7 Quick Takes, A Recap of Life in The Tiny House This Week! Picking My Least Favorite Kid, Kitchen Update and How Weird It Was Having Only Two Kids!

 Hello and happy September! September is one of my favorite months. Two of our kiddos have birthdays this month and fall is my favorite season. As well as September first kicks off the season of all things pumpkin!(and apples, but nobody really cares about the apples.) Eek!

 It's seven quick takes Friday! The day every week that I share our week with you. This one is going up a bit late. Better late than never, right? I wanted to get up and get an early start with our adventure for the day. (See #7 ;) ) We have had a good, full, crazy and fun week. We saw friends, learned new things and even went to the park. 

  We also remembered to stop what we were doing and take a moment to be thankful for our health, family, food and shelter. We took some extra time to pray for those suffering in Texas. 

Many prayers are being sent to those who have been effected by hurricane Harvey. 

Now for this weeks Seven Quick Takes...



1.What does Daddy make?

 Dustin has taken great joy and pride is asking Anna 'What did Daddy make?' He worked with her for weeks and she will now get all excited and walk around the house pointing at all the stuff he has made, installed or assembled. It is a lengthy list by the way. 
Now she will proudly march through the house and point at basically everything announcing 'Daddy!' and nodding her head.
Recently during one of their 'What did Daddy make?' sessions, we asked her 'What did Mommy make?' She thought very hard for a moment and announced, 'Babies!'
We all agreed that she was right, and entirely too smart for her own good!

2. Why I should never paint when he is home.

  I will never embrace the mess that progress makes. The kitchen is slowly moving forward. Dustin  worked all last weekend. I painted off and on as well. He did the grout on the back splash. My kitchen was such a mess, we ate out for two days. The grout looks great, but, oh the mess!




I also realized that I should not paint when Dustin is home. I randomly find him standing nearby watching, which makes me nervous and then I mess up. It is very unnerving.

 

He also saw a first hand look at how I edge the floor. He has never been home when I did it. So I never told him how I do it. Pretty sure he almost had a heart attack. He doesn't do well with coloring outside the lines.  
Honestly, though, it is the best way to get all of the wood covered and make an even coverage all the way to the floor. I scrub it all off after it is done and no one ever knows. ;)



3. Precious update

 Most of the parts came in for Precious this week. One of Alex's 'Handicrafts' for school is basic mechanics this year. Dustin and Alex spent a couple hours taking the engine apart. This thing is one of the dirtiest pieces of machinery I have ever seen. Alex was covered head to toe by the time they were done. Dustin said he is learning quickly. They both are looking forward to putting her back together.



4. Two kids

 The younger two kiddos stayed the night at a friends house this week so we could spend some time with the older two. We took them to see a historical dramatic play. We also told them they could 'Go wild!' at the snack shack. It was sort of cool hanging out with just two big kids. They had a lot of fun as well.

 

We went to the play, and then did a late night run to Steak and Shake for shakes on the way home. We even told them they could stay up as late as they wanted. They also got to meet some of the cast. They felt pretty special by the end of the night. Dustin and I both kept commenting how different it was having just two big kids. It was kind of weird and a little too calm and quiet.
This also happened to be Anna's first ever night away from Mom and Dad. She did great and so did Mommy.


5. Run the hills!

 

Emma's first cross country race was this week. She and her team mates all did a great job! This was the hardest race of the season. It is a mile long track with two big hills. One being at the very end, with the finish line at the top! Also, it poured the rain the entire time.
 Emma's time was 9:59, not bad considering the hills, rain and being a course she didn't even get a chance to walk before the race. She is very proud and loving being healthy enough for real sports.
This time two years ago she couldn't even go outside for more than five minutes without needing extra medicine and a nap. Now she runs/walks 5-10 miles a week. That's not including just being a kid and having fun, her strength training for CC and gym class at co-op.


6. Week four

This was our fourth week back to school for the year. The kids are all doing well and enjoying their work. A couple of them have really had to step up their game with school, but that is normal with getting older. You have to be pushed and try to grow and change. I'm so proud of them and their accomplishments.
I did not snap many pictures of them this week. Life has been down right crazy, in a good way! I did snap this one of them this week.



7.  Once a month shopping!

 I have wanted to attempt planning and shopping monthly for a long time. I have toyed around with the idea for a while. Dustin's pay schedule just never made it seem feasible. Plus there was the challenge of storing a months worth of food in a 'tiny house'.
With the new business being up and running. We have changed how often we get payed. I realized about a month or so into our new venture that I would be able to give 'Once a month shopping' a try. I started it a bit last month, wanting to ease myself in. I bought the months worth of meats and canned goods.
This month, I did the whole month (Minus some produce and milk) in one big haul! I menu planned, budgeted and prepared. My main worry was not forgetting anything and making sure it didn't go over budget on paper. (I always over estimate)
All of it went over so well today! The budget fell into place and the list went well. The only thing I didn't account for...the space in my van + the kids + a months worth of groceries! It was a super tight squeeze. Thankfully Alex was not with us, or I might have had to pick my least favorite child for the day and leave that one behind at Aldi.;)
All of the groceries are now safely tucked away in the cabinets, freezer and fridge. Every cabinet, the fridge and the deep freeze all look like a high stakes game of Jenga!
I will be updating the blog with how the monthly meal plan goes for us. I have a feeling it will change and grow over time. For today, day 1, it is going great!  



 I hope you all had a blessed mess of a week, like we did. The days may be long but the years are way too short! 

Blessings!

~Lyndsay 

 Now I am off to have a cup of decaf coffee with pumpkin spice creamer. It is September and that means everything is pumpkin flavored! From now until January! #Happy Dance
 I'm so excited!!

Kitchen Renovation Update

 Well... A lot has happened around here in the last 11-12 months. It is honestly too much to tell in one post. I'm sure it would exhaust all of us. 
So, I will start from right here, and fill you in when appropriate. Sound good? Good!

 The tiny house renovation has slowly moved forward, sometimes at a shockingly fast speed. Other times it is like pouring molasses in January.
Yesterday was a big day though. We painted the kitchen! 
This poor kitchen has been the most used room since moving in, in September 2014, and sadly it was left for one of the very last rooms.  

 The last room will be the utility room. It has been the most used room since we moved in. Also, it is the most cluttered. It holds everything from the other rooms that are being worked on. This house is also very void of closets...so it holds a lot of stuff. Even though we have a lot less belongings than most Americans...there is still more than we need. 

See that blue? We mixed it ourselves!

Now, onto the kitchen!

 See that ceiling above my head? The husband did that! We helped.
We helped him while he burned the boards. Our job as to put out the fires when they started on the wood. Then we helped hold it in place while he sanded. Lastly he coated them in a stain.
We are very happy with how it turned out.
The wood ceiling was a big improvement over the unfinished drywall and the light bulbs that dangled out of the recessed lighting holes for about 2.5 years. 

Now, onto the paint. 

We do all of this with cash. We live completely debt free. It is a great way to live.(More on that in another post) However, it means being patient and having a budget and a plan and we also choose to pinch all of the pennies! 

On that note, I feel the need to tell you that this color we used...was our own color mixing.
We had some light blue left from the dining room, about half of a gallon. We wanted a blue for the kitchen, just not the same blue. We were feeling especially budget mindful when we went paint shopping on Saturday. We did not need a full gallon to do the kitchen and the thought of buying another full gallon to only use half...just wasn't something we were wanting to do.

We use the slightly more expensive paint, the one that is better for your health. Low fumes, won't damage your lungs. Etc. Also, it is a bit more expensive. Ouch. It is worth it for the knowledge that we know our kids(Especially the asthma ones) aren't breathing the fumes. 

The hubs decided to just get a couple other sample colors to add to it. He is pretty good at mixing paint colors, so I went along with it.

I'm really glad we did it!

We purchased two sample containers. It was the good brand that we like.
One was a sea foam green, the other was a dark blue, almost navy. I never would have picked up the navy, for fear of making it too dark.

However, clearly the husband knew what he was doing.

It turned out great! 

I said a little prayer over the bucket before starting. I asked for enough paint to finish the kitchen...and... a bit left, for touch ups, would be a nice bonus..provided He was feeling generous! 

Well...my friends, there was more than enough paint to paint the entire kitchen. Plus it filled one of the sample containers to the point of overflowing!
What a great blessing!

The kitchen is now painted a beautiful, original, shade of blue for $7!

The husband also worked on the trim yesterday. All of the windows and doors are now trimmed. Next is the wainscotting.  Once he is finished putting it up..then it will be my turn to paint, paint paint.
The dining room paneling took over 12 hours, spread over 2 days. It was exhausting, but so worth it!

All of the trials of this little house have always been more than worth the work. The literal blood, sweat and tears poured into this 100 year old cottage in the woods has been life changing for us. 
  
The uphill struggles we have faced in this house and along our journey to become debt free were not easy. But they also tried, changed and formed us. There is much more taking place in this house than just renovating a house. So much more than making a house a home.

God has changed us here...

I'll be back soon to continue the updates on the family, the tiny house and our homeschool life. 
It is ever changing and it is good. :)

~ Blessings~

Lyndsay