Yarn Along

So, one of my dear, dear aunts and I have a lot in common, one being we have both always struggled with keeping our homes clean.  We were messaging back and forth a few weeks ago, and she said she had found an amazing book on cleaning that I just had to read.  She was so insistent that I read it, that she said, "You know what?  I'm just going to send it to you for your birthday."

It's a Japanese book, and I smiled at some of the cultural aspects addressed.  (A bedroom was measured by the number of mats fit in it.)  To be perfectly honest, I have thrown this book a few times.

Like when she said that some people have messy homes because they can't seem to put stuff away.

throw the book at the wall.

Yeah.  My problem couldn't be 5 children in my house dumping stuff faster than I pick it up.  Couldn't be.  Stupid lady.  All I do is clean up.

So I picked it up again, because I trust my aunt, and I trust her judgment.  She never sends me stuff.  If she sent it, she must have for a reason.

Then the lady goes on and on about how she never has to tidy anymore.  Her house is always clean and things are always put away, and I too can have this life where I just come home from work and take a long hot bath in my impeccably clean home.

throw the book at the wall.

Stupid lady.  I don't live in lala land.  You cannot tell me you have a method where I never have to tidy my house again.  It's against nature.

So I pick up the book again, because my aunt knows me, and she knows herself, and if she found something that works, it must work.  As I read I think there is something lost in translation because I find she's not talking about cleaning, she's talking about tidying in particular.  She's talking about clutter.  She's talking about piles of junk that show up out of the blue everyday.  She's talking about simplifying.

OK, now this is my language.  I'm slowly starting to understand.

About a week before I got this book from my aunt, I ran across this blog post about the idea of wardrobe capsules.  Studies show that most people just wear the same small amount of clothes, and most of your clothes sit unused.  This system is where you keep only your favorite clothes, and only have out in your closet the cluster of clothes that you will wear for that season (3 months or so.)  That way, when you look in your closet, it's quick and easy to see what you want.  That idea had already been percolating in the back of my mind.  I love the idea of decluttering and go through purges.  But this book isn't about going through a purge.  It's about living the purge.  There's a definite method to it that I have never been taught.  She says most people have never be taught  how to tidy, meaning we were taught how to put things away, but we are rarely taught how to decide what gets put away, and what needs to go, so the house does not get overwhelmed.  The principles to that are in here.

So with a vision of what I want my closet to look like, and using the principles of this book, I have been tackling my closet to start with.  That's where she says to startI'm constantly having piles of clothes accumulate on the chair in my room.  That chair isn't for sitting, it's for clothes piles.  Clothes are stuffed to the brim in my closet, and I even have piles on the floor in there now.

The reason that I have so many clothes and use so few is for a completely different post I'm working on writing.  For now, we'll just say that's the short version of the situation.  The fact that I've gone through the body changes of growing 5 children to birth, and I am not able to do stuff that normal people do like try on clothes in the store have something to do with it.  It's a whole long saga.

So I've decluttered before.  I've cleaned out my closet before and got rid of stuff.  That isn't anything new.  However, this book has some very different methods for decluttering, in a way that makes it "stick" and I have to say, I'm really liking this.  I've gone through my tops, bottoms, dresses and socks thus far.  I've got my underwear, purses, shoes, and accessories left this week.  You declutter not room by room, but category by category.  You don't get rid of things you hate, you pick up each item, and see if it sparks joy.  I know, I know, it sounds cheesy.  But it's been working.

Now I look in my closet, and it's like going to In and Out Burger.  OK, maybe that's not the best illustration, but I like having limited options, when all the options are delightful.  It's just been so simple.  I'm loving this and it's truly like I'm carrying around less garbage.  I don't even have enough clothes out in my closet to make a significant pile.  Once I decided which of my clothing "sparked joy" I bagged up 5 (count them!! FIVE!!) garbage bags full of clothes that will leave my house.  I then used the capsule idea without any effort at all, and only have hanging the clothes that I will wear this season, limiting myself to the portions in the blogpost linked above except I kept a few more dresses.  I love wearing dresses on Sunday and 2 is just not enough.  I kept 5.  Because I'm the boss.

So, I'm only on chapter 3 right now.  I'm hoping this book gets more into how to declutter the rest of the house.  I really like the ideas presented.  I do still throw the book from time to time, when the 20 something, I have no children and just need to keep my little apartment tidy attitude comes out through the author.  But the more I read, the more I consider that some principles are universal.  The human nature is the same no matter what stage of life you are in.  Really, some lightbulbs are going off in my head as she's explaining what I'm doing and why I'm doing it as if she has a camera watching me.  It's starting to get eerie.  I was just reading last night about why the clutter problem is so common with the younger sister, and why that is, and as a younger sister myself (in the habit of hand-me-downs) my jaw just kept dropping as I realized what I was doing.

Honestly, I'm considering reading this book out loud to my children for our next read aloud.  Silje has taken notice of my room's transformation, and she wants to read it so she can do her room next.  If this thing catches on, it could be a game changer.

***

As for knitting, I'm focusing this summer on actually writing all the patterns I need to publish.  I need a really clear brain for that since I have such a build up, so I'm pausing from knitting my own designs and making a shawl for a friend of mine.  I'm taking some Madelinetosh Prairie Lace yarn in "fragrant" from my stash and I first bought this pattern, because it is so her.  But about 2 hours into knitting this, I realized that this pattern is much more complicated than my brain is handling right now.  Seriously, I don't know what half of these abbreviations are.

This designer is all kinds of genius, way above my attention span, and I'm thoroughly impressed with it, and someday I may knit it, and I normally love it when I find a pattern where I can learn some new techniques.  But right now I'm really just looking for an easy knit I can bring outside when I'm watching the kids play.  I want something simple I can bring to the lake and hold a conversation with someone.  So I decided to go with this pattern instead, which I found through a Ravelry search.  It's really simple, but I think there's this multipurpose elegance to it too.  I want one.  The abundance of knit stitches over and over again in that stockinette stitch done in the round is exactly  what I'm in the mood for right now.  I'm chilling out just looking at the pictures.  So that is going on the needles, and I had to learn how to do "Judy's Magic Cast On" so I'm still working with a pattern where I have to learn at least one new technique.  Everyone of my personalities is happy now.

The Big Mouse Adventure

We've been dealing with a mouse problem.  I hate to say it, but we've had.  We had a mouse problems a few years ago.  Knut usually set out poison in the barn and unfinished basement, and it wasn't a problem...until one day I was cleaning out the kids' toy boxes and saw the mice had nested piles of the poison in the corners of each and every cubby basket.  I freaked out, as you can imagine. Then, even though I've never been a cat person, we got a bunch of the sweetest, most social barn cats from a friend of a friend to replace the poison.  We haven't seen a mouse since.  Sure, we see evidence they leave behind in the unfinished parts of the basement, or outside, but for the most part, we can pretend they aren't there.

Until this Spring.  I've seen the cats play with mice pretty much constantly outside lately.  I've seen 3 mice come out into the open in our house in the last 2 weeks.  Also, the back hall closet had some...movement.  We'd be sitting in the den, watching a movie, and we'd hear them squeaking, running around, etc.  It gives me shivers just to think about it.  I knew it needed a good clean out, but I was afraid if I cleaned it out I'd find...well, mice.  Live. Mice.  And I don't like to find them.  I stand on tables around them...not go out of my way to find where they live.

So Knut got these super awesome traps, and we set them in the closet and then he'd check them twice a day, and for the last week or so, there was at least one mouse found there at each check.  That's every 12 hours we were catching at least 1 mouse.  I figured we'd get rid of all of them, THEN I'd clean it out when the coast was clear.

I know I'm a scaredy cat.  I admit that openly.

But yesterday, Knut cleaned out the traps when he got up in the morning.  Then while we were eating breakfast, we heard both traps go off.  I was so grossed out at the consistency we were catching them, I said "That's it!  That's it!  We are cleaning it out TODAY!"  I was planning on doing it this weekend, but I couldn't live with them in there anymore.  I was planning on doing some cooking for the rest of our busy week, and get a few projects done.  All of it was canceled.  The mice needed to be evicted.

So obviously, I paid one of my kids to do it.  David's my big strong man of the house when Knut is planting the fields during spring work.  Then we broke house rules and brought a series of barn cats inside to supervise his work.  Only 1 of the 3 cats we chose to bring inside showed any interest in chasing the mice that we found.  The other 2 were overfed...and they have barely touched the food we give them lately.  There's been a lot of mice in the barn too.  But I don't live there.

It's what we get living yards from the farm's grain bins, I guess.  It's just been a bad spring in that department.  We are down to only 5 cats right now too, and the mice problem is really more under control when we are between 8-10.  We think one of our cats, Midnight, might be pregnant right now, so...I hope so.  Believe me, I've asked the humane society for cats, multiple times, but they say cats aren't for chasing mice, and they will only give out declawed, inside cats that sit around all day.  Those cats sound bored.  Our cats have all sorts of fun.  We feed them and take care of them.  They get a ton of affection from multiple people in our family.  They just have a job to do...and they love to do it.  We have a philosophy that animals are happiest when they are doing what they were bred to do.  Missy is happiest outside chasing predators.  She is constantly scanning the horizon for threats.  It fills her heart with joy.  You can see it all over her face.  Lena is a companion dog, and is happiest when toddlers are using her as a pillow, or playing fetch.  The chickens like to eat bugs and scratching the dirt.  So we don't keep them in a room and feed them specially formulated food, and cut their beaks off because they can get bored and peck each other like commercial operations.  We let them all over the yard to dig for bugs, and eat all the ticks we seem to breed there.  They are so happy and don't bug each other, and I really think it effects the quality of our eggs.  Our cats are hunters.  I cannot imagine them being happy not hunting.  It's all about respecting the animal.

Mice have the job of dying.  I have no sympathy for them.  I know God created them too, but...I just can't.  They're food for cats.  That's their purpose in my mind.

We've also learned that animals are essential to avoiding chemicals.  If we didn't have free range chickens, we would spend hundreds of dollars a year spraying for ticks in the yard.  Before chickens, we picked 2 ticks off our kids a day.  Since we got chickens a few years ago, we see 1-2 a year.  If we didn't have cats, we'd have to go back to putting poison everywhere and find it in the kids' toy boxes again.  If we didn't have Missy, the chickens couldn't range and find ticks.  If we didn't have Lena, we'd have to buy real floor pillows.

Well, once everything was out, and everything was vacuumed up, David decided he didn't want to do anymore.  He was so overwhelmed with the mess.  The closet contents were spewed across 2 rooms in all of it's mouse chewed/pooped glory.  I rubbed some essential oils that deter mice all over the floor and baseboards of the closet.  We took a trip (it ended up being 2 trips) to town to get plastic tubs to put everything in.  This closet under the stairs stores the bulk flour, wheat, rice, oatmeal, etc. for the family.  One half bag of flour was ruined, but the rest of the food was untouched because it was actually stored better.  They're all in tubs now anyway.  Some of the Christmas boxes were chewed through, and several party things, and a hodgepodge of items were chewed through.  I threw away about a 1/3 of the closet's content because the mice had ruined it in some fashion.  So today we have to take a trip to the dump.  (We don't get trash pick up way out here.  We try to recycle as much as we can to avoid trips to the dump, but this stuff seriously needs to go.)  Everything got crazy clean before  it went back into storage, and I think I cleaned the rooms I was sorting through all this stuff in about 4 times after it was all gone.

The good news is that I had to get rid of so much stuff that my vacuum fits in there again.  So that's a bonus.

And this morning?  The traps were full again.  So I guess the cats missed a few.  Actually, I think we'll be catching them for awhile, but with an aggressively clean space, they'll start running out of food options.  I hope.  I'm not ready for an inside cat yet.  Don't tell Silje, but this event has nearly brought me there.  That's how traumatizing it's been.

The Quest for Clean

So I've mentioned a few times my quest this year to just have a better handle on housework.  I know with 5 kids home all the time, it's not going to be perfect.  I just want the feeling of drowning to go away.

Throughout this process of focusing my attention to housekeeping, I'm realizing there is an "art" side to it, and a "craft" side to it.  The Hidden Art of Homemaking is a beautiful book by Edith Schaeffer.  It talks about how to be intentional in creating beauty in your home and within the context of home.  I'm so inspired by this side of homemaking.  It's not about scrubbing toilets.  It's about arranging flowers and leaving love notes for your kids, and bringing out your fine linens and putting a small vase on a tray when bringing it out to a homeless man asking for a meal on your porch.  It's about crafting an atmosphere, a space that reflects the beauty and grace of God.  If you are a homemaker, you must read this book.  It will make you see your job so differently.

But like painting, acting, photography, writing and knitting for that matter, there is a craft side to the art.  There's a way to do it right, and do it well.  The craft is the structure on which the art is built.

I've also mentioned that I am not naturally tidy.  I don't like crumbs and sticky stuff, and usually address that first.  But piles of junk?  That's pretty common with me.  I lack in the structure side of homemaking.  Many of my friends pointed me in the direction of "Fly Lady."  It doesn't cost anything, it's just a cleaning schedule that you can do to rotate all the jobs in your house.  Over the course of a month, everything gets clean.

If you go to the website, you can sign up for email accountability, and to be honest, the website is a bit confusing.  I could start at the baby steps, but I just felt that was more for someone who wasn't in the habit of cleaning at all.  I was cleaning all the time but felt like I was spinning my wheels and not going anywhere.  I didn't need to get in the habit of cleaning, I needed a plan, or direction for my cleaning.

I spent about 2 evenings just exploring the site.  There were things I liked: the cleaning zones.  I liked that you focus on deep cleaning areas of your house every week.  I also liked the morning and evening routines.  It sounded very doable.

There were things that didn't fit us perfectly, and really no system will fit 2 households perfectly.  For instance, she suggest that you do one load of laundry a day to stay on top of it.

Haha.  That's cute.

If I did one load of laundry a day, we'd get behind in a hurry.  Also, the zones only address 1 bathroom and we have 2.  It names a living room as a zone, but leaves out family room and finished basement.  The other complaint I've read is that it doesn't give jobs for various people in the family jobs.  I like her explanation of that.  She says that if you want something clean, you need to take initiative, and not just stare at it wishing someone else would do it.  I like that.  Knut does many chores, but most of them take place outside the house.  He does do dishes and scrubs things down from time to time, which is nice.  But he's not home all day to keep it clean.  I am.  I live in the mess, and I need to take a hold of it.

The other issue I had with the system is that we're not just a family that can tidy up the house, and go to work/school, and come back to a clean house.  My house is very lived in.  People are always here.  Messes are continually being made.  Keeping a house this lived in clean requires constant cleaning, not just a few times a day.  The system definitely needed tweaking for a large family that's always home.  The bones of the system are good.  It just needed some customization for us.

As I was 1 week into her baby steps, one of my friends posted about an app that coordinated with Fly Lady.  It's called Home Routine by Wunderbear.  It does cost $5, but in comparison with how much it helps me, I'd say it's worth it.  I went ahead and got it.  I'm so in love with this app.  I was able to delete jobs that just don't apply to our house, such as "wipe down bench" since we don't have a bench.  I was able to add jobs, so that I could check off vacuuming each living area, or sinks in both bathrooms.  I was able to custom make the Fly Lady system for my house, and the specific needs of my house.

As far as spreading out the duties, it's pretty simple.  After every meal the kids and I do chores.  I would just look at the list on the phone, and hand out duties, taking the bulk for myself.  It's just nice to have a plan that I don't have to think about.  When one of my kids says "what's my chore?" I don't have to look around the house and see what needs to get done.  I just look and see what's next on the list.  That doesn't mean I don't look around and change it when necessary, it just means that when my brain is overloaded, I have something to base jobs on without much thought.

I have noticed that the first month was hardest because there was some jobs listed that had quite a built up of junk to go through.  I started back in December, and I'm now on my 3rd month going through the house zones.  It's so much faster now.  The frequency of the rotation has actually made the build up less, and the jobs faster.  I'm liking that.  I did fall off the bandwagon for about a week, the but I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't push me back that far.  I had already over a month of foundation of keeping things clean that it took me no more than half a day to get myself back on track.

The app (which was created with the Fly Lady system in mind, but is not endorsed by Fly Lady that I know of) has morning chores, evening chores, a list of things to be done for the zone of that week, as well as a weekly list.  It also has a timer built into the app.  For instance, I customized the morning chores to look like this:

(It's not done in any particular order.)
-Get dressed
-Start washing machine
-Check calendar
-Breakfast dishes
-15 minutes in focus zone
-Devotions
-Take vitamins
-5 minutes putting out hot spot.

In all honesty, sometimes I don't get through this list until about 3pm.  But it has been getting done, and that's the point.

On a side note, I hate putting devotions on my to do list, most especially next to taking vitamins.  It feels like it's lowering, or lessening it's importance.  It's just that I'm easily distracted, and have a whole army in this house that is working hard to keep me distracted (or at least it feels that way) and this list helps me keep priority things that are important to me.  It's not perfect, but it has been beneficial for actually getting me in the Word.  So it stays.

So when I have a 15 minute opening where the kids are occupied, I pull open my zone list for that week, start the timer, and complete as many things on that list as I can until the alarm sounds.  It's a pretty fantastic alarm too, akin to Dave Ramsey's "We're debt free!" vibe.  You can set alerts to do certain tasks at certain times (for those of us who are easily distracted).  I can then set the timer for 5 minutes and work on the kitchen counter where clutter piles up high nearly hourly.

I think what I like about it is the jobs are so bite sized.  The scale on which I have to clean may be big, but if I just stick with the 15 minute clean ups and 5 minutes putting out the "hotspot" an incredible amount actually gets done.  I can actually do them without feeling like a failure. For someone like me who needs to feel like something is done well, and can never accomplish "clean kitchen" I can handle "wipe down kitchen chairs."

Right now I'm doing the bulk of the "weekly chores" on Saturday.  This works out logically with homeschooling, but has been difficult with my neck and chronic pain.  So many of the chores I have for that day I simply cannot do back to back.  I have relied on the kids a lot on this day, and we work on this list as a team effort, when none of us have to do any school related work.  So far I've only been able to do half the weekly list every Saturday, and the other half on a different Saturday.  However, it's so much better than what I was doing before.

I love that I can just set up the plan in my app, and I don't have to write out a to do list every day.  Scraps of paper left everywhere in my house is now a think of the past, and I don't spend any time writing out the list every morning like I used to.  I used to spend 15-20 minutes every morning (or sometimes the night before) writing out a to do list.  That time is now spent actually cleaning, using a pre-set to do list.

Things I wish were different:

-I wish I could somehow get meal planning coordinated with this to do list.  That's just another big area that I have to juggle.  So far my meal planning still takes place in a 3 ring binder.  I've added "make bread" on my weekly/Saturday list, but I'd love to have more space to move around involving food in this app.

-There is no reminders to de-clutter or get rid of stuff on the app as there is on the Fly Lady website.  I'd love to be decluttering spaces more on a daily basis.  Of course, I could add this into each zone, but I'm not sure I need to declutter that often?  Maybe I should be, but I'm not right now.

-I wish there was another category for afternoon chores.  In our house, I have learned that in order to stay on top of the mess we do a quick clean up after each meal.  It's short...less than 30 minutes.  (I get mine done in about 15 minutes, but the kids work a bit slower than me.  Actually if their attitude is just right they have the ability to drag out the 15 minute chore to 2 hours even somedays.  They're talented like that.  They have learned that they don't like doing that much anymore, though.)  The app only has morning and evening chore lists, as I imagine most families are not at home around lunchtime.  It would really be nice if I could add a list for afternoons.  Right now I just sort of ad lib for our afternoon chores, and have the kids pick up their school books, and we just tidy up the kitchen and fold one load of laundry.

I find myself cleaning up little messes a lot quicker, because I just do it once I'm on a roll cleaning.  The biggest thing I like about this system is it gets me started.  Looking around at a messy house, and knowing  that you can't conquer it but you should get up and try to anyway is incredibly depressing.  But putting small goals in front of me, I start, and often don't stop because it feels so good to make a beautiful space.

I still have to look at it as making a space beautiful, rather than "cleaning it."  The artist in me relies heavily on that inspiration side of "cleaning."

So that is my unbiased, unpaid review of both Fly Lady and the Home Routines app.  I think that both those 2 resources work incredibly well together.  I'm loving it, and I'm allowed to slip up from time to time without falling down in failure.  The kids and I are in much better habits, and although our house is not by any stretch a picture of cleanliness, the stress of the mess is much, much lower.  I don't feel so panicky- out of control about my housework anymore.  Well...at least not as often.

Hibernation Beauties

The amaryllis is in full bloom now.  It's extravagance is distracting in the most wonderful way.  Knut is still working on the farm, but the hours are less, and he usually fills his winter days with a big house project.  As we spent this year's "home improvement money" that we saved, to reside our barn that desperately needed it last summer, he doesn't have a big home project to do this winter.  I think he's loving that, because I think it's the first year out of the 6 years that we've lived here that he doesn't have a huge project on his hands.

The good husband that he is, he pulled out my old dollhouse, again, and started going  through the 90 or so step process of putting it together.  My birthday is in March, and he has the goal of giving it to me as a gift.  I've had this unassembled dollhouse since my dad gave it to my sister in I when I was 8 or so.  When my sister was dividing up some of our stuff at my mom's house during a move, I ended up with the treasure, as she wanted our old vanity.  (And the vanity was harder to ship cross-country.)

So I've had it for several years now.  I've bugged Knut about it for the last few years, but hopefully not enough to completely annoy him.  Last year, or the year before, he looked for the missing instruction booklet online, and found it.  To his dismay, the project was completely more work than he imagined, and put it away as there was no way he had time for a project of this magnitude at the time.

So this year, he pulled out the box, with lots of sighing and head scratching.  I'm not sure he's looking forward to it, but I think he's excited to have it done and off of his mind.  He spent a whole evening taking inventory of all the pieces, and saw that through the various moves, some pieces were missing.  I told him that a Hobby Lobby about an hour for us has a whole dollhouse section where you can get all sorts of parts.  So he made a detailed list of things that he needed, and now we just wait until we can get up there, which will likely be sometime this week.  The next section he's on is the windows, and about half the window panes are missing.  I may pick up some more dollhouse furniture there while I'm there.  I've been picking up something for the dollhouse every time I'm there for the last few years, and have quite the "hope chest" for it built up.

In other news, Elias lost his first tooth, which he is pretty excited about.  The kids were astonished that the tooth fairy actually left a dollar on the first night.  Very often it can take weeks for the tooth fairy to visit, and she leaves notes, saying that she's sorry, she was on vacation in Fiji, or some other exotic destination that the kids run to look up.  The tooth fairy is lazy AND educational like that.  Quite the world traveler.  Knut tells the kids that the tooth fairy was much more prompt when he was a kid, before she unionized with the Easter Bunny and Santa.

There has not been much outside playing, as the temperatures have been crazy low, with very little snow to comfort us with.  We've still been running around doing our regular activities in town.  I've been doing a lot of cleaning around the house, though I haven't brought myself to take down the Christmas decorations yet.  I making myself do it next weekend, though.

I found a great App for my phone that one of my friends told me about.  I started doing the FlyLady cleaning system this year to help me stay on top of household things.  It's REALLY working for me.  Actually, I think it's working because of the app, and the fact that I can customize it in a way that makes sense for my homeschooling life.  It's called "HomeRoutines" by Wunderbear.  It was the first app I ever paid money for, but it might be the best money I have ever spent.  I can't remember a time when my house has ever been this clean, and I haven't been stressed out about it.

Knut's big race in Wisconsin is coming up, so he's doing a lot of training.  My trip to Colorado is a short 10 days, 10 hours, and 3 minutes away.  I'm trying to load of the freezer with meals for Knut and the kids while I'm gone.  I'm just so excited for this little getaway, and feel completely spoiled by it.  (Thank you to anyone who buys my patterns!  You deliver sanity to this mother.)  Speaking of knitting patterns, I finally have time this week to get back to work.  The holiday season is over, my house is in order, and I have about 4 patterns that just need some technical writing time poured into them.  Watch out for a flood of patterns in the next month or so.

The Season

It's still Fall, but we are a few inches deep in snow already.  I'm fighting the kids to keep the autumnal decorations up at least through Thanksgiving, because according to them, Christmas is just a few days away.  At any rate, we have started the season I lovingly refer to as "Hibernation Season."  Of course, we never hibernate as much as I wish.  Lately it seems like we are constantly in town for some reason or another.

This is Solveig stuffing her mouth like the rest of us with some store-bought lefse.  Buying lefse at the store is sacrilege in this family, but I couldn't help myself.  I'm too busy to make some now, and there's something about snow on the ground that makes me crave it like nothing else.  (For those of non-Norwegian descent, lefse is much like a potato crepe that you butter and sugar and hoard from all other family members.  Most of the stories of stealing and hiding in my family all have the common theme of lefse.)  Lefse is essential to hibernating.

The kids are really into board games right now.  Sorry, Monopoly, Ticket to Ride, Sequence are constantly out.  They're finally at the age where they don't lose the pieces all the time...at least not as often.

I didn't bring in my geraniums for the winter hibernation, but I did bring in the begonias before they froze.  I have a tendency to kill house plants by the dozen.  I did this quiz once a few years ago to find out how many plants we needed in our house for proper air purification during the closed in winter months.  Our magic number for our square footage was 18 plants.  At the time we had 0 because I had killed them all, so I went out and bought 2, which I killed after a few months as well.  I love my begonias next to the bird feeder outside our kitchen window every summer, and I wanted to hold onto them this winter.

I think Knut discovered my house plant problem.  He noticed I was watering them with water from the sink, which is soft (yet still extraordinarily rusty...we'll say "mineral rich") well water.  He told me to start using our filtered water that we use from the fridge.   So far, the 2 plants that we have inside haven't died using this water.  In fact, they're looking pretty healthy.  He may be onto something...  I may even buy one or two more this month.

The fire in the fireplace in our living room is now running around the clock again, as Knut has been in to get the chimneys swept and wood brought in.  The gas furnace was turned off, and we're back to just burning wood in the fireplace and corn in the basement corn stove on the other side of the house.

So the living room is now the place to be, and the kids wander out of the t.v. space in the den and climb in a chair to read a book, or gather up for a board game often.  There's something about the fireplace that just draws us all away from technology and into reflection and study mode.  This is the time of year we get the most schoolwork done.  Wool socks are hanging out to dry all over the house pretty much all the time, after the kids cross country ski and snowboard or sled in the ditches during their frequent recess times outside.  This is the time of year when we consume an extraordinary amount of hot chocolate.   It has started early this year, but to be honest?  That's just fine by me.

Apple Cider Vinegar - How to Use It, How to Make It

It's nearly apple season!  The kids have started to grab some apples off the apple tree during their play time, and I know that applesauce making will soon be commonplace in the kitchen.  I experimented with making apple cider vinegar with apples from the store earlier this summer, and now I'm all set to make some big batches for the first time now that apples are ripening in our yard.

We go through bunches of apple cider vinegar around here.  Here are some basic uses:

-Add to chicken water.  This works to drive the chickens to drink more, which is good for general health, and also serves to keep the chickens intestinally healthier.  Just a little capful or so per gallon or two is enough.

-Homemade salad dressing Yum! (with other ingredients in a recipe involving an oil of course.  Don't just pour apple cider vinegar plain on a salad.  Yuck.)

-Pour into a small bowl and leave on counter when processing lots of garden produce to prevent the fruit flies from overtaking the kitchen.

-keep full strength in a small spray bottle in the first aid box.  (I use a travel size spray bottle)

• We use this as a natural spray on sore throats for humans.  It tastes nasty, but nothing scares a scratchy throat away faster.  I prefer a cup of tea, but if that doesn't work, time to pull this out.  I learned this from a homeschooling podcast, as the mom talked about dealing with reading all day long to your kids, and how it's hard on your throat.  It really works.
• We also spray this on the dogs every few days in the summer if the flies won't leave them alone.  Both dogs have gotten sores from flies in past years, and we've found this to be a great addition to their flea/tick medication.  We have on occasion use it on the cats too, but they will really hate you for it, and they normally keep themselves free of flies much better than dogs anyway.
• We use it for bullying with the chickens.  Occasionally there's a chicken who is constantly bullied by the other chickens to the point that all of her neck feathers are missing.  Sometimes it gets to the point of getting bloody or scabby.  Once chickens see blood, it only gets 500x worse.  Then they really go in for the kill.  So in the early stages, or the recovery stages, we spray full strength apple cider vinegar on the neck.  Not only does it cleanse the area, it gives the bully who dares peck on the wound a huge mouthful of yuck.  Chicken bullying slows down in a hurry after that.

So want to know how to make it in a Weck jar?  Just like other fermentation, you're going to need the jar, a cover that fits, 2 metal brackets, and a glass cover that is for the Weck jar a size smaller to hold the apples under water inside the jar.  I've found that this process works really well in a liter size tulip jar, with an extra lid from, say the 1/5 liter mold jar.  

Step 1: Give all of your kids an apple for snack.  If you have 5 kids like me, this works great.  This might have been about 2 days worth of snack scraps.  Honestly, I don't wash these scraps or anything.  They go straight from the kids' sticky fingers to the jar.  Or you can make an apple pie, apple sauce, etc.  Basically you're looking for any apple scraps: cores, skins, etc.  If you want organic apple cider vinegar you need to use organic apples.

Step 2: Put all apple scraps gathered into a liter size Weck tulip jar, with an inch or two of headspace.  

Step 3: Cover completely with water, and lay the extra small Weck jar lid on top of the apple scraps to keep them under water.  

Step 4: Put regular glass lid on top, DO NOT PUT ON THE RUBBER RING, but DO put on the metal brackets so that glass lid doesn't move off if the bottle gets bumped by accident.  You want it covered, but not air/water tight.  So leave the seal off.  The fermentation process releases a gas.  So you want air to escape, but no air to get to the scraps.  The weight inside will push the apples underwater so they cannot get the air, and it will allow the excess gas to escape without any pressure building up.

Step 5:  Store jar in a cool, dark place (warmer than a fridge, but out of the sunlight.  Walk around your house and look for a dark safe place not close to a heat source.  Ours sat on the cleaning product shelf in a back hall closet).  Leave for 3-7 days.  I've left mine on a shelf for 2 weeks by accident and nothing bad happened.

Step 6: The jar will now look cloudy, and there should be a foam around the top.  If there is mold, scrape it off, and discard.  That means that it was stored in too warm of a place, but all is not lost.  In this picture is was just broken up apple seeds that didn't strain out, and I just picked out with a spoon.  Just discard the mold, if you get any.  The white foam is good.  That's the "mother."  Think proofing yeast for bread…it means you have good yeast going on there.  It's the fermentation process eating up all the sugars in the apples.  At this point you want to strain out and discard all of the apple pieces, and keep the precious liquid and foam that is nearly your apple cider vinegar.

Step 7: Find a smaller Weck jar, and wash in very hot, soapy water.  I used 2 mold jars that were 1/5 liter size, because that was the closest to grab when I was doing this.

Step 8: Pour that precious liquid, with foam and all, into the clean jars, cover with lid and metal brackets, but again NO rubber seal.  Do not heat up the liquid.  You are not canning them, and you don't want to sterilize this liquid, or you will kill off all the yeast.

Step 9: Put the jars holding just liquid back to that cool, dark spot it you were storing it before.  

Step 10: Leave on the shelf for about 6 weeks.  It will darken, sometimes develop more foam, settle with "stuff" floating around the bottom, and eventually get that strong vinegar smell.  At that point, you can add the rubber seal to your Weck jar, (optional, it doesn't matter) and store wherever you store and use your apple cider vinegar.  The yeast has eaten up all the sugar, and is now shelf stable.

So yes, it does take time, but not your time.  The only time "work time" required for this project is washing jars, and pouring water over apples.  Most of the "work" of making apple cider vinegar happens all by itself on a lonely shelf.  It's just another way to get something free out of food scraps.  :)

I'm Blessed

I'm so grateful this morning for such a refreshing weekend.

The weather couldn't be better.  I forgot how much I love walks and fresh air.

Missy and I have had some good runs together.

The kitchen makes me smile whenever I am in it, near it, passing it.  Which is a lot.  There's still a few odd things to get done and touch up, but the overall project looks complete.  I have some more decorating and rearranging to do.  That may take me weeks.  It's a fun job.  So far I've brought my rolling pin, and my lefse rolling pin out on display to clear up some drawer space, and they're pretty.  Knut had a tough time of getting them hung.  I'm grateful he was determined enough to make that happen.  The wall I chose wasn't cooperating with him.

I'm so grateful for tears.

I'm grateful for middle of the night baby snuggles.

I'm grateful for cool evenings.

I'm grateful for my kids' numerous cousins.  They have the best built-in friends ever.

I'm so blessed with the scent of roses.  Every single person in my family stops in this room now and just spends a moment just absorbing their presence way down to the toes.  The scent overwhelms, and their sight is good for the soul.

I'm blessed with a hot cup of tea after the kids are in bed.

I'm blessed with fresh, bright eggs for breakfast nearly every morning now.  And cheese.  Cheese is glorious.

I'm blessed.

Last Day

Well, if all goes well, today is the last day of painting.  Right now the "wrong side" of the last few upper cabinet doors are drying, and the "right side" will get painted tonight, and dry overnight.  Tomorrow will be finishing installing, and maybe a bit of touch up as needed.  I'll likely post "after" pictures next week once a I have a few things put together.

I am so ready to have my kitchen back.

I'm so excited to do some baking.  I'm just sitting here at my laptop in the kitchen, smiling.  I love how it looks.  Oh, I'm so glad I did this.  I feel so refreshed.  I have a few decorations put back on top of the cupboards, but they're not all there yet.  The red window still needs a spot.  I'm moving my little buffet to a different part of the kitchen.  We're thinking of utilizing yet another one of the old, long, slate boards salvaged from a one-room school house when it closed that is stored in our summer kitchen.

I'm trying to think of a better storage place for my apron collection.  I think I'm going to finally finish the curtains.  They've been up in one window for about a year, and I haven't put them up in the other window yet because I needed to trim about 6 inches off of the bottoms.  It shouldn't take long, and it will get done easily.  I just need to do it.

The bottom part of the kitchen is completely back, and Knut just loved having things where they should be back in the drawers.  A bit of sanity has returned in that area.

We got a bit of snow yesterday, but it's nearly gone already.  I've grown used to the fact that spring is a constant disappointment.  You think winter is over, but it isn't.  I've learned to not look for the absence of snow in the spring, but the signs of "fight" in the land.  It's fighting to wake everything up, despite the random snowfalls and cold temps.

I love seeing the little tulips come up, shaking their fist at the clouds and saying, "See?  You don't scare us!!"  Maybe that's not what everyone thinks when they see tulips.  I see something that overcame winter.  They made it.

Now that the kitchen is near completion, I'm just aching to get out and clean up the strawberry patch, trim up the raspberry bushes, and asparagus patch, and take all the skeletons of last year's flowers all out to the compost (as it probably should have been done last fall).  Oh, and Missy and I need some serious quality time together.  We have lots of "training" in store.  Wow, she's a sweetheart.

Things will change around here in a hurry.

The tulips told me so.

Many Days Later...

Sorry about the lack of updates.  I've been over here trying to put my kitchen back together and keep my sanity.  :)

So much has happened.  The sprayer never worked out after that first day.  Knut spent a whole morning replacing seals and cleaning out filters.  We could never get the pressure back up to where it should have been.  While he spent time on that, I started painting the inside, since we weren't planning on spraying that.

After priming everything, I put on the first layer of "Delicate Mist" and thought, "Huh.  That's white."  Then I started thinking, "Wow.  This is really bright white."  Finally, I thought, "This is not going to work at all."  I had finished the upper cabinets of the peninsula when I had reached that conclusion.  I wanted a pale blue, but this was a white, tinted blue.  Next to the whites in the kitchen that had been antiqued and yellowed over decades, it looked awful.  It was like I had several natural light light bulbs in the kitchen, and then one fluorescent light blaring right in the middle.  Not the look I was going for.

So Knut and I brought out the color cards, and chose a blue with a stronger value, so that it would have more contrast against the old whites in the kitchen.  I went back to the store and picked up the new color.  We chose "Rain Washed."  I guess we didn't need a delicate mist, we needed a full downpour.  Haha.  Color names amuse me.

I have hesitated in writing anything after that point, mostly because I'm still sorting it out in my brain.  This new color is so different than how the kitchen was before.  It's actually a bit bluer than this picture shows.  It looks more grayish during the day, which I like, but it gets brighter at night.  I don't know why.

I keep wanting Knut to tell me how fabulous the kitchen looks.  The house portion is done and it looks so completely different.  I ask him how he likes it.  He says things like, "I don't hate it." or "I don't dislike it." or "As long as you like it."  I finally pulled from him yesterday: "I like it better than it was before."

The poor man can't lie to me.  It's his curse.

I actually wasn't sure for awhile how I liked it, but I really needed someone right now to ooh and ahh over it so I can go from the fence of liking it to really loving it.  I hate what that says about me, and I'm trying to overcome it.  The only people who have seen it and told me it's fabulous are my children.  I love hearing their ohhing and ahhing, but honestly, I think they would have done it more had I painted it hot pink.

I wonder if I should have gone grayer, I wonder if I should have gone darker.  I wonder if I should have just painted it the same green as the dining room to tie the two rooms together.  I am so extremely impulsive in my home improvement endeavors, and I do truly love this color.  I love it so much.  It's what I would have picked had I been building my home from scratch and just picked what my heart wanted.  I'm not entirely sure it matches the beautiful wallpaper my mother in law left behind, and I'm not entirely sure it's what Knut would have picked out.  It doesn't clash with the wallpaper, but I'm not sure if it's the best choice to match.

Now I just want to tear down the wallpaper.  Next year.  Maybe.  If I get all anxious to do it and all.

Home improvement projects are so psychological, aren't they?  Well, at least they are for me.  I wanted to finally just pick something I want, just for me and as soon as I get the paint on, I'm asking for affirmation from everyone I meet.  It makes no sense.  Honestly I do love it.  My confidence took a little while to grow.  That part surprised me.

Today some of the doors are getting put back on.  I've been painting them by hand in batches here on the kitchen floor, since the temps have dropped outside below a temperature that paint works best.  The timetable I had set for myself was based off of that weather.  So now my kitchen is even more of a mess, but in all reality, if I stay on my new schedule, I'm only losing 2 more days.  That's not so bad in the grand scheme of things.

I've been up late at night, with my mind whirling as to how I want to complete this kitchen.  I went out to the barn, and the summer kitchen, and am pulling out some old broken things to see if I can make some "new" decorations from them.  I found this old window with old red paint, and 1 broken pane.  I'm so in love with it.  I'm not sure what I'm doing with it yet, but I love it.

I also found some old barn wood in the barn with traces of red paint, and I'm thinking of making a big "EGGS" sign or something with that.    I'm really excited to pull this all together.

I changed my mind about the knobs.  I looked into replacing them, but realized I really like the simplicity of them, but I wasn't a fan of the antique brass finish on them.  Plus, a can of spray paint is much cheaper than 30 new pieces of hardware!!  I was planning on painting them white, but seeing the color of the cabinets go up, it all felt so light and bright that I thought maybe some darker knobs would bring them back down to earth a bit.  Plus everything in the house has that old bronze finish to it.  So for some spray paint in bronze, and a sprinkling of copper to age it a bit, I have some new bronze finish knobs to match the rest of the house.

I feel like this project has been my version of sky diving.  I feel like painting these a color is such a big risk, and so bold.  I'm thankful that my family has been so patient with me and so helpful as I just ripped the heart of our home apart and am re-imagining what it could look like.  As much work as it has been, I really needed this.  I really needed to do something big.  Right now I feel like I could conquer anything.  That's the exact feeling I needed as we approach gardening season.  Oh, we have some big plans there.

Kitchen, Day 2

So...day 2.  Day 2 was not so kind.

The plan was to do the priming in 2 days.  This is hopefully the 1st of those 2 days.

7am: woke up sore from the work the day before.  Knut took Ingrid from between us and headed downstairs.  I pulled the covers over my head as he started breakfast with the kids.

8ish, give or take a half hour: I got up and had breakfast with everyone.  Coffee...mmmmm...

8:30am: Knut is at work.  I clean up in the kitchen.  Using the term "cleaning up" pretty loosely.

9am: get little kids dressed.  Shoo everyone outside.  Cover recycling bins with plastic in garage for a good place to spray doors.

9:30am: start up paint sprayer I borrowed from Knut's brother.  Primer leaks out one valve like a crazy pump.  I turn it off and tighten it up.  Everything seems to be working fine.

9:45am: I start spraying a door, and the spray works great, but primer is pumping out of the valve by my hand, right under the spray.  HUGE mess.  Lay down more plastic.  Catch the puddle of primer.  Yes, puddle.  Primer on my shoes, primer all over my hands, primer all over my pants.  Oops.

10am: run out of all painting rags, and dig into old dish cloth pile.  I could use some new ones anyway.

10:30am: still can't get sprayer working right, no matter how I try to tighten it.  Close to tears.  Begrudgingly text Knut at work.  Have a little personal temper tantrum because of my "I can do it all by myself!" attitude the resembles my 3 year old.  I wanted to be strong enough to do this myself, but I needed his muscles.  He texts back he'll be there right away.  I told him I didn't need his help for this project, and now I need his help.  Urgh!

10:35am: Knut says, "Whoa.  Hmmm..."  His eyes dart around at everything.

I tell Knut everything his brother told me about the sprayer when I picked it up.  Knut looks over every piece.  He shows me how to use 2 wrenches at a time to tighten the valves tighter.  He discovers that a little washer thingy had fallen out of the hand piece when I put it together, and that's why it was gushing when I was spraying.  We test it and get it working.

11am or so: start spraying inside of all the cabinet doors.  It's going fast.

11:15am: one of the chickens won't go away.  Cats are starting to snoop.  Call all the kids over to block for me, as this is all spread out all over our driveway.  I wonder if chicken prints on my cabinets make it the "authentic" farm kitchen look I'm going for.

11:45am: kids remember where the chalk is, and start a hopscotch tournament.

12:30pm: heat up leftover lasagna for lunch.  Get a call from our neighbor.  We confirm her daughter sleeping over at our house tonight.  She's Silje's best friend.  I ask a favor if she can pick up Silje for me on her way to the book club both girls go to, since my project may prevent from Silje making her meeting.  She says she'll pick her up at 3, and drop both girls off afterwards.

1:00pm: baby girls are happy, and only the drawers and 5 doors are left, so I resume spraying before nap time.  Sprayer stops working during the last door.  So I have half of the last door left and all the drawer fronts.  I take apart nozzle and soak in hot water.  That doesn't work.  I take apart more pieces and wash it out.  Still doesn't work.  Get toothpicks out to try to unclog the sprayer.  Accidentally spill toothpicks all over the kitchen floor.

1:30pm: text Knut at work again.  Tell him I'm sorry, but I can't get it working.  I'm trying to clean out everything, but I still can't get it going.  Girls need to take a nap soon.  He texts back to call his brother for what to do.  I call his brother.  No answer.  I'm pretty sure he's left for Mexico with his youth group.

2pm: put little girls to bed.

2:15pm: hear little girls giggling upstairs.  I go and fiddle with getting the sprayer going, in hopes that they will settle down.  They didn't.  The boys ride bike all around the yard.

2:45pm: hear little girls dancing and/or jumping on beds upstairs.  There's usually a party going on in whatever room Solveig is in.

3:00pm: Silje gets picked up for her book club.  I finally stop fiddling with cleaning out the sprayer and put the little girls to bed.  Again.

3:30pm: girls finally fall asleep.  I bring all of the doors, mostly dry, in from the driveway and into the garage.  The trees are dropping all sorts of things on them, which is fine because they're basically dry, but the chickens won't stay away either.  Such curious creatures.  So the remainder of the painting will have to be done with the garage door shut, and the regular door open for ventilation.  Work on sprayer some more.  Nothin'.

4:00pm: put my feet up and have a snack of Reece's Peanut Butter Cups taken from the hidden bag intended for the kids' Easter baskets.  It's the only logical thing to do at that point.

4:30pm: Boys watch their favorite show.  Girls still asleep.  Silje still at book club.  I take a shower.  Can't stand the smell of myself.

5:00pm: little girls wake up.  I call Knut and ask him if he thinks it's worth it to start painting the portions inside to be done with the roller, but he agrees that there's not much point for the rest of the day, especially with company coming over after bedtime.  I heat up some frozen wild rice soup.

5:15pm: Silje and her friend come home from their meeting.  They check on their chicks outside then watch "Frozen."  Obviously.

5:20pm: I peek in at the kids watching the movie.  Silje's friend has Ingrid in her lap, and is playing David chess while singing all the songs on the movie with Silje.  I love having this friend over.

5:30pm: I pretend to be cleaning up the dishes in the kitchen mess while the kids watch the movie but I actually write portions of this blog post and hang out on Facebook.  Enormous headache begins.

6pm: Enormous headache continues.  Reach for some peppermint oil (my headache go-to) and drink a bunch of water.

6:30pm: supper.

7pm: Get a text from Knut that he doesn't know when he'll be home.  Tech guy for troublesome planter  they're trying to get field-ready just got there an hour ago.

7:30pm: start bedtime routine.

8pm: My mommy friends come over for our twice a month book club.  They all know about the mess, but don't care.  That's why they're my friends.  We go hang out in the clean living room.  My head was pounding so much I nearly called them and cancelled, but I wanted to see them so badly that I just let them come.  I'm glad I didn't cancel.  They're always fun.  We actually talked about the book too.  Twice, I think.

8:15pm: Knut gets home.  Finds the leftovers for supper and actually cleans up some dishes, (instead of theoretically, like I do them).

10:30pm: Mommy friends go home.  Knut brings me a bowl of ice cream.  We set up the hide-a-bed in the den for Silje and her friend.  I try to research a bit what to do about the paint sprayer.  Still don't know.

11pm: most certainly bedtime.

Kitchen, Day 1

Before:

6am: Ingrid wakes up, and Knut brings her to our bed and she snuggles in between us, eventually pushing us away so the 3 of us look like the letter "H" laying down.

7am: Ingrid tickles Knut and I awake. (literally: tickletickletickletickle)

8am: everyone eating breakfast in dining room.

8:30am: Knut leaves for work.

8:33am: I call Knut because I can't figure out how his drill works.  He tries to explain over the phone, but speaks a foreign language.  He turns around about 20 feet from the farm's workshop and drives home to show me how to use the drill.  I fall in love with this first power tool.

9am: chores finished and David and Silje help me remove all cupboards, and sort/count all screw and hinges.  Ingrid takes a nap.  Elias and Solveig are watching PBS kids.

10am: All cupboards removed.  We take a break for brownies.

11am: start bubble machine outside, all 5 kids play, with the older ones keeping an eye on the little ones while I bring all the cupboards out to the garage.  The kids watch me from a distance, and chase bubbles.

11:45: kids go inside to watch some "Frozen" and I stay working in garage, sanding and using liquid sander/de-greaser for all the little crevices.  They're over this project now.

12 noon: I ask David to make some peanut butter and jelly sandwhiches and ask Silje to set the dining room table.

12:30pm: break for lunch

1:00pm: catch up with Knut for a few minutes on his lunch break.

2pm: put Ingrid and Solveig down for naps.

2:15pm: I move from the liquid sander to power sand a few areas.  Get addicted to how awesome my new power sander is and end up sanding basically everything possible.  Name my new sander "Walter."

3:00pm: Silje makes mud pies.

3:30pm: Solveig and Ingrid wake up from their nap.  I put some sandals on Ingrid and she enjoys her first jaunt outside ever.  Walking outside by herself, I mean.  That's what happens when you learn to walk during the longest winter ever.  First on her agenda is chasing cats.  Second on her agenda is chasing chickens.  Third on her agenda is sneaking dog food to Missy, who is several inches taller than her.  Silje chases her for me as I keep on hanging out with Walter.  I snap pictures here and there.  Ingrid's sandals used to be Silje's and then Solveig's, and I try not to get sentimental.  I feel like I bought them just last year.

3:45pm: Solveig makes mud soup.

4:00pm: Knut gets home early to change quick and head out to his elder board meeting.  First, though, he checks over my work and says nothing but unconsciously nods his head as he looks things over.  I know him long enough to know this means he approves of my work.  Disapproving would have been lots of sighs, and his eyes would shift like he's frantically thinking.

5:00pm: stick frozen lasagna in oven.  Use liquid sander for the lower half of the interior of the kitchen that needs work while supper cooks.  "Frozen" is put on yet another time.  The kids are beat from playing outside all afternoon.  They're not used to all that fresh air.  It's 73 degrees at this point.  It's the hottest we've felt outside since last November, maybe early October.  It's the hottest day in half a year probably.  Therefore the kids want to watch a show about an endless winter.

6:25pm: eat supper with the kids.

7:00pm: kids pick up their toys in the yard.

7:10pm: kids melt down crying in the yard.

7:30pm: start bedtime routine.

8:00pm: Planned to be reading our story, The Horse and His Boy but David totally fell apart because of the outside toy pick up saga so he had to go to bed.  So I finish some touching up of the sanding in the upper part of the kitchen.

8:07pm: Knut gets home from his meeting.

9:00pm: Silje heads off to bed.  I have a cup of tea, do some blogging, then some knitting in front of the little t.v.

11:00pm: bed.

Sure...I have time

Maybe some of you remember that about a year ago, we had finally saved enough to renovate our kitchen.  It doesn't just need a facelift.  It needs to be torn down to even the floor.  The floor is not level.  The shelves inside the cupboards are broken or iffy.  The cupboard doors don't hang straight.  The countertops are cracked and stained.  There is a serious lack of electrical outlets for small appliances.  I'm continually touching up the glue on the back of the wallpaper that wants to peel off.  I think our fridge is older than Knut.  I'm not sure.  We have dreams of a different layout.

Even though nearly everything needs to be taken out and redone, I still think the room has some beautiful bones.  The high ceiling has this pretty bead board and molding.  The light fixtures were salvaged from a local one room school house that closed years back.  As the family story goes, my father in law tossed my brother in law in the air when he was little, and broke one of the light fixtures with his head.  It took my mother in law 5 years of antique shopping before she found a matching replacement.  I know when we bought the place, she understandably had a tough time leaving the light fixtures.  We were determined to keep them.  :)  They're just so perfect for the house.

Anyway, we had saved up enough to redo the kitchen.  It wasn't too surprising, though, when some farm land that we rented became available for sale last year, that our kitchen fund was completely depleted so that we could have a down payment for the acreage.  I felt like it we really became farmers then: land rich and cash poor.  So now we start saving again.

So it looks like it will be some years before the kitchen gets gutted.  I joked with Knut that it wouldn't surprise me a bit if it took us 10 years before it actually came to fruition.  You know, when our older kids are starting college.  He laughed back that I probably was right.  Seeing this opportunity, I asked him what he thought about me painting the cupboards.  Knut hates painted cupboards, but told me awhile back that he didn't mind me painting these ones, since they would be trashed soon anyway.  If I have another decade looking at them, I think I may freshen them up this summer.  He had no problem with that.

A coat of paint can do so much good sometimes.

I feel like I'm at that awkward age where I fully know that I'm in over my head with 5 kids, and a painting project during the peak of garden/canning time, and with possible new animals joining our farm this year, and Knut's big project this summer will likely be residing the barn, as it needs it very, very badly.  I know better than to take on a project of this size, that will likely be more work than I expect.  Yet I'm young enough to not care and plan to do it anyway.  Even if it means I have a string of late night work ahead of me.

Though, with a list of house projects from the last few years behind us, I've learned some things.  As I look at inspirational pictures on Pinterest, deciding what to do and how to do it, the thought crossed my mind that maybe we could tear down the wallpaper too, and paint the walls as well.  That's when experience took over in my brain and it told me:

Painted cupboards this year.  Wallpaper down next year.  Or in 10 years.  Don't be that crazy.  Tearing down wallpaper is a whole other project.