The Score

I have to fight the urge to rate myself at the end of the day. I have the disability/super power (depending on how you look at it) of not letting myself get over taxed. I was really discouraged after a particularly languid day, and my mom shed some light on this aspect of my world. She told me that when I was living at her house, she watched me, how I handled the stress of my day. She was amazed how in tune I am with what kind of resources I have left, how I always know what will make them regenerate. I love the way she sees that part of me., because a lot of the time, I feel like the world's biggest weenie. It's true, though, I have an innate self-preservation instinct that literally shuts me down when life gets to be too much. I need down time, processing time, and then I'm ready to face life again. If I waited for someone to say, "You've been working too hard, why don't you take a break?" I would die.
For example, last week we signed on our new house. This was a wrench. The loan process was especially gruelling, and you'd think closing would be a celebration. It felt more like a funeral to me. I buried my head in Guernsey Literary Society for the drive back, blinking back tears, and spent the rest of the day in bed. From noon on. I never slept, I was just there, on Guernsey, learning more about the Nazi occupation. The burden of my own world was just too heavy.
Being able to work yourself sick is seen as such a virtue. Isn't there a virtue in keeping yourself sane by taking the time to feel what you're feeling, acknowledge it, and make your way toward clarity?
If there is such a virtue, I'm its patron saint!
So here's the score for today:
One comprehensive list of every minute chore left on the house, color-coded by individual responsibility.
One trip to my second home, Home Depot, as soon as Lewis left for work.
One Whopper for breakfast, because the kids ate the last of the cocoa pebbles.
Two and a half hours drilling holes, hanging curtains, screwing in switch plates and chatting with my mom. Why does working with her make the time pass so quickly?
One more trip to Home Depot, an illicit rendezvous with my Honey. To buy doors. Ack! One of them needs to be special ordered. Bad news leaves me feeling wilted. My ears are buzzing and my lips are numb at this point.
Liam and I drive our bucking and snorting truck back home, and Liam asks if he can play Spore. Indeed he can! I grab a couple of books that aren't packed, and retreat to bed for a few hours.
Kim comes to see our renovations!
I was about to head back to bed when I noticed my icky hair. I shower, and face the passel of kids roaming my home and yard. Our exterior is being painted, and can you believe it? Four extra kids are running around. That makes 9 kids Victor has to keep from messing up his paint job.
Dainon and I conspire to move the TV back upstairs. It's huge, and takes two grown men to move, but I've been without TV for a month. Should I move it? No. But did we? Yes. We balanced it on a dolly and wedged it into the house. We plug it in with great anticipation. No channels. I call tech support. Channels! But no sound. After four calls to tech support, SUCCESS!
One quick trip to Fred Meyer for bread. How can they burn through bread so quickly?
A hastily prepared dinner, growing pains and sobs from the little one, push ups for the olders who aren't doing dishes when they should be. Some stolen time in front of the computer.
And I think I'm done.
I'd say today was a smashing success.
It may not be 9pm yet, but this Chicky is done.

A New Adventure

The Sunday before Christmas started out like any other. I was curling my hair in front of the mirror, and Lewis was putting on his tie. We'd had the Earl family Christmas the day before, near Spokane, and we were discussing his family.

"You know," I was saying, "I think you should spend more time with your family. Maybe you should go hang out for a weekend every now and then."

He looked thoughtful, then got a funny, pensive look on his face.

"Or, we could move there." He said.

Our eyes locked, and my heart started pounding. We stared into each other's eyes, and we knew without talking that we were moving.

During church, it was all I could think about. I was sitting up with the choir, looking into the faces that I have grown to love so dearly. My mind lingered on older couples, who when I first moved in, took up an entire row with their children. I saw the empty places where the Hansens' used to sit. How many years has it been since they passed away? I was blessed as a baby in that very chapel. When I'd been living is Kansas, we'd traveled home- here- when my sister died, and her funeral was held here.

Growing up as an Air Force family, this place held the gravitational pull that kept us in orbit. I'd intended to stay here forever.

Adventure was calling though, the unknown! Somewhere new, new faces and new experiences..... so exciting. Lewis' job is not in Spokane. What would he do for a living? Scary question, huh? Little by little, the pieces have fallen in place and God's plan for us is coming together. We've seen miracles, for reals and for trues miracles.

And then there was the issue of where in Spokane. You know how big that place is? We'd be picking the high school our kids go to. If we don't choose right the first time, they'd be stuck. I'm not uprooting them again! We had to get it right the first time. I spent hours scouring homes, neighborhoods, schools on the internet. There's the northside, where Lewis' sister lives... or the valley, where his other sister lives. There's over by the temple, that would be nice, or what about downtown? An urban area might be cool, we'd surely be in a ward that really needed us.... It was a huge question mark, always in my mind. One day, I found a home outside of Cheney, where I went to high school. I called Lewis' dad to see if he would check it out. He was surprised that we were looking in his area of town. He didn't need any more encouragement than that. He looked under every rock to find a home close by them, by Medical Lake.

At this time, we were up to our eyeballs in construction. It would be months before our home sold. What was the point of looking at homes there? I told him that I was taking a break in my search, until we were closer to having our home sold. He called the next day.

"I found your home."

"Oh, is that right?" I asked him, hiding a smile.

I hopped on the computer and asked for the address.

"Wow!" I said, it looks great! Just then, Lewis walked in the door for lunch. He looked, and he loved. We got really excited.

We arranged to see the home two days later. We threw in a home in a subdivision just for kicks too.

It was very dark, cold, and very wet when we finally made it to the house. The home was a bit dated, but the property was perfect. Then we went to the subdivision. It was a newer house, with 6 bedrooms, and all the room we would need, all rolled up in a neat package. It repelled us. Alas, subdivion life is not for such as the Earl's. I think they would kick us out. It wasn't long before we knew, knew, knew that this was the place for us. Want to see it?

It looks so peaceful and serene, doesn't it? It has no idea what's in store for it. Want to see what comes with it?
All this land! Just shy of 4 acres!!! And see that huge shop? That'll be my husband's new office. Want to see how big it is?

This is just part of it. Big enough for the greatest spook alley of all time, come Halloween, huh? There's a 1 bedroom apartment framed in here too, which we plan on finishing off ('cause we can do that now!)

Back here is where my orchard is going in. Much thought and stewing is taking place on what kinds of trees I want to plant. Peaches, apricots and apples, for sure, but what about cherries? They're gross and wormy when you don't spray them just right.... any ideas?

Here's my new master bath. Sigh. No 6-foot jetted tub here. But it does have a bidet. I'm going to have to google how to use that puppy.

Views of the kitchy-kitch.

That fabulous hood makes me laugh so hard. It totally looks like a treasure chest!

This is the view from the balcony of my bedroom. First thing Liam did when he saw it was to drop trow and try to pee off it. We grabbed him quickly before the realtor saw and he got mad and threw a fit. We shoulda just let him pee.

The orange carpet causes me pain, because it's going to have to stay until we #1: sell our home and #2: save up for hardwood floors. Angie gave me a tip though, and I'm totally going to use this. It's going to be beautiful!

It's a pretty nice house, and if I hadn't just gone through (and am still kinda going through) renovation hell, I'd be a lot more excited about updating it and making it our own. We have time though, and we now have all the tools we'll ever need to practically build our own house.

Here's more room for storage (no more food storage in the house!) and this is the area where the CHICKEN COOP will go!!! We've been in intense negotiations for years about when I can get chickens. My friends, now is the time. I'll have two flocks, one for eggs, one for meat, so my boys will have to master the art of chicken plucking. Fun, huh? I'm so excited about that.

The vineyard will go on the other side of the shop, by the field. I'm thinking Concords, with table grapes on the other side of the house eventually. Oh, and I haven't even told you about the massive experimental garden behind the shop yet! That will keep for another time.

As of right now, we have just shy of four weeks until I pull the boys from school. The day after Lewis' last day of work, we head off in the motorhome (thanks grandma!) on a California adventure for 10 days. As soon as we get back (29-31 of March), we load up and head off to our new life outside Spokane. And hopefully, sometime between now and then, our house will sell.

In the meantime, my mood swings wildly between intense grief, and hopeful excitement. The boys will have their grandparents in their ward. They'll learn to shoot guns, hunt, and all that manly stuff with the Earl side of the family. I'll have a whole crop of new people who have never heard my skinny dipping stories. I'll have my husband home WAY more often- and the chickens, never forget the chickens.

How's that for a new adventure?

Checking In

Hello All!

I feel like that's how my life has been the last 6 weeks. I'm checked out most of the time, and every once in a while, the clouds clear- the sun breaks through and I can breathe! We've had some major life changes, and in the last 6 weeks we've:

had a new furnace installed

re-sided the front and side of our house

replaced our roof

new carpet

three bedroom closets built

two bedrooms sheet rocked, taped, mudded (I'm a mud hen now!) sanded, textured and painted

the entire house, upstairs and down, textured and painted

sanded and refinished our hardwood floors (I sanded some- I'm an equal opportunity floor destroyer)

we have a basement bathroom that went from a muddy pit dug through our foundation to fresh cement, new framing, sheetrock and two coats of mud. The cute vanity, mirror and shelf are eagerly awaiting their new abode.

Did I forget anything? Let's see... new baseboards? Did I mention those? Vinyl tile in a couple of basement rooms....Our deck still needs to be pulled down and rebuilt, and maybe our kitchen cupboards, floor and counters replaced.... and the exterior of our house painted... in the next....what...10 days?

That's the goal anyway.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my mom for putting us up for TWO WHOLE WEEKS whilst our home was gutted. It was so nice to chill on her basement couch in my underwear flipping channels and drooling when it all got to be too much. Want to see what I've lived through?

The new master closet. Lewis has now learned to run electrical. A valuable skill indeed.

Our beautiful new floors! To get a mental image of what they used to be like, a few months ago, I had Liam lay down on his back so I could adjust something, and he said he couldn't, that he had an owie on his head. I felt the back of his head, and yes, there was a little lump. It was a raised black dot. I grabbed some tweezers and gave the dot a tug and....my stomach lurched. A splinter an inch long came out! I mean, it just kept coming and coming! Apparently, Liam had been scooting along the floor on his back, and zip! In goes an inch long piece of floor!

This is a barn floor no more.

This is what one half of my kitchen looked like last week. If you crane your neck, you can see my computer in there somewhere. Explains my lack of blogging, huh?

A new basement closet, and a very traumatized little dog. It's gonna take them years to ever feel secure again.

Yes, life has been kinda like Dante's Inferno. Every time I think I've arrived at the final ring of hell, surprise! There's one that's worse.

There have been definite bright spots though. A friend who sneaks dinner into my fridge while I'm gone, another who was experienced enough moving furniture to help me maneuver a king sized bed through a tiny hall, and ice cream waffle cones after cubs. Cooking with my mom in her kitchen, watching my dad play catch with my boys in their back yard...

I think we just cleared a major hurdle today in our plans though, and I've spent the last two nights in my very own bed, in my very own master suite. The new carpet is soft, and no animals have defiled it, no children have been sick on it and it feels so soft between my toes. I love the shiny floors, and I love bedtime now that four boys aren't crammed in one room. Ah! Blessed quiet.

So, could it be? Is it all downhill from here? I've never really listed a home for sale before. It's easier than what I've been through so far, right?

Right?

***If you know our plans already, you know why they're secret, so please keep them quiet for ONE MORE WEEK. Then I'll be able to announce them and include pictures! (yay) Feel free to discuss them then, ok?***

The Longest of Ever

Here's a little "slice of life" post- just a funny moment from a day. I was sitting at the computer, typing away at something. The house was quiet- so nice and quiet since the boys went back to school! Liam had been minding his own business for the last hour or so when I heard him call me.
"Hey Mom! Come here!" This could only mean one thing, he'd built something he wanted to show me. If he needed something from me, it would sound a lot different from that. The curious thing was, I could tell by the echo he was in the bathroom.
"Come see mom! It's the longest of EVER!" Who can resist that?
I hurried to his location, and found him on the toilet- where he had, indeed, made something he wanted to show me.
Can I just say something? He's four. It was at least 14 inches long. How is that possible? How do they DO that?
There you go- a slice of life. It's just as if you were standing beside me in the bathroom, isn't it?

My Dirty Secret

I have to confess something- get it off my chest.
First of all, am I the only one out there who hates elementary school reading slips? I loathe having to fill out how many minutes my kid read EVERY SINGLE DAY. If my second grader is home sick, he gets TWO reading slips sent home, and they better BOTH be filled out or he has some terrible punishment like missed recess. If he reads for six hours one day, is he clear for the rest of the week? No. He's still expected to read 20 minutes every day, and I still have to sign the dang slip.
So what's my dirty little secret? (smirk) I cheat. I turn on the closed captioning on my TV and let my kid watch a movie. We just finished watching the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy! That's like- 10 hours, baby! They all read every word of dialogue, but they don't even register that it's reading. Mua ha ha ha!

The Clown Family goes to Church

It was the first Sunday of the year, and the time changed for our meetings from a brisk and early 9 to a languid and relaxed 11. I'd been looking forward to the change for months. But instead of a peaceful sabbath morning of church preparation, I ended up in Sunday Hell.
Because of massive renovations and the holidays, the regular laundry routine has been disrupted. There is literally no place to put the clean clothes. Don't tell me to just fold the load from the dryer. I spit upon that idea. Pt. Pt. (spitting)
So Sunday morning, all the little boys were bathed and squeaky clean with no clothes. Literally. As in, no clean underwear, white shirts, pants matching socks, or shoes. The place where the church clothes are stored wasn't even there. Where were they? It's a mystery.
By the time I made it to church, I was fuming. I stalked in late to Sacrament meeting, and where was Lewis? In the front row, naturally. No subtlety there. We had to put on an obscene fashion show, making our way to the front of the chapel.
As we sat down, I looked down the row, and had to stifle maniacal laughter.
Dainon was wearing some old men's wool trousers of mine that I had stored in the back of the van to go to Goodwill. It was a miracle that I found them! They were 3 inches too big in the waist, and two inches too long, so they were cinched with a belt. He had on a white dress shirt of Lewis', with billows around his wrists, and a sweater vest of Lewis' to camouflage the pants and shirt.
Kelton was wearing pants too big for him with no button on the waist. He wore a wrinkled white shirt with no top button and an adult men's tie with a knot as big as my fist. He wore a torn, hand-me-down jacket, white ankle socks and tennis shoes to complete the effect.
Dallin was by far ahead- he at least had dress shoes on, but not matching socks. They were visible because his pants were a good two inches too short. His shirt was too long, squeezing out from under a too-small blazer.
My boys seemed to be wearing every single item in the mending- dregs pile of Church clothes. All at the same time.
We were Klassy, man. Klassy.

Classic Dainon

I found my oldest son munching on my favorite tortilla chips and sour cream. I decided it was my turn to enjoy some before the bag was empty, so I excercised my rights as mother and confiscated them both. When he protested, I told him that I could have whatever I wanted as payback for all the nights I stayed up with him as a baby.
His reply?

Wait for it, it's a classic.







He told me that he would be leaving in a few years, but the stretch marks he gave me are forever- Who wins now?
He has a valid point, and I'm still giggling over that.