Shopping Lists: Thanksgiving and Christmas Annual Shopping List for Cooking and Baking our Traditional Dishes

Menus thanksgiving and Christmas. Yes these are my shopping lists. I need to keep them in a secondary location and I like to share...

Thanksgiving**

Corn chowder
Butternut squash soup or casserole with chinese spice and creme fresh
Candied ham
Sweet or mashed potatoes
Cranberries
Apple pie or apple strudel
Flan
Compot
Sweet wine

Xmas**

Mushroom soup
Malowiec
Polish vegetable salad
Rugelach roll - try
Kolachky
Spritz cookies
Gingerbread cookies
Chocolate chi cookies
Egg big w cognac

Baking Shopping list
2 bags sugar
2 bags flour
3 packs 1lb butter
2 bags chocolate chips
1can lg poppy seed filling
3 type mushrooms 2-3lbs
Sour cream
Dill
Check seasonings: nutmeg, Ginger powder, all spice, etc.
1 gallon milk
3 packs eggs
2 qts heavy whipping cream
2 cups cognac
1cup rum
2 cups whiskey
Add rugelah needs
Add salmon needs
Add apple pie needs
Soups, etc

New years brunch
Poached eggs
Bacon
Potatoes
Pick a new recipe every year


SOMETHING NEW:

YOUTUBE CHANNEL INFO

Our family has had many adventures through the years. Mom, the @Minstr0Interior had an a-ha moment . . .  Suddenly I See what we will have filled our life with, ADVENTURES! We travel, craft, sing, dance, collect insects and spend loads of time together. Sometimes too much time together. Our kids have recently begun to document their own adventures, and so this channel was born. Enjoy our adventures. Or not. WANT MORE? If there is a blog post accompanying this video we will share it here. Sometimes we will include the ingredients list of the craft or recipe, or the itinerary of our trip. In the meantime click play. 

From our family: 👍 + 🙃 + ❤️ ( Thumbs up, emoji face, hearts! )

See It Live >>> 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2mGpujQIVgxdfTImFnQuLA

Make mistakes, breathe, reflect and Laugh.Out.Loud.

Poem: Honey, Your Socks are on the Floor, Again

Honey, honey, you left you sox on the floor, again...
I can believe the hamper lid didn't stay open.

I'm pretty sure I do enough in this house,

More then your ordinary spouse.

Don't take advantage of me like that,

You can do more then wipe your feet on the mat.

Pick up your sox, and put them away,

Cause around the bend is the day,

That I'll start throwing them out,

And you'll just have to do without.

by: Areyousureaboutthatblog Author
Not authorized for reproduction without permission.

Downton Abby: 100 years later, are we an upstairs or downstairs society?

As I watched the last episode of Season 3 Downton Abby last night I started to think, after all these years what's become of our status in society? Who would I have been in the Downton Abbey era? As its incinuated in the show that The Era of the Abbeys won't last much longer. Technology and "modern ways" were taking over, and generations of aristocratic rule were falling by the wayside. So what becomes of the people in the "new times?" Are we living as the upstairs family would have or continuing in life as the service staff would?

Downton Abbey, the Family leads and Service follows

So I started to reflect on my own life. Interestingly enough I'm a daughter of real European aristocrat,  my father and my mom who is from a small village. Granted my parents met here in the United States, and most likely would not have met in their native homeland of Poland. As I was growing up my mother always made it a point that I knew my manners, as did my father. It seemed though that my father pushed away from the family rituals and behavior, and he was not close with his family. But my mother embraced all of the etiquette, formality and properness of it all. Even tho she grew up in a village, her Grandmother was a seamstress, and we think that her Grandmother passed down the importance of dressing well and "for the occasion." Education was important in the home as was "doing well" and "being successful" in whatever you do. She was a woman who understood the quality of fine materials. So ingrained in my mom was dressing well, appropriate for the occasion, and so on,...so she wasnt presented as a "peasent" when she met my dad - and here in the U.S. they were no longer "worlds apart."

Downton Abbey, the Upstairs Family leisurely enjoying news by the fire. 

As you can tell from reading this blog, I feel that manners and etiquette are very important. I'm constantly calling for my boys as "gentlemen, come here," but sometimes I do call for them in Polish slang term for "boys" similarly to the village people. So I guess I show I am a blend of both worlds.

Downton Abbey - downstairs, servant dinner time

Watching Downton Abby has given me so much insight into my father's world. What his parents had to lose after World War II, and what he had to relearn how to live in simplicity when he came to this country. (Instead of following his degree as a physicist, he chose to repair cameras his whole life making less than $25,000 a year. Clearly not the lifestyle he grew up with.) But one thing my father definitely maintained, was the joy and fun in his humor and wit. I would say he's an extremely witty man never answering the question directly, similarly as the Lady Dowager does, always side barring and having just the right answer, just the right way of handling things, when he wasn't being mean to someone of course.

Downton Abbey - Lady Dowager "Vulgarity is no substitute for Wit!"

So now that I have a better understanding of where aristocratic father came from, what does that tell about me? Which side did I end up on? As a mom I'm certainly doing the work of the service people. Laundry, dishes, cooking all our meals, dirty diapers, being a "wet mother" since we're still nursing baby girl, ha ha. And I spend more than one hour every day with my children, unlike the Dowager. This would definitely be the life of service. Thank God for technology, at least I have a dishwasher to be my first assistant / Daisy in the kitchen.

On the other hand my Husband and I have a higher education through to university, we've really taken a lot of love to have a beautiful home, with a wonderful landscape. We take daily walks, love books in our library at home, and have elegant fancy dinners with our family and friends often.

So am I a woman of the upper-class, who has learned how to do menial tasks, and take care of young children? Or am I a woman of service was increased her status to own a home, yet still do menial tasks and take care of children?

I guess it's easier to leave this question unanswered? It can sound extremely arrogant to say because I have an education it gives me an upper hand on those that don't? I don't think I fall in the middle either? If there is a middle? Does an education still raise us up in class? Improve handling life's issues?

But that's not to say that the head housemaid Mrs. Hughes or the head Butler Carson would not handled things wonderfully and they were in service and didn't have a higher education.

The only other thing that I have that is clearly reminiscent of the aristocratic society, is my wit. I often don't answer questions directly and instead will have some very cunning and smart remark that will neither offensed the person but it will sort of "put them in their place."

Where does this leave us? I have to say I really don't know. I didn't dabble in the finances aspect because obviously I don't want to talk about my financial situation on the Internet. But that definitely is a factor to consider if you live "check to check" or if you have something to "fall back on," that'll tell you a little bit about where we've gotten to land socially.

It's two days after writing this post: I'm in the kitchen grabbing our snacks for our outing - my eldest comes in, he's thirsty. The four year old needs me to wipe his booty, and baby girl just picked up yet another Lego for her snack / teething aid!! Can't we just leave? No, the chauffer (that's me too) needs to fetch her keys.

My conclusion: while at heart I am definitely an aristocrat and a well rounded, educated, and well dressed social lady, I'm definitely a downstairs maid / nanny who's been promoted to homeowner and mom. Thus I call myself the "Family Manager." A little education, a little free time, and lots and lots of chores!!


Make Mistakes. Breath, Reflect. and Laugh.Out.Loud

Want to live like the Downton Abbey Crowleys? Make More Time Appear so you can Do Nothing.

Do you ever watch Downton Abbey and think, I would love to live like the Granthems. Have a servant wait on you for every Little need, time for tea, take a leisurely walk, or go to a luncheon, Change your clothes for dinner, take time to write a note, call on family for extended visits and these activities ARE the extent of your day!?!

Obviously the Granthams don't have a "full-time job" or work like we do today, or have to pick up their sons from school and take them to soccer class. Then do homework and make dinner. Because of course so much is done for them. And the servants would do these "mom jobs." And the money, obviously there was oodles and oodles of money!!

But what if I told you that some aspects of this Aristocratic life is possible, even in the 21st-century. The Downton Abbey life is slow, slow, slow, not go, go, go like ours. Our days have so much packed into them it's amazing we get anything done at all. And then I stop and think: why don't I make a life for myself similar to the Granthams? Granted I can't just make money appear, but I can make time appear.

For sometime now I've been looking around my home thinking I haven't touched that (insert item here: picture frame, decorative box, fancy plate, 27 sweaters of which I usually wear only 6) in a year or I haven't done anything with my fancy dishes in two years because my life now is all about the children for me. It turns out De-cluttering our lives is definitely one step toward the Downton Abbey way of life. But the second is prioritizing what we do with our time.

If you are reading this post, please post a comment below on what you liked - or didn't  - about this read. Does the topic interest you and you want to know more? Submit a question and I am happy to tackle it.

It's funny how often a friend will comment I can't believe you have time to do all "that stuff" with your kids (blog readers know we are ALWAYS going to museum, making a project, taking a walk nearly every night after dinner, etc.) With homework and soccer and (insert errands and tasks here) it's nearly impossible to "do it all." So we don't. But in our home all "that stuff with the kids" happens because it's THE Priority!

Recently I came across a couple books at our library, one by Lisa Lynn called Life's too short to fold fitted sheets. And a few more about de-cluttering and getting organized from moms who have done it already. (I have no financial association with these books.)  After reviewing these books, and reflecting on my own life... and more importantly the LIFE I WANT to have... I realized a few key imperatives.


Here's a few steps to how we try to live an Abbey lifestyle.

Number 1: Simplify. Take a look around the house. You notice how in the Abbey there's paintings on the walls, lots of books on the shelves, beautiful simple furniture and that's pretty much it. Simplify, simplify, simplify. Otherwise there's so much to constantly straighten up and clean!! An those projects we've been "meaning to do." (See my giving up on lent post which helped me de-clutter over 40 days.)

-- I have taken the dishes that I don't entertain with and put them in storage, just temporarily. I'm not getting rid of the things that I love. I'm just moving them out of the way (until we entertain again).

-- On the other hand I AM minimizing. Because putting everything in storage doesn't solve the problem either. I limit myself to one or two bins for kitchen supplies and the rest can go into my garage sale (where the proceeds go to my vacation fund)... well, the rest ended up being donated because I don't have time for a garage sale. And the funds raised would've been $100-150. And no, that amount IS NOT worth 2-4 days of my time.

Step Number 2: Simplify with the Children. (And I can only stress the importance of doing this WITH your children.) We filtered through their toys over a period of three days. Again, the more toys there is, then the more there is to clean and straighten. And yes I did it WITH the kids, and not sneaking the toys away while they were sleeping or at school.

How we Worked with the Kids to De-Clutter their Toys.

Day 1:  We made a list of the toys that we love. You may think this step is unnecessary, but later when it comes time to start getting rid of the toys, it's great to be able to reference the list that your children wrote, to remind them of what was important to them. Because its normal as you start filtering's toys, children start to feel a certain level of anxiety and want to save this or that toy.

Day 2: start sorting. So during the process of sorting, I left them put all those "I love that toy and can't get rid of it," into a pile. After we're done filtering I let them keep three or four toys from that "I love it but it wasn't on the list" pile. This way we still get rid of the majority of toys that we don't use, but they get to lower their level of anxiety by keeping those few that they forgot that they love.

Day 3: find a home and keep it there. When we started our Montessori-esque play, we are using trays more with our toys, which helps generate less mess. (Put the toys away on the tray before you get the next toys.)

-- You see once your children go through this process, it's harder for them to go back to just collecting more and more toys. You can use this experience as a reinforcement of why we only will buy what we truly truly need (otherwise we have too much to clean up after).

Step 3: Change your mindset, Keeping it this way, Simple. (And don't keep adding to the clutter you just got rid of.)

-- On our way to the zoo my son said to me mom I saw this toy that I really want you to buy me for my birthday and he began to describe it. I interrupted him and I said "honey I don't buy you toys for your birthday. Mommy and daddy like to buy you "an experience," we go to a special museum, or the zoo, or an activity that you've been meaning to do. Maybe even a hotel overnight. We aren't buying more toys. Other people can buy you toys, but not mom and dad. Mom and dad will buy you an experience."

-- So now we've de-littered and gotten Rid of the "stuff" that keeps us busy straightening and cleaning up, and what eats up our time moving the mess and cleaning the mess. Now that you've gotten rid of it all what are you going to do with that time.

This goes for you too mom! No more kitchen gadgets, 3 more sweaters in different colors, etc.

Step 4. Making the time.

About those books, obviously there was no TV in the Downton Abbey days. And living without TV might not be a reality today. But limiting TV CAN be a reality. See my post about having a schedule which include limiting TV time. When you start to limit TV / tube time, you need to make sure you have a plan for what to do with that time. For us it's often a project, a walk outside, going into the yard. Anything and everything out and about keeping ourselves busy. For us that means no TV on weekdays - no cartoons in the am, and no TV unless we watch something during dinner (not often).

Step 5: what to do with the time.

I caution you when it comes to scheduling (or over-scheduling) activities. Each of my kids goes to school. Then they have maybe one activity that they get during the week like soccer practice and again the game on Saturday. Which us plenty!! (See my post on why education reform doesnt matter. your kids are learning plenty.) That still leaves four weekdays for plenty of that Downton Abbey slow, slow easy-going time. Time to make dinner during homework time or before kids get home from school, clean up after dinner, make a project / time for the kids, talking a walk, hitting the library for an hour, and more for fun time in the tub. Lots more time.

Since chores still need to happen, get help. 

Kids helping empty the dishwasher, so we can go outside - together!

Oh and by the way, here's my separate blog post about mom not being a slave and quality time for mom and kids. Why it's super important to involve your children in cleaning up after dinner and cleaning up their own toys. You shouldn't be the maid to their mess. They need to participate in the chores because that is the world WE live in. (Unlike this blog post about are we upstairs or downstairs 100 years later.) We don't have nannies and governesses surrounding us all the time to do it for us. This way you will ALL have equal amounts of time to share being leisurely, and not MOM'S cleaning up while the kids are playing. Instead we clean up together and have more EQUAL free time together. Simplify and you too can be more leisurely, just like on Downton Abbey.


Make Mistakes. Breathe. Reflect. and Laugh.Out.Loud.

Rules for Laundry, Folding Clothing and Responsibilities

My boys needed a little visual reminder on their responsabilities. Clothes was ending up on the floor or (my pet peeve) clean clothes in the laundry. Laundry meaning: Cause mom will just wash it an put it away for me.

So I quickly drafted and taped to their closet door the Clothing Rules and Kid Responsabilitles. My boys are 7 and 4 and YES they can handle this! Its follow the rules or mommy gets frustrated and yells. Which clearly they voted for the rules.

Clothing Rules:

- Put your PJ's on the bed when you change

1. Change after school

2. Uniform goes on your chair back

3. Play clothes

put in the laundry if they are dirty with spots or were worn outside ofthe house.

put them back in the drawers, folded, if we only used them indoors

4. Sox go in the dirty socks bag

**If you don;t know where clothes should go ask for help!*

Kid Responsabilities:

1. Make your bed

2. Say "Good Morning"

3. CLear the table after you eat

4. Put food on the counter

5. Help eachother, and play nice! Ask for alone time if you need it and Have Fun! (the boys can seperate if they need a break from eachother, they know they have to respect that seperate time for at least 30 minutes).

6.  Take care of your responsabilities

7. Respect your self and your parents.

8. ** See clothes chart

Lenten Season: Giving Up ON Giving Up

Growing up it was a little exciting and rewarding to be able to "give up" candy for 40 days and feel a sense of accomplishment. Sometimes I might sneak a bite of a snickers and then feel guilty for days.... ah catholic guilt! As an adult a few years ago I gave up soda for lent and happily I never went back to drinking soda daily. It takes at least 30 days to build a habit, or unlearn one in this case, so Lent's 40 days works great! Now it really is an occasional treat. Unfortunately soda just doesn't taste as good to me as it used to either.

My son came home from school an announcement that "the whole second grade was giving up talking at lunchtime for lent." Gee, I can only imagine who's idea that was? Any teacher friends want to fess up?

So mom, what are you giving up for lent? Hmph, for the first time in many years I hadn't given it much thought. I'd seen my Facebook friends post Meatless Monday, Tubeless (No TV) Tuesday, Water Wednesday, Fish Friday, etc. you get the idea. And yes, on Water Wednesday that doesn't include the water in mom and dads coffee. Let me know how that works out for you?


If you are reading this post, please post a comment below on what you liked - or didn't  - about this read. Does the topic interest you and you want to know more? Submit a question and I am happy to tackle it.


So at about a week into lent my son returned asking again "Mom what are you giving up for lent?" I said without thinking "I'm giving up on giving up!" And it hit me - sheer brilliance! I am not giving anything up, instead I will do... I will do what I have been needing to do for months, years even. I am going to do every little project, activity, and proactive effort I have been meaning to do during lent. I commit at least one hour a day to this task.

And then I started my list. Because of course I have a list to check things off as they are accomplished. My only "rule" was to complete these things over the course of lent, committing at least one hour per day. I couldn't abandon my children and like a tornado get everything sifted and shifted in a day or two. After all this was months and years in the making and I hadn't gotten it done so far. And I had to involve family members where possible (#4 & 5 are AWESOME for kids). I've included my list and some of the steps involved. And we know how time flies, things don't get done because the day to day of life takes over. So this plan just might work to get those things done!

#1 - Clean off the dining room table and KEEP STUFF OFF OF IT. Granted I was only storing things on half of the table, but it's so unsightly during dinner. Most things were transitional - go to basement, go to storage, go away. But they didn't "Go" anywhere, they sat, and sat. So once I put things in their rightful place I gave myself a basket. It's an 8 x 12 inch basket for any transitional stuff. If the basket gets full I MUST pay attention and put those items away.

 #2 - Have at least 3 projects a week with the kids. After homework and commitments we need our time to learn the non-school way. My four year old is really into color mixology, thank you Pinterest for all the great ideas. Including Gak, Slime, Sensory bags, Sensory bottles, I-Spy Bags (AWESOME), Growing Beans in a Clear Jar so we can "watch" what happens (AWESOME x2!), make a paper mache mask and paint it, and much more!

#3 - Speaking of Pinterest. MAKE THOSE Sensory Pins! Check and Check! Again based on the current interests I used some small animals and made an African habitat in rice. Baby girls has a sound set up making noise, I mean music with her bowls and spoons, and our sensory bags.

#4 Have the kids start picking up after themselves. So it is totally true that boys "don't see" things laying around as they trip over, hop over and scoot around them. So I am making a conscious effort
that when we leave a room, like the kitchen, the older boys takes all the toys from the "high" areas and the younger from the "low/floor" and items get put Where They BELONG! This worked so well that I have added putting your own plates and cups away into the sink. When they leave their plates out - well that same plate greets them in the morning, who the hard dinner crud on it. Lesson quickly learned. My effort in this is constant - hopefully only thru lent, where I follow them around like Mother Goose, making sure toys end up in the right places. THIS IS WORKING GREAT! For me too - I have learned to actually follow the kids and make sure they learn the procedure right the first time. I "invest" my time and they learn correctly - again the brilliance of Montessori-esque.

#5 Finally start that Montessori-esque Playroom. I have been reading lots and lots about Montessori, and I totally love it. Its so European and makes loads of sense. But some elements I think are too extreme for me. Others are of course wonderful reminders that children can be independent at a young age. And for my own mom sanity its a great method to teach good habits, chores and independence and creativity at the same time. So to task I asked my boys to bring me toys they no longer want, that are broken, etc. HA! Each boy brings me things the other plays with. . . Let's start over. I sat the boys down with a glass of juice and "we" decided on what goes, ... again.

- If it's broken, gone.
- If it's not played with. buh bye.
- If it's not yours, put it where it belongs.
- Bring me stuffed animals we don't like, don't want, that smell, or are leaking stuffing.
- If you think you might want it but your are not sure, bring it in the "maybe box" ("also the keep it in the basement a week if they don't ask it goes box")

After I get their selections I separately went thru the toys they NEVER play with. We cleaned out nearly 3 large boxes of stuff. Our toy room is more of an inspiration room now.

What stayed in the Toy Room
all neatly organized into individual boxes and baskets by item:
- Musical Instruments
- Wooden Building Blocks
- Wooden Lincoln Logs
- Ball bin
- tinker toys bin (one in toy room and one in their bedroom, since they always end up downstairs)
- Wood trucks and cars
- Plastic toy cars all in one basket
- All board games
- construction play set
- dress up clothes (on hangers)
- Chest with our "hard plastic" animal figures
- Basket with stuffed animals (slimmed down to our most, most, most favorites in 3 rounds of filtering)
- Book shelf (thinned out so we can actually access our books and thumb thru a selection)
- Wood Toy Trains Sets

The walls still have our Art Gallery Line where I pin their art work up. And a map of the animals around the world, a low play chalkboard, and craft / supply storage shelves.

Upstairs Boys Bedroom has:

- Lego's with tiny not-baby-friendly pieces
- Squinkes set which my 4 year old loves
- book shelf (thinned out so we can actually access our books and thumb thru a selection)
- Astronaut set and imaginext shuttle
- Dinosaur play set
- Reading/snuggle chair
- Bionicles
- stuffed animals bin in baby girls room
- Lego Table and 2 chairs.

Also Montessori Esqu beginnings are:

- ENFORCING the put your slippers on policy. "Enforcing" for me means when shoes come off after arriving at home, I gently remind the boys to put slippers on. It's a "Type A" thing, sorry Montessori readers!
- # 4 picking up after themselves and putting their own plates and cups in the sink.
- keeping your homework basket neat. And cleaning up homework supplies after yourself.
- to be introduced: a small wood try and a tray basket. So if they want individual play they can have it.

These are all wonderful steps to mom feeling Waaaayyyyy less stressed. And my boys knowing what to do and not having to ask who what where constantly.

#6 Write Scientist Names Around the trim of the toy room. Followed by a project on each so we can learn about their contribution to science.  Still on the to do side of the list. When we were at the Museum of Science and Industry, during a demonstration in the main rotunda I notices around the ceiling moulding were various scientist last names. LOVED THIS IDEA. It'll get it's own post when that's accomplished.

#7 Filter the old mail, papers, and filing documents in the office. I went thru and trashed so much paperwork in 1 hour, only 1 hour! Such an accomplishment. Now I need one more hour to file it all... nearly there. When we renovated our office into a sitting room I rid us of the horrid filing cabinet and hanging folders into accordion folders i had left over from some other projects. So the filing process was started but for some reason I had a BIG basket of left over paperwork.

#8 Clear off kitchen Counters and KEEP THEM THAT WAY. Am I yelling? I don't mean to yell, it's just I cannot keep my counters uncluttered. Everything has a place. That's been my rule for year. But for some reason I don't follow it? Until now, and it's working great. I am simply Following my own rules!

#9 Impromptu clean up the spice cabinet and tea boxes. I'm not British, but you would think I was with all the tea I drink. Loose tea, bagged tea, boxed tea bags, and canisters of exotic teas yet unopened. So I filtered out half empty tea boxes into a canister, bags from left and right. I consolidated spices and tossed what is not used - and will never be used - OUT. Again, it took only an hour, and it felt so good!

#10 Sit with my son during homework. We have 3 kids, and this one can be challenging sometimes. I had to rearrange my day to accomplish this task. Homework usually takes 30 minutes. But we sidebar, and or chat, alot, so it can get to an hour sometimes. I want to sit at the table with my son. It accomplishes 2 things. I get less "frustrated" having to walk away from what I am doing (usually cooking dinner) to address his needs, and he feels he has my full attention - as it should be. So the Sensory Bin plays a big role here. For my 4 year old son and 1year old daughter. Both have a sensory bin. The 4 year old plays for an hour with no problem. The baby however plays for 10 minutes (which is still great) and then invades my cabinets. Still giving me and the big boy quality homework time.

#11 Sort boys art center. I opened items in boxes and put them in east to access baskets (Montessori esque). I opened the lacing and string box, put all the stamp and ink in a clear bin, and consolidated all our craft books (mask making included) into one shelf. The boys said they like it better, but most importantly are using the area more which shows me they really do like it! I also ended up sorting their coloring books bin right by the kitchen table and got rid of old magazines and half colored books I knew they wouldn't use.

#12 Put into storage what goes into storage! So obvious, right? Yeah I have a Christmas bin I am still filling with leftover stragglers. But that, and my husbands teaching books that are collecting dust, and the boxes from under my sons bed (with toys he can grow into), into the Attic they go.

#13 Rearrange Boys Room. My older son brought this up a few weeks ago. And we know how time flies, things don't get done because the day to day of life takes over.  We were in their room, filtering the books and toys and my son said his bed would look good by the window. And so we talked thru where 2 dressers, a table, 2 beds, a chair and 2 drawers sets and a book shelf would go. We started moving things out and out. I'm a pretty logical kind of girl so I directed mostly here. That took one hour. We moved the beds around and the chair. Dressers were basically in place so time for a Lunch break! It was great! We sat at the kitchen table, talked about the room move, what we liked, what we didn't. The boys didn't really want to finish the job. But I talked up our sense of accomplishment, ... that we were almost done, ... only a few more books and toys to move around,... okay, I caved and promised some ice cream. Congrats to us all on a job well done.


I feel a HUGE sense of accomplishment getting these tasks underway. We are not even halfway thru Lent and I am more then Halfway thru my list.  I hope to keep our home running this way for several more years! As for my new Lenten tradition. I may just have to keep that too. #14 - add before and after pictures to the blog :-)