Remodeling

My floor looked like this:

over my entire living area.  Although not perfectly clean here, it is not horribly dirty. It just always looked dirty. Who in their right mind chooses to put down white porcelain tile with a faint "paw print" pattern over the entire floor when they live in the country???

So, you understand why we had to remodel the floor.  Red oak hardwood was our choice. Lovely.


The cover of our dishwasher was warped and fell off when you opened the door--unless you are smart like me and used electrical tape to hold it on--then it stayed in place for a whole week without falling off. The inside had also started to rust, so it was only logical that we replace the dishwasher at the same time that we laid down the new flooring.

But then it got interesting.

See, when Daddy took the dishwasher out from under the counter, he realized why the door cover kept falling off: the steam from the dishwasher over time had warped the laminate counter top causing it to hang down just slightly over the edge so that it hit the cover and busted the inside piece. When he removed the dishwasher, he removed part of the laminate.

So we needed new countertops.

Then, while working on the floor, Daddy realized that parts of the tile had been laid on plywood because they covered the basement, while small areas were laid on cement. The little alcoves in front of the guest room and office would need to have the wood glued down.  The front entryway would need new tile. But what to do with the recessed area in front of the bay window?


I get a window seat!

The day after my husband finished laying most of the floor, our refrigerator broke--most likely shifted something around when putting in the flooring. It was 15 years old anyway; time for a replacement. So we loaded the children into the car, dropped them off at Grandma's and headed to the appliance store. About 3 miles from the store, a kind gentleman pulled up next to us at a stoplight and alerted us to the fact that our tire was very low on air.  We pulled into the next gas station and as Daddy filled it with air, he heard the air leaving. We had minutes to find a new tire store.

We rolled into the parking lot of a tire place on the rim and decided to replace all four tires--they needed it.  While we waited, we walked 2 miles in 107* heat to the appliance store to pick out our refrigerator. It will be delivered today. The salesman kindly drove us back to the tire store and we made it home safely.

So...

What do you get when you choose to remodel your floor?

A new hardwood floor,
A new dishwasher,
New countertops,
New tile in the entryway,
A window seat,
A refrigerator,
And four new tires.

I asked my husband if that meant we were done remodeling for the next few years. His answer:

"Well, except I would like to get a new stove top next year..."


Sigh.

Here Comes the Sun...

Samuel came to me while Connor and Honor were finishing up their schoolwork. He was carrying the following drawing.  Thinking it was a picture of him, Mommy and Daddy, I asked him to tell me about it. (Just to clarify, I CAN read.  I added the words later in Paint...)

This is what he said:

"This is me as a baby. 
This is you. 
This is a rain cloud. 
This is God holding out his arm to stop the rain and keep the sun on us."

  ^{Matthew 19:14}

 But Jesus said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

My Little Ninja

Just one question...

"Are they clean????"

Hand Me Downs

This beautiful card was an early Mother's Day gift from my sweet little Ariana...

 

She makes me smile :-D...

Proud Artist

The kiddos got their schoolwork done very early today so I gave them some paper, colored pencils, paints, crayons and scissors and let them have at it.  Connor asked me to leave the room so he could make my Mother's Day surprise.  So I checked my e-mail.

A few minutes after I sat down, Samuel came running in to show me his artwork.

"Mom! Mom! Look what I made!  How do you like IT?"

No pun intended...

That's Not MY Hat

We have a teenager living with us for an indeterminate amount of time. He is pretty low maintenance...basically we only see him when he needs to eat, use the restroom, or do laundry. Yesterday was a laundry day.

Today when I went to do laundry there was one sock left in the dryer. Not wanting to bother finding the key to unlock the door to his room (locked to keep the little children out, not the adults...), I simply hung the sock on the doorknob.

Later I found the sock on the bathroom floor.

"Who took the sock off Z's door?"

A chorus of "not me" came from the three older children.

I sighed and maybe rolled my eyes a little. "If you were not the who, then you don't need to answer." Looking pointedly at my youngest son, I asked, "Samuel?"

Without looking up from his Kindergarten Smart Steps game, he answered, "I took it. I was going to use it as a hat, but it didn't fit."

I promptly left the room so that he would not hear my hysterical laughter.

Yes

Yes, one of the lights was out in the basement making it dimmer than normal.

Yes, I did see a fake gecko sitting on top of the kids' costume box.

Yes, I did "trap" it under a clear tea pot so that I could carry it outside.

Yes, I did graduate from Iowa State University with a degree in Animal Ecology.

Yes, my husband does want to call ISU and tell them to take my degree back...

I Know I Shouldn't Laugh But...

this struck me as very funny for some reason...


In History and Geography, we are studying about pollution.  At the end of each chapter, the children must fill in the blank with the correct word from the story. 

The question read:

Sometimes ____________ can help prevent pollution.

The correct answer was "laws".

This is what one of my children wrote:


Sometimes smoking can help prevent pollution.


I think we need to go back and reread exactly what pollution is...