Ideas for No-Carve Halloween Pumpkins

This has been the busiest Halloween season ever!  Usually my decorations are up and ready by October 1 (okay, by the first week of October), but this year we were halfway through the month before I even opened my Halloween box.  We like to carve our jack-o-lanterns at least a week before Halloween night (okay, by the weekend before Halloween night), but this weekend we had so many things going on -- a conference, a party, a school fundraiser, Nutcracker rehearsals, a soccer tournament -- that I barely had time to buy pumpkins, much less decorate them.

Right now it looks like the only time we'll get to carve our Halloween pumpkins is the night before Halloween.... but that doesn't mean we can't transform those pumpkins into fun and cute Halloween decorations!  I decided to turn two of our pumpkins into Mickey Mouse pumpkin and a voodoo man while they're waiting to be carved.

A room of their own

When we first began thinking of adding a second story to our bungalow, The Pea was an only child.  3Po and Jammy weren't even a twinkle in Alfie's eye, let alone two.  So our plan was to add 2 upstairs rooms, one for The Pea and another for us.  I suppose we could have changed our plans once the boys were conceived and born, but we didn't really have the space or the money for the third room, so we decided to let all 3 kids share a room.

That's how it has been for 8 years.

Our kitchen remodel: Putting on a new face

 The Pea and I in our kitchen, 11 years ago

Since moving in to our home, we've made quite a few changes to our kitchen --  replaced the ceiling lights, replaced the stove, repainted the walls.  But the mainstay of our kitchen, the thing that gives our kitchen its look and feel -- the white cabinets -- have remained.

The cabinets came with the house, so we have no idea how old they actually are, but after seeing them deteriorate year after year, it was time for a change.  Some of the cabinet doors were falling off their hinges, and some had paint peeling and flaking off from water damage.  Simply changing the doors and drawer fronts was not enough, because we wanted to change the color of the cabinets from white to cream.  Since we were happy with the general layout, we decided on cabinet refacing instead of outright replacement.  This was too big a job to do on our own, so we found a contractor who seemed well established and charged reasonable rates.  We picked out our cabinet and drawer colors and styles, chose some hardware, and began the Refacing Phase.

Our kitchen remodel: Everything but the kitchen sink

We probably spend more time in our kitchen than in any other room in our home, but we've never given it the same amount of attention, design-wise, that we've given to our other rooms. It was high time to redecorate, so we embarked on Project Kitchen Remodel on November 21, 2011. We hired a contractor to refinish our kitchen cabinets (and that's the subject of a future post!) , but Alfie, the kids and I did everything else. We reframed the windows. We painted the walls, the baseboards, the cabinets and the windows. We changed the light fixtures. We restored the wooden butcher block on our center island. (I say "we", but in all fairness I have to give most of the credit to Alfie; the kids and I were the supporting cast).

Except for choosing a piece of artwork for one of the kitchen walls, we're finally done. It was a long, slow, difficult process, and it has taken me a while to recover from the trauma, but I'm finally ready to relive the experience, so over the next couple of months I'll be writing posts about the various areas we transformed, starting with the area around our kitchen sink.

I'm forever forgetting to take proper "Before" photos, but here's a shot to give you an idea of what we started out with:

What's in your pantry?

People love to post about all the junk that's currently in their wallet, purse, diaper bag, fridge, car trunk, closet, or any other storage space. This morning I checked my cupboard to see what I could whip up for dinner, and found myself wondering if most other families had the same things in their cupboards.

Here's what's in our cupboard today:

Things I have learned about painting a kitchen

My parents are very ascetic people when it comes to their surroundings. As long as a house is clean and comfortable, they don't really care what it looks like. This is quite an admirable trait in the sense that they don't need a big home or lavish furnishings to live happily, but it also means that their home has aged right alongside them. It also means that I don't know the first thing about Do-It-Yourself home remodeling. My idea of hanging a picture is taking any old nail and banging it into a wall.

Admittedly, I'm not the first person you'd call to paint a kitchen.

The end is nigh... I think

It has been about 7 years since we added a second story to our home. Although we've continued to improve our front and back yards, the only things we've done indoors have been minor projects like replacing grout and installing an attic fan. Our home still looks great, but 7 years of living and eating and playing and partying and containing 3 active (and messy) kids has taken its toll. What was once a newsworthy remodel that people actually paid to see has been getting a bit shabby around the edges. So we decided it was high time to freshen up our home, and we decided to start with the kitchen.

That was almost 3 months ago.

I'm this week's Creativity for Kids blogger!

A couple of weeks ago Alfie pointed to the kids' window art and asked why I hadn't taken it down yet. "Christmas is over, shouldn't the decorations go back into storage?" "No, dear," I said patiently. "That's their window art. That stays up permanently." I know this stuff looks out of place in a Craftsman home, but hey, it's also a home with kids, and I think the window art gives our back entrance a warm, whimsical feel. I even wrote a post about how much I love them over at the Creativity for Kids blog, where I'm the Featured Blogger of the week. Check out my post, and don't forget to take a peek at my bio, which has my awesomely cute baby picture (garish 70's jumpsuit aside) and some funny facts about me.

Halloween is finally here!

For the past several years, I've had our house all ready for Halloween by the beginning of the month. Even Alfie's complaints about my Halloween obsession don't deter me from decorating the house, inside and out, with the silly and spooky decor I've amassed over the years. I do try to go easy on the spooky stuff for the first half of the month, using pumpkins and ears of corn instead of skeletons and spiders. Those come out of my Halloween closet around 2 weeks before Halloween night. I try to add a little bit of decor each day, so the kids can come home after school and have fun looking for all the new things on display, and by the time Halloween night rolls around, the house is in its glory.

Maybe I had too much time on my hands.

Because this year, I've been swamped with the kids' school schedules and afterclass schedules and my volunteering schedules and my workout schedule and my blogging schedule and my work schedule and our social schedule.... and my Halloween House has suffered. Horrors!

Enough is enough -- thirteen days into October, I've finally remedied that oversight. The Bongga Household is once again the House of Horrors, thanks to a few strategically placed tombstones, spiders and pumpkins. I'm still not up to my usual standards, and I probably won't be going all out this year. But I'm pretty happy with the way our new Haunted Graveyard turned out:

The kids are definitely happy about it; all year they brag to their friends about our decorations, and as far as they're concerned, it's about time. They've had their costumes picked out for ages and are ready to get into the Halloween spirit.

Speaking of costumes and Halloween spirits, pay close attention to the zombie skeleton peeking out from behind the second tombstone. That's not a decoration -- that's actually 3Po posing for our first Halloween photo.


If it weren't for the red shirt and blue shorts, you wouldn't even realize he isn't part of the decor! Just looking at this photo makes me feel tingly all over -- with anticipation, not horror. My favorite holiday has finally arrived!

Spring cleaning -- in the summer

I'll admit it -- I'm a pack rat. I keep stuffed toys and baby cars because sometimes (like once a year) the kids want to play with them. I keep old holiday cards and baby blankets and The Pea's cracked ceramic footprint because they're precious memories of good times. I keep old receipts and bank statements and tax returns from 10 years ago because you never know when you're going to need to prove you bought that VCR recorder for $199.99. I keep new stuff, too. I have a gift closet filled with cute presents that were on sale, because you never know when you're going to need to pull a present out for a birthday party or housewarming. I keep boxes of craft supplies because the kids are always doing some project or craft. PR agencies send me things to review. I pick up swag at conferences and events. Stuff, stuff, stuff. Every time I see ads for the show Buried Alive on tv, I shudder and wonder if I would ever let myself go that far.

Fortunately, I have Alfie, who is neat and tidy and very minimalist in his approach to material possesions. His motto is, If you need it, buy it. If you don't need it, throw it away. There's no "Just in Case". He keeps my hoarding tendencies reined in. To his credit, Alfie never nags (well, hardly ever). When I see his frustration mounting as he sees piles of stuff piling up in more and more corners of the house , I know it's time to clear up. And over the years I think I've gotten much better at expediting the outflow.


Just this week I donated a vanload of old toys and games to our local homeless shelter. In the past I would probably have tried to sell them, and failed to sell half, and kept that half in the hopes that I'd eventually sell and make some money. This time I decided to rip the Band-Aid off in one fell swoop; I told myself that we'd be making some homeless kids very happy, clear up much-needed playroom and garage space, and get a good charity write-off to boot. It actually feels just like ripping a Band-Aid off, or picking at a scar -- suuuuuuuuch a relief.

It took me a whole summer to finish up my Spring Cleaning, but hey, better late than never.

The scary part is, the playroom still feels like it's filled to bursting. I may have improved on the outflow part, but I guess I still need help stemming the inflow.

Maybe I need to start watching Buried Alive?

Wading Through the Holiday Aftermath

Has it really been 18 days since I last posted on this blog? And to think I had just posted about resolving to post more frequently. Oh, hang on: that was over a month ago, and between then and now there was this little thing called a vacation. I didn't think anything could cure me of my internet addiction, but apparently 3 weeks in Manila with only occasional internet access does the trick.

And now that I'm back, there's a multitude of tasks competing with blogging time for my attention. I thought holiday to-do lists were bad, check out my after-holiday to-do list!

* Unpack suitcases and find extra space for all the new toys and souvenirs and bric-a-brac that we've brought home from vacation;

* Throw or give away old toys and clothes because extra space is harder to find in this house than a pair of matching Polly Pocket shoes;

* Wash all the dirty clothes we've brought back with us (Fortunately for me, Alfie returned home a week before the kids and I did, so he tackled the laundry I left behind in December. He even stripped and washed all our bedsheets, even though already did that before we left. Hmmm, maybe I ought to leave Alfie home alone more often);

* Take down and store the holiday decor (again, Alfie took them down for me since he didn't want to be the only house on the block with holiday decor in January, but he has no idea where they're stored so they're still all over the guest bedroom);

* Sort through a month's worth of mail: bills, magazines, junk mail and everything in between;

* Sort through this year's holiday cards, which is a task entirely separate from sorting mail, since it involves updating our records for people whose addresses have changed, sending belated cards to people we forgot about, and deciding which cards to keep, which cards to toss, and which cards to cut and save for the kids' holiday crafts next year;

* Sort though hundreds of holiday photos and upload to various social networking sites, including Alfie's and my Facebook accounts, Flickr accounts and family home page;

* Completely restock our cupboard and refrigerator with food;

* Help the kids prepare their class presentations so that their teachers can see that they didn't miss an entire week of school just to sit at home and watch the Cartoon Network.

All of this would be doable were I not on the toilet every fifteen minutes, suffering from what the doctor says is "traveler's diarrhea" (I was born and raised in the Philippines, so a part of me refuses to believe that there's a parasite in Manila that isn't already in my body, and I'm thinking of something much more exotic, like a foot-long tapeworm. Ok, maybe I watch too much House). I'm not sure whether I feel lightheaded due to lack of food (curse this BRAT diet!) or lack of sleep, but so far, given the choice to blog or to nap, napping has won. So I've decided to put this blog on autopilot for the next few days while I sleep my post-holiday haze away, and schedule some posts with photos of our vacation. Because a picture is worth a thousand words anyway, right? Especially a picture like this:


Hopefully that tapeworm will decide I'm a bad hostess, and seek refuge elsewhere. and I can get on with things. Till then, I'll be in bed.

Yes, Moms Matter

Mornings are the hardest. Because mornings are the times when everyone has somewhere to go. Alfie is rushing through his breakfast because he has to get to work. The Pea is rushing to get to school. 3Po and Jammy, well, preschool starts at noon but they're rushing anyway because they want to be done with breakfast and get on with whatever game they're playing that day.

Me? I'm rushing too. I'm rushing to make lunches, sign permission slips and clear up the breakfast table. Sometimes I find myself kneeling underneath the table, scrubbing away at a lump of something that was spilled from dinner the night before, hurrying to get rid of the lump before someone steps on it and squashes it and trails the lumpy stuff all over the house.

What am I doing here? Groveling on the floor like a dog, cleaning up everyone's mess while they're sitting above me, having their breakfast? I have two graduate degrees, for God's sake! I used to go places too, you know. I racked up the frequent flyer miles in my time; I was the one the airlines used to upgrade to better seats!

Yes, mornings are the hardest. Alfie, bless his heart, tells me all the time how he appreciates what I do, how there's no one else on earth he wants raising our kids. And that helps. For those under-the-table moments, when I'm feeling low and more than a little sorry for myself, I need all the reminders I can get, that I Matter. To Alfie, my kids, my relatives, my friends, to society in general.

I think all moms, whether they're under a table or behind a desk, need these pick-me-ups from time to time. They need affirmation that all this scrubbing and sacrifice Matters. That Moms Matter.

Which is why I'm happy to have found some people who actually Get It -- the founders of the Why Moms Matter Project . The bloggers behind MomFaves (Josh and Rebecca) and ExtraordinaryMommy (Danielle) are going to feature an inspirational mother every week on their new Blog Talk Radio show, Why Moms Matter -- to remind every mother that they do matter, and why. The show starts on March 6 and runs every Friday at 12:30 PST. If you know a mother or grandmother who Matters, you can go over and nominate her over at www.WhyMomsMatter.com.

Mah-jongg memories

Have you heard? Family Game Night is back! It kind of makes sense, really; when your mortgage is under the water and your job prospects are shaky and a night out at GolfLand or the cinema can set you back $60, $70 or more, staying in and playing games is a fun, inexpensive way for families to bond.

That said, we don't have a Family Game Night tradition. Sure, we play games a lot, but we play "on demand", we don't have a regular weekly hour set aside. Maybe it's because my kids are still young. Family entertainment site Time to Play has a great list of games for game night, but almost all of them are geared for ages 8 and up (and the thought of playing Candyland or Whack-A-Mole for one hour straight makes me queasy). Or maybe because to me the term "Game Night" means one and only one game: mah-jongg.

Like many Filipinos, I love mah-jongg. It's kind of a family passion; everyone in my dad's family plays. One of my aunts likes to tell a story of going into labor during her weekly mah-jongg game. Her cousins / opponents repeatedly urged her to head for the hospital, but she refused because she was just starting to accumulate enough tiles for a high-scoring run. My maternal grandmother went to her regular mah-jongg game every single weekday for decades (now that she's ninety she has cut back to once a week or so). I grew up attending lunches and dinners where the grownups never failed to unfold the mah-jongg tables after dessert. My paternal grandmother taught me, my siblings and my cousins to play when I was 13 or 14. It must be in the blood, because we were hooked. Pretty soon we were unfolding our own tables. In my college years, mah-jongg nights with my cousins often turned into overnights.

Fast forward to 2009. All my aunts and uncles and cousins are in the Philippines, and I'm here. My sister and her husband are quite nearby, but you need 4 people to play (to make a "quorum", as we say). I've taught Alfie the basics and he seems to enjoy it, but without my family around to coach me, I tend to forget the finer points of scoring. I haven't played mah-jongg in years,and I'm not really looking for other people to play with. So now I guess it wasn't really the game that hooked me, just the enjoyment I got from being with my extended family. I miss my aunts walking behind us, looking at our tiles and giving us pointers. I miss their excited squeals when it looked like one of us was about to score big. I miss the bluffs and threats we'd trade to try to psych each other out. I miss howling with laughter at the silly superstitions (Don't sit beside Lia for the next game, she's lost the last 4 games so she's got "stinky" hands!). And I'd love for my kids to have those kinds of memories -- and maybe, that's what Game Night is really about.

Maybe it's time to start building memories for my own kids. We'll start with Candyland (maybe we can call it Family Five-Minute Game Time instead of Family Night). Over the years my kids' game repertoire will grow, just like mine did -- and hopefully one day I'll find myself shouting Pung and Chow right alongside them.

A view of our back yard

The view of our back yard has changed dramatically over the last year. These photos were taken just over a year apart (July '07 and 5 minutes ago). Last summer we removed the old back fence and the wall of ivy that had grown all over it. Alfie took some potted plants and planted them alongside our dwarf orange and lemon trees. All are thriving beyond our wildest expectations!

For more views, click here.

A Twisted Tale

Talk about karma: after teasing Alfie's mother mercilessly for her antiquated laundry methods (i.e. she dries her clothes on a clothesline), we now find ourselves with a broken dryer and fifty feet of clothesline strung out on the side of the house. I've had to twist it back and forth through the trees so that I have enough space for all of the wash.

What a twist. I, the eternal laundry procrastinator, who likes to leave at least a week, preferrably ten days, between laundry days, now find myself having to do laundry daily. Ugh.

Click here to read more about my laundry sob story on the Silicon Valley Moms Blog.....

And for more twisted stories, click here.

Wooden

I love wood. I remember as a child that I hated the wooden floors in our home and longed for a western-style, wall-to-wall-carpeted room -- and yet I spent half my time on the floor, playing, reading or just lying down. The cool, smooth feel of the floor against my cheek, so soothing in the tropical heat, would often lull me to sleep.

Wood plays a big part in making our house a home, beginning with the driveway gate...



..... the furniture...







.... and yes, the floors. My kids have no problem sleeping on the floor either.



It's beautiful and easy to clean. What wood we do without it?!


This week's Photo Hunters theme is Wooden. For more wooden things, click here.