Friday, March 15, 2019

High Five for Friday (3.15.19)

One
Argh.

A lovely way to start a post, right?

Sorry about that.

I can't stand Daylight Saving Time. I don't want to lose an hour of sleep on Saturday night. I don't want to spend Sunday searching for all of my clocks' manuals in order to figure out how to change their times. I don't want to arrive late to church, or to feel like I'm "behind" as we move through our Sunday activities and chores. I don't want to wake up under the cover of darkness on Monday morning. I don't want to walk Hallie to school before the sun has crested the horizon. (It's just mean to send kids to school when it's still dark outside.) I can adjust to Standard Time in less than 48 hours, but it takes me weeks to adjust to Daylight Saving Time.

The high five here, at least for me, is that the change has come and gone for this year and we don't have to make it again for another 12 months. Hallelujah!

Did you know there is a 10% increase in heart attacks on the Monday and Tuesday following our shift to Daylight Savings Time? (source) Maybe we'll all eventually come to our senses and decide to listen to our bodies - and follow the lead of states like Arizona and Hawaii that don't observe Daylight Saving Time - and stop setting ourselves up for sleep deprivation, decreased immune function, and out-of-whack circadian rhythms... 

Two
We had a great first weekend of spring break. Tom's dad and brother arrived Friday, and over the next three days, various combinations of the six of us celebrated Grandpa Mike's birthday, worked on the Mad Scientist Laboratory and the yard, prepped for our new carpet installation, and visited quite a few uniquely Texas restaurants to expose Uncle Grant (a talented chef) to just a small sampling of the delicious food available in our region of the Lone Star State.
Happy birthday, Grandpa Mike!
So many games of Uno...and she wins them all!
Hallie and Uncle Grant made dinner - chili and cinnamon
rolls - on Sunday night. It was delicious, and such a treat
for me to hand the cooking duties over to someone else!

Three
Speaking of the Mad Scientist Laboratory...
Though not finished yet, the laboratory (once a three-sided shed) now has four actual walls, new windows, and a new roof. Next up are a door and putting in the air conditioner.
Not the best pic, but you can see the new wall, the
new roof in progress, and one of the new windows.

Speaking of the yard...
No good pictures yet. We've removed the old wrought iron fences that defined the previous owners' dog run, mowed the grass, and pulled thousands of weeds, but we still need to trim the bushes, landscape an area left barren following the the fence removal, and remulch. Revitalizing the yard takes a tremendous amount of time and effort, but the end result is almost always worth it when everything comes together toward the end of spring.

Speaking of the new carpet...
FINALLY! When we moved into our house eight years ago it still had 1992 builder-grade carpet throughout. Within the first few months we replaced the carpet in the living room, dining room/office, playroom, and hallway with wood flooring, but we decided to live with the carpet in the four bedrooms and our closet for a little longer...well, a lot longer. About four months ago I decided I couldn't live with the old carpet any longer - it was rough to the touch, discolored in some places, and stained in others, and no matter what I did, it felt and looked awful. Fast forward to three weeks ago, when we finally made the purchase, and Tuesday, when it was finally installed.
Hallie's room, the guest room, the master bedroom,
and the master closet all have this multi-tonal beige.
Will's room has bluish gray, which in real life
looks nothing like the color in this picture. 

Four
On Monday afternoon, Hallie and I joined friends at Board and Brush's first-ever family friendly workshop. I have painted quite a few signs at Board and Brush (and they let me add on a last-minute project once I arrived at their shop that afternoon) and I love both the process and my finished products. Thankfully Hallie, though a little grumpy with me whenever I tried to help her, also thoroughly enjoyed each step as well as the unicorn painting she walked away with at the end of the class.

Five
Later on Monday afternoon (we crammed a lot of spring break into Monday since I knew Tuesday would be dedicated to carpet and Wednesday to putting the house back together), Will, Hallie, and I went to the Carden International Circus. While slightly less glitzy and glamorous than the Ringling Bros Barnum and Bailey Circus, Carden still offered many interesting and entertaining (and even a few death-defying) acts that kept us on the edges of our bleacher seats. In particular, we enjoyed the tigers, archer, and tight-rope "walkers", and I paid a small fortune to let the kids ride an elephant  - which they loved - because I imagined they might not have another opportunity to do so. (I understand that the use of animals in circuses stirs controversy. Here's what Carden has to say about how they care for, train, and build relationships with their beloved animals.)


Happy Friday, friends!

Linking up with High Five for Friday here.

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