Author: dizzylizzy78

I do not have much luck with plants. This year I planted a lot of pots around our new pool. Many plants were to help keep the bugs away, like lemon grass and rosemary, but I threw in some flowers as well. I am pretty proud of the flower pots around the pool, I water them often as I am outside swimming and think about it. My plants out front, well they are not as cared for! I have a succulent in front of my garage, and that is doing great! I planted flowers in the large planter on my porch, but they died within weeks. The water and sun do not hit them right due to the small roof above the porch. I thought about researching good hardy plants for there, but honestly, I am not a gardener. I do not enjoy shopping for, planting or maintaining plants. I love the look, but that is as far as it goes!

I decided it was time to try fake flowers. Due to my many failed attempts at planting in the pot, it was filled with dirt which would make it easy to put in and place the stems. I was near a Hobby Lobby yesterday so I popped in and lucky me, floral was 50% off! As I walked the isles, I realized I needed 3 basic types of stems;

Tall Center Stem

Flowing Ground Cover

Spark of Color/Flower to connect the two heights.

It took a while to look around and find colors that coordinated – there many shades of green! Once I finally had the perfect combination, I headed to the checkout. I was shocked when the price came to only $32, I would have spent that on a real plant that would die in a week.

Now I was ready to ‘plant’. I started with the tall stem and fluffed the stem out and placed it in the middle of the pot, well a little off center to help the realistic look. Next I fluffed the ground cover stems. I got 3 stems and it worked well, but the stems come in different sizes so be sure to get enough to go around the pot. Next I fluffed and placed the sunflowers. I also got 3 stems and it looks good, but feel I could have got 4. I placed the barer side away from the door and walkway.

I love how it turned out!

My dining room project started as any good remodel – I watched a design show! I saw them apply wallpaper to the ceiling and thought it was so interesting and unique and had to try it. My dining room was pretty plain and needed an update anyway.

I started with finding a wallpaper I liked – that was the hardest step! Honestly, there are so many choices and it is not easy to look at them in person. I stumbled across this one and had to have it! I found it on Etsy and it seemed expensive so I started to look around and try to find something like it. Unfortunately, I found nothing that measured up to this, and as my husband said, it is an investment that will last for years so get what you want!

While waiting for the wall paper to arrive, I filled all the holes in the wall and painted all the trim white. Once the wallpaper arrived, I choose paint colors for the walls, tapped off the trim, and we began painting.

Finally, it is time for the wallpaper! I measured and cut the panels for each rectangle on the lower wall. This was peel and stick wallpaper and was very forgiving as I lined it up and installed it. For the walls, it went on without an issue and went surprisingly fast.

The ceiling was a bit trickier to install and took all 3 of us. Because the wallpaper was so forgiving, it made it easy to correct as we went. We used a ladder to hold the end of the wall paper panel and my son held on to it to make sure it did not slip off. I held a drywall T up to hold the middle of the panel close to the ceiling, and my husband handled the beginning of the panel, lined it up and applied it to the ceiling.

Once the walls and ceiling were finished, I kind of just lived in the space and started to plan out what I wanted to go on the walls and in the room. I had dark wood furniture to start, but then switched my tables around and I liked the white wood table much better. I found a sideboard online, added a comfy chair in the corner and used the wall hangings I had. After all that, I had a large blank wall, 2 small wall hangings and an empty corner. I found a beverage cart to balance out the chair in the corner but was still stuck on what to do on the large wall. Then I found MixTiles! I didn’t want to have the colors of the pictures fight with the pattern and colors already in the room, so I changed them all to black and white. The tiles are easily re-positional and light weight. I mixed in my 2 smaller wall art pieces and I love how it turned out.

This was our 2020 project. While stuck at home, we tackled this idea I had. My son has a wild imagination and loves to play with dramatic play items and Playmobile. Both these types of toys take up a lot of room. I think it is important to make the playroom a place that is organized. Toys should be seen and easily accessed by the child, therefore I have always tried to limit the toys. As he has gotten older, he has a large collection of dress up/dramatic play items. From knights to Star Wars, he loves to dress up and play. I decided to try using a peg board to put some costumes on the wall. It worked so well that I designed an entire wall!

First, I measured the wall and came up with a plan. I wanted to make each area separated, so I used different colored peg boards. I used Wall Control panels, they have great colors with matching metal hooks. I wanted the boards to span the whole wall in an intentional way so I spaced each panel 9″ apart. I turned the middle two panels sideways in a ‘Z’ to break it up a bit.

I decided to paint the wall a light grey and then use the same color of the panel to create stripes on the wall. Not everyone saw my vision, but I went for it!

My sketching is not perfect or even completely accurate, but it helped me to visualize the wall better. Now it was time to start.

First we painted the wall grey. Once we had enough coats and it was all dry, we moved onto the next step.

We measured and hung all the peg boards. This went easier with a laser level like this. It helped ensure that the peg boards were level the whole way across the wall.

We hung the boards before painting the stripes to ensure the stripes were placed exactly how we wanted.

From there, we marked the wall at the top and bottom of the panel where we wanted the stripe to be, and took down the panel.

Then we used the laser level to create a vertical line as a guide to place the tape.

Once all coats were done, and tape removed, we paced the boards back up on the wall.

Finding the right hooks for each item was a little challenging. I ended up ordering a varied pack and then testing the different types. Once I knew what I wanted, I ordered the other colors.

I love how it turned out! The best part is that my son is so good at putting things back on the wall!

A Look at Part of My List –

Now that I had my list, I really felt overwhelmed. How am I going to change all of this? Luckily, just as fast as I asked myself that question, I started making goals. My goals were set around the lists above and would, in theory, help me transition the bad out and the good in. This seems like it will work well for certain areas like snacking past 9, enacting a bed time on weekdays, scheduling an intentional activity with my son 3 times per week, playing music while I make dinner and making notes on the calendar to check in with friends and family on certain days while making sure to make note of any little or big things coming up for them.

The next challenge, because it isn’t something I can just set a goal for, are the characteristics that are more emotional; jealousy, being happy for others, self confidence, and my temper. These I will have to just be aware of. As I write this, I have a possible solution, I think maybe at the end of the day I can reflect on my emotions and how I handled myself that day. Since my mom passed away, I pray before I go to sleep every night. During my prayer, I also talk to my mom and tell her about my day. This would be a good time to reflect on how I handled my emotions that day.

Well, now it is all set up. It is written down. I made my goals, now I just have to implement……….deep breath in……….deep breath out………

Over the past two years, my job had become mundane, and even through the pandemic, it seemed to present the same challenges over and over. I knew, when I accepted the director job 12 years ago, that I would not retire there. I knew that I would give all I had, and at some point, the job would no longer be best for me. I started to become pessimistic with my staff, and even the families, the positive joy I used to get from my job, was slipping away. My time in childcare was coming to an end and I needed to look at options. In conjunction, my boss, the executive director of the company, retired in 2020. Our company was all about community and people with him in charge, and the new guy they brought in was more about money and secrecy. To be honest, if the administration did not change, I was already setting up a way to balance my work and life better so I could stay in my position longer.

Looking at my options back in 2019, I felt I could make a lateral move, with salary, into supervising in different fields or getting a job with in the state government. My job gave me experience in so many areas and I am fortunate to have that. I was able to attain a Bachelor in Science in Early Childhood Education, so I could go and become a teacher or work in the schools as well. Not everyone has the ability to build in support at their current job, or leave their current job, but I was fortunate to have the ability to do both. I already feel blessed with these options.

Then my mom passes away. Grief has never been more real. I have never felt such a hole, such a sadness. It is unexplainable. It is hard to feel yourself or be your best. At any moment, you are reminded of the loss and lose your self in grief, but for a moment or hours. There is no control, no way to hide it. You loose sleep, you doubt yourself, you feel hopeless. How do I try to balance this with starting a new career? I can’t leave my stable job, when the rest of me feels so unstable.

With the new director I was even more miserable, and in a toxic environment. Work was hard, my grief showed up wherever and whenever it wanted to, and I was exhausted. Having an only child during quarantine was hard too, we were his only playmates. Stress was at an all time high then my husband, in his loving ways, decided to make some moves and found a way for me to leave my job, without rushing into another job. He worked the budget and found a way. I didn’t even ask, he just did it.

I prayed and talked about it for months. It was so scary, but I finally took the leap and gave my notice. I gave a month, they asked for me to stay for two to help the transition so I did. It was a strange two months, and when I walked out on my last day, I was still scared and praying I made the right choice. The one thing I promised myself was that I was going to make this time count. I was not going to waste it laying around. I was going to make my mama proud with how I reboot myself.

As I continue to write on this blog, I will continue to grow and learn about just who I want to be. I plan on trying new things, taking on small jobs and volunteer opportunities throughout 2021. I know I have an opportunity that doesn’t come around often, and I hope I can help others by providing ideas and tools to help reboot themselves. Now let us start the journey!