Tiny Talk Tuesday ~ Bring Back My Body!

 Wearing Daddy's knee-pads

(that Mama wore to paint in the addition) 

The other evening Daniel was looking for a certain part among his pile of "stuff" on the kitchen counter.  Susannah was watching him dig and sort to no avail.  I was at the stove cooking, and commented to Susannah that we could pray and ask Jesus to help Daddy find the diodes (a part for the generator).  When I finished what I was doing at that minute, I was going to pray with her about the missing diodes.  Before I could do that, she started praying out loud.  I turned around to look, and she was standing there with her hands together, looking up, saying "Dear Lord Jesus, please help find Daddy's diodes.  Diodes missing, help find them..." and so on.  After a bit, she gave an "amen" and was finished praying.  It was very cute, but also encouraging to see her copying a GOOD thing.  While I know she doesn't have a full understanding of praying yet, I am pleased to see the positive impression OUR praying is having on her.  (He did not find the diodes, and I need to talk to her about how sometimes God gives a "no" or "not yet" answer to prayer, even if she won't fully understand.)
In the new part of the house, we don't have registers over the floor vents yet.  One day Susannah was looking out the window, standing right beside the hole in the floor.  As I watched, she was debating stepping into the hole.  I told her not to step in the hole, and she piped up "Susannah would be missing! Daddy have to find you!"  I chuckled and assured her that she would not be missing (the hole is not big enough for her to fit down, of course), but that she could hurt her leg and mess up Daddy's hard work.

One day recently, Susannah went back into her room...

a few minutes later she came back like this:

Swim goggles, Sylvia's paci, blankie & Bearie! 

Susannah has a big fascination with anything bug-like that moves.  With the addition, we have spiders a-plenty in the house.  One night, with permission, she was chasing a Granddaddy-long-leg spider around the bathroom floor.  Then while my skin crawled, she picked him up!  And she thought his wiggling around was funny!  After a little bit, and some pictures, I helped her put him outside.

Susannah and the Granddaddy-long-leg spider

Yesterday Susannah was singing "Bring back, bring back, bring back my body to me!  Bring back, bring back, bring back my body to me!"  Of course she was singing "Bring back my BONNIE to me" but it was coming out as "body", which makes for quite a hilarious mental picture!

Sporting a band-aid on her VERY lightly "skinned" knee. 

'Cause at her age, "ban-aids" make EVERYthing better!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Going to Church

Susannah ~ age 2 1/2

One Goal

This week is the first part of a turning point for me, us and our house.  Or so I have decided. :) 

I think that since day 1 of moving into our original, tiny little house (Ooooh, sometimes I wonder why and how we EVER decided to purchase such a small space! The 2.5 acres in our price-range had something to do with it, I'm sure.) there has constantly been SOMETHING going on in the re-modelling department.  We are certainly no strangers to living around or amid construction, big or small.  It seems so long ago, but up until Susannah was born we always had at least 1 room out of commission because of construction.  Only when she was born did we finally utilize every room of the house for actual living space.  We've been working around the living, or living around the working, since.

Knowing that's not likely to change anytime soon for multiple reasons, life must go on.  This past week with much detriment to the normal housework that needs to happen, I gritted my teeth and with great determination got the new living room floor painted. I can't tell you how fallen-apart the existing house is as a result of weeks of painting as the main goal!!  Not literally, but in all manner of housekeeping - and add in that people have been giving/loaning us clothes for Susannah that we NEED for this winter but I don't have a PLACE for - the house is a wreck. A royal wreck. Haha, Daniel asked me this morning to find him 1 sock, a pair of jeans and a work shirt (he'd found everything else already).  When I cut the light on in the laundry room, I just laughed.  Folding laundry is only one of many things that has been dropped off the "need to" list for the past several weeks.  The method is wash the clothes, dry the clothes in the dryer, then when I need the dryer for a new, wet load, the laundry in the dryer comes out of the dryer and goes onto the clean pile.  When clean clothes are needed, you dig through the pile (and hopefully find what you're after...)!  We haven't had to go around un-clothed so it's working ok.

There is still the downstairs school/office/play room, 1/2 bath and foyer to paint, but for yet another construction project in the works (ripping out the old front door/wall), I decided to save the paint-job for after that is finished. So, where does that leave us?  With a pretty-much otherwise ready to move into addition. :)  Yep!  Oh, no, it's not anywhere near "finished" for real.  There is still much to be done out there to get it really and truly complete.  But it (aside from the bathrooms) is fully functional.  If you don't mind not having window trim, baseboard or any doors, that is. :)  Where's the adventure in having everything perfect?!  :-P

All that to say, I am ready - no, I'm BEYOND ready - to regain a sense of normalcy in our home and in our family.  The money is gone.  We can't do any more work on the addition without saving up to do it. (Thanks to the county for requiring us to bury about 1/4 of our budget underground in an expensive septic system upgrade, we joke that our doors, trim and floors are buried out in the side-yard.)  Not only for my own sake, but for the sake of the girls, we need to get back to normal.

So, what is this One Goal that I have titled this post for?  That one goal, my friends, is to START MOVING IN this week!!!!!!!!!

Actually, my goal is a little bit smaller than that.  My goal is to get Sylvia moved into the nursery and begin housekeeping and homemaking again.  My goal is to put my "working on the addition" hat more towards the back (waaay towards the back) and put my Wife, Mama and Home-Maker hats at the very front (this may even include showering more than absolutely necessary!).

For Sylvia to move into the nursery (and out of our room! Yay!), I need to come up with coverings for 2 windows and her door.  Those things are probably going to be very makeshift for now, but I have some ideas and plan to begin working on them possibly even today.  Then I need to get the crib taken apart and moved up there, and then I get to move her clothes into a dresser.  Finally!!  No more living from boxes, tubs and piles! Woot!

My housekeeping goals for this week are to get laundry and the kitchen back under control.  It really won't take that long to do it, but it might seem to take a long time as I work around potty trips, diaper changes, feedings, meals, COOKING AND BAKING! (Oh my, I hope I haven't forgotten how!), playing, reading stories, and oh, I can't tell you how happy and excited my heart is.

This is a huge, huge blessing and also it is going to be a huge, huge transition for us.  One we have been looking forward to for about 3 years now (we broke ground Oct. 2010 after about a year of thinking, planning and more thinking and planning). 

Ok, I am off to do a really quick Happy Dance, then it's time for little people to get up and I'm don't have to think about painting today!!!!!!!!!!!

Sitting, Schooling, Sleeping

Just a few pictures from the past few weeks. :)

I have borrowed the huge story cards* from my Mom.  There are Bible Stories as well as animal stories to correspond with a letter/sound of the alphabet.  A couple times a week, I'll read one to Susannah.  Her favorite one is the Aging Ape story (long A sound).  One day she asked to read the story to her bear.

(It really is not that cold in our house to need a jacket and hat :)  We had just come in from being outside on a cool day.)

With all the painting I've been doing, Susannah has been able to join in with her "new" paint with water book from Grandma. :)

This has been Sylvia's sleeping arrangements from the first day she came home from the hospital.  Tucked into the only space in our room that we could fit the pak'n'play.   At first we didn't put her in Susannah's room because her middle of the night wakings would wake up Susannah.  Now they would probably just wake each other up earlier in the mornings that they should wake up. :)

Last week, at 7 months of age, Sylvia accomplished sitting on her own.  Surprisingly, she hasn't had any major falls or bumps from this position.  She looks like such a big girl, sitting up!

Susannah and Daniel one Saturday morning.

Sylvia and me.  There are so few pictures of me and the girls together, so I decided to start taking more of them, even if I'm in need of a shower or hair-brush!  Life has been exceedingly busy this season, and it is what it is!

*By the way, I would love to have a set of those large story cards but they are out of print.  If anyone has a set, or knows of someone that has a set, lying around collecting dust that you wouldn't mind selling, I would love to know!  :-)  They are from a homeschooling curriculum, A.C.E's Learning To Read program.

Addition - Floor Edition

Very high on my priority list this week are the floors in the addition.  My sister, Sally, has been wanting to keep Susannah for me sometime when it would be helpful to me, so Tuesday I dropped Susannah of at her Aunt Sally's to spend a few days playing with her cousins. :)  

To reduce splintering and improve appearance, I filled all the seams and nail-holes with a putty.  After vacuuming again to get up any new dirt or bits of putty that were loose, I started rolling the primer on the floor.  It. took. for. ever.  The roller cover I had wasn't the best for the job (a larger "nap" roller would be best), plus the floor soaks up the primer like a sponge.

This picture is after the primer was dried.

 

We are using a dark chocolate brown color.  Last night - using a larger napped roller cover! - I put down the coat of floor grade paint.  It went much, much faster with the better roller cover, and also because the paint wasn't soaking in.  This morning it looks so nice!  Yes, it is still "painted sub-floor", but it really makes the room look more completed and finished.

One thing that is new since the last update:  Electricity!!  Well, electricity in and of itself is not "new", but having it in the addition IS.  It is so nice to be able to work without dragging around extension cords and work lights. :-)

I must run.  Sylvia needs lunch and then I must get back to work.  Susannah is coming home late this afternoon.  I can't wait to see her (I have missed her so much!), but I need to stay busy and get as much done as I can before I have to work around naptimes again (because little feet and wet paint on floors just isn't a good combination. :-) ).  I think that by tonight the entire upstairs floor will be painted.

Yes, I am excited.  Also READY to be finished with painting!