First with the super-duper awesome news: We have paid off two of three medical bills from Kid #4's surgery as of the 10th! That leaves one to go! WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!
Friday evening was spent prepping the less-than-normally-disastrous living room for carpet shampooing. Yes, this is a slight admission of defeat as far as laminate flooring goes. It looks like we'll be waiting until into next year to get flooring installed.
Just to keep the dream in mind, white cabinetry and shelving will be constant throughout the house, while we opt for dark laminate for the entire downstairs:
Le siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh...
Paying for the baby's birth and getting a fence installed are more important right now (this snow has been a BIG wake-up call regarding all of the foot traffic that comes through our yard), and those are all that current funds will allow. So, we shampooed these sad, abused carpets.
The difference was astounding. My husband went over the living room twice and, though there are still troublesome spots, the carpet color lightened nearly three shades (almost to normal). He also boxed an entire bookshelf's worth of books, freeing up a bookshelf to be tossed (it was hideous in both composition and appearance, back from when we were first married and desperate for anything to put his books on) and freeing up some much appreciated space in the living room.
We then moved our efforts upstairs to the bedrooms, which didn't need the treatment nearly as much, but was still very appreciated. It was certainly an eye-opener as far as the sheer amount of stuff that we still have that we do not need to be hanging onto. And with the living room pared down so much and so beautifully simplified, the rest of the house is begging for a really hard, thorough purge. Goodwill is going to be seeing a lot of us at the donation center this week!
After Saturday was spent doing all of that work, we had a gloriously easy Sunday with going to liturgy in the morning and then spending the afternoon cooking for a celebratory dinner in the evening with Kid #4's Godparents on their farm. The kids went sledding while the husbands supervised, and the wives were in the the kitchen talking about the men and making some amazing lamb chops (raised on their farm).
The kids were exhausted when the evening was done and went to bed without the usual "forgotten" glass of water or outright protest. My husband and I caught a few Olympic highlights before turning in at a blessedly early 10 p.m.
Today, the cleaning will continue with our front closet and finishing up the once-craft-but-now-school desk. The afternoon is reserved for finally getting our taxes filed and completed, shoe shopping for my daughter's role in a wedding this weekend, and getting a few errands done at the dry cleaners, bank, grocery store, Target, and a craft store or two to make wedding presents before the weekend. My husband and I both have cousins getting married this weekend, and I'm thinking these will make cute gifts:
Pinterest saves the day again!
(source)
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