Our Family Jots and Tittles

Sunday - Papa starts building Mamma a Closet - Have you ever seen a women do embroidery with a head lamp on? How about a woman with a tiechel (Israeli head scarf) with a head lamp on doing embroidery? Its a sight! Our living room light switch fried (its remote). A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do!

Monday - Momma was sick - I got a bug that wiped me out for about 24 hours. Ben had to work and Hailey and Elijah helped hold down the fort while Pappa was at work. They did a great job! I'm glad that doesn't happen too often!

Pappa started painting the closet. The time to do it is after the kids go to bed because it is a on the main floor and our only bathroom.

Tuesday - Back on my Feet- Still quite achy but on my feet, the kids and I started working together to get some organizing done. The goal - to reduce and re organize things for the new closet papa was building int he bathroom. We had thing out in tubs from the move things on shelves on the back porch I wanted move and a few kitchen cupboards that we going to get revamped int he process. Since I was still pretty achy the kids were instrumental in the process! We got a lot done though. I hope to take pictures when it is finished.

Hailey and I went out to get the various size small storage tubs that was going to make this work. Pappa brought home the trim. My curtain rod was out of stock, so I will have to go back for that. I found a cloth shower curtain I plan to use for my closet door, but it will take some alteration. My quilts have been pout on hold. My eyes are too tired to do embroidery at the end of the day!

Wednesday- Shifting things around - With the bathroom closet mostly done, Elijah and I decided to tackle organizing things on the back porch. Papa and I have been discussing and we picked up Shelves this Sunday at Lowes to retro fit some existing shelves we have, with more shelve to prepare the space to be a more efficient place for food storage until we get our root cellar dug. We intend to do a lot of canning this year. So it was our job to clear out the existing shelving unit, clean the area and move the things out of the space for the incoming shelving unit. Than Papa was going to retrofit and build the shelves when he got home after dinner. We got it all done!

I also decided to do one more thing with the children that was a little more "deliberate". We are always together and

Thursday - Spending the day with a friend - Today was a wonderful day of visiting. It seems to happen so rarely when I can sit with a girlfriend midweek and visit, so this was a wonderful treat. We had lunch together. (Turkey noodle soup that slow cooked on the wood stove all morning and whole wheat rolls that Hailey made.) The weather was beautiful so the kids were able to play out side. She also came with a BIG load of jars I had order for others. So putting our shelves up on the porch happened "just in time". We had no trouble storing them. I will need to hold onto them for 3 weeks as these friend live several hours away and their husbands are pruning in Israel. But we scheduled a Shabbat visit/jar pick-up when they return. (YES!) Anyway, this was a real blessing for me because, being down to one car..really limits our ability to run for things like a co-op truck that arrives when IT wants! :-)

Friday- Preparations went so smoothly today. We were done ahead of time and the kids were back outside playing in the wonderful spring like weather and I was able to tie up a lot of "administrative loose ends" that I had been letting go all week for other things. So that always feels good to enter into Shabbat having accomplished LOTS of things on Erev. That is one of my favorite feelings. My curtain rod even came in! So I will get on on Sunday (hopefully). Sorry no pictures until next week!

Ben tackled the taxes today...Very exciting...we should have some project money to work with. OH....so hard to choose! The projects needed always exceed the funds available don't they? So we will have to make some choices. I am very excited that we have an option though! Dave Ramsey probably would have told use put it all the debt...but are choosing to do it toward the self sustainability farm projects instead. We seem to be doing pretty good otherwise with "cash program". We had money at the end of the month this time instead of month at the end of our money! Halleluyah! Progress hurts so good!

Saturday- Fellowship with New Friends - We had a wonderfully restful day with some new friends this Shabbat. It was such beautiful Spring-like weather, we all sat on the porch as we visited and discussed Scripture and Yah's Calendar and what He is doing in our lives for hours. My neighbor walked over and had "a story blessing" she wanted to tell and origami puzzle she wanted to show the kids. She was very (surprised) and delighted to find 8 MORE kids here than she expected. We blew some shofars together (and she brought a Conch to blow - long story). Than as the sun set, we went in for a delicious Mexican buffet that was "crockin' " for us. Our visit went past the kiddo's bed time so they were "toast" after a full day of play and went straight to bed and were out like lights as soon as their heads hit the pillows. The perfect end to a beautiful Shabbat!