this old house and other reasons why I my sanity is hanging on by a thread...

...or "how morninglight mama got her blogging groove back...."

...or "how long could I possibly make a post title without losing the maybe-handful of people who even bother to check this too-long-idle blog?"
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Howdy!  It's been a while, huh?  While I've not been blogging, I've been assisting with the easiest possible aspects of home improvement or herding the children away from the dangers presented by living in a construction zone.  This summer will go down in our family memories as the summer of DIY, or "What's Daddy gotta grout tonight?"  Yes, the home renovations are mostly done, with just a few small things still needing completion here and there.  Thankfully, it's mostly stuff no one else would notice, so they will probably reside as bullet points in our little home projects notebook for years to come. 

One thing that all those home improvement shows don't depict is just how challenging living in a construction zone can be on a family and on a marriage.  There have been happier times in our household than these past two months, but thankfully things are looking up.  School is scheduled to start in one week, and with that comes my newly pledged commitment to doing more project experiences with the kids.  (You've been so kind as to not point out the absence of such chronicling in a long time, thanks.)  September always seems more like a new beginning than January does for me-- must be the 17 years of being a student and the ten after that of being a teacher.  This September also marks the beginning of my last year as a stay at home mom, of course just when I finally feel like I've found my groove.  But, that's a topic for a whole 'nuther blog post.  (That piece of horribly ungrammatical silliness was just for hubby's benefit.)

Now that we have beautiful new tile floors, and a new and improved downstairs bathroom complete with a pedestal sink (which has always seemed so grown-up to me), we're moving on to a new project, because that'sjust  the way we roll.  The next one, tentatively titled "The Great Bedroom Shuffle," will hopefully only take a weekend (plus or minus a few days, probably plus...), and will involve the building of a loft bed for little miss Red, so as to effectively remove her from sharing a bedroom with any other living being, which will hopefully impede her ability to talk talk TALK anyone to crazy town at bedtime. 

At that point, the only two rooms that will have anything outstanding on the major projects list that was constructed almost seven years ago when we bought this little-townhouse-that-could will be the living room and our bedroom.  The living room has been completely redone except for the nasty, unpadded carpet that is in desperate need of replacement (along with the upstairs and stairwell carpets), and our bedroom has been the vast storage hub for everything that won't fit elsewhere.  You know those shows that reveal the couple's bedroom as the sweet oasis for relaxation and restfulness?  HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!  Ours is, um, nothing like that.  Maybe our room will someday get the royal treatment, but the bank's magic 8 ball says not bloody likely. 

So that's where we are.  I'm hoping that now that I can walk around the downstairs level without tempting fate on a tool-riddled floor, my mind will follow suit and get a wee bit clearer.  With a clear mind comes a blog-ready mama, which is what I know you've all been anxiously awaiting.


Bloggily yours,