Spring Ahead

When Paul and I would look at paint chips, he would always have me move to a lighter shade of whatever I had chosen. I find myself doing so with the kids as well, but they pick shades MUCH darker than I would ever choose so even the lighter version of their choice is still much darker than anything I would ever have chosen. I have to say though I like the bright colors. I am not sure if Paul likes them or not. I am speaking of Nadia's purple walls, the blue half bathroom, and the kids' green bathroom. If I could go back in time, I would have picked a fun color for the master bathroom. To save money I used a gallon that Paul purchased three years ago that had never been opened. I didn't mind painting a neutral color in the kitchen and family room because it's a warm color (not just a shade of white) and because we matched it to the existing color the painting project was MUCH easier. However in the master bathroom I had the extra effort involved when changing colors, but it was just a boring color I was using. I decided not to do the same with the kids' bathroom even though I still have one more gallon of that paint from 3 years ago. I will find some other place to use that paint sometime. Maybe to do a few ceilings? I haven't been painting ceilings. For the hallways I am going with the same philosophy as the kitchen/family room. I gave them a little square so they could match the paint. I want that job to be easy and won't mind that it's just a boring white, especially since there aren't many white walls left in the house now.


When we purchased the house eight years ago, every wall was a neutral color except for Nadia's pink  bedroom. Everything else was mostly some shade of white. I found that attractive when we moved in because I had a three month old baby and was teaching at the university. I didn't want to do any painting then, and some houses we looked at had wall colors that were repulsive to me. Neutral was fine with me in 2008. Well in 2016 I am tired of neutral. I don't want to think about keeping the house neutral in the hopes that will make it easier to sell. I want the wall colors to be ones we choose for our own enjoyment. In the first few years we were here Paul painted our bedroom light blue and Ian's bedroom light green. In 2012 some people from our church painted Oliver's room a light yellow. I love the green bathroom; it's been dubbed the monkey bathroom the past eight years. We shall see if the name changes to green bathroom, or if it will still be called the monkey bathroom. The color they picked is called "Spring Ahead," and the color is very cheerful in my opinion. After I do the hallways (already got the paint for that project), I am going to take a painting break, but after a little break I want to paint the living room and dining room. I haven't decided on colors yet, but I have a feeling I won't be picking white (the color they are now). I am really liking having more color on the walls! I enjoy painting only because of the end result. I would never want to paint for a living, and I know I do not do a good enough job that anyone would want to pay me to paint anyhow. I have learned though what brand of paint to NEVER buy again because I had to paint at least two coats on every square inch.

The kids' tennis lessons were rained out today although the teacher didn't call to cancel so we drove there in vain. We can come one day in the next three weeks to miss up the lesson they missed.

In addition to finishing painting the bathroom, I also dug up a bush today and dug a hole for it to go into. When Paul got home at 7:30pm he lifted the bush for me to move it to the new location as it was too heavy for me to lift. There were three bushes really close together and then none in the middle and a small one at the other end that I just purchased last month. I dug up the middle one because it was the smallest (by far) and thus easier to relocate plus taking that one out put a little space in between the other two which I think looks better than having them so close together.  Yesterday I moved the trampoline. I would prefer it out of the fenced area, but Paul wants it to stay in the fenced in area. Since we cut down one of the apple trees it looked really ugly when you were driving up to the house. Now that I moved it you don't see it when you drive by our house (which is good in my opinion) but the downside is that now I see it up close and personal every time I look out one of our two family room windows. Hopefully I will adjust to that view OR Paul will agree to moving it elsewhere. As I said before, it really is a case of "if you give a pig a pancake" because one thing leads to another. Painting a bathroom leads me to really thoroughly dusting everything in the room (mostly while up on a ladder), cleaning the doors, scrubbing the floor, etc. Painting the bathroom walls "spring ahead" lead to a thorough "spring cleaning" of the room! I hope we enjoy these wall colors for many years to come. I have a little bit of paint left of each of the gallons I've used which means I have some for future little touch-ups. We do have a little left of Ian's paint, but we don't have any left of Oliver's yellow or our master bedroom blue. I think I'll buy a pint or quart of each color to do a little touching up.

My other accomplishment of the day was filling out the affidavit form saying I will be homeschooling Nadia next school year. I had a woman who is a notary at the Alliance church (where the kids had musical tonight) notarize it tonight. Before I submit it to the school district, I need to get a copy of Nadia's immunization record and also type up a list of educational objectives for each subject for next school year for her. Starting July 1 I will begin documenting things for our portfolio, and she will need to take a standardized test next spring. Let the homeschooling paperwork begin....