Decorating Help, please!!!

Todd and I had our room painted last February right before we got our new, grown up bedroom furniture.  I still haven't put up curtains in the room.  I have bought a gazillion, but none of them looked right against the paint, so I've also returned a gazillion of them What I thought was a basic beige paint, is actually a little pinkish it turns out.  It looks great with the dark wood of the furniture, but I'm going to have to go with just white curtains.  I have the added difficulty that I have to do the two windows on one side of the wall and I also need curtains for the two closets on the opposite wall.

Do I do 4 of the same style curtain?  Or 2  for the windows, and 2 different for the closets?

And, I prefer silk curtains, but have had a difficult time finding white silk curtains that I like.  Here are a few ideas, I've found.  Please chime in!!!

http://www.pbteen.com/products/ruffle-rings-drape/popup/more-views.html?active=1

http://www.potterybarn.com/products/peyton-linen-cotton-drape/?pkey=climited-drape-sale

I did find these, which are the duponi silk that I love.  But now I'm not sure.  Do I need to switch my comforter to a more "like" material with the silk curtains being less than two feet from my bedspread?  arg!!!  I was going to switch the bedding anyway, but I wasn't planning on going silky.  Dry clean only bedding simply isn't an option in my house.  There are too many children with dirty fingers.

http://www.amazon.com/Dupioni-Silk-style-Insulated-Curtains-White/dp/B003YQ1G1O/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1314801142&sr=1-1

Thank you in advance for all of your ideas.

Sincerely,
Interior Decorating Challenged in Ohio

No! Part 2

Beth has been busy with the camera again!

So, remember a couple of days ago when I said Lilyanna had learned "no" but it was still all cute and she hadn't really figured out how to use it?  Yeah, that's over.

She had a chocolate cookie in her hand yesterday.  The last chocolate cookie in the package, in fact.  All of her brothers wanted a bite.  (She'd pretty much eaten the whole box during their swim meet, so I didn't stop them from pestering her.)  She literally ran all over the pool side with that cookie in her hot little hand yelling "Nonononononononononono!!!!" at her brothers while they chased after her.

They never did get a bite.

No!

Guess who just learned a new word!

At least it took until she was almost 18 months to add this in to her vocabulary.  And she's very cute when she says it, like she hasn't quite figured out its power yet.

Still.  It feels a little like the beginning of the end...

Take me out!!

A conversation between Todd and Nathaniel while at the Clippers v. the Mudhens game tonight:

Nathaniel: Why do they do the wave?

Todd: Because baseball games are boring so the crowd has to entertain itself.

Guess who's not such a big fan of baseball, but took his kids anyway.  Good Daddy.

Linguistics

Parenting a child with ADHD (that is, trying to do all the right things for their specific needs) is a little like living in a family where you must speak one language to one child and a different language to all the others.  You've been learning the language all along, but sometimes you are so tired that you just want to communicate in your native tongue.  Everyone else around you can speak it?  Why doesn't this kid just hurry up and learn it already??

It's not an exact comparison, but there are times in working with my children that I vividly remember a night when Todd and I were having dinner with several Brazilian families.  At the time I understood Portuguese fairly well.  All of my piano students at the time were Brazilian and Todd spoke it beautifully still, so I was exposed enough to pick up on a lot.  As the dinner wore on and it got later and I grew more tired, though, it was as if somebody switched off something in my brain and all of a sudden I couldn't understand anything that was being said around me anymore.  It was just gone for that night.

There are times when I would like to be able to speak in  my native tongue to all my children.  But the Lord seemed to think I could handle learning a new language.

There are times I do not agree.

This Week

*Benjamin is off at his first ever sleep away roughing it scout camp.  They are sleeping in tents, bathing in rivers, and getting rained on every day.  My father in law is with him.  I'm grateful that he was able to share in this adventure with Benjamin and I'm excited to have the both home tomorrow.  From the sounds of things, though, we should maybe just burn all the clothing they took with them.  When I was "helping" Benjamin pack for Scout Camp, I had the thought that he is going to to be just a little bit further away from childhood after this week.  It makes me sad to think that, but happy at the way he seems to be growing up.

*It's been fun to hang out with Nathaniel without Benjamin around.  However, I never realized before how much he talks.  I pretty much zoned out for all of dinner last night because I couldn't. listen. to. one. more. word!  Benjamin apparently does a lot of listening so the rest of us don't have to absorb it.  Last night I pulled out the silent game just so Todd and I could get a word in edgewise.  Nathaniel is about to teach me how to play Mario Cart on the Wii.  I've never played.

* We discovered with our huge elimination diet that Caleb is very sensitive to wheat.  When he has a lot of it, ADHD symptoms are significantly worse for him.  We also discovered on our diet that when we took away much of the hyperactivity we were left with other things that need work.  I'm grateful that we are in a position to help him work on the things that we need and that there are resources out there for Todd and I to learn how to be the kind of parent he needs.

*Lilyanna is a climber.  She has scaled the piano and dining room table this week.  Chairs and couches are not high enough for her.  I'm considering a large kennel for her when I need to do something where I can't have my eye on her directly.  ;)

*I am buying new running shoes next week and hitting the pavement asap!  I had to give up my 3 exercise classes a week with all the kids home this summer and boy does it show!  It's not just that I've put on a couple of pounds.  It's that I don't feel good.  I actually need to exercise to feel like I have any kind of energy for the rest of the day.  Without it I feel bleh all day long.

How's your week going?

Tony's 2011

I didn't watch last night because I was sure that NPH couldn't possibly be as funny as last year.  I mean he was great at both the Tony's and the Emmy's last year.  It just didn't seem statistically possible that lightning could strike a third time.  I was wrong.  And last night's opening number?  SOOooo much better than the monstrosity that was last year's number.   

And could anything have been more fun than watching Daniel Radcliffe dance??  My boys are going to be excited to watch this number.  It's not my favorite song from the show, but the energy in it is great!

But back to Neil Patrick Harris.  Again with the very funny and talent showcasing numbers!  This time with Hugh Jackman, who I didn't love as a host to be honest, but that's just me.

It looks like it was a great show, and I may need to see if I can watch the whole thing later.