The New House...

After renting for five years we have finally begun construction on our new home!!!

 Mom and Dad wanted to pay cash for everything so construction is going more slowly than we would prefer, but at least we're moving in the right direction...and we're doing it all debt-free!  We hired an Amish crew to do most of the framing (they did a marvelous job...and at lighting speed I might add!) and then Dad and the boys took over.  After finishing the framing upstairs, they undertook to shingle the roof, and would have finished it by now if they hadn't run out of shingles.

During the deluge we've been under for the past few days Dad would go check to see how well the roof was blocking the rain out, and it seems to hold up just fine!  We hope to have it weathered in enough for us to move in in the Spring and finish the rest while we live there.  My "House Ideas" folder on Pinterest is overflowing with ideas for utilizing space, decorating rooms, and just making everything look cozy and homey.  Personally, I love the "shabby chic cottage" look, my parents like the "old rustic farmhouse" look, the older of my brothers wants everything to be operated from our phones, and I think my youngest brother would be happy if we could just leave all the rafters exposed for him to climb around in :).  Hopefully we'll be able to combine all our ideas and make everybody happy...The one thing we all absolutely agreed on was that the kitchen was going to be BIG.  For the past five years we have had to make do with four cooks in a tiny "camper-sized" kitchen, and we were all willing to make our bedrooms smaller if it meant we could add even more space to our new "area of culinary preparation".



Of course we'll be sad to be moving a whole two miles further away from the Abbey (no more meeting friends at the gate for short walks...) but we can still hear the bells loud and clear.

Yes sirree, we are excited! I'll post more pictures as we make more progress...

Life Update

It's been awhile! I felt better this summer than I have in a loooooong time so I stayed busy doing other things and rather neglected my blog, I'm afraid.  Now that Mom and I have begun our oral chelation again I've had to take it easy and do less active things (such as blogging) to keep my body from getting a stress overload.

So much happened this summer that I don't really know where to start!

A dear friend of mine FINALLY managed to be in town for the whole summer, and, as we live waaaayyyy out in the woods and have to use the buddy system every time we want to leave the house, we started meeting each other for long walks and then cooling off in the creek behind her house afterwards.  It was a great way to spend time together, and the exercise we got was an added bonus!

 

My mom, the boys, and I all took cake decorating classes earlier this year and even managed to Paleo-ize the recipes our instructor gave us so we could enjoy our creations.  We had lots of people over during that time to help eat all the leftover cake we had in the refrigerator...

 In June we began the construction of our new house...and by we I mean Dad and the boys.  My part comes later when we get to the "Interior Decorating" phase.  As of now they have almost finished shingling the roof and will begin on the windows and doors next.  I CAN NOT WAIT to get into our new home with the walk-in closets, nearly floor-length windows, and huge kitchen...

In September the Society of Saint Pius X hosted a day of reparation for the Black Mass being held at the civic center and we were fortunate enough to be there, along with over eight hundred other Catholics! Father Daniel Themann (our former pastor and very good friend) celebrated Mass at a hotel and then we all processed down the street, praying the rosary, carrying banners, and singing hyms, until we reached the civic center.  Several policemen who were there to make sure none of us started rioting joined in with us for the rosary.  Afterwards we all went back to the hotel to eat lunch and visit.  It was an amazing, beautiful day...

My younger brothers celebrated their 17th and 13th birthdays in July and August...and I'm still getting adjusted to my youngest brother being a teenager...

I stared a Pinterest account to find recipes and Home Decor ideas...and now I understand the term Pin-aholic.  I get on their to look up one thing and before you know it I've been on their for an hour.  It has been a huge help in finding things like unique meals, birthday gifts, all-saints-day costumes, etc. but you definitely need to set a time limit on yourself!

We stared babysitting a friend's five children(all under seven) a couple times a month so she could catch a breath.  These have to be the best behaved kids I have ever encountered, and if one  of them starts misbehaving, the other ones remind them that they had better behave "cause Mommy said don't be bad!".  We always have lots of fun when they come over, and apparently they do to because they keep asking when they can come over again.  They have their own favorite books that stay in a basket in our living room that they read every time they come...one time my brother replaced them with some new ones to see if they noticed...and they spent the whole visit searching the whole house until he finally got them out again.

Now I'm caught up.  Hopefully I'll be more consistent in my posts from now on. :)