazy all weekend. I can't wait for these to fall down and we'll have to track down all the beads.
I'm thinking I could weed out some of these as the weeks go on. I hope the hamster likes it.

Tis The Season

It seems that Christmas now starts some time before Halloween if you judge it by store decorations. One thing I retained from working retail is that stores make most of their money during the Christmas season so you can't really blame them for starting early. I actually don't mind it because it reminds me to start shopping early. My idea of Hell is the Maine Mall anytime between Thanksgiving and New Years. I even love those radio stations that start playing Christmas music 24 hours a day. You hear some really obscure ones when they are forced to fill that much time.Thanks to them, I have discovered that "Christmas in Killarney" is one of my new favorites. The Christmas movies have already started and so I picked a few of my favorites. I could actually watch these year round.

Just remember, when you are watching Rudolph, that "dentist" is a code word for gay.

I Love Dustin Hoffman And I'm Not Ashamed To Admit It

A few weeks ago, Tim and I sat and watched a movie undisturbed for the first time in a long time. It was Last Chance Harvey with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Of course, it did come out over a year ago and we were just seeing it but that is how life works now. We always used to go to the $1 movies in Portland. We probably saw every movie that came out from 1992-1996 or so. Now, the movies we usually see are animated. Anyway, the movie wasn't perfect but there was a lot of London in it and I immediately bought the brown leather boots that Emma Thompson was wearing in it. It brought back how much I love his movies. I also love it when he's on a talk show because he's sort of a dirty old man but he is so cute at the same time.