More mud..

Yes, it seems like spring is really arriving, at long last! The snowbanks are disappearing, and the mud is ankle deep between the house and the driveway. The boys are loving being able to go outside without bundling up to their eyes, and little sister mourns her lack of mud boots as she can't go out to join them. Somehow the boots the boys had at her size all sprung leaks and we can't find any that small right now! Oh well.

Jere's been working away at our house on the weekend and evenings. He gutted the bathroom upstairs and has been working at re-routing the plumbing.

Here's where the old bathtub was removed!

He also has the mudroom done! Well, done till summer once some of the other more pressing projects are done, then he wants to take out the paneling on the outside wall and find out where the WIND was coming from last winter, that was so strong it even blew the handle-less door open into the living room! Everything we had out there froze, despite the heat vent. It was just as leaky as can be. So, there's a job to figure it out so by next winter we can still use the room. :-)

Yes, the two little ones had their baths in the utility sink Saturday night! Hey, it beats the tote we were using!

Here it is, all done! LOVE it!

 

 

And just in case you think it's all work and no play at our house:

Mudroom

Hooray for spring! Though slow in coming this year (it didn't even get above freezing yesterday!), it IS coming. Along with mud. LOTS of mud. With re-doing our driveway a bit last fall just as things were beginning to freeze, we didn't really get a chance to do it right, and it's a mess. Plus, we have almost no yard left anymore, thanks to all the dirt work and big machines that were tearing stuff up last summer. At least where the swingset is there's grass--under the snow still. I'm really hoping the new grass grows FAST this summer!!!

But, with the presence of mud comes a dilemma. What to do with muddy church shoes and muddy jeans and, well, just muddy everything? Well, the back entry is one room we hadn't really touched yet. Even though it's one that need the least amount of work, and we did rip out the carpet, it was being used for storage. We blocked it off over the winter because every time the wind blew from the west (which is to say, a lot) there would be a cold wind blowing through our house too, coming from that entry. Even though there's heat ducts running to it, everything we'd put out there would freeze. Which we didn't discover until we went to use some of the paint, and it was frozen. Ooops. But now, it's warming up, and I was feeling a great need to have a mudroom. So, Jere dug in on Saturday and, with the children's help, cleaned out the room of all the building supplies that we were storing in there. Then he started getting ready to lay tile...

All done!

I'm SO excited to have another room almost done. All he has left in this room (for now!) is to cut a hole in the counter, set the laundry tub in, and hook up the plumbing to that. I think later, once we have some other things a bit farther along, Jere wants to take down the sheathing on the outside wall and ceiling and add some vapor barrier and maybe insulation so hopefully next winter it won't be so frigid. But, that's not a necessity, and we need to get some of the necessities done before that happens! I'm hoping... maybe we can actually start working on the upstairs bathroom this weekend? Maybe? Now, that would feel like progress!

I also got a few random shots of my little folks. I just got thinking that I have lots of cute pictures of Jaron when he was Leanna's age, but because she's the third I hardly have any of her. And she's at my favorite stage! So, I took time to grab my camera...

And I couldn't quite ignore the handsome little fellah sharing the school table!

Crazy day!

Whoops, looks like it's been awhile since I posted... I'm sorry! Life has certainly been busy enough, and thankfully I've been feeling up to doing a whole lot more up and about type stuff, so I guess that's a good thing. It's been finally starting to warm up outside, so we live in the center of mudville right now. Seriously, ugh. Even just getting from the house to the van is a treacherous endeavor, 'specially when little people are dressed in Sunday finery. Or when they're carrying something I DON'T want full of mud.

We went to a science class yesterday, something we've been doing with some other young families. We moms are dividing up the teaching of the classes, and I think we enjoy the chance to get together as much as the children do! It was very enjoyable, as usual. Thanks, Cheryl, for letting us make a mess in your house!

Today was a crazy one. I was just getting started with school when an ambulance page came through. And I ended up going. Much to my scholar's delight, I might add. We had an interesting run. Then, on our way home, we stopped to grab a little lunch and someone came up asking if we could give her some advice on her chest pain. Well... We ended up taking her to the hospital too. We've never had that happen before! Made for an interesting day, to say the least. Now it's time to think up something for supper...

Progress report(s)...

Well, I have a lot of pictures to put on this time! Should make some of you, at least, very happy! Jere took Thursday and Friday off work (it wasn't the nicest weather to be working in the woods anyway) and took on some of the project here in our house. Hooray! It feels a whole lot more "done" now, with, well, let's look at some pictures...

Jere starting to cut.

And Jaron enjoying the sawdust "sandbox"!

Here are some of the shelving units with the first coat of paint.

Jere's putting another shelf together!

Lots of screws...

AND... WOW. He did such an awesome job!

Now there's a place for everything laundry room related!!! I feel SO spoiled!

He also did the framing for the window between the kitchen and school room. And shelves for the lower kitchen cabinets. It's SO nice!

 

And another progress report of a different kind. I'm utterly thrilled to have a 6 year old who this week discovered he can read REAL books! And who seems to be suddenly enthralled with the discovery of this new skill. He's read "A Fly Went By" all the way through four times in as many days, and some other books as well.

Busy reading.

Reading to Aunt Grace, who just came home from a couple of months in Mexico!