Spring and winter in one week

Hello friends!

What a week!  I don't know about you, but here in upstate, our weeks are flying by!  Last weekend, our weather was beautiful and sunny and I thought spring was coming.  Gwendolyn and I raked out all of the flower beds and picked up all of the sticks and leaves in the yard. 

 

Dan bought a cheap trailer that needed quite a bit of work, so he has been able to devote some time to that. 

 

A few months ago when we were furnishing our house, a lady gave me a stack of these small plastic chairs.  Gwendolyn calls it her "baby blue chair".  Lucinda and Gwen love to sit in them.

 

 

 

We were having several wagon rides each day

And walks to see the horses down the road happen pretty much every day.

 

 

One day Gwendolyn and I read the newspaper together outside right before it started raining a bit.

 

 

Remember me mentioning buying that old trunk?  Well, I finished it!  What a little sanding, staining, painting and polyerthane can't fix!  Check out the completed project!  It's missing the handles and big clasp in the front, but that doesn't matter to me since we'll be using it for décor.

 

 

Then early in the week, we woke up to 7 1/2 inches of heavy, wet snow.  It wasn't worth plowing, since it was in the 40's and we knew it would melt in no time.  We got out our makeshift sleds out and pulled the girls around and then made a snowman.  It was fun, and something different to do. 

 

 

 

 

 

In just two days, all of the snow was gone, with the exception of a pile where our snowman was.  We are enjoying getting projects done here at the house.  I've made two curtains, made to-do lists, and mostly finished everything on the lists! :D 

Hope your week has been just as productive! 

Stay safe!

My Thoughts and life here and now

Hello friends and readers!

So much can change in just the matter of a few weeks, can't it?  We can go from one week going about our weeks as if nothing in the world is going to change, and then realizing that the world as we know is has gone completely crazy. 

I don't know how your state is, but here, the panic, frenzy, and fear is real amongst so many.  I've taken a back seat to the social media posts I see all week, but after seeing all 50 (or so) surrounding schools closing for a month, the restaurants closing, and grocery stores not having toilet paper, wipes, soap or meat of any kind in stock...it can start to get to you a little.  Yesterday I was reminded though that God has not given us (Christians) the spirit of fear, but of POWER, of LOVE, and of a SOUND MIND.  The world is not acting in power, love and certainly not with a sound mind in regards to the spread of this pandemic, the coronavirus. 

I continue to pray for those who are ill with it, those in quarantine, and those who are grieving loved ones lost to it. 

 

That being said, I refuse to give in to the panic striking our country. 

Thanks to the two road kill Dan picked up (deer) last year, we have venison in the freezer and enough blended frozen banana and shredded zucchini to last us awhile.  :)

 

We're being safe, continuning to wash our hands like we have done before there ever was a virus, and are still living our lives. 

 

On to the pictures for this post.   

The other week I mentioned that we were searching for furniture for our rental.  We came across a lady who was selling a whole garage full of furniture for very cheap.  We picked out what we liked and I really liked this bed.  I've always loved beds with posts.  Ours had a large headboard and posts, but we decided to try switching frames.  This frame came to stay at our house and ours went to the rental.  So far, I like it.  It has drawers in the bottom of it. 

 

 

Also, in our search, I came across a lady on craigslist who was giving away this chair for free because a family member had sat in it and completely busted the back off of it.  Some internal piece of wood was broken in the chair.  I brought it home, Dan took it apart and fixed it.  So now we have a chair that somehow, perfectly matches the walls of our room (not easy to match!).

 

Gwendolyn and Lucie are growing fast.  Lucie figured out how to walk with the walker and to climb up the stairs.  She's very mobile.  Together, they love to climb in the kitchen cupboards and play with the canned goods and pots and pans. 

 

Smoothie time.

 

And playing in the laundry basket

 

Gwendolyn and I, playing in the snow.

 

While perusing our local antique store, I saw that outside there was a collection of old trunks.  I'm a old trunk lover, so I asked the owner how much they were.  The lowest one was $35.  I was surprised at myself when I found myself haggling a little bit and said that I would take two IF he gave them to me for $30 for both.  He said "$35 and we have ourselves a deal."

So I have two new trunks.  One of them has a hole in the front which Dan says he can fix.  This one, though missing the straps (of course) and the clasp and handles, is intact.  Since Dan has been so busy working for some clients, I am taking on the job of bringing this one back to life.  I'll be sure to take an "after" photo when I finish it.   

 

That's it for now!  Stay safe you guys!  Don't give in to the panic and fear that our society without God is experiencing.  God knows everything that's happening and He is still in control.  Nothing is out of His power. 

 

A month has passed...

A whole month has gone by and we are doing just dandy.  I've been really bad about taking pictures lately, so this post will be nearly photo-less. 

Our biggest news for the month of February is that Dan and I are trying our hand at being hosts on a popular "vacation rental" website.  We're trying this with the fixer upper we just finished.  In the month of February, we searched diligently for good deals on new and used furniture to furnish the house with.  We listed our furnished home last week and have several bookings already.  Dan really wanted to try giving it a shot before we try to do a rental.  I finally agreed to try it for a year and see how it does.  Here are a few photos of the completed house.  And yes, we still have snow on the ground!

 

 

 

 

On the family side, Gwendolyn is saying SO many words!  Dan and I tried to write down all of the ones she has been saying, but we lost track after about 200.  Lucinda loves to crawl and just recently started pulling herself up on furniture.  It won't be long before she'll be walking.
 

We celebrated Fastnacht Day once again by making apple fritters and fastnachts.  Gwendolyn enjoyed helping make donuts. 

February was a very snowy and cold month for us.  It seemed every day was in the single digits, teens or twenties.  Since it became March however, it has been in the 40's and 50's during the days and only gets to freezing temperatures at night.  Spring is on its way!  We can feel it in the air! Our inches and inches of snow has begun to melt.  Word on the street is that its supposed to be 60 degrees tomorrow!  We'll be spending most of the day outdoors for sure!

 

 I have been cleaning out my cupboards, closets and such, gathering things to sell at this years town-wide yard sale.  I recently saw a post on craigslist a woman was giving away all of her daughters old books.  I went to her home and came back with three huge totes full...but I had no room to even store them!  So I'm cleaning out for real.  I think I'll get rid of some furniture too.

I hope all of you are staying healthy and are enjoying this beautiful weather as I am! 
Hopefully next time I'll have more photos to post.  They're so much more fun.  :)