projects!!!!!

Here's what I spent all last week doing...

Luke's (soon-to-be, but currently Bryce's) bed and shelf...

Seth's side...
Seth's favorite part...the "flying airplanes" suspended from the ceiling by clear fishing line...
Another fav...TV/DVD/VCR player in their room...ONLY temporary since the family room is currently off limits...and the closet that I removed the sliding doors and replaced with a curtain so we could fit a dresser inside...
Don't let him fool ya...he was faking!!
And then there's this downstairs.... :o)

update

I can't believe it's been almost a week since my last post! Last week went by very quickly, and though I got LOTS done, unfortunately there is still SOOOO much more to do. I basically gave the boys' bedroom a total makeover. I took apart large metal bunk beds (yes, all by myself!) and rearranged the room because Seth really didn't want a bunk bed anymore (it's all he's ever had) and actually got the two single beds to fit. For the time being, Luke is sleeping on his toddler bed mattress that gets stored underneath the bed during the day and pulled out at night. Rather like a make-shift trundle bed. I told him it's only for a few weeks, til Bryce moves into his own room, so he was pretty happy with that. I also removed the sliding closet doors and replaced them with fun red curtains from IKEA (where I also visited for the first time ever last week) so that one dresser could be put in the closet. I repained everything as well, and am pretty pleased with the results. I will have to post pictures soon.

As for the basement remodeling...well, I guess slow and steady wins the race, right? Things are definitely coming along...Kate's new room actually has walls...it's just a slow process, not helped much by the fact that my poor hubby only has a few hours each evening to work on it before dropping in to bed totally exhausted (the same could also be said for our good friend Luke who has been faithfully helping us...according to Todd, we couldn't have done this without him!). They did make a good leap forward on Saturday when there were 3 guys down there (my brother in law Joe joined the work crew that day), and now it's at a point of all the spackling on the new walls needs to be sanded and re-spackled, and wait again for it to dry. So I'm gonna tackle that myself today, just so we can keep things moving along.

I used to think it might be fun to buy an old house and totally remodel it. I don't think that anymore. I'm not complaining, because I know it's going as well as possible, everyone is working hard and we've had so much help, and it's gonna be really nice in the end...but I do get a little overwhelmed/frustrated about living in a 'construction zone'. I basically can't clean anything up because there is literally no place to go with stuff, as we are temporarily living in about half of our house, which is approximately like a large apartment. But it's a good lesson in patience, and I'm learning that I need to not complain and just relax and go with the flow a bit more...something not anyone in our house is particularly good at. So it will be an interesting few weeks, that will require much grace. That's what I'm praying for today.

alone...day 2

Well, it's Day 2 of my Week Alone... Todd has been working on the basement since last week, (though it's only able to get done a couple hours here, a couple hours there, since the poor man still has to go to work) and yesterday I ripped apart the boys' bedroom and began painting. I'm really excited to surprise them with a 'room makeover' when they get home...although, it will really be Seth & Luke's room, as Bryce will be moving out, once Kate has vacated her room to move to the new basement room. As you can see, it's all a big chain-of-events, pretty much dependent on the basement. So, in addition to painting in the boys room today, and trying to find them some new bedding, I will also be painting drylock on the cement block walls in the basement. My house looks like a construction zone at present. I have a toddler bed and a taken-apart bunk bed sitting in the living room (hopefully the biggest surprise for Seth...he had said he would be content to not switch rooms if he could just have a 'regular' bed, as opposed to a bunk bed. Told him I wasn't sure it was possible to fit 2 'regular' beds in their room, but low and behold, I made it work! I hope he will be excited.) In the meantime, I 'created' a trundle bed for Luke...called shoving his little mattress under Seth's bed and pulling it out each night til Bryce moves on! It'll do.

Anyway, enough talk about my projects, time to get busy. I woke up with a headache today, so I gotta try to get rid of that so I can keep charging on. (I think it actually came from staying in bed too long...that'll teach me!! At least it was nice to have the option to do so!!)

trying to contain myself

I am nearly overcome with excitement. "Why?", you may ask! Well, even if you didn't, I shall tell you.

Next week, I am alone...all week. *I am pausing for a moment of silent gratefulness.* Well, not totally alone...Todd will still come home after work. But the kids are all going to be gone.

Todd's parents are taking the kids for the week, so they can go to Summer Bible School. This is the first year Luke is old enough to go. I believe this is the first time in 13 years that I will have kid-free, consecutive days, at home, filled with nothing but free time. (Granted, I do have one school enrollment meeting, but that's nothin'!) Other than that, I will have 5 days to do with as I please. I can barely narrow down what I will do with the time.

Part of me wants to do nothing at all...putter around the house, a bit of cleaning/reorganizing, watch some chick flicks, do my nails. But there's this other part, having a strong pull, that wants to paint the kids' bedrooms and do whatever other 'big projects' I can come up with. I don't get many opportunities to do projects without the stress of being interrupted every 5 minutes for something. There's definitely appeal to it. However, much of my plans may not actually be possible, depending on the status of the basement project currently underway. So I guess I have to 'play it by ear'...

Did I mention that I'm really excited!?!?!?!

God's faithfulness

God's faithfulness never ceases to amaze me. A few weeks ago, we decided to put Kate in Christian school next year. We didn't know where the money for tuition would come from, but after much prayer and consideration, felt it was just the right decision, and we trusted God would provide somehow. Two weeks later Todd got a raise. It's not enough to cover the entire tuition amount, but certainly a good chunk of it. We were ecstatic to have, what we felt was, such a confirmation that we had made the right decision.

As you know, if you've been reading this blog, that these decisions also made our vacation plans impossible. We began looking for an alternative, but everything seemed just way too expensive...not in the budget at all. This week, through a friend of a friend type connection, we were able to reserve a beach house for waaaaay less than we were even going to pay for the one we originally had reserved for September. It's 2 blocks off the beach on one side, and a block from the bay on the other. It has enough beds/bedrooms for our family, as well as being fully stocked with bikes, fishing poles, beach toys...even a wagon to drag it all around! We are only a half hour drive from our dear old Ocean City boardwalk (part of our vacation evening tradition) so we can even still do that! I feel so blessed!

In addition to all that, Todd has torn down the rest of the paneling in the basement family room, and found that it was not nearly as bad as we had thought. It seems it's probably not the dreaded 'black mold' that can take over a wall like wildfire, but rather a localized patch of mildew...that just happened to be in the spot we originally opened. Apparently some water had come in at that spot, and rotted some of the wood out at the bottom, but only in that one corner. Still a lot of work, and still trying to figure out a good long-term fix, but not nearly the disaster we initially thought we were facing.

All of this is bringing me a deep peace that God knows what we are facing, and he is in control of it all. After seeing such answers to prayer come so quickly, even the van acting wierd this week, and the ceiling of it beginning to sag in on us doesn't have me stressed. My Father knows my needs, and will see to it that I am taken care of... of this I am sure!

beeping and fire

Luke was just sitting on the couch with me, looking at a picture of a heart with fire on it (something left over from Valentine's day). He pointed at the heart and said "This is what is beeping inside me. It's beeping right now."

I replied "You mean your heart? It beats inside you."

"Yes," he said, "beating. But mine doesn't have fire right now. When I be mean, then the fire turns on."

Isn't it fascinating to hear the thought processes of children?

vanilla minty goodness

Totally random post here... I have been intrigued by something I thought I heard on a commercial a while back...Vanilla Mint toothpaste. For some reason it stuck in my head that I had heard this once, so I Googled it, and sure enough, Crest did have such a thing. I have been searching for it for months, as I was eager to try it, but without success. At last, today, at Target, I found the long-sought-after treasure. Sweet, vanilla-y-minty yumminess - it's a good thing. :)

oh, I don't THINK so...

I spent this afternoon scouring stores to find a half-decent bathing suit for my 13 year old. Apparently, if you are looking for anything half-way modest, you are plumb out of luck this season! The ONLY thing we could find (I kid you not) were string bikinis (and an occasional halter), and now and then ONE tankini (which is actually what we were looking for), but that was, according to my daughter, an "old-lady" print. Thankfully, she is truly modest, so there was no battling over the bikinis - she doesn't want one any more than her daddy and I don't want her to have one. For this I am truly grateful. There's just no way that she's gonna be baring it all for everyone to see! And beyond our own protectiveness, I have on good authority - a friend who is the mother of a 13 year old male - that the girls his age running around the pool in their skimpy suits are definitely turning his head.

So, go ahead and label me old-fashioned. I really don't care. It just ain't happenin'.

UPDATE: We did finally find an appropriate suit...I was encouraged to find there are some out there! She was thrilled with it. And guess where it was from... good 'ol Sears. Yep...I should always check the tried and true first, I guess. Here's a pic of what she got from the Sears.com site.

still searching...

Still trying to find a place to go for vacation...everything is ridiculously expensive in the summer!!! Now I remember why we never went on vacation before! Anybody own a beach house or a mountain cabin you'd like to rent for a week under $1000??

Frogmore...mmmm!!!

Last night we had a great time with our small group doing our monthly meal together. We did something different, and it was a lot of fun...something I've never done before. We had 'Frogmore', which is not just a meal, but really an experience. It is a sort of stew, that consists of potatoes, kielbasa, shrimp and corn on the cob, and Old Bay Seasoning. We cooked it in huge pots over burners outside (though, it could be cooked on a stove as well). The most unique part of the meal, though, is the way it is served. We lined up picnic tables, covered them with newspaper, and when Frogmore was done cooking, it just gets dumped out down the center of all the tables and everyone just sits around eating it all with their hands. Of course there was drawn butter and cocktail sauce for dipping, and let me say... it was GOOD!!!! The kids thought eating this way was the best thing ever, and I gotta say, clean up after serving a meal this way was super-easy! I thought maybe I should always serve dinners this way...cook it and just fling it on the table and let everyone dig in! Well...I guess it might not be the best idea for spaghetti... :) If you want the recipe, just click the picture of Frogmore below. It's definitely a great idea for a fun summer get together!!

projects

Remember when I posted a few weeks ago about how a simple project usually turns into multiple or bigger projects??? Well, it just happened again! We began looking at our basement area that we are planning to turn into a bedroom for Kaitlyn. It seemed easy enough to me...put up a few walls and voila!! Uh...no. We've had problems with water in the back part of our basement since we lived here. Only occasionally would we get some random wet spots in the carpet of the finished part of the basement. However, apparently there was much more going on than met the eye. When Todd pulled off some of the paneling in the part that is to be the new bedroom, he found mud behind the paneling, as well as insulation that is covered in black mold. From what we can tell, this will mean not only tearing down the paneling/insulation in the part that will be the new bedroom, but the entire basement family room. Aaaarrrrgghhh!!!!

See, Todd isn't a big 'projects' guy. And let me say, that's an understatement. Frankly, he pretty much hates 'projects'...at least the kind that I come up with! He's been dreading this one for quite a while, but at did agree with me that it needed to be done, so was just gonna 'bite the bullet' this summer and just do it. Let's just say his stress level just went through the roof. It's gonna be interesting around here for the next few weeks...

welcome summer

Today is a milestone day for me...my last day as a 'homeschool mom'. We have finished our school year, had Kate's evaluation today, and have begun the process for enrolling them in school for next year. As I've said before, it's all very bittersweet, but right now I'm trying to remember that I have the whole summer to enjoy with my kids, and then I actually am looking forward to entering this whole new season.

So, our summer is officially in full-swing. Which means my mind is racing with all the things I now have freedom to do!!!! Here's a few on my list:

• Reading several books that I've had piling up that I want to dig in to
• Re-doing our basement (that is another post in itself)
• Deep cleaning my house...the kind that includes washing curtains, scrubbing walls, etc.!
• Some minor re-decorating
• Working on some writing projects I have in the works
• Fixing up my yard

And oh, yes... I plan to do some relaxing as well!!!

remember them

Tonight I was talking with one of the moms from a boy on my kids baseball team. She is going through a very rough time. Her husband was just deployed to Afghanistan. He's already done 4 tours of duty, and was supposed to be retiring, after serving in the military for 20 years. But, in her words "because of decisions of the new president", his retirement has been deferred and he was shipped out again, minimally til January. Without going into details, her husband is very broken right now, and, again in her words, in no condition to be piloting military flights every night. She is at home with 3 kids, all around ages 5-8 years, and they are scared for their daddy. She was conveying that they are starting to get old enough to be asking questions and realizing things like "those bad guys have guns, don't they?". I cannot imagine. She was telling me that they have been asking questions about God and heaven and death recently, and it all has caused her to wonder if God is preparing her to receive word of her own husband's death. My heart broker for her when she expressed this. I believe she is a Christian herself, and said she has been asking God to surround her husband with godly, Christian men. Because of the tragic death of his tent-mate, which was a horrific experience for him, his new tent-mate is the chaplain...at least one answer to her prayers. She said she is asking God to convict his heart, so I do not know where he stands spiritually. However, I promised her that I would be praying for them, and I will, and I am asking you to do so as well. I know we are often asked to pray for our troops, as we should. But now, I am asking to you pray not only for a family who is making huge sacrifices for our country, but for a friend. For a fellow teammate of my little leaguers. That takes it to a whole new reality level for me personally.

I saw their vehicle in the parking lot at a game. It bears a sticker on the rear window that says "My daddy is fighting for your freedom." I don't know where you stand on the war; frankly, it doesn't even matter. These men and women need and deserve our thanks, and our prayers.

Plan B

While I've been looking forward to some of the 'stress relief' that will be provided by not homeschooling next year, it's becoming apparent that there's quite a bit of ground to cover between now and the start of school in the fall.

While I'm looking forward to a busy, but fun, summer, there's lots of things that have been changed up with this change of educational plans. The main thing being our family vacation. The past few years we have been able to take a week in Ocean City, NJ because of the HUGE rate decreases for those with the flexibility to go after Labor Day. Which, thanks to homeschooling, we did. However, since our course change, we had to cancel our reservation and I am now scrambling to find an alternative plan.

This time away is a pretty big deal for our family. It's basically the only extended, unscheduled family time that we get in a year. (Yes, for us a week is actually very extended!) The kids look forward to it, and start planning for next year from the moment we leave our vacation house. Luke asked in March if we could start packing. The kids all just about cried when we said we wouldn't be able to go and begged to put off school for another year just so we could have our vacation. And the funny thing is (and what lets me know how much they crave this family time) is that we really don't do anything spectactular. We go to the beach most days, to a small zoo about a half an hour away for one day, and to the boardwalk every night. But we don't spend much money there - no amusement park rides or anything -just an occasional night at the arcarde (with a set amount of money for each) and an ice cream cone or funnel cake. We do all our meals at the house, except for one. But I think it's just the time, attention all on them, and the fact that it was becoming our tradition. One night out of the week, the 'boys' would all watch football on TV, while Kate and I watched a movie in the bedroom. One afternoon, while the little ones were napping, Todd would play a game with the boys while Kate and I giggled over the movie "Emma" while doing our nails. Nothing spectacular, but still very special.

So, one of the many new items on my to-do list, is to try to find an alternative vacation. This is no small task, since it is now peak season that we are looking at, and also, very last-minute as far as reservations go. We are praying that God opens up the right thing, at the right price, with the right elements for our family. We'd appreciate your prayers and are open to any ideas or suggestions!!!

more Maggie escapades

Living with a lab, I can see how easy it was to have enough stories to write a book/make a movie.

Whenever we load the dishwasher, it's a fight to keep Maggie away; she always stands and tries to get her head in there to lick all the dirty dishes as we load them. Yesterday I had turned away momentarily to reach for more dishes, and by the time I turned back to the dishwasher there was a sudden clamor and Maggie was sprawling across the floor, trying to get away. She had apparently gotten a prong of the bottom rack caught in her collar, and as she ran, she dragged the whole thing with her!! Rack, dirty dishes and all were dragged across the dining room as she scrambled to try get away from the attack appliance!

There was a bunch of screaming and scrambling, and in the end, only one dish got broke. Lucky for her. However, I gotta admit, even in the midst of it, it was pretty hilarious!

my head is spinning!

Since the decision has been made that the kids will go to school next year, I'm finding it extremely difficult to make myself finish out this year. I think this is for several reasons; one, I don't think I fully realized how totally burned out I have been with this until we decided I was done, and it felt like an incredible weight was lifted. Unfortunately, part of this weight has to remain til we are done doing everything we need to over the next two weeks. I also am just so ready to move on, there's so many 'steps' to be done to even move on that even that seems a bit overwhelming. I need to try to return/sell curriculum that I just recently purchased so we don't just lose that money...especially since it equals about one month's tuition for next year! Also, I will now need to pack up the boys computer equipment to return since they won't be doing the cyber school next year. We need to fill out registration papers, and do some placement testing, and I think possibly set up some tutoring for Kate to make sure she's up-to-speed over the summer to make a smooth transition. Then there's listing all the old curriculum on e-bay (or wherever) to try and recoup some of that investment. Plus, we are having to do house-projects to create an extra bedroom this summer, so everything needs to be cleaned out before we can really start with any of that! Ahhh!! Where to begin?!?!

Okay...so my first order of the day is going to be - take a deep breath, calm down and organize my thoughts...

Anybody need homeschooling curriculum??