Excited!!!

I am so excited to see what's all going on at the house!!!!  You know when you do such a big project like this, you sometimes wonder if the journey is ever going to end?  Will all this get done?  When we want it to? 

Well this week has been huge for getting things done over there!!!!  We stop in almost every day and each time I wish that something new has been accomplished!  And it has!!! 

 Sister Jody is painting a buffet server for me!!!  I love how it's turning out!!!

* The front porch got poured concrete!!!
* The kitchen island is being installed today and I love it!!!
* The mud room area cabinets are installed and ready for us to use them!
* The bathroom granite, toilets and showers are put in place.
* Master bath granite and fixtures are being worked on!
* Garage doors are hung!
* The tile and hardwood floors are laid.  The master bathroom floors are being worked on yet.
* The grater is pushing dirt around outside and getting ready for grass seeds.  This year yet???  Don't know?
* Electrician is putting on receptacles.

It is so wonderful to have all this done and here's some of what needs to be done yet.

* Touch up paint and wall paper hung in the master bedroom.
* Some furniture painted by our painter.
* Carpet laid.
* Doors hung.
* Lights hooked up.
* Tile shower and floor done.
* Blinds installed.
* Laundry room cabinets need finished up.  I'm not sure what the deal is with our laundry room?  I dreamt of having a nice place to do laundry and get out of the garage!  It's happening but the other day I got another call from WoodArt.  "Did you order counter tops for the laundry room?"  Ummm, I can't remember.  Seriously, when you order and do so many different things it's hard to remember what all got ordered!  At least for me it is!  So, I called up Lapp Topps right away and no, we missed ordering that.  So, we have it ordered now, plus a laundry sink, and it's getting installed on Tuesday when they come to put on the island granite!!!  Simple, right?!?  :)
* Clean the whole place from head to toe!!!!  It is a huge blessing that we were given the option to get in cleaners to do this first time deep cleaning!  They come on Dec. 21!!!
* The closet shelving gets installed on Dec. 22.
* The appliances and plumbing all get installed next week!

I'm sure there is a ton of things that need done without this list but my point is that it really is coming together!!!  We are still wishing to move on December 22!!!  Just in time to celebrate the best holiday season of all!!!  I'm such a seasonal person that I will probably be decorating for Christmas after Christmas this year ... but who cares!!!  The kids, Mike and I love all the fresh greens and Christmas tree and lights and ornaments ... so let it all happen.  Maybe just a tad later this year???  We will be focused on getting things in place and the house function able first.  :)

With all this happening, our week next week is packed full!!!  Parties, a movie night, employee banquet, basketball, 8th grade field trip to Baltimore, a baseball team supper, etc..  I don't think we will have another night just loafing in the basement.  Our days will be full and evenings spent with family and friends!!!

Isn't this the greatest time of year?  Mom has this big red berry bush right outside the basement window and it is so gorgeous right now!!!  Twice, I saw a blue bird eating the berries and perching on the branches!  We still have the Christmas music going!  We are finishing up wrapping gifts and I can't wait to have them under the Christmas tree (even if it's only for a day or so!!!).  :)  Christmas is extra exciting for us this year!!!

Please pray for our family as we pack up.  Move back home.  And spend joyous time with our family and friends!  I don't want to be so busy doing things just for us and the house ... but I want to be sure to take time out for others too!!!

I am feeling so blessed today!!! 

It's December!!!

I turned the calendar page once more.  It says December on the top.  That means I need to buy myself a new calendar for 2016.  Mike and family keep saying to me, "Why don't you use the calendar on your phone and skip the paper one?"  Why?  Because I like my old fashion way of keeping all our family activities together.  I like when I can see the whole month on one page.  Not the kind that has only one week displayed.  They are too big and too bulky.  My phone calendar would probably work ok but call me old fashioned ... I like a paper calendar!  So, the other day when I had the whole day out with mom and sisters to shop, I bought a new calendar at Target.  I already wrote down some appointments that are scheduled for twenty sixteen.  It will get written all over through out the year!!!  Maybe too much at times!  But before I focus too much on the new calendar, we need to finish out the old one. 

We have upcoming Christmas activities coming up.  The school program that is always so good!  A banquet for our employees and families.  Family gatherings with extended and immidate.  School Christmas parties.  We are helping with the navitiy play that Honeybrook Church does such a good job with!  Please come out and walk through a live nativity!  You will not be disappointed!  You end with some hot chocolate and cookies!!!  It's such a great way to remember how the birth of Jesus may have been long ago! 

In the midst of all the wonderful parties and Christmas celebrations, we hope to move into our house!  I can't explain how ready I am to move back home.  With the weather getting colder outside, I can't wait for our garage!  I can't wait to get our beds set up in each of our bedrooms.  It will be great to get the cabinets stocked and ready for cooking in the new kitchen.  It's all I have to not get impatient!  I knew I would have all these feelings because the home stretch with this whole project gets us all excited!  I did have a shocker the other day when I walked in the house.  The cabinets guys were working in the laundry and installing those cabinets.  I asked, "What are you doing?"  They both looked at me like I was crazy.  What?  What was wrong?  "Yellow cabinets???  I thought I said white ones???"  Oh boy, we got on the phone with the cabinet maker right away and he said that's what we had decided on.  I didn't even remember picking out a yellow paint color!!!  But, I must have been under some kind of stress that day, because when I got back home and looked at my papers ... they were exactly right.  I had picked out yellow cabinets for the laundry and chose "lemon grass" as the color.  How in the world could I forget this?  It took me for a loop but after my brain got in the right gear, I called up the painter and said that now the laundry walls need to be repainted.  Gold walls with cheery yellow cabinets do not go well together.  :/  No problem there ... we just painted it Revere Pewter.  :)))  So, the laundry cabinets are staying yellow and it will be my cheery place to fold our clothes.  Again, I can't wait to use the laundry room!  Especially after yesterdays story.  I had a whole line full of wash hung out and the last push on the line, made the line come off the wheel.  I was annoyed but my husband was the one biting his tongue when he was up a very high ladder, in the dark, in the cold, having his brother Ervin shine a flash light so he could see to put the wash line back on the wheel!!!  At 8:00 PM, I was folding our cold, damp laundry!!! 

I think one of the things I miss the most about our home is being able multi task.  You don't really realize how you do things until you do things differently.  Like do one load of laundry first thing in the morning and then dry it.  Do another load and by then you can fold the first load.  Meanwhile, you can do other house chores.  Now, I take my laundry up to moms washer and else hang it out or go for a walk to the dryer!  :)  It takes me longer to do simple chores.  But, it sure beats having to go to the laundry mat!!!  Thanks mom for sharing your house with me!!!  I also have a Christmas letter that needs to get printed out.  I will take a drive to the shop to use the printer there because our printer at home is missing cords.  They are somewhere in all our boxes.  Yikes!!!

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We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!  Mike's mom had the family over on Wednesday night for dinner.  The food was great!  I have to admit that it was nice to just bring Austin downstairs when it was time for bed.  :)

Thursday, we had our fourth family meeting.  This is when we meet with just our children and talk about goals, things we learned from the preveous year and what some things are that we would like to do in 2016.  Then we went over the house and got some staining done.  We ate a late lunch at home and then at 5:30 PM, Hadassah and I headed out to do some late night shopping.  It was a blast!  The lines were not too bad and we had a great time together!  We got back home at midnight!!!

On Friday, we packed up for a fun weekend with my family at the cabin again.  We did our usual chocolate coatings on Saturday.  It seemed never ending but was fun to do it up there while the kids played nicely together.  The guys hunted on Monday!  It was a great time!

 

We made tons of these crackers!!!

 So sweet Colson!

 We laughed at mom that she doubled the peanut ball recipe and now we have many, many peanut butter balls to eat and share this Christmas season!

 Mike is loving these pretzel rods ...

 Then we ended the day with making sand tarts.  Megan liked to put the sprinkles on top.

 Mike and Matthew had snack on the back porch one evening.  All bundled up!  :)

 Cousins and sure to be great chums as they up!!!

We got back to the basement on Monday evening. 

Tuesday we went out shopping with mom and sisters.  (We missed Mindy but she was already shopped out and decided to stay home with her girls.)  We shopped in Exton and laughed and ate some great food from Chipotle!  I love days out with these ladies and we even found some great bargains!!!  :)  

Gotta love the cheesy grin there Mim!  Her and I were both out all day shopping without our baby boys!  We enjoyed the short break!  :)))



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The house project is in the last stages.  There is still lots to be done in two weeks but if things go as planned, we still are hoping to be moved in by Christmas.  It's gonna be close but hoping!!!!!  :)

 

Kitchen is being installed.

 Austin was in the johnny jump for a little while we were there.

 Ashlyn helped Mike do some staining.

 

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Austin is so sweet but being a hand full nights.  I love it when he lets me have a night of good sleep!!!





Ashlyn is loving Mom's singing angels.  They are so cute and sing Christmas carols!!!  Sweet!

 

Pumpkin!!!

I think I figured out our Internet problem!!!  We can connect again here in the basement, so maybe now I can post a little bit oftener!  :)

I love pumpkin foods!!!  Yesterday, both my little ones were sleeping and I decided to look on Pinterest for a pumpkin cookie recipe.  Hadassah went to the cabin with Courtney yesterday afternoon and I thought it would be nice to send some along with them.

I mixed.  Baked. Piped on some icing and got to smell the wonderful aroma of cinnamon and nutmeg being baked together!!!  I love these spices!!!  Mom opened the door upstairs and said, "My what smells so good?"  :)

I only made half the recipe.  I also used my own cooked pumpkin.  I didn't have any canned pumpkin on hand.

2 c. butter, softened
2 c. sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1 15 oz. canned pumpkin
4 c. flour

Frosting:
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1/4 c. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
3-4 c. powdered sugar
cinnamon sprinkled on top

Mix all the cookies ingredients together and bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. 
For the frosting, melt the butter and brown sugar together and then beat in the rest of the ingredients.  Spread over cooled cookies.  Sprinkle with cinnamon.  Enjoy!!!  :)
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And one of the benefits of living in the basement here at dad's is receiving some of moms good baking!!!  She loves to make pumpkin pies and we love to taste them!  :)))  She blessed us with one just this morning!  Yum!!!

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I also have a pumpkin bar recipe that we love!!!  I may have shared it on here before but it's worth sharing again! 

4 eggs
1 cup oil
2 cup sugar
2 cup pumpkin
2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves

Beat eggs.  Add oil, sugar and pumpkin; beat well.  Sift dry ingredients together and stir into pumpkin mixture.  Pour into a 13x18 cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.

Frosting:
8 oz. cream cheese
1 stick of butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

I get complements all the time when I make these!!!  If you need a simple dessert for thanksgiving, try these bars!!!  You will not be disappointed!!!

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I just got our Christmas cards in the mail, so today I will stuff all our envelopes and maybe even put some fresh pine greens in my outdoor pots.  (That is if I get back home to get my pots out of our totally messy barn!)  When we do move back home, we will want it to be decorated for the best holiday of the year ... Christmas!!!

Have a wonderful weekend!!!  Give thanks!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!!