It's Summer!

Wow, what have I been doing that I haven't posted in nearly two weeks?

I can hardly remember.  A little of this, a little of that...gotta love summertime!

I've met friends for lunch and breakfast.  We've had visits from family, and from friends passing through Kenosha.  The little kids (B6 and Chicklet8) had sports camp two weeks ago, and then VBS last week; this week Bantam12 is at soccer camp, and B16 just left for a month at Honey Rock.  The little kids and I have had two Joseph rehearsals so far, and we've hit numerous yard sales together. They are living on bikes, rollerblades and scooters, and B6 loves shooting basketballs at the neighbor's regulation hoop.  (In fact, at sports camp he received Most Outstanding Player for his age group, and Chicklet received Best Defensive Player  for soccer.  Last year she was Best Offensive Player, so I guess she's a flexible girl!)

Blondechick and I have looked at five possible wedding reception venues and she's had an audition for a music scholarship at Trinity--which she received!  But she's having a tough time making decisions about next year and knowing what she really wants.  She is off her crutches but still going in for physical therapy for her soccer knee injury. B20 is helping around the house, teaching himself Photoshop, reading, playing video games, biking and walking daily, and hoping that a job materializes soon.  I probably better get that plate spinning again....

But there was one big project that stopped me blogging, I guess.  A painter friend had an opening in his busy schedule, and his wife asked if I'd like him to come paint our master bedroom.  I've been talking about it since we moved in, since I hated the "builder white" in our bedroom. It just didn't go with the rest of the rooms on the main level of our house, which are warm shades of olive green, carmel, celery and creamy carmel.  It seemed like the perfect time to act.

But I still had to settle on a color!  When we moved, I gave away our 80's mauve comforter and ordered a comforter and pillow set online that appeared to be the subtle sage green that I wanted. But when it arrived, it was really more gold than green, and the leaves were more brown than sage, with olive accents.  We liked it enough to keep.  But it was tough to choose a green that would coordinate with it.

I ended up buying four sample cans of color to try on the walls, and I tried each color on all four walls because the light was different on each one.  The first was too bright and pea-soupy.  The second was too dark, the third too light, and the fourth didn't even look green, although the sales clerk and I both thought the chips for #2, #3 and #4 all seemed nearly identical.

So I gave up on the paint chips, and mixed my own shade, combining #2 and #3 with a dash of #1, and when it looked the way I wanted, I made my own chip on a paper plate and had the paint store do a color match from it.  The result was not what I expected, once again!  But thank God, it looked good and we liked it.

See?  It's kind of a creamy pale olive.  It's perhaps a shade lighter than I imagined.

We also turned the bed.  We used to have the headboard on the right hand wall.  I had to give up the cedar chest that I've always kept at the foot of our bed, because it stuck out too far into the center of the room, but this way makes the room look bigger, plus it shows off the headboard, which is a family heirloom.  That's a writing desk on the left wall, with the ottoman from the wicker set as a chair.  Maybe this week I'll decide which pictures to hang where!

Now, you can just imagine the cleaning that had to take place before this room could be painted.  I had stuff stashed under the bed, behind the wicker chair and the loveseat, behind the bedroom door...all "to deal with later."  And Later arrived!  I'm still sorting it all out.

I also sold our 4-year-old extra-firm mattress that no longer felt good to Papa Rooster's back.  We bought a Sensor-Pedic mattress that we placed on top of the old one, making our bed extra-tall, but the bedspread didn't quite cover both mattresses and a box spring.  I was pleased to get $150 for it, 48 hours after I posted it on Craigslist. I felt so successful that I listed Chicklet's loft bed, which simply takes up too much room--and a buyer is picking it up tomorrow night.

It's so great to have time and energy to get to stuff like this.  Let the summer continue!