Wiping Sticky Hands: July 11, 2014

So here are the "after" pics of Matt's garden project:

My poor little homemade pea trellis. I clearly didn't string the twine tightly enough because the pea vines are pulling it every which way. Oh well, it was fun and kind of earthy-looking.

We've been doing a lot of projects around the house. Well. We've hired a lot of people to do our projects around the house. We are not DIY people. We saw the vast slew of For Sale signs growing out of everyone's lawn and thought briefly, "But wait - if THEY can get ($$$$) for THEIR house...WE could get (oh, a ton) for OUR house........." but when we looked online to see what was available in the price range we would be looking at - a modest but not super-duper cheap price range either - we were like, 'ew.' Okay, so our house is not huge at all, and is not in the swanky neighborhood, and isn't even sort of fancy. In fact, I admit I get a little self-conscious when I post pics of our house and yard, because I know many of you live in very nice, very big houses that have custom thingies and pretty kitchens and fantastic master bedrooms. But that's not the kind of house we picked nor the kind of house we chose to afford, and I am reminded daily that this is our daily bread, our home, by Levi: Mama, don't you just love our cozy, warm little house? And my answer to that is a grateful yes. So we decided just as quickly to stay in our house, finish those little "some day..." projects and thoroughly enjoy it. First up: replace that wicked tile floor in the kitchen. I hated that tile. It was never sealed by the owner who installed it and the grout collected dirt that settled in like doggone cement, so it looked perpetually dirty. So we had a faux wood something-or-other material installed that kind of matches the original hardwood through the rest of the house.

The cabinets leave much to be desired, but hey, there are people in many countries who would love to HAVE cabinets and anything in them, so big whoop. Got a new table too. Takes up less space, but is bigger somehow.

What excites me immensely is the new carpet upstairs. Even I can't think of words to describe what our upstairs used to look like. We had new blinds and custom black-out curtains installed to replace the ultra-glam wool Hope Cross Country blanket that used to grace the window and block out the light. The carpet was horrifying. Someday soon (heh) I will repaint the upstairs. Luke got the boot and is in Levi's room (that's a whole 'nother blog post) so we have our space again. The outer part will someday just be a little sitting area/prayer closet type of thing. Right now his pack n play is there for naps and early mornings when the boys wake up too early and he needs a little more sleep.

Not fancy, but warm and cozy, just the way we like it. :)

Got a new pool for the boys. They love it. :)

Luke really is having fun. He just scowls sometimes.

He loves to snuggle. How did we luck out with two snuggly boys??

We went to Sanctuary Woods yesterday. There are 170 stairs. I carried Luke up nearly all of them.

Levi walked up all of them with no complaint and ran nearly the whole trail.

So proud to....have been carried up all the steps. Wait. What?

Friday Farm Day. We are one of the only families that go out to the farm weekly to pick up our own milk. Most other herd share owners co-op, and one person does the pickup. I am usually in the unfortunate position of driving in *just after* one or more of these people, and end up waiting fooooreeeevvveerrrrrr for them to fill their fifty glass jars, while I just want to fill my four and be on with it.

See? I'm flanked by two fifty-jar fillers. Argh. Thankfully the boys love to play, hold the kittens, and look at the tractors. And that barn on the left always has the local Christian radio station playing loudly, so it's a peaceful and festive atmosphere most of the time.