In My Home This Week: A New Start

As I contemplated the 'In My Home This Week' post, I thought of doing it the way I'd left off.  But if you haven't noticed, the blog looks a little different and this season has been very different and I thought it's time for something just a little fresher.



When we stepped out on the porch this morning it was cooler, enough so that the AC hasn't kicked on at all.  There are already yellow leaves scattering the ground beneath the Faith tree and the Gingko tree out back, and red leaves among the green on the small turkey foot oak trees.  I've seen rag weed standing tall and getting ready to bloom, and golden rod growing higher by the day.  It might be summer yet, but a seasonal change is coming and sooner than it has in years past.   But then this year has not been 'normal'.  We had a colder winter, a long and slow spring that lasted for months instead of mere days and a very mild summer with the right amount of rain to keep things lush and green.  Whatever the calendar date may be there is a change coming and it's right on time according to the natural patterns.

So it is in our lives.  The changes this year have come and will keep coming in their own natural ways with little we can do to make them last or hold them off.  And changes are coming to this house as well as we begin to alter spaces and let go of things long past their usefulness and we attempt to hear what the house has to say about what it needs to be for the times ahead.  So I shall continue to do a sort of diary post each week but it will not be the ONLY post each week.  I'm sure there will be things I think of to write, projects I'll plan to show off and  to have a nice coffee chat now and then.   'In My Home' will be in diary form.  You all know by now that I'm never going to leave things the same for too long!

Sunday:

Surprise!  Coleus that came up in an 'empty' pot.  

I spent all day with the boys.  Tired from my early rising with John, I'd made up my mind that the most effective thing I could do today was not to head to church, much as I wanted to go there, but to offer to keep the boys so the parents could place furniture, put a door on the boys room, stock groceries, etc.

I didn't spend all day doing a whole lot more than monitoring the two.   Josh and Isaac are both enthralled with Josh's Kindle and Josh has discovered that he can not only play ABCMouse but Neflix.   I found him watching the Great British Master Baking Classes this afternoon! Isaac was watching it just as hard as Josh, lol. I don't think there's too much damage to be done in watching Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood discussing breads and pastries, do you?

As for myself, aside from my time spent doing laundry and dishes and making meals, I spent the day reading.  I read in just under 24 hours, Bootstrapper by Madri Jo Link.  She has a lovely way of writing that made me itch to sit down and start telling MY stories (which is after all why I blog) The books wasn't a 'happy' book but it does parallel my life in that she had one heck of a year where things went wrong and shook her hard and she did a lot of soul searching.   No need for bad language or inappropriate content warnings.

I mentioned doing laundry.  I did hang out some things to dry and had some things hung up inside as well.  I went out later and it was so warm and such a hot, dry wind blowing that everything was really dry.  I brought in that load, took out the still damp things and hung them outdoors.  Later, Isaac had a diaper blow out and that prompted me to remove a slip cover for washing.  Why do just one?  I took off another, washed those and hung them on the line.  About that time Bess brought in a load from the house up the road, their bedding needed to make beds.  If my line hadn't been full of slipcovers and towels at that point I'd have hung all that load to dry as well.   I sure did wish John had already put up that umbrella clothesline he's always promising me he'll get one day.

Meals today were simple and sweet: the boys got bagels and blueberries.  I had peanut butter toast at 5:15am with John.

Our big meal was canned soup (a German bean soup I got at Aldi, not recommended as being particularly flavorful nor particularly bad...Just so so and not worth the price in my opinion.  That was just for me and not for the boys) and a big salad with boiled eggs, cheese, and sliced turkey bologna as proteins with lettuce, carrots, cherry tomatoes as vegetables.  The boys ate the eggs, cheese and bologna and bread.  I just now realized that Isaac loves tomatoes and I did not give him even one.  Poor baby.  He did however, get to celebrate Josh finishing his entire glass of water with Jello, a treat Josh insisted that Isaac have as well.

Supper was simple enough.  Isaac and I had pan toasted cheese sandwiches, while Josh opted for the cheese and plain  bread, carefully separated from one another on his plate.  We followed up with a treat of graham crackers and a handful of marshmallows.

Sam was here at supper time.  He had leftover Bean soup (agreed it was neither good nor bad) and salad.   Then he took two loads of stuff from the guest room to the house and at last he took the two boys, with a third load of stuff, who happily went off as though they were just going up the road for a ride with dad.  Sam also took my tv remote which left me hunting it and finally texting to ask where he'd put it.  "In my pocket", he replied.  "And I forgot our pillows...."   So I took the pillows, swapped for the tv remote and Josh flung open the door and yelled 'Gramma!  Welcome to MY house!" as though he hadn't left me just 15 minutes ago.  Naturally I had to go in and see how the furniture was arranged and how the latest jobs done looked.   It is not finished.  The counter tops are not yet on the counters.  The dishwasher and ice maker isn't hooked up but it looked like a home already with their things.

My guest room and guest bath are still disasters but the music room is ready to be cleaned and reclaimed.  Two slipcovers and the bath towels from our bath got washed this afternoon when Isaac spewed what appeared to be squid ink from his diaper edges on the white slipcovers.  The living room is currently a mix of browns and a gold/green/red stripe upholstery that doesn't suit me in the least.  I am tired of slipcovered furniture but it's awfully nice to yank off the  dirty things instead of having messy upholstery to deal with.

I've been alone (off and on now) for about two hours.  Sam made a quick run back down here to grab two blankets that are also necessities for sleep in their home.   This house has been walked through and prayed over.   The day is at an end, as is the better part of this season.  It's just the final finishing up details between now and the true change of season.

I was  asked in a round about way if I'd take the boys next Saturday when the young adults were talking over a weekend plan for fun and I said quietly, "No.  I think it's time John and I had a few quiet Shabats to rest."  And that was that.  The earth didn't open up and swallow me. There might well be Sabbaths when we do take them but not this one and not the next few.


Monday:


from a sweet sister in Christ who knew I was struggling in this season

Sigh.  I woke at 4am with a sinus headache and didn't need to peer out the window to know it was foggy.   These heavy humid fogs ALWAYS leave me headachy...and this morning it also left me with aching joints.  I tried my best to sleep but kept hearing what sounded like bears wrestling elephants on the back porch.  I'm assuming Maddie was playing games with Misu but not sure.  By 7am, when John texted his usual 'on my way' message, I was more than ready to give up.

I thought, "So I don't get to sleep in and I haven't slept well, but at least I shall get a quiet cup of coffee and Bible reading done before he arrives."  Immediately following that thought was a second text message, this time from Bess, "I can't find my coffee pot, can I come borrow a cup?"  Morning coffee addict that I am, how could I possibly say "No"?  In hindsight, I wish I'd just offered to run it up to her.

They arrived as I was making breakfast because John was on his way home and the moment the two boys came in they turned into hobbits looking for second breakfasts and Bess decided that was as good a time as any t to pack up the rest of their things and the boys went wild and John came in and there was total chaos for a bit over three hours

My morning plans, which had included  a  quiet devotional, hot coffee, uninterrupted conversation with John  were over, done and absolutely not happening.  As I'd wrestled with Isaac while Bess was packing things and piling them at the back door, trying to keep him quiet and out of her way, I recalled with panic that it was payday...which meant BILL PAYING DAY...and I'd done nothing at all towards that job because I'd had the boys for four days running.

I told Bess "No I won't keep Isaac this morning..." when asked if I would and she hauled both boys to the doctor with her for what turned out to be an unnecessary visit anyway.  

I listened to the slamming doors of their vehicle...looked at the kitchen mess, the packed backdoor area piled with belongings there had been no time to place in her car, glanced in the guest room where more stuff awaited, saw the slipcovers I'd washed yesterday sitting in a now very wrinkled pile on the dining chairs which had moved yet again to protect the record collection from Isaac's tossing them about, then walked into my room and saw the pile of clutter that has accumulated over the past 7 months as I reached for the check register and bill box and did what I've done far too often when I feel as though I've been caught in the whirlpool and said "Oh what the #*&^  just happened here?".  I sat down and cried.

One step forward, fifteen steps back.

John talked me down off the edge of the cliff I was hanging from and I settled down and admitted that a great deal of my problem is that I just simply cannot handle the chaos and I then get overwhelmed with everything AND I get very angry at myself and others.  So after his soothing talk, I sobbed a few more tears and got on with it.  The dishes got done, the bills got sorted and checks were written,  It happened to be one of those pay periods where every bill is due and payable right now so it was a lengthy process.  John warmed leftover homemade pizza from Saturday for our lunch and made sure I ate mine.  Bess came back and loaded up their pile of stuff.  And finally, John and I left the house to pick up his check and run the usual pay day errands.

When we came home this afternoon, I took some quiet time out alone right away.  I must remember to take care of myself, selfish as I often feel doing so,  then I unloaded the dishwasher and started supper and looking in the guest room I determined there was less to it than it looked and packed it up while supper was finishing up.  All but their tv is now sitting at the back door awaiting the next pick up time.  I sure wouldn't want anything happening to that.

John and I ate hamburgers for supper.  I was pricing ground beef at our newly remodeled Aldi last week  and I found it all a bit high.  In the end we opted for 80/20 ground beef which weighed in at a bit over 2.5 pounds.  In the freezer section, I found chubs of 85/15 beef for about 50c less per pound...We decided we'd get one and just see how it was.  Well it's quite nice.  Far leaner than that bought at the meat counter as you would expect, and not what I'd come to expect from chubs which has typically been full of the silver of the meat cuts and just a bit of beef.  This meat is tender, finely ground, and tasted wonderful.  I'll definitely be buying it again.  I looked for a name on my package and all it says is "Ground Beef".  It's a blue package with a silhouette of a cow on and it says that it's gluten free and all natural ground beef.

Which reminds me that another task on my list for today was to do a proper pantry inventory now that the room is free so I can get to the closet to do it.  So off I go, still trying hard to redeem the day that didn't go at all as I'd planned, even if it's taken me into the evening to get there.

Tuesday:

Not our shopping cart this week but one from when we had a house full...hence the stacks of paper plates, John's attempt to keep things easy on me.

Whatever yesterday wasn't, today WAS.  I still woke early and so did John.  Both of us had aching backs.  I'm almost sure we need another new mattress and this one isn't five years old...ugh.  Anyway, we were up early, and I had a quiet cup of coffee, reading my Bible and drinking the coffee from a new mug I'd saved since early last Spring.  I'll have to show a picture of it tomorrow, I guess since I haven't taken one of it.  It's in my favorite color, and is just a little bit bigger than the usual mug but not huge.  I'd promised myself that I'd not use that mug until the day the kids were finally gone and with them all here yesterday, I didn't even bring it from my room.  But I did last night and washed it so that it would be ready for use this morning.


I made breakfast and then got bitten by the need to clear things from my home.  So I pulled out a lot of boxes and papers we'd shoved behind a chair in the kitchen sitting corner and ground things up and tossed things in the trash and made up my mind to let go of some items I'd come across last night while working on the guest room.

I'm so determined to clear out the broken and broken down items that I've talked to John about ordering a skip...and he's actually considering it.  When I pointed out that we'd have to rent a truck to haul these things to the county landfill and he priced that versus the skip, the skip won him over.  He said we'll never fill it...but I betcha I could make a good go at it.  I pointed out that we've the junk pile behind the sheds as well that we could clear up and there's stuff in my shed that just needs to GO which has accumulated over the past months years.

I find myself torn saying: keep the wonky bookcase, it's holding up and so what if it is so wobbly it threatens to fall each time we remove or add an item?   Why not use a cobbled together, not at all as I'd pictured it drawer-less dresser instead of buying a new item to store the records?  But then I realized something more.  I can buy better used items but I can't keep holding together really broken things with a prayer and fear of doing without.   The truth is the whole house got furnished one piece at a time, and none of it matches.  I don't care that it doesn't match. I do care that I've allowed truly ugly, can't be fixed sort of broken pieces take the place of the items I might have if I weren't so bent on holding on to them because I should make do.  You can't receive a thing if your hands are full...and the same is true if  you're letting something broken and worn down sit in the place where something nicer might go.  So, in the Red Queen's voice, Out they go!  And that's what makes me sure we can make a pretty good  go at filling up a skip.   I can name six big items, possibly seven or eight that could go our the door of this house and I haven't even considered the shed things yet.  Yes removing some of them will present a storage problem but we'll manage until we find a better solution.

I think it really all started happening when we started to eat breakfast and I sat down...in the office chair...I realized that our house was still set up as though we were going to have a baby running about every day and four extra people living with us.  I looked at John and said, "We need to reclaim our rights to our own house!" and I pushed the chair back to the music room which was where it belonged and pulled the dining chairs to the table and away from the record cabinet.   After breakfast, we let the blinds down to the bottoms of the windows once more and then John started moving guitars and amplifier into the music room and hooking them up to the microphone and setting up his music.  He took down the pack and play and moved the little blow up mattress bed into the closet.  Even though we had planned to grocery shop this morning, we began all these different jobs, staking our claim to our rooms and preparing ourselves for a Life Without Children In The House...

Well, we did eventually head off to Aldi.   One thing I learned very well these past few months was how to stretch foods out to make meals and how NOT to waste a single blessed thing.  I spent a little more than half my budget today.  My splurges were a box of wafer type cookies I love and a package of croissants for Shabat morning.  I LOVE croissants but every one else likes bagels so I just bought bagels enough for everyone and ate toast.  John teased me gently about it later and I said, "Well I..." and he said "You thought you deserved it?  Well you did all along!"   Maybe so, but it's hard to justify the added cost of croissants when you're stretching money hard and telling others they must go without those  items they mentioned they'd love to have.

I swear prices are higher in the newly remodeled Aldi, but I still find them remarkably lower than Publix and Kroger and I'm grateful that they reopened.   I was mighty blessed with some really good sales at Kroger but we went without more when we had to shop there and feed six on the budget for two.    I put  a few items into the pantry today and spent a little over 1/4 of my total on meat.  I was rather shocked as I added it up but then I recalled that I'm feeding TWO now, not six.  And one splurge was for John's sake: a Rib Eye steak that weighed 1.50 pounds.   We haven't indulged in steaks since last year and he is very much looking forward to a proper steak dinner.  That piece of meat alone was a good sized chunk of money but no guilt on my part.

Isn't it funny that now the family is finally moved, it's just as John's checks also are lower because there is no longer massive amounts of overtime?  Oh, there is absolutely no doubt we were taken care of in those months, we truly were.  I continued to fill sub accounts, paid for medical expenses, bought food for six, paid electric bills that are twice what we're used to paying and we got by but in July the overtime stopped and that was just when things got a wee bit tighter and then we were through.

When we'd finished shopping, we headed to our favorite pizza place and ordered spaghetti dinners.  I've NEVER eaten spaghetti anywhere except at home, y'all!  That's just one item I have always preferred to make myself.  I tell you truly, it was GOOD despite the white pasta.  I've really come to like the whole grain pastas we eat and I find most white pastas not al dente enough to suit me but this was delicious.  I looked across at John and smiled.  "This, this whole day," I said, "is how I meant to have yesterday be for us.  This day makes me very happy!"  And he smiled back and said "It's nice, isn't it?"

He's been so especially understanding since the night Katie told him I needed help.  He's talked to me as I needed to be spoken to when I was most overwrought, with gentleness and reason and patience, but not patronizing or angry.  I've been so mad at times I could explode. I have said words I haven't said since I was saved 25 years ago.  I've wept bucket loads.  I've shaken all over just trying to control myself and he's never looked at me and said "Get over it," or "I don't see what your problem is".  Nor has he said "Oh this is perfectly acceptable language," or "Under the circumstances you have every right to act awful."  He's just been a real help to me.  So it made me even happier that I could be better company for him for a change.

When we got home this afternoon, even though the skies held rain, I washed the rugs and stocked the pantry with the few items we'd bought for that purpose today.  I put the meats and breads and a gallon of milk in the freezer and I thought, "I'll bet I can feed us for three weeks or so before we go back."  All that care in stretching foods and storing them properly and using them up has been a very helpful reminder of what I can do if I need to and now that I know it can be done, why stop?  Why not keep making it do and stretching it out?  We ate some recipes I haven't made in years and some I make only occasionally now, like that Spaghetti Di`able which I was asked to share  so here goes:

Spaghetti Di`able

1/2 cup (4 ounces) cooked chicken
8 ounces mushrooms (I used a drained can last time figuring when the recipe was written fresh might not  have been available but I do like to use fresh mushrooms too if I have them on hand)
8 ounces canned tomatoes
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 small onion, finely diced
8 ounces cooked spaghetti
2 ounces (1/4 cup) shredded cheese (I usually use cheddar, since it is most commonly on hand in my kitchen)

In a little oil, cook onion, mushrooms (if using fresh) and garlic until tender.  Add tomatoes and chicken, all seasonings and then toss with cooked spaghetti.  Place in a casserole dish and top with the shredded cheese.  Bake until hot through and cheese melted.

And just a reminder, I used a small diced zucchini this last time as well and it really was quite good in the recipe, so feel free to do add if you have one on hand.

My family has always liked this dish.  I started making it when I was a newly married bride and in the hard years that came along thereafter I made it at least twice a month as a nice filling meal for little money.  I added a little more meat at times  but if you're using fresh mushrooms it's not necessary since they have such a nice meaty texture anyway.  In the early years of this marriage, with five kids at home to feed, we used a little more meat and a lot more spaghetti, lol.  Even feeding seven and company, I somehow managed to make a chicken stretch to feed us three or four meals during those leanest of lean days.

I did get to work on my home again this afternoon.  I have three bags for donation loaded in my car already, one bag of shredded paper to go to Bess for the chickens boxes, and a trash can filled with a second bag of trash.   Rugs are on the line even though it's being cloudy and humid and drippy this week.  I don't care if the rugs stay wet all week long.  I just wanted them to look clean once more!  I've warned John that tomorrow morning, even though I plan to see Mama, I'm going to mop floors and told him, "Don't be surprised to come home and find things out in the yard..."  because I am so ready to get started!

Did I mention that we'd bought a new bench for the back entry?  I paid for it with my allowance (bonus side of not spending money on nail wraps or shopping online for a couple of months, lol) and we picked it up Sunday a week ago.  It's in a box.  On the back porch.  And in the entry sits the old cut down entertainment center we've been using as a bench for over a year.  I got this bench:

It looks farmhouse for sure doesn't it?   I like that it could also be used on either porch if we ever decided we wanted to replace it. The customer reviews say it's stackable with other benches like it...and if you like this, they have chairs to match!   I sat on this bench at our Tractor Supply Company store and it was very comfortable.  I will get some type of baskets or crates to put shoes in and slide under the bench.    It was marked down for clearance.  We considered ordering it online where it was cheaper still, but they wanted the same amount the thing cost to ship it!  John said "Shoot we'll let them keep that.  We'll go back and buy it after church and if we have to we can take the pieces out of the box and fit it in the car."  Well we fitted the whole box in the back seat and it just fit.  

But there it is on the back porch because we didn't want to unload all the shoes which Isaac loved to sort and try to walk in and lugged about the house.  We had been putting shoes on top of the bench in a milk crate because it was just that much too tall for him to reach.  But now there is no Isaac in the house to pull out all the shoes at once, we can do something a little nicer than what we've had.

Long post this evening, isn't it?  I'm going out to check the rugs.  They might, just might, have gotten dry enough to consider bringing indoors.  I'm thinking of shaking things up and putting them in different rooms.   Oh it's so nice to have fun in my home once more!

Wednesday:  Up early to see John off to work.  One thing I haven't mentioned in a long while is that 'usual work morning routine' where I make him breakfast, pack him a lunch and send him off to work.   John will carry the same thing to work for months and months on end and then suddenly he'll decide he wants to do things differently.  It's never really convenient for me when he decided because it's almost always mid-pay period when we're NOT shopping.   These days he's decided he wants a loaf of bread, a package of luncheon meat, a jar of Peanut butter and Jelly swirl, and he'll make his own sandwiches when he wants them.   He's not a picky sort of guy he just goes in a rut for a bit and then switches over to another one.

After John left I found myself feeling antsy over that pile of clutter in the bedroom corner so I knocked it down into what needs to be donated or leave and what needs to be someplace else in the house.  I have a very small basket there now.  I sorted through fabrics and let a bunch of those go...I squinted hard when I was sorting fabric but that little stash of mine had grown and grown and yet it's just sitting there...I really need to make a plan to use it or let it go to a good and deserving home.  I still have a sort of idea for an Etsy shop that I'd like to try my hand at...and some of that fabric will be perfect...Just need to finish up this current projects list and get started on it.

Bess stopped by to pick up the last of their things and we chatted a little.  She and Isaac looked tired.  Naturally, now that Josh is in school and must arise early each morning, the boys are sleeping hard and have to be awakened.   Not three days ago they were up at 5:30am and raring to go...Now they want to sleep past 7am.  Go figure!

Isaac was playing about in the drawer where I keep the plastic items for food storage.  He likes to reach in and throw them out and sometimes (not often) he throws them back in.  He must have hit his forehead on the corner of the drawer because he started to cry and acted angry all at once, then he climbed into the little ivory rocker and rocked himself and scowled at us, lol.  I dislike that cabinet for that deep drawer front (the sides are much more shallow).   His hitting his head, not for the first time, made me think long and hard about getting rid of that piece of furniture, too.  It's practically empty already and just holds a handful of things since the boys could easily open and shut drawers and such.   It is a drop point for John each morning for his keys and such.  If I ever get to redo the kitchen, I would love to put a full length set of upper and lower cabinets and drawers on that wall but that is definitely NOT in this budget at present.

I've thought I could repurpose the guest room dresser that I want to move out of the guest room...Only paint it white because I do not like it black.  There's nothing wrong with  this dresser except I hated it in the living room entry and it doesn't go with my guest room.  Painted white it would do fine for storing plasticware and the kitchen towels and such and would still provide a spot for John to drop his keys and things...and would give me the excuse of making a coffee bar on that wall since there's a handy plug.  It's all something to consider.

After Bess and Isaac left I pushed the old recliner out the back door and then dragged out that old entertainment center.  I brought the boxed bench into the kitchen and decided that was sweating enough for the morning before leaving the house.  I ended bringing the rugs in from the line last night still just slightly damp but almost dry.  Boy, am I glad I did.  It rained several good showers after I got them indoors and it's rained off and on all day today.

I made a visit to Mama today and took my donations by to drop off at the thrift store.  Three bags down...and hopefully someone will just coo with delight when the come across the items on the shelves.  I contemplated going in and looking around but sternly reminded myself I'd just started this decluttering process and I might ought to wait on bringing anything new home until I was certain it would be of use.  I've plenty of things I don't use that need to go away!

After I came home, I stripped the slipcover off the wing chair and rounded up a load of  things to wash with it.  I also washed the two afghans that are in the living room and have seen plenty of use.  I hung the slipcover and towels out to dry, but naturally after clearing off and just before they were quite dry, it began to rain again.   I vacuumed and dusted, though I still haven't done the mantel, and I moved chairs about and put a slipcover back on the striped chair.  I'll leave the other chair uncovered for John.  I'm thinking of trying to alter the slipcover for the wing chair so it fits better, but we shall see.  Things are definitely in a transitional state just now.  Funnily enough my fortune cookie promised that after changes things will be more settled.  Aren't things always more settled after changes?

I took the bench from the box, which was packed in another box.  The bench comes in two pieces and I put it in place though it's not put together.  I told John it would as I know the measurement of that wall very wall but I'm happy just the same.   It fits!


And finally after looking at the empty space left by the chair removal and therefore being able to clearly see my bookcases for the first time in months I decided they were due a few culls and sorting into sections.

 I discovered I still have quite a few of the Maeve Binchy books to share with Amie and me thinking I'd sent her all of them.  Well, I haven't!  Good thing I need to mail birthday cards up this month.  The cards seem to arrive better if packed in a box of books.  I don't have an 'after' picture...and it's just as well.  There are so many books the shelves still look over packed and too cluttered but I am not a decorator, I am a book lover and I worked hard to buy bookcases for my beloved book friends to sit upon, so there they shall stay!

Now it is late and I have just discovered I am not only sleepy but I have a big swollen knuckle.  I do vaguely recall hitting it fairly hard against something or other as I worked this evening, but I can't recall what.  Oh well...It shall likely look smaller and bluer in the morning.

Why oh why must the dogs go mad barking just I plan to slip into bed?  It's really unnerving even if I know it might be a strange cat, a deer, donkeys or horses, both of which have apparently been slipping away from one of the neighbors pastures.  Still, for all I know that they are most assuredly barking at nothing much, I hate to hear them start up the moment I decide it's time for bed.

Good night!

Friday:  No post for yesterday because I stayed pretty busy with this:

Just what is "this"?  It is a custom made slipcover that I put together myself from two different slipcovers, both of which were a little worn and weary looking and far too big and terrible fitting for chairs.  It was my  BIG project and it's not quite done.  I need a long zipper to go on the back of the cushion slipcover.  I almost sewed it shut and then I recalled Isaac's diaper blow out and decided that a slipcover isn't upholstery.  It needs to be removable.

So I finished what I could do this evening, then gave the house a small Shabat cleaning.  Now it is time to close.  Shabbat Shalom!