A New Year

It is January and we are in the thick of construction dust once again.  What is it about January and tearing apart the house with us?:)  Actually, we have been eagerly waiting to start this project since we moved in.  The basement floors were covered with a black sticky residue, which liked to adhere to your socks, the furniture, rugs, toys, etc., so we knew grinding the floor would make the area  w a y  more usable.  What we didn't know is what a job it would be and how d u s t y.  Oh my!  Hats off to my husband for all his hard work!  It used to be that we had to tell people to put their shoes on to go downstairs, and now they had better take them off! :)  Talk about a transformation!

The dust-coated shroud of plastic finally came down. 

He started on the project when we got home from Bend and we should be finished by this weekend.  Hip, Hip Hooray!

This is what the floors looked like before and I'll share some pictures once we're done!

Besides taking on some construction mess, we also did our fair share of cleaning out, organizing, relaxing, reading, and playing over Christmas break.  We were excited to start school again, but really enjoyed the downtime.  I read a new book I received for Christmas over the break and it is one of the best I've ever read.  Have you heard of Unbroken? 
It is the powerful true story of Louis Zamperini.  Talk about an awful, compelling, unbelievable, can't-put-it-down kind of book.  My head is still spinning.  We owe so much to men like him!  He is a living, walking miracle!
We're also reading the Little House on the Prairie series {another Christmas present}; O & P are loving it!


I don't think I've ever made New Year's resolutions.  I'm not sure why, I think they didn't interest me or I didn't want to set myself up for failure?  I feel the same about diets.  If I do something, I have to stick to it, and diets seem impossible to sustain {although Weight Watchers seems more doable}.  Anyhoo... 

I don't know what got into me, but I did jot down a few things for this year {albeit random!}:

• feed the family blueberries every morning.  The little nuts absolutely love them and they are such a yummy snack right out of the freezer.  {I thaw the ones for the baby and she gobbles them up}  Their health benefits are outrageous!  I love them, too, and don't know why I forget about 'em.  I have a new rule that I have my blueberries before my morning chocolates.  Sometimes, they satisfy my sweet tooth and I don't want my chocolates for at least another 10 minutes. :)
• do thoughtful things for David on a regular basis.  It is easy to forget to be creative about showing my love and appreciation for my number one man, so I want to do a better job this year.
• set up a home school room.  I'd like to have this ready for next school year!
•  accomplish even the unlovely, monotonous tasks in a timely manner.  Set the timer for myself if need be
• sew more
• get a nice camera, and learn to use it {dream big!}
• establish a new bible memorization plan that is laid out for the year {one/week}
  

We created a token jar for when I observe one of the little nuts doing something especially helpful, thoughtful, kind, etc. They get to pick their token   I saw the idea here and thought it was so neat!  It is a creative reward and also a way to see what they need {a hug, a story, pep talk, massage, game, walk with Mom, baked good}.  You can buy tokens here.

It can be hard to vacuum the floors when your handyman wants to inspect and give it more "gas" every 3 minutes!  He takes his job very serious!

 Sweet girl ironing and hanging her doll clothes up to "dry" in her room.

She pleads to wear her fanciest dresses every day. :)

Jock has a new friend!  I have some pictures of him, but Blogger is not letting me upload them for some reason...Boo!  I'll try again soon.  He is three years old and is a grey dapple.  He hasn't been worked with much, so he definitely needs work, but my Dad loves a project horse, and he seems to have a sweet disposition.  Everyone already loves him.

I wanted to share a few more things, but the eyelids are heavy, so I'll come around again soon!

God bless and keep you!