random

I helped in Emma’s second grade class with word study this week by giving two groups some practice tests.  I was shocked at the word list of the second group which was clearly one notch higher than the list Emma usually brings home.  I tried coming up with sentences for each word as I do for Emma and distinctly remember my sixth grade teacher Mrs. Smith doing.  I remember having to hear, see and write all of our spelling words. She said it helped all of us since we all had different learning styles.  In any case, I was trying to come up with sentences and was doing pretty good with words like fluctuate, conservative and extravert.  While I had a general idea of the meaning, I couldn’t come up with a sentence off-hand for “superfluous”.  Superfluous.  Seriously? For a third grader?  I was telling Scott about this and he said, “I didn’t even know that was a word.”  Exactly my point.

So how about a quick word of the day?

Superfluous means

A sentence might be

I have a lot of superfluous stuff on my desk this afternoon.

or

I am now regretting the superfluous Skinny Vanilla Latte I had this afternoon which is sure to cause some superfluous fat cells.

or

This word of the day post is superfluous.

or

Superfluous is a superfluous word.

Get it?  Good.  Now you are at least as smart as a third grader.

Yesterday ended up being a little bit of a bust. I came to the office and found that my badge and all network access had not been touched. Turns out the company overlapped my end date as a contractor and start date as an employee and so nothing really changed yesterday. At lunch, my manager came by and just said, go home if you want. So even though it was my day in the office and I had my brand new suit on, you know I hightailed it down the interstate to home. I am always like a horse to his barn. Get me home!

I am back at the office today and much of my access is gone. Today will be the day that I stay at the office for 9 hours and commute for over an hour. Ten hours away from home. It’s just…yucky to me.

I read this post over at Beneath My Heart (sorry no link at present) today where she chronicles her home and work life through the years. I love the comment she quoted from her mother, “God does everything in seasons.” Right now she’s in a season of staying home with her children after full time work in her last season. Right now I’m in a season of being full-time hours, half-time telecommuter.

There is a never-ending debate on whether mothers, or even females, should be working at all. Obviously I fall in the camp of “it’s ok”. As with many things, I think there is a balance and not a one-size-fits-all rule to the whole deal. Some mothers would be nearly violent if forced to stay at home full-time. Or, they simply enjoy using their talents at their job. Other mothers wouldn’t be able to handle the juggle between full-time at the office and to be “busy at home” life. And some simply love being being home full-time. I’m a Jesus-loving girl and bathed this decision about work in prayer and no one is going to convince me that God hasn’t led me here. It’s just a season. It may be that we need this extra money in the future for a time where I WILL be led to be at home full-time.

I won’t lie, it’s hard to be gone this long. As I said, it feels “yucky” to me. But you know what? I feel kind of sad when I leave my kids to go get coffee with a friend and I miss bedtime. I feel kind of sad when they spend the night away from home and I don’t get Saturday morning with them. My sadness is not about work. It’s about loving and missing my kids when I’m away, no matter what it’s for. But we can’t insulate ourselves so much that we are with our kids 100% of the time. I think it does a disservice to both me and my girls if I were to limit my time with my friends and their time with their family and friends. At the same time, God has given us the kids for only a season and yes, it’s great when we can sow into their lives. To be honest, given the choice aside from money I would probably choose to be a full time stay-at-home mom. I would love to take off to Target at 10am or go bowling at 2. I’d be happy to be home every day to have dinner set and ready at 5.

I guess I just think our hearts and minds can be one place and our bodies in another. A stay at home can FOR SURE be absent in mind and heart from their home and children even if physically at home while a working mother can be at work, but their hearts and minds at home and actually, be MORE attentive when physically at home than if they were home all day. I think it comes down to a heart issue. If our hearts are at home and our attention is with our kids, that’s what is important, no matter where we spend our day physically.

How about something fun for today?  I had some sweet comments about my makeup in the 5Before and I thought I would pimp out my Mary Kay products and consultant.  Yes, it was all Mary Kay!  Out of all the makeup I have tried they are still my favorite.  The skin care line is perfect for my finicky skin and I love that I can try out colors before I buy them.

So here we go:

Mineral Powder Foundation in Ivory #2.  I hope you’ve tried this stuff because it is GREAT!

I use the Coal eyeshadow with their angled brush to make the eyeliner.  It doesn’t move!

I have these three eyeshadows on Ivy Garden, Emerald, Moonstone

Love their mascara!  I get so many free mascaras from CVS and this one by far surpasses them!

I used a combination of Shy Blush and Golden Copper blushes

Bronzer on my forehead, nose and chin

Apricot Glaze lipstick

And to top it off, Bronze Bronze lipgloss

Whew, are you as tired as I am after all that? 

If you’re at all interested in trying any of this I have some great news!  My wonderful consultant, Jo Ann Blackwood will give you a free consultation and because she loves me, she’s offering a 15% discount to anyone that mentions Permission to Peruse when you order!

If you’re really wanting or needing some product, I highly recommend holding a party with her.  JUST for picking a date and not changing it, you get $25 in free product!!  You can make up to $100 just for having friends over and playing with make-up for an evening.  You know I love a good deal and this is one of them!

Jo Ann is a dear friend who recently lost her job and is trying to make a full-timer career with Mary Kay.  I hope all of us can help support her efforts and end up looking great in the process!

Check out her site to or email her to set up a consultation.  She’s willing to work with you no matter what your location is, so give her a shout.  And let me know, what’s your favorite Mary Kay product?  Obviously I’m very willing to try any of their products!

I have to say most projects around the house are conceived in my brain and are birthed out of Scott’s hands.  But this one, is all him.  And if the s’mores we had tonight were any indication, I call it good.

Can we think of more fun titles for this process?  I’m thinking that’s going to get old quick after a few months.  We’ve had enough go on in the last four hours that it’s worth a post though!

This morning started off a little early and disappointing.  I had our appointment with our designer down for the wrong day.  But I didn’t realize it until we all got up early, got ready and got the house in showroom condition and the designer was “late”.  I checked my emails and sure enough, I had today down when it is really tomorrow.  You know how excited I am about her coming but yeah, only one more day I have to wait.

Also, I was supposed to talk to the bank yesterday but she never called so we chatted this morning.  The thing I was worried about (why do I do that?) is that last year we tried to refi because we have a 7 year arm and it’s “up” this spring but we couldn’t even though we’ve always had excellent credit. One credit card Scott got to hide a birthday present from me in 2009 was late and it tripped up our credit score enough we couldn’t get a conventional loan.  We were planning to refi this spring anyway assuming our credit was back up.  But I was nervous!  Knowing they’d be checking our score in this process, I haven’t wanted to check it on my own lately so I’ve been in a big waiting pattern for the past year to see if it had gone back up.  I told her our plans and she said she’d go ahead and check our scores while we were on the phone and we are BOTH back in the excellent range! 

The thing I want to mention specifically for this post is I really can see God moving because you know how God has been saying do this in a hurry?  I think I saw why today.  Because we are doing a fairly small project and it should be done in a few months versus 8 months or more, she wants to do an equity loan for the addition and then refi it all together at the end.  So no construction loan and no multiple closings.  The thing about it is we won’t be locked into a rate right now.  Rates are supposed to go up so she said the best thing to do is…HURRY.  Can you believe that?  First conversation with the bank and she unknowingly confirms what God has been telling me.  The addition is a green light and hurry up and do it!

OK, so after many attempts this is what we put together from the floor plans I posted yesterday.  Certainly not set in stone.  I’m looking forward to having some builders and/or designers over here to see what they could do with it. 

The fact that we have to build in the closet from the second bedroom makes it a bit more challenging.  Since I couldn’t figure out how to close off half the bathroom like option 3 with a sliding door, I went with a room for just the toilet.  I think it actually fits nicely.  And trust me, it’s going to be beneficial for all of us if we can close that off ;) 

Still debating whether to make the shower a linen closet.  The dimensions are a little weird for one.  If we do a separate shower, the tub would be more like a spa tub and might need more room into the closet which is not a big deal because right now it’s 9.5’ long!  If we don’t do a full linen closet, I’m thinking we can use the space under the counter since it’s twice what we have now or some space in the closet.  Really we don’t NEED another linen closet but it would be nice.

While I really wanted a separate his and hers closet it’s just hard to do because of the closet in the girls’ room.  The square in the middle is a bench for dressing.  Scott really needs an area to hang his uniform and get dressed when he gets up at 4am.  Right now he hangs his stuff in the laundry room and it drives me nutso when he puts his bulletproof vest and jackets on top of the washer/dryer.  Sorry, random rant there.

Make sure to check out the oh-so-awful 3D rendering I did.  While awful, it did help me picture better what we would see walking in.

UPDATE:

Ended up doing another new one while I had some down time working this morning.  I still like the thought of the countertop at the back and separate closet spaces.  Downside is the toilet is not separate and we don’t have a separate shower.

The first I posted is still our favorite.  Thoughts?