The Latta Family

Since we're living this slower pace of life- what are weird things you've noticed are different or have more time for, or made a change? Weirdly- I do a LOT (like- SIGNIFICANTLY) much less laundry.  Odd- because I make the kids wash their sheets weekly now.  It turns out- Andrew not running through 3 million sweatshirts, school clothes, baseball clothes, and coming home clothes- does reduce the amount of laundry.  Here's another random thing- we've decided to make time for . . . so about 3 months (maybe 4 because, who really knows about the passage of time right now) we got word that our trash collection service was no longer recycling glass.  WHAT?!  I am an AVID recycler.  I mean- if our recycling bin doesn't get picked up every other week . . . it's overflowing.  Well- coincidentally- the county opened a dump up within a 1/2 mile of our house.  We decided- let's stop our trash service (we live outside of city limits).  We can start tak...

We got this new precious baby a few weeks ago.  Dixie is fulfilling so many needs for me right now.  #1- she's a baby and I can baby her to my  heart's content- and she eats that mess up.  She loves to take naps on us, and play,  and is surprisingly tolerant of being carried like a baby on occasion (not all the time!!! She's a lab mix- I can't be carrying her around forever!!!) #2- I am getting to teach again.  (ok, yeah, yeah, I am still employed as a teacher, but this virtual teaching is . . . for the birds!  I love to be home, but I LOVE to teach in a school building, amongst teenagers: interacting with them, telling jokes . . . that's what I need.  Not this uncertain, cold interaction.) Last week, Dixie had a rather naughty day.  We said no.  We yelled no.  We chased her.  She ran.  She nipped.  She growled.   I was frustrated and frankly- she was being a big brat.  I haven't had a puppy in...

I am super exciting- and do wild and crazy things like: clean out my email inbox.  Organize my YouTube playlists, and this morning I cleared a TON of pictures off of my phone.  Since I cleaned those pictures off, I discovered a bunch of pictures that I had been meaning to do blogs with.  Since I have been TOTALLY slacking on blogs- I figured I better take advantage of inspiration when it happens.  We have been getting all kinds of projects done around the house- even before quarantine was even a thing.  Project #1: We put in a patio off of our screened in porch. Doug had been wanting this one completed for years.  We decided it would be a great Christmas present to each other: Before During Still During Final product Project #2: Bathroom Storage I randomly decided to do this one day. I'm pretty proud of this one, because I did a lot of it all by myself- with just a little bit of help from Doug. I decided to do a ...

So it's Week Nine of Quarantine.  Way back in January (before we even knew quarantine was like a legit thing), I announced that this summer I would be getting a puppy.  I was ready.  My kids have asked for years, and I always said, 'HECK no!  Ain't nobody got time to parent kids and puppies!"  That is the truth.  If you have small kids and get a puppy . . . more power to you.  What changed?  My kids are older and more independent of me. (Andrew ignores me for hours at a time.  Alexa ignores me for minutes at a time.)  They're old enough to be genuinely helpful at feeding and taking 5,000 walks.  They're aware enough to understand why we have to train . . . them and the puppy.  They're somewhat observant to see when the puppy is chewing on something she should not.  And frankly, I'm sort of lost when my kids aren't around.  Once we got quarantined, Doug could see my way of thinking that now would be a good time t...