T- Minus One Week...And I need a BED!!!

EEEEEK!!!

For now, let me be in denial about what having my car in the shop for 5 out of the last ten days has done to my perfectly orchestrated plan. Instead, let me focus on something totally non-urgent, like the fact that we need a new master bed to sleep in.

Knowing my children as I do, I'm fairly confident that all three will be sandwiched in between my dearest and I for at least the first week in our new home. And the fact is that we simply do not fit in our current queen bed. When we purchased this bed a month before bringing home our first bundle of joy, it seemed ENORMOUS compared to the full bed we'd been sleeping in for the first 4+ years of our marriage. A KING? Why would we want a KING? We'd be so faaaaaarrrrrr from one another in the night.  No, king-sized beds are for couples that don't love each other enough to value cuddling in the night.

The past 8 years of parenthood have brought some wisdom with them. Like the fact that king sized beds are also for couples who don't like to wake up at 3am with small feet stuck up their nose, or a squishy diaper nestled into their ear while a small person (who they really do love during daylight hours) tries to make a nest in their hair.

A King is not a luxury in our lives right now, it's a necessity!

We already know the mattresses we want. I would sell my CAR for these things they are so "heavenly" (wink wink). Not skimping on the mattress means that I really need to be frugal on the bed frame. I also am a bit greener than I was the first go-round at the furniture store, so would love to be able to buy a pre-owned bed. But people must like their kings, because neither Craigslist in Chicagoland or Boston is being of much assistance.

Then I remembered my Binder.  Trust me, this thing deserves that capital 'B'.  I've been using it to store magazine clippings of decorating inspirations for FIFTEEN YEARS.  Like, back when formica was en vogue.   And when I get all flustered and confused over what direction I should take, the Binder brings me back to center.  All I have to do is take out the clippings for the room that I'm working on and spread them out. 

Like a crystal ball, suddenly, my preferences are outlined in front of me and I can zero in on what it is that I want.  Like this...

And voila!  It's all clear to me now.  I like;

- Slender framed canopy beds
- Sleigh beds
- Upholstered headboards
- Neutral shades like cream and silver grey with lots of different textures.

I would LOVE to create a one-of-a-kind upholstered headboard.  They seem so hotel-chic to a stay at home mommy like myself. All I'd need is some craft supplies and a cheapo bed frame! Sadly, my other half spends so much time in hotels that hotel-chic is the last thing he's looking for in a bedroom.  He'd prefer to stick with the solid wood sleigh bed we already have, just supersized. But I'm kind of over it and looking to try something new.   Enter the slender framed canopy bed. 

If money was no object (or guilt), I would buy this bed...

The Willa Bed by Oly Studio

I'd get it in the silver finish offered at Alice Lane. It's not pictured there, but I know it would be FABULOUS. Of course, since the only price listed online for the bed is "call for pricing"...we know this one is definitely not for us.

The Antonia Bed by Pottery Barn

Choice #2 would be an upscale, off the rack piece like this stunner from Pottery Barn.  So simple, with just a little detail, not to frilly, not to stark.  A perfect, rubbed bronze finish that will complement the wood pieces from our current set.  PERFECT!  Except that they want $1500 for it, so it still isn't all that budget friendly.  And though I could (and do!) gush over PB's catalogs for hours, when I buy from them I just feel kind of like a lemming. 

Enter choice #3, which is actually the first bed I found when I began my search in earnest. So good to be true it makes me nervous!

Overstock.com wants a paltry $259 for this lovely bed, plus $1 shipping.   Looking back at the inspiration folder, so much about those ideas is represented in this bed.  My concerns are quality - how well can it be made if it's that inexpensive? And safety - will children's body parts get stuck in the headboard?   Could we co-sleep safely in this?







In the end, I'm thinking it's worth a shot.  It sure helped me relax for two hours tonight while I stuck my head in the sand and pretended I don't have a major timeline crunch to face...so already it has that going for it!  We shall see what the hubby thinks...

Egan Reunion 2010

Not heat, nor rain, nor screaming toddlers could keep us from our appointed rounds today - to attend the Egan Family Reunion in Swansea, MA! Cousin Mary (O'Brien) Harding and her husband Chris put on an amazing party. We haven't had a reunion like this in over a decade, and it was amazing to see how the family has grown!

This branch of the Egan clan began with my grandparents, William and Mary (Sullivan) Egan. Grandpa and Grandma had 11 children, (adding quickly in my head here) 40 grandchildren and (busting out paper and pencil for this one) 45 great grandchildren!

The newest crop of babies was unbelievably precious! Emily, Greg, Leighton, Aiden, Colleen and James - adorable every single one! My goal was to comandeer at least one of them to snuggle, but alas, a small matter of a two year old having a really bad day put a crimp in those plans.

At the last reunion, I got to snuggle my cousin Christine's baby Joshua for hours. I now realize that the baby snuggling job is best left for the single ladies and new brides of the family, who haven't had their own crop of Egans yet, or for the aunts and grandmas whose children have grown independent. Those of us who have small Egans of our own spend so much time tending to them that there's no time left to snuggle anyone else! Or to have longer than a 30-second conversation with any of their family members. Or to sit and eat a meal. There is a season for everything though, and in another ten years I'm sure the dynamic will be completely different, and we'll probably wax nostalgic about these days.

That Joshua though - he was so sweet that I prayed God would give us one just like him! Ten years later, we are so blessed to have not one, but two boys, and our sweet girl in the middle. Joshua has grown into a (still totally adorable) 11 year old, and after speaking with Christine it's clear that our boys and the Davidson boys DO have a lot in common. Like tenacious, persistent personalities and independent spirits.

Some days those traits combine to be a force to be reckoned with, and today was our little one's day of reckoning.

It was kind of like trying to attend a summer soiree with a rabid piranha under your arm. At one point, I was taking a picture of my dad and his siblings and I had both of my feet wrapped in a death grip around his ankle, while he screamed mercilessly at the top of his lungs and flailed his body around on the ground trying to escape.

I did get the picture though!

This is pretty much what the little guy did all day.

My dear husband reminded me that I did get a break from the screaming while he played Bocce ball with our little piranha for 45 minutes. I didn't notice because I spent 20 of those minutes inside a port-a-potty with an 8 year old who needed 'company' to do his business and five minutes scarfing down a lone meatball, that was impressively delicious even after getting wet when I had to chase Mr. Piranha across the lawn in the rain. The remaining 20 minutes I spent trying to find my dry change of clothes since I was soaking wet from the glorious thunderstorm that rolled through.

Never did find the dry clothes. I ended up wearing my bathing suit, soaking wet skirt, and an inside out cover-up held closed with a safety pin.

Ah, motherhood. It's exactly what I wished for, and I wouln't trade my little piranhas for anything in the world!

But ten years later, I have a whole new level of respect for all the moms and dads in the family and all the hard work of parenting they do! Because while the baby snugglers of the group (and I know this because I used to be the queen of the baby snugglers) get to hold the happy, squishy, cuddly babies in ignorant bliss and remark about how cute they are and how they want one just like them...

...it's the soaking wet, half dressed, worn out, never did finish that meatball parents who are going around wiping noses and bottoms and kissing boo boos and finding loveys and dry clothes and juice boxes and packing the car and stripping and pajama-ing the exhausted cherubs and piranhas and strapping them into their car seats and driving home in the dark to tuck them in and unpack the minivan and fall exhausted on their faces into bed, thanking God for all our blessings, before we pass out cold.

Only to be woken up three hours later by a tap on the forehead because someone needs 'company' in the bathroom.

Happiness. In all it's soggy, shrieking glory.

Moonbat Crazy, Spittin' Cherry PIts

I am laughing so hard I'm crying over the Rants From Mommyland blog that I just found through my friend Jen's Facebook page.

RANTS FROM MOMMYLAND: Even More Awesome Words We Made Up!:
"Spittin' Cherry Pits: (adjectives) Inspired by The Witches of Eastwick; also known as MoonBat Crazy. Condition that arises when...you become Crazy with a capital 'C'. Consists of making random unenforceable threats to your children or husband ('I swear to all that is holy in this world if you don't stop hitting your sister I'm going to walk down the street and give every single one of your toys to the starving children of Haiti!') Most commonly referenced during the confession-hour with your friends, as when Lydia says, 'Everything was fine until I turned off the Wii, the kids melted down, the dog threw up, dinner burnt and I went completely Spittin' Cherry Pits MoonBat Crazy."

I am so, so guilty of the 'starving children' bit with regard to food not being eaten.  But the scary thing is, I MEAN IT! When I say it, I am legitimately ill over the starving children in Africa/Haiti/Appalachia and feeling like a big, fat, gluttonous, American pig, throwing food away that would feed a whole village in Zimbabwe or something. I want so much to make my children feel that ache, that I threaten things that if I were rational, I would realize were impossible to follow through on.

Yogurt in particular drives me Moonbat Crazy - once you peel the foil top off, once they take that teeny tiny bite and then feign fullness, you can't save it because it's got gross mouth germs in it! You have to toss it or else it'll grow bacteria and you'll give the kids botulism when you stick it in front of them the next day!!

This is why I am going to figure out a way to make them eat homemade yogurt.  I have already purchased a yogurtmaker and have actually made my very own organic yogurt.  Yes, yes I did pat myself on the back for that one. Not for long though, because the children refused to eat it when it didn't taste like "Roarin' Berry" or "Cotton Candy". I have spent inordinate amounts of time trying to find suitable flavorings, to no avail. I finally had the grand idea of turning it into yogurt PARFAITS like the ones we had at the swanky Hotel Monaco last winter when my brother and sister in law got married. They had nuts and berries and yummy brown sugar - delicious!

But then the little guy got diagnosed with a tree nut allergy.

You just can't win sometimes! Sometimes you just have to open your door and let the Trix rabbit in so he can send your kids on a trip to happiness while you pretend that the yogurt cultures and beneficial bacteria make up for the high fructose corn syrup and colorful food dyes and "natural flavors" (heavy on the air quotes).

No wonder I'm Moonbat Crazy!

Note to Self: Plant Hydrangeas

These are my first and last hydrangeas from this house.  My mom got them for me last year and they nearly bit the dust before we managed to plant them, but like everything else we put in the ground here, they not only survived, but thrived!  I've been meaning to bring the poor wilty blooms inside because they were struggling in all this heat.  I cut off every last one!  They're mine and I want to enjoy every second of them before they, and we, are gone.

Hydrangeas are just so beautiful and romantic, fresh or dried (or even silk!) in pink, or purple or perfect blue.  I hope someday to have billowing blooms of them hanging over a white picket fence, just like all the old beach houses on the Cape.  For now though, this little glass next to my bed will keep me happy.  :)

Car Seats $%#$^%&^%*&#^%$#!!!

I spent a half hour wrestling a car seat this afternoon.

I am sweaty, exhausted and LIVID!  I want to hurt the people that manufacture these awful contraptions! And the beaurocrats that require them!!   Of course it goes without saying that I don't mind that if we're hit by a train, my children will most likely not suffer catastrophic injury, BUT STILL!!!

Can't we have it both ways? Can't we have our children safe and not be completely and utterly inconvenienced at every turn? Why can't the car manufacturers figure out a way to put safe, child-friendly seating in their vehicles? A pull down seat, like a pull down armrest, only with a five point harnass?  Is that too much to ask?

My car is in the shop this week, courtesy of an autodoor malfunction caused by yours truly.   My mom was kind enough to let us use her Toyota Highlander, which drives like a DREAM if you're interested. But it's about as big inside as a Camry with an extra jump seat - you can't fit my mammoth Britaxes, plus children and gear. So for the first time I let the big guy sit without his booster seat. At 8 years old and 55 pounds, he's met the age requirement for booster free riding, but has 15 more pounds to gain before he meets the weight requirement. Miss M is technically old enough for a booster, but is oodles safer in her Britax. So she used the booster for the first time, and the little guy rode in Nana's good old Eddie Bauer car seat.

Oh my HEAD! It was SO MUCH EASIER!!! The two oldest were able to get themselves in and out in a flash, and there was so much ROOM without those ginormous Boulevards taking up the whole middle row! The kids felt like FREEDOM was theirs for the taking. 

Life was good.

I'll get my car back this afternoon and LATCH (no really, it's an acronym, as well as a verb) the car seats back in, putting the children back in their safety prisons. Why? Read one story about children being internally decapitated by a parent not heeding best practices and you'll understand. How can you NOT, when your child's life and limb are at stake. But if I added up all the time I have spent as a parent

- latching car seats in to cars
- buckling and unbuckling children into car seats
- wrestling screaming toddlers who don't WANT to be buckled into their car seats
- listening to crying, screaming infants/toddlers/children who HATE their car seats
- worrying to the point of NAUSEA about my crying/sreaming infants who HATE their car seats
- Pulling over to the side of the road to check on my crying/screaming infants who HATE their car seats (have I mentioned that my children as infants HATE their car seats?)
- Nearly killing us all trying to hand things to children strapped into car seats who can't reach past their knees because they are tethered within an inch of their life
- Dismantling/Washing/Rebuilding car seats that have been pooped on, peed on, puked on or jacked up from a snacking mishap

If I added up all that time? It would be CONSIDERABLE. I'm thinking with three kids and 8 years of mothering, I've spent at least a year of my life dealing with car seat issues alone. (have I mentioned I'm prone to exaggeration?)   But still!  It is a nuisance, a bother, a blood pressure roller coaster, a HUGE expense, not to mention a pain in the NECK! And a pain in the BACK if you've ever fought with a car seat in your mother in law's new Ford microcar, like I just did.

And because the headrests in said car are not removeable?  There was no way to tighten the top LATCH enough to keep the car seat from moving less than one inch side to side (you know, the golden rule of "is your car seat in right?").   I should have just used the extra booster seat. Would have saved a whole lotta cursing under my breath!  Not to mention I might have been WAY more productive in the last hour with the little guy napping and the two olders with Nannie. 

Okay, maybe not, but a girl can dream can't she?

Going Away is a Great Reason to PARTY!

It's taken me all week, but I think I finally figured out how to show pictures the way I take them. Which would be a sort of photographic stream of consciousness presented in snippets of life's big and little events. LOTS of snippets. Because I photograph like I talk. Which is ALOT.

I had to be able to share all of these images because last Friday was just the best day EVER! If you ever want to know for sure if you've made an impression on the people around you, moving is a sure fire way to flush out their true feelings! We have had more love poured out on us in the last few months than I ever could have imagined possible. And this night was the culmination of it all!

First, I got to drive into 'town' with my best friend, then we were off to lunch with our hubbies. We got ready for the night's festivities at the swankiest hotel I've seen this side of New York City, with views of our old neighborhood in Beacon Hill no less. Then it was on to an AMAZING party in Hahvid Squayah including food, drink, and live music by Borough of Kings, an awesome band that went out of their way to throw a little 80's rock and roll my way. Old and new friends came out of the woodwork to wish us well on our journey, and gave us so many thoughtful gifts, it was overwhelming.

It was just blessing after blessing to the point that we were bursting with happiness (and sangria!). And you would think that it would make us even SADDER to leave, with all that goodness directed our way. But the opposite was true! Knowing how strong our bonds with our friends are made it even easier to focus on the future, because we were reminded without a doubt that no matter how far we go and for how long, our friends are behind us 100%

It doesn't get much better than that!

Back to the Bucket List

For the first few years we lived in Pembroke I'd driven on route 53 past this glorious field of grass and wildflowers, daydreaming of getting out there with my camera and my sidekicks. The year 'Frack' was in preschool it turned CRIMSON and the mist would float above the ground in the mornings and it was just completely breathtaking!

One day, two men with a pickup truck were parked there, and I slowed down to see them erecting a sign.

A SIGN THAT SAID IT WAS A PUBLIC FIELD!!!!! Wahooo!!! As if the wish granting fairy had waved a magic wand in my name!

If others knew what I knew, the place would be PACKED, but luckily, they don't know a good thing and have left it all for me and the 3 musketeers to go rambling about in. We collect seeds, see what kinds of bugs we can find, try to stay away from the brambles, and say a quick prayer that the ticks will stay at bay. So far, so good. Oh, and we take pictures. LOTS of pictures.

I'm sure that Illinois will have it's fair share of fields - it is farm country after all! But we wanted to have one last ramble at our own secret garden before it was time to go.

And mother nature didn't disappoint.