I AM Martha Stewart

I am Martha Stewart today. And I have photographic proof. See my two gorgeously attired children sitting in a clean living room, quietly sharing markers as they draw creative pictures.

Wow, this sight was so unusual, I had to grab the camera. There are reasons for this picture, though.

1. We had company come today (Rosemary and Eun Hui) so I tidied up the living room while the kids were still up instead of waiting until they went to bed.
2. I am way too lazy to do wash for an outfit they wore for two hours, so I dressed them in their Wednesday night meeting clothes again this morning.
3. My kids actually do just play together nicely occasionally!

Anyway, it's nice to take a picture when you aren't trying to crop out the mess in the background!

Since I had the new guest room in the basement all spiffied up today, I took pictures of that, too. If I had any brains, I could draw a floor plan in some computer program and put it on here, but I don't. The gist of it is, you go down the stairs and into the door of the room. Closet is on the left, mirror and bureau are straight ahead, queen bed to your right, and if you turn around, to the right of the queen bed is the twin bed. (I don't know why I'm feeling compelled to explain this-- either you don't care or you will come see it yourself someday.)

Here are the stairs leading up from the room into our entryway. Evan just put up the handrail today, notice the elegant "return" on the end. (My husband is amazing.)

The queen bed, with grumpy curly-head, and the foot of the twin bed off to the right. Those doors at the foot of the bed lead to the electrical panel and water shut-off. My husband framed a door in so it would look nicer than our old panel box and it would still be accessible. They are bi-fold doors, because when you open them, there is maybe one inch between the doors and the bottom of the bed. The nightstand beside the queen bed is one I stole out of Mom and Dad's basement-- it was the right price.

The twin bed is in a sort of alcove-- the heating ducts run above there, so Evan had to frame the ceiling lower there. I think it looks cozy. Evan built that little niche above it this week-- it uses dead space under our stairs, and it negates the need for a nightstand, since there isn't any room for a nightstand. In yet another example of my husband's brilliance, there is even an outlet in the back to plug in an alarm clock or phone charger. The niche is empty, though, until I get money and ambition to buy a lamp and such. If I invested in a lock for the door, I could sit on that bed, lean back against the down pillows, and read a book there for HOURS!

The desk to the left of the queen bed. I stole this item of furniture from Mom and Dad years ago. I think they've gotten over it by now. The chair was at a garage sale this summer for two dollars! (And I fixed the angle of the lampshade after I took this pictures.) The window there is big enough for someone to climb out if there was a fire, and there are stairs in the well outside so you could climb up to safety. I love the deep sill-- I've always wanted window sills large enough for plants. The two books stacked there are a dictionary and a dictionary-thesaurus. I love dictionaries.

The bureau my in-laws kindly refinished for me. If it had been left to my ambition, it would still be sitting in the garage, covered in dust and scratches. The mirror hanging above it was a clearance buy years ago-- it belonged to a bureau, but they got separated somehow, so the mirror was cheap!

Blurry baby, and the closet doors. The temptation (which I have already given in to) is to cram it full of storage. I am trying to get rid of stuff, though, so guests can have room to hang stuff in there. Evan built shelves in one half, which is where we store all our puzzles, and other STUFF.

I have been enjoying this week so much. Evan has had no work, which is bad financially, but wonderful otherwise! I could sure get used to having him around all day, and not just because he's available to change diapers, too! I think Elliott is going to have a meltdown when Daddy gets work again--yesterday, Evan went to take a civil service exam (for census worker) and Elliott was bound and determined that if I just let him go outside or out in the garage, he could find Daddy! Evan is building the kids a wooden kitchen. While I'm sure the purest of motives made him start this project (he wanted his kids to have a nice kitchen to play with), I think it has morphed into a burning desire to one-up Pottery Barn kid's retro kitchen. Considering the financial constraints (i.e. we have no money!) he's doing quite the job. Both Cheyenne and Elliott can play in the garage for hours while Evan works on it.

Evan heroically took the kids on errands today so I could vacuum the house uninterrupted. While it was very nice to be able to whizz around and get things accomplished, it also felt weird! I was so jumpy, I kept imagining I heard someone breaking in at our patio door. Considering I have stayed alone here at night with three small kids, I really don't know why I was that way today! I guess it's been so long that I've been alone in my house my psyche just didn't know how to handle it!

It is raining and snowing here, completely yucky weather. Despite having almost two weeks in which it got above freezing every day, we still have a lot of snow on the ground. I noticed some very uniform balls of snow on our deck today, and I could not figure out how they were formed. Then I realized it was reverse footprints-- where Cheyenne had walked, a month ago, the snow had compacted and formed a denser, icier part. That icy ball is more resistant to melting than the snow around it, so there is a line of balls tracing wherever Cheyenne walked!

I have been updating Cody's blog every day, uploading pictures from a CD he sent me. He is in Mississippi now, pretty impressive! I desperately want to be there when he gets finished, but I know it doesn't make sense to drag three kids down there. Guess I'll just live vicariously through his pictures! For those interested in following his story, I write a blog for him at http://codywalks.blogspot.com.