Lighting Needs

As we've gone through the process of settling in, we have come up with a list of things that we need. Different spaces call for different organizational needs. For instance, in our last house, the toothbrush holders were built into the bathrooms. Here we have no toothbrush holders (not that it necessarily matters for my kids whose toothbrushes are most often found strewn on the counter or fallen on the floor). I have been making lists of things that we need and have been striving to find them at places other than Walmart. We live in a different region of the country now (i.e. not in rural eastern NC where Walmart was always the best option) and have so many more choices. It's very exciting. Last week we made a trip to Ikea, which I have decided I would like a lot more if I was into modern furnishings or stainless steel. It was fun to visit, but not likely to be a place that I will frequent (much to Rob's delight).

Today the girls and I made a run to the nearest Christmas Tree Shops. This is one of my mom's favorite stores. For those of you who are not familiar with this place, it's kind of like a glorified Big Lots. You never know quite what you'll find. On the top of our list were lamps. None of the rooms have overhead lighting except for the dining room and kitchen. Since I have been a person who does not believe in table lamps, this is kind of a problem for me. We have managed to scrounge up enough lamps for most of the rooms (the girls had been technically using a night light but since they don't play up there after dinner it's been okay) but we had a problem on Saturday. Dear, sweet little Chloe decided to play with the lamp in the living room. It was one of those torchiere style lamps. I say was because when she finally knocked it over, the whole top smashed (light bulb and all, which made for a very fun night of cleaning up the remains of one of those mercury laden compact fluorescent bulbs. Very fun.) leaving us once again in the dark. The Christmas Tree Shops did not let us down. We found this great floor lamp for about half of what it would have been at Target. Now that I have it put together, I wish I had picked up two of them. And some light bulbs.