August 29, 2010

August 29, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a busy week. We have managed to get a lot of work done, and at least towards the end of the week have been able to have some fun too. Monday was a beautiful day. Not nearly as hot as it has been. After grocery shopping and such I had a quick doctor’s appointment for a shot. I took the boys since it wouldn’t be worth finding a sitter for such a short time. After the doctor’s we went to a park that is a little further from our house that B-man loves. I called M who met us there right as we were pulling into the parking lot. The boys both had a great time, but the humidity seemed to be rising as we were at the park and we left. For FHE that night we went swimming at the pool. J decided that he wanted to be walking more than crawling and put on an impressive display while at the pool. I think the rough concrete encourages him to walk, and the smooth surface makes it easier.

Tuesday was a quiet day until M got home. He came home a little early so that he could set up the bunk beds that we purchased to go into B-man’s room. Originally we bought them thinking we could hold onto them for a while and keep an eye out for something cheaper at a garage sale or on Craigslist. (They are from Costco.) But the boxes were so heavy that M didn’t want to carry it downstairs, and then have to carry it back up two flights of stairs. It has been sitting in our main room ever since, and it is two LARGE boxes. Saturday I had found a mattress at a garage sale so we decided that it was time to set it up. Setting up furniture is not the most fun job in the world. It’s stressful because you want everything to be perfect, undamaged, etc. Plus we were adding in the stress of managing two very active boys. B-man ended up being very helpful, but J was quite the opposite. It is hard to hold a headboard, and a one year old at the same time. Eventually I had to go to mutual. I felt horrible leaving M in the middle of a project with a messy house (we had to completely empty the room of everything, plus all of the cardboard etc…) and two awake children. While I was at mutual we taught the girls a “Survival Course” on how to lead music, give a good talk, and pray in public. Sadly the girls that needed it the most weren’t there… When I got home M reported that we had put the bed together wrong, and needed to fix it. It was just short of starting all over (including undoing the work we had done). Eventually we got the bottom bunk put together and B-man back into it for bed.

Wednesday was a crazy day. It started with us going to the farm. The weather at the farm was really quite lovely. We met a friend there and had a great time. We got home and had lunch and then I decided that I was going to do my first canning. I had found a recipe for “Ginger Garlic Dilly Beans” which are pickled green beans. I love pickled green beans; they are like small crunchy pickles. You don’t think it is a green bean at all. I had never done it before and quickly realized that I knew nothing about canning. I pulled out a comprehensive cookbook that had a section on canning and was able to decipher some of the instructions. For example a hot water bath means that it needs to be completely submerged in water… I discovered two problems, one I didn’t have a pot big enough for the hot water bath, and two dill seed is different from dill weed. Luckily I only had to make one phone call before getting access to someone’s canning equipment, and I was able to run to the store for the dill seed. I had everything ready to go by this point, I put J down for a nap and then started filling the jars with liquid, sealing them, and then giving them their “bath.” I was so excited that they actually sealed, and B-man kept asking if they were pickles yet. Honestly I didn’t even know… We decided to wait a few days to see if it really worked. Canning done, M came home and we started working on the upper portion of the bed. We discovered that B-man’s room was BARELY big enough for the two beds to sit right next to each other. M barely had room for his legs on one side of the bed. It was very tricky to say the least. We took a break at one point to have a friend of ours over for dinner. His family is out of town, and we wanted to make sure he was still eating. The house was a complete disaster between the canning and the bed project. I should have taken pictures. Luckily while we visited after dinner I was able to pull the kitchen back together. Once he left we headed back upstairs to finish the bed. It went faster once J was in bed. B-man was so tired by this point that he actually fell asleep in his bed while we were putting the finishing touches on the second bed. We were even able to lift the bed up and put it on top. It was such a relief to be done. B-man woke up a little and was so grateful and excited that his bed was all done. It made the project worth it.

Thursday was a slower day. We didn’t do much during the day that I can remember, but that night we had another bachelor over for dinner. Pretty quiet day and night.

Friday was another productive day (and my dear mother’s birthday). M had the day off because he had worked so much the last two weeks, and he spent the morning working on projects around the house. The main project was painting the inside of the coat closet on the main level. It has always needed to be painted. We had previously emptied out the closet and M got it all set up and ready to go. After cleaning up and getting ready we went to the circus that was in town. We went to an earlier show so that we wouldn’t have to up too late. We had been given some free tickets from a friend that couldn’t use them because they were out of town. It was a little nerve racking at first. I haven’t been to a circus in years, and it wasn’t quite what I remembered, but once the show started it was actually a lot of fun. They had all the good stuff; elephants, tigers, acrobats, a human cannonball, etc. Even PETA was there protesting when we were leaving. The boys really loved it. After the show we capped off the evening by getting some hot dogs at a local diner. It seemed theme appropriate. We then came home, and M finished cleaning up the painting mess and put J to bed while I took B-man to the pool. They had a movie night at the pool. We ended up leaving early so that we could get B-man to bed.

Saturday I went to garage sales with a friend. Saturday afternoon we spent a lot of time sorting and organizing toys while B-man was at a friend’s house. It’s easier to do when he is not around to object to what is going into “hiding.” We had an early dinner and then went to the pool before bed.

Sunday we had a great morning. M didn’t have meetings so we had a hot breakfast and enjoyed being together with no lessons to prepare for church. J was a stinker during church though. He was so tired and so noisy. I am not sure how we will last until January when he goes to nursery. After church we had dinner and a quiet evening at home.

We love you all!

R, M, B-man, and J