More on home renovation . . .

we're making progress on our most recent home renovation. The area to be worked on has been emptied out, permits are being pulled tomorrow, selections are being made. Looking forward to the job being finished, but if we've waited about 5 years, what is waiting another month?
Here's what an approximate layout of walls will look like when the job is completed. The door that is open, will be removed and the walls cleaned up. There will be a pocket door in the long wall of the bathroom (where the long piece of tape is right now) that will close off the utility room. Yes, there will be a door into the bathroom, it will be on the short wall near the existing wall. Small, compact bathroom, but will be functional. Yeah!!!!

50 Years

That's how long my parents have been married as of today. What an awesome experience!! My whole family, in one place. That hasn't happened in 12 + years. Here are some pictures:

50 years of marraige, 5 kids, 15 grandkids, lots of memories!!!

Over at my brother's house later that day. Wouldn't be a "wedding" celebration
without having Mom and Dad cut a cake.

P.S. Didn't actually write blog on June 27th, but as it's their anniversary, thought I'd back date it.

Today is the Day . . .

. . . . that the decluttering, throwing out, and stock piling stuff for Salvation Army begins. This is in preparation of adding a 1/2 bath to our basement. It's insane how much we've dumped into our utility room. There is so much stuff, like paint and caulk, that has dried out and is useless. I'm finding winter jackets that won't fit either boy. Stuff for projects that have gotten derailed (from Christmas and way further back in the 7 years we've lived here). Yikes!!!!!

I am hoping to have a lot accomplished by Wednesday evening. Three days of hopefully solid work. That is minus 2 hours of morning swim each day, a swim meet tonight (there goes five hours), and hopefully we'll squeeze in a free movie tomorrow.

Just to give a bit of how much work is necessary, here's a link to the picks I took a few days ago.

Year End Testing

We got the boys tests in today!! Both kids did well this year. Thing One improved from last year, so what we're working on is doing the trick. Yeah!!!!

One Picture - Four Thoughts

I may not have found a picture that is worth a thousand words, but did take one that has four separate things to be thankful for. So, without further adue, the photo and thoughts.

1. My boys are using the computer together nicely - actually doing a "one person activity" together and not fighting. At least not yet!!
2. The chairs were a Mother's Day gift. Originally, I was only suppose to have one, but it had some cracks and dings that made it worth returning. As it was an on-line order, the company said to keep the original and they'd send a new one. The dings and cracks didn't change how safe it is and the dings can be concealed. So I have two chairs for the price of one.
3. We bought a second set of shelves, like I got for Christmas, because I wanted my teacher manuals at my desk. Yeah!!! They are up.
4. At the top of the picture, you can just notice one of the track lights and the glare of the lights. These are the lights my dad hardwired for us. Sweet!! A switch turns them on and not three different plugs as we have three different tracks in this room! Thanks Dad!!
   

Home again, Home again

We've been home from the HEAV Convention since this past Saturday. It was really enjoyable going, for several reasons:

1. didn't feel obligated to stop at every vendor as we know our style of teaching, we know which books we'll be using etc.
2. came to realize, that stopping by the Rainbow Resource booth, is shear madness. They can't bring everything, obviously, AND didn't have anything on my wish list. There is no incentive to buy during the convention, so I'll tweak my wish list (or combine it with some friends) to come up with $150.00 for free shipping and handling.
3. we saw a number of friends we hadn't seen a while. Although not the best time to really catch up, it was nice to see them anyway.
4. my husband and I had six meals together without our kids, without having to cook, and without having to clean up. Woo! Hoo!
5. we sold a couple items at the Used Curriculum Sale. My big ticket item didn't sell, but that's okay.
6. sitting in on some of the various sessions were just totally awesome. They got me excited about the coming year.
7. being among people who like to home school as well.
   

So, as my summer vacation winds down, before we start our "Summer Session" I feel even more confident in hearing God's call upon my heart to bring our boys home.

Home School Convention

If Christmas is for the kids, does that, possibly, make conventions for parents?

From the sounds of it (reading FIAR Forum and reading various web-sites) anyone weekend in June or July there is a Home School Convention somewhere. The idea of wandering isles of exhibitors, all wanting to sell you the latest and greatest. The first year we went to one, it was so over whelming. Last years HEAV Convention felt overwhelming as well, even with a year of Homeschooling under our belt.

This year, I'm hoping, will be easier. The kids will be with their grandparents and we'll be able to linger more; be able to walk the isles and browse; be able to really look through the used curriculum. It also helps that we know most of what we're looking for, with regards to curriculum, and have used most of it before. We'll be looking for deals on "fun" stuff.

More on wild life!

Adding to the photo's of animals we find in our yard. Here's a rabbit in the corner of our yard:

Mr. Rabbit was probably just sunning himself, but his
ears seem to be perked up. Wonder what he heard?

FINALLY!!!!!!

Back in January, or so, as interest rates (for mortgages) began to drop, hubby and I decided to refinance our house. The rates were low enough to make it worth while and shave a few years off of our 30 year mortgage by switching to a 20 year. Our credit union was overwhelmed with refi's, so they said it would take awhile. Monday we got the call that we could go to settlement this week.

What's cool about all of this, is that we'll be able to pull some money out and have a half bath installed in our basement. We're excited!!

Corner where half bath will be. I was standing at the foot of the basement steps, looking through the door.

View all the way down the utility room. I'll be reorganizing the whole space!
Yikes!!! I need to get rid of a bunch of stuff!

View of washer and dryer; I'm standing in the other doorway. Just inside, on the right, is where the clothes come down the laundry shoot, then heating/cooling stuff, and the water heater. I hope to find an inexpensive screen to hide this stuff, but make it easy to be moved.

Spaghetti Dinner

We had spaghetti for dinner tonight. Nothing to special, just a quick red sauce, home made meatballs, slurrpy noodles, and garlic toast. It was the second time I've made the meatballs off of the Kraft Parmesan bottle (24 oz Costco size). They're tasting better, as I tweak the recipe and we get use to good meatballs.

At one point, I looked at Thing Two and he had sauce in his hair, between his eyebrows, on his nose, and the usual around the mouth. I don't know how he managed, but he did it. Surprisingly no one had dinner on their clothing.

I couldn't quiet get a good shot showing all the sauce around his eyebrows. It looked like he got "whipped with a wet noodle". Pun intended!! lol

The meatballs that Thing One didn't like the first go around. He said that Costco's tasted better. This time he gave them his seal of approval. These just might be something I'll do in bulk and freeze as they're so simple.

Been Pondering

So many of the blogs I read have such catchy or unique names, it's made me ponder what I'd change mine too. Many of the ones that have come to mind are already taken (these are at blogspot):

• schooldays
• schooldaze
• oneroomschoolhouse
• oneroomschool
• ourcorneroftheworld
• ourdaze
  
• roadlesstraveled
• roadnottaken
• pathlesstraveled
• pathnottaken
• homeschooldaze

Mine is okay, but at times think it would be nice to have something to catch or summarize our lives better. Just haven't come up with anything yet.