Small, Positive Changes

We've had a few changes this week. The girls finished school, Nora got a big haircut, and we majorly rearranged the bedrooms in the house.

Originally, we used the back room as a room for all four girls, the small front room for Jason's and my bedroom, and the larger front room for a schoolroom/playroom.

But eventually, Jason tired of having to do the shuffle to get to his side of the bed, and I started to dream of a nursery type bedroom for the two little girls.

There was a very large bookshelf in the schoolroom but my cousin who had made it was smart enough to make sure it could be divided into sections. What he forgot to do was stain the sides that were touching.

That made it a little confusing to figure out where we could place the sections after we separated them into different rooms so that the un-stained side didn't show, but eventually it was all properly arranged.. (Bless Jessica and her strong, helpful arms.)

I put one of the full iron beds in the small front room, moved in a dresser, and the smallest section of the bookshelf.

I also set up a drawing/coloring area with a nice-sized wall space for hanging future artwork.

This little corner holds Eily's desk and as of right now it looks very plain. I have a beautiful crosstitch that my Aunt Melissa did for my room when I was three that will be hung on the wall once I get it framed. Eily may hang a bit of her artwork here, as well. I still need to paint the two rocking horses- but I've been saying that for seven and a half years now. I do think that one day I will get it accomplished. It may be when I have grandchildren, but it will happen.

Once I get the back room as I want it and my room painted and decorated, I will share photos of those as well.

Scroll down for a few more photos of The Nursery.

A Few Things

Ten days between posts is just too long.

Cousin Margaret had better hurry up and make her appearance. 

I'm the director for a Classical Conversations school in this area. I'm excited about it.

I wrote an essay for the first time in probably fifteen years. It took three of us to get it finished.

I finally dusted my living room. It had been a while. A very long while.

I have started sort-of exercising again and being more mindful of what I eat. I expect results as fast as yesterday. 

Maybe I have unrealistic expectations.

It has rained for a lot of days in a row. Three, maybe?

Nora is ornery. But I love her. And I'm exhausted.

Elaina is ridiculously long legged. Lucky duck.

Eily is not little anymore. But she's still tiny and I'm so glad.

Claire is either the best help ever, or the hardest distraction. There's no middle ground. But I love her.

She and Nora really have a special thing going on between them right now. 

Otis (the dog) is somehow surviving Nora's love. He's cute.

But he's no Samson.

Jason is busy traveling the world and painting. He's having a harder time this year with the separation. :(

I'm here. Doing my thing. Helping the girls with their things. Talking on the phone with Jason about his things. 

It's a good life we've got over here. Hard sometimes, but good.

The Garden

Originally, I had planned on planting straight in the ground. A husband of a local church member came and tilled up the old garden spot that Uncle Ishmael and Aunt Winnie had always used. And then it got very cold. And then it rained again. And then it got very cold again. Finally, the sun came out and I went over to the spot to make a plan of exactly where I would plant my veggies.
And then I saw the rocks.
There were thousands and thousands of them.
And maybe a million more.

So I decided to go the raised vegetable bed route. The Pioneer Woman has a great tutorial on how to make one so I went to Lowes and stocked up on the supplies I needed.

I picked what seemed like a lovely spot. It was going to look very Beatrice Potter-ish.  The view was right out my bedroom window so that I could see my thriving plants first thing every morning. 

It was also right over the septic tank. Mom and I had spent the better part of a day building and leveling these bed so it was a tiny bit disheartening to have to move them. I had staked them into the ground, so I waited until I had my brothers and brothers-in-law here to help me pull them up and relocate them. And by help me, I mean they moved them while I walked beside and directed.  Good thing I was there or it would have been pure chaos. I'm sure of it.

So "we" moved them over to where the garden had been tilled earlier and the boys called it a day.

This afternoon (why I waited until the hottest part of the day to do this, I'll never know) I shoveled and shoveled and shoveled a truck bed worth of dirt into garden #1.  I don't think I've been this proud of my self for tenacity and pushing-through since I helped Grandpa break up the old concrete well with a sledge hammer. That was a good day.

Eily really came through the last five minutes and tossed some dirt in with her hands. I just don't know if I could have handled that last little bit without her help. :)

We were finally ready to plant. Hooray! We planted tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, rosemary, and sweet potatoes. I still have some basil and cilantro that needs to be planted ASAP but as you can see in the pictures, garden # 2 still has a ways to go before it can accept any plants. 

I really wanted to get that finished this week but I have to travel to the big city to get the dirt and we are supposed to have bad weather Thursday and Friday. I may try to do it on Saturday but that's a lot of work for one day.  I also need to decide what else I want to plant. I'm trying to plant the things I spend the most money on at the grocery store. I know I want to plant green beans and onions, but that's all I can think of. Any suggestions? I would love to plant corn but I don't know if corn would work in this type of garden. 

Happy 6th birthday, Eily!

Happy birthday to my third child, my spunky twirler, my eyeore pouter, my giggly kiddo, my super-tight-hugger-giver, 

Eily Edith Sacran

We love, love, love you!