unauthorized sibling haircut no. 1

Last week when my dad was here, I went to a Relief Society dinner. Dad was super sweet to babysit and even put the girls to bed while I was gone. Halfway through the dinner, someone was speaking up front when I got a text from my dad. Thinking it was probably important, I read it, and halfway through reading it, my jaw fell on the floor. 

"Are you ok?" my friend Becky whispered.

I mimicked scissors with my fingers. "Lizzy," I mouthed. "Maren."

Honestly, it would have happened no matter who was looking after the girls. 

When I told my husband he laughed and laughed.

Poor Maren still has no idea that her hair is so much shorter. She is/was incredibly vain about her long hair, for a 2 year-old. Lizzy said something at breakfast the next day about Maren having short hair now, and Maren screamed at her, "NO! I don't have SHORT HAIR. I have LONG HAIR!"

Oh dear.

Oddly, Lizzy did a pretty good job. I think I even like the new 'do better.

cement gray + my dad rocks the house

My dad rocks, friends.  r o c k s.

Not only did he fly across the country solely to paint my house,

not only did he babysit at least 3 times,

not only did he take us to dinner and buy us {me} Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Therapy, shoo me upstairs for a nap every day for a week, do the dishes, take the girls to the park, go half blind by painting the china cabinets semi-gloss YELLOW {no really, Benjamin Moore Yellow. just yellow}, manage the disaster of our very first Unauthorized Sibling Haircut without losing his mind {more on that later, too}... 

he's just so rad. So totally rad.

And I love him.

Thanks, Dad. Mwah.

The walls are Cement Gray with Dove White trim, both Benjamin Moore. I went through a laughable number of gray paint samples. Stonington. Abalone. Dolphin Fin. Ashes. Porpoise. Barren Plain. I was torn about spending so much on paint (Ben is not cheap), but it covers so well, which we really needed on these walls. I would have ended up spending just as much on extra paint for a second coat if I'd picked a lesser quality paint. Cement Gray is so lovely. Not too brown, not too blue, no funky pink overtones, just calm and cool and lovely. I'm so excited to get curtains and artwork up.

the gray has landed

Since December, we have gone from hanging sheet rock...

to taping and mudding (goodbye, gorgeous retro wallpaper)...

to talking my dad into flying to NY to paint for me...

to some lick-the-walls gray gorgeousness.

More pics tomorrow. 

wanted: clean historical fiction

>>>

I asked my bookworm peeps on Facebook a few weeks ago for CLEAN historical fiction recommendations. I love me a good story, but I think it's getting really hard to find fiction that isn't stuffed full of gratuitous hanky panky. Tell you what, I got me a giant reading list now. Some books I've loved lately (all are linked to Amazon):

A Morbid Taste for Bones

Pope Joan

The Thirteenth Tale

and

Vienna Prelude

Right now I'm working on Garlic and Sapphires for book club and am totally swallowing it whole.

Another friend just recommended Signora daVinci and it looks tasty.

PB&H Breakfast Wrap with Yogurt, Granola, & Bananas

This may fall squarely into the realm of Weird Foods I Loved Growing Up, but I don't care, because I remembered this wrap today, made one, and it was so insanely good that I had to share it. I got the recipe from a sandwich cookbook, can't remember the name of it. I worked at a bookstore in high school and loved to sneak on-the-clock reads in the cookbook section. This wrap makes an equally awesome breakfast or mid-afternoon pick-me-up.

It's simple, it's healthy, it's filling, and it's really, really tasty. 

I even made homemade granola AND homemade yogurt this week, can't get much better than that

 {except maybe harvesting your own honey?? hmm}.

PB&H Breakfast Wrap with Yogurt, Granola, & Bananas
serves 1

1 flour tortilla
Peanut butter
1/2 banana, sliced
Plain yogurt, about 1/4 cup
Granola, about 1/4 cup
Honey

Smear peanut butter on the tortilla. Distribute banana slices over the middle third of the tortilla. Top with yogurt, granola, and a generous drizzle of honey. Wrap that baby tight and nosh it up.

little happinesses.

:: popcorn :: requested often by all. with butter. lots of.

:: very orange :: fabric arrived this week for dining room curtains

:: singing :: happy birthday with the girls to my mom on the phone (60!)

:: sunshine :: making more and more frequent appearances

:: board games :: these little ones are taking a sudden shine to

:: park deliciousness :: went twice today for bike riding, mud slinging, and pretend gardening

:: vintage hankies :: making curtains soon, inspiration here

:: olive leaf :: soap. completely unexpectedly luxuriously delicious.

:: sunshine :: did i already say that?

good / bad

bad. stepped in {clean} toilet at 11 pm last night.

good. slipper dry after sitting on the heating vent all night.
bad. this is the same slipper with which i stepped on the primer can lid and tracked primer all over the floor.

good. rocking my goals {thanks for the encouragement!}.

good. snacking so much healthier lately + the girls love taking "lunch boxes" in the car.
bad. deny my children sweets but then stuff myself with sweets the second they've gone to bed.
or the second their backs are turned.
good. me and my rad sis in law Amber are totally on the same page about this.

good. discovered an {{uh-may-zing}} tower of safety-orange metal shelves in the basement.

bad. shelves are covered in rust. attempting to fix. the cat is supportive.

bad. splashed self in the face with lemon/borax mixture immediately after thinking how terrible it would be to splash oneself in the face with lemon/borax mixture. 

good. I suddenly realized how totally chic this pipe/hand rail is that goes down to the basement.
we are totally rocking the vintage-modern industrial vibe.

good. haircut and target run tomorrow, in which I will undoubtedly fulfill this recurring prophecy.
good. mint nail polish. revlon minted.

good. had the best library day.
good. but also kind of sad. random man in checkout line asked, "are you really going to read all of those books to your children?" then told me how jealous he was because his mom never read to him.
it was a weird moment of mixed sadness/go-me.
good. THE BASEBOARDS ARE ON! see them? see them??
good. have finally picked a gray paint color. can't remember the name right now. i have lost track of how many samples i've gone through. ask me for synonyms for "gray" and you'll get an earful.
good. happy almost-weekend!