Sleepy Hiker

The Family Wall

My Lovelies, 

Do you remember back to when Ben only took up this much room in his crib?

 It was about a year ago. 

He'd come a week early and we were still scrambling to get his nursery set up. We had the basics: crib and changing table but none of the fun stuff like artwork. We wanted to fill the space above his crib with a montage of family photos. 

 I painted frames, printed out pictures, and then cut out paper mock-ups of each picture:

Then I arranged the paper piece on the wall to get a satisfactory arrangement:

 Ultimately, I decided I wasn't comfortable having that much wood and glass hanging above my baby's head whist he was sleeping, despite purchasing earthquake proof hangers:

 Which are only as strong as your walls. Which is great except that we have touchy plaster walls. 

We tried it on the other wall but decided it was too much, as his giant tree mural-thingy was in the way. 

So, where does that leave us, you might ask?

Good question. 

Well, the hallway suddenly began to look like a promising option. 

Here is a quick peek:

 The walls between Ben's room and the Guest Room looked like a good size and were in a fairly out-of-the-way spot. We thought about putting them in the main hallway but that wall is a) vast and b) frequently used. We imagined the bambino grabbing a hold of frames as we toted him down the stairs. 

There were a few other walls that had potential but ultimately we decided they were too small. So this wall became the winner:

I saved the original paper place holders and we put them up yesterday is a very similar configuration.

 Here is a close up of our paper place-holders. 

 This nifty little drawing denotes that it should be hung as a portrait, not landscape. 

 And the canine version:

Oh yeaaaah, I've got mad artistic skills, Peeps. 

 The ceiling of the guest bedroom is sloped, thus the door swings out into the hallway. We wanted to avoid hanging pictures in a spot that would get banded by the handle. Hence the tape. 

 And here is a quick mock-up:

This is actually the hardest part: finding a layout that works. We have a few things to consider: a) it needs to look good, spatially, right now and b) you need to have room to add new family members. I have a feeling that we'll add a few people here in the next few years and I need room to hang their portraits (hopefully by their spouses or parents). 

Also, I haven't decided what I'm going to do in the event that we lose a family member. My grandpa is 100, and scheduled to turn 101 here in a few months. But he won't go forever. Should I take him down after he dies? Leave him up for a few months? Drape his portrait in black cloth? 

[kidding on that last one]. 

I don't feel like I should leave it up indefinitely as I didn't include family members that have already passed away. I suppose this is a bridge we can cross when we come to it. 

Stay tuned for frame painting (the avocado green is out!) and hanging.

Peace, 

Sonja

Our Tree

Peeps, 

Yesterday was a sad day at Casa Jernstrom. 

Let me explain:

We have a moderately large grassy yard that is dominated by a giant Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum). It's probably 70+ years old. 

 This is a wonderful old tree and in the summer it has a gigantic canopy that shades the entire side yard. 

Class Picture Day - Take II

Yesterday at Co-Op we had another round of pictures (for the kiddos that missed the first round). This kid came back for a 're-do'. You might remember the first time he was a squirming bundle of energy that refused to look at the camera. 

I'm sorry to report that yesterday was no different. 

He looks to the left:

 He looks to the right:

 Back to the left:

 And then behind:

 Oh hey! Right at the camera!

 Take away the leaf and put his arms down and this would be a perfect picture. 

On a random side note: I love his frog overalls. Even though Mr. Froggy has been anointed with strawberry goo. 

Baby wants food

I swear Bailey has taught Ben the fine art of begging. Today at our preschool potluck, he made his way through the crowds, scoping out the lunch plates. "oh, I see you have a chocolate brownie. I think I'll sit on your lap and have some of that"

And when begging fails, there is always the trusty tantrum.

Eric's Blog

Peeps,

My SIL Megan's boyfriend Eric has a blog. Which he is absolutely lousy at updating.

I threaten that I'm going to kick him off my blog roll if he goes for more than six months without putting up a new post. And given that he had a grand total of ONE entry in 2011, I should have given him the boot long ago.

But he has promised great things on his blog for the next 30 days.


[He is so confidant, in fact, that he challenged me to a blog-off. Who can have the most number of posts in a month-long period. 


Well Peeps, the gauntlet has been thrown down!


Challenge accepted, Eric.


May I ever so politely point out that I already have two posts for the month of March? Your post from June 1, 2011 is looking a little lonely there, my friend.]


My Dears, I invite you to mosey on over to his site as seeing his visitor numbers climb might provide the sort of public pressure that results in new blog posts. He is off galavanting around the world so expect some pretty cool content in the next 30 days.

Check it out here: Eric and Megan's Blog.

The French Lunch: Day III

I won't lie: the sardines were a big fat failure.

Why is there not an "un-send" button?

My Dears,

The past few weeks I've been sending my mother-in-law emails that were intended for my husband.


Just last night I asked her to fix the license plate on my car.

A few days ago I emailed pictures of our new front door. And I wondered why Chris never wrote back. (fortunately she's been awfully nice about the inadvertent emails: "oh, nice door!")

The problem stems from the fact the both of their names start with 'C' and they're two of my top email contacts. They also both have (somewhat) similar email addresses.

Basically, I start to type in Chris' email address, my provider guesses as to who I'm sending it to, and I neglect to make sure that it is, indeed, Chris. And not my mother-in-law.


My Dears, I've got to nip this one in the bud. Stat.

Zipping through the days in my normal absentminded mode is causing difficulties.

Time for me to start drinking coffee, perhaps?

The State of Education in Washington?

My Dears,

I am bombarding you with articles today.

I can't pretend to be up-to-date on education policies in our state, other than feeling like our teachers are woefully underpaid and unappreciated, but I thought this was a fascinating letter, nonetheless.

Here is the preface:

An Open Letter to Nick Hanauer

Our friends over at Publicola have recently been hosting a rousing debate between big bucks Democrat Nick Hanauer and WEA President Mary Lindquist on teachers’ unions and K-12 schools.  Here at the blog, we have a hard time resisting sticking our nose into issues we don’t know much about, so we decided to join the fun with our own open letter to Mr. Hanauer. 

Read the letter here. 

[Thanks, Mom]

The French lunch: Day II

We had another 'french lunch' today but only made it through the second course. Plus I cheated by combining a few things. 

We started out pretty well with our old standby of hummus and pita. 

Then we moved on to avocado slices. But the babe didn't much care for the avocado today so we sandwiched it in-between the lox and cream cheese course (with a pita bottom) and that seemed somewhat successful. 

Until he started lobbing his mini sandwiches at Bailey. So we called it a day. 

Here are a few other random tidbits from around the web:

I can't even pretend to be knowledgable when it comes to end-of-life care, but death has been on our minds a lot in our family, due to maternal grandparents that are experiencing a long, slow mental decline. Here is one doctor's wish for his final exit. Interestingly enough, his scenarios deal with a physically failing body. What happens when the part that is failing is the mind?

Secondly, how awesome is this floor lamp?!

Groupon is having a sale on Shutterfly photo books today. Ten bucks (plus shipping) for an 8x8 book. Not bad, as they're normally $30. The only downside is that you need to make your book by May 14. 

And last but not least, I think my dad needs a bookshelf for his rocks. 

Ok, one more thing: I called my mom up last night to apologize for the fact that I've been asking her practically everyday for assistance with watching Ben: for hair appointments, dinner dates, preschool visits and various other stuff. She's crazy busy right now (full time jobs will do that!) and I told her I felt bad that I was taking her for granted. I loved her response. "Well of course you take me for granted. It's my job as a mother that you should do so and I love being available for you. It's the same way for you: You want Ben to take you for granted. That's part of being a mother. " Those weren't her exact words and I'm not describing it with her usual mixture of sweet sincerity and straight-forwardness. But it's true. I want Ben to know that I'll be here for him: his job is to be a kid and know, without a doubt, that his parents will be here for him. I hope that I can live up to such high standards. 

This morning the Seattle PI published pictures of children in Washington State that have disappeared. Some of them were presumably snatched; most of them had probably run away from home. I kept wondering what their stories were, where they are now, what their families were like, but most importantly: how hard it must be to be a child out in the world without anybody trustworthy to rely upon. It must be such a scary and lonely place. 

Thanks Mom, for being there. 

Speaking of which, what is your availability for Friday night? 

(kidding)

xxoo, 

Sonja