Back to work again!

As nice as it was to be home, we didn't have time to be still. We had this beauty waiting to greet us in the foyer:

It's a range hood for the kitchen! We got it up that week, and I took pictures, but seven years of cooking without a vent did a number on the ceiling (peat moss fire ring a bell? Ew!), which looks even worse with the sparkly shiny new hood in place. So that's going to have to be repaired before I'm willing to share photos.

And this fun pile in the drive!

We've used some of it to finish the drainage work that's been looming. The rest will go toward pouring a pad for the balcony stairs, and prepping the lower drive for the next project. (Of course there's a next project! *pfft*)

And, of course, we had a Day of Birth to celebrate.

How is my Baby Boy *four*? Wow. He is so glad to be four. According to him, he can have gum, and learn to read, and do whatever he wants to, now. Heh. Set his sights a little high there, but we're not going to knock him down. (Maybe that last one. We'll see.)

And it was nice that we made it back before the tulips that James and Em had planted were finished blooming. They weren't in their full glory, but the kids beamed to know they'd done the job well.

 It can't be all work and no play, of course. That's when people start setting things on fire or running away. And so, we've turned a little work into play, as well, at the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge.

We hit the Whooping Crane Lottery this year, and got to see juvenile whooping cranes at the Refuge before they migrated north for the summer. I wish I'd been able to get a better shot, but with my phone, this was the best I could do. Still, it was amazing!

 Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Back to School Week

We started back to school this week, which has gone nicely. Mostly. The days have been long (seriously. long.) I'm going to give it a couple of weeks before deciding if I've given them too much. It could be that, or the weather. It could just be inertia that's kicking our butts. It could be a little of each. Time is an excellent sorter, though, so we're going to muscle onward and wait it out.

 

The boys also start back to music lessons this week. They've not had them in three months, and although they didn't touch their instruments for two and a half months, they've both picked up practice again willingly and enthusiastically. They were ready. So was I. It's nice to have music in the house, but it's not spontaneous for us. We need to be intentional about it. The bedroom with only one child inherited the instruments and practice space.

  

We're settling in nicely with the new arrangement. We all love that we have more room in the bedrooms, but there's still an entire toy shelf loitering in the hallway. I'm, um, I have nowhere to put it. We've simply outgrown this house. I've culled and culled and, for having five children, there truly aren't a lot of toys. It's just a lot of toys for a house this size. We need to repaint and add a little decorating in some rooms, but for now, I'm happy with the progress. The Littles feel like their space is downright palatial, too.  :-)

 

 The boys like having a safe spot for the Legos and other creations, and with the Littles in the bigger of the bedrooms, a full-scale invasion is less likely. I like roaming up and down the hall, glancing in to see fairly tidy rooms. (They don't notice the lack of artwork or curtains, but I've got to fix that soon.)

 And that's pretty well taken up all our days lately. Music. School. Tripping over things in the hall. Zorak has sketches all over the place for stairs from the balcony. I guess that's the next big project. Blessedly, he's designing it to use as little concrete as possible (but still be wholly over-engineered). I love that about him. Meanwhile, we're hanging out on the couch, fighting that inertia...

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Decorator Tired

If it's not a theme, it should be.

We're making some adjustments to the Forever Home. People keep growing, spreading, changing their interests. What worked five years ago isn't quite cutting it now. (Imagine, huh?) Today, we got some wild hairs waving in the wind that whipped through the TN Valley and figured if we can't work outside, we can work in. So we began. We emptied the playroom of every last Lego and so very many random bits of string, moved the toy shelves into the hallway, vacuumed, wiped, swiped, and touch-up painted all over the place, dismantled the boys' bunk bed and reassembled the erstwhile top bunk as a stand-alone twin in the playroom.

It's... been a while since I've had to move like that.

And I now remember why. ;-)

However, already we are seeing the benefits of the plan, and it's very exciting! Visually, bringing it all down a level is going to be huge. People will have the space they need to do their thing without us having to build on an entire extra house. (Building the Den would still be awesome, but there are so many other projects that need doing. We had to act now.) This is good stuff, here. Pics to follow.

Tonight, though, I plan to sleep the sleep of Those Who Move Heavy Things For A Living. (Or, more accurately, the sleep of Those Who Don't Move Heavy Things Very Often At All But Suddenly DID. Yes, that's more descriptive.) The kids are already there.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Sweet Babies and Projects!

We got to kiss a baby today. All day! His Mama was off having a little sister, so he stayed with us today and tonight. Oh, so sweet. Oh my goodness so sweet. Also, I am old. I am old and slow. But he is so very sweet! And the picture of his baby sister? Oh, she's PRECIOUS! I can't wait to love on her in person, too!

John got to Scouts tonight, ready once again to sit his board of review. Third (fourth? fifth?) time's a charm, right? Well, not so much. The boys in the Troop have become very active lately, which is wonderful and awesome and all kinds of great. Unfortunately, that's put a bit of a pinch in the schedule for Scoutmaster conferences and boards of review. He's been "first on the list next time" every week since they got back from camp, the first week of June. For the most part, I limit my role in Boy Scouts to making sure they are there on time, have access to what they need to accomplish their goals, and general reminders to grab book/kerchief/shoes on the way out the door. The rest is up to them. Tonight, though, when it happened again, I had to point out that he keeps getting punted on this, and considering they've scheduled a Court of Honor for next Monday, I trust they'll make a point of arriving early so he can have his board *then* and not miss out on the Court of Honor due to no fault of his own. (Yes, he could/should/oughta say something on his own. He's young, and he's a little bit shy, and he's way too polite to tell an adult, "Really? You're doing this to me AGAIN?" Particularly when he knows it's not intentional. He'll get the hang of it, but tonight, he was just small. And disappointed. And I don't have those hangups. So, there you go.) We do have great guys leading the Troop, and one of them, whose son is sitting for his Eagle board tomorrow, volunteered to stay a bit longer so that they'd have enough adults and John could finally get this done. He's earned his Tenderfoot rank! He came out of that review absolutely beaming from head to toe, too.

The mailbox has been replaced. The boys helped with the design and the welding, and it's awesome! The mail lady also brought the mail with her today, so it's a good thing we got it up. I'll go in tomorrow and take the official hold off our mail.

James' bed is fixed and happy and he remembered to pull it out far enough that we don't have to stand on it to kiss Jacob goodnight in his bed.

Still doing the wash on the front porch, but I don't mind, as we've got thinset curing in the laundry closet! It'll have a tiled basin with a nice combing and a drain to address any future leaks and protect the floor. That's quite exciting, and completely worth a little Adventurous Laundry here and there.

Oh, and Zorak fixed the blades on the mower, so we mowed the front yard and upper meadow. We're feeling downright genteel at the moment. (Well, except for the porch thing, but like I said, that's not permanent. Please don't let it be permanent...)

In all, it's been a great weekend!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Well, there you have it...

Sometime Monday, folks got bored in the boonies and set out to play a little mailbox baseball. It was about time, truthfully. We've had this box for nearly two whole years, now. @@ Zorak won't let me rig the new one with paint capsules that coat the perpetrators in hot pink shame upon impact, though. James and I thought that would be kind of worth having to put up with replacing the box.

Meanwhile, we can't get our mail because our fruit loop of a mail lady keeps taking our mail on her route. She's not about to do anything ridiculous, like bring it to the door (she won't even do that when we have packages). The manager has told her to leave it because we'll be picking it up while we are hammering out the plan for the new box. They've had meetings about leaving it. Still, she takes it. No one can figure out why.

We broke a blade on the lawn mower. This isn't a big deal - you can only hammer those things straight so many times before they break - but the mower is parked in the un-mowed front yard at the moment. This comes into play here in a bit.

The boys' bunk bed broke on the trundle. Again. That trundle takes a lot more abuse than it was designed to take. We still love it, but we're getting adept at repairing it.

The drawer front on the bread box of the Hoosier came off. Just plumb came off! :blink:

Then the parts for the dryer came in this morning. WooHoo! It was the work of ten minutes to replace the broken bits and vacuum the insides thoroughly. We got the unit back into place, hooked it up, and started a load -- only to find the washer is leaking! There's no room to maneuver in the hallway, so we moved the whole thing out onto the front porch for troubleshooting. But then we had to head out. James needed to go into town to finish a project. I had made plans to meet friends with the rest of the crew. So the washer sat there...

With the mower.

And the mailbox post.

Amidst the tall, unkempt grass.

And that's when we remembered the rep from Window World was due out today! Ahhhhh. Naturally. Heh.

On the upside, we can do the wash on the porch, Buddy didn't get out again, and the inside of the house was picked up (gah, thankfully!)

Kind of anxious about what tomorrow's going to look like, though...

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Taking it Outside

I love our balcony. If I'd known how much we would use it and love it, I might have foregone finishing the bedrooms or some other project in lieu of building the balcony our first year here. It's like having an entire extra room for the house. There's room to play, room to read, room to sprawl out and relax. It's high enough off the ground that mosquitoes aren't much of a problem (although James has a citronella plant in a pot that he hauls to wherever we'll be eating, just in case). The view is gorgeous, and thanks to the zealous over-engineering of my awesome crew, this thing could hold up a three-ring circus without fear of giving out. Or, you know, a family. (It's a fine line...)

As soon as the evenings or mornings lose their bitter winter bite, we start meandering out there for meals. For some reason, it's as much fun as a picnic, without the traditional picnic drawbacks. Plenty of fun.

On a side-note, we're on day 24 of the Whole 30, a 30-day food challenge. It's been fun. It's been fantastic, actually. I can write more about it, if anyone is interested (although there are far better, more diligent bloggers out there who have documented every single day of it - we had a week without power, and a Mother's Day campout thrown in there during our project, both of which shot the blogging to pieces.) And I can attest that we've experienced definite improvement in many areas because of it. But anyway, this is an example of how we've been eating, and it's. been. delightful.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

I have ten minutes

I've got ten minutes while the Creamy Citrus Ginger dressing mellows, then I'll have to go round up the children and turn a hose on 'em so they can eat. Ah, it's gorgeous out. AND, I have a child who asks to mix up something called Creamy Citrus Ginger Dressing. Seriously? When I was 12, I failed a Home Ec assignment because my lab partner and I were convinced that if we doubled the brown sugar and the chocolate chips, we'd create the BEST COOKIE BARS EVAH. For obvious reasons, Mrs. Baker (kid you not, real name) disagreed. We could not choke down the cookie bars to save our grades. But here, I have been blessed with a child who makes this, and not even for a grade! Ah. Sometimes, when life is not fair, it's totally not fair in-a-good-way. Mrs. Baker would be proud. Or shocked. But I'm going with proud.

Zorak, turns out, broke. his. arm. on our ski trip. Yeah, I know. I have no clue what can be done a month later, but he goes in tomorrow to see a specialist about how to deal with it. He asked me last night to go with, so I've spent the morning leaving messages with everyone I know who either lives between us and the doctor, or isn't afraid to watch five kids at a Chick-Fil-A playground for an hour. On a day's notice. Wee! (You can imagine how terrifyingly short that list is. *sigh*) I very briefly considered giving Jase a heavy dose of Nyquil and just taking them all with us, but that was only for fun. Nobody really does that. Anymore. Ah, yes. So, I'm hoping somebody will call me back and say, "Sure! I love those fries!"

We spent the weekend thinking about getting some work done on the land. Got the driveway graded, so that was huge. Plus, we got to visit with friends when that was done, so that was cool. You can't hear the Volvo cry out in pain when Zorak leaves each morning, now. It's very comforting. Now, to get gravel on it before it rains. That will be the challenge.

And, I do believe that was ten minutes! Time for lunch! Yum!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Yeah, it's that cold.

We don't have any cool striped ones with matching jammies, but folks, it's getting down to *5* degrees tonight, so the boys decided maybe sleeping in a stocking cap isn't such a bad idea.

(If they knew who Patrick Dempsey is, I might have mentioned that he did it on screen, but I haven't seen this movie, so I don't know if that would have helped.) Instead I had to make up numbers about heat loss through the head. I know it gets out, and I know it's a significant percentage, but I couldn't remember the exact rate. So I did what any good mother does when she's right, but just doesn't have the documentation on her - I punted. Now they can live long enough, and comfortably enough, to forgive me later.

This will be the first hard freeze since we re-wrapped the water line, last year. It's already been colder than the freeze that broke the line. (Yay us!) Fingers crossed and body parts puckered that it holds tonight. Fixing a busted pipe across a stream in sub-freezing weather is the kind of project one can do *once*, check it off the Bucket List (if one were to gundeck the Bucket List with things she's already done - granted, it makes for a weird list, but it can be quite impressive, since everything on there is checked off! See?) and be quite content to NEVER DO AGAIN.

We've actually managed to replace most of the weatherstripping around the doors, and rehabbed the two storm doors that are on the place, so that's handy. Never did finish rehabbing the storm windows. So, for the rest of it, it's all blankets, all the way. Someday, I'll put insulated window coverings on the Bucket List. Right now, though, there are other things to aim for. Besides, we have blankets aplenty! And wood. And stocking caps. So yeah, we're set.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Autumn Trails

With the boys away at Cub Haunted, the Littles and I are enjoying a slower pace than usual. We watched Thumbelina and Barney with no mocking commentary from the Peanut Gallery. We even ate in the living room, and napped on the bean bags. Yeah, we're acting like we're two years old. At least one of us is, right? Well, they've got some very good points, those two year olds...

Then, we opted for an afternoon hike on the trail. The camera, as you can see, is still in full-on Nessie/Bigfoot mode. I took 75 pictures, and these were the best of the best.
The trail forks and meanders. There are straight paths and curvy loops. It's nice. This shot is looking down at the kids as they double back past a fork in the trail.

We took the Logging Road, this afternoon. Those stumps are the remains of fallen trees that Zorak and the boys made useful before they rotted. The stumps will be placed at various spots along the way. We'll enjoy them until they woods reclaim them. The rest is stacked on the woodpile, ready to enjoy this winter!
And we found more hickory trees! Actually, we found the nuts, and figured if there's not an old adage that says, "Where there are nuts, there's a nut tree," well, then there ought to be. The nuts that weren't already chewed on or burrowed through, we brought home. And somehow, there always seem to be some extra hulls in the pockets...

Always good for boats! This was the last shot I got before we had to go search for flowers to float in the boats. I'd forgotten how nice the pace of the littles can be. This was a truly delightful afternoon. And now, a bath, and supper, and then, an early bedtime (because I can get away with it tonight!)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Livestock?

The boys found a little nest a while back. It had two little babies in it - we honestly had no idea what they were. But they were so ugly they were cute. We checked on them every day or so, until...

They got hair! And suddenly, they were Significantly more recognizable!

The ultimate pet - Free-Range Bunnies. Cute, fun, cheap (although we've got to fence in the garden...), and educational!

They've left the burrow, now, but have stayed in the area, enjoying the remains of the garden, and the goodies in the yard. It'll be nice to be able to mow, again (we put a moratorium on mowing near the burrow - it's a jungle at this point!), and now we know what to look for, next year!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Don't Wait for Perfect

We have a tendency to put off doing something until we can do it "just so". That may work for some, but for us, it only means we'll keep putting it off indefinitely. Whether it's a lack of money, or of time, or even knowledge that gets in the way, it's always something. So, put it off until... blah, blah, blah.

Last year, we decided we'd put an intentional end to that, in our gardening areas. And wow, what a difference! Not that we have *any* idea what we're doing. But it's starting to look like we do!

Today, the kids and I harvested lemon thyme, lemon balm, pineapple sage and Greek oregano. It's all cleaned off, drying in little bundles in the kitchen window, now. Some of it will be used for tea, and some for cooking. Some of it, we want to experiment with.

The garlic and horseradish the boys put in earlier this spring are both doing well, and the kids can hardly wait for those plants to mature for harvest.

That whole end of the yard is starting to look (and smell) unbelievably good. And while I'm tempted to lament just how awesome it would have been if we'd done it the first spring we were here, (but then, we'd have a bountiful harvest, and still no place to put it - which is why the house came first. Still, one wonders...) In the end, we're getting to it, and it's really happening.

It felt so good, kneeling in the dirt with the kids, as they clipped and gathered the herbs. Walking slowly around the tea garden, with shears and bundles in my hands, listening to each of the children identify their plants.

Granted, we're on our third planting of tomatoes this spring (we cannot get them to germinate!), but as soon as we figure that out, we'll have the herbs to season them with!

Don't pass it all up waiting for "just so". Because "wonderful" and "your best" is absolutely delicious, in so many way! But "never got around to it" just doesn't season memories so well.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Post-Mother's Day Recap

Did you have a nice Mother's Day (if you observe it, that is)? We do, sort of. As much as we tend to observe any holiday we might be able to get out of. It's hit or miss, with us. Really, I think there's a sick humor in Mother's Day being observed on a Sunday. What mother's ideal Mother's Day really includes the Sunday Morning Chaos that accompanies, well, Sunday Mornings? Not mine! And I know, it's not like we have an excuse -- church starts at 11:00, we're only half an hour away, and we have everybody showered and clothes lined up the night before. Yet, there you have it. We've become almost entirely nocturnal, and mostly sloth-like before, say ten AM. But, I have yet to convince anybody else we should observe it on Saturdays.

Oh, wait, it's baseball season. I guess Sunday looks pretty good, now, doesn't it? Yeah, love those perspective checks, now and then.

So this year's Mother's Day was nice. Zorak taught the boys how to make French toast, then turned them loose to show off their mad skills. I'm really glad we went with the wider stove. It'll come in handy when they tackle omelets and decide they want to flip them using the pan! Breakfast was delicious, there were no serious injuries, and we didn't even miss the opening prayer!

Then we came home and worked on the property, hauling downed limbs, trimming limbs that refused to down on their own (?), and mowing, mowing, mowing. We got a lot done, until the boys remembered we'd picked up steaks on sale. That's when they began to mutiny. It was a small, absolutely adorable mutiny, as those things go, though. We scuttled back inside to suck down lemonade by the gallon and cook up a nice supper. (Jacob helped with the supper, since he didn't get to help with breakfast. That boy can season a steak just perfectly!)

And so, we ate and laughed, and relaxed for the evening. The boys considered ways to build a "Mom Chair" for the dining table - one that's wider than usual to accommodate an extra child in Mom's lap while she eats. I think they finally decided maybe just putting a back on the bench would be the way to go. Jason encouraged their efforts with his primate-like agility and determination. It was nice. You know, like Life.

And I realized, while going through photos for this post, that this is the closest thing I've got to a recent picture of the whole family... So, at least we have a good idea what to shoot for, for Father's Day, right?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Back to Basics

A few changes in the works, here. First, I'm abandoning Photoshop. It may be a fantastic program, but it requires time, patience, and an uninterruptedness that I simply haven't got at the moment. My feelings on this are along the same lines as on curriculum choices - The best program in the world won't matter if it sits on the shelf. So, back to Picasa, which has pretty much everything I need. (And what I need is to get pics available to Granny more often, for one thing! And to blog more often, for another.) So, here we are...

 
The weather is gorgeous, and it looks like we might actually make a little headway on the land, this year! So far, we've put in a blueberry stick (bush, eventually, but right now, shyeah, it's a stick), two raspberries, a blackberry (all sticks), and two cherry trees (actual trees - they make the sticks look even more pathetic). There are two fig sticks awaiting transplant, and Zorak did a little tilling in the garden, too!

 

EmBaby is still in charge of major defoliation projects, but she's agreed to stick to things that won't bear fruit, eventually. And, the apple and pear trees seem to be up and running for this year. We're hoping to avoid the June drop with proper thinning on the pears, and really just tossing Hail Marys at the apples. Not much else we can do, with them.

Some other changes we're making around the the Old Shack are educational - back to basics; nutritional - again, back to basics; philosophical - back to... hey, do you see a pattern here?

 

And so far, we're enjoying the changes!
Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Quick Check-in.

The basement's coming along. It is very, very yellow. This is good, in that we meant to paint it yellow. It's just that it's... well, there's a lot of yellow down there, now. I'm hoping some furniture will help disperse the visual before the children start having nightmares about hanging Sesame Street hides on the wall. It does look great, though, in general. Very clean. That won't last, but for now, there's that.

Unfortunately, as with any (every) project, the finished portions only highlight (and not in a good way) the Rest of the Stuff. And so, we either need to buy the stuff for acid etching the floor and hanging a dropped ceiling, or we need to remind someone (me) that we're still saving up for the kitchen window and the range vent. We want the window, and we need the range vent (the ceiling above the stove is in danger of looking much like we must cook over a peat fire).

So, it's true that, at some point (or every point), the project list is just a titch bigger than the project budget. But it's all good, because we will never (ever) be bored.

The boys are completely on board with the work, though. They got the grand idea that it would make a *fantastic* playroom. Then I mentioned that I'd like to get some hanging chairs. "Like the ones at IKEA?" They asked. The very ones. That was all it took. Although, mixed in with their help, they've logged a lot of time on "joist appraisal", so they'll have located Just The Right Spots picked out for hanging the chairs, when the time comes.

Yeah, this is good.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Blogging: Christmas '09

The kids worked like Roman galley slaves all morning, took a break at lunch to watch a movie and hang out a bit, and then went back to the rowing-rowing-rowing. They laughed and worked, ate like fiends, and crashed like the dead come bedtime. I appreciated their work today, as we got the house ready for Christmas and company.

Sometimes, (like right now), when two-thirds of the house is clean all at one time, I feel like we've accomplished so much here. Other times, (like when someone comes to visit for the first time), I look around and see only *all that remains to be done*.

And then, there are times when we're discussing one project, which is dependent upon another project, and that's tied to a third (or fourth, or fifth) project... and I realize, we will never be done. I guess that's a good thing. It'll feel better in the morning, I'm sure.

Tonight we worked a bit more on the play kitchen. Then we worked a bit on the wall in the basement. Yep, brand new project, six days before Christmas, when there are still myriad other things to be done upstairs, in the climate-controlled portion of the house. On the surface, it seems silly, I know. But in the Grand Scheme of Things, that wall will make a number of other projects (some of which await upstairs, yes) so much easier. And so, we do it.

The plan is to build a wall separating the water heater & HVAC unit from the rest of the basement. This will alleviate some visual clutter. It will also give us a Christmas Closet. It will create an entire 20' wall with electrical outlets, and a guaranteed space for sewing and other projects. AND, it will give us (because we designed it that way) a little half-bath in the basement. But of course, in keeping with tradition, the half-bath will remain an unfinished room which we'll use for storage, for the foreseeable future.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

2nd Bathroom in the Forever Home!

Technically, it did not just take us 14 days to build a bathroom. Not only was there a ton of finish work on other projects to complete (because we're just not so much about the finish work, really), but we seem to have angered the toilet gods mightily. The toilet pictured is the *fourth* commode this week - however, it's the first to have both a matching tank/bowl, the first not to spritz water against the back wall like a deranged bidet, and the first to have all its pertinent parts (present and facing the proper direction). So while it may not be our favorite, it works, it's in, and, heaven help us, it's staying.

Not to mention, after four years in a one-bathroom home, 14 days seems silly to fret over. However, we've gone from this, a few days into the project, to this:

Taken from the pocket door, looking in. I love this room.

Still at the door, looking straight in. I know, the turquoise towel throws it off a bit. Truthfully, when I needed a towel at two in the morning, I wasn't worried about which color I grabbed. The recessed vanity cabinet is a favorite feature. We thought we'd have to go with a pedestal, because of the cramped quarters. But this gives us the best of both worlds - cabinet room, smaller footprint, and a nifty sink that makes us smile. (Best of all worlds, then? Since there are three points?)

And, standing *in* the shower, looking back. Love the light fixture, but those itty bitty bulbs are 50watt halogen bulbs. I'll put the other two in later, when we aren't working and sweating in there. Too. Much. Heat. However, come winter, I'm sure it'll be handy. And the ceiling details - Zorak's "racetrack". Love it!

The walls are really gorgeous in person. My phone camera didn't quite do it justice, and I'm far too impatient to keep trying for a good shot when these are at least somewhat in focus. This bathroom is narrow (4.5' stud-to-stud) and long (10', thanks to the wall we'd pushed out). I don't even remember how the original bathroom was laid out, other than that the shower was barely big enough for one person to turn around, but not for said person to bend down or raise arms. Weird.

And, now, the house is pretty much finished. Or, more accurately, Phase One is pretty much finished. If it'll ever stop raining for more than six hours at a time, we can put the last of the deck stain on the balcony, and the porch off the master bedroom needs to be pulled off and replaced with something that remotely resembles the balcony. (I'll have to post a side-by-side of those two - it's a jarring, and rather humorous, contrast.) We still have to finish the awful (as in, wow-this-is-inexpensive-and-wonderful-but-good-hell-what-were-we-thinking) project of rehabbing the storm windows. And screen doors would be nice. Oh, and the window. But, if things go as we hope they'll go, the Big Kitchen Window will be the next project to get done! Still, that all seems like such simple little weekend projects, now. It's... weird.

The children seem to have lost only a modest amount of their civility, with those most affected being Smidge and EmBaby, who snarl if you touch them while they're eating, and have taken to marking one another's "territory" (thankfully, thus far, with toys, not urine - another week, and who knows how things might have gone!) Jase seems oblivious - evidently, he's used to being raised by wolves. The older two have held up well - being aware of the calendar and the general passage of time helps, I'm sure. The past 14 days haven't felt nearly as long for them as three days' worth of writing assignments!

And so ends another project with the family intact, and the house getting better as we go.

I think, on payday, we're going to do something fun just for the kids. They've been troopers.

And the beat goes on...

The kids have all been absolute troopers this week, and their willingness to pitch in on any level has made this project so much more enjoyable. It's been neat, though, to see how they work. They're each getting more and more into their own "thing", and while it does remind me that Dora won't stick around forever, it's also nice to be able to enjoy them where they are, at each turn.

John loves to turn on music and jam out while we work. His taste runs a little to the hard-rock side, and we're not sure how that happened. So, we compromise with an eclectic mix of radio stations and CD's - some of what he loves, with a little other stuff to keep the rest of us from getting to high-strung or twitchy. His favorite is a band called Hand Over Fist, out of Prescott, AZ. Funny, we had that CD for eight years and never played it all the way through, but that's the first one he asks for when we get in the car these days.

James has taken to downloading Mark Levin podcasts to listen to while he works. He gets a lot done this way, since each one is almost 50 minutes long. But I have to have him physically turn the thing off and stuff the ear buds into his pocket when I'm giving him directions or he'll slowly tilt his head to the side, trying to get his ear close enough to hear it while I'm talking. It's actually kind of funny, and I will admit that occasionally, when in need of entertainment, I'll not say anything for a while, just to see how far he twist while still maintaining eye contact with me. When he realizes what's going on, he blushes and stuffs the thing away with a sheepish little grin. Then he's all mine. Such a funny, sweet kid.

Smidge and Em are... Smidge and Em. They bicker like a married couple, but stick together like glue. They're so good to each other in small, constant ways, that the bickering is bearable, though. And Jase? Well, he's teething. Molars. Hyland's and Desitin to the rescue!

Today is a big and busy day, and we're really looking forward to it. And, then, tonight, perhaps, hopefully, I can texture the bathroom walls! (It was SO humid yesterday. Then, finally, it just rained and got it over with. When it stopped raining, the air glistened for the rest of the day. Not droplets on the leaves. The actual air. It wasn't quite like fog - just Very Wet Air. We didn't even try to work with Things That Need To Dry yesterday.)

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

OK, that didn't work.

The joint compound would. not. dry. this weekend. Just wouldn't dry. And so, we still do not have a functioning bathroom. (Took me five minutes to type this. This is why I only blog at night, when everybody is in bed. Obviously, I am not alone at the moment.) However, we did get up more trim, more do-dads, and got a plan for something that we didn't realize needed a plan until we got to it and it wouldn't work.

Anyway, the upshot is that Jason hasn't figured out where we are all day, so at least we have hope that he won't get in there and help with the texturing, when we get to it. I'm also keeping my fingers crossed that we could potentially pee in peace for a week or so before he figures it out!

Everything else is done that can be done, for now. And now, we wait. And pray for an arid few days. And a breeze. That'd be handy, too.

What'd you all do this weekend?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

Project Blogging! Master Bath

We've been camped out in here...
"Somebody" was supposed to send for help, but we suspect they got distracted. Netflix Watch Instantly and a box of Cheez-Its, and hey, who needs parents, right?

We think we'll be done tomorrow. If not, I may just move the computer back there, so we can keep in touch. We have wireless; the kids won't miss a thing on Netflix.

In the meantime, we've also finished up most of the remaining (OK, "neglected") details on the house. Baseboards painted, door trims painted, ugly basement door in hall painted, previously painted doors re-hung (doors are over-rated, really). I even had John take the air return grille out and scrub it off with a brush and the jet blaster on the garden hose! Evidently, it's white. Huh.

And, we've taken out the Ghetto Adobe Pink in the kitchen (we love it, but it's too close to Kraftmaid's "Toffee Maple" finish, so there wasn't the *POP* we wanted) and replaced it with a creamy creamish cream color (which is not "white", okay? and yes, cream can *POP*. Really, it can) and green. Both, on one of the walls! I got a little nuts. Zorak still isn't sure if he's going to leave me unsupervised with the paint cans, again. But I *love* it! I used KathyJo's method of painting -- literally, called her up and begged her to hold my hand and walk me through it -- she is very patient with slow people. And I *LOVE* it.

I'll get pictures later, when the fridge is back in place, and all the other random things are not in the middle of the floor. Things always look worse right before they look better. Or, that's what I tell Zorak, anyway.

Kiss those babies!

Pictures!

And they're stuck on the camera!

Got the software, and now we've lost the upload cord. Again. That settles it. I'm asking for an Executive Assistant for my birthday. Other than that I can't keep track of my own eyeballs, it's been SUCH a great week!

The mower, which I will refer to from now on as The Sea Bear (from Spongebob - "maybe he just doesn't like you"), is running. It will even start for me, as long as Zorak is on the premises. We mowed and mowed and mowed. I even mowed things that haven't been mowed before, just because I was afraid if I stopped, I'd never mow again.

We sucked it up and cleared the upstream side of the culvert. If it should now rain on a Sunday morning, we won't have to miss church out of fear that we'll be flooded off the property. Go us. (It only took two years! We're getting better!) It was pretty gross, and I loathe people who fling their trash out their car windows as they whiz along the street. Where do they think the trash ends up? Is there some roadside vortex that they think will suck it up and transport it to the dump? No. No, there's not. There's a little wind, maybe, and some momentum to overcome. But eventually it just lands, right there, on the side of the road, on somebody's property. Gah.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but I can't get over how much the kids are loving the tire swing. Unfortunately, they're also sick to their stomachs at least three times a day. Zorak and I can hardly stand to watch them spinning, spinning, spinning. Knowing that two of the four on the swing have a propensity for volatile reactions, there's no way we'd get on there with them. But siblings are trusting. Or forgetful. Either way, they all have fun together, then stumble back to the house to lie down for a bit before nabbing a bite to eat and heading right back out to do it again. (Yeah, I know. It's like they're *trying* to make it happen.)

We finally put new seed down in the front yard. Me-Wa had mentioned that lime will do magical things to clay soil. So, when we tilled in the leaves, we sprinkled a thin layer of lime, and whaddya know, Magical Things Happened! We have *dirt* in the front yard now! It stays soft, and dirt-like. There is hope that this year, we may grow something other than child-killing clover and dandelions around the perimeter of the clay moat. (Though the dandelions are welcome, the clover is not. And I'd love a break from the trekking in of the clay on the feet.)

Winter garden stuff is going in. Company is coming next week. (Wonderful Neighbors from Maryland are bringing our Wonderful Future Daughters-in-Law for a visit!) And...

WE GOT A NEW CAR!!! Well, new-to-us, new. It's an '03 Suburban, and it's wonderful. It starts on the first try, every time. And the a/c is cold all the way to the back. And the road noise is so significantly reduced that Zorak has started speaking to us on drives, again, now that he can hear. There's not a can of starter fluid anywhere near that thing. Ah, it feels So. Incredibly. Good. to know that the next time somebody hacks off something, or inflames something, or just rips something wide open, we can get to the ER before they loose all their blood. Yes, indeedy. I am blessed beyond measure.

Like I said, it's been a great week.

Kiss those babies!
~Dy