Everyone tried painting.....
I told the onions that they could pick and work out which room was theirs. Then I told them they could paint it any way they wanted. MISTAKE. Elanor picked the orange room and wanted it blue and Seth took the blue room and wanted it orange. What? I should have refused, or forced a switch, or something. I stuck to my word, but I thought, and still think, the whole thing is ridiculous!
before
after
After painting and before the flooring, I decided we needed extra bug protection! I placed diatomaceous earth in all the cracks of the subflooring - using a teaspoon. TEDIOUS! However, if there are bugs in the cracks - they are dead, and if they crawl through the cracks - they will die. I will also put diatomaceous earth around the perimeter of each room before installing the base boards.
Diatomaceous earth is a natural substance. It acts like glass shredding and cutting exoskeletons of bugs. It is good for humans too, cleansing and getting rid of parasites. You can use it IN food storage to prevent bug infestation. You can use it on animals to kill bugs and lice and stuff. Don't breathe it though - it is like glass for your lungs.
Each of the onions has or will assist Eric in putting in their floor. Eric walked/will walk them through measuring and figuring and all the math involved BEFORE you just lay down the floor.
Naomi was the first one to get her flooring. She invited everyone into her room. At one point there were 4 mattresses in her room. She has such a generous heart.
Seth got his flooring second and has moved into his room.
Elanor was third. But Eric had to fly to California on business and was gone 4 days last week. The next two will come soon!
When Naomi's room was completed, we felt comfortable taking off our shoes for the first time. Yay!
We have also been hard at work CLEANING.
The "pile" took 5+ trips in the truck to remove it all.
I can see our porch once more! Rotted out as it may be.
I am sickened that this is the way we are to dispose of garbage! The BURN PILE is at the opposite end of our property from our house. The burned rubbish has been pushed back too close to the hill toward to the road. I want to get a bulldozer and a dumpster, scoop it up and make it all just go away!
We decided to take out the little closet in the kitchen area...
WELL.... There is a WEIGHT BEARING beam 2 feet from the wall?!?!?! But the closet is gone.
I don't want the closet back, so we will have to get creative with this as we plan out the kitchen.
I may have posted this picture before. We tore apart the kitchen, cleaning as much as we could.
When we put it back together, it was too big of a space. I decided to move the dining table into the kitchen. The dining table is 8' x 4'5". We have a hard time reaching each other to pass food at meal times. Although it is bigger than we need, it fits. We now have a massive island, work space, laundry folding station, school table, craft table; all in the kitchen. For now, it works.
We have begun to work on the drywall. The initial mud job was less than stellar, so the onions helped tear it down. The onions seem to want to learn how to tape and mud and float walls. We shall see how it goes.
OTHER NEWS:
Church Callings-
Eric was called to be the Young Men's President 2 weeks ago. We showed up to church, the bishop called him in and he was sustained 10 minutes later.
Last week Amelia was called to be the Young Women's Class President. They do not have many young women so there is one class presidency for all the young women.
The bishop says I have a calling coming. OK
Between Eric and Amelia, there are meetings before or after church every Sunday. Eric is busy every Wednesday night and most Saturdays. Callings for the youth are rather involved. We have 3 onions in that age group, so we would be involved anyway. (I will have to be patient about the flooring.)
Car -
Our car was in the shop twice in the first two weeks we had it.
The keys got locked in the car and we only have ONE key. A lock Smith came out, got it unlocked and made us a key we can at least open the door with.
On the way home from a church activity with Amelia and Elanor last Friday night, I hit a rock and it broke loose a coolant hose and it overheated. Thankfully we got a ride home, and we had the borrowed truck to get things taken care of.
Then, I hit a tree. Backed right into it, sensors and all.
I realized that I have put a lot of anxious energy out about our car. It is our only car, we NEED it. "Don't let anything happen to it." "Everything depends on the car." And everything that can go wrong seems to be going wrong. I decided I have had enough frustration with our car. I let it go. If it breaks, we will survive and weather the storm.
I am constantly amazed at how powerful our thoughts can be, especially when we are hyper focused.
I hope this is the end of our issues with the car.
Cats -
I was driving through the town square and saw a sign for free kittens. Awesome. We took the two girls. One has a tail, one does not. The one with the tail is Bob - yes ironic. The one without the tail is Lion. They are living in the green house. So far so good. Their mom was a very successful barn cat, so I am hopeful they will be good mousers.
Infection -
I have been cleaning, a LOT (but that will be in the next post). I got sick. My usual skin issues and blisters would not heal. Then the sites started to swell. I had a borderline systemic bacterial infection AND a fungal infection. I was put on antibiotics 3 times a day for 2 weeks, oral and topical antifungals, and oral and topical steroids. I didn't want to do all of that to myself, but the alternative was hospitalization if I got any worse. The medications make me yucky and nauseous. But I think it is good, because it forces me to rest quite a bit. Today is the last day of my medication. I'm not 100% back to my normal, but my sores are healed up for the most part and my general itching is drastically decreased.
While it seems like nothing has gone the way we expected, and that we have daily "hiccups" and frequent and unexpected challenges, we are persevering and trying to keep the end result in mind.
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