yuck

it's snowing. again. enough said.

Both girls have doctor's appointments this afternoon. They both have fevers and terrible coughs and green snot. Oh the joys of being a mom. I never in a million years thought that one of my duties as a mom would be to describe the color & texture of mucous to a doctor or nurse. Hannah gets mean when she is sick. I don't know if it is the medicine or a result of just not feeling well. She helped Ainsley stand up the other day, then looked at her, got a really mean look on her face and put both hands on Ainsley's chest and PUSHED! Ainsley fell pretty hard. Yeah, she got a BIG timeout for that one. Yesterday, she hit Ainsley on the head using one of her doll's arms. When I talked to her about it she insisted that she didn't hit Ainsley, her doll did it. Ugh. So much fun lately! Her little OCD tendencies come shining through, too! She has picked her finger and toenails to death. She has little sores around her fingers from picking at them. But if we don't have a streak of healthiness soon, I may go crazy.

On a totally different subject, my neighbor found a dresser for me yesterday. She loaded it in the back of her van and put it on the front porch. I went out and immediately started sanding the wood. It was in terrible shape when she first brought it to me. I sanded off layers of greasy old stain, nailpolish, stickers and other grime that I would rather not think about. And I uncovered the most beautiful solid oak. I was hoping to be able to put new hardware on the dresser, too, but I don't know if I can. I don't want to sand too much of the wood away and the old stain is too deep. Whoever originally did this piece didn't treat the wood prior to staining it. And they stained around the hardware. so, under the hardware was raw wood. I LOVE working with wood. There is just something so satisfying and therapeutic about it. I am taking this old cast-off piece of furniture and making it beautiful again! It will be used and have a purpose once again. Maybe I am just being too reflective today, but think about that in terms of what we can do with ourselves. No matter how ugly and yucky we look or feel, we can get rid of the old yucky layers and start over. It's never too late to be what you want to be. I haven't taken any pictures yet. I only got two drawers done. I started with the worst ones to see if they could even be salvaged. And they are beautiful! So, before I do anymore I will take some pictures and post them. I should probably go outside and cover them since it is snowing! It felt so good to be outside with my electric sander and my woodworking stuff again! Love it!

and it is snowing really hard now. I am going to go bathe my kids so that we're ready to go to the doctor's office at appointment time. And then I'll probably do some dishes and cleaning since I have not done a single useful thing all day!