RenovationGirl

Nothing to say...

Often, as I go about my day, I think, "Oh, that would make a great blog post!"  But for whatever reason, I sit at the computer, confronted with the blank screen, and my mind mimics that screen-100% blank.  I'm sure that as I work on painting the kitchen tonight, hands covered in paint, a brilliant and witty post will come to mind.  Or just as I am falling asleep.  Or in the car.  But never as I sit in front of my old desktop computer. 

So, I'm taking suggestions.  What do you want to know?  What would you like to talk about?  Anyone out there lurking around, reading me, but keeping quiet?  Introduce yourself to me.  Start a lively (but kind) discussion.  In honor of Mr. Roger's birthday last week when Western Pennsylvanians celebrated "Won't You Be My Neighbor Days,"  won't you be my neighbor? 

Grateful?

It's been on my mind recently that we are lucky.  While we have been trying to have a second child, a playmate, confidante, and friend for Builder Boy, worrying about raising him as an only child, fretting over how he will have to deal with adulthood alone, without anyone to complain to about the elderly us, he's just, well, being a kid.  A patient kid, mind you, as Mama was off to one of her many appointments, or was on 24 hour bed rest, or was upset with a recent test result.  While we worried for him, he didn't.  We would visit friends who were pregnant, and I would excitedly (behind my mask of strength) point to the pregnant belly and say, "Look, there's a baby in there."  His reaction..."yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever.  Let's play." 

He's just not interested.  At all.  And I feel very lucky. 

We've never had to deal with painful questions about why Johnny has a sister and he doesn't.  He never questions that Mama has a sister and Dada has many sisters, but he doesn't.  He sometimes asks general family tree stuff-"I'm your son, Mama, and you're my wife?"-but no questions about why he's alone in this house.  He is King of this castle, and he likes that just fine.

I have to imagine that the asking of the innocent question, "Why don't I have a sister/brother" has to be horribly difficult for the infertile.  To already feel so inadequate, this added pressure would defeat even the strongest among us.  I think because it's part of the reason we try again, and again, and again.  At least for me it is.  I don't want Builder Boy to grow up alone.  My sister, for all her idiosyncrasies and crises that happen on a daily basis, is still my sister-the only one who can truly understand what growing up in our house was like, who knows just what triggers our father into rage (and does them anyway), and what gets our mother a little silly (just one very small glass of wine).  The answer to this question lies in the pain we deal with every day, mostly silent pain so as not to disturb the balance of our three-year-old's life.

So, yes, I feel incredibly lucky that Builder Boy is just not interested in babies or has asked us that question.  Perhaps it is a silver lining in this very dark, very large cloud that just won't go away. 

Nothin' Irish About It

With the second largest St. Patrick's Day Parade in the nation, our city gets a bit into all things green around this time of year.  Remodel Man has, for more years than I have been around for, been a part of this parade.  I'm not quite sure how he's in it or why, but it's tradition, so I don't ask.  He's been wanting to take Builder Boy for years now, but first he was too young, then it was too cold, but this year, it was just right.  So, without further ado, here is Builder Boy's first St. Patty's Day Parade in a car that is neither green, nor Irish. 

What's that expression?  Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day?  Does that count for cars...

The Year of Finished Projects

When we were moving out of our last house, one of the last things we did before locking the door for the last time was to finish putting up trim in the kitchen which we had redone two years before.  Two years before.  One piece of trim.  Two years.  That pretty much sums up how projects at our house go. 

We are on year four of the kitchen still needing to be completed.

Year three of the back porch and patio...

Year three of the upstairs half-bath...

Year two of the downstairs bathroom...

Year two of the office...

These are only the highlights.  There are many other little jobs that have been started and remain incomplete.  Remodel Man has very lofty goals, but has neither the time nor the finances to fulfill them.  He loves starting a new project-sometimes because it is necessary (might as well redo the wiring when you already have the floor boards pulled up) and sometimes because he's just so anxious to see another aspect of the house renovated.  Regardless of the reason, we sit amongst a plethora of unfinished projects.  But we are determined...this will be the year of the finished projects if it kills us.  And it just might!

Right now, our goal is to be done with the downstairs bathroom and most of the kitchen (that tin ceiling will have to wait until we can afford to get it...) by the end of April when we will celebrate Builder Boy's 4th birthday.  Remodel Man is busy working on the cabinetry in the bathroom (because, you know, the store bought ones just don't look right, so he's going to make them instead...sigh...) and will soon be finishing up the trim. 

It's getting so close to being done...I know we can do it.  I know we can.  We can, right?  Because I just keep thinking back to the one trim piece from our kitchen at our old house...one piece...two years...