The Sunday Morning Fuzzy Brain Feeling

Our water Softener needs salt. My hair is frizzy is the result. Mine, Mia's, and Elizabeth's. Yesterday I made Strawberry Danish for a fellowship meal today and it got horrible. The therm flo that I use to thicken it clumped up in the worst way and I strained it out and tried again. It had a funny taste. Is it more embarrassing to take something that is dreadful, or take nothing. Nate said it was ok and although I did not believe him, I took it along to church this morning. We don't have far to church, no big hills. I stuck a Bible on top to give it extra weight and make sure it would not tip. I know, a Tupperware saleslady would have a hay day w/ this story. It was not in one of those beloved containers with the whatever kind of seal they have. Nate braked and it tipped. I managed to save the Bible but the van floor was now coated in strawberry goo. At least I wasn't like, "Oh what a shame to lose that good strawberry danish!" nope. I was actually a little relieved. So we got to church and were scrubbing floor mats and scooping danish. Nate parked beside the dumpster. Not the best start to a morning at church. Just as I was sitting down in Sunday school, Stuart spit up all over me. Cleaned that up, made it back to Sunday school where Stuart actually cooperated well, I was busy entertaining him when the teacher asked for us to take up reading the verses where we left off. I heard this in that subconscious part of my brain and I knew there was a delay and all of a sudden it came to me what she said and I was like, "Oh sorry" ... and got that reading under way. Thing is I' m not sure how long they were waiting on me. Probably felt longer than it was. Church went ok, Mia needed a tissue and I could not find one in my purse. I hadn't noticed any snot running out of her nose yet so I asked her to just wait which was not the nice Mom thing to do. So she sat beside me sucking in big time. Wasn't long till I sent her to the bathroom to take care of that. After church a kind lady tucked the tag in my sweater in for me. Shoot. Must have been like that all morning. Can I start over! Not that I'd want too. Time for a nap.

My New-ish Kitchen Still in the Works

A kitchen project is such a pain huh?  Maybe it would not be if we could just order pizza in everyday.  Lets see, where to start.  The old cabin which was about to be burned down had this old kitchen in which was actually a good quality kitchen.  I am a big fan of restoring old, well built furniture.  You can often come up with a much nicer piece than if you would buy a cheapy new piece.  So our house had this wimpy kitchen in it and we decided to give the cabin kitchen a shot.  So one early spring day we hiked it up there with the box truck and picked up the old cabinets. 





In this picture you can see them, straight ahead of Nate. Pathetic I know.  I never took a good before shot.

We stripped them, sanded them, and primed them outside one beautiful Saturday.  It was hard work and we were tired by the time we were finished. 

The next free Saturday we had, Nate ripped out the bottom cabinets in our house and put the new ones in.  It was either get a cabinet made to fill the one spot or put a dishwasher there and we both voted for a dishwasher. 

Counter top in stock at  Home Depot.

I walked into my favorite paint store the next chance I got and said, "I want oil based paint for my kitchen cabinets" and to my shame I left him talk me right into latex paint. 
So after Nate had them installed I spent the next few days painting the doors on my kitchen table.  Not that much fun.  Very many thin coats of thick Latex paint.  This was time consuming.

Ok, so it looks like I was not actually working on the doors this day, but this is where it happened.

I finally got the doors finished to the bottom cabinets and Nate put them on.  So nice to have them on, but that is when I realized I was not happy with the Latex paint.  Nope.  My dear children with their grubby hands.  Well, even my dear Nathan for that matter, were giving me plenty of opportunity to wipe up after them and I could just tell that it was not going to hold up like my old cabinets.  which were painted with oil based paint.  So  I debated covering them with a polyurethane but decided to give them a coat or two of oil based.  Back to Sherwin Williams I went.  I was very cautious when it came to the bubbly paint salesman.  Didn't give him the slightest chance to talk me out of my oil based paint like he did the last time.  I was totally planning to tell him how disappointed I was with his previous paint suggestion, but it turns out I was in a very grouchy mood after my third eye exam for the month and decided I'd rather not mention it.

Oil based paint. My house smells terrible.  Fumes. What a pain to wash out the paint brush, wait way longer for the paint to dry, etc.  But I can tell I will be happier with this.  With the exception of the doors to the top of the kitchen, everything was all ready well covered with the Latex paint.  So an easy one to two coats of oil based on top was easier than doing the whole thing with oil based paint.  Although, I think the oil based paint covered better and would have taken fewer coats.  I could slap it on much thicker due to the longer drying period.  The oil based paint had hours to spread out more evenly than the latex. Anyone confused yet, anyone reading this??? so boring.  anyhow... Know this.   You can use oil based on top of latex, but not the other way around.  At least that's what my mom tells me.

Why was I not surprised that we missed some exposed parts of the cabinets.  More painting in my near future.  We decided to not paint the insides of the cabinets.  They were so nice compared to the old ones and I figured, less maintenance down the road. 

I now have fewer cabinets but more cabinet space.  These newish ones have twice the amount of shelves.  Big difference. 

As you can see, there is still work to do. 

Gothic Star Barn

Ellie, stuck here. Trying to get down.  Screaming for help. 

Brownie

brownie , originally uploaded by LydiaJo.

Dark Cocoa is my secret weapon.
Make these this weekend. 

Those Moments You Can't Get Enough Of

Grandma's Books

Grandma's Books, originally uploaded by LydiaJo.

Bounce Back

It was Friday and we went on a date.  Such a guilty pleasure for us.  Not real guilt either.  Seems worthy.  Needed even. When my dear mother offered to babysit before I even asked we so took her up on it.   I know that I need to appreciate these good times.  When we are understanding each other and not running out of things to say.  Ever been on one of those dud dates?  Yeah they happen.  Well this was not one of those, we were laughing at each other and perfectly content. Until... at supper, Nate told me a story about pants.  Guy from work had some old pants at the bottom of his closet that he had to wear to work that day.  When I say the bottom of his closet I mean that they were his last option.  The rest were in the laundry.  So he had these least favorite pair of pants on and they were so tight and really... there is no point to this story but I asked where he got the pants to begin with.  I just wanted to know if they were meant to be tight (read Wranglers).  Nate said, no, they came from a nice store.  But he could not think of the name of the store. Something like Aeropostale he thought.  I named every single store that came close to Aeropostale and Nate kept shaking his head no.  Then he gave me another clue, "Remember when we were at Bible school there was one of these Brand of stores at the outlets" Ok... I knew which store he meant but I could not think of the name either.  We were stumped and our waitress teased us for being so quiet.  She didn't know that we were in torment, trying so hard to be the one to come up with the name of the store.  No good ending here.  Nate texted said friend  to ask what store and he came back with Aeropostale.  I was and still am bugged if the store I am remembering from Bible school was the same?  I think this was a bad case of overthinking.  I do it to myself all the time. 

We cooked a Grenadian supper Saturday night and Nate started a fire out back on the concrete. We live in town right? I told him to let me know when the pot was good and hot. So he did. We dumped the sugar in to burn it and it was melting so nicely when there was an explosion. Nate acted all nonchalant about it and I was irritated. I hate explosions. It happened again… he tried to tell me that the concrete would soon dry out and it’d be fine. I was worried about the neighbors calling the police. Well just as the sugar was burned to perfection and I was ready to add water there was one final huge blow and the pot fell off of it’s resting spot and the fire blew to bits and all the ash landed in the pot. I rounded up the girls and headed into the house thankful we were still alive.  I met the neighbor lady Bonnie on the way, I'm sure she was investigating and I said, “Your yard looks so nice” she had mowed. Nate didn’t tell her what was going on either. Poor lady was probably wondering. The fire was really out back kind of hidden by a shed. I really did not want to admit that we had a fire. Besides the fire was gone now. So we started all over burning the sugar on the stove. That was about all the drama I could handle. Thankfully things went much better from there on out.

My parents are starting a new line at work.  Printing on wooden boards, or boxes, I'm not sure what we're calling them yet.  I sent Dad a sample the other day and woolah! I have art for my wall.  How fun.  It pretty much is the same as printing on a canvas but with crisper edges.

The kitchen is calling my name.  Not happy with the latex paint the Sherwin Williams guy talked me into for my cabinets, I stopped in to buy some oil based yesterday.  Ready to have it all put back together. I am  happy that I can finally use my bin pulls.  I bought these for another project years ago and have the perfect amount.  Nice when some things work out.

Easter Weekend

BLT salad. Simply Wonderful Cookbook.  Make it today.

We spent the entire weekend working on our kitchen.  Bless Nate's heart. We're putting a used kitchen in.  Not beautiful by any means, but much better quality. 

I'm babysitting our neighbor boy today.  All four children are napping.  It's great, but I'm scared to make any noise for fear they'll wake up.

Sunny Day