Whirlwind of renovating......

We have done a ton of renovating since my honey came home from Iraq. Here is just a snippet of what we have done.....

First of all, we took up the hardwood and laid it back down right. The previous owners didn't lay it right around the door frames and it really drove my husband and I nuts. It looks so good now. I hope to eventually put the hardwood in all of my bedrooms too. He also laid new ceramic tile in both of our bathrooms. It's a light terra cottaey color. It, too, looks great.Now, we are on to the hall bathroom. We just added these accessories yesterday. We added this white shelf.
Our house is about 40 years old and has the original iron sinks, and tubs. The hall bath's are this yellow color. I don't want to replace them because you just don't get quality like this today, so we are working around them. We chose this aqua blue set to go along with the yellow.

This is the new shower curtain.

Now on to the really big project. This was a wall with a pocket door opening. It separated my living and dining room. My kitchen was off the living room and you walked through the door opening to get to the dining room. Well, no more. We took down the wall and made a nice cased opening. I also switched my dining and living room. Now the dining room is off the kitchen and it's all one big open space. I love it!!!

This is the Before:

And the After:

I painted the walls in the living room a nice chocolate brown (Valspar's Pretzel Twist). We also got new furniture, as what I had before was 11 yrs. old and showing quite a bit of wear and tear. This set is a nice rusty/red color. I hope it lasts at least 11 yrs.

This is the "new" dining room. I painted this room Benjamin Moore's Adobe Beige. It is the perfect like ivory/khaki color. We plan on trimming out the chalkboard this weekend.

The Before:

And the After:

This works so much better for our family because we live with us all in the same area reading, playing games, watching movies, or playing on the computer.

Here's another view. I would like to eventually paint my chairs black. I am working on a family photo collage for that big empty space. I also want to put a verse on the top of the book shelf. I am thinking,

I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. 3 John 1:4.

This is probably one of the things I am most excited about.... My honey changed out my old two sided sink for this huge single tub sink. I wanted the single tub because it is huge and I can fit a whole cookie sheet in the bottom. My oldest daughter is a budding homemaker/chef and she has put this thing to good use.

We have several more projects but they are on hold. It's about to be canning season and that will consume my summer. Praise the Lord.

*

Proverbs 10:5~~ He that gathereth in summer is a wise son: but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.~~

*

And last but definitely not least.......

The newest member of our family. We are still working on the name.

I hope you all have a great weekend. We are thinking of going camping.

So many posts.... so little time....

Here is our HUGE project right now, besides all of the remodeling (pics. coming soon). The garden!!! It is bigger this year measuring about 75X110. I have 60 tomato plants, 4 rows of corn, 3 rows of peas, 1 row of beans, 1 row of squash and zucchini, 2 rows of melons and cucumbers, a half row of peppers, and a row of sunflowers. We will add pumpkins later. Lord willing, it will all make and I will be canning like a mad woman come June and July.

Here are the 60 tomato plants. So far so good, they look healthy and strong. I hope to make all of our preservative free ketchup and tomato sauces this year.

We planted two blueberry plants last year and they are loaded this year. I also planted one more blueberry this year. They are all still small but in about 3 more years I will have blueberries, figs, and blackberries running out of my ears, Lord willing. Hopefully, we will be able to add peaches and plums to our little orchard soon.

Here is the bumper crop of muscadines. I will be canning quite a bit of jelly this summer, Lord willing.

These are the newest members to our flock. We have 3 hens and the white one is supposed to be a rooster. I try to add a few every year so that our flock stays at an even level. Right now, I am getting about 8 -10 eggs a day. Which is more than enough for us and allows us to give them to friends and neighbors. Eph. 4:12, Heb. 6:10

Those of you from the South, primarily Mississippi, know that this past winter was record breakingly cold and wet. I think it added to the depression we already had from Ronnie being gone. I can tell you right now that I would probably die if I lived above the mason dixon line. (not really Ha Ha)

However, one great thing about an excess of water this past winter is that it has produced some amazing roses this spring. Just look at them showing off. Oh, and yeah it has already gotten so hot here we have had to turn on the AC. I will have to remind myself to Praise God when it's 100* outside this summer.

Last but not least my oldest daughter, a true Ruby, has started a blog featuring all of her amazing photography. I would love it if you would swing by and give her some encouragement.

Here's her blog address:

http://katherinespencerphotography.blogspot.com/

Wow..... That was quite the dry spell.....

I am back from my incredibly long hiatus. During my honey's deployment, I was extremely busy with 3 kids, homeschooling and trying to keep up constant contact with the man of my dreams 5000 miles away. It was just too much. I also got on Facebook so that we could keep in contact even more and that was about all I could do. I think I am now ready to start documenting our day to day here again. My sweetie has now been home 2 months and has been off work the whole 2 months. He goes back to work on Tues. During his time off we have done so many remodel projects. I don't even know where to begin but I hope to post them next week. Until then, have a great week friends!!!