Paint and Books

We knew we needed to paint the family room and had hoped to do it before putting in the new floors, but with all of the recent events it just didn't happen. Then the guys showed up today and said they could paint and do the floors. So I rushed out to look at paint samples. I hate picking paint colors. I know some people enjoy it, but I don't. It makes me feel very anxious. Way too many choices. Way too many subtle differences. And I get distracted by the names. If I like the color but don't like the name, I just can't do it. Today I picked up one sample with the name "desert fortress"....I don't want our family room to feel like a fortress and we certainly don't need any reminders of the upcoming desert trip Adam will be taking. I brought home a couple of different samples with more pleasing names to try on the wall.

To counteract the stress of frantically picking a paint color, I headed to the library. Adam was at home with the kids so that meant I had the luxury of actually browsing the stacks. I usually do all of my browsing these days on the computer and then place holds....way too crazy to try to pick stuff out with kids in tow. But today I felt like a pig rolling in mud. Seriously. It felt so good to have the tactile experience of browsing and leisurely picking out things that appealed to me. I ended up with an eclectic mix of books which I will add to my Shelfari shelf. The African tribal decoration book is really unique...could make for some interesting inspiration for Halloween and made me miss my Anthropology classes. And the felt book reminded me to pack up my felting stuff for our Louisiana move. I love Isabel Allende's fiction, so I am eager to read her memoir. And how could I pass up a book that combines my two loves: travel and literature? It is crazy to even be checking things out when we have so little time left but I just couldn't resist and books are an important part of my sanity (or what's left).

Two very different selection experiences in the same afternoon.

Glasses

Check out Noah's new glasses. He's adjusting to them, but we think he looks pretty cute and we were all very relieved to be doing this instead of surgery. New glasses, same old monkey boy antics!

Officially Nuts

That's what we are. Just to add some excitement to our final week together before deployment, we decided to take on some major house renovation work....finally getting around to replacing that wood floor that was damaged by our water heater back in March. Remember that? And since we were doing the hall we decided to go ahead and replace the carpeting in our family room with wood. Sounded like a good idea at the time. Now it seems crazy. The guys are supposed to start today, but still no sign of them. Why should that surprise me? We have horrible luck with home renovation projects. Remember our kitchen? our landscape fiasco? And yet I am strangely numb. I guess that's what happens when you have so much stress in your life.

Reminds me of those list of life stressors. Loss of close family member? check. Moving? check. Mortgage or loans? check. Change in work responsibilities? check. Vacation? check. I think there is a problem with this little life stressor test. Surely, if vacation is considered a life stressor then potty training, military deployments, child-induced sleep deprivation, and home renovation work should be on that list. Needless to say our score is high and yet I can remember feeling more stressed at other points in my life when only a handful of things were happening. I would love to think I have finally mastered the impossible art of stress management, but really I just think I am on some kind of weird cruise control function with a heavy dose of denial.