I Painted the Deck!

Since I have all this free time with the kids in school.
I thought I better use these last few sunny days to paint the deck

The house was clean ...

I had finished unpacking the last of the boxes
 from Papa's house.

And the first ones...

I had finished painting Jacob's room.  

Oh wait - I did paint his room
the first week of school.

The driveway looked good. 

Real good.
I can even park the van and the car side by side, again.

And the garage is organized,
thanks to Amy and Priscila helping me throw a bunch of OLD stuff away.
Everything over 20 years old had to go! 

But it got filled back up, somehow....

Who really needs to get in the garage in the winter, anyway?

So, I focused all my energy on the deck this week...

and power washed and painted! 

We even moved all the deck furniture into the shed.

Just in time, too.  Looks like the rains are about to start again.  

Guess I'll have to find something else to do with all my free time!

Look out Fall, here I come!

Cotton Candy and Polka Dots

If you were lucky enough to make it to our house during the holiday - Amanda probably already showed you Emily and Becca's newly decorated room.  But if you missed it ...

Here are a few things we learned on this group project...

It goes faster with scratchers and scrapers than picking at it on and off for a few months or so. (But they did enjoy listening to Adventures in Odyssey over and over and over ....)

Here's what everyone else was doing on October 19th... 

I didn't realize how long we had been working on their room!

Apparently, Katy likes to bake when she's frustrated...

 yummy for us.

If mom doesn't really like mint green walls as much as the girls - 

you'll probably have to repaint.  Probably.

Having the right music is always important.  

Plus notice how mom is letting them put the circles wherever they want.... 

not necessarily where mom would have put them.

FYI -The triforce CAN be represented with polka dots.

******

For Christmas, we gave the girls bulletin boards and the promise to finish their room over Christmas break.  With one more trip to IKEA for the little shelves and 2+ hours of hanging things...  I think we are done.

Becca's side

Emily's side

Well, we still need to repaint the chairs... that red just doesn't go with our color scheme.

But that will have to wait until a drier, warmer month.  

Maybe done isn't the right word...

"How are ya'll doing?"

I think we are doing well.

Darren started a Drupal job yesterday. Seems to like it so far...but I haven't talked to him today :)

Katy got her wish... her own room at grandma's AND her very own Facebook account! Like is good for the pre-teen sect. She actually got her horn out yesterday. Good to hear her squeaking, I mean, practicing. I think she and I are going to start taking advantage of the tennis courts across the street.

Jacob is with the cousins for a few days. I'm sure he's having a great time: food, DS, wrestling, tv, bikes and skateboards, repeat - who wants to come back over here?

The other are all in one room. Katy's old nursery. White picket fence wallpaper and a blue ceiling with clouds and glow in the dark stars. There's bunk beds, crib, toddler bed and dresser.... and that's all the room there is. They are ALL excited that grandma has stairs AND cable tv.

Layla treed a cat the other day... that was funny. I could hear the owner calling his cat, so I "tried" to pull Layla back. She's so strong. I was able to drag her some, so the cat could get down. The tree is on the outside of the fence, but I don't think either the dog or cat knew it :)

How is Jenn? Well, it's a bit tricky to have 6 kids in anyone's home for longer than...3 hours. They hit a lull in their playing and it's time to start making food again.

So being at the in-laws brings all that about, but there is also the joy of sneaking in to bed with grandma and watching early morning cartoons, or family meals with yummy desserts, and working in the garden (my favorite). With more work comes more memories... and a chance to make the kids work.

It really is great to be with the cousins and in-laws. We've been apart for a bit too long. We are trying to pace ourselves, just a little bit. Well, it's a nice theory.

We are praying through our options of where to live, closer to his parents or closer to his brother. The original plan was for us to visit for 2 months, so I figure we have that long to figure it out.

The weather is MUCH cooler than Texas. I am enjoying that. Maybe a bit too much rain, but I'm not complaining (very much).

Guess I'll go check on the raspberries before I head through the woods to find the girls (over at a friends house playing in the sprinkler).

Hugs and kisses to everyone.

We ARE doing well.

sfpp

Warning: You need a pencil and piece of paper for this blog...you might be required to do math.


As I ponder/ dream/ wish for a new house - today I was mulling over square footage per person (sfpp).

During my googling I found some interesting facts...

-In 1950,the average sfpp was 292 sq ft
-In 2006,the average sfpp was 900 sq ft

That means that back in the 50's, my family of 8 would have lived in a roomy 2336 sq ft home...and in 2006 we should have been in a 7200 sq ft home. I think we missed that mark by more than 5000 sq feet in this house.

The numbers don't really take into consideration that the needs of a family of 4 (bathrooms, kitchen, living rooms, bedrooms, etc.) doesn't require another 900 sq feet for a new baby... although another baby and another and another might need a few more bedrooms.

I also don't believe that everyone in the family will pull their weight in the cleaning and maintenance of their 900 sq feet... so those new babies don't qualify for their own 900 sq ft in my bungalow.

Those numbers measure what they measure - people living in houses. It doesn't include the homeless or account for people without kids living in larger square footage, but we'll go with those numbers anyway.

Now, before I bemoan my current 234 sfpp... I thought I'd share an article about a New York couple and their 200 sq ft apartment - that's only 100 sq ft per person!

Sounds fascinating...and maybe my family could squeeze into an 800 sq ft apartment, since that's where my husband's heart longs to live anyway. Right in the middle of the city, close to a park and walking distance to everything. Just grab your backpack and go.

Since we aren't moving to New York this time around, here's one of the floorplans we like right here in Texas.

The main problem is location: Krum, Tx. What do you call people from Krum? Krumonians, Kruminites, Krumers, Krumcakes, Krumbly...

...but it would increase our square footage per person by 76 (that's another 600 sq ft bringing the new home total to 2487 sq ft.).

Enjoy your walk in closets and 3 or more potties today.
You know who you are.
I'll be joining you shortly!