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Saturday, July 12, 2014

Projects

Kitchen Cabinets:

When we first moved to our house, some of our kitchen cabinets were green (an ugly green!) and some were plain wood. In our hurry to get this place livable, we just painted them all. And lived to regret it.
The paint eventually began to wear off, so we repainted them several years ago. Now it's happening again:


There is nice oak wood under all that paint.  Mom keeps beating herself up for painting over the wood cabinets in the first place, instead of just stripping the ones that were painted green. But as I said, we were in a hurry; what's done is done.
More recently, we considered completely stripping all three or more layers of paint but were afraid it would be almost impossible to accomplish. Dad talked to another carpenter friend on the fourth of July, however, who told us of a heat gun (blow dryer on steroids =)) that would make the paint come off easier.  So, here goes:




It still takes a good bit of elbow grease, and some cabinets are harder than others, but it's coming. Once we get the paint scraped off, the cabinets will still need to be sanded before we put shellac on them.
The kitchen looks very strange without the doors:


Garden:

We managed to get our first pickings of green beans, zucchini, and corn this week before the deer did.  We may have actually found a way to keep the deer out of the garden: our grandparents put Christmas light through their garden, and it's seems to be working for us too! It looks kinda red-neck to have Christmas lights in your beans and squash, but whatever works!

snapping beans



 Quilting:

The quilt is coming along fabulously! We often work on it in the evenings, and this past Wednesday morning we had several ladies over and got a lot of quilting done!
Mandy and Abby, quilting for the first time


{underside of the quilt}

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Happy Birthday, Nathan

Yesterday was Nathan's twenty-first birthday!



I had to contend for his attention to get a picture. =) When I commented on how nice it was for him to "dress up" for his birthday, he replied that he was a working man! =P

{"I'm turning one...?}



The glass requires a little explanation. 
We had two glasses of similar shape that Nate especially liked. Said it was a glass he could really get a grip on, a "man's glass." When one of them broke, he got downright possessive. Now no one could use his glass. =) But that one eventually broke as well. So for his birthday, we decided to get him a glass and easily found some that were just like the others, only a couple inches taller. A real man's glass. =D

Many of his gifts were tools that he
wanted, wrench sets, tool batteries (lithium batteries that Nate
kept calling "Lithuanium batteries" =D). 
Group Hug!! =D

A little late, but on the fourth of July, we had a couple families over and played volleyball, kick-the-can, and set off a few fireworks. We then lit sparklers and Anna took pictures of them as we made shapes. It was really neat; I would not have expected the camera to capture all that it did:

it got a little interesting sometimes...





Daniel's heart looked a bit more like a tomato =)
Andrew & Melinda =)

This took a little practice, but it was cool

Friday, July 4, 2014

Independence Day





{Disclaimer -  I apologize, the verse at the end is the wrong version}

  Though our nation may be a mess today, I am still proud of our heritage! We have been a nation unlike any other, one nation under God, formed through His divine providence! Thank God for the good old U.S.A.!



   On an opposite note, this past Tuesday we celebrated Mom and Dad's giving up of their independence 25 years ago!! They are going away for their anniversary later, in August or September (they didn't want to go over the 4th of July), but we kids took them out to eat. We decided that afterwards we should watch a "romantic" movie. LOL   Nathan and Daniel protested, but we overruled and watched one from the Love Comes Softly series. =D






  Another little piece of news (sorry, it's been so long since I've posted I have to catch up on everything!), but we got the quilt in!! =)


Hope you all have a fantastic Fourth of July!!

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

June Birthday

 This past Sunday we celebrated Mom's 43rd birthday! She decided to just have ice cream this time, which we enjoyed that evening after church.  Whenever I ask what meal she wants she always says, "Whatever I don't have to cook!" =) So I didn't even ask her this time! Beth and I made garlic chicken, sweat potato casserole, corn pudding, and salad. I think we about got the whole family's favorites on that meal, even though the house smelled of garlic the rest of the day.
Okay Nate, so it didn't include hamburgers; but you got corn pudding! Be thankful! (And don't sass me!){private joke there}

Now, where were we? Oh yes, Mom's birthday:



I think she was surprised! =D


She took the wrapping off of one gift and came to a box that used to hold math
manipulatives. Before opening the box, she about had Daniel convinced that
we had gotten her things for math! Daniel was like, "Noooo... I mean,  it's not really
that... is it?" =D
(It was actually a book)
{Group Hug!!}

Happy Birthday, Mom!!

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

{Late and Random}

  We were up in PA two or three weeks ago and stopped in to see the little grandson


Victor instantly took to Nate, thinking he was Paul. The little guy hadn't seen his daddy for quite a while, since Paul moved ahead of them (Priscilla and Victor moved down a couple weeks ago). He and Nate were quite a comical pair:



Victor, Nate, and Vincent (Victor's cousin)



He enjoyed hearing "Papa" read the books
we got him.


We spent several days at Aunt Betty and Uncle Gary's dairy farm. The guys had fun playing farmer boy for a while, and we girls helped Aunt Betty with some projects around the house.





Bethany took a million and one pictures of this little jersey calf:

{Quit pestering me!}


Daniel had fun playing and getting wet in the
 little creek

(Just how long IS a cow's tongue???)

Only got a few pictures while we were at our grandparents. The Bryant kids came over for a day and (despite what the pictures indicate) we actually played volleyball the majority of the time. But we also played ladder ball (a.k.a. Hillbilly Golf), which was a new game for me:


  and four on four fuseball! Oh, with two balls. (I think we also tried three and four)
Yes, it was very interesting =)

Lately, here at home, we've been painting quite a bit with Dad and Nate. (Praise the Lord for all the work they have right now!) Oh, have I mentioned? Daniel is done with school!!! Beth will finish the end of this week!

Another project jumped out at us yesterday. We were at Walmart with a friend and found a bunch of nice quilting material on sale for a dollar a yard!! We started brainstorming and calling Aunt Irene who we always contact for quilting help. Long story short, we came home with all the material for the front of a log cabin quilt.  Mom started on it that evening and got everything cut into strips. Today, Anna came over to help and we started piecing the blocks.





 We haven't gotten all the blocks done, but we have a good start. It won't be long before we get this in the quilt frame, because now we have "quilt fever."