Katie & Todd Blake

Third pregnancies kinda suck balls. And being hugely pregnant in the summer is a new, less than stellar experience for me. This all combines to make me the most boring mom on the planet to the little ankle-biters (Haha, literally, in Abby's case!) who just want to play all day, every day! So, in the spirit of not being the lamest family in the history of ever, I have come up with a summer project the whole family can get behind! We are making a new type of homemade popsicle every week! I am highly motivated because it is sugar and the girls love it and it forces me to take them outside, because I do not enjoy popsicles being eaten in my house. And now I will pathetically write a few sentences on the blog to keep track of our progress.

Chronicling the lessons learned from tackling my home improvement projects with nothing but grossly over-inflated confidence brought on by too much Pinterest browsing...
1. It is so worth it to buy a good brush and learn to cut in, especially on ceilings. Give me mad props for now painting two rooms without having to tape the ceiling! (Is mad props still a thing?)
2. Lining paint trays with foil so you don't have to clean them was semi-effective, but I couldn't stop mine from leaking eventually. And lining them with grocery bags was ok for small jobs. But make sure the logo isn't near the paint, it will bleed into your paint.
3. Mix up a small bowl of oil and salt and put it by your sink. It's a great way to scrub paint off your hands, especially if you've been using oil-based paint.
4. Speaking of oil-based paint, I still don't know what the advantage of oil based paints are. But they're a super pain to clean up after.
5. Wrapping brushes and rollers in foil to keep them from drying out between coats is awesome! I hate cleaning brushes. But this will only work for about 24 hours. After that, small bits of paint have started to dry in the fibers and you'll get weird little gritty pieces on your paint finish.
6. Oak has a really deep grain, so it doesn't paint up to a beautiful, smooth finish. Which is apparently why a lot of people give it that "distressed" look or try those gel stains.
7. Don't roll on your polycrylic top coat. The roller puts all these tiny air bubbles in it and it looks terrible. It is thin enough to paint on with a paint brush and the brush strokes don't show.
8. Save your back and make yourself a work table. Mine is an old closet door stood on two of those TV dinner stands. Keepin' it classy.
More to come. I will maybe include pictures and even full confessionals of the projects that go horribly awry.

I am eating Ben and Jerry's while Todd tackles a giant sink full of dirty dishes. Almost makes a very sleepless last three nights worth it. Almost...

Oh, Dad, stop, you're embarassing me!
I am just finally looking through Ellie's blessing pictures and I found this priceless gem. Only six weeks old and already has the sense to be embarassed by her parents.

Who out there can tell that is an elephant made from Ellie's handprint? This was an idea stolen (but much more poorly executed) from my cousin Erika. And on the back it says "an 'Ellie'-phant never forgets how much she loves her uncle Ryan". It's for a package for Ryan the missionary. Thoughts?