Metallic Tweed and Leather

I didn't take a picture of my Day Three dress, but yesterday I wore a pink and orange striped maxi dress.

Today, since it's very rainy, I opted for a tweed dress and tights.

I'm also looking at purchasing these. Rainboots are a staple here, but since my dog ate mine last fall, I have yet to replace them. These are strong contenders! 

Leather and Raglan

Day two of my dresses and skirt challenge.

A burgundy leather skirt I've had for about twelve years (It still fits!) and a Tiffany blue raglan shirt. I'm also wearing a big, beaded necklace that matches the skirt pretty well, and some nude wedges.

Not the greatest picture. I'll try to get better.

Gingham and a Full Skirt

     I've always loved fashion, but being a mom, I usually wind up in jeans and a tee. It's a shame, because I really do have a lot of nice clothes. So, I've been inspired by a couple of the fashion blogs I follow to actually wear them. I'm challenging myself to have more fun with my clothes, AND I'm going to try for the next month to wear only dresses/skirts. 

Today is Day One:

Finished Living Room

The living room is finally finished! (Just have to get a 3-way bulb for our new lamp....)

I clearly did not prepare the rest of the house for the "photoshoot." Ignore all messy background rooms.

New quilt I made to match.

Not much else to add to this post. Just happy all the little things have been added, and that we're happy with the results.

Next up: moving Oliver into the bedroom downstairs so he'll have his own room. So a lot of cleaning out and painting is planned for this summer.

Grown Up

When we moved into our house just over five years ago, I was about seven months pregnant, had a one year old, and was taking a few college classes. That being said, decorating our new house wasn't much of a priority (even though I really wanted to!) and our budget went mostly towards getting as much house for our buck as we could, and then furnishing it.

Well, I've decided it's finally time to make our house look like a grown up house (yet obviously still kid-friendly) and add the "finishing touches" that are long over-due.

This past October, we pulled out our yucky, stained carpet and put in hardwood floors and tiled the entry way. It turns out Phil and I are a pretty good DIY team. We also repainted the living room since I was growing weary of the very bold green I had chosen when we moved in. 

Grody carpet had to go!

Pretty new floors, excuse the mess!

Our first attempt at tiling.

Loved the green for a while, but it was time for a change.

Phil also fancy-schmanced our lighting in the living room. He took out the unsightly ceiling fan that we never used, and put in four big LED can lights, and two small LED can lights to shine down on our family pictures on either side of the t.v.

So while it was looking nice, it wasn't looking quite "finished." But, the other day I was trolling Target, and taking pictures of things I would like for my upcoming birthday, and came across two curtain panels that had been bought online and returned to the store. Since they weren't in their original packaging, they were 75% off, and I snatched them up hoping that Phil wouldn't hate them. When I got home, I started scouring the internet for cushions, rugs, vases and other decorative items to complete the look (so much easier than dragging the kids from store to store!) and found a rug I loved, so I went back to Target and bought it. Phil has been great through out this, and this is why I have the best husband ever (well, one of the reasons.) He said he wasn't sure about the curtains, but would be willing to try them out, he surprised me by saying he liked the rug, and when we disagreed about the height to hang the curtains, we had a long talk about what style we want for the house, browsed Pinterest for inspiration and examples, and then came up with a compromise. We ended up hanging the curtains at the height I wanted, and if it ends up driving Phil crazy, we'll lower them, and I'll just be happy he let me put up patterned curtains in the first place. After we hung the curtains, Phil decided he actually really did like them up high, so yay!

Ignore the nasty stains on my couches, I haven't cleaned them in a bit..

I have a big floor vase on it's way from Crate & Barrel to go in the corner, and I'm planning on sticking some twisty branches in it; I believe they're called Mitsumata? Or I might just get some from the woods, strip the bark and spray paint them white. I'm also going to try something that if it works, will have saved me about $50 today. I have an old throw I got for free, and while I like how ornate all the embroidery is on it, it's pink and way too girly for our house, so I bought some black RIT dye today for under $3. And for my cushions, well I have a Target.com shopping cart full that I'm trying to decide among (because I can't really justify $250 worth of cushions....) 

HFA

On January 2nd, Oliver was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism (HFA.) I'm  not sure exactly how I feel about it yet, except to say that it's basically the diagnosis we were expecting and we've just been waiting since May of last year to have it official. Part of me is relieved. Relieved that maybe now that he has a "label" he can get the assistance we need. Relieved that our concerns were accurate and worth-while. But most of all relieved that it's nothing worse. For the most part, he's a normal kid. He likes stuff most little boys like: trains, legos, construction equipment. He just likes them a little more passionately than a typical six year old. Especially trains, since August 2009.

The parts of his diagnosis that scare me are that I don't want anyone making fun of him, and I realize that can happen to "normal" kids too, but.... I don't want him looked down on, treated like he's dumb and people have to be careful around him or making things purposely easier for him. I want him to grow, and you can't do that without challenges. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to give him more than he can handle, I just want him to be able to do everything he dreams of doing.

It's been a hard eight or nine months. That's when we started the process of testing. Phil and I each thought over the past couple years that maybe something was up, but never (dared, maybe?) admit or say something to each other. When his Preschool teacher mentioned something at the end of the school year, it all seemed to make sense. I dove into making phone calls to his pediatrician's office, not sure where else to start with all this. Then I bawled. Not pretty, tiny tears you can wipe away with the back of your hand and look like nothing is wrong, but full-on blubbering, snot-running-out-my-nose crying. I also burst in on a friend at work (she's a Kindergarten teacher) to ask her advice and see if her school had any curriculum for kids with special needs. I felt awful to bust in on her lunch break afterwards, and even though we're very close, it felt uber unprofessional on my part.

After seeing his pediatrician and having her recommend further testing, it took a long time to find someone who could see us. Phil is so good about this stuff- he took care of everything from calling our insurance company to cold-calling just about every psychologist in the area. It seemed like most wouldn't take kids his age, or even more frustrating, wouldn't even answer the phone. When we finally did get a hold of someone, their office was a bit further away than we had planned, but they were great and everything else worked itself out.

Our next challenge is finding doctors/therapists that work for our family and for Oliver's needs. I've tried calling a local Autism group for any recommendations, but again, we're having trouble with people actually answering the phone. It makes me feel like we were given the diagnosis, then just thrown into the deep end. We're also trying to figure out exactly how we'll be able to fit everything into our schedule and not have our other boys feel excluded, and still be able to do stuff all together as a family. It's also tough to decide what to do about schooling. I don't know how we'd afford a private school with smaller class sizes, which I think he needs. He's only in Kindergarten, and I can tell he's struggling with doing the work. He's not dumb my any means, but I just worry about what will happen when the schoolwork gets harder. I know we'll make it work somehow, and God doesn't give us more than we can handle, so that's the good news.

Oliver is such a blessing and a joy, that I wouldn't want him any other way.

Back to School

Our first week of school is coming to an end... Oliver started Kindergarten on Tuesday, and Oakley is back at Preschool.

I thought for sure I would cry when I dropped Oliver off for his first full morning of school, (he goes five days a week in the mornings) but I didn't. Today was close though, since I left him at the gate instead of where they drop off their backpacks. I'm trying to let him gain independence and be a little less of a worrisome mother hen. It's hard. I know he works differently than most kids, and it's so hard to let go.

When I picked him up from school yesterday, I asked him how his day went and what he had done. He said, "Well," in his overly dramatic tone, "I'll tell you later after the sun goes down." When I asked him later, after the sun went down of course, I could only get snippets of what he had done. It's not really unusual for him. I badly wanted to ask his teacher how he's doing so far, but all my self control told me to wait at least one more week. I'm trying to not become one of those mothers.

Oakley is doing great so far at preschool. It's his second year, and there's a bunch of kids in his class from last year, so it's helped him come out of his shell early :) Oh, I feel I should mention these kids are all back because they can do a two-year program, not because they flunked or anything. Last year, it took him most of the year to warm up to his teacher in class, but once we were back in the car, he couldn't stop talking about how much he loved school and his teacher and classmates. He surprised everyone by talking SO MUCH on the first day! At first when he found out he was going to have a different teacher than last year, he was really upset, and Oliver was really upset that Oakley would have his old teacher and that he would have a new teacher in Kindergarten, but so far, everything seems to be working out. (Until Oakley found out this morning that Oliver had school on Fridays and he didn't, and when Elliot found out that he wasn't going to school at all...)