4.9: It’s been a week of Mondays

Lordy, it’s been a week. I’m thankful that it’s one of my long weekends coming up!

Saturday was a great day, though, so let’s go back…

Ali usually has Saturdays off & has the kids, so Kate & I decided to give her a “work day” — free of kids so she could just have at it all day at the house. Kate took the younger three to the Milwaukee Public Museum, which they’d never been to before — actually, Ginny was there when she was about 3 but doesn’t remember. I took Junah to get a haircut, then we finished his birthday shopping (yeah, his birthday was in January).

I learned of “Survivor Saturday,” a cooperative effort of our public library & local nature center (with a lot of help from local scouts), and thought that would be fun to do with Junah.

There were tasks to complete & then we turned in our sheet to enter a drawing. The tasks were Orienteering (wayfinding with a compass), Knot Tying, making Fire Starter Kits (two different types), Fire Building (we used a firestarter… and a Dorito, though learned that Fritos are even better), and Shelter Building. He complained a little along the way, but actually had a lot of fun!

After that, we grabbed some lunch, stopped at the new house, chilled at home for an hour (nap time for Nona), then went to the MINECRAFT movie! I can’t say I’d have gone to see that movie otherwise, but it was fun. Have you see the crochet?? Jason Momoa has been known to sport the occasional crocheted garment, but for Minecraft, he had a cardigan made for himself & for Jack Black (just google their names + crochet). The cardigan pattern (Etsy) was designed by TreatYoSelfCrochet (IG).

Anyway, we stopped at the store to pick up dinner things & arrived home just as Kate & the rest of the kids!

And Alison painted the entire kitchen!

I helped Ali clear the downstairs hardwood floors on Sunday in preparation for the floor refinisher’s appointment on Monday.

Kate had picked up where the girls left off with painting their room, so we continued doing that after Ali left for work. The house you can see through the window in the middle pic is the house that Annie almost bought — before it all fell apart & she ended up buying her current house. It’s only a block away! Anyway, I love that little curve in the wall (reminds me of my Grandma Blum’s house, which featured a couple of curvy areas).

There’s a “before” and a “during,” which Rusty just sent me this morning — first coat of varnish is being applied in “the green room.” You can see a little of Rusty’s handiwork with the rebuilt stairs… there will be a door relocated to that gray “door-shaped” area beyond (someday hopefully fairly soon).

We’ve really entered the “finishing” phase! There’s a long way to go, but it feels so good!