And she's STILL blogging about Christmas!
So I showed you my little Christmas tribute to Patrick.
But it wouldn't be fair to ignore the beautiful thing he did for me.
And really, it was beautiful.
For starters, when we first moved in here, we made strides in setting up the kitchen (an essential for my sanity's sake), our living room and our bedroom. Patrick's office became kind of a "dumping ground" for office-related things, and only recently is beginning to take some shape and order.
And then there was Noah's room.
Since he was sleeping in our room for quite awhile, we just kept putting off decorating it. Or even, tidying it. There were stacks of outgrown clothes everywhere, waiting to be put somewhere, piles of kids books, and basically every generic baby item just sort of existed in this room, all without a clear place to be.
On several occasions I cried over this. I would try and get things organized and feel like a failure because I couldn't figure out where to begin. I felt even worse when I thought that lots of women set up their baby's nurseries before their children are even born.
I wasn't making a good home for the tiny love of my life!
{Enter the much taller love of my life.}
Patrick quietly worked away in Noah's room in the days proceeding Epiphany, creating something not only beautiful, but helpful. He gave me an extra boost of confidence as a homemaker.
He reorganized Noah's room.
And he decorated it, too.
He did a lovely job! I'll show you:
Stored under the crib now are the clothes Noah's outgrown -- instead of strewn about the room -- neatly sorted into several bags by size.
This quilt I found on Kijiji and thought it was too cute, and too appropriate. We had intended to give it to Noah as a Christmas gift, but how much better to have it already waiting for him, hanging in his new room!
This adorable duck lamp belonged to Patrick when he was a baby! His mom found it for us and he simply got a new lampshade for it, and now, Noah has a lovely handmedown from his own daddy! How cute!
This change table isn't actually get any use these days, as my son is a bit of a thrasher and the rails aren't high enough to hold him in. Still, it's nice to see his diapers organized into one place!
(I'm actually pretty good at keeping them washed, dried and put away generally. I am absolutely in love with them, because they're adorable!, and so keeping on top of them is not a chore to me the way other laundry is. Sometime I'll write about my love for cloth diapers...)
I can't believe Patrick found this quote. I had written it out on construction paper when I as very pregnant, to hang in our apartment during our hoped-for homebirth. It was my hope and prayer to help strengthen me as I went through labour, and to remind me to whom this child of ours belonged.
As you know, God has other plans for Noah's delivery, and so this instead became a sign we hung up over his bassinet when we brought him home. I looked to it during many late-night nursing sessions as a reminder to pray for my beautiful son, and also to come to terms with what was, at least in part, a disappointing experience for me regarding his birth.
I thought this got lost in the move from Ontario, but Patrick found it, crumpled in the bottom of a backpack and hung it up next to Noah's crib. I think it's my favourite part of the room; it is a blessed reminder of what a gift Noah is to us, and now that I have finally come to terms with my c-section, it doesn't bear the same sting of my wished-for homebirth. Rather, it's a promise for the future as opposed to a loss in the past.
... So, a gift that incorporated the homemade, the thrifted, the repurposed and the practical? And the beautiful?! I think I may just have the most stellar husband ever.
Feel free to post comments on how great you think he is.
Better yet, tell me how great your husbands are, so we can all feel happy for each other.
(Oh, and one more adorable thing about Patrick: this.)
But it wouldn't be fair to ignore the beautiful thing he did for me.
And really, it was beautiful.
For starters, when we first moved in here, we made strides in setting up the kitchen (an essential for my sanity's sake), our living room and our bedroom. Patrick's office became kind of a "dumping ground" for office-related things, and only recently is beginning to take some shape and order.
And then there was Noah's room.
Since he was sleeping in our room for quite awhile, we just kept putting off decorating it. Or even, tidying it. There were stacks of outgrown clothes everywhere, waiting to be put somewhere, piles of kids books, and basically every generic baby item just sort of existed in this room, all without a clear place to be.
On several occasions I cried over this. I would try and get things organized and feel like a failure because I couldn't figure out where to begin. I felt even worse when I thought that lots of women set up their baby's nurseries before their children are even born.
I wasn't making a good home for the tiny love of my life!
{Enter the much taller love of my life.}
Patrick quietly worked away in Noah's room in the days proceeding Epiphany, creating something not only beautiful, but helpful. He gave me an extra boost of confidence as a homemaker.
He reorganized Noah's room.
And he decorated it, too.
He did a lovely job! I'll show you:
Stored under the crib now are the clothes Noah's outgrown -- instead of strewn about the room -- neatly sorted into several bags by size.
Patrick assembled these lovely front-facing bookshelves from repurposed wood from my Dad's workshop. I got the idea here, and had been talking about doing it for months, but he made it much nicer using wood instead of plastic.
This quilt I found on Kijiji and thought it was too cute, and too appropriate. We had intended to give it to Noah as a Christmas gift, but how much better to have it already waiting for him, hanging in his new room!
This adorable duck lamp belonged to Patrick when he was a baby! His mom found it for us and he simply got a new lampshade for it, and now, Noah has a lovely handmedown from his own daddy! How cute!
This change table isn't actually get any use these days, as my son is a bit of a thrasher and the rails aren't high enough to hold him in. Still, it's nice to see his diapers organized into one place!(I'm actually pretty good at keeping them washed, dried and put away generally. I am absolutely in love with them, because they're adorable!, and so keeping on top of them is not a chore to me the way other laundry is. Sometime I'll write about my love for cloth diapers...)
I can't believe Patrick found this quote. I had written it out on construction paper when I as very pregnant, to hang in our apartment during our hoped-for homebirth. It was my hope and prayer to help strengthen me as I went through labour, and to remind me to whom this child of ours belonged.As you know, God has other plans for Noah's delivery, and so this instead became a sign we hung up over his bassinet when we brought him home. I looked to it during many late-night nursing sessions as a reminder to pray for my beautiful son, and also to come to terms with what was, at least in part, a disappointing experience for me regarding his birth.
I thought this got lost in the move from Ontario, but Patrick found it, crumpled in the bottom of a backpack and hung it up next to Noah's crib. I think it's my favourite part of the room; it is a blessed reminder of what a gift Noah is to us, and now that I have finally come to terms with my c-section, it doesn't bear the same sting of my wished-for homebirth. Rather, it's a promise for the future as opposed to a loss in the past.
... So, a gift that incorporated the homemade, the thrifted, the repurposed and the practical? And the beautiful?! I think I may just have the most stellar husband ever.
Feel free to post comments on how great you think he is.
Better yet, tell me how great your husbands are, so we can all feel happy for each other.
(Oh, and one more adorable thing about Patrick: this.)
That, my dear, is a most wonderful gift. Noah's room really does look beautiful, cozy and inviting. A lovely place for my nephew to call his own. :) Props to P-dog. ;)
ReplyDeleteA lovely room and a lovely post. Thank you.
ReplyDelete:) that made me all giddy :) yay you three :)
ReplyDeletealso...let's hang out next time we're in town..please please :)
The room is beautiful. There is something about order that warms a mother's heart. And what a wonderful husband to give you such a heartfelt and practical gift. One question: why is the window open above his crib? Was it actually warm or did you paint? (This is not an admonition just my own envy as I would love to oepn a window:)
ReplyDeleteJaclyn,
ReplyDeleteI didn't take a photo of the noteboard you made Noah! But it IS up :) And so cute!
Julie,
Thank you.
Sorcha,
Yes please let's get together. We still have your movies and your copy of "The Organic Development of the Liturgy" :)
Elena,
It's hot in his room! Our heat doesn't circulate well at all, so we need to keep the windows open in the office and Noah's room so no one swelters upstairs or freezes downstairs. Since our heat is a fixed expense with our rent, we don't mind being wasteful (minus the bad-ness towards to environment).