Finally Finished Our Family Dojo

I posted this on my other blog, but I’ll share it here, too, since it’s a family thing and all.
Two years ago, we finally got around to cleaning out our shed and hanging our bag and makiwara so we could work out at home. This year, I got the bright idea to spruce it up a little more. Since my husband and three of our children are now also practicing martial arts, I thought a little decorating would encourage the kids to practice at home more.

I used paint that was left over from a couple years ago, and I found different items around the shed that I repurposed. For example, some old straw mats made neat curtains, and some old white folding doors became a partition (Hubby and I agreed to split the shed—half for my dojo and half for his tools and stuff.)
 
Anyway, I thought these old white doors would look cool painted black and red.

We finally got a weight bench. I put up some cork boards for whatever weights or drills we are currently working on. The Wavemaster (and the Everlast bag below) were given to me by my former instructor when he closed down the old dojo. The Everlast bag was meant to hold water, but the plastic bladder inside had holes. I duct taped it, filled it with 75lbs of sand, and I’ve been using it that way for the last two years. He also gave me the big pad and muay thai pads on the shelf.


We had bought a dorm refrigerator a couple years ago for our oldest daughter, but since she is still living at home with us, it holds water bottles. (And beer.)


I made this Bruce Lee collage for my son. He loves it. OK, maybe I like it a little bit, too.

This week, we finally put down some floor pads, thanks to the money I had in paypal from my Pact app. (Yes, this app really does work, and you really can get paid for exercising and logging your meals on MyFitnessPal. I use the money I earn to buy fitness-related goodies. Next, I’ll buy some more weights for the barbell.)
Anyway, the floor pads make it much more comfortable to do push-ups and planks.

It is great to have a space that we can all enjoy!
 

Mojo’s Sherlock-Themed Birthday Party

Mojo turned 13 today! Isn’t she beautiful?


I am working mainly weekends now, but I was able to get my nights switched to Thur & Fri this week so I could be home tonight for her birthday. Even so, after working the past couple nights and sleeping  today, we just planned for her to have a few friends over to enjoy some burgers and cake and maybe movies or something.

In typical Mojo fashion, a couple days before her birthday, she issued a challenge. (Remember the Star Trek party?)
“You know what would be really cool, Mom? A Sherlock-themed party.”
Oooooh. That really would be cool. The possibilities for a Sherlock-themed party are great, and I couldn’t really do it justice with such a limited budget and time.  But I couldn’t resist playing with it. I planned and schemed last night in between caring for my patients, woke up at 1:30pm, made a mad rush to the grocery store for food and supplies while my oldest daughter googled and printed and made a phone call to her law-enforcement Grandpa, and we started the party around 5pm. Here’s what we managed in that amount of time.

  
We changed our address to 221B Baker Street, and our house became a crime scene. Thanks, Papaw Bob, for letting us borrow the police tape! As I was unloading the truck from my shopping trip, I noticed a police cruiser in front of our next-door neighbor’s house, and the officer was speaking to our neighbors. He walked over to our yard to inquire about the police tape, and I explained about the party. And then I updated my Facebook status so that our local friends wouldn’t be wondering. Word travels fast in a small town.  hehehe

    
I saw a few ideas online for some Sherlock-themed games, but Mojo said “I’m 13, Mom. We’re too old for party games.” Well, alright. But I would’ve gotten a game of Clue if I could’ve found it on my hurried shopping trip. I did print out and laminate Sherlock’s wall so that we could shoot at it with Caveman’s nerf gun.
 
Other than that, we put out a few simple decorations…
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(Folding our black napkins into origami lotus flowers was a fail, but I did make a neat rose. 
And I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say “We can’t giggle—it’s a crime scene!”)

…served tea & biscuits and fish & chips…
    


…decorated cupcakes with Sherlock images…


…and watched the Sherlock Holmes movies and the BBC Sherlock episodes.



(We rarely buy store-bought birthday cards anymore. They are more fun to personalize.)

Yeah, this was probably more fun that just plain ol’ burgers and cake. I may revisit it in the future with more planning. Petri dishes with jello in them? A skull on the mantel? Scones to go with our tea and maybe some meat pasties or cottage pie for dinner? A good ol’ murder mystery to solve? Some Bach violin music playing in the background? Lots of fun possibilities!

Our Little Gem Got Her Yellow Belt

Caveman’s First Tournament

Caveman participated in the Friendship Open Martial Arts Tournament weekend before last, benefitting the Special Olympics. It was a local event, with at least four different martial arts styles represented.

I was very proud of how well he did for his first tournament. He won a gold medal for his kata.

He also participated in sparring and flags, and received bronze medals for those events.

It was also my first tournament to judge kata and referee sparring matches, and that was more fun to me than competing. Mojo also helped out as a timekeeper, getting to sit with the wife of the late Sensei who designed our club patch and built our headquarters. She really enjoyed that.


And here I am among some living legends. It was announced at the tournament that my Soke (in white), who founded our style of karate, will be inducted into the Masters Hall of Fame in Ft. Worth, TX this year. He is one of the kindest and most humble martial artists I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. I am standing next to one of his first black belts, who also recently received his Sokeship (10th degree black belt). In the front is one of our Sensei, who had a stroke and currently resides in a nursing home. I’m glad that one of the guys thought to go pick him up to attend, thankful for the chance to meet him, and thankful to be part of a group who cares for one another.

Our family doesn’t go to many tournaments, so we’re choosey about the ones we do attend. This is one I’m glad we didn’t miss. I enjoyed seeing some of “our people” whom I haven’t seen in awhile, and I enjoyed meeting some new people. I love how the different martial artists in our area cooperate and mingle together. I hear them frequently say “We’re family”,  and it really does feel like one big family.

Ro’s First Birthday

Christmas

Before Christmas Eve Mass

Our Thanksgiving

The Ross family had their big shindig on Saturday (which I missed because of work), so we celebrated our Thanksgiving Day at home. I love being at home on the holidays. I love being in our kitchen with my HoneyBear…
 
This year, some of our martial arts family joined us for lunch.

And then we spent the rest of the afternoon making joyful noise.

We all agreed that a jam session should be included in all of our celebrations from now on.

I Like My Kitchen Again

We knew our kitchen floor needed work, but we put it off. We really couldn’t afford it--in a family of nine, the needs are many and the money is stretched thin. We didn’t think we had the skills to fix it ourselves. So we waited. And waited. (You know, new babies and dental bills and time to replace both vehicles and a squirrel chewed through our power line and…) Until we couldn’t wait any longer. We all know we’re eventually going to get to that point with whatever we’re putting off, right?

We got an estimate for $2700 to fix it…there was just no way we could squeeze that in. Surely we could do it ourselves for less money than that? Surely a floor isn’t that hard to fix?

We started on it ourselves, and tearing up two layers of floor was a formidable task.

Have I mentioned our house was built in 1929?

We called an old family friend, and he spent a day helping us get it all pulled up and then helped us get the new boards measured, cut, and nailed down.
 

And after about ten days of working on it, between Greg’s work schedule, my work schedule, homeschooling, and caring for a house full of small children, we got it done. It cost us around $500 to replace the floor ourselves (including what we paid our friend for his help).
While we were replacing the floor, we pulled out the cabinets and drawers above and beside the refrigerator. Whoever had put them in must have had a very small refrigerator. Our refrigerators have never fit and have stuck out in front of the cabinets, creating a space behind that everything fell down into. I’ve wanted those cabinets gone forever, and now I’m glad to be rid of them.

Sometimes being poor is not as bad as it seems. If we had been able to afford paying someone else to fix our floor, we would have missed out on the experience of planning and collaborating together, working side-by-side, and sharing an adventure. We enjoyed the teamwork. There’s a lot of satisfaction to be gained from taking on a project like this and completing it. We high-fived each other for being so awesome.

Now that it’s all done, I like my kitchen once again. I got rid of a lot of junk that I had accumulated over the years that wasn’t being used, which freed up space for things I enjoy…like pretty decorations. My ceilings are high, and there is a lot of space on top of my cabinets. I’m pulling out some of the vintage glass that I’ve collected (and will add to) and displaying it there. I’ve also always wanted to grow some herbs in my kitchen, so I’m making use of the freed up counter space for growing some of my favorite herbs. Being surrounded by order and loveliness, rather than the chaos that my kitchen had become over the years, makes me happier to spend time there.
Getting rid of those extra cabinets (which were only used to collect junk) opened up the kitchen a bit.

Some fall decorations, vintage canisters, the wine bottle that we used to toast at our wedding reception, and yes, that is the Tardis traveling through Van Gogh’s Starry Night.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again—I like living in an old house, even though it sometimes takes work to maintain it. There is charm and character there which I just can’t find in the new houses.
Having said that…the bathroom floors and the walls in the hall/library need to be fixed next. Sigh.