~The phone lines at our new house are fickle and dislike rain.  The forecast for the week: rain 6 days out of 7, which is equal to the number of days where phone and internet access were completely unreliable.

~Never underestimate the amount of mischief a four year old can get into when inspired. (creative too.  I know I never would have thought to switch the knobs on the cabinets to the inside…)

~A “soft scrub” made from mix of dish soap and baking soda, along with a whole heck of a lot of elbow grease, does a halfway decent job of removing copious amounts of ink from wood.

~a new ball point pen really does hold a lot of ink

~Even when turned down to it’s lowest setting and with a lid on the pot, our new cook top will boil all of the water right out my stock pot, leaving burning bones, black muck and a house full of smoke.

~the smoke detectors are all in excellent working order

~one afternoon without power can set me behind in housework for the whole week

~While I do alright with fixing both the garbage disposal and the screen door (which was dismantled by the aforementioned mischievous four year old), my ability to fix windshield wipers (also at the mercy of the four year old) is woefully lacking, as poor Steve discovered on his way to work…at 4:45 in the morning… during a sudden downpour.

~door latches are not actually baby-proof

~after much experimenting with different systems I’ve discovered that it takes washing, drying, folding and putting away four loads of laundry six days a week and 2 loads on Saturdays to completely stay on top of the amount of laundry generated by a family of six (this is including cloth diapers, cloth napkins, rags used for cleaning, table linens, changes of clothes for work and home, and all the inevitable spills from family and friends coming in and out all week).

~you never know what you might find behind the pile of paint cans left behind by the last tenant.

~coffee still makes me crazy

~Putting the produce that you haven’t found time to process out on the screened in porch does not make it magically disappear or process itself.

~stenciling cloth on the floor is a bad idea, unless you are looking for a perfect facsimile of your pattern on your landlord’s beautiful cherry wood floors.

~dish soap will take stencil paint off of wood flooring if you get to it quickly enough

~however it seems to have no effect on paint brushes that have been wielded by 8 year olds (how on earth did they manage to get paint all the way up the handle while stenciling?!?), and after many futile efforts the brushes will have to be thrown away (in this case before I got to use them for the project that I actually bought them for).

~It is possible for eleven children, ages 1 to 11 to sit peacefully side by side around a table and each make their own individual loaves of bread.

~there will, however, be flour on every single surface in the kitchen and all the adjacent rooms before all is said and done.

~making acorn flour from red oaks is just not worth the effort.  it’s just not (I make no judgments on acorns from white oaks, not having access to them, I couldn’t say).

~no matter how much we might crave them, certain foods are just not worth the reaction that they cause!

~When 15 odd children come through your house in the course of a week, it’s a good idea to set up a lost and found.

~unless you lose the lost and found…which I did.  Oh, the irony!

Yup.  It’s been that kind of week.  But look!  Progress is being made….

Before

and

After

Wall color: Ivory Yellow in eggshell, by AFM Safecoat

I seriously underestimated the amount of time, effort and pale yellow paint it would take to cover up that purple.  A labor of love to be sure!  But there it is, all yellow and done.  It could probably use another coat of paint, but it got to the point where we just had to call it done.  Good enough.  Moving on.  I almost don’t want to decorate it or bring anything else into it, it’s so calm and peaceful just as it is.