Welcome to our country home --part 1

Would you like a tour? We'll start with the main entry, which is technically the "back" of the house.


Entry--from the inside


What do we call this "room"? I don't really know! It's formerly the porch, now open to the kitchen. The floor is new -- I love it. I think it looks great, & it's low maintenance. Perfect.

We haven't had time to do the painting yet in these rooms. I'm thinking the colors will be pretty close to this tho, it just "feels right".


Here's my view from the inside looking out :)


Monday morning baking--I'll share if you come over!

To be continued.

Happy May day!

Dear friends;

The other day I made the comment that I woke up and realized I'd lost 2 months. Seems like I've totally lost March & April and now it's May. Already. Moving to our "new" place has been all consuming. We're not very organized or put together, but we're here, & we're in.

We've had our first "company-here for a meal", I did my first bread/cinnamon roll baking, I made my first ever strawberry pie, along with my first ever decent pie crust (which was a necessity after I burnt the nice boughten pre-made crust to a crisp) What's a girl to do when she has the filling all ready to go into the pie crust & ruins the crust at 9 p.m. at night, when you live in the country & the convenient small grocery store just 3 miles up the road in town closes when the sun goes down? You pull out pioneer woman's cookbook of course! I figured if there was anyone who could help me, she could and guess what! I did it. Not only that- the pie crust was totally easy & absolutely delicious! I'm hooked!

Today I've got my husband busy hanging stuff on my walls. I'm not above pounding nails--even two or three times to get something in the right place, but these are plaster walls. He's the painter & when I mess up his wall too badly with my impatience.....well, 'nough said!

I'm anxious to share pictures with you all, but again, that's going to have to wait a bit.
What I will share with you today is my niece's new-made-over blog. Not only does she have a great new look, but she's having a fun contest too! Check it out, and see what everyone is "clucking" about!

I'll be back soon--I'm still intending to give "our space" a new name and look! Happy May day(s) to you all!


Lovin' the country life

My weeks are like this....

Have you noticed how one minute it is Monday morning and then the next minute you wake up and it is Thursday morning?

My sister dosen't blog or facebook, but she sent me this in an e-mail this morning, and it described my feelings exactly, so I'm posting it.

Here's the pictures from the post---Waaaayy back on Monday!!

This is a mini album made from a coffee container from Caribou coffee.
Isn't it just the cutest thing!




















Thanks again Cyndie, it's just wonderful! I love it!

By the way--Keep those suggestions coming for a new blog name! (See previous post) I'm compiling a list! Thanks for your contributions so far!

Monday morning random blog thoughts

• For one of my new blog read favorites, click Here
• I'm way overdue for a blog update
• I'm having a hard time getting my brain to think of anything but moving issues
• I haven't even downloaded photos from my camera for 3 weeks
• My house is getting empty
• Next Sunday will be our last meeting here
• We're painting rooms at our "new" house
• We're still waiting on the new furnace & plumbing to be done there before we can completely finish work & move in

• The kids spent the spring break week at their sisters place so we could accomplish more without thinking of everything that goes along with kids
• Get them to bed
• Get them up
• Feed them
• wash their clothes
• answer all the questions
• keep them busy
• remember what they are suppose to be doing
  
• remember where they are
• remember when they were suppose to be home
• remember who they are with
• ................................
• You know. The thing they call life with kids.

• Thank you heaps & bunches Lynisha!
• Thank you heaps & bunches Aunt E. for bringing them home with you!

• Today my dear friend Cyndie started off my week, and Monday morning wonderful! I'll share that on my next post. Incentive to post again!

• Oh and one more thing here...Since we're doing a total make-over in our house and living situation, I thought I'd give my blog a make-over too. I'm looking for suggestions on a new name. I'd love to be creative, like my over the edge creative niece, and offer a prize, but I'm not sure I could carry thru and even get it sent. So no promise there!
  
• (NO COMMENTS ON THIS, LAURA & DALAYNA!!!)

Take a deep breath & stay calm!

That's what I'm telling myself today.

MARCH MADNESS!

Last week was a very crazy busy week. Our house was listed on Friday morning. Before the Realtor left, our Daughter in law's parents & Grandparents arrived from CA for the weekend and Ryan and Alishia's wedding reception here that we were hosting.

We had a grand afternoon, visiting & getting ready for the reception, a full house here for supper--In addition to Alishia's family, also Jana and her co-worker were here, Jeanne & Floyd and Mark & Relyssa. Jim and Lynisha & kids arrived later that night.

Saturday we headed over to decorate & set up for the reception, and it was a lovely day seeing so many & visiting. Of course a long day too, as we had a buffet lunch, & then clean up. By the time we got everything loaded back up and unloaded at home again, cleaned up, put away & the house ready for Sunday a.m. I was ready for bed!

I actually got a nap for a bit, the older kids loaded up everyone, down to the baby and went bowling for several hours and then to grab something to eat. Wonderful down-time for me!

Sunday was another big day. Our fellowship meeting here, then everyone (family/extended family) for dinner. By 3 p.m. I crashed again with a bad headache for a nap while everyone else went to G. meeting.

We reluctantly said goodbye to everyone...I have to admit it was a little hard to think about this weekend being our last big family party here! We've had so many wonderful weekends, potlucks & big family gatherings here.

Monday morning I hit the floor running. The whole house had to be clean & in order as Tuesday at 9 a.m. there was to be our first showing, and a Realtor tour plus two more showings scheduled for that afternoon. This means NO STUFFING OR CRAMMING IN CLOSETS, or like flylady says, "Stash & dash"! People who come to look at houses look in closets too!
Late in the afternoon I got a text from my daughter Lynisha. It said: "Supper will be delivered in 35-40 minutes. Enjoy"
I'm not sure anything could have made me happier at that point! What a wonderful thing to do!

I went to bed at 2:30 a.m., was up at 5:30 a.m. and walked out of a clean, totally in order house at 8:55 a.m.
I'm not a neat freak, I have 5 children plus the two of us parents living here. None of us do a very good job at keeping things picked up. This week has been quite the challenge, as along with Tuesdays showings, we had a showing Wed, Thurs, Friday and 4 on Saturday.
I don't think I would like to keep up that pace for very long! It was exhausting!

Saturday we got a call from the Realtor that someone had made an offer (one of Sat's showings)
We enjoyed our day on Sunday--a clean house & company for dinner too. On Monday we went to sign papers to accept the offer, along with 3 more showings during the day.

Tuesday I simply did not go anywhere, or do anything I didn't have to, and it was great to have some down time after having those crazy days behind me. I have to admit, I've never had ALL my house cleaned at the same time for this long! (it's kind of nice, but I really don't want to live quite this stressful!)

But today the panic set in.
I'm sorting, throwing & packing like crazy. I only have one month to get this done and be out of here!!

We are very excited to have a place in the country. I mentioned before it's been something we've wanted to do for a long time. NO regrets on moving--what we're leaving here, HOWEVER, We have lived here for a little over 17 years. We have 12 children who at one time all lived (or live) here. Our house is 7 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, 2 laundry rooms and a huge family room in addition to the other "regular" rooms.
We still have 5 children at home, and we are moving to a house with 3 bedrooms 2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen & porch.
Can you picture my problem? Oh yeah, and the fact that I'm a "save-a-holic" plus have several huge hobbies including about a gazillion books.

Nope, there is NO WAY. I cannot take it all, it will not even begin to fit.

Thanks for listening--I'll go back to work now. My panic has subsided for a while at least. I'll go back to Throwing, dumping, packing--along with my pile for probably the hugest garage sale I've ever had!

On my mind

I've been searching for this poem for quite a few months now...bugging my sisters and mother to see if they could find it. We all "had it", but no one could find it, and none of us could remember more than the first verse.
Yay for moving stuff, digging out, cleaning out, de-cluttering. My sister found it and e-mailed it to me this morning!


CHILDHOOD

Pass slowly, friend Time,
For I would hold them just a moment more
Before they swoop as eagles
Through my door.

Pass slowly, friend Time,
For I must do my best to teach them much,
Before they go, they must know what to pass,
And too, what to touch.

Pass slowly, friend Time.
In this, the golden season of their prime,
Every hour I must savor fully
Their love, and they mine.

Jacqueline Wolfe Bettini

Anticipation--Happy memories

Since I keep getting asked to post pictures of where we're planning to move to, in between cleaning house & leaving the house for showings I finally looked up some pictures to post that would give you all an idea of what the place looked like.
These pictures were taken at our family reunion that my sister hosted July 4, 2007.
It was great to look back at these and remember this fun day. Since it still looks like winter around here right now and everything is pretty drab, it also was great to realize that soon things will look like this again.

It's going to be quite the change for us, even tho Leon grew up in the country, and I did until I was around 5, we've lived in towns all our married life. Our kids have loved spending time with their cousins in the country, and we are looking forward to our new adventure!