Bob Dow's 80th

We enjoyed a family gathering last night at Bob and Rosa-Lee's. It was Bob's 80th birthday - so a plan was hatched to surprise him at 5:00PM - I think we woke them both from a nap - so I guess you could say the surprise part was a success. :) Zack & Ruth, Randy & his 5 kids, Gram, Sandra Harmon, Lloyd & Althea and us. We had yummy food and drink, including ice cream cake - and we sat around their kitchen reminiscing for the evening - shared lots of laughter and good memories. Sorry to say, we forgot to take our camera - aggravation!!

TAK OF YER SHOS

Hey, chill factor of 18 degrees, I am ready for SPRING! I know that means mud season - it is a bridge that must be crossed, but I'm ready. As I was mopping our downstairs floors on Saturday, Abe made a sign for our door - it says TAK OF YER SHOS - he taped it to the door. If obeyed, it will solve the only bummer about spring in Maine.

still dreaming

I've been on the hunt for a tree wallpaper for one wall of our library - I'm thinking I will pull my colors for the other walls from this one papered wall.
I like the ocean colors in this one - still in the dreaming stage. Gotta finish preparing the walls and ceilings and priming everything and painting tons of woodwork and 4 doors and 4 bookcases. Will it ever be done????????

A Start

Got started on the mudding upstairs - convinced Dad that painting the bookcases white is okay - I'm all into white wood, feel like it goes better with our cottage-size house, and makes everything clean and fresh. Now my big challenge is the uneven ceilings - I'll likely go with some texture. The guy that did our LR ceiling last summer, Mike, said that you can mix joint compound with primer and a tiny bit of Dawn dish soap and roll it on for a textured ceiling - getting the right proportions might be tricky, so I'll do some samples on some scrap sheet rock first. Wish me luck!!

Views from the porch & self pep talk

I knew snow was in the forecast, but I wasn't expecting what met my eyes when I peeked out our bedroom window at 6:45 this morning - can I say that winterscapes, though beautiful in December, somehow lose their charm by the 22nd of MARCH??!!! Oh well, we are warm and snug in our little house. Anyway, I've decided that I will go by the calendar - and it says spring has arrived! Sooooo my spring cleaning and working on the upstairs renno are about to begin (I've been taking the winter off, but have got to get it done before gardening season). No more excuses!!!! I mean, really - got the puzzles together, scored over 400 in Scrabble, and watched my fair share of netflix & amazon movies (all important wintertime duties). I am suddenly emerging from hibernation - so watch out, unpainted upstairs woodwork and dirty windows - here I come!!!!!

Etiquette/Mystery Dinner

The youth had this dinner for their joint activity for March. It came off fairly well for the little planning that went into it. The mystery part had a Book of Mormon twist the kids were not expecting at the end - thanks to Dickon. The manners part needs to be revisited . . . that's all I'm going to say. Anyway, it was fun and the food was delish!!



They really did have fun - though in this picture nobody looks very cheerful ;)

Poor Little Birches!!

This is what we awoke to on March 8th. Everything was encrusted with ice - beautiful, but hard on the trees. Gram was so afraid her little birch would snap off, but it didn't. In fact both of these trees were pretty resilient and are looking straighter as time goes by, now that the temperatures are moderating.

Got Er Done!!

We finished it! (with help from Abram, Spencer, Zack, Logan, Ivy, and Laura) Actually, Dad did most of it - he can stay with it longer than I can - about 15 minutes is my limit, It was fun and we left it up for 2 or 3 days just to admire our creating order out of chaos feeling - then back into the box it went - table folded up and put away and a feeling of space restored to the dining room until next winter when we're snowbound and the itch to do some puzzling returns.

Starting a 1000 piecer . . .

Daisy, Daisy!

with Grammy Call

with Laura and Thomas

with Thomas

March came in like a lion this year

Grampy telling childhood tales

It was suggested after cake at Grampy's birthday party that he gather the grandchildren around and tell them some of his childhood memories - of the runaway horse, of climbing up into the cupola of the old hay barn, of showing cattle at the county fairs, and more.

Winter Birthdays

Dad's 74th

James turns 11!

He loves his Legos!

And so does Abram!

Abe turned 6 this year!

Grampy's Chickens