I’ve been wanting to do the 7 quick take Friday posts for the last two weeks, but I can’t seem to get my thoughts organized enough to do it on Friday. I think I need to take notes during the week, as I can only seem to keep one or two things in my head at any given moment. Seven things just seems hopeless.
Things have gotten even busier the last two weeks as I am now doing school down at our home-in-progress so that I can homeschool, take care of a 7 mo old and a 3 year old and paint or do other house related stuff at the same time. I’m probably spending around 4 hours on average (maybe more - it is all such a blur, and it is sometimes hard to separate out where all the time goes) on the house or house related stuff each day. It is busy and tiring for all of us, but is working better than I thought it would. More is getting done on the house, which is a good thing.
However, I’m definitely sliding in a few areas. My cleaning is not nearly as systematic, I’m not cooking all the extras I used to do for snacks (I’ve started buying granola bars to make up for it - the kids are thrilled at the novelty, and between getting them on sale and/or at Costco it hasn’t been too expensive… but it isn’t as healthy as I’d like), and Gregory isn’t getting read to during the day. The poor kid is only getting a bedtime story right now, but on the upside he’s helping me paint the house and bringing wood in for us and other good stuff like that, so he doesn’t seem to be minding (or noticing!) much. Emma doesn’t get to do as much creative projects either, but she’s helping with the painting too. School is taking longer this way, because she’s not particularly good at keeping herself on track. Overall, this is probably a good thing for her if it can help her keep herself on task better. Nathan spends a lot of time in the backpack and isn’t napping particularly well there - probably only 2 20-30 min. naps a day. He’s also not nursing much during the day and is making up for it at night. So, my quality of sleep is suffering but I’m managing. I’m also not doing so well in keeping up with communicating with people - emails, phone calls, blogging, commenting, are all going to the wayside. I’m only posting now because Nathan fell asleep while I was nursing him (I was planning on heading down to the house once he finished nursing, but I took pity on the poor guy and let him sleep in a bed) and I’m taking a little break from figuring out our plumbing bid.
Just to show what I’ve been doing in the past two weeks or so - along with cooking, laundry, some cleaning, grocery shopping/errands, homeschooling, going to Mass three days a week, and generally taking care of 3 children - here’s a list:
- Picked out and finalized kitchen and bathroom cabinets
- Picked out and finalized lighting fixtures for the house
- Picked out and am working on finalizing the plumbing fixtures
- Picked out appliances and bought a microwave and fridge
- Painted almost all of the downstairs of the house - I still have some edges to do and I need to fix the ceilings in a couple places because I used the wrong tape, but the downstairs is getting close
- Bought a toilet and laundry sink, and all the fittings to install them and get the water into the house
- Bought two apple trees and got them planted and fenced
- Started picking flooring for the downstairs
- Met with someone about doors, picked out doors, and got all the measurements taken so we can get a bid
So, what’s left? Well, finish picking the stuff above, get it all installed (ugh), finish painting, get the railings up, get the propane hooked up, get a water heater in… and then we’re good to go. I think. So much work!!! I was thinking that we’d be in before Easter… but with Matt’s work schedule barely allowing him any time to work on the house (although that’s supposed to getting somewhat better) I’m starting to doubt that. It really feels endless right now, and the light at the end of the tunnel seems very dim indeed. But I haven’t lost hope that there is a light, but I’m getting mighty tired of squinting into the dark and trying to make it out.