Wild Kingdom Presents: Part II

Just a sweet video to share this morning. Yesterday Xavier toddled off to his room while I was in the kitchen. After about 45 minutes of quiet, I tiptoed in to investigate. These were my findings:


In case it isn't clear, at the end of the video, Xavier is plopping down in my lap--too sweet.

Mrs. Fix-It

Well we are getting back to normal here after Hurricane Ike. We have a fence that is blown down and we'll be needing to get new carpet but compared to some of our neighbors, we are doing very, very well.

I've decided to make a list of all the little repairs around the house that I've been meaning to get to for a while. One thing about inspecting your home inside and out for storm damage, it seems to clear my vision to see those small things that I pass up everyday.

Today my first project was to set up the garden trellis that I made out of PVC pipe, screws, and twine (again!). My green beans are pretty much the only crop that has survived both Ike and Gustav. Poor things were scrambling all over the ground with no vertical apparatus to climb.

I was so inspired by that project (and Xavier was still napping!) that I decided to straighten out our garage. Xavier likes to accompany me when I do laundry in there, and his curiousity was beginning to outpace the modicum of childproofing I had done out there early last spring.

This was my big accomplishment:

I took down this peg board several months ago to install some heavy duty shelves. Originally I had intended to reinstall it below the shelves but I realize now that would have been too low. So I put up the new peg board in the narrow space beside the washing machine. I figure it is a handy way for me to make sure our of the corner of my eye that Xavier isn't getting into it when I'm putting things in the dryer.

Those of you who may be concerned that I'm doing all this physical work while 28 weeks pregnant need not fear. Doing a little handy work is much less exhausting or taxing than taking Xavier to the playground and we do that several times a week.

My next project that I hope to tackle is to rescreen all the windows in our home. With the weather getting cooler, I'd really like to keep our windows open more to get more fresh air in our home. According to an article I read a while back, modern homes are much more energy efficient but tend to have more air pollution because less fresh air flows in and out. The only thing that keeps me from leaving the windows open most days and evenings is the screens. Some have holes in them. The flimsy polyester netting on others has been damaged by a certain toddler's explorations.

I plan to replace the polyester screen with standard aluminium screen to make them sturdier. This will be a first-time project for me so I'll let you know how it goes.