project update

Things on the project front have been going a little slower than I had hoped. Eight of the twenty-two items on my project list are complete. A few others have been started. I am going to keep at it, realizing that real life is not all that accommodating.

I made the streamers for Chinese New Year.

Christian and Jessica's scripture bags are done. Funnest project ever. They love having scriptures like the big kids. Christian loves that his is green.

The first few weeks of the month Mike put on a home movie tape in the evening and set it to record to DVD. We had several tapes that we had not burned before our old camcorder died. We borrowed my sister's and got to work. Well, Mike got to work. He got them all set up to record. I helped a little, but mostly I just watched them while they recorded. We watched birthdays and a Halloween. We watched Africa and vacations. I watched my babies no longer be babies. This is one of those projects that was hanging over our heads. It feels great to have it done.
Mike got the outlet put in the pantry for my handvac. He also got the speakers put in. He got the downstairs speakers done, and while I watched a movie with the kids on a lazy Sunday afternoon, he headed upstairs to do our bedroom. I came up to see him on the ladder which was on the bed with my nice tablecloth used as a drop cloth. I was grateful that he got it done. I am grateful that he didn't break his neck. I was not grateful about the tablecloth.

I got all of our down pillows washed--a total of 12. They were a pain to do. They had to be dried on low for several hours with tennis balls in the dryer (to fluff them up.) It was a long (and loud) project.
Our master bathroom is really a family bathroom. The kids still need help with hair and hygiene, and they like our big tub, so our bathroom is used by the whole gang. The problem is that there are always towels on the floor because they won't all fit on the towel rack. We put hooks in our last house, and I loved them. I was browsing through Home Depot (who would have thought it would become one of my favorite places?) and decided to use house numbers to identify each child's hook. Then I got towels in their favorite colors. Hopefully this will help with laundry and organization.

Mike helped me attach them to the wall and I had to move the pictures up a bit to accommodate the new hooks. I had these pictures in our last house and I LOVE them. They are of each baby naked at 5 months old. So, I'm figuring out how far I need to move them when Mike says, "Maybe it's time for those to come down."

"Say what?"

"I mean we have had them up for a long time, and the kids are getting older."

Well, that about caused me to hop right in the car and go get another cat at that very moment.

I guess I will blame it on all the hours of watching those home movies, but I am very sensitive lately about them growing up. I told him that I wasn't ready and that they were not out for the world to see (that is until now.) He said that whatever I wanted to do was fine. So they are staying for the time being.

I hate not having one that matches for Jessica. As soon as we brought her home, I made this one that hangs on the other wall in the bathroom. It is the first bath I gave her in Liberia. When I do her hair in the morning we sometimes talk about that bath in the green bucket with water I had warmed on the stove.
Having some distractions has helped me survive January. Let's see how much I can get done in February.

I got the idea from my friend Dawn to share gratitude on the blog. So, today, I'm grateful for:

1. A mom that, patiently, taught me how to sew.

2. A husband that jumps into helping me get projects done (and deals with the messes.)

3. A warm house--it's freezing out there.