Steve is taking off work this week and we are doing fun projects around the house. We have moved basically everything out of Emma's closet-sized room in the interest of making space for a toddler bed. Everything went into the basement, which I spent hours clearing out and organizing today. There is a really big room in our basement, which has now been converted - one half into a playroom, and the other half into a (!!!) craft room. It's pretty ugly down there, with old fake wood paneling for the walls and super ugly old linoleum, but it will do for now. I'm pretty stoked about the "new" rooms we added. Steve is also planning to paint the bathroom and the kitchen this week. We painted our kitchen green awhile ago, and it's not our favorite. We meant to choose something that would look cheerful, but what we got was a little more intense than we had planned. You might call it "neon". So we're covering that up with a soft yellow, and are glad we won't have to wear sunglasses in the kitchen anymore.

While we were on vacation at the lake, my dad harrassed me about buying fluorescent light bulbs. We bought some today, and I really wish I had known about these long ago. They are a little more expensive than regular bulbs (six 60-watt for $10, or four 100-watt for $10), but are guaranteed to last at least seven years. Additionally, they are way more energy efficient. Apparently each light bulb you replace will save you like $36 a year or something. According to my dad, you can't afford not to switch! I was worried about the light they would give off, but it's okay. In the room with the light, there is no noticeable difference. When looking at that room from down the hall, I noticed a little fluorescenty glow, but it was really not bad at all.