Tag Archives: About the House

Laboring on Labor Day…with help!

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We decided to tackle a semi-small project on labor day. Actually, it’s been an ongoing project for the past couple of years. The project included replacing rickety shelving and adding shelving to our utility room. Believe me, these wooden shelves (attached to the wall by a very small piece of wood) were packed with junk. There were similar shelves on the other side of the door…to the left but those were removed a year ago. Yep, it’s taken us a whole year to replace a wall of shelves. We’re still not completely done with this wall as there is shelving that needs to be purchased and installed above the doorway. Painting, and installation took less than 2 hours…going through all the stuff took about as long. Luckily, for me, it was Mark’s side so he got to go through and put up most of it.
Up next is to do the side where the baskets are (and Mark’s shoes are hanging from). The idea is to put enough shelving over there to put all his tools on. That’ll clear up about 3 of these shelves leaving room for bulk food items and other things we need to store. This was a massive improvement over what was here…there was no where to walk in this corner.

Mark had a little helper while he worked on the project:


He really worked hard and did a good job for a three year old! Although, he did bang his finger a couple of times. After wielding a hammer, he then helped hold screws for Mark. I could hear them talking while I was working with Zoe and Ace doing school. Not sure if Mark was able to say much but Liam was a little chatterbox about this and that. I can tell already, helping daddy is going to be their connection. Let’s see what project I can cook up next so they can have some more bonding time…hmmmm.

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Where’s the Beef??

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We finally jumped in and did it. We purchased 1/4 share of cow. The best price we could find was a place in South Carolina. The plan was we would travel an hour away and meet them at a market and pick it up there. However, the processor labeled it wrong and as such we had to travel to a farm two hours away to pick up the beef. It just so happens that the farm, Sharon Rose Farm, had “Family Day on the Farm.” So, after rushing to a birthday party and then rushing to leave, we hit the road to travel. We would have made it for more festivities, but we took a wrong turn (if only we had a GPS, huh Grandmere) and got there just a little late. However, the owners of the farm were extremely nice and gave us a tour and gave our hot tired children water. The kids got to run around and, hopefully, learned a little about farming (school day).

The farmer uses these old Farmall tractors and he had two of them out. Liam and Josiah were enthralled. They loved climbing on them. Oh, that’s a prince or a cowboy on Liam’s cheek. I didn’t hear the conversation between him and the artist but it looked like a doozy.



She’s a tiger…look out!!


The funnest thing was meeting the baby chicks. Now, folks, these aren’t laying hens. That’s right! I just held and petted someone’s supper. He was so cute and fluffy though. I love baby chicks. I remember my grandmother hatching and incubating them (mostly laying hens for them) when I was growing up…ahhh, nostalgia. None of the kids would pick them up.

Don’t you just love the way my face “glistens!” It felt like 100 degrees in there as they were “incubating” the chicks.
Freshly weaned baby pigs. Here’s your bacon and sausage.

They also have a milk cow. In South Carolina it is legal to sell raw milk, but you have to be liscensed (and raw milk dairies, so I’ve heard, are much much cleaner than regular dairies…I’m just saying). This is their milking trough/area. Liam thought he’d just have a little seat here.

Uncle B raises free range chickens (for food) and I thought he would get a kick outof seeing all their many cages.
I think Josiah was trying to whisper escape plans…not quite sure.

Someone’s steak, burger, and other assorted meats (Sorry if your vegetarian…I’m not, obviously). Liam asked me why the cow had to die and I borrowed an answer I read from Uncle B and Aunt B, “That it had done what God had created it to do” He was very happy with that.

We were too, as we had some sirloin tip roast kabobs marinated and grilled today! Yum yum.

This is only the bottom half of our 20 cubit foot freezer. It barely took up two shelves! So, see not much room needed for the food.

We purchased the meat from Native Meats. We did not buy a box but emailed them personally about purchasing the 1/4 share cow. We got 70 pounds of meat out of 1/4 share.

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The Sound of Music

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Mark and I have talked a little here and there about Zoe and Ace starting to take piano lessons. We both really feel that Ace might take to piano. So, every once in a while, I would search for pianos here and there in the classifieds and craigslist. Never really finding anything. Until…the day of Ace’s birthday party I spotted an ad. Mark called and the lady wanted $50 for the piano! Too good to be true? Not sure, but we went to look at it and Mark was satisfied with it enough to go ahead and pay for it. We had a day to rearrange and make room for it and then Mark and a neighbor headed out to get it. When they got it back, another friend showed up to help move it in. They called another friend when they realized how heavy it was and when two wheels broke off the back (stop laughing all you musically inclined readers, it was $50 okay…so they have to play an octave lower because some of the keys stick and some others make a “dud” noise). Anyways, the fourth friend never showed up, so three middle aged (yep Mark’s so there now) men hoisted it up the back steps and through the back doors. Here they are in the process:

It was really heavy, or so I was told.

Going into place. I’m hoping to have someone come and look at it in the next couple of weeks to let us know if it’s a keeper with a few adjustments or if it’s beyond hope (or our bank account). After that, we’ll start Zoe and Ace on piano lessons.

We had to move a lot of things around as the piano went where our books were. In the process, we had to get rid of an L-shaped desk. I listed it on craigslist for $50 and guess what?? It sold in two days too. Basically, we got a free piano!

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On the blink…

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Grandmere (Mark’s mom) came over on Monday morning to teach me to sew a little bit. By saying “come over” I mean she woke at the crack of dawn (or before) and drove four hours.

I had a pretty ambitious goal of making matching dresses for the girls (a goal for each season), nightgowns for Zoe, and pantaloons for Zoe’s Sunday dresses. Today, Grandmere had to go back home, so I set out to finish as much as I could while I had a live in babysitter. I went to turn the tv on for Ace and the morning stragglers to watch while I got breakfast ready. Despite the fact that tv was doing great last night, when I turned it on today it had lines and half the picture missing. I guessed that the cable was a little messed up so I switched over to video so they could watch the traditional morning video. It was doing the same thing and then it went black. I turned it off, then turned it back on. Lines again. Then it slowly straightened out. I got ready to start the video and the screen went blank.

Now, keep in mind that the entire 8 years of our marriage we have never had to buy a tv. This tv is a 32 inch monster of a tv and needs about ten people to move it and was given to us by Ge and Granddaddy when they upgraded. Now it looks like we’ll be searching for a new tv.

Not that we’re rushing to get one. We watch the Duggars and Ace of Cakes on a regular basis…typically we just don’t watch any one tv show at any time. We recently swapped cable/internet/phone service and got a special promo deal with it. When it runs out in November, we’d already planned to drop cable.

I think four years ago, I may have had a panic attack if we couldn’t have a tv with expanded cable. After all, I need my HGTV and TLC! But now, I can do without the horrible commercials or the exploitation of people’s marital dramas (you all know who I’m talking about). What a blessing it is that our lives are not centered on television. I’ve been impressed that the kids have not noticed nor do they seem to care.

We will be purchasing another tv though. Movie nights would just be weird with four little heads and two big heads trying to see out of a 13 inch tv (a graduation gift from my high school time).

On top of sewing and a busted tv, Josiah started running a temp…even though he feels horrible, we’ve had some sweet cuddle time. Baby sickness forces me to stop and just love on them.

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Freedom

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I saw this on Facebook and had to share. We’ve known just a handful of men who have had to go overseas to serve for awhile…not to mention a friend who’s husband is over there for six weeks now. What a great blessing they are to serve and sacrifice their lives and their time away from family.

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Look What I Did!

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I went in search of a pattern to make a swim skirt for Zoe since I realized this year, that I don’t walk around in my underwear in public and I didn’t want to wear a swimsuit that appeared as though I did. And that I didn’t want my daughter to either.

So, I found these directions for a skirt called the Lazy Day Skirt. Simple enough. I made a very, very basic swim skirt from the directions and then decided I’d use a piece of fabric I had to make a regular skirt for Zoe. She loves the skirt! I was thrilled considering the last time I tried to make something for her she hated it and never wore it. This, she loved*.

To say it’s easy is putting it mildly. It’s super easy! I finished her skirt in about 30 minutes and sewing novice, I ain’t. I loved hers so much that while Mark and I were out on our date we found a Quilting shop and I picked up some cute fabric and made me one.

The difference on mine and Zoe’s is that I had to make it much bigger. I measured my waist and doubled the size. I took that measurement and divided it by two and cut out the coordinating material into four panels. I sewed those together and then followed the directions from there. Except I was in a hurry and missed a step.

The kids dear Grandmere has said she would like to come over this summer and teach me how to sew. I gladly welcome the instruction and am hoping to make this in the near future both for Zoe and for me (and eventually Ceili Rain). We don’t need them to be super long, but to cover our rears so they’re not sticking out would be great!

*Please focus on the skirt and not the fact that she paired a shirt with contrasting patterns with the skirt.

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Giveaway

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I’ve been reading this lady’s blog for a couple of months. She’s the one that I said I saw at the homeschool convention but didn’t want to look like an idiot and say Hello and it not be her…ughh…

Anyway, her life is sometimes just like mine as she has three boys and two girls and lots of adventures as they’re all under 5.

She’s giving away a book called What’s Submission God to Do with It? by Cindy Easley and a really cool t-shirt that says “My husband rocks” or “My wife rocks.” So, if you want to know more about this submission thing, ladies, or want a free t-shirt hop on over to her blog!

We are trudging through swim lessons this week and next so be patient as I try to get posts up!

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FYI

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A few months ago we had a problem with a horrible comment someone left on a video of one of my children on YouTube. It shook me up pretty bad and Mark almost broke the computer. He was very angry. I’m putting that mildly.

So, I’ve swapped from YouTube for my videos and am now using Vimeo. I have passwords on the videos, so if you would like to view them, please email me and I can give you the password if I like know you.

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