This Classical Life

I am really looking forward to moving to the city, but there are aspects of our small town life I will miss. Lexi got a stomach bug* Sunday night that necessitated washing her car seat cover last night. Forgetting this fact, I went to put the girls in the car to run a very important envelope to the post office for a very important family. With the sudden realization that the carseat needed to be put back together, I quickly decided that it would be faster to just walk. That’s the joy of living four blocks from the post office. It was cool outside, but not completely unpleasant, and the girls were enjoying themselves a great deal. That’s when I conceived of writing this blog post, in praise of small town life.

We approached the old post office, a squat and utilitarian structure that looks like many small post offices built in the 50s and 60s: mid-century modern, sans chic. Carefully walking up the narrow and rather steep wheelchair ramp, I tried to make it in the door. A kind woman saw me struggling and came to my aid. My new-used double jogger was one-half inch too wide. (Note to the government - wheelchair ramps should have roomy doors.) So I went down the ramp and in the front double doors and parked the stroller at the bottom of the stairs. Two kind old ladies watched over the girls in the lobby while I walked into post office proper to conduct my business. (The girls were no more than 15 feet from me, and in full view, we kept eye contact and regular waving the entire time.) It was approximately 4:30p and as is often the case, there was no one in line, and I was able to buy the necessary postage in a minute flat. Our post office displays a “5 minutes or less” sign, and I’ve never waited longer. I can’t say that for any other post office I’ve regularly patronized!

And so, only slightly thwarted by the narrow door, we bid adieu to our new small town friends and walked the few blocks home, passing three neighbors who stopped to say hello.

* Lexi is well, but Kate fell prey tonight. Please pray that she stops vomiting and Michael and I are spared.

A blur of children, a hint of the red dining room with the crazy linoleum.

I uploaded some pictures of the playroom to flickr with lots of notes.

My favorite thing about the playroom is the vertical storage of a HUGE Ikea bookcase and Rubbermaid bins.  It helps all the toys stay organized and helps the kids play better.

Still a work in progress.

The nice description of my dining room at present, with one coat of red paint and no more until the roof leak that appeared in such a timely manner this afternoon (our first!) stops sending a small trail of water between the paint and sheetrock.

That room has been so disagreeable this whole painting process. I was quite thankful tonight that Alabama is Blue Bell country and for the first time in months, we had some in the freezer. I needed some therapy.

ETA: At least Kate likes it. She’s exclaimed multiple times, “Oh mommy! The dining room is BEAUTIFUL!”

Sanding, spackling, sanding again, cleaning, priming & painting multiple coats = a dining room that is no longer orangellow. Pictures after the painting is finished and better blogging then, too!

Polyurathaning our new porch furniture. Another photo.

He passed away this weekend. His name is Edward. Please pray for his sweet wife, Margie, and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

When I step out our front door the first thing I see directly across the street is a classic post-war brick ranch. The first occupants still reside there, 60 years after they moved in as newlyweds. They raised their children in that house and watched their grandchildren play under the same big trees in the front yard. They’re dying now. We’re all dying, but they are on the fast track. He has advanced Alzheimer’s Disease and she cares for him, though she is losing her sight and hearing. I watch from my porch as their children and grandchildren visit them week after week and I wonder where we’ll be in sixty years. Probably not in this green bungalow.

We’ve been stuck in a rut for the past six weeks with the house (sickness, travelling, general busyness, etc.) but I feel like we’re finally getting some momentum. I worked on the playroom today and we’ve both worked on prepping the foyer for painting… maybe next weekend. I should upload pics of the living room and playroom sometime this week. The playroom isn’t finished, but everything is planned out.

I never truly grasped the phrase “grows like a weed” until we had a lawn of our own to care for.

If you go to this link, you’ll see the family Flickr photos tagged kitchen, for a before and after effect.