Beauty shop...

About five years ago when Lily first started preschool I had gotten in the habit of cutting my own hair. David was traveling all the time and I was so busy with a two year old and a five year old that I hardly even noticed my hair. I'd try to keep it straight in the back, but really, it was pretty rough.

One day I was at the mall returning something at J.Jill when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and was horrified. I had had no idea it had gotten that bad. I knew that there was a beauty shop over by Lord and Taylor. I had one hour before I had to leave to pick up Lily so I went over there to see if they had anyone available.

It was on that day that I met Toni. She made hairdo magic and has continued to do so ever since.

I was stunned when I left the shop that day. My hair was amazing. Layers and flips and dips all came together to bring me the most perfect hair cut of my life.

I have been going to Toni ever since. I have never strayed. I have never cried after a hair cut. I have loved every single cut.

All of this is leading up to tell you why I felt brave enough to walk into the salon today and suggest bangs.

I haven't had bangs in years and up until five minutes before my hair cut bangs had never even occurred to me. While I was waiting for my turn I looked in one of those hair style books and saw bangs. Why not?

When I asked Toni about it she was very positive, but suggested we dye my hair darker first since it was time to say good bye to summer highlights.


Here I am with Toni.

Here's my new hairdo!


I love it!

Sometimes a little bit of change is good.

A Marathon of junk!

Today is Friday and Friday means junk here at Shiny Red Houses.

Rebecca and I began our junking at Urban Renewals, my sweet paradise of junk. It did not disappoint.

After Urban Renewals Rebecca needed to come home and do some work, so I dropped her off with David and went off to run errands.

Here's a confession. When I say that I am going to "run some errands" what I really mean is "I'm going to go get a cup of coffee and go to a thrift store and maybe TJMaxx".

Do not tell my husband. I don't know what he thinks errands are but he never asks for more details.

Anyway, once Rebecca was squared away I snuck off to Consignment Corner where I found a few choice treasures. It seemed silly not to zip over to Goodies Thrift afterwards so I finished my junk-a-thon there.

Check out my haul. Also, did not ask me what I am going to do with all of this stuff. I don't know yet. But I have some ideas!



Yes there are two globes. Don't judge me.


This apron was $5. I am totally going to start wearing it with jeans and crazy sweaters a'la Anthropologie.



I'd love to use this as a planter for a big bunch of maroon mums.



Jars of buttons. I have a plan for these.


Some of the buttons will be organized and put into this little spice jars by color.


Rebecca and I are going to get all homeschooly with this book.


I don't know why I am so crazy about globes. They are kind of exciting, you know? All of that possibility, all of those places...not that I want to leave my house mind you...


When I found these rusty old ice skates for $13 I snapped those babies up and did not put them down. I love these! They will make great winter decorations. I'm thinking of some evergreen and some holly, some ribbons. I love the spade cutout too.

Know what's funny? I hate scrabble.

But I love those cool letter tiles. I do not know why. I am a woman of infinite mystery.

Of all of my treasures today this was my favorite. This couple was $4.


Rebecca said, "Someone must have died because why else would you ever get rid of this."

I am raising that girl right.

Side effects...

When I started homeschooling Rebecca last week I knew that she would love having some time with me all to herself. We haven't spent this much time alone together since before Lily was born seven years ago. It's been wonderful, seriously, honestly and truly wonderful.

What I had not anticipated is how much I miss Lily while she is at school. When she comes home I scoop her up and hold her, sniffing her and snuggling. She's started asking more and more to start homeschooling and my only hesitation is that she is still having a lot of fun in school. The homework is easy and the teacher seems mellow. I'd love to wait, just a little longer, to give Rebecca a bit more time getting adjusted to her new routine.

But I miss Lily.

You know what she said to me yesterday?

"When you die and I am a grownup I am going to bury you in my backyard."

I mean seriously. How can you not love someone who is planning that far ahead for when you are gone?

In other news in which I gush with love for my children, Rebecca doesn't want to go to gym with her class at school tomorrow because she wants to take an extra long dog walk with me instead.

I am so blessed.

Oh my god. I almost forgot to tell you! David brought bagels home from New York City! To some of you this will mean nothing. Nada. Zilch. But those of you who know the difference between a New York Bagel and any bagel west of Philly and north of Hartford know what I am talking about. He brought carbohydrate heaven. I love that man.

One last thing. Today is the first day of October. October is my absolute favorite month of the year. The air is crisp. The leaves are changing. When Lily came in from playing this afternoon she was cold and she had the faint smell of leaves and wood smoke. I hope that wherever you are October brings you it rich delights.

If you don't have grips, you're going to have slips...

When my children were younger they would sometimes start running laps through the dining room, living room and kitchen in their stocking feet. (Who says "stocking feet"? So weird.) Seeing disaster, visualizing the blood and trip to the emergency room, I would make them wear socks with rubber grips on them.

It worked great. They rarely slipped and crashed into furniture.

All of this knowledge however, did not prevent me from being completely stupid.

This morning in the usual rush to get Lily to school I put on my new socks (from TJMaxx) and rushed into the kitchen to grab my keys, shoes and coffee. I was feeling particularly buoyant because my dentist office had just called to cancel my appointment for a cavity filling that was scheduled for today. They were so apologetic. I told them they had just improved my day tremendously.

As I rushed into the kitchen my feet hit the floor and a very strange thing happened. I slipped and began to fall.

When you are 37 years old and you find yourself falling it seems to take a very long time.

I lost my footing and it seemed as though I twisted my body in at least a dozen ways as I attempted to regain my balance.

As I was struggling not to fall I realized that I was indeed going to fall all the way down. There would be no grabbing the counter or last minute save. Nope, I was going down and down I went.

Luckily I fell on my ass, which is by far the most well padded body part I have.

The crash was huge and the children were very concerned. Mommies aren't supposed to fall down and yet there I was sitting on the floor trying to regain my dignity.

Luckily I was not injured, but man, am I sore. My hip is sore. So is the side of my foot. My back isn't feeling so great either.

The most incredible thing is that all of this happened before eight o'clock this morning!

Luckily I know just the thing to do when you fall on your butt in your stocking feet at 7:45 am. You make chocolate chip cookies. They helped. They provided a balm to my wounds, an extra layer of padding to protect my delicate bones.

Chocolate heals all wounds, even the wounds on heels.

The dirty secrets of a housewife...

David is out of town on a short business trip.

He left this afternoon.

We miss him of course, when he is gone...except not for the first few days. I have to be honest. Mostly it's the quiet, but also it's how I simplify things.

When David is away we do things a little differently.

Dinner when David is here:

Real meal with meat, vegetable and starch eaten in the dining room.

Dinner when David is away:

Mac and cheese with a side of strawberries eaten in front of the TV.

Somehow when David is away everyone goes to bed earlier. Lily will be in bed by 7:30. Rebecca at 8:00.

It will be very quiet. I will practice being 72 years old. I will eat a bowl of popcorn while wearing my old lady nightgown and read a murder mystery.

I will go to bed at 10pm.

By the time he gets back on Friday I'll be so happy to see him. We'll throw our arms around him and welcome him home, but tonight I will enjoy the solitude.

In other news I just have to tell you what I found at TJMaxx today!

An apron. Yes, an apron.



I found it in the "Things I don't need but at 12.99 it's too cute to pass up" section.



Look at that pocket! And the ribbon! Did I mention that it was only 12.99?

It matches my kitchen!!!!

That's my entire story tonight. Shopping and going to bed early.

Even I wouldn't make it through this entire post...my lameness is vast. I'll do better tomorrow...maybe!

You say you want a revolution...

Tomorrow will mark our first week of homeschooling and let me tell you, it rocks.

Holy moly.

No busy work, no stress, just learning at our own relaxed pace.

We did some spelling, some math, and something called Wordly Wise which is really just fancy spelling with reading comprehension.

Rebecca got a history lesson too when a civil war re-enactor and planner came by David's office to talk about a civil war shoot that is coming up. Dave Gallagher told Rebecca all about medals awarded to soldiers in the civil war. His favorite medal and the one that really captured Rebecca's imagination is something called the The Society of the Army of Cumberland Medal, also known as the Acorn Medal.

"The major features of this medal are the scroll and wreath surrounding the words, Army of the Cumberland, the Star representing the 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac which were combined in July 1864 under Major General Joseph (Fighting Joe) Hooker and incorporated into the 20th Corps Army of the Cumberland, the Triangle of the 4th Corps under Major General Gordon Granger, and the Acorn representing General Thomas' 14th Corps which, as the story goes, adopted this symbol because the men often ate roasted acorns when rations ran out, especially following its defeat at Chickamauga when the AoC fell back and was besieged at Chattanooga by Braxton Bragg's Army of the Tennessee in the Fall of 1863." www.gettysburgmuseum.com

I just love this! I had no idea it could be this good.

The best surprise of our day came on our dog walk.

Rebecca and I were walking with TJIC and Joanna when coming around the bend we saw Amy and her son Charlie. Charlie is one of Rebecca's classmates and as we saw them approach we all started to grin.

Amy and I have been talking about homeschooling for years. Charlie is an aspiring comic book writer, aficionado of irony and inventor of hare brain schemes. The perfect candidate for homeschooling.

Welcome to freedom Charlie, don't you know it's gonna be all right...

Rain and quiet...

Rain soothes me.

I could never live in a place where the weather is always nice. I find too much sunshine oppressive.

"Go out and enjoy the weather!" people chide.

I like a sunny day, but I love the relief of rain. Rain means that I can stay inside and catch up on things. If it's a cold rain like we've been having today it's even better. Cold rain means that all of the windows are closed. When the windows are closed the only sounds I hear are the ones inside my house.

The girls playing.

The dogs snoring.

The gentle hum of the dryer.

Today the girls and I spent some time organizing the play area in the attic. It's not a fancy space. The attic is unfinished, though it has hardwood floors. The rafters are bare and there are only two small windows. The girls love it. It's especially wonderful on cool rainy days; the steady drum of rain on the roof makes this space feel especially cozy.

The attic is the doll space. Last year we moved most of the American Girl dolls, clothes and furniture up there. All summer it was too hot to play up there, but now it is perfect. The beds are lined up and the clothes hung up. A tea party is planned for the dolls.

After the attic I sat down with some of Rebecca's workbooks and wrote out some lesson plans for the week. Then I made my grocery list and clipped my coupons. The laundry is put away. Lily's lunch is made for school tomorrow.

I am ready for the week to begin...