Almost the New Year!

Perhaps, quite by accident, I may be able to accomplish one of my resolutions for 2012, which was to put the huge stack of photos of the girls in scrapbooks for them.  It has been my resolution for the past 4 years, but the project got so huge and overwhelming that I managed to overlook it in favor of other projects for a LONG time.

I began scrap booking for the girls after J was born, and have kept books for both of them current...up until the summer of 2008.  That Fall, I found myself homeschooling a Kindergartner for the first time, as well as listing and selling our house, and moving TWO times before the school year was over.  Oh yeah, I had a toddler too.  For some reason, at that point in my life, the scrap booking became less of a priority.

So...the day after Christmas this year, I quite unexpectedly found myself with nothing pressing to do.  After postponing it for nearly 2 hours with shoveling snow and doing laundry, I dug out the two boxes of pictures and miscellany that I had saved for the scrapbooks.  I thought I had left everything in order, with photos separated and in chronological order, but that was not the case.  For the first hour and a half, I merely sorted through over 300 photos.

I spread out materials across my entire desk, and part of the floor of my Craft Room.  Thus far, I have done 61 pages, finishing L's photos, and making it about 1/2 of the way through J's.  These are 12" x 12" pages I'm talking about, complete with cropping of photos, borders, journaling and cute little stickers and die cuts.  This afternoon, however, I hit a wall.  I simply could NOT tolerate any more of the crafty-ness, and not only that, but my bum was numb.

I have taken a break this evening to fold laundry, water plants, and watch the end of P&P with JP and the girls.  I am encouraged however, by the progress I've made.  It would be so lovely to NOT have this on my "To Do" list in 2013, AND I've resolved to do NO MORE of it.  The past 2 years I have made photo books on Shutterfly, and like it SO much better.

In the meantime, we have celebrated the 7th birthday of the wee L by going out to a movie ("Rise of the Guardians"...very fun, by the way, AND we ran into friends at the theater) and having a tiny bakery cake at home.  I have promised her a party with Grandmom & Granddad and all of her friends when they have all returned from Christmas merry-making (be forewarned all ye friends of the Poplar Ridge clan!)

The girls and I had a blast playing in the snow yesterday, but I have discovered, much as I did after roller-skating last Spring, that I pay dearly for it with stiff muscles the day after...I am too old for such silliness I suppose.

We also have spent several hours playing with their Christmas toys:  J got a Crime Solving Forensic Science kit, complete with 2 "crimes" to solve, and L got a Magic Science kit.  So far we have tested the pH of water, learned how to determine the height of a person by their shoe size, and separated DNA from a tomato with J's kit.  L made a magic wand with purple crystals that grew to 4 times their original size, made disappearing ink, and magically changed the color of water.

Tomorrow, JP must head back to work.  The girls and I have a respite of 2 more days before school begins again.  Perhaps tomorrow we can do more Forensics and Magic, and if I'm lucky, finish the scrapbooks!

Green Laundry

JP got a clothes line up for me on Monday. About 20 minutes after I happily hung up my first load of sheets, L commented "it waining!" JP and I frantically dashed outside to pull everything in. It has been raining since then, so today was my first successful attempt at drying my clothes in the great outdoors. Mmmm...there is nothing like the smell and feel of line dried sheets! The line is hung between the corners of the "L" shaped porch, and just steps away from the washer.

I finished my pantry re-organization yesterday, and now have one entire empty shelf, and more room on others if I squish.

I get a sick kind of pleasure out of labeling things. I told JP that I did this for my Mom's sake (I kinda did!)

While I was on the pantry pics, I thought I'd snap the kitchen since it was relatively clean. I'd still like to do something with the pantry entrance since we lost the pocket door, but I'm not sure what. Right now we are using a Japanese noren as a divider...a gift from JP's sister in Japan.

This is the Dining Room, and strangely, the main entrance to the house. We recently hung faux wood blinds in this window since the dusk-to-dawn light on the garage was bothering us in the bedroom at night. There is a small coat closet just to the left of the entrance in this picture. The pass through is my work space, and the doorway to the left of that goes into the Craft Room (which also houses the freezer, extra refrigerator, washer and dryer)...I'll photograph that room later as we are still working in there.

The cream colored table on the far left was a Big Lots find. We plan to put it on wheels. It will function as a sofa console table, buffet table and pattern cutting table.

The girls and I had a fun day today: we had friends over to play in the morning (including one of L's "tiny boyfriends"), and we adults were so deep in conversation that we talked through lunch and had to whip up some mac-n-cheese quickly for the kiddos. We then accompanied them to another friend's pool for some water play. Now J is anxious for L to get up from her nap, and I'm not (since blogging doesn't really count for accomplishing anything during nap time). Ah well...life goes on!

Coon Huntin

Just a little update about life in the new house...

It feels so HUGE after living in that tiny apartment for 7 months! I am officially tired of moving. Good thing we are living here until the end, eh?

JP has been working on unpacking and organizing books in the Library. I think we had at least 30 boxes just of books. It is nearly finished and the wall of built in bookshelves is filled.

I have been working on the kitchen. There were a lot of kitchen boxes too! I was able to get rid of a bunch of items...after all, I managed to feed us 3 meals a day in the apartment with 30% of the stuff! Some things we are really glad to see again, like our ice cream maker...just in time for the 4th!

We got the girls' furniture set up, and I unpacked all their things (also managed to hide some things away for the Thrift Store Donation Box). They are overjoyed to have their toys back, and spend lots of time downstairs playing together. That is really helpful while JP and I are trying to get some things accomplished, but I hope once we are settled they will bring toys upstairs to play too.

The repair men were out in droves this week. Yesterday a man looked at the washer. Apparently when you store washing machines, you should fill them with RV antifreeze so the pump doesn't crack. We have a new pump ordered and I should have a functioning washer and dryer by the end of the week (no more Laundromat excursions I hope!) The refrigerator guy fixed the fridge and the men hoisted it back over the bar. The stove dude found that the problem with the 2 burners on the left is that the controls are switched: the left front control works the left rear burner, etc. He has ordered a part AND a new cook top (just in case) and will be back in 2 weeks.

It is interesting living at a construction site. JP and I are up until midnight or later every night, and then the crew arrives at 7:15 to begin work. They are mostly working outside, but along with the birds in the morning, we get to hear the heavy equipment and nail guns. I'm not complaining, honestly, I'm still sleeping better than I have for 7 months. Our builder actually pulled a couple of men off this week to start their next project. I'm a bit sad to see them go...they feel almost like family now (and L has a bit of a crush on one of them, and his blue truck.) This morning, when I came out of the bedroom, they were working on the soffit of the prow and were way up in the air!

This week they have nearly finished all the siding, soffit and gutters, and have the furnace/air conditioning almost ready to run. They started putting the drop ceilings in a couple of the closets downstairs, so that should be completed by tomorrow.

I am on the rodent rampage again...trapped 4 mice over the past 2 nights. The raccoons got into our trash last night and spread rotting watermelon rinds all over the garage. JP has seen them on the porch several times, and run out with his gun, but scared them away in the process. I think we need a dog and/or cat!

We are still waiting on hot water in the East side of the house. Thank goodness we decided to put a shower in the washroom off my Craft Room!

All in all, we love being here! We are so happy with the house, although when pressed we could recite all the places we had to compromise (I try not to though...stop me if you've heard it!) We love the quiet, the space to roam, the virgin walls where we get to make the first holes. J and I "went to town" today, and when we returned, our dining table was in the dining room. So, by her measures, we now live here!

Finally...Countertops!

I took 2 van loads of stuff up to the house today. At noon, they were still waiting on counter tops, but assured me that they were on their way. After dinner, the counter tops were in, along with sinks, cook tops, faucets, etc, etc.

The refrigerator door opens now, as you can see in the picture above. When the fridge was plugged in, however, it made a terrible racket, so now we need to take it back to Sears. Problem is, with the counter tops in, there is less than 33" to get the 33" fridge out. Why can't something just work right the first time for once?

The built-ins on the window wall of the Great Room are finished, and look sharp!

These bookshelves have the old oak mantel on top, and line the hip wall of the stairwell.

This is a shot of my craft area in the mud room. I can't wait to take advantage of all the storage and have room again to leave my scrapbook pages laid out! I've had to work on a TV tray table lately, which is not particularly conducive to coherent thought.

Tomorrow is U-Haul day, and Thursday the phone and DSL should be transferred, so my next post should be from the new house!