Day Spa

Some people have asked me what I do in my spare time, others have asked if I have spare time and some have asked what I do with my kids during my spare time. Travis would probably tell people that I go to the day spa. My day spa is located on 3 acres in rural northeast Oregon. When you walk in the front door you can immediately feel the warmth of the fireplace combined with a smell of the outdoor woods mixed with a dash of oil and dollop of steel, and the hum of a table saw in the background. It makes me smile just thinking about it. My day spa is my dad's shop. Every time I go, I return home feeling refreshed and invigorated not to mention the massive amount of goodies that I walk away with. Unfortunately, I don't get to go as often as I like so I have to turn our garage into my homemade version for a quick fix every once in a while.

This is some of the stuff I do in my spare time:

Karsten has been doing a home preschool thing the last few months. You Moms know the drill. A few Mom's get together and decide to hold 'preschool' at each others home a couple days a week and the Mom's trade off teaching the class. Anyway, Karsten likes the social aspect and I have decided that I like it except for when it is my week to teach, sssoooo.... a few weeks ago I convinced my friend to teach for me and I would make her an entryway bench that she had been talking about. She agrees, DEAL! She has an awesome entry, it is huge so her bench was approximately 8' long x 24" wide x 18" tall. It was so big, it looked like a coffin on the sawhorses. I didn't get any pics after she painted it, but it looks awesome. Sorry, Jenny but I got the better end of that deal! (now I need to think of something else that I can make that she can't live without, she is a great teacher so it is for my kids education after all.)


As many of you know, I work part/part/part-time from my house. I have done this since Karsten was born. I love the company I work for and it keeps just enough technical conversation in my day for me to stay in the electrical loop and also get paid for something I really enjoy; while I play shoots and ladders with my kids. Well, since I have started telecommuting I have worked out of a kitchen, out of a dining room, out of a laundry room, and now out of our spare bedroom/office/storage unit. This last summer we realized that the spare bedroom was a crappy bedroom for guests and an even crummier office. After looking at some ideas online, I determined that we could redo that room for about $200 and it would be a great office and a very comfortable guestroom and most importantly provide a ton of storage. Travis and I did all the work, we made the bed frame, painted walls, we had a huge mirror in our garage so we made a frame and painted it, installed lighting, ran electrical, phone, and ethernet wire to the closet, hemmed curtains, installed carpet in the closet, divided the closet up, made a headboard and nightstand...blah, blah, blah. We worked our tails off in that room and it has been worth it. I can work comfortably and privately. Our guests are comfortable (at least they haven't run out screaming yet). Don't get me wrong, it is no 5 star but for $200 it is just a great place to get away for a moment. If you stayed as guest prior to January, we apologize for the previous guest bedroom.


Occasionally, I fulfill my calling. Today, we had a quarterly activity based on building an eternal family and separated into 3 stations. I was in charge of the 'craft' station, normally I would say NO GOOD, but one of my friends already had a great idea, I just needed to make it happen. We made picture frames. The kids had fun and the parents like the frames, so whatever pain and suffering I endured while cutting, sanding and painting is well worth it right? We had 4 colors for them to choose from, they sanded if they wanted an 'antiqued' finish and then applied the lettering. Karsten did it all by himself and I did Taeg's as a demo but she hasn't even realized there is a new pic in her room, maybe she will acknowledge it tomorrow!


Last but not least. Every once in a while I go craigslist crazy and try to sell everything in our house. In January, I decided that I had enough of our kitchen island chairs and that we needed something that looked good and had less surface area for my kids to get dirty, so I sold the 3 stools that we had and found 1 for a great deal. The gal that sold it to me for $15 said she got it at Pier 1, so I thought I would just go buy the matching one and call it good. NOT!!! Pier 1 wanted over $200 for one stool. %#$$%^$#^$%^, stupid Pier 1. So, I decided that I would just make a new top for the one I bought and then build 2 others to match. Can you tell which is homemade? (OK one is 'antiqued', but that is just because I have been tweaking with painting trying to determine which I like best)! There are actually 3 stools but I think Taeg' is pushing the other around trying to find some yummy snacks in an 'out of reach' cupboard. Total cost $25 for all three, gotta love scraps laying around.

What do my children do while all this happens at home? Lately, my kids have discovered earthworms. It has been raining off and on and while the sun is out we run outside to enjoy the burst of rays while we can. The other day I was dig'n up some dead plant and the kids saw all the worms. Taeg' immediately tasted one, Karst' reported that they looked dirty but eventually couldn't resist touching one after his sister convinced him that "they are not dirty, just wet!" Anyways they quickly realized that worms die if you put them in a puddle for too long and they can easily be pulled apart, but wiggle a lot which is very cool.