We’re trying something new on Fridays. Copy work. I’m hoping to get Drew to slow down, concentrate on spelling and punctuation and actually writing the letters correctly. I know at school they don’t put as much emphasis on these things as they feel it will come together eventually. I’m not seeing that happening, so copy work. Today was the first day and I was shocked at how hard he tried. Of course, being told he would have to erase the whole thing and start over if there were mistakes probably didn’t hurt either! And maybe, just maybe, what he’s writing down will sink in!
Joe is gone today pheasant hunting. Something new for him. He hunts deer every winter during black powder season with our son in law and his family and he loves it. And we love having the meat. But this year he’s had a friend ask him to go pheasant hunting. This will be his second trip and I’m hoping he’ll be successful this time. I haven’t had pheasant in years. Not since I was at home and Dad would go hunting. Also, he has been given strict orders to be sure and bring me home so tail feathers!
I haven’t been on here since before Christmas. We started some remodeling in the kitchen the day after Thanksgiving and didn’t finish until New Years. The house was in complete disarray during that time and every spare moment was spent helping Joe with whatever he needed done. We now have new countertops, backsplash, woodwork, wainscoting, flooring, repainted cupboards. We did the ceiling about three years ago. I think that’s the only thing we didn’t touch during this time! There were times when we wished we could just hire it done but there’s definitely no money in the budget for that. And besides that, there is so much satisfaction in doing things yourself. Not only do you save a lot of money but looking at it now and knowing it was something we did, together. I think we appreciate these things more when we do them ourselves. I am really happy with what we accomplished. We went from curled and nicked up light blue linoleum to these beautiful laminate floors that are supposed to hold up to kids and pets. My countertops went from fake butcherblock that were showing oh so much wear to real butcherblock that we stained and varnished ourselves. I’m all about old, chippy, peeling, showing wear and tear but not on laminate countertops. These are absolutely beautiful! And we found this wonderful corrugated tin that is lighter weight and made for kitchens. We’ve used it for backsplash and wainscoting and I love it! And woodwork, I have woodwork! I hadn’t had woodwork in my kitchen for over 20 years. I can’t tell you how happy having woodwork makes me. We stained and varnished it too. We did it all! My kitchen is small and cozy and now it’s a beautiful space that I love to be in! When the countertop was in and the backsplash was done and Joe put the stove back into it’s place, I literally started crying. Poor Drew, he thought something was wrong. Joe explained to him that they were happy tears. We tore that wall out six years ago, Joe custom made cupboards out of the old ones to fit the new space for the new stove and I’d had ugly plywood counters and backsplash that I had tried to paint to at least look good at a glance since then. Seeing it all come together and finally looking so nice was the best Christmas present I could ever ask for!
