Woodstove hooked up and working! :-)

Brief update

The last few weeks have been busy, busy... We have finished the majority of the big stuff on the remodel, leaving lots of small details, like unpacking a few boxes, putting up trim, and hanging wall pictures, etc... It will take a while to finish that stuff, but we'll eventually get it done. In the meantime, we have had lots of visitors and lots of fun. We are working now on getting organized for the next school year, finding a new normal for how to balance our daily lives, and... getting ready for our vacation! We are so looking forward to our week away in the Smoky Mtns.

I have made some updates on the gardens, kid's pages, and my health page, so you can read more there if desired.

Remodel project movie

I am going to attempt to upload a short movie/slideshow of the remodel we've been working on. We have accomplished much! It is not done yet, more details need to be added to make it feel like home, but mostly cosmetic and simple. It feels so good to have it mostly done!

Poll: Which color do you like better?

Okay, help me! Picture these with white trim, white chair rail and light bamboo flooring (and minus the mess of boxes, etc...). Which do you like better? This is in the living room/dining room which are basically one large open room.

What we've been up to...

Huge remodel project! I mentioned tearing up the carpet from the living room, well... that led to new drywall, paint, hearth for the wood stove, tile, along with bamboo floors for the living and dining area and new trim around all walls/doors/windows. So, everything is topsy-turvy here right now! I picked some colors that I loved, but now that they are on the wall, I am not so sure. I am hoping that when we get some chocolate brown furniture, curtains and accents it will all blend together and not be so bold and bright. We are also putting a chair rail between the two colors, probably white but still considering that too. What do you think?

Trees, carpets and fences

Our big news this week is that last weekend, Tom ripped up all the carpeting from our living room and hallway. We are now living with a huge mess and plywood floors through almost half the house. It is a good thing we are outdoors much of our days! We are going to be spackling and painting the walls, putting up new trim and hardwood flooring throughout - hooray! It will be wonderful when it is done, but until then things are even more chaotic.

The picture here is of the kids up in their new climbing tree. When we first moved on this property, there were no good climbing trees - they were all tall and skinny with branches way up high from being so close together. Now we have cleared and thinned more and some branches are filling out. This ones branches are low enough, though still a little thin for too much weight. They do have fun though! All three children are in the tree in this picture.

In other news, while Tom was ripping out our carpeting, the kids and I visited my mom. We had to pick up some supplies for Tom in Roanoke which is half way there anyway. It was nice to go relax there and my littlest brother was able to hang out with us both evenings, he can always make me laugh which felt good. :-) Here are some more pics of the kids playing outdoors at my mom and Oscar's. They found a bird's nest and picked lots of wildflowers from the field behind her house.

The gardens are doing well. I found a baby broccoli on one plant a couple days ago and the lettuce from the first planting is about to harvest, I also found a flower on one of the pea plants! It will be great to get some things harvested already. :-) There are more updates and pics on the gardens page. Oh, also pics of the newly completed chicken run!

I think that is about all for this week. Business is going well. We are looking forward to this weekend being a long 3-day break and our 13th anniversary. We don't have any big plans other than enjoying working together here at the house.

Simple Joys

We have had a great time the last couple days planting the garden. It has been relaxing, but hard work all at once. I have really enjoyed getting lots done outside, with all sorts of projects (see here for details). Wish housework was as energizing and enjoyable!

We have been doing basic stuff for school daily and then going outside to work and play. The kids have been happy to be able to play with the water hose a few times already this year. We will be doing some testing soon to see where we are with their learning and what we should work on over the summer and/or in the fall.

Tom and I (with Heather's help) have cleaned up our screen room outside and started enjoying sitting outside for our coffee in the mornings before he leaves. This always motivates me to read my Bible more regularly, having that quiet and peace in the mornings. My spirits are being lifted and my soul is at peace, I am sure the Vit D from the sunshine is really helping with that too! I have quite the tan going now. :-)

Tom recently found replacement parts for his grill and has it working quite well again. We LOVE to grill out in the warmer weather, use it almost daily - best Father's Day gift ever! We have also been enjoying hanging our clothes on the line to dry. Our washing machine is having problems remembering to spin out the loads, thankfully we have a back-up at the shop and will bring that home tonight and get this one repaired. We are also considering a new refrigerator, ours is 10 years old now and a fire hazard, doesn't seal real well and we really would like an ice-maker. Another thing we have been discussing is replacing our living room carpet with laminate... it really is time to get rid of that, blech!

The chicks are growing and ready to take over their whole house and have some new straw laid. We need to build their outside run very soon also. Carl and Molly are best buds now and Carl is growing up really fast. Cats and bunnies are doing well. Rose found a tiny turtle the other day and has adopted it for the time being. Liz, Will's lizard escaped on Saturday morning when Rose opened her tank - but was found again Sunday afternoon. We were very glad to find her, she is such a fun pet.

Our business is doing well right now. There is plenty of work for the 1-2 trucks that we are running now and bills are getting caught up on. Things seem to be stabilizing and I am growing accustomed to the added responsibilities.

That's really about it in our world right now - work and play, dirt and bugs, clouds and sunshine, animals and plants, rain and wind. Finding joy in it all.

Settling in...

Wanted to take some time to update tonight. We had a great visit with my sis Angela and her sweet boys. We really enjoyed it and it helped us to have the extra laughs, extra hugs, and extra hands around during that time. We got almost everything done on my large checklist during the week, and still managed to get out and enjoy ourselves a few evenings.

We are working hard at readjusting to life as it changes. I sat down and made a list of all my duties, divided it into days and tried to make it manageable. I think I have a workable schedule, but we will see how it goes. Hard to plan when there are so many variables in a day. I redid the chore lists also and planned time for school, office, home duties and garden time. It will take some tweaking and flexibility but I felt a bit less overwhelmed getting it on paper. I even divided my blogging into certain days... I have to laugh at myself - such a "list maker"! :-)

Right now, besides the office being moved into the kitchen and all the duties surrounding that, we have 27 baby chickens in the living room, 3 shelves of seedlings under lights in the dining room, and a very energetic puppy demanding love and training running through the house. We are having lots of fun, and going a little more insane each day!

Tonight, Tom and I got the plastic put on the hoop greenhouse that we have been slowly building. We have big plans for the garden, just have to find the time to carry them out now!

The kids are doing well. They have all gotten to a point of realizing that school can be done quickly if they apply themselves and they can have a lot more fun in a day if they just get it done. They have all been spending a lot of time outside lately, Will with his various bugs and critters... Rose running around with the animals... Heather usually with a book. The girls have been building mud cakes lately too which are getting more and more elaborate. I need to get some pics off the camera and post some soon.

Business is staying busy enough to run the two trucks. It has been an answer to prayer. Tom is feeling much better and adjusting well to the changes at work and home. We have been taking turns feeling down and overwhelmed, thankfully not at the same time so that we can support each other.

While Angela was here, my brother Justin and my dad and his family all came up to the shop and helped get some things moved out and into the storage bldgs. My dad then came and painted the front office area for us this week. I will be going up to clean the carpets and then we will hopefully have it all done! The back area has a lot of little things left to clean up and move out but most of the big stuff is done.

I guess that is about it. My brain is turning off for the night. So, that is the Tuesday update for this week! We are thankful for your prayers and for our Father who gives us strength.

A productive day

Today, I am feeling almost 100% better. :-) I got lots more done. Cleaned up a bit, got the kitchen completely clean before bedtime tonight - hooray! Also made laundry soap, started a batch of kombucha tea, got all our chores done, played out in the snow flurries, got my shopping list and coupons together for tomorrow. I was very excited when I posted a few "wanted" ads on Craig's List and got responses from people willing to do some bartering... for fence material, a shed (will be a chicken house), and a bunny! So, a good day and now I am off to watch a movie with Tom and go to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow will be just as good.

Here are pics of the laundry soap. After setting 24 hours it thickened up and I am impressed with the consistency, I added some lavender so like the smell so far... the price is great! We'll see how it goes when we use it.

Update: I have used the laundry soap for several loads now, and I like it so far... I am still not completely sure, but don't have any complaints at the moment. The price breakdown: Arm & Hammer Wash Booster $3, Borax $3, bar of ivory soap (cheap, believe we got it free on a deal). We used only 1 cup of each and 1 bar of soap... so the boxes we bought will go a long way. It made a huge amount of detergent as you can see! I will update again if we decide we don't like it, but so far so good...

Wedding pictures finally done...

I just now completed editing the 758 photos that I took at a friend's wedding just over a month ago. Well, edited and burned to CD and then culled and put in order for a slideshow set to the music they had at their wedding, then burned another CD. It was fun. It was a LONG process that took a lot more time and commitment than I had originally considered. It feels SO good to be done, Tom is going to drop the CD's off to them tomorrow, wish I could do it but I won't be in town until Friday eve and don't want to make them wait any longer! Tom and the kids will be glad to have me "back". :-)

Here are a few that I can share. I don't want to share any that are identifyable to protect their privacy, but here are a few just for fun.

Project today

The kids and I worked on this today. It wasn't as fun and relaxing as I had hoped, but we got it done and it IS pretty! It is made from squares of newspaper - came originally from Martha Stewart website, though I have seen it elsewhere.

I was hoping it would be easier - was considering making some mini ones for ornaments to give as gifts - a bit too much work though, waaah!

At least we accomplished something on this Monday. :-)

Kids being creative!

The kids have been drawing on some big huge paper that we were given. They had a great time yesterday. See their pages for pics of their individual projects!

Puzzle

The girls and I pulled out a puzzle to work on. We have a table in the kitchen just the right size and Heather chose one from a pack of them we received for Christmas. I must admit, I worked on it the most, but the kids did enjoy sitting down with me for a few moments every now and then. It is a mother with her son and daughter on mother's day - a pretty victorian-era picture. Here is a picture of the work in progress!