Part 2 of the house tour

The dining room--

Some of the wood had to be repaired on the cupboard there & we haven't got it re-painted yet.




On thru the french doors into the living room. Yes, I painted these rooms the same color as I did my rooms in the other house last year. I loved the color, and wasn't ready to be done with it! (and I just realized that it's about exactly the color of my blog background!!)



The view thru the windows to the "front" porch is inviting. The windows are old. The glass is wavy. The tops of the windows are diamond panes, and really cool. Yes, my sister says they are very "cool" in the winter too!! :D


Back from the living room thru the dining room...


That's all for today--now would you like to join me for lunch with homemade strawberry pie? Yes, the whipping cream is "real" too!!



I love my dishes. I received a set of four of the cups and bowls for Mothers day to match the plates I'd gotten last year. Longaberger is one of my favorite things in life!

Keeping things real

Before we go any further on this house tour I'd like to assure you all that things are really quite "normal" at this house. If you read THIS (my dear nieces) blog, then you will understand my desire to clarify a few things. (grin!) She was too young to remember several of our moves that resulted in much the same state as hers, and I am still not too old to remember the complete chaos that I lived with and in for way too long. Moving is a chore. At least with a family. Our moves before children were relatively fast and simple. In fact our first move after we were married; from Wyo back to NE was accomplished in one trip in the back of a pickup. That was 33 years ago this summer. I don't WANT to remember how many trailer, van, pickup & car loads (and TIME) this move took us, and it was only 17 miles.

So--without any more adieu I present just a tiny glimpse of REAL life--


The porch BEFORE. Unfortunately this was only one of the many times it was piled in, then put "away" before the next batch came in.


My downstairs bath/laundry room, and yes, it still looks this way. It was a little worse yesterday before I pulled a few things out for another organization project.


In the mean time, life must go on. Meals must appear, kids seem to think they still have to eat. I have cleaning jobs. I have school runs. I have chores to assign kids. Kids have piano lessons and strings concerts.

Kara's spring orchestra concert--This is the 5th graders (all K. public schools)





Sorry, no video's. I've misplaced my camera card, and the one I'm using is a 32 M. I get about 5 pictures at a time :P


Anyway, the days rush past. One melts into another, and it seems like it's taking a long time to get everything together but I stop and realize it's "only" the 5th of May, and we've really only had everything moved for 2 weeks.

I am encouraged when I hear "Wow mom, it looks like things are really coming together". Thank you son, I appreciate that!




And here's a picture I found on my camera when I was downloading this morning. A reminder to stop and enjoy the "simple things" The beauty in the middle of our hectic chaos.
Thank you for whoever grabbed my camera & captured the moment.

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!