Wow, do I know how to take a break or what?!
First off, I’ll tell you that I’ve tried every diet on the planet since I last posted. Yep, every single one. And I’ve lost 10 lbs! And gained them back. AND LOST THEM AGAIN! WOO HOO! And gained them back. This is my life right now. (and I believe this is the destructive pattern to which dieting will usually lead.)
In all fairness, my life has been a bit of a shambles these last 6 months. Serious health issues for a friend, who is very near and dear to my heart, have led me down some pretty heavy, emotional paths. My number one crutch is food. I’ll come around soon. I always do.
There’s been stress with the new mountain house, now going on 10 months of construction. We were told 6-8 weeks for completion. There were weather delays. There was work done incorrectly, that had to be re-done… Nothing that should have extended the job 8 fucking months, though! I think the builder just got in WAY OVER HIS HEAD.
The good news is they’re about a month away from being done with their part! Then we can get tradesmen in there to do plumbing, electric, geothermal, insulation, final excavating. We’re doing a majority of the interior work and we’re dying to get our part started!
Scott just found this antique door that’s going to be the door leading up to our loft bedroom. It needs some work (and a crystal door knob) and it’ll be perfect!
He’s also been working on perfecting the finish for the lower kitchen cupboards. The uppers are going to be natural wood against white shiplap walls.
In other news, homeschooling is going along at a weird pace. We’re trying out 4 day weeks again and have enforced a rule about video gaming not being available until after 4pm. So our 4 days of school every week, are very long. Top that off with new, challenging, online classes and you get something that seems suddenly quite overwhelming. There have been tears and frustration. We aren’t abandoning the plan yet though.
Since writing the previous paragraph, we’ve had to tighten up the rules so that our boys would give it their all! It’s tough to be a teenager.
Currently our school day looks something like this:
- Online Writing Class – Essays
- History – usually a documentary or historical fiction film on Youtube (we’ll probably do something more structured next year.)
- Math – we’ve started doing two lessons each day
- Online Science Class – Physical Science
- Treadmill/Cooking – health requirement
- Duolingo – online Spanish
- Reading – Will just finished Of Mice and Men and Scotty will finish this week. We’re going to start on Animal Farm next.
- Also currently spending additional time on study technique and note taking via a series I found on Youtube that I like a lot.
- Then there are always additional things like this:
They’re working on the kitchen cabinets and island for the new mountain house in the above pictures.
And then there’s this:
So, let me tell you about the poor, little chair that they’re rebuilding in the pictures above! This little chair was in the upstairs family room of the house in Big Elk Meadows WHEN THE LANDSLIDE CAME THROUGH THE HOUSE. An interesting part of the landslide was that whole, entire Lodgepole Pine Trees were arrowed (archery style) into the upper level, pinning beds to walls, shooting through walls. A tree narrowly missed this little chair but did scrape up against it and left mud all over the bottom.
Poor, little chair… Here you go – I was able to find a picture of how we found the chair, after the landslide:
After we had it professionally cleaned, we put it in Will’s playroom and it looked so nice… until one day I went down there and the chair was sitting weird, all sideways and just weird. Someone (to this day we don’t know which one of them) ran and jumped in it and broke several supporting boards underneath.
They were required to assist in the repair of my little chair and it’s either going in the living room of the new mountain house or in mine and Scott’s bedroom. Still have to decide. All I know is that it doesn’t belong to boys any longer.
I hate even looking at those old landslide pictures. They bring back dreadful feelings. And almost as painful as it was to see all our stuff destroyed was the thought that we couldn’t get any of it out. We had to tarp the gaping holes in the house and wait until next spring. The flood happened in early September 2013. All the roads were destroyed. We got in via atv. When we got back next spring, it was clear there had been animal activity in the house. Everything that was salvaged had to be professionally cleaned and, as you can imagine, they’re all family treasures now. Boy, I’m good at rambling. I got WAY off topic here…
So, that’s what’s been going on mostly. I have not given up crafting. I’m up-to-date on Project Life and One Little Word, I just completed another season of Get Messy Art Journal and, well, I haven’t picked up the knitting needles in weeks but that spark will come back again soon, I’m sure.
I’ll catch you up on crafty stuff next time. Peace. Gotta go get another coffee!
Doodles, Dogs and Bees 