Update from the Suburban Homestead

Finally a day to relax! Since coming home from "vacation" we have been in go-go-go mode. The big thing was getting the old living room divided and finished so that Mary could have her own room and it also gave us a den/kids hang out area. I am so happy to say that we finished that project last week while Mary was at Girl Scout Camp.

I wish we had done this project sooner. Being able to move all of Mary's stuff into one place has cleared up so much clutter. Once her bed was out of the girls' bedroom there was all of this space. Which meant that I could also move all of Katie and Emily's things into their room, including some of their toys being stored in Robbie's room. For three days I did little more than move belongings around and getting them out of the common spaces.

Even though it is Mary's new room, all of the kids are thrilled with the outcome. In the den, their computer is now positioned in such a way that they can watch shows on the computer, just like the TV. Robbie has fallen in love with the Woody the Woodpecker & Speed Racer cartoons on Hulu. Katie and Emily have all sorts of room in their bedroom to pull out dress up clothes or play with their plastic animals.

When I have not been organizing and moving furniture around I have been trying to keep up with the garden. It has produced beyond our expectations this year and every few days I am putting more tomatoes and zucchini in the freezer for this winter. It is such a blessing to us now as each month our budget is becoming tighter and tighter and I am worried about later this year when our mortgage re-sets for tax & insurance increases, along with the health insurance increase I am sure is coming in January. Putting food away right now is about the only thing I have been able to do to prepare. We have been eating out of our meat stockpile in the freezer when we have been home this summer, reducing our grocery expenditures. But, that extra money is going right into the dental work I've been having to have done.

DH is slowly working through the huge pile of logs we got free when our neighbor lost his oak tree this Spring. He is getting down to the logs that he will need to use a splitter on. We will have a nice woodpile to depend on to help out our winter heating costs. DH even recruited Emily to help him move the split logs.


She was so cute hauling all the wood through the backyard...even in her inside-out clothes. She managed to make two trips for him. I was impressed.

We've got a couple more weeks of camp, day-camp and sleep-away camp, followed by another week away visiting family. Then we will finally be home and settling in for awhile as no more trips are planned at this time. At some point I have got to make some decisions about school for this coming year. Some plan for how we will be spending our days. LOL. All I know at this point is that I want to get Math Mammoth for the kids, Mary & Katie will be doing US History I, Mary's reading/language arts is going to be combined with History, and we are going to focus on Earth Science. Oh, and Emily wants her school too!!!

Peace,

Amy