Distracting Myself From Reality and Trim

Oh the overwhelm. I think I’ve got a handle on things but it is true that it gets worse before it gets better. The house is a disaster and I’ve been distracting myself from reality.

I decided that I spent way too much time following the lives of others. A few blogs here and there, fine, but to spend so much time scrolling through Instagram stories and the like was messing with my head and a waste. So I’ve been social media free for almost a week now. That has left a vacuum though. What did I fill it with? Books. I’ve disappeared into worlds with pirates, thieves, good guys, bad guys, and of course, the necessary (clean) romance. Its been a good break. I’ve even cut out a lot of the political talk shows in favor of the adventure that doesn’t involve me.

Alex and I told the kids they need to get off technology and read more books. I haven’t been to the library in months. I don’t like dealing with the covid measures. The last time I went the library doors were locked, you had to ring the bell, wait for them to come let you in, wear a mask, and only two people allowed in the library at once (excluding the librarians). Too much hassle and so I stopped going and just read the books I have on my kindle. Michael said there was a book he wanted to read and the library does have it but its checked out until February 6th. He was miffed he would have to wait that long. Patience, kid. Guess we’ll start going to the library again.

We had the Sister missionaries over for Family Home Evening last night and they shared a message about Christ. We all had paper and pen and we took a minute and a half to write down all the names for Christ. I was surprised at how good the kids did. It was a good little lesson. We then had Oreos and a quick game. It was fun.

After the missionaries left Alex and I got to work. Just one “little” project a night. I spent a bit of the day prepping some of the stuff so Alex’s job would go faster. I got the insulation put up in the ceiling in the living room from the leak back before Christmas. Yes, we procrastinated. It literally took me twenty minutes but I kept putting it off. Story of my life. I measured and cut the sheet rock and brought it in. It was too heavy to put up on the ceiling by myself but we got it up quick when Alex was there. That should stop the melting and ice issue we’ve been dealing with.

I also measured and cut a few pieces of baseboard and put them where they go so that it just needed to be nailed up. We also got the front door trimmed! It was so ugly for so long. But it is fixed and I still need to paint the door trim and the walls but it looks a million times better. I didn’t have a before picture that was easy to find but here’s the before (pre-paint) picture.

We still have three closets and three other doors to trim out and that takes care of that part. I won’t list here the amount of stuff that still needs to be done. It is daunting but the list is smaller than it was nine months ago.

I was looking at pictures of the house before we moved in. Michael said if he didn’t know they were the same house he wouldn’t know.

Before

Painted cabinets (temporary cheap fix)

Almost After

It is really a huge difference. I’m excited to do a post about the whole things with all the pictures in one place. It will be fun to see.

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One Step Closer

The kids went to school and I got to work painting trim and then the power went out. Oh joy. The kids that were home and I sat in the front room where all the light is. The room has been a catch-all, much to my chagrin. But the kids found stuff to play with. They found all the toys I’m donating and set up a store to play. The power was supposed to be out until 1:30 but turned on around 9:30, an hour or so later. Thank goodness. When Benjamin came home from school he said it was the worst day ever because the power came back on. The busses were lined up and they were about to send the kids home when it came back on. Poor kids having to stay at school.

Once the power was back on I got up and finished painting while the kids traipsed off to do what kids do. I finished painting all the trim! Until later I realized we hadn’t bought baseboards yet so I still have those to do.

My friend and I had agreed to exercise together three times a week, alternating at each other’s house. We both, unbeknownst to the other, had decided that if the power was out at the time we’d agreed to then we wouldn’t exercise. The power turned back on. I headed to her house to honor our commitment and I’m glad I did. We both wanted to quit but didn’t because the other was counting on us. I just realized we need to have a set goal.

Later, after I’d had a nap with Evangeline, I dreaded getting up. I was still tired but knew I needed to go shovel the slushy snow before it froze. I told my boys to come help and when I went outside someone else had done it for us! What a blessing! I’d noticed earlier in the day that a few guys had been shoveling (with their snow thrower) other people’s driveways and I thought that was a kind gesture, never imagining they would do mine.

I then turned my mind to dinner. I was struggling to think of what to make when I remembered I had my meal planning notebook. I looked at it and taco salad was on the menu. Yes! I’d already planned it so now my job was easy. Honestly, thinking of what to make is the hardest part.

After dinner Alex and I worked on the kitchen. Again. Still. But, we are so much closer! One hiccup was that you need to have a real plan in place and not just an idea. We only had an idea so it took some trial and error and a bit of last minute decisions but we got one door and a window done.

Before

After

Don’t you just love it! I do. Its hard to picture what it was before. Now only two windows and twelve doors to go (counting the two sides on some of the doors). The windows are the most work, the doors go up quickly. Today I need to schedule the electrician to come back and the countertop people to come measure. Its so exciting!

Painting Day

I jumped right into the work this morning. I painted for hours. Do I like painting? Um, that would be a no. But I like the outcome. And the kitchen needs it. Obviously.

I have painted the interior of my house many times and exterior of my house once. Now when I was really low on money but needed to paint I used the cheap stuff. I works fine. As long as you don’t plan on washing your walls. Wiping walls painted with cheap paint will wipe off the paint and the paint peels off the walls easy. It was okay for then. I didn’t want that in this new kitchen. I want the paint to stay on when I wash them. So I used Benjamin Moore’s Wickham Grey. And since it isn’t cheap, I am not going to paint areas that no one will ever see. There is no point.

I painted the corners after I took this picture.

Now, whether it was a good idea or not, I painted the ceiling with the same paint and color as the walls. One reason was laziness. For real. I just want this project done. Reason number two is that if you paint the walls and ceiling the same color it makes the room look bigger. This is not a large room so any optical illusion I can use to make it look bigger I will use it.

I finished the walls and ceiling with time to do more- I told you I am desperate to get this done. I laid out and painted as much trim as I had room for. Two coats. The third coat I’ll do after it is installed. I have probably about fifteen more boards to paint and then it is out of my hands for awhile. I am sure Alex is ecstatic because he gets to start trimming tonight. I’ll keep him company.

Most of the trim waiting to be used.

By the way, I was incredibly sore when I started this project due to starting to workout again and after hours and hours of painting, I was exhausted. I really hope that this is the biggest project I ever do though I seriously doubt it seeing as the basement bedrooms and bathroom need an overhaul. And the exterior of the house needs siding. It never ends. What we would love to do is tear down the garage (it wasn’t built right – surprise surprise) and build it right and add a second story to it for a sun room, extra room, whatever. We probably better just buy a new house.

Nah.

Progress and Stocking Up

This past weekend we worked on the kitchen. It’s looking so good. I can say I really hate sanding. And I can say I should have done a better job of it. Now it will bug me forever. Oh well. Maybe only I will notice it. We sanded and then primed the walls and ceiling patches.

View from the laundry room

View from the hallway

I am so ready to be done with this whole mess. A little over a month left and it will be over. The plan is to paint the walls and trim this week and hopefully start trimming doors and windows this week. I worked on it for a few minutes today but today I needed to get a paint brush and food. We were out of milk and a bunch of other apocalyptic supplies. You know how it goes. And I have voracious teenagers so its even worse.

I had dreaded going to the store today. It used to be a fun thing but now it is just work. At Costco I had one of those flatbed carts. I stacked it really high and walked slow because it was heavy, and because I didn’t want stuff to fall off. I’m am pretty sure people were looking at me weird but I never care about that anyways. I’ve got more important things to worry about than their opinion.

I am a tetris master

I wish I could say this was all of it but I went back in with Alex a little while later while we were still in town to get a few more things. I only go to Costco once every month or so. I hate wearing a mask and they are sticklers about it. And it is a drive and gas costs and all. Well, I sucked it up and went with my list. Well, I knew that they limited toilet paper to one package per person. That’s all well and good if you have a normal size family. With ten people you need a bit more for use and storage. But what I didn’t know was that they were rationing flour. Yeah. Fifty pounds or two bags per purchase. I wanted to stock up with five. They had to take three back. So I went back in later with Alex and got two more. Like I said, with a normal size household the two bags might suffice. But I am running a family diner. In my house. For my eight kids. And since I only go there once a month or so, I feel justified.

When we finally got home we had the kids bring all the groceries into the house. One time I was at a store and the bagger asked if I needed help out to the car. No, sir, that is the easy part. The hard part is getting it in the house and put away. Is there a service that does that? I would love that. But then, I have the kids for that. If they eat it, they can haul the food in. I try to time the trips for when the kids are home.

So it is all put away and I feel more prepared for the end of the world. Well, maybe just the next month or so. We’ll find out, won’t we.

We had Family Home Evening after dinner cleanup. I’d told the kids to prepare their parts. Elizabeth read a story and we played Catch Phrase and ate cookies. It was fun. Michael slept through the whole thing. It isn’t a joke that teenagers are always sleeping. Michael is always sleeping. He better be tall for all of it.

Oh, and I did workout with my friend, too, that morning. We both needed a push and motivation. I am so sore and I am sure she is, too. We did a BBG workout. They are good and I have a love/hate relationship with them but they work and it feels good to push myself. Having an accountability partner for exercise hopefully makes me stick with it. We’ll see. I can’t wait for the snow to melt on the track so I can go walking outside again. The school kids go cross-country skiing on it for gym if that tells you anything about the state of the track right now. I guess I could do that if I had the skis. There’s an idea worth exploring. Hmm. I’ll look that up. Like I need a new hobby.

What’s in a Name

Okay, I try to keep this blog just kind of on the light side. My main focus is my life with my family. If I didn’t have them my focus would be completely different, obviously. That being said, the family is the most important unit in society.

This past week it was announced in the political rings that they shall no longer use mother, father, brother, sister, step-parents, etc. The list goes on. There were a lot of memes going around about it. They were funny.

The memes are comical but there is a very serious problem with it in reality.

Years ago, September 23, 1995 to be precise, there was a proclamation sent out to the world about the family. I was fifteen and thought that everything in it was obvious. Like glaringly obvious. Little did I know how prophetic it was until just the last few years.

“All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny. Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose.”

This joked about situation that the government of the United States has put forth is, in fact, not funny. It it very serious. To think that they can do away with what makes us individuals and try to take away that identity is evil. It’s been slowly (or quickly depending on if you are paying attention) creeping into society and is blatant evil.

“The family is central to the Creator’s plan for the eternal destiny of His children.”

Take away mother, father, brother, sister, grandparents, uncles, aunts, even the mere mention, and you are contributing to the breakdown of the central unit that is central to our wellbeing and happiness. The frog is slowly boiling here. It seems a small thing but all the small things add up.

I might not be able to march in any big way, but this is my way of speaking out. The family unit is the most important unit, learning center, relationship that will ever exist on the earth, or the eternities for that matter. Satan knows this and knows that it will contribute to his downfall and will do every little thing he can to break it up. Even something as seemingly small as taking away a name.

My family is more important to me than anything in this world and I will do whatever it takes to make sure that it stays together. I named the blog Hold On Forever because of my sentiments for my family. I’m not perfect at it but what counts is that I am constantly trying.

“We call upon responsible citizens and officers of government everywhere to promote those measures designed to maintain and strengthen the family as the fundamental unit of society.”

I echo that statement and hope that more and more of us do because its the small things that add up and make a difference, for better or for worse. I pray that more of us stand for the better.

First Monday 2021

Monday-est Monday of the year. I knew it was coming and I’ve dreaded it, kind of. After over two weeks of late nights, late mornings, a basic free for all, Monday morning hit hard. Didn’t help that our night was interrupted by the snow plow several times. Yes, several times. Our street isn’t that long but it was like he would plow a strip and then go to the other side of town then come back. Which is fine, I guess but when you are awakened by what you think is an earthquake, the ground is shaking, and then what your dreamself thinks is an alarm going off but is actually the tractors back up signal (does it really need to be on at 2 a.m.?). The night’s sleep is very interrupted. Especially when one’s spouse scares you awake because their dream was effected by said noise and your adrenaline is going and then maybe an hour later sleep finally comes. The alarm rang way too early.

The kids all managed to wake up though there was lots of grumbling. One teenager asked if he could just stay home because he didn’t want to go. Nope. Life doesn’t work like that. Besides, he got two weeks off! I think the longer the break the harder it is to go back. I told him it doesn’t matter what he wants to do. Did his dad want to wake up at 5:30 to drive 45 minutes to work? Do I want to spend the day doing laundry and dishes and vacuuming and mopping and hopefully getting some mudding and baking in? Um, no. I have a movie I got for Christmas that I have wanted to watch but haven’t gotten around to. I’d rather sit with a mug of hot chocolate cuddled up in a blanket and watch my movie than work all day. Such is life.

The kids all got off to school and I got to work. The littles slept in and instead of mudding (I really dread it even though it isn’t difficult) I spent the entire day decluttering. Yes, still! Its getting old and redundant. But look at this one space- I am making some headway!

I did get rid of some things, put some away and moved others to a better location. I tackled a couple other areas as well and got a pretty good stack of garbage thrown away. There is one more area in the basement to clean up and I will have the basement done. Yay! I’ve just needed to get the clutter out so I can think. That or I’m avoiding something I really need to get done.

For dinner I had a simple recipe I wanted to make. Sun-dried tomato and spinach chicken pasta. I used to get a similar meal at the Olive Garden like twenty years ago and it was my favorite! I wanted it with homemade pasta. That and the homemade bread are what put the meal over the edge. It was really really good, but took two hours to make with all the parts. It would have been a quick thirty minute meal if I’d used store bought pasta and French bread. I did have a good conversation with the little kids who helped make the pasta so it was worth it. That and my fifteen year old loved it and ate several servings. He’s been picky lately so to find a meal he liked is a good thing.

I was feeling ambitious this day. I had watched a few of the gals I follow and one was talking about how she keeps her house clean and the other was making a big home cooked meal for her family and I wanted that. Well, I did it and it took me all day. Now if I can just keep the mess from returning I shouldn’t ever have to spend weeks getting it to where it should be.

One last goal I wanted to work on was to have Family Home Evening every week. I gave the kids their assignments and left them to it. It was good. Michael gave the lesson and he made it pretty easy, we watched a video and talked about it. Benjamin had the activity and we played Uno. I have decided that games are a huge learning/teaching opportunity. We have never been a game family but I am glad that we’ve started. I’ve got some kids who tend to lose it when things don’t go how they want. Its been a good time to be able to teach them to remain calm and brush off the things that don’t matter instead of freaking out over everything. And I mean everything.

It was a busy day, but looking back on it, we packed a lot of good things into it. One Monday down, 51 left to go for the year, give or take.

Mudding and Meals

Guess what we did Friday. If you said mud walls you are a winner. Bonus points if you added in decluttering. It seems like that’s all I do lately.

We slept in way too late New Year’s Day but its still vacation. When I got up I woke up the remaining sleeping children and we got to work cleaning up from the party the night before. Evangeline had dumped hundreds of Bananagram tiles, there were nerf balls everywhere as well as blankets and other toys. We got it all picked up and vacuumed and then I took down the tree. The kids were marvelously cooperative and we got it all put away and the furniture rearranged. I like the new arrangement and will keep it for awhile.

Then we mudded and mudded and then mudded some more. We are almost done and will be painting next week. I am so tired of dealing with this remodel. I woke up and got a bit mad because I let this project take up so much of my thoughts for the past 6-9 months. I just want my life back without this giant involved project looming over everything. Almost there.

We also did more decluttering on Saturday. How is it possible to have to do that much? My sister has been doing the same thing. She ran out of room in her garbage can. I said I did the same thing. I decluttered my way into a trip to the dump.

I didn’t wake up a new person New Year’s Day, in case you thought there had been a miracle. Too bad. But I am easing into the stuff I do want to accomplish. For years I’ve wanted to have a years menu planned out so I don’t have to keep thinking of it day in and day out. I finally started it. What I was originally going to do was sit down and plan the whole years. That was daunting to say the least. What I decided to do instead was just do a couple weeks at a time and eventually I would have the whole year done and never have to do it again! I even included the shopping list for the week so it is all taken care of.

Its so pretty!

Some of the first meals of the year.

I won’t write the ingredients we should have on hand such as flour, and milk, etc. but I hope this cuts down on the time I spend every day or week trying to feed this family of mine. Slow and steady wins the race. The only issue I see are those times when we just don’t feel like eating the planned meal but I guess it’s just food and I’ll act like it’s a cafeteria and I just eat what is there. If only I didn’t have to cook it.

In the front of the planner I have lists of meal ideas to choose from categorized by type, such as noodles, Latin, Asian, American, comfort food, soups, etc. Each day of the week has a theme, or should anyways, and for breakfasts I’ll just repeat every two weeks. Dandy.

On Sunday we rested. No dishes, no cleaning, no projects. I loved it. We went to church and since last month I was the chorister, this month I get to sit with my family. Sounds great until I sit with my family. They love me and love to sit by me so it felt like a circus sitting there with rotating children on and off my lap. I love them but man it is easier sitting up in the front of the congregation where I don’t have to tell kids to be quiet and hold still one hundred times in an hour. One perk though was while holding Evangeline she was plying with her shoes and making up a song. It was too adorable and I had a hard time making myself shush her.

I made sweet rolls and told the kids one of my my goals for the year was service and that included giving some baked goods away. We had a discussion later on that evening about listening to the Spirit and serving others. I tasked them with figuring out who to serve next week.

That was pretty much the weekend. It was good and snowy and we enjoyed the time together. I am excited to jump into this next week and get a bunch done and hang out some more with my family.

It Was a Long Night

Alex and I spent the morning of the last day of the year shoveling snow, cleaning, and mudding walls. Sound fun, I know.

I went out and shoveled away the great big berm of snow that was blocking the path from the street to the walkway. Our appliances were coming and though we could have just put them in the garage I figured it would be better to have the delivery guys do the work and bring it into the house. I was super excited when the appliances arrived. My boys just rolled their eyes at me. It was a good way to end 2020.

The dishwasher, oven, and cook top!

It was back to mudding. Alex finally couldn’t do it anymore because looking up was hurting his neck. Dang it. I was hoping to get out of mudding; Alex was doing such a great job. But I dug in and got to it. All that was left was the ceiling and the texture on the walls and ceiling. I got all the ceiling seams done and around the edges and some more texture on the walls while Alex was on his hands and knees cleaning up the dropped mud and mopping the floor to put down paper so the dust and paint wouldn’t ruin the floor. We are so close to being done!

We then took the kids out for ice cream cones. We figured it was a good way to spend a bit of time with them and when we got home we started working on our new years eve party. Yay! Normally we do appetizers and such and I guess this year wasn’t too much different.

We pulled out my fancy dishes and prepared the spread. It was quite fun and healthy-ish and there was something for everyone. And lots of leftovers, thank goodness because we can do an easy lunch for a couple days. We thought it would be a fun way the kids could try new things. We had a few varieties of cheeses and sausages as well as dips and spreads. We decided we don’t like brie. I know, we are uncultured. But the fig orange spread? I was over the moon about. Michael said that if the fig orange spread had a sound it would be a whisper. Alex said the brie tasted like bad breath. I llaughed at both the descriptions.

While we ate we watched the older version of The Parent Trap and loved it. We then played a bunch of games such as Uno, Pictionary, Mad Gab, a minute to win it game Lauren came up with, etc. We were all having a grand time. When it was probably eleven we finally turned on The Hardy Boys series on Hulu. We’ve been binge watching it for a few days, much to our detriment. Midnight came, we all shouted and cheered. Evangeline joined in though she had no idea what was happening. It was adorable. I then went to pick up one of my boys from a party, we got home and kept watching the show. I managed to get them to stop at 2 a.m. Crazy? Yes. We still have one episode left. We’ll watch it tonight. It was a fun memory to have though.

Well, I wish you all a happy new year and I’m glad you’ve stuck with me this far. Thanks for reading all my ramblings and weirdness. Its been fun and I look forward to more of it.

When the Clock Strikes Midnight

I am trying to be realistic but I can’t help but hope I’ll wake up a new person on January 1, 2021. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. I have some lofty goals.

This past week or so has been a study in opposites. I’ve been desperately trying to control my little world by cleaning out junk, purging the house of unnecessary items, gathering garbage and removing it from the house. All the while I’ve been gorging on Christmas candy and the like as if it was my last meal. I’m a bit upset with my actions.

As I’ve been doing all this stuff I’ve been thinking about how I would like my life to run, ideally. I first wrote down what I value, what is important to me- faith/God, family, health, financial security, and home. I jotted down every category on my phone as I thought of it, then subcategories, then some actions needed to make it a reality.

I’m going to try the usual goals of budgeting better, cooking healthier, interacting more with my kids, taking better care of myself, serving others more, meal planning (for the entire year- stay tuned for that debacle awesome experiment), etc. One thing that I am horrible at it socializing. I’m going to make it a point to get out and be a better friend.

I had talked to Alex and then we talked to the kids about a theme for our family for the year. I have been having a personal theme each year for several years and I love the direction and reminder it provides. So we had a meeting as a family to decide a theme and things we’d like to do as a family, things we’d like to do differently and of course I harped on them mentioned that we need to do better at cleaning up after ourselves.

The meeting was a success if you consider kids rolling around the room and being noisy, sneaking off, and whining that it was taking too long a success. It is up to Alex and I to lead by example because heaven knows the kids are going to be kids and try and play constantly.

A fun thing we decided to try is to have year long goals and have them completed by the first week in November to exhibit to each other. The kids latched onto Alex’s idea to make a movie. Michael is going to write a Christmas song. I might convince him to create the movie soundtrack as well. That would be fun. I’ve got a kid that wants to do an art project and another said they’d write a book. We’ll have to help the little kids with something. I’m still thinking of what I want to do. But it all sound fun.

Oh, and Alex and I are planning on losing 50 pounds or so each this year. Heaven help us. We’d started a few weeks ago and were doing awesome and then Christmas hit and I lost control. I am back on the wagon though and I’ll be glad to have Alex to support me and to compete with. So that journey should be interesting.

Told you I have lofty goals and honestly that isn’t even half of them. I’ll try to ease into it. Can’t I just magically turn into a person who has their act together at midnight tonight?

It Is a Big Mess

Yesterday Alex and I went to the store to buy trim. We have three windows and twelve doors to trim- for now. That’s not including the inside of the doors in the bedrooms. We will get to that soon enough because we are replacing the old dinged and beat up doors as well. We had planned on buying those but had no room so we’re going to order them and have them delivered.

Today though I needed to clean the storage rooms for my sanity. Disorganization makes me feel like my entire life is out of control. I’d like to start the new year with some sense of order and control.

Before

Tell me that picture isn’t straight out of an episode of Hoarders. I show you this embarrassment of a storage room to be real and probably make you either feel like you aren’t alone or that you’re better than me because you’ve got your act together because heaven knows I don’t.

The frustration of not knowing where stuff is is maddening. We just shoved stuff into this room to deal with later. We are procrastinators. I was trying to figure it all out when the idea of categorizing it all helped me make some sense of the chaos. I have corralled the canning supplies, crafts, sewing, games, baking pans, occassionally used countertop appliances, cleaning supplies, office/school supplies, etc. There is still more stuff taking up space than I’d like but at least it is condensed now and I can find it. By the way, I found two hot glue guns I didn’t know I had. I’ll be getting rid of them and any other superfluous objects I’ve found that we don’t use. I’m getting better at getting rid of stuff I’ve been hanging on to. I still have a long ways to go though. I still haven’t found the one thing I thought I’d find while cleaning the room- the tape for my label maker that I wanted to use in this room. The irony.

Also, now that I’ve organized and gone through everything I can see how much food storage we don’t have. We have plenty of hot chocolate powder so the moral will stay up for a little while even if there is nothing else to eat. 😉

After

The mess had spilled out of the room and so I tidied up the bookshelf and sorted through the owners manual stash and trashed a bunch of those. I got garage stuff taken to the garage, Christmas stuff packed up and taken to the garage except for the tree. The kids wanted to keep the tree up without the ornaments. I can live with that.

Good news today! The cabinet guy came this morning and measured so they can start building the cabinets. Install date is set for February 8th. Yay! We are 42 days out and our appliances, minus the fridge because fridges are hard to come by, will be delivered on Thursday. We are so close I can almost see it. Then the countertops will be maybe three weeks after that so we are looking at the beginning of March, hopefully.

Funny story though. The cabinet guy came in and was measuring and asked how we liked the neighbors. I said fine, why? He said its his brother. Hahaha. I saw the resemblance once he said it. Now I’ll say hi when I see him visiting.

Alex spent the day mudding and taping the kitchen whilst I was trying to reign in the basement mess. I’m letting him do the taping and to my surprise when I went up to bring stuff upstairs he had textured half the kitchen! That saved me so much time and I think he did better than I would. He used less mud, too. We’ve gone through three boxes already and he still isn’t done. We’ve decided that since we’ve got the deadline for the cabinets that we would leave the laundry room/pantry for later. I’ve a whole post on the pantry coming. I have so many ideas and decisions and purposes for that room.

We worked all day on the house and cleaning and we took the night off to spend time with the kids and not just walk past each other all day.