Luna Moth

When we were at the Farm for Easter, Claire (my niece) found a caterpillar under tree. When we went to pick it up, we saw there were two. So both the girls and my boys were able to take home a caterpillar.

It made a cocoon within just a couple of days

It came out this week. I must have just missed it, because the tail wings weren't even unfolded yet.

Here is our Luna moth about an hour later, all ready to leave. I let it go that night in the yard. Such a fun thing to do with the kids. They must have checked on it 10 times a day!

cabin pics

This is the original camp stall style bathroom in the loft

It was in great condition.

With the stall removed, you could see the water damage caused by missing sections of roof.

New bathroom going up. Wall and roof are repaired, bleached, and Killzed before new walls are going up. We will have a full bath upstairs. Although that makes the loft considerable smaller, I think it's a wise choice.

Another view of the new bathroom

Old kitchen. Yes, the previous owner left a fully stocked, rusted, ruined kitchen to be cleaned out. Even stuff out on the counters. Cabinets were falling apart. Everything was ripped out. During the cleanup we went through two 40 yard dumpsters!

Kyle's parents came down and helped clean and repair the ceiling. Very tedious work! The whole ceiling is reclaimed barn wood and every single piece needed to be sealed with foam insulation from the top and caulked from below. You can see here the kitchen cabinets are gone.

New (to us) kitchen cabinets we scored off of Craigslist. Our friends Shelton and Cheryl came out and helped us hang them. Now they are being painted off-white, then glazed, then we will put on new hardware. I am super excited about my kitchen. I will have a bigger kitchen in the small cabin than I do now in the big rent house :)

Okay, fine. Kyle and Shelton hung cabinets and Cheryl and I took the kids on a walk and watched them climb trees!

One more pic of my hard working man! New Pics to come soon. My chandelier is hung, closets are finished out. Things are coming together!

A Flood and Other Happenings

Is there anything better than boys in capes?

Blake cut some of his own hair.

Easter Sunday

The other day I came home from running errands and noticed water dripping out of the garage in one small area. "Hmm" I thought, "I must have knocked over something in the garage and not realized it." Then I unlocked the front door and stepped onto water. Now, as bad as it looks in the first pic, that was just the beginning. I promptly ran/splashed to the laundry room and turned the water off. I had started a load when I left, 2 1/2 hours earlier, and the washing machine had jerked away from the wall and the hose fell off. The water had continued to pour out the entire time I was gone. It was over my toes. I promptly threw the kids into the back yard and started dragging furniture into the yard, getting stuff off the floor, and putting bowls under things I could not move. A simple observation: I never realized how much of our stuff touched the floor. I mean besides the obvious furniture: baskets, things stored under other things, etc. The closet had to be cleaned out. All the laundry waiting to be washed was sopping wet. It leaked into the garage and I had to save all my curriculum and teaching files. Good Grief!! The water abatement guy came out and did a fabulous job, arriving only 45 minutes later, but by that time all the carpet was wet and ruined. Blake had a marvelous time sloshing around in his rain boots and actually asked if we could do it again sometime. We are totally bummed to have to buy our landlady new carpet a month before moving out. Such is life. I keep telling myself "It's just money, it's just money...."

I was inspired the other day by a friend's honesty on her blog and I thought I too would share something. My endometriosis is back. For those of you who don't know, I first struggled with this in college, and it has been a long and painful journey that has included 3 surgeries. I am beyond blessed to have my boys, as there was a time I truly didn't think I would have any. I am scheduled for surgery in July to clear it all out and have a partial hysterectomy. At first I was really upset at the prospect of a hysterectomy at 33, but my mom reminded me that I was told I would probably have to have one in my early 2o's, so this is quite a victory. To be candid, for years I thought every month that I was just a wimp, I couldn't handle what other women could, why did I never have energy, etc. Now, after giving birth naturally twice, I can affirm that I am in pain! I would appreciate your prayers in dealing with the pain until July and the recovery afterward. Some days are fine, but most days I am on prescription pain killers and not able to keep up with housework and the boys. As the day grows closer I am actually looking forward to my procedure and am hopeful that this will bring a huge change in my life for the good. It is my fervent prayer that when I recover my body will have the energy and strength that matches my personality. I am so thankful for the blessings of my boys and Kyle, who is wonderfully supportive and picks up a lot of slack.

Dresser Redo

This is how I found the dresser in the cabin. Neglected and even had a mouse nest in one of the drawers. I was going to sell it on Craigslist, but my friend Sarah, whom I usually listen to because she has great counsel, said no, I should keep it and distress it. So I did.

Dark oak, it had a lot of detail that you could hardly see.

They had ruined the top by putting something on it that burned it. This is what it looked like after I sanded it down.

After painting it. I used a gallon of Oops paint I picked up for 5 dollars at Lowes. I really am not a pink girl, I don't know what got into me. I will say that the paint is Valspar, as was the paint for the red chair I did. Hate it! Not easy to work with, even though I added a paint extender, and it didn't cover well. Definitely could have used fewer coats if it had been Behr paint. That's the only comparison I have, however, since I have not had the luxury of actually using nice paint. I splurged on Benjamin Moore for my upcoming front door project, and we'll see how spoiled I get.

After. After I painted it, I distressed it. Look how you can see all that beautiful detail now! Pardon the flash photography and poor lighting. The garage door broke last week so I can't let in any sunlight to get a decent picture, and the lights are flourescent...

Then I rubbed Minwax Dark Walnut Stain on the distressed parts.

Then I glazed the whole thing with a glaze I made from Valspar tintable glaze (which I am a fan of) and Dark Walnut. I purposely left drag marks when I took off the glaze and I'm really pleased. Then I waxed the whole thing with paste wax.

This is how the two top drawers were. Well, actually this is after I pulled out the nasty old green felt that was lining them. I'm sure it was quite nice in the 50's when it was done...

For the drawers, since they were ruined, I mod podged craft paper into them and then put a polycrylic topcoat on them and the inside of the cabinets. I'm going to use this for my dresser up in the loft.