Room rearrange, trees, and a hammock

For 2 months or so Lydia had been asking us if she could rearrange her room.  It all started with her baptism.  She ended up with 3 5 x 7 picture frames with cute sayings and pictures and had no where to put them so I bought a shelf.  Mark started to put it up one night shortly after I bought it but it wasn't going well so he took a break. A month long break.  Every few days Lydia would ask Mark when he was going to put up the shelf.  Mark said he would only hang it up if she got rid of some of her stuff so she went to work.  As we were cleaning we talked about how she would like her room to look.  Mark agreed that she had thrown enough stuff out and got enlisted to help rearrange her whole room instead of just put up a shelf.  When she told us what she envisioned both Mark and I shook our heads thinking it would not look good, that it would make her room feel smaller and we were totally wrong.  It turned out great.  It feels larger and much less cluttered which I love. She is really happy with it too. I am really glad we did it. I loved rearranging my room growing up and am glad we said yes to Lydia and she finally got her shelf up! As we are home for the foreseeable future we hope to get new ceiling fans in her and Jared's room.  Their lighting has been awful the almost 5 years we have lived in this house. Mark put a new one in our room so while it won't be fun it is a project we can manage.

Before: 

After: the shelf that started it all is next to the rainbow pom poms. Having her storage cubes vertical instead of horizontal has made all the difference with clutter and space.  Now there are no large surfaces for her to put stuff on! I love it. 

Another big project we have been needing to do is get some trees taken down.  These were huge trees that would likely fall right on the house should they be knocked over.  When we refinanced our house in late February we got cash back from the escrow and mortgage company so we used that to have 5 large trees taken down.  One in the back that was growing into our deck and actually moving the railing. One outside Lydia and Mark and mines room and 3 in the front.  We had the company cut down the trees which was cool to watch and then just leave the mess for us to take care of because it would save money.  It is a huge mess.  They came last Thursday and we have done some good work but have a ways to go.  Mark mentioned this to a guy in our ward and he offered to let Mark borrow his log splitter which is a cool machine to watch.  Mark has been greatly enjoying this part of the project.  He is not a "toys" kind of guy so its funny to see him enjoy something like this.  We have more wood than we would use in like 5 years so there are going to be piles all over the "yard".  We had one family in the ward (just the Dad) come pick up some of the big pieces and they may come back for more. It will be a days long project. But hey, we are home with plenty of time. We also finally bought a real, heavy duty, backpack leaf blower.  This has been on our to buy list for years but it was just a lot of money but this year was the year we broke down and just bought one.  So we will be out in our yard, doing yard work which I hate, for the rest of the stay at home order.  Which by the way got intensified today but the Governor so I am glad we did our bike rides when we did.  It was really just a matter of time and we did not feel like we were exposing anyone on those rides. Bikes are pretty good for social distancing as is riding in our car by ourselves.  

Before: 

After:

Don't let this picture fool you.  She was not a happy helper.  We told Jared he could listen to some podcasts and he did awesome.  Podcasts are a powerful tool for Jared and we are so glad to know this.  We put on some music for Lydia but she was not happy to be out there. 

On Sunday Mark hung up his hammock which provided not only a relaxing place to read and talk but a new play spot for Jared and Lydia.  Today it was a swing for Lydia and a pirate ship for them both in the afternoon.  Based on the Icelandic flags it should have been a viking ship but we will go with what they said. They also spent a good amount of time playing with buckets of water and squirt guns this afternoon. It has been lovely to see how well they are getting along with each other.  They get irritated and need breaks but overall they have had a good time together which is a lovely outcome thus far of being home together.