It's raining, but the sun is shining!

Today is a gloomy day here. It's cold and rainy, but I feel like the sun is shining on me. The heating guy was here this morning. My heating unit is still not fixed, but I feel like I got good news. Apparently the igniter for the unit is not working. Because that's not working, the heater doesn't produce heat.

The heating guy doesn't have the igniter, but he assures me that they can have it for tomorrow. Tomorrow works for me. If something happens and they don't have the part in time to install it tomorrow I am told they will come out on the weekend and do it. My house is rather warm on the main level thanks to the gas fireplace that I hate. I never thought I'd say it, but thank God for that fireplace.

I'm just very happy that the entire unit isn't shot. I feel much better now knowing that the problem isn't something huge.

I certainly feel like the dark cloud that was hovering over my house yesterday is fading away. The universe is coming back into alignment here.

Small Successes

Celebrating the little things in life that add up.

1. I took a shower in the master bathroom for the first time in over 18 months.  That means that I also primed, and painted the new drywall strips that had to be fitted around the new shower.  From start to finish it took 12 days from ripping out the old shower to having a shower that could be used.  Some days it felt a lot longer than that.  Bryan and I are both loving the convenience of not having to use the kids' bathroom anymore. Good bye Ariel and tropical fish!  I shall only visit you to brush teeth and do hair.

2. I replaced the screen on our sliding glass door.  Early this Spring, Mr. Furkins uncharitably stuck his Furkiney puppy paws through the screen this spring when he realized that I had an outside person in the house while he was frolicking in the backyard.  I was not pleased with the tears in the screen despite the fact that we hardly ever use the screen (can't with the sliding glass door pool alarm).  It took me about 30-45 minutes out in the hot morning sun to replace the screen.  But I'm happy to report that I did it and I didn't injure myself like I did eight years ago when I did my last screen replacement. (I ran the screening tool over my finger pad and created a blood blister that was rather painful.)

3. I finally got around to addressing the thank you notes from Madeline's First Communion.  Yes, at this rate, friends and family will see the thank you notes in their mail boxes about three months after the fact.  I have 5 left to address (I did 6 so far).  I still have to cut the pictures apart so I can put a picture of Madeline in her dress in each card.  Let's not talk about all the thank you notes I still have to write and send out from Ellie's birthday party earlier this month. 

Small Successes

Celebrating the little things in life that add up. Or as they so perfectly titled this weeks post over at Faith and Family Live, "Sweating the Small Stuff".  Now I feel like I'm being stalked (because I wrote a blog about this on Sunday that I never posted).  I am notorious for sweating the small stuff, but I just let the big stuff fall where it may.  Yes, I'm that disordered control freak that worries more about the silly things in life than the serious things.  

1. I managed to finish spackling the drywall all around our new shower.  Bryan isn't exactly good at that, so I've spent the past few days making the the walls look as close to seamless as possible.  Let me go on record here stating that I seriously dislike working with joint compound.  I also found the perfect shower curtain, hooks and rod for my new shower.

2. I cleaned the kitchen.  It stayed pretty and clean for a few hours yesterday.  When are they going to invent self cleaning countertops?  You should come over and ooh and aah over how clean the top of my fridge is.  It's beautiful, if I do say so myself.

3. I reviewed every book that came to my house (courtesy of review programs) over the past week. (It's been a busy week of reading in our house.)  You can read one of my reviews here.  The other ones were for the Amazon Vine program. Serena Williams' On the Line and Awista Ayub's However Tall the Mountain were both very good reads.  The girls and I also reviewed The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School.  Madeline was over the moon that I got a book that she could help me review.

Quiet

At long last, my house is quiet.  For the past 5 days I've had everyone at home.  As much as I love having Bryan and the girls at home, there are times when I wish I could just have a few minutes to myself.  Today, I have just that.

Bryan went back to work today and the girls are both at Vacation Bible School.  I'm relishing my three hours of solitude.  I managed to mop my kitchen floor, water my tomato and basil garden, brush Mr. Furkins, have a phone conversation without interruption and spend some much needed time just meditating.  I feel like I got a lot accomplished and I still have 30 minutes left before I have to go get the girls from the church.

The past few days have been rather busy here.  We had Ellie's party.  I'm happy to report that it went quite well.  Bryan and his father also ripped out the shower of doom in the master bathroom and replaced it with a nice shiny new one.  No more previous owner filth and no more leaks!  Yay!  I suspect that I will be able to  use my new shower by the end of the week.  We still have to do some caulking and I have to paint once the walls are properly finished (The old shower was embedded behind the drywall.).

I'm hopeful that I can just relax tomorrow morning when the girls are away.  Maybe I'll lounge in the pool tomorrow morning.  I don't get to have the pool all to myself very often.  It's only happened a few times.  I think I could enjoy reading St. Augustine's Confessions while I float around.  I used to love reading in the pool when I was in high school and college.  I can't read in the pool when I have the kids.  Not only would my book get wet, I wouldn't be able to watch the girls. 

Normalcy has returned

Bryan was safely returned to me on Saturday morning.  I was quite happy to hear the yellow mustang pull into the driveway, followed by the sound of a spastic Oscar barking with excitement and two little voices calling out "Daddy's home!".  I generally worry from take off to landing when Bryan is flying.  So when he takes a red-eye home, I don't get much sleep.  I was tired yesterday, but very relived to have Bryan home.  

The garage door is fixed.  Apparently, one of the springs that's connected to the pulleys that aid the door in going up and down easily snapped on Friday.  Because it snapped, it made it nearly impossible for the garage door opener to evenly pull the door open.  At one point, the door lurched closed on Friday and it did something to my beloved door opener.  We were worried yesterday that the door may have broken the door opener.  That would have made me a very sad person.  Bryan figured out what was wrong with the opener and managed to fix it.  So I now have a fully repaired door.  The poor girls were very upset yesterday and today that the car was hot when we went out.  We're certainly spoiled by being able to park in the garage.

Bryan and I worked on the vegetable garden today. It was totally overrun with weeds and in serious need of attention.  We almost have the garden to a point where I can plant my tomato and basil plants.  I have 7 plants who are anxious to be put in the ground.  Tomorrow morning I need to purchase more weed block.  Once I get the final section of the garden covered with the weed block I'll be able to get the plants situated.  Provided we have good weather tomorrow, the job should be finished tomorrow evening.