A Possible Repeat of Family Cuteness

You know what I never thought was that big of a deal but turns out I feel edgy without it? Baseboards. Well, the quarter-round that goes along the bottom of the baseboards, to be specific. I miss my quarter-round. I just can't ever feel like the house is clean these days. I know part of it is that our floor is rough concrete, but it's that small gap between the floor and the baseboards that just really gets to me.

We did a nice full day of school today. I felt very accomplished.

Claire had her first cello lesson. I'm not sure I see this having longevity.

I have been studying in Colossians. Did you know there's just a whole lot of goodness packed in those four chapters? Well there is. Read it. And then read it a few more times.

I have decided gluten should basically be eliminated from my diet. Last night, Jason surprised me with a date and and I splurged and had some breadsticks. I felt horrible afterwards. My stomach was swollen and tight and I had to waddle out of the restaurant. It was a good reminder of why I started avoiding it in the first place.

I can't remember if I ever posted any of family pictures but if so, enjoy again. :)

It's Over

The floor coverings are gone. The downstairs is now all raw concrete except for my bathroom and Eily and Nora's bedroom. It's going to stay this way until March, so in the meantime, I'm going to finally get curtains and rugs so that it's not so cold and sterile feeling. In about the three weeks, the painter will get started painting all the walls, and we will then be two thirds of the way through all this home repair chaos.

I feel like all I'm blogging about is the very boring details of our house. Sorry. It's just that is what's captivating most of my thoughts right now.

A while back, Kathryn asked me what I would do in my "free" time if I could do anything I wanted. I think she asked it just offhandedly, but it stuck with me and I have devoted a lot of my "free" time thinking about it. What would you do?  I have narrowed it down to sewing and cooking, but I just can't decide between the two.  Of course, traveling would be the obvious answer if "free time" meant more than a few hours in a row and an endless budget, but she didn't clarify those facts.

What would you do?

Purposing to Remain Calm

A new week is starting. I was really looking forward to this week because it's like a tiny fresh, new beginning, but instead of starting off strong like last week, we are starting off in pure chaos. The men are coming tomorrow to tear up all the flooring and so my sister and I moved all of the furniture into the school room, Eily and Nora's room, and our bathroom. Forget school tomorrow. That's not happening. And of course it's the day before the first day back at our co-op. Ideally, we would be able to get to our school desks on that day, but oh well. So here's to a large cup of coffee in the morning, some quiet study time before the workers arrive, and to keeping calm when I really want to scream.

Aaannd, we crashed

Well, we all knew that good streak couldn't last too much longer. I overslept, Jason was up all night with a migraine, school went an hour longer than usual, I spent all afternoon on the phone learning how to work a rife machine (boring), the girls trashed the kitchen playing Master Chef Junior while I was on the phone, as I was cleaning up that mess Jason told me an art friend was staying the night, I got mad at Jason for inviting the art friend since I had just finished hosting a different art friend and we have more company this weekend, Jason got mad at me for being mad at him, the girls were irritable with each other, Jason and I got into a "discussion" and so we were almost late for ballet, I didn't look Jason in the eye when we got home from ballet and then he left to go meet that friend for supper instead of having her stay the night, and now I'm here on the couch, pouting and licking my wounds and not feeling very forgiving-ish. But you know what, I have to forgive. I just do. It's what is right and certainly not easy, but not impossible. And I have to ask for forgiveness. Y'all, I HATE asking for forgiveness. I love to show it, to feel it, etc... but I DO NOT like to say the words. And that's an ugly truth about me. I should say it's one of the ugly truths about me because there are plenty to be found.

Silver linings: I did all my prep work for my tutor meeting tomorrow and I'm about to work on the new cleaning schedule. Those two things were weighing heavily on my mind and it feels good to put them behind me. Also, tomorrow is a new day; tomorrow is a fresh start.

I'm still enjoying our routine-y days. I'm slightly obsessing over them, actually.

Is this post to personal? Maybe. But I'm going to take a small guess that you all have had days like this and so you can relate, perhaps smile at my misery a little, and say a little prayer that tomorrow is the opposite of today.

Do I still have readers? If so, I would love to read a comment from you. It helps to know that I'm actually "talking" to someone.  (kudos to Mom for her commenting) :)

Still Going Strong

you guys...

Sleep makes all the difference. Seriously.
When the clock shows 10pm, I go to bed even if I don't think I'm sleepy yet, because I am pretty much always sleepy by 10.30pm and by the time I actually settle down to try to sleep, thirty minutes have passed and I fall right to sleep. Thankfully, I am a fast go-to-sleep-er and usually within five minutes I am snoozing. And last night not one child climbed in our bed during the night. Let me repeat that: NOT ONE CHILD CRAWLED INTO OUR BED DURING THE NIGHT.

It. Was. Amazing.

So in light of that news, I can tell you that Jason and I both woke up at 6:30 this morning feeling fully rested and ready to get the day started. That literally never happens. Because of his Lyme's, I am usually dragging him out of bed around nine o'clock. It was a great start to our day and it feels very nice to be having two great days in a row.

I did get my exercising in last night before bed and I am about to do today's exercising. School is finished for the day. So that leaves figuring out the rife machine, assembling my Morning Routine binder, and folding two loads of laundry. I'm feeling that's very doable. I LOVE THESE KINDS OF DAYS. Oh, and I need to call and make hair appointments for the girls. Still, so totally doable. I am soaking up this moment because I don't know how long this good streak is going to last. 

Back in the Saddle

Today has been a pretty good day. We got back in our normal routine of things and it was a welcome change to the three-week long break that we just finished. I have actually accomplished everything on my to-do list except exercise, and I will get to that once we get back from getting Jason's van from the car place.

Our new couch came today. I ordered it back in October so I really had no idea what it was going to look like. I mean, I had a vague memory, but not really. The color is less gray and more brown that I remembered, but I still like it. It is very large. Like very, very large, but our living room is pretty big so it's looking alright in its spot.

We've decided not not to put down hardwood floor. It's kind of a hard decision because I was getting $12,000 worth of hardwood for $1000, but the pressure to decide on the type and color was just too much for me. Over Christmas we stayed with Jason's brother and his family and they have stained concrete in their downstairs. We decided to save some money and come out ahead on the insurance by having him come stain ours for us over spring break. This also means that I get to rip up the old, nasty carpet that is currently in our living room. Hooray for that! We still have to hire the floor guys to take out the old flooring and clean up the concrete, but that is significantly cheaper than putting down new hardwood floor. We will also pay his brother some, but it's still much less money than it was going to be. I predict that by the end of 2016, this house will look much different than it does right now. But in a positive way.

Jason got his passport today and will be leaving for China for three weeks in March. Good thing he likes Chinese food. Ha!

We start back with out homeschool co-op next week. I was supposed to have the revamped cleaning schedule ready- not done, and have prepped for the tutor meeting this Thursday- also not done.

One of my goals for 2016 is to blog once a week. So far, I haven't failed. hahah

Happy Monday, everyone!

2016

New Year.  New memories to make. I don't really make resolutions for the long term, but I do usually make one for the first month or two of the year. This year, it's no sugar for the family until the middle of February. The girls haven't even acted like it's that big of a deal and they are all on board. Jason is SUPER on board which makes me really happy. That will make it so much easier to actually follow through with this resolve. Our family's health really, really needs this. As does my gut.

I am ready for school to start back again. We need the daily routine of it and the push to get out of bed at a decent hour.

Happy New year, everyone. I'm off to make breakfast for the fam.