Rejoice with Me...

The dining room/kitchen is done!!!!

Papa Rooster and I painted last night, and this morning, when all was dry, it looked like one coat was going to be enough! So I took the kids to Oliver rehearsal and here I am at Panera for a well-deserved cup of coffee, a chocolate chip bagel, and some me-and-God time.

And I need it. Having been glued to my dining room walls for days--pun intended--I confess I have become increasingly short-tempered this week, as my kids will tell you. (A fly on my wall would have overheard me yelling at them, "KIDS--I am pretty stressed out here, and I am NOT HANDLING IT WELL!")

Finishing that project has lifted such a weight. I had been dreading doing it--hoped till the last that I wouldn't have to. I think I must have intuited that it would be a big hairy deal, which it was. (By the way, thanks for everybody's wallpaper glue removal suggestions! I had read about using fabric softener, and I do think it worked better than Dif. What also worked well was using those green Scotch Brite scrubber pads on the peeling places, alternating with a scraper--finally finishing with a sanding block on what absolutely wouldn't come off.)

And Papa Rooster, bless his heart, is spending his Saturday morning cleaning up--removing the tape, putting away the drop cloths, moving furniture, and hand-sponging wallpaper glue dust off the tile floor. I can't wait to see how it really looks, with everything back in place.

I was talked out of the subdued harvest gold, by the way. The realtors seem to think yellow is a color to be avoided. So we went with what I hope is the same color as other parts of the house, a butter tan. Long story on why I couldn't get exactly the same color again. But it looks pretty close--thanks be to God.

So that was the last big house-selling project, I think. Maybe now--if all goes well with the house-buying project--I can start packing to move!

Except that spring weather is upon us now...and that means that we can no longer ignore the great outdoors that comes with the house. For example, the deep, muddy, grassless wheel tracks on the sides of our driveway. Or the area on the side of the house which we use as a parking place for our 15-passenger van--where the mulch pad has turned to mud. And we have this area--right near the road--that used to be landscaped, but it will be nothing but weeds if I don't do something with it. I don't know why the vinca stopped growing there. And I can't decide whether to just dump mulch on it, or plant something else there, or dig up the fabric and plastic edge and turn it back to grass.

I'm just praying that somebody buys this house soon, and it can be their problem. I'm so ready to move on and put my energy into something I'll be around for!