Weekend Plans

It's a long weekend, which doesn't bode well for making actual progress on our projects. And yet, we forge ahead with grand plans, anyway. (Ha - I typed "forget". Twice. How's that for fighting our natures?)

We have dirt coming at nine. A tractor to pick up at, erm, *whenever we get around to it* (skid steer - thingy with a bucket - whatever it's called, it's for moving dirt, and hopefully we'll be able to move enough dirt to put a bit of a non-Zen-like hurting on the Zen Waterfall in the basement!) Post holes to dig. Fence panels to build.

And, in case we run out of things to do (cough, cough, ahem), I have a brand new bottle of grout sealant. Because you just can't have too many layers of grout sealant on a boys' bathroom floor!

The boys are psyched about "getting" to use the post hole digger. Heh. You know, some things just look like a whole lot more fun than they are. This is one of them. And hey, since we've both used those things before, we are in no rush to explain that to the boys. We figure we can get a hole or two out of the big boys before they catch on that it's all a big, hairy illusion. We might even get one decent hole out of Smidge. That'll do.

I've decided the foyer needs a make-over. Not like it's "finished" to begin with, but more a functional make-over. I realized this evening that we really need a Central Command for bags and supplies. Some place to land everything when we come in, and have it ready to go when we need to go. Since we don't have a coat closet, mud room, game room, or garage, the foyer seems like as good a place as any. Or, more to the point, the foyer is the only place, other than the barn, that isn't already pulling its own weight around here. So it gets the job by default.

This ("this," being the whole "organizational, ready to be places on time" thing) is not my strong area, by any means. Particularly the "ready to be places on time" bit. Add in the need to be "prepared", and we're in way over our heads! My hope is to really tackle that demon and beat it down this spring. If I don't, I may end up on sedatives and st. john's wart/antacid cocktails before Memorial Day.

And... it's after eleven, and I can't think. I can't write. I am going to give up and go read. Sometimes, that's just how it goes. :-)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Monday, Monday...

Well, today turned out, um, not half bad.

The baseball rep said to talk to the Community Rec. President. I left a message for him. He had somebody else call me back.

She was baffled as to how we could have not known. I mean, they have it on the high school display board, and they sent letters home with the kids. How could we not have known?

Well, my eldest is nine, so I never go to the high school, and we aren't in the public school system, so we're out of that communication loop. Sorry. (Although, come to think of it, this isn't through the schools...)

She didn't seem to like those reasons, but she did stop being quite so curt. She then went on to explain that they've got to "run the numbers" first and see what the teams look like (sounds like the group is coordinated by bookies, doesn't it? It was difficult not to snicker when that thought hit me, but I was still on the phone, so I managed to stifle it.) They'll let me know by Wednesday if the boys can play. She said she figures Smidge can play, but doesn't know the status of the other two groups.

Um, yeah.

So, not sure how this is going to pan out. I can't see having Smidge play and making his brothers sit on the sidelines (especially John, who has spent all winter out there, practicing his batting, running and catching - although, interestingly enough, he was the most gracious about this whole thing when I explained what I'd done. What a doll.)

If they can't play, I will probably try the next nearest districts and see if they'll let us play for them this year. Something.

I still feel like a heel.

On the Forever Home front, Zorak priced the materials for the fence today, and it looks like it'll be not only easier to do than we'd thought, but will also cost less than we'd anticipated. Yay! It looks like it's going to rain Saturday, so I don't think we'll be renting the tractor or moving dirt. But we can build the fence panels in the basement and get them stained. Plus, it's easier to dig post holes in moist dirt, anyway, right? ;-)

Oh, and we have propane. For a while, we didn't have heat, though, and that had me freaked out. I went all Useless Chick in Adventure Movie when the whole system shut down entirely and started blinking at me. Called Zorak up and he donned his shiny armor and walked me through it, saving both the day and my sanity in the process. I was thisfar from loading everyone up and spending the day at the mall, just in case the place exploded. (It wasn't anything that bad, but it was if you'd asked my imagination ten minutes into trying to figure it out! I'm such a goober sometimes. And yes, the pilot was lit. I'm not THAT much of a goober. Or, at least I wasn't... today.)

Tonight, we sleep soundly, and warm. Tomorrow, we... do more stuff! Hurrah!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Busy Weekend

It's been a great weekend for productivity here at the Forever Home. Zorak hauled the carcasses of dead appliances down to the Recycle Guy, so the carport-that-wants-to-be-a-fire is looking a bit more, well, a bit less terrifying.

I cleaned the kitchen pantry, then sorted, organized and inventoried the food storage shelf (yes, "shelf", singular. We're not good Mormons, Catholics, or survivalists... just slackin' Protestants). I am tickled, though, to see that we've nearly met our first goal! I was hoping to get to a two-month supply, and we're just about there! We need to flesh it out a bit, as there are some things I've completely forgotten to store - like pasta, and (gah, this is embarrassing to even admit) water. Yes. Yes, I know. Der. However, I'd only begun this project in September, so I'm quite happy with the results, and we've been able to accomplish it without any appreciable increase in our grocery bill.

We have the back yard staked out for a fence! We have the new garden boundaries marked, as well, and we have the spot for the chicken coop laid out. Now, if only we can decide just how we want to design the coop, we might make some progress on it! I tried to talk KathyJo into coming down with her crew so we could turn the menfolk loose down there, but she's not budging. Pfft. You'd think she's enjoying the snow or something. ;-)

Oh, hey, and while we marked out the back yard boundaries, the house spoke to us again (shhh, you're the only ones we tell about this stuff - the neighbors might think we're nuts... but, then again, that could come in handy...) Anyway, there's a door off the kitchen that leads out back. We don't use it because, like so many other things on this place, it's scary-dangerous. The first step is over a foot down, and if you misstep, you'll tumble down a painful, brick-edged, gauntlet. The little iron railings have long rusted away, so if you mistakenly attempt to grab hold of one, you'll only increase the likelihood that you'll be impaled before you hit bottom. As of yesterday, that door is now marked for a small landing and wooden steps that'll lead into the back yard. (Not only will it be lovely and functional, but then the children won't have to traipse through our bedroom to get to the back yard. WOOHOO!)

Zorak eyeballed my hammock trees for a tree house. He even measured them. I don't want to sound territorial, here, and I would do anything for my children, but I worked for two full summers to clear enough briars and poison ivy to get *to* those trees, so I could hang a hammock. Not so they could build a tree house. A hammock, darnit. I've never had a hammock. I'd like a hammock. I WANT a hammock. Besides, there are eighty bazillion suitable tree house trees on the property, but not so many suitable hammock sites. *ahem* Um, so, that particular piece of land is currently in limbo. (It'll probably end up being a tree house. Maybe I can sling my hammock beneath the deck?)

We ran out of propane on Saturday morning. Gah. I hate this little tank. (Riiiiight. Because it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that I'm the one who forgets to check it? OK, let me rephrase that: I hate that I forget to check that little tank.) If you ask for a delivery Not On Your Delivery Day, they hit you with fees: "Should've Checked Your Tank, Stoopid" fees, which add up to several hundred dollars. Plus, you pay a higher price for the gas, itself, at an "off route" price. We called to find out just what the "off route" price is, and see about scheduling a delivery, but the emergency delivery guy never called back, so Zorak hooked up a little tank and we'll use that until Monday.

I had to smile. That brought back memories of our first home together, when we were often too poor to afford the 100 gallon minimum delivery. (And that was when it was $1.75/gal., too.) He'd use the small tanks to limp us along, getting them refilled at the gas station (back when gas stations still did that sort of thing) on his way home from work, switching the tanks out, until we could save enough money to get a real delivery. I'm glad we're not *there* anymore, and that if the guy had called back, we could have had a full tank. However, I'm also so thankful Zorak is the guy he is and does such a good job of providing what we need. (Now, if he could just find me a mental supplement, or a personal secretary, or *something* so I won't forget to check the darned tank next time!)

I have no idea what we'll be doing today. Zorak stayed up far too late last night drafting fence panel designs, so I'm sure we'll be ready to make some headway on those shortly. And the carport-that-wants-to-be-a-bonfire is much less creepy now that it's all cleared out and semi-functional. I was hoping to get some sewing done, but that's not looking like it's going to happen. That's okay. There's plenty to do in the meantime, and when the time comes, I'll be ready!

ACK, and they're heading outside without me! I'd better go.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Homebound

The official high yesterday was 29'. Suddenly, I don't feel like such a wimp! Nor do I feel bad about not making the kids go outside to play. We aren't geared up for that kind of weather, at all!

It's been a lazy long weekend here at the Forever Home. EmBaby still has her birthday cold. But now, so does Smidge... and Zorak. They're all miserable. Fortunately, only EmBaby is whiny. The boys are starting to sound a bit snuffly tonight, too. I hate to sound un-nurturing, but if I had a firepit and a hammock, I'd be camped out on the front porch until this passed!

Zorak did get one more completed storm window put up today. I can't believe the difference they make! Nor can I wait until they're all completed and back up! I got another one stripped and steel-wooled, so it's ready for priming and painting (which we can't do until it warms up just a wee bit). Between laundry, sanitizing, and holding the angry, fussy baby, that's about all we accomplished this weekend.

The boys have been industrious. They have the Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby coming up, so they've been planning their car designs, and putting their wicked power tool skills to use. We've been taking pictures along the way, and I hope to tie this in with school by printing out the photos and having them make their own documentation for the work they've done. (They will write! Oh, yes, they will write! Muaa haaahaaaaa! Or, this will backfire horribly, and they'll glue the pictures into their notebooks and draw funny faces around the margins. Truly, only time will tell.)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Blogging: Built-In Desk

So, back when the Forever Home was still a crack house, it had this little built-in desk in one of the bedrooms. Just perfect for studying, erm... chemistry, or, based on the burn marks, for heating heroin. It's not high-end construction, but it is sturdy, and it does fit just perfectly in the little niche in this particular room. We hit it with mildewcide (because that's not dust in the picture below), and banished it to the carport for a while.

Over Christmas, it became another project on the completion list:

It's not entirely completed. The top and left side are a thick veneer, and we've never worked with veneers before. There was no way we could get some of the burn marks completely out without decimating the rest of the piece, so we did what we could -

Stripped and, sanded. We cleaned up some of the edges a bit, and stained it.

The veneer on the left side has some damage down low, so we are thinking we'll put corkboard on that side. The kids could use it for a number of things, it'll look nice, and it'll cover the damaged veneer and protect the integrity of the piece.

We plan to put plexiglass over the top, so the kids can use it for a work surface and display their work and drawings beneath it (that will do double duty in making the desk fully functional *and* hiding the burn marks!) The floor isn't in that room, yet (ignore that part, please), so we won't reattach it until we get that done. We'll put the trim up around the base at that point, too.

And again, before:

After:

But for now, as you can see, the desk has been taken over by Playmobil and the exorcist baby (I have no clue what's up with that doll - perhaps she was injured in a siege?)

And finally, because the shot of the bathroom in that first picture heebes me out so completely, here's a little something to wash it out:
Another Project done! (Hey, maybe someday we'll do baseboards!)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Blogging: Coffee Table

Wow. This one took me back a few years. I bought this thing before I met Zorak. Picked it up for $30 at a junk shop. It was stained with a dark, dark stain that was probably meant to have a "luxurious, rich wood" look. It made the table look black. The top was smokey glass. (Hey, I was childless, okay? Glass-topped furniture didn't seem like too bad an idea, as long as you kept the drunks away from it.) Granted, it wasn't "just the thing" to set off my wicker living room furniture (also bought dirt cheap at a junk shop - this is a theme, with me), but it worked.

Zorak and I stripped it and refinished it in '98. We fell in love with the wood grains, although the top never made us say "wow". Still, you go with what you've got. It lived happily with our small family until we began to worry that James would fall through the smokey glass and bleed uncontrollably, at which point, the table went into the garage.

Fast forward three years. Two children, and another on the way. We really needed a living room table, so the boys and I decided we'd tile the table top. Zorak didn't think we'd do it, but once it became evident we would, in fact, go through with it, he got involved with the structural engineering aspect of the design and the coffee table became a Whole Family Project. (He loves me, and part of that love includes knowing my limitations. I will come up with ideas galore, and they'll be beautiful! But I'm not likely to do the math with regard to weight limits, structural integrity, or water drainage. It'll be lovely, but someone *could* die if Zorak doesn't step in and help.) So, he helped, and we got a great table!

Our little Family Table lived a fairly normal life, until we bought this place. (Also a theme for us, and most of our belongings!) And so, it has languished in the basement, unseen and uncared for, for a little over two years. Construction debris, dust, spiders, paint thinner, primer, stripper, sawdust... you name it, this table's been hit with it in the past two years. It was lookin' a little poor last week...

Fortunately, however, it cleaned up beautifully, and is now back among the living! Another project completed.

Kiss those babies!

~Dy

p.s. - the lines on this piece are the ones we replicated in some of our other projects. :-)

Project Blogging: Coat Rack

And *this* is my new coat rack:

It's got 12 hooks, and all that wonderful shelf space. I love it. The old one (which is identical, except it it's 1/3 the length, and has only four hooks) now resides quite happily in our bedroom. Both make me so happy. They help tremendously with our lack of closet space, and every time I look at them, I hear a little voice whispering, "We're loved."

The boys did a significant amount of the work on this project: measuring, cutting, joining, and routing. Although I knew about it, they still wanted to do the work "in secret", so I wasn't there to take pictures of any of the totally cool work, like the biscuit joining or the routing. Zorak did get to take some shots of them staining the pegs, since that didn't require his highest concentration and cat-herding skills quite like overseeing small children and power tools - I can appreciate the dearth of photographs, considering the options available to him!

Smidge was so proud of his work.

John, fastidious, as always.

Em got a dry brush and a stack of pegs, because she simply would not let John stain in peace, "I a turn! I A TURN!" This made her very happy. (Me, too.)

And, Voila! Lovely pegs!

Zorak did the gluing in the wee hours of the night. I think he was ready for it to be Up And Functional.

A few hours later, it was, in fact, Up And Functional (we didn't waste any time filling that thing up, did we?)

Take a gander at the edging on this. Zorak *hearts* CAD. It allows him to do oodles of nifty things, but in this case, he could replicate the profile on our favorite piece of furniture. Now, in spite of the fact that nothing was made at the same time, or of the same materials (or usually even with the same stain), the profiles tie it all together. It all says, "This is ours." I love the way they look, and they're fun to fondle, too.

And so, that's another project completed. Feels good. Looks good. Works beautifully. Forever Home Projects really do help make a house, a Home. :-)

Kiss those babies!

~Dy

Project Blogging: Chair

I've finally got photographs of the projects we've done this past week. They are uploaded and mostly edited. My goal this week (on top of schooling, bills, and other miscellaneous whatever-it-is-I've-forgotten by now) is to get pictures of each project posted. I'm hoping for one a day. We'll see how it goes.

Starting with today's projects, and working backward, this is my Dad's old office chair. I don't know where it came from, as he had it for years before he ever met Mom. There's a tag underneath that says, "Sikes Company, Inc. Buffalo, NY". It had markings on it in pencil, but they've been illegible for thirty years or more. The style, from what I've found of Sikes Chairs, indicates late '40's. However, there's a black and cream plastic tag on the back, in lieu of the metal tags used in the '30's. So, going with the heyday of my Dad's time, I'm going to guess this is a late 50's, early-60's model. Total conjecture on my part, however, and I've no way of ever knowing for sure.

Still, I love this chair. Not that you can tell it in the "before" pictures at the top, but I do. And so, this weekend, we cleaned it up and got it ready to resume Life With A Family (which could quite possibly reduce it to its former condition in no time at all, I know).
Obviously, we didn't do a full restoration on this piece. I've got a pecan wood tea cart that's been waiting a lot longer, and is in more dire need of some hard-core TLC. However, this little bit of work is enough to keep the wood from deteriorating, and make the piece not only appealing, but useful once more.

*happy sigh*

I love quality, old-school woodwork!

The kids are thrilled, and hope to use it with the desk, which is now back in the guest room (pictures will follow, honest!) I don't know, though... this chair is horribly comfy... much moreso than the stool I've got here at the computer desk... hmmm. We may have to negotiate.

Another Productive Day

We got so much done today! Well, not a lot, domestically speaking. The kids mostly ran amok in and out of the sawdust, played billiards, and ate Chrismtas candy remnants. But on the project front, we did accomplish a bit. It's going to be horribly dull when Zorak goes back to work Wednesday. The kids and I just do normal "stuff" during the day - but when Zorak is home, it's all an adventure! I have thoroughly enjoyed this time with him.

Today he put two coats of stain on my new coat rack. I want to fondle it and touch it and whisper things to it, but it's a bad idea to manhandle the wet stain. Not to mention the whole fumes-while-pregnant issue. We won't even discuss the concerns surrounding Mommy talking to the furniture. So. I stand back and oooohhh and ahhhh, and inwardly stomp my feet like the impatient six-year-old I am. You know, deep down inside. :-) He got the stain on the rails of Claudia's toy bin, too. Different stain. Just as pretty. I didn't touch or talk to those, either. (I've been so good!)

I did, however, while feeling a bit guilty for sitting on the futon chair (again), reading (again), and doing absolutley nothing (erm, still...) decide I needed to clean up our old coffee table. This is the table James and John helped me make the top for, way back when I was pregnant with Smidge. We didn't want to strip it, but after two and a half years in storage, it needed something more than Murphy's. Zorak found a product today at Home Depot called "Restor-A-Finish" - wow! You can't use it with polyurethane, but since we don't polyurethane *anything*, we figured it would work well for us. It did! The table looks as good tonight as it did when we first refinished it. Ahhh, what a great feeling. (And how little work! LOVE that stuff!) Anyway, that little project turned out so beautifully that I've decided to tackle the big office desk chair and an old end table tomorrow. If we somehow manage to get enough sunlight into the basement, I'll get pictures of the progress.

We have only two days of vacation left. In that time, we've got to finish the small desk and haul it upstairs, pick up mattress bags and haul the guest room bed downstairs, hang the coat rack, finish Claudia's toy bin rack, make a new step stool for the bathroom (one that will fit beneath the sink and remove the toe-eating feature of the bath - not a big selling point, really) and... and I'm forgetting something. There's more on the list, but this is the stuff I need Zorak's help with (well, I *could*, technically, just let the boys maul the mattress down the basement stairs, but I have nightmares that they'll one day try to *ride* something down those stairs... those stairs that end at a cinder-block wall... it's worth it to ask for help from a grownup). We also want to get into town and visit Me-Wa and Me-Tae - we haven't seen them in almost a month, and we're all Jonesing for a visit.

Sometime between now and Wednesday, I want to review our lessons and goals for the Winter Term. We've only got January, February, and March before the baby arrives, and I'd like to be all caught up on our more structured academic work, poised with plenty of good literature on hand, and be able to spend our Spring on the back porch, enjoying the new dynamics and the daffodils. :-)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

A New Project

You can see, if you look closely at the picture below, there is a futon frame, belly-up in the basement. (OK, I tried to make it easy - the hot pink writing? Doesn't actually appear in the basement.)
That's the one we salvaged when we needed a couch for this place during its "construction phase", two years ago. We lived in/on/around it for about a year, thoroughly beat the tar out of it, and then, when it had finally given up all pretense of function, we laid it down in the basement. Presumably to die.

But that's the thing about metal. It just won't always up and decompose like you'd hope it would. And so, as you can see, the frame stayed. It gathered dust. It held my old lariat. It created a jarring visual. Particularly after the Great Basement Clean of '08 (which continued this last week, once I could again breathe and stand upright - but more on that later). I wanted to toss it. Zorak wanted to keep it. (Did you see all that metal? Metal is always useful. Honestly.) We went back and forth. Considering this photo was taken less than two weeks ago, I think it's obvious how I fared on those discussions. Fast forward to December 23rd. Decision-making time. There was only one way to handle this:

This basement's just not big enough... well, it's big enough, but I just don't want to look at this thing, anymore. Are you going to do something with it, or is this part of your overall plan to make me criminally insane?

Well, I guess I'd just never taken the blunt approach before. And the basement is all purtied up and ready to use. And, well, what the heck. Let's do it.

And so, what began as a Crusade to rid the basement of More Crap turned into the Plan to Make It All Come Together. Here's what we came up with:


You know, that was actually kind of fun! It fits two adults and one toddler quite comfortably. Or one adult, one bag of peanut butter cups, a coffee cup, and a good book. (Ask me where I spent the day after Christmas!) Plus, since we saved the hardware from the edges, it folds flat to make a splendid cushiony seating thing for, well, I can't think of a reason. But it'd be a great place to nap if you're small enough! It won't be pretty for a while, but now it's functional. And the view across the basement is improved already! And did ya see the joy on that little guy's face? Oh, he had so much fun helping to build it with us! That, alone, was worth all the waiting in the world.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Company, or More Forever Home Updates

I know, I promised to relegate those to Sunday's posts only. I lied. It seems that's been our focus this week, and I can't just sit here and hear the voices on my own, okay? So, I've got to share the joy with you.

We're having company next week, and I've noticed that seems to be our biggest motivator. (Ack! Someone might see how we *gasp* LIVE!) I mean, it's one thing to read about it, but it's another thing, entirely, to walk into it. What I really need is a year's supply of guests, each willing to come for one weekend a month, one group per month. That gives me three weekends to get things done before each group arrives, and then a weekend of force feeding people just because it's fun. Really, that seems like the best schedule for us to use. Any takers? Anyone? Please? The last weekend in January looks open, and at this rate, I think we could roll out the red carpet for you by then!

We finally caved and bought medicine cabinets at Lowe's this weekend. We've been holding off for an IKEA trip. There is so much we'd planned to get from IKEA: medicine cabinets, comforters for the boys, new twin mattresses, that hanging chair thing (for the kids, honest), kitchen lighting, perhaps a new sofa. See? That's worth the drive to Atlanta. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to scrape together the time to make the trip *and* the money to blow once we got there, all at the same time. But the kids really need blankets that actually fit their beds, and we really need some storage solutions. So, we gave in and went with this. It turned out great. We put up two cabinets, so there are enough mirrors that everyone can see from the vantage point of his respective sink. Plus, the mirrors are far enough apart that nobody's toothpaste gets in anybody else's hair. (If your toothpaste gets in your own hair, well, there's not much I can do for ya, there.) The gap between the two is large enough that when somebody starts touching someone else, it'll be fairly obvious who violated the airspace. The peace this will bring to my home is indescribable. There is also now enough room to stash a step stool beneath the sinks, and my stubbed toes will be forever grateful to get that bit taken care of.

Then, like the distractable puppies we are, we realized you can now actually access the wee gap between the backsplash and the wall (bad framing, not something we did wrong). It needs caulking before the boys decide it would make a great used floss receptacle. And we thought we found weird things behind the cabinets we pulled out, right? Ew. But, before we can caulk, we really need to paint the cabinet base, and before we can paint the cabinet base, we really need to dismantle the doors and drawers. Oh! Hey! We can paint in the basement! So it doesn't matter that it'll get down to the 20's at night! WOOHOO! Let's go! Now, the storm windows still aren't finished, but the cabinet base is lookin' good.

I worked a bit more in the basement yesterday, too. Cleared off the Big Wonderful Desk (I love that desk), and also cleared off the Small, Semi-Creepy-Yet-Fully-Functional desk from beneath the piles of boxes. Zorak pulled the small desk out and we made the command decision to give it a hearty sanding and restain it, and we'll put it back into the guest room, where it has lived for most of its life. That buys us more floor space in the basement, and gives James a place to work in peace (because right now, he's nine, and he must have peace to tap into his genius. Or something. I don't know. He's nine. We just try to go with it.)

All in all, things are moving along nicely. Zorak asked me to be a little less productive day, and (once I ascertained that he was actually wanting me to relax and rest, and he wasn't being snarky), I agreed. So we're going to be slugs today. Perhaps bake. Definitely read. Maybe even craft something. (Don't quote me on that, though, he said I could relax - so we'll play the crafting bit by ear.)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

On Organizing

It's important to be organized, but it's equally important not to allow the process of organization to overtake the goal in sight. I know, I can see you nodding and hear you ask, "But how? How do you do that?" Well, don't ask me. I don't know. I just know it's important.

Anyway, Zorak and I put the kids to bed and headed down to proceed on the Great Basement Overhaul. My plan tonight was to put labels on *everything* -- every shelf, every coffee can, every box. If it's going to live down there, it must have a label. We must know why it's there or, so help me, the next time I do this, I'm just setting things on fire if they don't have labels.

We made progress. Zorak got the peg board hooks up and began hanging things from them. I suspect he's writing a secret code that'll only be visible from 20' away, but for now, I'm going to let that slide. (I want to see what it says.) We created a work space for the boys, complete with work bench, seating, and storage compartments. We got the bulk of the Scary Chemicals up, hopefully out of the reach of the Bad Idea Fairy, as well as small children and dogs.

In the process, we had to fight our inner pack rats, our inner raised-by-Depression-Era-wolves children, and our inner desire not to have to do this at all. There was a lot of internal struggling going on, but mostly, I think, we won. The sweetest victory of all, however, was not the three bags of trash, or the two large plastic tubs now empty, or the spare shelf we ended up with. No, those might sound good, but they're nothing compared to the victory we scored over the Categorizing Demons.

That's our Achilles Heel, right there. We over-analyze every. little. thing. We want a name, a place, a compartment, a label, a coffee can, for every individual item you could ever hope to find in our basement. But I only bought two rolls of masking tape. So, we had to be firm with ourselves. And so, we have labels, and we have simplicity. I thought I would share, in case anyone else has trouble deciding just where to draw the line in their categorizing, between "too vague" and "far too detailed". I think we've found a good balance.

Leatherworking; Bowmaking; Concrete tools; Scary, Dangerous Stuff (this would be the shelf with pesticides, herbicides, and other neurological agents, but "neurological agents" didn't seem like the best thing to have listed on a shelf, in a basement, with other... accoutrements... that might, you know, "concern" the nice folks at the FBI. Not that that's a concern. I'm just saying...); Happy Homeowner Stuff (small nails, furniture feet pads, stuff normal people keep in their basements); Sealants & Adhesives; Sanding materials; Power Tools; Power Tool Accessories; Construction Fasteners; Normal Fasteners; Plumbing; Electrical - Construction; Electrical - happy homeowner; Reloading Equipment; Weird Stuff You Only Look For Once A Year (very important category - you can easily fill a small bin with this one - be flexible, but don't overdo it, or it'll take you a year to find anything in that bin, and by then you won't need it).

Zorak got away from me, for a bit, with a few bins: All Things Blades; Tape (I don't mind a "tape" bin, but... there were three...); Metalworking (I take exception to this. I don't know metalworking, this is true. But I know for a fact there is an 18" piece of angle iron, cut from a metal bedframe that he took from the dumpster behind the storage facility... this is scraps, I know it's scraps, I just can't quite make a convincing case for tossing it when he quotes the price of angle iron at Lowe's. So, that box stays. For now.) I did, however, keep the masking tape on my wrist, and am going to push for a more efficient grouping of a few things down there before wielding the Sharpie Of Organization on them.

We're back on the same page again, though. No blood was shed. Nothing broken, or hidden (I think). Hey, that's what a good marriage does. It allows you to figure out how to keep it together, and enjoy the process, right? Yeah. It does. Onward and upward! And then, to bed.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Where've I Been?

Down here. Doing this.


And to think, we're really not even packrats. Scary.



That was Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, I was sicker than a dog and borderline non-functional. I'm still a little whiney today, truth be told. But I'm up, and my voice has this funky Eartha Kitt kick to it. That's kind of cool, if you can get past the sinus issues. And, I'm functional (relatively).

But the super exciting news is that now I have masking tape, so I can have Zorak tell me what's supposed to go on each shelf. (My plan is to write said instructions on tape, stick the label to the shelf, and then be miraculously capable of sorting through all the remaining dodads and general crap, myself. Hah. We shall see how that works out. But don't mock me. We bought two rolls of this tape, and I'm feeling a little taut at the moment, okay? Okay. Thanks.)

Kids are psyched about Christmas. I refuse to even think about how close it's actually come while I was laid out. Just not going to think about it.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

A Quiet Sunday Morning

Well, I had a plan. We'll see if it worked. I went to bed the minute I'd finished reading to the boys last night so that, even if the alarm got turned off, I'd be able to get up in time. I'm up. Clothes are laid out, dishwasher is running (I forgot to do my nighttime chores in my hurry to get to bed - oops). I'm going to wake up a bit, gather our notebooks and Bibles, and then start getting the kids up and ready. Man, I hope this works. We haven't made it to church in ages, and we need to be there.

We weren't horribly motivated on the house yesterday. Well, *I* wasn't. I read (finished Last of the Breed, wandered through Barbarian Europe a bit), cooked (chile, yum!), played with the kids and then hid for a while. Zorak, however, got the rest of the front eaves and soffits painted. The difference is, once again, drastic. I can hardly wait for the windows and storms to be painted!

We did run into a problem with the storm windows, though. The paint on the wood is all "Antique White", just a good, old-fashioned "Antique White". It's not white-white, not yellow-white, not off-white. (There should NOT be this many shades of white.) The "Antique White" spray paint looks fantastic on the storm windows. It's not the same shade of "Antique White", though, and when we put the storms on the painted windows, we ended up with storms that look more "old, yellowed plastic" than "lovely new aluminum". Now, I know we do some things a little differently than others, but let me assure you, that is Not what we were shooting for. They aren't even plastic! We tried Plain White but it's too stark. And this stuff is too yellowy. Hmpf. I'm wondering if we need to see if we can find a green, which would tie the storm windows to the porch, or if we need to cough up the extra money to have a spray paint mixed to match the Antique White paint we've been using. So far, our answer has been to talk more about the den addition and hope an answer to the windows comes to us out of nowhere. :-)

And other than that, it's been a quiet, quiet weekend. Kind of nice.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Gak! Argh! Narrrrrr.....

Low tonight of 28?!?!? Did God not get the memo that our storm windows are s-c-a-t-t-e-r-e-d a-r-o-u-n-d t-h-e y-a-r-d? Oh, sure He's probably got more important things to worry about. And we should probably be more on the ball than we are. But let's face it, that's not gonna happen.

And so, I plan to spend the morning panicking, the afternoon digging around for plastic sheeting, and the evening baking things to keep the house toasty warm and the kids fed. Then I'll RUSH out to the fabric store when Zorak gets home, and stay up until sunrise (yes, yes, well after the fact, I know this - but I'm the kind of person who gets so anxious to be *doing* something about a situation that I'm likely to walk to the hospital rather than wait for a ride... uh, yeah, at least I *do* now understand that it's a ridiculous urge, but, well, that's the nature of urges. They don't have to be logical.) ...to line the curtains in the kids' rooms so that I don't feel like a horrible mother for letting them freeze.

Two more cups of coffee, and I'll realize I could just put them in the guest room, which has warmer curtains *and* storm windows already up. Uh, yeah. That's a possibility. We'll see how the day pans out. May logic triumph! *make little trumpet sounds with your lips, now, for the full effect*

It's Virtual Friday! WooHoo! This means we get another three-day weekend. More time to procrastinate and plan poorly for the jobs to be done. We're getting Very Good At This, I'll tell ya. We might go ahead and pull down another couple of windows, just to complete the look. Aim small, miss small, and all that. Er, something like that.

Wow, anyway, it's a little after seven right now. I'm up and dressed. I'm fed and caffeinated. I've got a load of wash going, kitchen tidied, and am feelin' good. Hyped. Excited. It's a fresh new day, and I'm already a bit slap-happy. God bless hormones. You just never know what little gift of the psyche you'll awaken to each morning.

OK, time for a to-do list. And today, pictures. I haven't taken pictures in a while. Mostly because the kids have been moving too quickly, and I've been either too sleepy to get to the camera, or laughing too hard to use it. It's all been good, but there's no proof of that, anywhere. Should get on that, no?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Wednesday Catch-Up

Ok, well, you wouldn't know it from my blogging lately, but we've had a very good week or so around here.

Forever Home Update: We spent the weekend winterizing the Forever Home. Well, mostly we spent the weekend mentally heaping hot coals on whomever painted right over the screws on the storm windows. Our goal was to finish all the windows along the North side of the house. (It was a 3-day weekend. That sounded reasonable.) With a bit of fortitude, a few extra screwdriver bits, and a whole lot of stripper, we got a whopping *two* storm windows apart. WOOHOO! Zorak stripped the dining room windows (because those show up in Christmas photos, being right beside the tree - priorities, people!), and I got one storm window stripped and cleaned. Then the humidity shot up and we couldn't prime, but that's okay. Nothing says "Work in Progress" like panes of glass and bars of aluminum lying around the front yard, right?

Pickup: The pickup transmission doesn't need a "full" rebuild, but it does need some lovin' and a little chiropractic care. This is wonderful. It's wonderful because it's not the Suburban transmission, which would have cost six times what this one will. It's wonderful because we'll get another 180K miles before we need to do something else major. It's wonderful because... well, because if I don't focus on the wonderful things, I may go set The Mistress on fire and dance nekkid around it while she burns. Um, yeah. So, heh. This isn't so bad.

Visitors: We had a visitor last week. You know when you meet someone for the first time, and you feel almost instantly that this person (and his family) could be Really Good Friends? Yeah, it was like that.

Kids:
* The anole leaped from James' back yesterday while they were playing outside. I honestly can't believe the thing stayed on his shirt for so long (several hours). He looked and looked for it, but couldn't find it. However, he did ask that we keep the set-up so that he could get better prepared and try again.
* John's been reading to me in the mornings while I pretend to knit. That's good stuff, right there. I forgot how much it takes to learn to read aloud with inflection and cadence that match the story. He's improving on it, though, and is encouraged. I'm looking forward to more of this.
* Smidge is branching out. He's doing his own thing. He's making games for Emily to play with him. He's cracking more jokes (they still aren't funny, but he's making them up and running with it). We've broached the subject of a bigger bed for him (because he's huge, and he's four, and well, we're going to need that toddler bed soon), and he likes the general concept, but is determined we need a three-high bunk bed for this purpose. Uh, not with 8' ceilings, kiddo. Can you imagine scraping your forehead on the popcorn ceiling every. time. you. wake. Yeouch!
* EmBaby is. a. riot. Oh, my gosh, she's so stinking cute, we can't stand it. We made cookie bars a while back, and for some reason, she latched onto that. "Cookie bar?" She'll ask, in her wee little voice. Zorak would do just about anything for the squeal and the happy dance that accompany the cookie bars. So, he made some the other day, while she was napping. I got her up and we strolled hand-in-hand into the living room, when I asked her if she's like a cookie bar. She said, just as matter-of-factly as possible in a voice that small, "Yes, a cookie bar... and coffee?" Mmm, that's my girl!

OK, I think we're caught up, now. What have you all been up to? I could go get dressed, but I think I'm going to go read and visit, instead. See you on your front porch!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Who Would DO This?

When we returned from our October travels, we noticed our lower meadow (between the barn and the creek) had been bush-hogged. We assumed it was our Bush Hog guy who had done it, perhaps as a thank-you for fostering his tractor while it was dead.

I talked to him last night, though, and guess what? His tractor is still in the shop. He didn't do it. He asked if whoever it was had perhaps baled it, but no, they didn't. Just mowed it down. (Not that having baled, and taken, our alfalfa would have been better, but considering how dry it's been, it would have made more sense, at least.)

The Ghost-Hogger didn't leave a note, a phone call, a crop circle. Nothing.

I suppose it's certainly better to have kind strangers stopping in to do odd things, than to have some of the other bizarre encounters we've dealt with. There's that. And thankfully, the barn's still standing. But this is still our property, and with everything else we have dealt with, I'm just not too tickled about having strangers on our property doing anything at all. Let alone major maintenance.

And above all, why would someone do that? Would you ever randomly mow other people's meadows? Is there someone with OCD issues about grass height roaming the county with a tractor? Is it one of the men we'd contracted with *back in the Spring* to come bush hog, who finally showed up and... why only do part of the job, then? Why not leave a note? Why not call?

Curiouser and curiouser...

Kiss those babies!
Dy

This Isn't Working

So, the backhoe fairy didn't come through. Something about leaky wings. I suspect some yahoo said they don't *believe* in fairies. Well, I clapped, darnit! It should've worked.

So.

We rented a trencher. We didn't have the cash to rent a trencher, not with the wedding next weekend, but perhaps the children can forage for acorns and I can make pancakes from those. Think the neighbors would lend me a cup of water? Gah.

BUT. That was okay, because we had a trencher, and that would do the trick. Except, we got the weenie trencher. (The Big, Tough Trencher was out of commission - probably ought to have been a sign, huh?) We killed the weenie trencher. And we didn't get to the lateral line before it died. I suggested we plant explosives along the fenceline, thinking we'd be sure of hitting it that way. (Small ones, don't worry.) Zorak is ignoring me, now.

The brakes on the Suburban, after three years of being "bad", finally went to well, I guess "dangerous" would be a good description. So, Zorak fixed those. We were like a couple of cave men, looking at the rotors...

They don't look warped.
No. Hey, is that a warp, there?
No, I don't think so. This is steel. It's not going to look like a wet book.
Well, if feels like it when we stop.
*both pause*
Yeah, I don't see any warping.
*shrug*
Well, take it all in, and see what we need.

He came back with new rotors. And an explanation as to how you can tell brake rotors are warped. (You know, just in case you ever decide to do major vehicle repairs you aren't familiar with, right? That can't be just us...) It's the streaks. Oh. *pause* OH! (The things were covered in black streaks. Hah. I get it...) And brake pads. My goodness, but they're thick when they're new! Then he and the boys changed the oil in the Suburban. That was really neat. Until John leapt from the grill onto Smidge's head. Backward.

"I didn't see him!"

Well, no, that's true. Although, I'm not certain it's an acceptable explanation, considering.

I sent Smidge inside to lay down. But first, he had to puke in the hallway. Because he's a puker. *sigh* I hope he doesn't do that at job interviews. Or when he's dating. Could make his life rough.

This morning, Zorak loaded up the trencher to return to the rental yard. I crept quietly into the bathroom to take a long-awaited pampering bath with salt scrub and yummy-smelling things from The Foil Hat (I love Amy's things!) I've just begun to scrape and slather, when I hear "clunk, clunk, clunk" coming down the hall.

While I wondered if the intruder had killed Balto, and whether I could at least reach my sweats first (because nobody wants to be found naked, dead in the tub), I heard Zorak:

"Bad news, Sports Fans. The clutch went out on the truck. I'm going to have to take the Suburban."

I...

Uh...

Well, sometimes you just can't really do anything about... anything. And that's okay. But this wasn't what I'd planned to write when Friday rolled around, lemme tell ya!

Ah, Kiss those babies! (It keeps me sane at times like this.)
~Dy

A Day in the Life???

You know, I do love a humorous, yet honest, Day in the Life piece. By the time my sense of humor kicks in, though, and it dawns on me to grab the camera, the day's half-gone. Ah, well.

On that note, I found this little do-dad in my inbox. IKEA is sponsoring a photojournalism essay on the whole Slice of Life theme: What Makes Your Home a Home. Something like that. For those of you who don't run three to four weeks behind the rest of the world, you might want to check it out. It started yesterday, with daily assignments, and (bless them) a two-day grace period. (OK, in the interest of proper marketing and all that good stuff, the official title is: America At Home, a close-up look at how we live. There. Now I feel I've performed due diligence and all that.)

Tomorrow is also Talk Like A Pirate Day. Again with the coffee kick-in lag time, all you're getting from me is a Pirate Name Generator. But hey, a little rum and a couple'a coconuts, and you won't need anything more from me!

We've excperienced some stunning time-warp issues at the house today. Two hours to count to five in Latin and then stare blankly at four *review* questions. That pesky review. Such challenging stuff. Oh, what was that? Zelda? What? Uh-huh... *sigh* OK, let's take it from the top. Zelda has nothing to do with Latin! No, nothing. Fine. If you can prove to me that Zelda has ANYTHING to do with Latin, we'll talk. In the meantime, I am going to force you to recall such painful information as vocabulary, and then I am going to torture you further by forcing you to look up that which you cannot recall. No, it's review. Re-view. Looking back over what you've already done. So, um, yeah, it's not gonna be on that half of the book. It'll be in the half that looks vaguely familiar. Yeah, the part you've already drawn in. Yup. There ya go.

And yet, set the timer, and they can perform amazing feats in very little time. (90 challenging math equations in ten minutes!) *shaking my head* I'm going to have to get timers. Perhaps I can get timers implanted in their foreheads for Christmas. Not much fun for them, but oh, what a gift for me!

EmBaby, aka The Pit Viper, is learning the nifty lesson that if you are going to do unpleasant things, then the fun things will not happen. I hate this part of parenting. This is where I want to be able to explain once, "IF you bite somebody, you will not be allowed within arm's reach of people" and have that be... well, enough. There. Now you know. "IF you throw things at people during storytime, storytime will be abominably short." And again, that should do the trick, right? No? No. You're right. I know you're right. It's worth the effort to be gentle, consistent, and to develop the fortitude of our ancestors in not just eradicating the herd and starting over. That's why those little ones have such big eyes and fuzzy heads: God's protection for them while they work through this phase. They're too cute to toss to the wolves or exile to the compost bin.

Plus, when they do catch on, you have the opportunity to enjoy such beautiful moments as this:

And look, they were even all there, working together!

Right now, it looks like the grass suffered a stampede of sorts. Well, it did. But there's hope it'll perk right up soon. We might post pictures, if the plants survive!

OK, break time is over! Back to work. Hyeah!

(Kiss those babies!)
~Dy

Saturday Coffee

My goodness, I think our house is a place of lore: Where Insects Go To Die. Blech. The windows are vile! It's time for a coffee break.

Zorak and John are out dove hunting today. I've never seen a child more excited about anything. Ever. That includes Smidge's full-body vibration when he's thrilled with something. John was simply abuzz with activity, packing, checking, loading, double checking. He was understatedly serious, yet eager. He's still a little guy, but he's veering into the next port, and it's never been so obvious as it was this morning. He loaded the Suburban, then climbed in and waited. I didn't get the chance to kiss him good-bye, and had to give his travel mug of hot chocolate to Zorak. He was off and ready. Then, I stood on the porch and waved good-bye to a child who had already turned his mind and his heart toward the awaiting adventure as they headed down the drive. He's spending the day with his hero, doing something that beckons of high adventure. My heart is bursting with joy, with thankfulness, and with a wee bit of wistfulness that my JohnBaby is fading so quickly. (Not too much wistfulness, though, because this Young Man is a wonderful person, as well. And I am thankful that Zorak has both the opportunity to spend time like this with him, as well as the desire to do so. That's good stuff for both of them.)

I've got the dining room, living room and kitchen windows (insides only) washed, as well as the sills, stoops, and aprons. It feels delightful (particularly as I've interspersed the cleaning with a little time at sea with Hornblower, and some fresh bread with peanut butter and honey!) However, my stomach is queasy from being eye-ball-to-spinnerettes with all the spiders that live between our storm windows and our house windows. It's like living on the INSIDE of a spider farm. Thankfully, our current "moving forward without much cash" project is the windows - still stripping, priming, glazing the windows, and repairing/replacing the storm windows. They do need a lot of work. I wish we could just replace them all in one fell swoop, but that would require much cash, and then we wouldn't be doing the "moving forward without much cash" aspect of it, would we? *grin* Actually, Zorak Of The Indomitable Spirit is insistent that we replace the windows *ourselves*, and... that's just not a horribly enticing concept for me at present. So, well, I'm not going to complain (too audibly) about having to repair/replace and clean the storm windows. Plus, it's that savings that'll pay for the new windows in the long run, so it's all good. And it will be wonderful once they've all got properly fitting screens and have been reinstalled w/ the proper gaskets so that the spiders cannot get in there to set up house at all.

The remaining Smalls are out back, digging for things I probably won't want brought into the house. Particularly not after I've finished cleaning. But they'll come in. And it'll be fascinating to see and hear all about it from their perpective. I really must find a place to put things like that. The bookshelf isn't conducive, as I realized while vacuuming the school room the other day -- cicada shells don't survive the shopvac well, at all.

And so, my coffee break is over, and it's time to turn our attentions back to the day at hand. Thanks for taking a break to visit this afternoon.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

*edited to correct my typographical stuttering problem :-) *