Ya gotta love the dishwasher. It actually works really well--dare I say better than the one I had at hanbury

 

Our kitchen--the only thing I can say about the countertops is . . . thank heavens all my decorations are roosters!

Here is our lovely dining area. There's no screen on the window, and if you look at the blinds wrong they'll crumble. It's sort of like a picnic !

The livingroom

 

Home Sweet Home

She needs a little love, but we're very grateful to have found this house. It was built in the 70's, obviously, but has been used as a vacation home for several years, so it really hasn't been lived in the whole time. The basement is unfinished, so there's room to grow, and we're excited about doing some of the work ourselves.
The tree is a crabapple, but there is one branch that grows apples. Todd wants to cut it off, but I won't let him until I see if I can get apples next year. Nobody around here got any blossoms this year, but the neighbors tell us that the branch was full of apples last year.

Monday, July something or other

Yesterday's Relief Society lesson was on Journals. There's nothing quite like a lesson on journals to add a little guilt to my life. I think the last time I wrote was when Dillon was born--16 months ago.
One of the suggestions for journaling was to record your dilligence in daily tasks. So as boring as it may seem, I'm going to try it. Maybe I'll be able to better analyze my day so that next week, I can do it all, and bake homemade bread too.

I must admit first of all, that I am in my pajamas still. So are Dillon and Brayden. Caleb chose to get dressed first thing this morning in a turtleneck and sweat pants. The fact that it's 85.5 degrees in our house right now doesn't seem to bother him a bit.

So anyway, the reason I am still in my PJ's, and the reason I am often still in my PJ's at 1:00 PM, is because I set out to clean my house before showering, and it's not done yet. I'm still unpacking, though, and I figure that when I am all unpacked, we will start a schedule. The schedule I've made up has us all dressed and ready before 9:30 AM. I think it's a reasonable goal, and it even includes me exercising before that. I'm sure that once I teach my kids their new routine, they'll happily cooperate and play nicely while I go about my exercise :o)

So here's what I have done today:

Fix breakfast
Clean up breakfast
Change diaper
Take out the garbage
Made a place for linens
Unpacked the box of linens
Rocked Dillon
Put Dillon down for morning nap
Remembered to say my morning prayers
Checked on Brayden and Caleb downstairs
Made a place for shoes
Unpacked a box of shoes
Looked for a good place for our filing cabinet--haven't found one yet.
Hooked up the TV with the antenna to see if we could get channels---Nope.
Served Snacks
Hang new pictures on the Fridge
Retire old pictures to the file
Cleaned up spilled milk
Started The Lion King--again.
Hung up a picture
Answered phone calls and sent e-mails for our mortgage
Downloaded a new version of Adobe something or other--it told me it was critical.
Picked up push pins off the floor (I do this daily since Dillon knows how to get into our "computer-in-a-box" in our living room.
Cleaned up misc. CD's and videos that Dillon had scattered
And now it is 1:32 and I'm about to go back to my room to continue what I started this morning. I have successfully unpacked two full boxes, and only have about 10 more to go. Then I think I'll shower, get ready, register my van, prepare a lovely Family Home Evening lesson, and Dinner, and go to bed with a nice spotlessly clean house in a room that I can now walk around in without tripping.

First I have to go get Dillon's hands out of the garbage can. And wipe off the table, and break down some boxes. Or maybe I'll just take a nap--at least then I wouldn't be tired :o).

This is Parker. He helps keep us safe here in Loa. Every week He and his car sit in a new location somewhere in Wayne County.