I’m Back! (7QT)

1.

Whew! I’m back to blogging after a week of trouble with my site. I woke up last Sunday morning to find that everything I have done on the blog since the end of August was gone. Everything. Gone. It took almost a week and many communications with my hosting company to finally get things back in order. I lost my post from last Saturday, in which I embraced the ordinary with Gina of Someday (Hopefully) They’ll Be Saints, and one repost from the other day. But happily everything else is back.

2.

Mid-week, I reposted an oldie about the fun stuff we did for Groundhog Day a few years ago. I didn’t want to post anything new in case it got lost in the process of recovering the missing data from my site. It’s a good thing I didn’t post any new material, because I did lose the Groundhog Day repost, but if you’re interested in the original post, you can find it here. We have done several of the activities already this year, and the girls seem to enjoy them just as much as the last time.

3.

My husband was on vacation this week. Instead of traveling to someplace warm, which we usually try to do around this time each year, we decided on a stay-cation, with the intention of getting some work done around here to get our house ready to put on the market. My husband and I painted the entire main room of our basement (okay, he did most of it). We let the girls help with the priming:

We haven’t done a painting project like this since we lived in our old house in North Carolina. My husband pulled out all of our old tools and brushes, and I felt quite nostalgic as I held my trusty old angled Purdy brush. “I love this brush,” I said to my husband. “Look, here’s some paint from our old house still on here. Here’s the dining room color, and the living room. . .” I was reminiscing happily as I began painting closet doors. I was thrilled to remember my old technique for making sure that the brush strokes are all laid-off nicely. This lasted for the first 30 minutes or so. By day two I was not so chipper. My husband and I both grumbled about how the darned “one-coat, primer-included” paint that we paid extra for was a sham. We remembered that painting doors sucks. We got paint on our arms and legs, and I got it in my hair. But it was nice to spend the time together, even if much of it was spent in commiseration. And we got the biggest part of the project done (we have one small side room to do still).

4.

Another project we got done today, that I have been putting off and putting off, is this:

Somebody got a big girl bed. This bed used to be Lass’s who got to move into the bigger converted-crib full-size bed. We now have no more crib-sleepers. *Sniff*

5.

I have wondered once or twice whatever happened to the opossum that lived under our deck a few winters back. My dogs have been bringing gifts to our back door on a regular basis:

And I’m pretty sure I now know the fate of the little guy.

My girls really wanted to save the skull to put in our science box in the schoolroom, so I ran it through the dishwasher. Homeschooling is glamorous, I tell you.

6.

We have started reading the Harry Potter books to our girls every night before bed.

I wasn’t sure about it when my husband suggested it, but it has been so fun. The girls really love the stories (we’re on book two, now), and I think it’s really good for them to hear the stories read aloud and have to listen without pictures to look at. It makes bedtime quite a bit longer, but they are (usually) eager to get toys cleaned up and teeth brushed more quickly with the motivation of more time for Harry Potter. Win.

7.

Remember when I posted that I have a goal this year to be more organized? I said I had ordered Kelly’s planner, The Best Laid Plans, and I had big expectations for it to be a planner that I would actually use and to magically transform me into an organized person.

Guess what?

It’s working! I’m using it. And I’m organized. It’s fabulous. You ought to get one. Click the image of the book or the link above to go to Kelly’s site and order one. You’ll thank me.

Speaking of Kelly, I’m linking up with her for Seven Quick Takes with this here post. Go here to check it out!