Ten on Tuesday

#121 at Roots and Rings

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve done a ToT post, but I had to participate this week, because I love the questions!
1. Ikea: over-hyped and confusing or genius furniture company? Genius furniture company. I love that I can afford the furniture, and for the most part, it’s good quality. I didn’t always think it was good quality though. I used to think good quality furniture came from places like The Brick, until I bought a dining room table from there and it’s not falling apart. I dream of owning an Ikea dining room table and chairs.
2. Your favorite interior-decorator-type person wants to makeover one room in your house. Which room do you choose and why? Do I get to have a free makeover? If so, then I pick the living room. We’re in need of some shelves, artwork and a sectional sofa. If I have to pay for it all out of pocket, then I pick our bedroom, because it only need a TV stand and a piece of artwork or two. It would be more fun to be able to show off our beautifully decorated living room though.
3. Describe the furniture in your childhood bedroom. Did you like it? Where is that furniture now? To be honest, I don’t remember much about the furniture in my childhood bedroom. It was all hand-me-downs, and I shared a room with my sisters for a good long time, so the furniture wasn’t really anything special. Some of the furniture (bed and dresser) is still at my parent’s house. Fun fact: I’ve never owned a brand new bed frame until this year, when Stephen bought me one for my birthday. I’ve still never owned a brand new mattress, but thankfully, the mattress Stephen brought into our relationship was bought brand new after he met me. I went shopping for it with him. 
4. When you’re done with furniture, what do you do with it? Donate it to Goodwill OR Sell it on Craigslist OR Put it by the curb and hope the trash guys take it? Depends on how old it is. I usually just want it out of my house, so whoever is willing to take it off my hands can have it. We’re planning on buying a sectional soon(ish), so when we do, we’ll try and sell our current couch and loveseat on Kijiji.
5. My Pinterest furniture style could best be described as
funky/eclectic
antique/shabby chic
modern/minimalist
so random and varied it’s undefinable. So random and varied it’s undefinable. I like a good mixture of antique and modern.
6. Name the most important furniture/toy in a toddler’s playroom. And why? A toy box. You need somewhere to be able to toss all of the miscellaneous toys at the end of the day. When the kids are really young, I don’t see a need to sort out the toys, so I like the ease of being able to just toss it all into one bin at the end of the day.
7. Your parents (or grandparents or other relative) are giving away all their furniture. Which piece do you really want? Nothing, actually. My style is different than both my parents and grandparents, that I really don’t think I want any of their furniture. My great grandma did give me a side table last year, but we’re only using it until we buy our new couch. Once we buy new end tables, it’ll be banished to the basement, along with another mismatched side table.
8. Your biggest furniture buying or home decorating regret? Buying a counter height dining room table and chairs from The Brick. It’s poorly made, no one thinks they’re comfortable, and only 4 people can sit at it (5 if we squish). I can’t wait until it’s in our budget to buy a bigger table!
9. $1000 gift card! Do you want it to Ethan Allen, ikea, Pottery Barn Kids? I don’t think we have an Ethan Allen here, and I don’t have any kids yet, so that means IKEA! I’d have a blast spending that $1000.
10. Bunk beds, loft beds, trundle beds, or canopy beds? If the answer has to be from this list, then I’ll settle for a canopy bed. If it doesn’t have to been from this list, then I pick a sleigh bed. I’ve always wanted one!

7 Quick Takes

1. I'm still finding it hard to find something to write about here lately. My life has been rather uneventful, and that doesn't make for very exciting blog posts. I also haven't picked up my camera in a few weeks, which makes me sad. I need to remedy these problems soon.

2. Stephen got a new job, that he started a week ago! He has officially left the restaurant industry, and become the produce manager at a grocery store across the street from our house. He's thankful to trade in a 1.5 hour (each way) commute for a 5 minute walk.

3. Speaking of work, I'll be starting a part time nanny share in two weeks. For those of you who don't know, a nanny share is when two families come
together and combine childcare with one nanny. This means that the families each get to pay the nanny less, but the nanny ends up making more money! This nanny share is only 4 or so days a month, but the extra money will be nice.

4. I've got my sister's wedding on the brain. Her wedding is less than 4 months away, and I feel like she's behind in planning it. She hasn't even figured out who's going to make her wedding cake yet!

5. I'm in charge of the bridal shower in May, so I've been working on invites. Those need to go out in the next week, so I need to get those finished off. We'll also be ordering our bridesmaids dresses before the weekend is over.

6. Tomorrow is mine and Stephen's 4 year anniversary. I can't believe it's already been 4 years! So much has changed in the short amount of time, that I feel like surely I must have known him longer than I really have. Since Stephen changed jobs, he's now stuck working, so we don't really have much planned. I'll have to cook him a nice dinner, and bake something delicious, of course!

7. Did I mention that this is my first full two day weekend in weeks? I've been picking up a bunch of extra babysitting on weekends, but I am so thankful to get a full two days off now. Can't wait to sleep in tomorrow.

What are your plans this weekend?

BBBS: An Update

Last year, around April, I convinced Stephen that we should volunteer as a Big Couple with Big Brothers Big Sisters. After a very long 7 month wait, we were matched with a Little Brother. After 2 months of trying to make it work, Stephen and I decided (in February) that it actually wasn’t working out and that we had to end the match. Please understand that this is hard for me to write, because I hate giving up on something that was so important to me. I do feel the need to share this here so that you guys can get an update on how things were going (in case you cared), and I find it’s always good therapy to write out your feelings.

Let’s start with a little bit of what was going on in mine and Stephen’s life around the end of November, when we were matched. We were in the process of moving, which came unexpectedly when our landlord decided to give us one month notice that he wanted to sell our townhouse. Stephen was also in the process of trying to switch locations with his job, but ended up being screwed over and was out of a job for a month. So, during the month of December, not only did we have the responsibility of unpacking our house in time to host Christmas dinner, but Stephen also had to job hunt while I was working insanely long hours and often giving up my weekends to work. We needed to make money, and I wanted to pull my weight. December burned both of us out, but we decided to try our hardest to make our match work. You’re supposed to see your Little every week, for 2-5hours/week. We missed two weeks that month, due to the move and Christmas.

January rolled around, and Stephen was back to work. Unfortunately, the only job he could find at the time was at a restaurant that would require 3 hours of travel a day, on top of 8+ hours of work. My work schedule was about the same as it had been since September, but even with that in mind, I work 10 hour days. Despite that, we resolved to continue to do our best with the match.

Around the end of January, Stephen and I both started to realize that maybe the match wasn’t working out so well after all. We had originally said that our best day to meet up is Sundays, which the family agreed to. What we didn’t realize is that they go to church on Sundays (often not getting home until 3pm or later), and that the Mom would suddenly start telling us that too many things were being scheduled on a Sunday and she didn’t want to tire out Little Brother.

By February, Stephen and I had missed two weeks in a row with LB, when we realized that things weren’t working out. We were really struggling to find something in common with LB, as all he wanted to do when we got together was play video games (which isn’t the point of these matches). We did have some fun times outside of our home, but we realized he was only having fun when we were spending money. We couldn’t afford to keep him happy like that each week, and once again, that wasn’t the point of these matches.

Shortly after my birthday, Stephen and I both agreed (after quite a few tears on my part) that it was time to end the match. This was especially hard for me, because I felt like I was giving up. What we didn’t realize when we signed up is that the matching process is quite lengthy. I had been hearing how much of a wait that Little Brothers have, so I assumed that it would be a much quicker matching process. I just wish they had warned us. If we had been matched sooner, things could have worked out better. Stephen and I were working much less at the time, and would have had an easier time adjusting to our new life (with LB, of course) once December rolled around, because we would have had that extra time to form a great bond. I feel like our Little Brother didn’t really need the program. He wasn’t struggling as much as his mother lead us to believe, but if he could benefit at all from BBBS, it would be from a match with a Big Brother.

While this match didn’t work out the way I had anticipated, I’m still glad that we attempted it. I learned a lot about myself, and about Stephen. Once life has settled down again (more life changes coming up soon for Stephen), we may revisit the idea of volunteering again. It’s something that’s important to me (I volunteered all through Jr. High and high school), and I want to make it a part of our lives that we can share with our future family. Who knows what the near future will bring.

Ten on Tuesday

#118 at Roots and Rings

1. What are your designated chores in your home?
We don’t really have designated chores around our house, but I do have to admit that most of them end up being my responsibility anyway.

2. What is your least favorite chore to do around the hose?
Cleaning the bathrooms.

3. What was your designated chore growing up?
Cleaning my room, doing the dishes and making school lunches.

4. Did you get paid to do chores or was your allowance connected to you completing your chores?
We didn’t really have an allowance, so I definitely didn’t get paid to do chores!

5. If you had a bit of extra money, would you hire a cleaning person or would you save the money for something else?
I always say that I would hire a cleaning person, but the truth is, I probably wouldn’t. There’s always something more important that that extra money could go toward.

6. What chores will you make your kids do around the house?
Cleaning their rooms, picking up their toys around the house and putting away their own laundry. I used to make my old nanny kids put away their own laundry and they hated it!

7. How frequently do you do laundry? Wash your sheets? Dust?
I do laundry whenever I start to notice it piling up, so about every 2 to 3 days or so. As for our sheets, I don’t have a consistent schedule, just whenever I notice that they need washing. Same goes for dusting.

8. Do you have a designated “chore day” during the week?
No, but then again, I usually end up doing chores on the weekend, as I hate cleaning on workdays.

9. What is your favorite chore–if such a thing exists?
I don’t mind loading the dishwasher (I hate unloading it though) and I don’t mind doing laundry.

10. Do you do anything to help pass the time while doing chores (music, TV, etc.)?
I’ve always got music on. Singing along to the radio helps pass the time.

Where to Find Me

With Google Friend Connect disappearing, I just thought I would let you know some alternative ways to follow my blog.

You can find me on bloglovin’ here.

You can find me on feedburner here.

While we’re at it, you can find me on Twitter, right here. My username is @pink_punch1. I signed up for Twitter long before I had this blog, and I’m now regretting the fact that CravingCupcakes is taken.

I also love Instagram, so you can find me here, if you like.

I don’t have a page on Facebook for my blog, but if we’re pretty good friends, I’ll add you there. Just get in contact with me!

Happy Thursday!