Update

Eliza was blessed at Church yesterday

Sarah in her new vehicle

Sarah wreaks havoc on Christmas presents

The kids hang out in their "garage."

Life's been good to me lately, though there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything. Here's some of what's been going on:

*Eliza was blessed in Church by DH yesterday. It was a beautiful blessing. She was told that she would have the support of her brothers and sisters throughout her life and how much we loved her. It was a very special experience.

*Bit by bit, we are making this house a home. The week of Thanksgiving, I spent some time arranging and decorating my living room, and it has been nice to have one room finished in the midst of the chaos everywhere else. The day after Thanksgiving, we put up our Christmas tree. It was so nice to be able to simply rearrange the furniture to make room. At our old home, the tree seemed to take over, yet here it is simply a nice part of the room.

On Saturday, DH & my Dad made amazing progress, putting in the wainscoating in the mud room and then putting in almost all the cabinet drawers. It took nearly all day, but by late afternoon, I had a much more functioning kitchen. All my lower cabinets have roll-outs rather than shelves, so I’ve had to wait to organize them until the roll-outs were put in yesterday. I was exhausted by afternoon but so thrilled that I kept going, organizing the kitchen. I love to have so much room that I can really organize things. It’s silly, but it just makes me happy to look in my pantry and see all my food in neat rows. I was able to find some bins that perfectly fit in my spice cabinet, and I organized the spices as well. I’m starting to think I might even learn to love cooking as much as I love the new kitchen.

I am so grateful for my Dad, who has helped us tremendously this year, first at our old house and now at our new one. Despite spending all day on drawers, at 4:00 yesterday, when we all sat down in the family room, his question was, “So what’s the next project?” We had to tell him we were done for the day, but I do hope I inherited his work ethic.

*Meanwhile, I’m having trouble finding empty laundry baskets. ALL of the kids have converted them into cars. They put a pillow in, a toy steering wheel, and a flashlight (because cars need headlights, right?), then take turns pushing each other around the house. They even have a “garage” in the laundry room (see the pictures above).

Lillian & Joey decided to make wrapping paper the other day and used their desk in the family office to glue lots of paper together and cover it with designs.

Allison & Sarah are up to their old tricks. It’s hard to keep track of them in a bigger house, so I guess it’s inevitable that the messes they make are bigger too. On Friday, for instance, Allison found the box of birdseed up high in the mud room and spilled it everywhere. I got out the vacuum and had them help me vacuum most of it up. Then a few hours later, I walked in on Sarah in the living room. She had opened every single present. She was surrounded by presents and bits of wrapping paper, and was investigating the toys. My sister-in-law Jean’s mother gave me some advice when the twins were born. She said to remember when things get tough to get out the camera rather than yelling. I’m happy to report that I remembered that advice, but only after I did a bit of yelling. I had spent a lot of time on Monday getting all the presents wrapped and mistakenly thought they were safe, since the twins had left them alone for the first few days.