Juggle juggle juggle

My fortunes are colliding.

Caleb and Lizzy don't look like they feel very fortunate.  We had headed outside to play but when they felt how cold it was they decided to stay in the garage.

I'm so thankful for this new house we're building.  I'm glad it's only a mile away so we can pop over any time to check in.


This is what I saw this week.

The kitchen cabinets are in, though not installed.

This week I also picked bathroom hardware, a plaque for the exterior house numbers, a front porch light, and a kitchen sink and faucet; got an estimate for closet shelves; and ordered plantation shutters for the bathroom.

I'm thankful, too, that I can stay home with my little ones.

And I feel very fortunate to be able to homeschool.

It is rather challenging lately to build, provide childcare, and teach.... simultaneously.

Design questions alone are enough to make my brain explode.

Can we afford a backsplash with the expensive but gorgeously-detailed blue tile?

In fact, can we somehow incorporate ALL the pretty eye candy?

What about countertop?  Can we find an inexpensive one so we can afford the beautiful backsplash?

Which off-white should it be?

Uh-oh.  None of the countertops in the preferred price range go well with the beloved tile.


Maybe a different blue tile?

But do I dare go with blue at all?  What if I want to decorate with red at Christmastime?

Leaning toward this countertop...

Babysitter time is getting short and I can't find a tile to coordinate.  Maybe I'll find The One at the other store.


I found a tile that coordinates perfectly with my countertop sample, flooring sample, and paint sample, but now I'm having a crisis over whether I can commit to something greenish.

I step back, I squint, I take over the whole aisle, I take down a bucket of mortar to use as a stool.  The clerk comes by no less than three times to ask if I need help.  

Suddenly I notice the time and realize I have to get home.  I've spent four hours away from my family and come away without tile or countertop.

I'm in the car before frustration turns to tears.

Gone are the days of effortless beauty in the garden of Eden.  The home improvement store is feeling like a bed of thorns and thistles.  

Back to the books the next day.  Lizzy--whose preschool I have long neglected under pressure of other necessities--asks to play with letter magnets while I work again with the big kids. 

Jeddy uses the medium to express his displeasure about doing math.

Which is kind of how I was feeling about the tile crisis.  

{Not to mention my children's appreciative attitude toward their hardworking mother.}

The next time I could get to the store, I finally presented my countertop sample and said I was ready to order it.  

They informed me that that color was discontinued.  

I needed to select a different one.

Conveniently, there were several countertop models around for me to bang my head on in despair.

Aside from kitchen design, we have bedroom windows that need some sort of privacy treatments to make the rooms usable.  So next was the fabric store to consider making curtains.

Pale green floral?

Blue stripes?

Maybe flamboyant pink for the girls' room?

And on and on it goes.