adventures in home-making

Spring cleaning and re-organizing.

Spring creeps in amid thunderstorms parsed by the blinding halo of little dogwood buds in the sunlight. For me, spring cleaning usually involves the attempt to organize our wild, untamed collections of knicknacks and paddywhacks. This is complicated by the fact that everyone else in town is throwing away valuable little treasures and gems, which sit in tempting little piles by their driveways. So I drive around, pick up a few treasures, and vow to stop seeing gold where others see trash or junk. Among my other vows and springy tasks:

• To build this DIY Dress-Up Wardrobe for our delicious stash of costumes.
• To paint each door in our house a different color, beginning with sky blue and ending somewhere between clementine and tangerine.
• To find outdoor furniture for our backyard at yard sales or (ahem) treasure piles.
• To create an inviting smorgasborg of personalized bath towels, including Easy Hooded Bath Towels, so that every towel in our home has a special touch.

The Saturday beckons. 

Over the holidays.

Or almost over them. So much to blog about but so little time with my jungle gym of three.... I took a little time off from blogging and missed the soft glow of words on this internet journal which I can't lose or misplace. Voila que paso.

• The Coryell Clan is the proud owner of an Odyssey minivan that looks like a shiny black marble rolling down the streets of Tuscaloosa.
• Milla is babbling in ancient Aramaic, often referring to time spent in various deserts with camels and other exotic creatures. We are having trouble finding common ground in conversation topics.
• We spent a lovely week at the beach in my father's beach-house with Pam, Bunicu, and Grand Bon-Bon (my grandfather, as Patrick affectionately calls him). The kids discovered a secret land across the street in a small sand forest- a magical land that Carla and I roamed often. Max also played with his new Wii, a gift from Bunicu and Pam.
• Carla and Jeremy and their not-so-puppy pups spent the night on Christmas eve. I love our newly expanded family tree.
• Max began studying Latin.
• Circles of Peace organized its first book club get-together, which was lovely.