look, progress!

It's been a long time since we've seen any forward momentum in this house. Most of our home improvement time is spent on things like filling the holes the boys inexplicably love to poke in the plaster walls (and then sanding and painting the walls, only to find the next week that new holes have appeared), or gluing the dining room chairs back together because the boys played with them too roughly when they used them to make a train across the floor, or scouring the internet for a replacement toilet handle because the boys were a little too enthusiastic with their flushing and apparently we have some kind of rare model toilet. You get the picture: It's two steps back, one step up around here -- if we're lucky. But a few weeks ago, Mike and I reached critical frustration level with the spice cabinet (of all things!) and action had to be taken.

So of course, I went online looking for ideas, then developed a plan, then spent a few days talking Mike into going along with the plan. And once the plan was made, it included a trip to Ikea, which conveniently (or, you know, completely intentionally) gave me an excuse to meet up with my friends Val and Debbie to shop and lunch like we are some kind of ladies who lunch. And since no plan in this house can move forward smoothly to reach its logical endpoint, Mike later had to make a trip to Lowe's to get a replacement bit, which led to more delays.

But trust me, all this rambling is going somewhere.

Tonight, the final pieces of the puzzle came together, and the boys and I created labels for our brand-spanking-new spice display! We got magnetic jars with clear lids, and plain brown labels, and we set about transferring the nightmare contents of the spice cabinet to some semblance of order and even beauty. Along the way, the boys smelled every spice (most were declared yucky) and examined every label. And eventually, we had this:

Now maybe someday I will finish the hateful trim project in Max and Henry's bedroom. Check back with us in about five years on that one!