painting project: done!

Isn't Topsail better than yellow?



The kids are playing Scattergories in the nice new kitchen!


We had taco salad for dinner, with fresh cilantro, tomatoes and peppers from our garden. Evelyn bought supplies to make homemade egg rolls, which didn't come out right, but they ate them anyways. Sonja and Cam made edible chocolate chip cookie dough today, too.

Projects beget projects, don't they? When you walk in from our deck to our kitchen, there are hooks and a shoe shelf and straight ahead, a closet...this closet is now our pantry, the door long ago removed...removed because hey, when EIGHTEEN people live in a house, the entryway, well, it looks like a shoe sale. The door couldn't open anyway, there were too many shoes in the way. So we took the door off, and put some shelves in. We try to make it look neat and organized, but it just looks awful. So, now that we have way less shoes, we are going to put a door on it again! It'll be a pain to keep the shoes picked up and out of the way...also, the shoe shelf over there won't allow a door to open, so Paul is going to operate on it, and cut it in half. He is also going to put trim around that one window that still doesn't have any.

We put our two tables into a square, so we have more floor space. The kids like it, we can fit 12-16 easily around it, with three benches and three chairs.

We didn't even go outside today...it was a very nice day, cooler than it's been in a while. The pool looked tempting, but it was probably cold.

Ah well. We do keep busy. Oh, and how do I get the kids to help without complaining? Who on earth said they don't complain? I guess they want the results, they have watched enough HGTV to be interested in a renovation project. Also, I encourage the heck out them, the whole time. I thank them and praise them, and try to keep the criticism to a minimum. I tell them they are learning life skills: sparkling and sanding, painting, cutting in the edges, rolling, removing and replacing outlet covers and switch plates, cleaning up messes, getting along with each other, being a tiny bit humble when someone notices a splotch, streak, or missed spot...there was music and there was silence, there was silliness, and one rather big funny paint fight, which resulted in paint in Jon's hair, and a handprint on Sonja's shirt. I pretty much had to scream my head off to get them to stop, I didn't care how painty they got, I just didn't want it on my table or window trim.