on a Thursday

We had four dentist appointments this morning.

No cavities - so, yay!

but Lily and Lexi both need to have 2 more teeth 'wiggled out'

thanks to serious overcrowding.

After the dentist

they requested Lin's Garden for lunch,

and at first

I wasn't going to take them.

It's kinda pricey.

But the reality was,

we were going to eat out somewhere,

so I figured I may as well treat them to the place they asked for.

I was sure to remind them 

as we got out of the car

that they are quite spoiled.

And they reminded me that there was still plenty of room

for more spoiling

before they were truly rotten.

After that, we went grocery shopping.

With full bellies.

Aldi, then Sams.

I know it's awful thing for a homeschool mom to say,

but I'm just going to say it.

I greatly dislike grocery shopping with a bunch of kids.

It's not that they're bad.

Or that they ask for things

(although - my kids don't exactly ask for things,

they just point them out.

"Oh, look, they have spicy onion ring things."

"Oh look, they have  ________________"

Momma - That looks really good!

etc.)

It's not that they run off.

Or bang me with the cart.

We just physically take up so. much. space.

I feel like we are a spectacle,

even when everybody is perfectly behaved.

We are this large mass moving through the store.

And it's exhausting.

\

we put the labor in Labor Day weekend

We started Friday off with coffee and backgammon.

(Tyler made me thought it would be a good idea
 to go out to work one Saturday

 without our traditional weekend ritual,

thinking we'd  have our morning time later, 

and work when it was coolest.

The day did not go well,

so now we get up an hour before we want to start working.)

We got to work shortly after Brandon left for class,

and when he got home,

he joined us.

We got into a pretty good rhythm 

with me choosing a board, 

then running it through the router to add the groove

(we rigged it so it could be a one person job)

and sanding any that the planer left marks on,

and the guys fitting and nailing the boards up

We took turns with the cutting - 

Tyler cut if they were waiting on a board;

I cut if they weren't.

Right about 4 o'clock Friday,

we paused to do some calculations.

We'd just installed the 37th cedar board

and were 132 inches into the 443 inch stretch of ceiling.

Which meant that we needed 88 boards

to finish.

We counted our remaining boards.

Then counted them again.

Twice.

We had 87 boards.

Two of those were too ugly to use.

Another had a crack going up the length of it,

and two were nowhere near straight

(not that all of our boards were, 

but these were likely not candidates 

for forcing into submission.)

Try as we might,

we couldn't come up with any solution

other than

buying (and then planing, squaring, and tongue and grooving)

more cedar.

rejects

We took a short break then  

put in about 2 1/2  more hours of work,

and called it a day around 7:30.

Bright and early Saturday,

after coffee

the guys headed to Mulberry.

They got home at 9:30,

and by 10

we were back to work.

Thankfully,

the weather Friday and Saturday was just beautiful

so work was pleasant and we weren't drenched in sweat

like we've been every other time we've worked with these boards.

At 6:04 pm,

the guys nailed up the 125th board.

Ahhhh.

So much prettier than I'd anticipated.

I went along with this whole cedar on the ceiling thing

because I had no strong preference.

I just knew I didn't want regular vinyl up there,

but it turned out to be really gorgeous!

Tyler had someone tell him the other day 

that it really wasn't worth it to do the work yourself,

and you didn't even save much money.

That may be the case sometimes,

but it sure isn't holding true for us.

In this instance:

Siding people charge $100 per square to install a porch ceiling,

and the material would cost about $65/sq.

Our porch is just over 300 sq feet, 

so, rounding down,

that's 3 squares.

(100 sq ft = 'a square')

Which means that a standard,

run of the mill

plane jane porch ceiling

would have cost $495.

We have an artisan

one of a kind ceiling

and not counting tools,

which will be used again and again,

we spent $292.75

($267.80 for the wood 

and $24.95 for the stainless steel nails that cedar requires)

Yes,

we also spent a ton of time;

but we think it definitely ended up 

'being worth it'.

(oh - and we've also got a truckload of cedar shavings

and roughly 125 6-10 inch cedar boards

that we may do something creative, and earn money with)

Sorry - went on a little rabbit trail there....

Sunday - we took the day off,

and spent it in NWA with Tyler's brother and sister

and one of their cousins and her family.

Monday's workload was light,

with Brandon having to spend several hours on a homework assignment

and Tyler making a few hardware store runs,

but we managed to get the rest of the doors taped,

so they are now all water-tight.

And we made temporary covers for the crawl spaces

although

they turned out so nice, they may end up being

a longer term solution
than the few months we were originally thinking.

Jeff came over to help for a few hours

while Eva took kids to see the murals in downtown Fort Smith,

and he helped with the frames,

and also provided wisdom and helped hold a ladder.

Him being here made me ever so much more comfortable

(which was still not terribly comfortable...)

with Tyler getting up there to put up the Tyvek 

that the framers didn't put up
 because they didn't have a ladder tall enough

(what?? so you just leave your work undone?! grr)

All in all,

a productive long weekend.

just in case you ever wondered

No.

A tiny crochet hook

does not 

make a good replacement for a hera marker

if yours happens to go missing

(again...)

Oops.

basting gone bad

Well.

I did manage to get that quilt basted yesterday,

but it was a nightmare.

You know how I'm becoming a fan of 

basting my quilt top to batting,

adding some stitched in the ditch stabilizing stitches,

plus any quilting that I want on the front

but not the back

(like words)

??

I did that.

And it went well.

(though it's fair to say, 

I've determined the method is better suited 

to cotton and bamboo battings;

wool is a bit too bouncy.)

After basting the front to the (wool) batting,

I stitched in every other diagonal seam

(the quilt blocks were sewn on point)

and then I added some words.

I wanted to line up an element on the back

with the front,

and thought I'd use the lines where the 4x8 boards are joined

as my orientation mark,

so I went out to the new house

where I'd swept a 10x12 swatch of subfloor super well

and laid my backing out.

Then things went south.

My backing is a super silky Art Gallery voile.

I was having a hard time getting my tape to to stick to it,

but I just pressed it.

really hard.

I spray-basted about 15 inches or so (x width of quilt)

then decided maybe I should get help.

Plus

it was a lot hotter out there

than it was when I'd basted the top portion earlier in the day,

and getting it done quickly was sounding really good,

so I ran to the (other) house

and hollered for Brandon.

When we got back out there,

the voile had completely come loose on one side.

That should have been my clue.

It wasn't.

We pulled the backing back where it was supposed to be

and pressed down - really hard - on the tape again.

My plan was to move quicker than the creeping fabric,

I guess.

We got another section basted,

and the voile completely pulled away from the tape.

Crap!

We pulled it back to where it was supposed to be

(thank-you orientation lines in the floor!)

and used some of my precious, pricey basting glue to hold it in place.

Desperate times and all....

We basted another section

and well,

so much for my basting spray holding the backing in place on the floor trick.

(I can see now that what I should have done,

was tape my basted top to the floor,

the add the backing.

But that wasn't at all clear to me in the (hot, sweaty) moment.

We re-glued the remaining unbasted portion of backing to the floor

with more of my (precious, pricey) basting spray,

and proceeded to quickly finish basting the darn thing.

I was more than apprehensive about the quality of our work

when I prepared to turn the quilt over and check for wrinkles.

Check for wrinkles?

HA!

No checking was necessary;

they all but screamed at us.

There was major wrinkling

all over the bottom 1/3 of the quilt.

To which Brandon said,

"Well - you like it crinkle up..."

Umm. Yeah. But I don't want to sew the crinkles in....

And then he left me out there in the 100 degree house,

and went back to his homework.

I managed to get the wrinkles smoothed out,

but I wasn't overly confident

 that the fabric would stay where it was supposed to.

That Art Gallery voile is seriously slippery stuff.

Add silky wool batting to the equation

and all bets are off.

I decided I would need to pin baste.

Except that I don't have any pins!

(I used to pin baste. I should have hundreds of pins. 

I have none.

Seriously - zero.

What the heck?!)

So my only option

was hand basting.

With a needle and thread.

On the floor.

100 degrees.

what's up Wednesday

We have 7 boards on the porch ceiling!

Tyler and I spent all day Saturday

prepping them.

We finished squaring them,

then ran every board through the router with the tongue bit

twice.

My shoulders and back were killing me on Sunday,

but there was no rest for the weary.

He made me get back out there 

and work for a few hours in the afternoon/early evening.

Working with the groove bit is slower going,

and takes muscle.

Fortunately,

we've got a long weekend coming up,

and Tyler's final flex day of the year,

so we'll get it knocked out.

~

Chris and Kristin's anniversary was last week,

so Jodi was finally able able to give them the quilt.

I happened to be on the computer 

when she messaged me that she had just given it to her 

(remember - Chris is in Africa)

so we messaged back and forth a bit

and she sent pictures.

It was almost like I was there :-)

~

The girls are begging to start school.

Soon.

Very soon.

Momma still isn't ready...

~

One Sunday morning,

Lex' came in with a wrinkled shirt and turned on the iron.
Then she ironed her shirt
as if it were the most normal thing in the world
for a seven year old to do.

Love my baby girl!

~

Speaking of baby girls - Hadley is growing up way too fast,

and her Mimi misses her like crazy!

Kacy is good to send me lots of pictures and videos.

Mostly I love them,

but sometimes they make me cry.

~

I started on my next quilt project 

as soon as I finished Faith and Freedom.

I've made excellent progress

and should be able to get it basted today.

Still trying to figure out how I want to quilt it though...

~

Yesterday,

Lily decided to write a(nother) book.

This time, 

I let her use the computer.

At dinner,

Brandon was talking about what he learned in his Graphics for Engineering class,

which led to Tyler reminiscing 

about what he'd learned in his computer class in college.

To which Lily said,

"Hey - that's what I learned today!"

~

We are having a heck of a time

finding someone to do the siding for the house.

The few bids we've managed to get 

are 4 - 5 1/2 thousand dollars higher than they should be!

~

My coffee cup is empty,
so it's time to get busy...

cedar ceilings

Tyler thought 

we should have some Arkansas cedar

somewhere on our house,

and we decided the porch ceilings would be the perfect place for it.

Like everything else in the building process,

it's a little more involved than you might think.

Especially if you aren't just slapping the boards up there

all rough-like...

Each of the 122 boards

(that's just for the front porch)

need to be run through the planer

19 times.
10 times.

One person can run the planer,

but it's about 4 times faster if two people work together.

After their final trip though the planer

the sides have to be squared up,

so they get run through the table saw

twice.

(this job definitely takes two people)

After the sides are squared up,

the guys will tongue and groove them 

with a router 

so they fit nice and snug.

Then,

they'll be ready to install,

and we'll have Arkansas cedar on the porch :-)

And then we'll do it all over again for the back porch...

(I took these photos before we'd installed the front doors.
That should give you a clue how long we've been planing boards...
We've moved on to the squaring,
and we're half  done.

Takes a dang long time.

Gonna look real pretty, though :-)

first days

So.

Brandon went to school for the first time ever today.

Which means that 

this video

has been getting a lot of air time...

sniff

The years sure do fly by.

the rag barn

There's a fabric shop in the little town of Alpena

 called 'Rag Barn' .

Every time we pass it

(on the way to and from Branson)

I remark on the clever name

and say, "One of these times,

I want to stop in there."

This time,

Tyler turned the van around 

and we went in for a quick peek.

Ya'll.

If you are ever anywhere near Alpena Missouri,

you really should stop.

(there's no bathroom, though,

so you'll want to pop in to the gas station across the street for that)

In addition to tons of quilting fabric at great prices,

there's a decent assortment of garment 

and home decorating fabrics, too.

There are ribbons and trims galore

and 

all sorts of little girl accessories

like headbands, flowers and jewelry.

I showed tremendous restraint

and only bought 2 fat quarters,

but

I could (happily) spend a lot of time

and a lot of money

in that shop!

I think I know what I want to do for my birthday... ;-)

a quick trip

I was out working on the house

when the kids all came out to say goodbye.

They were heading to church

for the first of 5 days

of summer fun.

I called out goodbyes,

and reminders to be loving.

As they walked towards the van,

I thought,

"Now I can really be productive!"

And then immediately after, 

I said to myself,

"All you've done all summer

is try to get stuff done.

Not having the kids home for a few hours

isn't really going to change anything."

I sent Tyler a text

that summer was almost over

and I hadn't enjoyed the kids at all.

I've just been so focused on doing.

We decided then and there 

that we'd try to take a vacation.

The beach was out of the question,

but we figured we could do a few days in Branson.

And we could (finally) take the kids to Silver Dollar City.

So last week,

when most of the world was posting back to school pictures,

we took a little get-away

and spent some much needed time together -

playing,

enjoying each other,

and eating junk.

The forecast was pretty awful,

calling for rain Sunday - Wednesday

but the weather ended up being just about perfect

when we went to SDC.

(Josiah rode every single ride with his big bub.

The rest of us were a little more 'selective'...)

Thanks, Love!

(And thanks, Gramma and Grampa Bill

for the souvenir money :-) 

hexies for Laura

I had one more bag-as-money-holder graduation gift 

that needed to be made.

Seeing that graduations are in April / May,

and it was the tail end of July

before I got around to it,

and the gal it was for

 is just as sweet as can be,

I figured the bag needed to be

extra special.

I didn't want Laura thinking my tardiness

was 

in any way

a reflection of how we felt about her,

and what better way to prove that

than a bag that takes ridiculously long to make?

I guess the bag itself

didn't take a long time,

just the making of the front fabric...

I'd seen the modern hexagon quilts,

and thought that might be a fun one to do.

Let's just say if I were ever to make an actual 

modern hexie quilt,

I'd be using hexagons

waaaay bigger than an not quite an inch!

As much as I wanted it to,

the aqua with gold Xs just wasn't working for me

as the background fabric,

but I really wanted to use the C&S fabric.

(I thought it was just perfect for Laura!)

I wanted to use it so badly 

that I almost decided not to use my hexies,

even though I'd just spent an hour digging through scraps 

to find just the right ones

and another 3 hours making them...

I walked away from it for a little while,

and when I came back,

I decided I'd use the hexies

and

the Cotton & Steel,

I just wouldn't use them together together.

Satisfied with my new plan,

I cut a piece of sparkly fabric

(leftover from the church)

then pulled out the Elmer's 

and started glue basting hexies

once I was satisfied with my arrangement.

Then I marked quilting lines with my hera marker

and stitched across all the hexies.

For the back,

I just stitched every vertical row of gold Xs

with metallic thread.

After that, it was just the simple matter

of cutting a lining,

adding a zipper,

and sewing it all together.

Laura - we love you!

You are a most excellent young lady

and I am so glad I've had the privilege

of watching you grow up.