Here’s one of those little bit of everything posts that happen when there’s a lot going on, but nothing that really needs a post all its own. Dave’s been back at work and the kids and I have been back to doing school here for a few weeks now, and here’s a bit about what’s been going on around here as we get back into the school year mindset.

Den Stuff: Now that Abe’s room is officially finished, we can move on to the other room in our house that has been almost finished for an agonizingly long time!

When we last saw the den, it looked like this, after I painted the walls and fireplace and hung up a gallery wall:

The big project here is the shelf for the corner next to the fireplace. Dave’s already started working on it, but it’s slow going:

In the meantime, I’m trying to make the last few decisions about the rest of the room. Which reminds me that I still need a few more things for the gallery wall, as the plan is that will wrap around the corner with the shelf. I’m thinking of finally ordering prints of some nice all the kids and the whole family photos from the last few years.

And my final decision is about whether to anything on this wall opposite the (back of) the sofa:

Apologies for the terrible iphone in a dark room photos. On one hand, we can ALWAYS use more storage. On the other hand, it would have to be something very shallow, and it might well still feel in the way. But then I feel like if we DON’T put something there, that side of the room turns into a useless hallway, and wasted space is a thing I hate. Thoughts?

Local Crowded Things:

We went to not one, but two fun but crowded local events this past weekend. Crowded events are not my favorite, but fun things are, so when these two happened to fall in the same weekend, we bravely went for it. And we survived!

Saturday we went to Touch a Truck, because we happen to have a three year old who very much likes trucks. My other boys were kind of indifferent to trucks, so this is a bit new for me. We found two old metal Tonka trucks thrifting last week, and one of them was even a dump truck, which meant I had minutes and minutes to myself while Abe played happily with his new toys:

And so…Touch a Truck! It happens every year, but this is the first time we’d been. See: older kids who didn’t much care about trucks. We found that the key to Touch a Truck is to get in early and get out early, just when the crowds and heat are really setting in.

This swing was attached to a crane on a truck!

The Waffle House truck was my favorite truck:

Look how excited my big kids are to be here! Sometimes it’s hard to know when to forego family togetherness and bring just Abe to things. It was hot and crowded. Did I mention that?

And then Sunday afternoon we went to Miss Mary’s Ice Cream Crankin’. This is an annual event where you pay $6 a person or $20 for a family and get to try over 100 flavors of homemade ice cream. And it all benefits The Drake House, a place that provides emergency housing and support for homeless mothers and children in metro Atlanta. I like it when I can help people by eating ice cream. Unlike trucks, everyone in our family is a big fan of ice cream, yet we’d never been here before either. It was even more crowded than Touch a Truck, but, sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a good strategy for avoiding crowds and heat here. It only runs from 2-4 in the afternoon, so pretty much everyone gets here at the same time. So we did a loop, ate a lot of ice cream, and then got out of there before we were too worn out. Woot! Two successful crowded things!

Travel: We spent a lot of time on the road this summer, i.e. our first summer with an RV. And in addition to slowly getting my den put together over here, I’m slowly working my way through documenting all those summer travels on Boxy Colonial’s sister blog, Boxy Colonial on the Road. I’m up to the Cape Cod part of our big summer trip over there right now, so take a look if you’re mourning the end of summer and want to relive some beach moments with me: