Tangerine Dreams

I am itching to get back sewing again. I finished two more aprons for Etsy this past weekend, and I have miles to go on all the projects. I worked for a few minutes just now on "Rosie Red" but I've got other things to get to --

Here is "Bluebell:"

And "China Doll:"

However, the house calls to me. Day before yesterday, we had Steve the Guy come and repair the subflooring in the laundry room, which had gotten wet and was crumbling away as well as covered with dangerously black mold. Since the Bug has serious allergy and migraine problems, it's good we got all that out of there. It's also nice that my fine washer has not fallen through the subflooring into the crawlspace. Here's to eventually getting to the really important stuff . . .

So now I'm all ambitious about painting the thing and getting it finished. I saw the cutest little photo in a magazine of a bright orange laundry room -- and it looked so happy that long ago I bought the paint. So JB got in there yesterday and painted most of it for me.





And then I measured and thought and figured and ciphered, and I think if we take the outside door off the hinges, we'll be able to put the chest freezer (currently out on the black porch) in the closet in there. THAT will be nice. No more going outside for frozen stuff!

My plan is to also put my "outside" second fridge in the laundry room as well. Everyone should have one of these -- a generally broken down but still working oldish fridge in which to put everything that won't fit in the regular fridge.

This will make for one crowded, smallish room -- but everything on the porch, sans the piggies, will be inside, and there will be no more need for Hunk 'O Man to continue to insist that I can't just tear that blasted porch down and be done with it. I need the roof of it gone so I can get some sunlight into my kitchen. He has asked me not to take a sledgehammer to the framing on the porch -- even though it has those decorative railings around it that look like Nazi broken crosses (which totally creep me out) -- and I told him that I would make no promises except to honor and obey my husband. And I'm quite honestly a little cautious about taking a sledge to a real live roof.


However, I was not at all cautious when it came to removing some shelving 2 days ago. In order to get the freezer into the closet, I knew some of the shelves would have to go. So there I was, hammer in hand, exemplifying my husbands comment "Where there's a will, there's Jen with a hammer." I pulled off quarter round and a 1x2" trim piece and two shelves and the 1x2" shelf braces, and then spackled all the drywall and considered removing more of the shelves. Then I decided to stop for a second and let reason take hold, and wait on removing any more until it was absolutely necessary. Why put up new rubber-coated wire shelving when the current shelving works fine and is free?


So today I must prime and paint baseboard, and then finish up the bright orange, and put down the flooring. The flooring is this great stuff we found at Lowe's. It's recycled rubber that fits together like those big foam puzzles made for kids' rooms. It's virtually indestructible. I had already put about half the floor down when we discovered the disintegrating subfloor. So up it all came -- which was fine since it just fits together like a puzzle. It can go right back down.

So that's for later today. In the meantime, I am taking time to be thankful that Baby is marveling at the jiggliness of the jello she made yesterday in ice cube trays -- she'd never have had the time to see that if she were in school all day. She notices a lot more things now, like how the letter "g" resembles the number "6." And her very cool spelling curriculum had her do the coolest thing yesterday -- she had to spell a word using variations on the sounds. It was a fun exercise for her. She has such a love for learning; every homeschooling mom should have a kid like this.


Speaking of schooling, we had conferences yesterday, and I have to say that I am so glad I am one of the parents that actually shows up at the high school to talk with the teachers. The girls are all well-loved and do fairly well academically. But just checking in a meeting the teachers shows them that we really do care about our children's educations. Virtually all of them commented on the girls' love for reading and vocabulary and comprehension. I guess all those nights of reading "Indian in the Cupboard" (among other things) (and doing all the appropriate voices -- that Hunk 'O Man of mine is SUCH a ham!) had a very good effect. Parenting is such an exercise in delayed gratification -- who knew?


Ok, hopefully I'll have that freezer in the closet by the weekend. Hunk 'O Man is going to be just terribly thrilled when I tell him my plans for him. I'm sure he'll counter with his plans to wash the cars and rake the yard. Hah! We'll see about that!


And by the way -- biscuit mix? DONE! Hoo-hah!