Crafting or Reading

I have a friend who says when she’s not knitting she’s reading and vice versa.  I’m the same way about crafting/house projects/reading.  When I’m doing one I don’t do the other, at least, not much.  So this month my book club is reading two books, so I’ve been reading a lot.  We’re reading Night by Elie Wiesel and The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom.  I’d never read either one.  I read Night first and finished it quickly, its super short.  And I started The Hiding Place last night.  We meet on Tuesday to discuss.  So with all of my free evenings the next 3-4 days, (Bob has to work 14 hour days until Monday, bummer)  I’ll be reading.  Plus when I’m tired at the end of a day taking care of kids, reading is more doable than working around the house.

 The kids have taken to reading together the last few days.  Aren’t they the cutest?  I love it!  Maybe I’ll post pictures of our fun weekend with Grampa and Gramma Thomas on our website sometime soon, since I’m sure Bob won’t have time. 

 

        

A long time coming

I’ve been working for some odd months on trying to get Alice’s curtains done.  It took many Saturday mornings and grandparents here to watch kids while I finished them, but they’re done!  I’m really happy with the way they turned out.  They gave me some fits this weekend because I was done with two panels and hung them, all to find out that those two store bought panels were different lengths. (by 2.5 inches)  Thanks a lot Walmart!  So my mom ripped out the ribbon sewn on so I could make it match the other one and I hemmed both the curtain and the green liner.  Anyway, I’m so glad they are done.  Phew!  Bob hung a ceiling fan in her room today and I installed the cute butterfly tie backs.  Her room is feeling more complete.  I didn’t realize how sick I was of seeing sheets on her windows!  I still want to hang this wooden butterfly we have and maybe paint it or ask a friend with painting skills to paint it cute to match her curtains and walls.  I’m sure there will be other little touches here and there.  But for now, its feeling like a nice little girls room.  Alice really likes the butterflies too, so it was worth all the work!

       

Porch is almost done!

While I didn’t create it with my own two hands, all of my creativity time lately has been working towards making our back porch a nice place to be.  Bob and I pulled off the old aluminum siding, scraped, bleached, primed and painted the walls to prepare for our deck to be built.  Bob also made the ceiling look nicer by adding some lattice strips and painting that as well.  Then we hired Keith Riley and Daniel to do the major work of building the deck.  They did an awesome job.  I especially love the storage benches they built for us.  Our neighbor is going to help Bob screen the porch in.  So in the end we’ll have a screened in deck/porch.  We’ve got more painting to do now that the walls have been repaired in some spots, but for the most part, its looking and feeling quite comfy back there.  Bob has especially worked hard on it painting many many evenings and weekends to get it ready.  I’m so thankful for all of the hard work he’s put in on top of everything else he does for us.   We’re hoping to paint the trim and doors a cool green color (of course, I love green!).  We also have two ceiling fans to hang, some porch lights to install, and I’d like to hang some patio string lights too.  But for now we’re ready to bring on the spring and summer gatherings! 

So here are some pictures of the progress and when its really done I’ll have to post more pics of that as well. 

Before:

     

The wood arrives (that’s Keith in the red shirt) and the building process begins!

       

The kids test out the new porch.

       

The (almost) finished porch.