Homemaker in Training

So recently I have taken the task of honing my happy homemaker skills. This included a project for Grayson's birthday that I discovered on Pinterest. It was a fort kit. I saw it online in April or May and thought it was such a perfect present for Grayson that I actually programmed a reminder in my phone so I wouldn't forget. Haha. It was super simple. I just sewed to fat quarters together and made a loop for the rope. Then cut out a bat symbol out of felt and glued it on. Then I sewed some loops of ribbon onto some twin sheets with buttons for easy hanging and looping. Add a couple flashlights, clamps, rope and glowsticks and you've got the perfect recipe for little boy joy. Thus Grayson's "Portable BatCave" came together. Honestly I kinda wanted to keep it for myself. :) Here's the link to the website where I got the idea: http://megandandymade.blogspot.com/2011/05/super-hero-fort-kit.html

Here are some pictures:

Loops on all the corners and in the middle of the sheet

Finished sheet

Clamps for helping hang the sheet

Drawstring bag for storing all the supplies

Tag with list of included supplies

All the goodies (the sheets are refolded nicely into the original bags
though I know they'll probably never end up back in there. haha)

Behold: Portable BatCave!!!

In the Meantime...

Life is an interesting thing. Everyone knows it's a journey, but we don't always realize that sometimes you have to drive across West Texas. For those of you who have never driven across West Texas, allow me to enlighten you: It takes FOREVER and there is absolutely NOTHING to look at it. It's just miles and miles of dirt and shrubs. It's probably similar to driving across Oklahoma or Kansas. After making this drive, I understand why pioneers suffered from prairie madness. It's enough to drive anyone crazy. 

That's the road I'm on currently. I'm just in-between cities on this long journey. I'm halfway between young adult and adult, halfway between college and married life. It's a long trip. I have to just keep on going and be patient. I'll get there soon enough.

But the drive is agonizing!!! I'm beginning to suffer from prairie madness. What do you do in the meantime? What do you do while you're waiting to arrive at the next destination of the journey? What do you do to make the time pass quicker? 

I suppose this is the time of my life when I should be settling into a career and beginning life on my own before I join to another for my happily ever after. There's only one slight problem with that....I don't want a career. I've never wanted a career. Since I was a child, I've dreamed of nothing more than being a happy homemaker, to raise a family and care for my husband. I don't want to climb the corporate ladder. The thought seems quite drab. I'm quite happy at the bottom of the totem pole because I have no intentions of staying there forever.

So this time must be when I figure out who I am in life right? Well I've already done that. I figured out who I was in the year long break I took from men while I was finding myself and waiting for Bryan to find himself so that we were two complete people instead of pieces trying to mesh together in a construction paper collage. Now we are beautiful art that compliment each other just right when hung next to the other. So I'm happy with who I am. Just not where I am.......

In the meantime....what do you do in the meantime?

Reflective Time

Bryan surprised me this weekend and came to town. Everyone was going out of town except me (I had to stay here and care for Skipper, our recovering puppy), so we got to spend the weekend alone together. Not that we haven't done that recently, but this is the first time we've spent any alone time together in San Angelo. I'm sure that doesn't seem like that big of a deal but this is the first weekend we spent in a house. Not an apartment. Not the townhouse we shared with a roommate. An actual house that we could make a mess in and be ourselves and leave dishes unwashed and coke cans on the coffee table.


Last night we went to dinner at Cheddar's and then came home and sat on the couch together. I rested my legs across his lap and watched the Olympics while he played games on his computer. When the Olympics were finally winding down for the night, I let the dog out and put him in his bed. I came back and curled onto the couch where Bryan had reclined in my absence. I leaned against him and sighed. My imagination started to run and I said "Someday we'll be in our house like this after I just put the kids to bed and I'll tell you that we need to start putting the kids Christmas presents together." I don't know why my mind went to Christmas but it did. Bryan just went with it and responded "Yeah we probably do." 


"You put together James' bike and I'll get Ariella's Barbie house."
"Oh man. I meant to get some WD40 to help with that and I forgot."
"Oh babe. You were supposed to pick that up."
"I know. I just forgot."
"Well I should have text you and reminded you. I'm sorry."
"It'll be fine. I'll get it done."
"Yeah let's get started. You know the kids will be up at 4."
"Yeah. Man tomorrow is Christmas already?"
"Haha yeah. And we have to get everything done early because you have to be at work at 3."
"Yeah."

And then he kissed my cheek and we laughed. Then we got up and started getting ready for bed, continuing our conversation about the future. Someday we'll have a nice house like this. And someday we'll be putting the kids and the dogs to bed. And someday this and that.


And we are SO READY for it! Even now I'm looking at recipes on Pinterest and dreaming about tying on my apron every night in my 1950s themed kitchen and cooking dinner. There will be a pie in the oven and my daughter will be beside me "helping." My son will be playing in the other room until I call him to help set the table. And then my husband will come home. And we'll be a family. I have an entire board on Pinterest dedicated to the decoration on my future home. I have dishes picked out and themes in mind. I have a wedding book that is beginning to take form in my mind. A scrapbook of sorts.


I'm ready for the wedding, and that week in Hawaii. I'm ready for those babies and running a home. And I'll have to run it because as much as I hate it: my husband will have to work weekends and holidays. He's going to have an important job and I have to come to terms with that. It's an odd thing for me to deal with because holidays have always been so important to me. But I know that I'll adjust to it even though there will be times when I'm frustrated and unhappy with the situation. 


Bryan made an interesting point. We're in the in-between. We're not kids, but we're not really adults yet either. We kind of are, but not real adults. We don't have jobs and house payments and a family. We're in between. And frankly......we hate it. Oh well. In the meantime, I'll prepare for the future. I'll practice being a happy homemaker. And I'll start with Grayson's birthday present.....which I'll shall post about soon. Until then.....