We are at a halt

for lack of screws.

Most of the doors and drawer fronts are on.

The baby must have taken the rest somewhere.

ah, somewhere.

off to the store...

It stopped raining!

Sun!

Off to paint the last coat on the door fronts.

Foiled!

It has been raining here. Great for the garden. Not so great for cupboard doors. One more coat of paint and then the kitchen is done! Wahoooo!

The Kitchen BEFORE

It was a basic U-shaped kitchen. On the other side of the peninsula we had our dining table. It was a basic 10x11 kitchen. Builder basic cupboards with melamine covering and light grey laminate countertops.

You know this means we are getting close to being finished! New photos will be posted soon!

I'm dreaming

of what I am going to cook when all this kitchen work is done.

Will it be this?

or this?

This salad?

Maybe a yummy batch of these?

back to the grindstone...

This is what tired really looks like

another all nighter pulled by DH.

#6 using him as a jungle gym and him snoring through it all.

Last night I needed a laugh

It was a long day. There is still paint on my hands from Saturday. DH wasn't in his entertaining mode. He has been working some really insane hours. I went back to2006 and started reading the blog entries. I laughed so hard I cried. I am really, really glad I took the time to write about the children then. I had forgotten so much. I came to the realization that even though things are crazy now, things haven't changed! They were crazy back then too! No relief in sight! But as long as I can keep laughing--I can handle it.

I love oil based paint

It stinks to high heaven but the sheen, the durability, the washability. Today I finished painting the frames of the cupboard boxes, the ceiling and the walls. I have about 1/4 of the doors and drawer fronts with their first coat of paint. I need to decide if I am going to steel wool the cupboard fronts and put on a third coat. I am leaning towards doing it. I think in a year or so I will regret it if I don't-wear and tear on the drawer and door fronts will chip and it might be less plus the finish is much smoother.

DH is putting in the 2nd ceiling fan and the track lighting over the new bar and kitchen sink tonight.

Ah, the payoff is sweet

The parenting road can be rocky and long at times.

#1 made some of the hard times pay off today. It was beautiful sunny day. The lawn needed to be mowed. He jumped on the riding mower and started mowing. Yes, one tire was lower than the other and the lawn is striped. Yes, the lawn is cut short for the first cut of the season. But he did it himself, with no prompting.

Then.....

He started on the back. He was mowing Blueberry Hill and ran over a piece of webbing. It wrapped around the blades and the mower quit. He came in. He told his dad what happened. His dad moaned that he didn't have half a day to fix the mower. I calmly looked at my sweetie and said, "He messed it up. He should fix it." DH agreed and went and got the manual. DH showed #1 how to read the manual and said, "Put away the tools." He walked up to his office. #1 got the tools, read the manual, asked for help when he needed it, fixed the lawn mower all by himself , put away the tools and started mowing the rest of the lawn.

His confidence soared. I am so very proud of him.

I am sure this is the first of many times that boy will be fixing something.

What was for breakfast this morning?

Waffle chips and vanilla yogurt.

Waffle chips are a concoction we came up with years ago due to a mishap. DH likes crispy waffles. The soggy ones are uggy to him. He will eat them but you know, we all have our preferences. So to accomodate him, I started keeping the waffles in the oven on 200 after they were done in the waffle iron but I didn't have enough to feed the whole family. The steam didn't make them soggy. One day I forgot to get the waffles out of the oven before they completely dried out. Viola! waffle chips. DH had them for breakfast with yogurt and he loved them. Today, #4 broke his into bite sized pieces and ate them in his yogurt. Homemade waffle crisp. He liked it enough to have it for snack. This time with milk. Who knows? maybe this will help break his cereal addiction.

Mom? Can I have some ob dat barenillwa in my yogurt?

that giggle brought to you courtesy of #5. barenillwa. giggle

Kitchen Renovations

When we bought this house my DH promised we would re-do the kitchen. PROMISED.

I cleaned and worked and baked and canned in the kitchen. I grumbled about the white sink (eck), the fact that I couldn't cook dinner and have a child do the dishes at the same time, the fact that I couldn't work with more than one child at a time, and I couldn't make cookies and dessert at the same time. I grumbled.

The economy and housing market tanked and so did my dreams of a new kitchen. The estimates kept running into the 16,000s. An addition to make the footprint larger was 40,000 without the cupboards. My kitchen was great for a family of 4 but cooking for this small army and canning hundreds of jars each year just showed the flaws in the kitchen.

After being here almost 2 years DH and I finally figured out a way to re-do the kitchen and only have to buy 3 cabinets and new countertops.


We started the re-do by taking the door that was in the middle of the kitchen and moving it 10 feet to the other side of the kitchen and making the tall full length windows half height. We had our contractor, Tom, watch Lowe's for windows and doors on sale. The we had Tom cut off the leg of the U countertop and open up the room. We lived with this for a few weeks and mulled over our options. We had a new stainless steel double basin sink from a trade with my parents (hammermill for sink) and a stainless steel single bowl sink from the old house. I was going to put in a prep sink in the old house but we never got around to it.

I drooled over kitchen plans with 2 sinks. Oh, my. A big double sink further away near a dishwasher=clean up area. Heaven! The little sink makes a prep area with no dishes around but I can wash veggies and drain pasta without emptying the dirty dishes. Heaven, I thought! Heaven!

Then DH upped the anty. He wanted 2 dishwashers. Who was I to refuse??

This week, Tom installed 2 shiny stainless steel sinks; one single bowl and one double bowl. Both sinks have faucets with sprayers and garbage disposals. He reconfigured our current cabinets into a better configuration (what person ever thought an 8 inch drawer stack was a good idea? you can hardly get hot pads into a drawer). Now there are drawers where we need drawers, a new peninsula that the kids can eat at, a space to work by the stove and not singe your arm hairs. We ordered the other dishwasher last night.

We took the melamine off the white cupboards and are priming and painting the frames and doors. Yes, it is a ton of work. But I got a better working kitchen without going into a ton of money. And someone said painted cupboards are coming back in.

This week I have to finish painting the doors and frames. I will also be tiling the backsplash. DH is putting in better lighting and ceiling fans at each end of the kitchen. I tried telling we don't need them but he just put them in the cart at Lowe's and said, "It is hot in that kitchen during canning season" and pushed the cart away.

The only thing not decided is drawer hardware. When I get some of the drawer fronts and doors on I will post pictures.

In the meantime, Dawn, I am really busy. I have to get the garden in, a garden class here in 3 weeks and a kitchen under renovation and a homeschool to run. Oiy!

Now, I know I could get some flack from my beloved sister for this post. She graduated from college this past weekend (woohooo!) and I didn't attend. I know she knows that she is more important than a kitchen. (You know that right?) But my DH would not break his promise to me that there would be a better working kitchen. Even if we didn't have the money to come to Hawaii for your graduation.

I am findin' me some cinnamon bears

The kitchen tear out started today. It also started with me running and buying another cabinet. DH didn't take into account where the drain is positioned in the wall and the easiest solution was to buy a 3 inch smaller drawer stack. So, I am in the car, half way there and realize I don't have my phone. Running to the hardware store with a shopping list given to you from 2 men is never a good idea without a phone. I pick up everything, load it and get home. The only mistake in the purchasing is I bought too good of plywood. (There are a bunch of different kinds of plywood.) OK, I can handle that.

I pick up my computer to do chicken research and it is going wonky on me. #1 while I was gone, decided to surf the internet and went to a site that downloaded a virus onto my computer. Black screen of death appears on my computer and I trek upstairs and say to the man, "You said this was just an ad! It isn't working." I probably had a scowl on my face. He muted his conference call and said, "OOHHHHH this is bad." I hand him the laptop and go back downstairs.

Not only was Tom (our contractor) in the house tearing apart the kitchen, DH scheduled a AC guy to put in an allergy filter on the furnace and AC. He was up and down, in and out. Almost all his parts were broken and didn't work so he is coming back again tomorrow.

The countertop measurers came this afternoon also. I think this is a new record-3 different workmen in the house working on different projects at the same time.

It is a beautiful day so I booted all the kids outside. I brought home peat moss and compost for the kitchen garden. #1 and #2 emptied and rototilled. I go out to inspect the big garden. The garlic is coming up beautifully. The strawberries not.so.much. Like only a quarter of them. Really weird.

I call all the kids in (Daddy has been on the phone non stop since last Tuesday). I mention the strawberry dilemma to #1. He replies, "Well, last fall #4 was hacking them all down. I don't know why he did it." 75 strawberry plants killed by a whacking wackaroo 5 year old.

#6 scattered all my sorted seed packets all over the picked up and clean living room. Thank goodness she didn't open them. She was naked for the second half of the day. Sidewalk chalk and naked 2 year old. Should have taken pictures.

It was a good day, just frantically busy. Kites were flown. Daffodils picked. Hyacinths plucked. Scrambled eggs and cheese for dinner.

Wheat Class Taught

Last night I taught a class about wheat to 32 people.

We ate Wheat Berry Breakfast Bowls, Wheatberry Salad, Veggie Grain Casserole, Whole wheat bread and artisan bread. I even made wheat meat and we ate it. (I think it takes like a beef flavored sponge.) Recipes and handouts are on my other blog.

Then I taught all who attended how to make their own bread from scratch.

I am pooped but there is no relief in site. Today I had a couple ladies from church come over, learn how to make refried beans and we made bean and cheese burritos for the freezer (they have large families also so we had a whole flock of kids over while we were doing this).

I was making the jello and when I was shaking the little bag to get all the powder down to one end the end of the bag blew a seam. I have orange jello powder cleavage.

Tomorrow is General Conference. We are going to Roseville for the broadcast and throwing a surprise birthday party for #3 in between sessions. He is going to love it. His fiancee is decorating. I dropped off tablecloths and essentials earlier this week. I am making a huge batch of pulled pork, a striped jello, coleslaw, cupcakes and a fruit salad. All must be done so we can leave by 10 tomorrow morning without raising the suspicions of #3.

Sunday we go to Grammie and Poppy's for Easter dinner.

Monday starts the tear out of the kitchen and re-positioning of our existing cabinetry. Plumbing a new sink, plumbing for a 2nd dishwasher (YES! 2!Dishwashers!) and some electrical is going to be done. Countertop measurers will be here Tuesday morning.

And everyone needs haircuts. I haven't started all the seeds yet. The toddler is carrying around a bag of frozen strawberries. How many of these am I going to find thawed behind a couch?

Signing off to prevent a disaster...