I’m not a superstitious man. Not necessarily. But since having children I’ve grown to believe- no, I’ve grown to accept the fact that my outward acknowledgments control the fate of things around me.
The classic “Jimmy Jinx” is one in which I mention, in the moment, that the kids are being good or sleeping well – something along those lines. Like clockwork, within a matter of seconds (if not before I finish the offending sentence), the kids will go berserk or they’ll wake up in a fit.
It never fails.
I can talk about the kids’ great naps, only to see their nap schedule blow up in my face the next day with Ruthie going no longer than 40 minutes at a time and Loren eschewing the program altogether.
I can write several blog posts in a row about the importance of getting outside the house with the kids, only to see them both get sick, outside temperatures drop to the mid-20s, and the three of us not leave the confines of our little apartment for four days straight.
Unfortunately, the Jimmy Jinx seems to have spread to other places in my life now. For example, two weeks ago I wrote a post celebrating my one year blogiversary. In the post I commented on the fact that for two weeks I had published posts on this blog on something resembling a regular schedule: first Monday around lunch, then Wednesday morning and then again Friday morning.
Of course, since writing those words two weeks ago I’ve failed to publish a post on Monday at all.
Loren was hiding small toys in Ruthie’s pocket before we went outside. I know how to baby-proof a house, but I have no idea how to baby-proof a toddler.
We’re heading to Camp Davis for the weekend. A month ago I told you about our peculiar luck, in which someone drove their car into the side of our hundred-year-old farmhouse. I said at the time that if everything went well with insurance, the whole terrible situation might end up being a blessing in disguise.
Since that time I haven’t said much about the possible repairs and renovations at Camp Davis here on the blog. I’ve been “pinning” my butt off (which gives plenty of insight into our vision of what it might be), but I haven’t talked detailed plans directly.
This has not been an oversight on my part. Simply put, I’m afraid of opening my mouth and cursing the whole situation. I’ve seen it happen too many times to even flirt with the idea at this point. So until we have that insurance check in our hands and we know that we have the money to move forward, mum is the word even though I’m dying to talk about it.
We have done a little renovating elsewhere around Camp this winter. The plan to divide the Hytte (so that it is more accommodating to the four of us at night) is coming along nicely. We had a few pieces of plywood leftover from when we built the new roof on the studio and decided to use two of them for the beginnings of a wall.
We opted for studs on 24 inch centers instead of 16s. None of this is load-bearing, and 16s just seemed like overkill in there. I also anchored the bottom plate to the stone floors using my mother-in-law’s hammer drill (which is an amazing tool). This thing isn’t going anywhere.
We plan to close-in Loren’s half of the room entirely, leaving a hallway from our front bed area to the bathroom (where I’m standing while taking this picture). Eventually both kids will have their cribs (or “big-boy beds”) in that room, but for now Ruthie can stay with us on the other side.
We’re going to leave the wall cavity “open” on our side so that the studs are exposed. The idea is to make shallow shelves by installing horizontal boards between the studs in a somewhat random pattern for displaying books, pictures and other decorative items. Everything will get a coat or two of white paint when it is done.
Leaving it open also does two more things that I absolutely love: 1) it cuts down on costs, and 2) it makes for less work. Win-win.
You can see more inspiration pictures for the space by checking out our Hytte Pinterest board. It seems that it wasn’t very long ago that my “Hytte” keyword searches on Pinterest yielded little more than one or two pictures. I feel confident that I was a pioneer on this front actually. Today, however, I’m finding dozens of boards dedicated to Hytte projects. Judging from searches lately it seems Pinterest is finding its international legs, and I’m following a lot of Norwegians these days. It’s pretty neat to see how it’s done in the motherland.
Finally, happy first day of retirement to my father-in-law Steve! Everyone’s favorite Lumberjock is calling it a career, which selfishly means more time for him to make his amazing gifts for us! And, you know, relax and stuff too I guess. Congratulations Steve!
