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New Office and Sick Kids #CoffeeTalk

Because it wouldn’t be Christmastime without some extra added excitement.

So, exciting things first. I’m sitting here typing this morning in my NEW AND IMPROVED office! WOO!

We are still putting the finishing touches on it, but I have new paint and a new floor and I’m all moved back in. You know how it is when you do a project that requires you to remove every last piece of dust and scrap of paper from a room — you are forced to purge and organize and only put back in the things you WANT, which is SO freeing. I have been piling up clutter in here for years. This is the room I where I put any and everything that I’m going to get to eventually so it becomes quite the catch-all. I still want to go through my desk drawers and purge them, but everything else has been reorganized or relocated.

We even got Savannah a new, smaller crate. The one we’ve had was “on loan” from the owners of the rescue where we bought her, and it was too big for her and also just kind of old and rickety. So now she has a brand new home. She’s so funny. She went right in and lay down when we brought it in and set it up. After all, I’m not the only one who has been displaced all week. I think she’s relieved to be back in our office too!

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Work-wise, I feel like I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. I am just about done with all of my 2014 blogging commitments, and I’m looking forward to all the fun year-end posts — sharing my holiday decorating, the state of the blog address, the year in review, all of those things we bloggers do as we wrap up the year and look forward to starting fresh on January 1st.

I’m still finishing up my holiday decorating because of the home reno projects we’ve had going on this week. And yesterday we planned to take the day off and complete our Christmas shopping, but we ended up with two kids at home. R’s recovering from a sinus infection, and D was feeling under the weather but I think he was just overtired. He perked up after he slept until noon and had a couple pieces of toast.

I took R to the pediatrician just to make sure she didn’t have strep throat or something else brewing that might require medical attention. She had a pretty rough night Thursday night, and I didn’t want to go into the weekend without at least getting her checked out. Fortunately it’s just a sinus infection.

The doctor offered me an antibiotic, which I declined. I prefer to wait it out; these types of things are rarely bacterial. But before I declined it, they were asking about any allergies or reactions she might have to medications, and I said that I couldn’t remember a time that she’d had an antibiotic. The doctor was in awe of that, so she looked at the records, and sure enough! R has gone her entire nine years of life without an antibiotic. That makes me so happy. I mean, I know antibiotics are not all bad. When you need it, you need it. But so many times you don’t need it, and I’m happy that she hasn’t had to be exposed yet — at least not directly. Who knows what’s in our water and food and everything else! But that’s a topic for another post.

Now, just watch her get sick and need an antibiotic this winter. Pride goeth before a fall and all that. Although I’m not proud, really. Just pleased.

I wish my personal medical news was as good. My foot is feeling worse, and I have no idea why so I wore the medical boot yesterday. Today my lower back is killing me, and I am hobbling around like I’m about 108 years old. I’m pretty grumpy, truth be told. My whole family is suffering from my foul mood, and I know I need to get a grip and put on a happy face, but honestly, this is putting a real damper on the most wonderful time of the year. But I don’t want to talk anymore about that.

So.

Back to my office. Wanna see pictures?? I wish I had before pictures, but I didn’t think to take them.

Here it is. You can see the new floors don’t quite match the old, although they’re the same. The old ones have become quite faded over 10 years. Anyone know what’s involved in refinishing them? That was the floor guy’s best advice, but I have a feeling that’s quite a mess.

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This is where I spend most of my days. The cork board is new. I ordered it from Kohl’s, and I love having a place to pin my papers that I want to reference regularly.

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And I absolutely adore that black and white artwork of my kids. It is on wood, very cool.

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The lamps really have to go, though. They are next on the agenda. I don’t have any overhead lighting in here, but I need something more attractive and more effective than those lamps. Anyone have a suggestion?

This is my view from my desk. That Jo-Lynne / Musings of a Housewife piece of wall art was for a blog review once, and it has always hung there. I added the canvas print of my husband and me in Turks & Caicos that was sent to us from HP, one of the sponsors of the Beaches Moms conference I attended down there. And I adore those photos of my kids. That frame has been sitting on my desk with those pictures in it for at least a year, with the intention of hanging it on that wall. We FINALLY got around to putting it up this morning!

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And this is the other side of the room, again, the view from my desk. Yes, we have a lot of family pictures. I’m not quite sure what that says about us . . .

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It’s funny how the blue paint looks different, depending on the angle and the lighting. Sometimes it looks almost the color of that water in Turks & Caicos. Other times it seems very grey and moody — sorta like me. Ha!

The black and white curtains were in here before. They’re from Target, but I paid to have them lined not too long ago, so they’re staying. They worked better with the red walls, but I suppose they’re fine with blue too.

We also had the foyer and the powder room painted. The foyer is almost the same as before, but I went with a darker blue in the powder room. (It was tan before.) I do have “before” pictures of my powder room because we redid the floors and vanity in there a few years ago and I remember blogging about it. I will wait and share that makeover in another post because I’m still looking for wall art to complete the room. AND this post is long enough already.

Enjoy your weekend! I hope it’s full of eggnog and Christmas lights and fun parties. Or, if you don’t celebrate, at least have some eggnog!

Join The Conversation

14 Responses

  1. love the office and kudos to you as a mom for not pushing antibiotics! So many parents freak out when I won’t give an antibiotic for the sniffles!

  2. I love the office! Hope everyone is feeling 100% soon for the holidays! Ah!
    (I am so against antibiotics too! Doctors and Americans for that matter are way to ready and reliant to push and use them. I refuse to take even things like advil! Haha!)

  3. Your office looks so pretty – I love the color you chose. Now I’m really inspired to get mine done. I agree – it’s so nice to take everything out and start fresh. Hope your kiddos are feeling better and that you’re having a great weekend!

  4. After being on antibiotics for years for Lyme disease, and now on herbs instead, I can say, careful with the antibiotics. So glad you are cautious not to run to an antibiotic when it probably isn’t necessary. Glad she is feeling better than she was.

    I love the office. I have a room that could be an office, and might be in the future, but for now we’re using it as a guest room. Depending on how often we have guests, it might turn into my office.

    Nell

  5. I’m glad you’re not changing the curtains, those are my favorite part of your new office along with the matching thing on your desk! I LOVE them with the blue. 🙂

    I’m sorry you’re having foot/back issues. That takes the fun out of things pretty quickly. I’m praying those are better soon.

    Love, Kel

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