Brass

You know how how I've been reading home decorating blogs?  One of the things I keep coming across is how gold brass fixtures are bad.  I will be 100% honest, I would love to have the black bronze door handles in my house, but I'm not spending that money any time in the next decade.  Sure people spray paint them, but my husband would kill me.  Anyway, so yes I like that.  And yes, I'm grateful almost every day I have no brass (gold colored) light fixtures in my house.  In fact I spray painted to get rid of the two toned brass light fixture.  But all things in house go in and out of style, and I've seen extremely trendy houses, to more traditional and classic houses.  I'm 100% sure gold brass door handles are classic, they might not be popular right now, but you will always be able to buy the finish at the store.  What is not classic, is the trendy colors right now. Trendy and classic are never the same.
Here is a story I remember, witnessing,
  When my parents bought their house almost 20 years ago all their bath fixtures were done in antique bronze color that was trendy at the time.  Well 8-10 years later when they started to wear out antique bronze was out, my father could not buy that finish anywhere.  So then either we had two tone bathrooms, or my dad replaced all fixtures.  Well guess what I just saw on a home blog?  Antique bronze light fixture! Its now called distressed/antique brass.  Remember its good brass, while my gold brass is bad.
I'm sticking with my bad gold brass, because well I'm positive it will always be for sale, and its cheaper than trying to replace it.  But the first few months we lived here, I thought if dream upon dreams what type of door handles will I get?  Well normally I like anything with a silver finish whether it stainless steel, nickle, chrome what not, but I don't actually want door handles like that, its too industrial looking for me.  Like I said I like the black brass, but I'm not convince it will be in style in 5 years then I stuck with $200 worth of door handles everyone thinks is ugly, is so early 10s.  So I'll stick with my gold brass, it might not be trendy right now, but I'm pretty sure no one really notices it one way or another.  While other home things are definitively noticeable, like my carpet.

A theory

I have a theory if I throw everything on the floor that needs to be organized in my laundry room (there are no clothes in there) I will be forced to either organize it or throw it away just so I can do my laundry in a few days.
I'll let you know how my experiment worked, or I won't, because it will won't be plaguing me anymore and I'll stop thinking about.

New Topic

Just kidding not a new topic.  If I'm not buying new countertops then I have to find all those tile/grout cleaning tutorial posts I've seen on the internet but ignored. For the past 8 months we kept saying soon soon, really soon. So I gleefully ignored them saying I'm not deep cleaning them I'm going to throw them away.  But now we are saying eh... maybe later.  So now enough is enough, it will be ugly, the tiles will still have been cut with a dull blade, but at least they won't be dirty.
Check up on me in two months and see if I've made any progress.

Home Remodels

I've recently been wasting my time on pinterest and blogs looking at home remodels, and room re-decoration. I'm not quite sure.  Some are fascinating, and some drive me crazy.
I have no idea why I'm wasting so much time other than its the illusive forbidden fruit.
We spent the last six months draining all our extra cash into our new house! Wahoo, right.  Well most home improvement projects will be put on the back burner for at least six months if not longer, because we are now saving our money to upgrade the family car.  There is always something right?  This all being said, I'm not really complaining this are all blessings right?!  Heck yeah.  Oh course an unlimited budget would be nice.... but overall one of the things I enjoy about adulthood is planning out the money with my husband, and figuring out what we need to save, for what needs/wants will come up in our lives. Realizing just how much money we have with a little bit of self-control.  One of things I do not enjoy is sticking to the budget.
So if we are not upgrading the kitchen, I should stare at beautiful brand new kitchens right?
Probably not.  We were planning to get new counter tops this spring, and maybe a new range.  I had been talking to many people about the pro cons of cook top verse gas.  I had all settled on gas, when we decided it would make much more financial sense if we put off the kitchen update a year. For one if we play our cards right and are obedient in our rules it will double our budget.

Anyway, things I need to finish around the house, ie things that shouldn't cost money things that just need to be finished:
We have paint waiting for us to paint two last rooms, my goal is to do it on Saturday during February.  They are small rooms.
Organize my laundry half of room
Sew the valance for the window in the laundry half of room
Hang curtains sitting in our closet over our windows
Clean my daughter's closet

What I could get done in the six months, ie all things that should cost less than $100 total:
finish our hutch
hang storage in the guest bath
Paint the front door
paint scripture power... in j's room
Brent needs to organize the camping closet
start the fixing of mop boards

What I want to do, but I'm sure I won't:
Refinish our dressers in our room (i desperately want to do this, but I know it will be a huge task, so I'm researching it a lot, that's probably why I spend so much time on home improvement blogs, then I get distracted on the rest of the house. I can't just spray paint it, or Brent would have a cow, it has to be a finishing job that won't chip.)
Find a used chandelier and repainted it for Nan's room. (i don't want to spend much money)
Do something for our lack of headboard- probably don't care until I refinish the dressers
Repaint our dining room chairs -  should be easy after dressers, but I will be worn out
get new stools for our bar
get a new bedspread/down blanket

Our hopes:
remodel the kitchen-- new counters, new range, new sink
new carpet in the front room
remodel the water damaged kids bathroom
travel internationally
paint the exterior (mine, not Brent's)
buy a $20 2-pack of ceiling light fixtures, and change the light in my closet, and laundry room (once again mine not brent)
finish our fence probably next spring not this year


our dreams:
add more lights to our kitchen, would have to add wiring (mine)
put a fan and light combo in our living room-- it has no wiring in the center of the ceiling
repaint the ceiling on the main floor, its atrocious looking
expand our patio
expand our front porch
buy brent a truck or suv
refinish our kitchen cabinets
     but does that open a pandora's box? our cabinets, our modeling and doors are all the same color
new carpet in the rest of the house
finish landscaping our yard
Dry wall our garage

If we ever finish this list, I think we will either move or start over.  But knowing Brent he will buy a new house, rent this one out before we finish.
That is part of my question in life, Brent is a restless soul when it comes to living quarters he can not sit still for long, he is always looking into other properties.  Just how much time do we have here?  What is the most important to do, what is best for rental value or resale value?  What is worth it, because it is furniture that can be moved? What should we just do because we really want it that way?
Although of course there is other stuff that is not on the list, I'm sure one day we will need a bunk bed, sooner or later I will want new living room furniture, and our hot water heater is set to die any day now, which is part of the reason we aren't getting new counters.

Not a coincidence

I don't want to forget this so I'm blogging now.

I remember being taught by I have no idea that, events of spiritual nature are not a coincidence.

Today in church they announced there was a Stake Priesthood meeting at 7 pm tonight.  I leaned over to my husband and said did you hear that?  He said what? I pointed to the program where it was written. In my mind I thought have him enter it in his phone so he doesn't forget.  Ignored it in order to be "more reverent" thinking I would remind him later.

Well yeah we totally forgot, he had just sat down for dinner, when his phone rang.  Part of me thought, should we have a no phone rule at dinner, luckily we didn't have that rule tonight.  It was a friend calling asking him if he wanted a ride together.  My husband said oh I totally forget, but yes I'll be ready.  The minute he sat down, I thought oh so so and is about to call.  Not more than a minute later, his other friend called, he asked Brent do you have a second to talk?  Brent asked if he has remembered about Priesthood meeting, and if he wanted to come.  He told his second friend, get dress and meet here.  

When he got off the phone, I knew two phones calls in ten minutes were not a coincidence. I had the overwhelming feeling of gratitude for friend 1 that he call Brent. I also knew that the Lord wanted my husband and friend 2 at that meeting tonight.  Occasionally we forget, or life happens and we miss meetings, but life seemly goes on.  Other times we need to be a certain things, and the Lord cares deeply about the one.

Dishes

I also hate dishes, but unlike laundry dishes do sleep.  You go to bed with a clean sink, you wake up with a clean sink.  Unlike laundry, pajamas become stale, sheets need washing.  You do the dishes before you leave town and come back with clean dishes, unlike laundry you get a larger pile than normal.
I really hate dishes.
A few months ago, I was telling a story to some people, and I said, our apartment (before I got married) always had dirty dishes.  My husband smirked/made a quiet laughing noise.  I looked over at him, he was smiling, all of sudden I realize somethings never change.  Our house has dirty dishes for half the day, I usually do dishes once a day, I know pathetic, but that is the way I roll.
This all being said, I would so much rather do laundry than dishes, I think dishes are my least favorite chore.  I don't mind laundry it just overwhelms me because there is always so much.


When Brent was single he had one load of laundry a week (whites and colors mixed), that he did every Saturday.  If I remember correctly he only dyed his white shirts blue once....
Once we got married we had two loads of laundry every week, whites and colors, that we did every Saturday.
Once we had a child, we had three loads of laundry every week, a load of whites, lights, and colors.
Then we had a second child, and I had a load of laundry every day.  Everything spiraled out of control, with our second.  Our easy to maintain life, quickly jumped out the window, the minute her colic started. People say two is easy wait until you have three, I'm pretty sure that well meaning annoying phrase uttered by everyone is the reason my husband wasn't as quick to suggest a third child like he was the first or second.
This all being said, I didn't give up hope, I chose to ignore all the well meaning annoying people.  I chose to have hope in the few occasional people I met who said she sounds like our second child.  We nearly gave up after our second, but nothing has been as hard as 2.
My husband would contradict all of this, but yet he still hasn't suggest a third.  Two years ago when I said should we have another, he asked me if I was crazy?  Probably, which is why our daughter is 3 and still the youngest.
This all being said, I'm extremely off topic from the dishes.
But I should follow up with we love our daughter a whole ton, girls are so different then boys.  She dances all day, and loves unconditionally.  She does everything full throttle, which is why she was such a challenging baby and toddler.  Now that she is three, we are making progress, the hope burns brighter almost each day. One day I fully believe she will be a completely pleasant person.  Maybe she already there, everyone tells me how sweet she is, but at home she can still throw a wicked tantrum.  She is also has stubborn has all get out, but as my sister pointed out me, isn't everyone stubborn in their own way?  I don't really see her growing out of her stubbornness anytime soon, I think it is part of who she is, who she has always been, she was born with knowing she had agency, and knowing she did not have to choose what I place before her. That all being said, I'm not opposed to letting her know agency comes with consequences whether good or bad.
Dishes, though, I don't do dishes that often, I sweep two to three times a day, and do dishes once, go figure. Well there are probably plenty of times I do them twice a day. I hate dishes, let the consequences fall how they may. Luckily my son unloads over half the dishwasher every day.  Five year olds are awesome!

Laundry/Interest

Whenever I do the laundry which is like everyday.  All I can think is,

“Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours. . . . Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you.” — J. Reuben Clark

Interest is what I call laundry in mind.

Laundry never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it may go the hospital, but it always comes back, it gets dirty on Sundays and holidays; it goes on vacation with you and comes back with you; it takes no pleasure, it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours.  Once a mother, laundry is your constant companion every minute of the day and night you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; it will always follow you and never go away, laundry will be your constant companion, even when your kids get their own friends.

Ok, so I probably don't think that much of the quote in my mind.  But there is a fair portion of that quote that goes through my brain multiple times a week.

Then bizarrely enough instead of seeing J Reuben Clark, or President Hinckley or President Monson (those are the only two prophets I can actually recalling telling us to get out of debt.  I see this face in my mind.

I'm sure that sounds wierd to all of you except maybe my husband.

But here is where the real confusion comes in my mind.

The prophet told me one day I would miss the laundry. 

“If you are still in the process of raising children, be aware that the tiny fingerprints that show up on almost every newly cleaned surface, the toys scattered about the house, the piles and piles of laundry to be tackled will disappear all too soon and that you will—to your surprise—miss them profoundly.”

I'm so confused, and the laundry is waiting to be worked on again.