My posts here seem to be getting less and less regular. It seems like I just posted last Christmas’s greeting.
This past summer my family discovered the music of Jonathan Coulton. Jonathon apparently launched his singing career by writing a song a week and posting them on his blog. While not all the songs are child-friendly, we love the ones that are.
The children kept talking about how cool it would be to do our very own video of Chiron Beta Prime. The idea kept floating around our house and finally we just decided to see what we could do. Jonathon graciously gave us permission and we began working on things. Originally we were going to do the music and vocals, but we were hard pressed for time during our bathroom renovation When we found that we could get a backing track, we abandoned the idea of playing the music ourselves and just focused on the vocals and video.
We learned much about the recording and editing of music and video and how much time performers have to spend sitting around and then repeating the same thing over and over!
It was great fun though and we are already talking about our next project.
So here’s our musical Christmas greeting:
We wish you all joy and camaraderie this holiday season and health and happiness for 2012.
The speakers were all fantastic, although Al Gore and Rick Hanson got my kids’ votes for best spoken and most motivational, in that order.
What I most valued about the event was that it was not just trying to get people to donate to Free the Children, the organization that spawned the Me to We Movement that in turn hosts We Day.
The message today was that we need to find what we are passionate about changing and then go and do it.
We need to stop hunger on the streets of Winnipeg,
we need to build functional schools in Native communties,
we need to work to preserve a viable environment,
we need to build schools in Africa, and China, and India,
we need to give people clean water,
we need to provide people everywhere with access to medical care,
we need to help people to help themselves,
we need to raise money,
we need to donate money,
we need to let our politicians know what matters,
we need to work alone,
we need to work together,
we need to raise our voices individually and in community to speak for those that have no voice!
My favourite quote of the day: Don’t say can’t or won’t, just ask how.
I can’t think of a better way to spend my day.
See you at We Day 2012, because my teens will be going back!
Our bathroom reno is humming along. Kirby has been working hard and I’ve been holding the fort, doing school and watching the puppy, but that is about to change!
Over the years Kirby has excelled at learning electrical and plumbing and woodworking, but it’s been my job to drywall, paint and put the finishing touches on. So, as I watch the marine drywall go up, I am becoming increasingly more nervous.
Drywalling is an art. My first major attempt at seams and corners was when we built our pantry. There are shelves and lots of food in front of the walls so no one else has to see what a lumpy job I did.
I read a few more books and watched a few videos at youtube before tackling out new bedroom. It had been an entrance to the outside pool, had suffered from mildew, and had saggy patio doors that small animals could enter through. The patio doors had been boarded up and the room had been used for storage, but baby number 5 required it to be turned back into a bedroom. Our good friend Brad helped with that job and it went very well. I can still see the spots that aren’t perfect but overall I am proud of it.
For our front entry way redo we had a two year old and I was hoemschooling four children full time, so Brad did most of the work for us.
Good Friend Brad Drywalling the Front Entryway
Then the boy went and got accepted at a university in another province where the commute seemed a little long. We actually hired a small time handyman to do the final coat and sanding. I learned a lot just watching him work and so I felt fully capable of doing the ensuite.
The ensuite took us forever to do and we had several redos. I was most pleased with two walls of drywall and rather disappointed with the one other wall. Then over the winter we noticed a very odd cold spot on the wall. We couldn’t find the source of it and so eventually decided to rip out and re-insulate the outside wall. This gave me a chance to practice mudding yet again and while I was doing that I slipped and put elbow through the badly mudded wall. So then I took the opportunity to completely redo that wall and learned even more.
The two most important things I’ve learned over the years are to place the drywall board carefully with proper backing and that less is more. Really. Professionals want to be in and out and learn tricks of the trade to do that, but I need to go slow and not slap the mud on too fast or too thick. That way if I make mistakes it doesn’t take me hours of sanding to undo it and try again.
Over the years I collected a few articles like this one from our library’s Family Handyman magazine. It’s helpful to read through them all before I begin a new job.
And so very soon I will begin learning even more about drywall mudding. Kirby asked my help in planning out wallboard placement. I’ve got my tools and mud ready and though nervous I’m excited about being able to help get this job done.
Kirby is trying to blog as he goes but he would rather work than write.
He’s a little behind his own schedule, but things look great.
One of the things we’ve had difficulty with over the years is completely finishing our renos. It’s easy to live without baseboards when so much else in life needs to be done.
Both Kirby and I want to finish the bathroom completely, including baseboards. As motivation, I was thinking that perhaps we wouldn’t put in the new toilet until everything else is done. It is most inconvenient to have the only bathroom be in our bedroom. If we make a deal not to put the toilet in until everything is done, I think we will definitely finish the bathroom as soon as we can. Of course we may cave and put the toilet in asap. Did I say it is most inconvenient having the only bathroom be in our bedroom?
For a detailed look at the renovation see Kirby’s post.
The bathroom renovation is going great. Or at least as far as I can tell.
In the past Kirby and I have done our renovating together. The jobs have always allowed for two people to work simultaneously. Our children used to play nearby and we would have quick breaks for light meals. They napped in the afternoons and went to bed delightfully early in those days, meaning we had afternoons and evenings to work with undivided attention.
Things are different this time.
First off, the bathroom is small and except for rip-out, seems to be mostly a one man job at this time.
Secondly, the children, while they will still play contently nearby (if the park down the way is nearby) they eat so much more that cooking takes much more time. If I serve a light lunch at 1pm, they are back ransacking the pantry at 3pm.
Also my children do not nap. And a few of them stay up after I go to bed. And they like to talk and hang out with us, which I would gladly choose over renovating, because I realize that in a few short years they won’t be around as much and I will miss then and we can renovate things then.
In addition to parenting and holding the fort down while Kirby works away like a madman, we are also hosting a small Thanksgiving dinner for my family, and so I am trying to prepare for that.
And then to make the whole thing more chaotic (cause anyone who knows us knows how we somehow thrive on a certain level of chaos) we bought a puppy on Thursday (the first day of the renovation). We called her Gracie. It took us three hours to come to a unanimous family decision about her name.
Puppies require a fair amount of work and sleeplessness. I haven’t had to get up at 4 am for several years. It’s hard but I am enjoying her immensely.
As a bonus several times a day since we got her my children hug me hard and say, “Thank-you” and tell me I am the greatest mom in the world.
Kirby has a few posts up on the actual mechanics of the renovation. Pop over to Lego and Sawdust and see what he did on Days 1 and 2.
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