July is Flying By!

Whew, this month is flying by.  I can hardly believe how hot this summer has been and how fast the days are going by!  The last few weeks, I've been spending a good amount of time with el Charmo and this white potty:):

He is doing tremendously well, with no major battles.  He even asked to use the potty while running errands a couple times this week.  I'm sure we'll continue to frequently remind him to use the bathroom, and we'll continue to use some positive reinforcement (stickers and hugs and jelly beans have been working as of late), but we are well on our way to potty training success, and it feels good!

We've also been busy working on accomplishing some reading goals with Lucky and the aid of workbooks like these:

She has her phonetics down and knows tons of sight words.  We continue to work with 'sounding out' words and she's making progress every day!  Super, super exciting stuff.

In other exciting news, I had my 6 month post-melanoma check up with no new issues!  I'll continue to be followed regularly and often, but all seems to be going well on that front.  Wear sunscreen everyone:)!

And on the blog/home project front, I have to be honest that I've neglected things for the last few weeks to better focus on our family's needs (and let's face it, there is no way I'm going to paint or stain anything outside when it's 95 degrees out.  I can hardly breathe when it's that hot much less move enough to shake a spray paint can:)), but we have accomplished a small project or two around our house like making a second curtain rod for our dining room and two more painted chevron curtain panels.  Here is how our dining room is looking now:

It actually feels finished to me.  Now it will be interesting to see how much time passes before I want to completely change the look:).

We've also been spend lots of time planning a big basement update (Here's another, more recent post about our basement.).  We are meeting with subcontractors to plan the addition of a wet bar and a fireplace surround with side cabinets.  As we finalize more details, I'll be sharing our progress.  Currently, our homework includes finding a built in microwave for our wet bar so cabinets can be made to size around it, and we need to decide on a wood species and stain color for our cabinets.  After those decisions are made, we'll be able to place our cabinet order and wait about six weeks for them to arrive.  The real fun will begin in late September:).  Here is our 'inspiration' image for our wet bar area, though ours will have different finishes and a slightly different cabinet layout as well:

via

And another big project we've been thinking about these days is planning a big ol' pirate themed birthday party for Charm, who is turning three next month and has yet to have a 'real' birthday party with relatives and friends and cake and a treasure hunt:).  I've been searching the internet to find some fun party ideas...it's going to be fun!

Homemade Pirate Eye Patches made using this tutorial, and these items:

(Felt, Steam A Seam Sheets, Headbands and Embroidery Floss)

What have you been up to lately?  Is your summer flying by too?  I hope you are all doing well!