Matt’s uncle, a much-loved figure in our lives, died. Uncle Bill made us the Coonley playhouse-inspired stained glass window that hangs in our dining room. Bill loved coming to the farm, and I love the big hugs that he gave me every time I saw him.
We’ve had two birthdays so far this month, and the biggest one (for us) comes tomorrow when Ellie turns 3.
Our girl is so proud of how she’s growing (“I’m going to reach the books on the top of the shelf!”) and learning (“I’m going to write!”).
Ellie is a sensitive, thoughtful, enthusiastic little girl. Though we have our terrible-twos/threenager moments, most of our days are filled with fun, and I’m looking forward to some fun (albeit small) celebrations this week.
Here is an Ellie-inspired round-up for this month:
Ellie’s room got an update just before Christmas when we took apart her crib and set up a bed.
I had always envisioned this bed in the space. This was my bed when I was her age. Before that, it was my uncle’s bed when he was a child. It came from my grandmother’s family’s furniture store.
It is solid wood. Clean lines. Great quality. With super cute cubbies built into the headboard.
The finish was natural wood, but a little bit orange for my taste and also for her space. I didn’t want to change the other parts of her room. The turquoise paint on the walls, the grey wood toned dresser, the white bookcase. Those were all staying, so I needed the bed to work with those pieces.
I was a bit worried my Mom (the caretaker of the bed) wouldn’t like my plan to paint the bed, but she was all for it. A few coats of my go-to Cloud White by Benjamin Moore (in their Advance finish, which is good on furniture), and it was exactly what I had envisioned. And my Mom was thrilled, both that the bed was being used again and that it looked so fresh with its new white paint.
Ellie’s room is not large, so we could only fit a single bed. We rearranged some of her other furniture to make everything fit. It might be a wee bit tight, but everything fits (including her tractor) and the layout works for us.
And, best of all, the transition from crib to bed went pretty well too.
Who else likes secret cubby-holes? Have you repurposed any family hand-me-downs at your house? What is your crib-bed transition story?
Three months after breaking her leg, Ralph is finally free from her cast.
When we first went to the vet at the beginning of November and he said it would be 6-8 weeks, I gulped. Keeping a barn cat contained for two months? This wasn’t going to be fun.
Well, it ended up being just over 12 weeks, and our barn cat now lives in the house.
We started off with Ralph in the mudroom. We keep the door from the mudroom to the house closed, so she could be contained and safe, but not in the house. For the first few weeks of her confinement, she was mad. She hated being inside. Then she adjusted and we had a peaceful couple of weeks. But then she got mad again. This time she was mad that she wasn’t in the house.
She would yowl for more than an hour at a time. Finally I couldn’t handle the noise, and I moved her inside. She settled into a corner of the kitchen and has lived happily ever since.
Fortunately, the transition has not been difficult. She stays in the living room or kitchen. She uses her litterbox. She does not scratch or climb on the furniture (aside from a couple of attempts in the early days).
She’s occasionally more nocturnal than I would like and yowls in the night. And I really don’t like having a litterbox in the house and having to clean it.
But I think this is what’s best for our girl right now.
Her leg is still healing. I can feel a bump where the break has mended. But her leg is skinny and weak after two months with a splint and another month wrapped in a bandage. She needs to walk on it to rebuild the strength in both her muscles and bone.
The vet checked her over at her last appointment, and the verdict is she’s a lame, blind, deaf, toothless cat. She gets to have whatever comfort she wants right now.
She curls up on Ellie’s playmat if we have a morning sunbeam. And when Ellie and I have lunchtime picnics in the living room, she comes to join us.
At night when I’ve finished work, I sit in the living room for a few minutes and read. Ralphie invariably gets up and hobbles over to my chair for pets.
While I may not be an indoor cat person, Ralph isn’t a bad cat to have indoors.
I am extremely grateful that she wasn’t hurt too badly and the leg seems to have healed.
Are you a cat person? Any tips for night time yowling? Have you gone through an injury with your pet?
The living room has a big patio door on the south side. It gives us great natural light, which significantly increased when we removed the sunroom from the side of the house. I loved sitting on the couch in the fall, watching the leaves change colour.
But the beauty of fall is followed by the cold of winter, and I knew the patio door was a big source of drafts. I had felt that the sunroom provided some thermal buffer (perhaps wishful thinking). But with it gone, the cold air had a direct path through the door and into the house.
So at the end of the year (fortunately on a mild December day), we had the door replaced.
Of course, like so many things in this house, the door was “special.” It was right between five and six feet–the two standard sizes for patio doors. We went with a five foot door, and the installers built out the jamb and added some extra trim inside and flashing outside to cover the difference so it’s not noticeable.
Ellie plays in front of the patio door every day, and most lunchtimes are a picnic in the sunbeams that now stream through the window.
The feature I’m most excited about is the screen. With the sunroom in the way, we had no incentive to open the old patio door. We would have just smelled stinky old sunroom. Also, the door did not slide well and it didn’t have a screen. Now, we have a screen and a door that opens and closes smoothly. I am looking forward to fresh air as soon as the weather is warm enough to open the windows. For now, I’ll be enjoying my new view.
Anyone else dealing with winter drafts? Or enjoying winter sunbeams?
Home on 129 Acres 