Summer Projects

I've had so many little projects on my to-do list this summer.  Kari helped me sand the deck (she did most of the sanding), and then I re-stained it and the deck furniture. She really wanted to make our backyard look nicer and has worked hard to re-seed the lawn and get things looking better. 

I recovered our dining chairs, something that has been much-needed! I'm so happy to not have to look at the ugly stains anymore! 

I've been propagating house plants, some more successfully than others. Now that I have a classroom with windows, I want to have some real plants at school, but I don't want to pay money for them. 

My wedding ring band broke again, so I drove over to Shane Co., and they replaced the band--good as new! 

I spent quite a bit of time getting our vehicles licensed and registered--multiple trips to the DMV, DEQ, and the WA DMV. Finally got the new-to-us Camry all squared away and licensed in Oregon! Five cars is a lot. 

I have organized closets and drawers, organized shelves in the garage, and thrown out a bunch of things we just don't need but haven't had time to sort through. That's what summer is for! I'm catching up on all the things that I don't have time for during the school year. I got last year's blog posts updated and got my blog books printed. I'm all caught up on the blog now! 

I've been walking every morning, listening to audiobooks, reading, and working on a new-found hobby--paint-by-number. I've done two of them now. My first was a practice (the plants in vases), and then I did one of the kids at Bryce Canyon. It's really fun! 

The last project was not one we planned to do this summer, but here we are! I decided I wanted the trampoline down before Aubrey's grad party next June and want to have a seating area and some new garden boxes. It's turned out to be a much bigger project than I realized. We have been hacking out tree roots, pickaxing, and shoveling--seriously hard work! The plan is to use pavers to build a retaining wall to level out the area where the trampoline used to be. The trees we planted when we moved in, though, came back to haunt us, as the root systems are extensive and our ground is basically hard clay and rock. My garden boxes were full of roots (no wonder I had a hard time growing things the last couple years--didn't even try this year). The whole project may may not be totally completed until next spring, but that retaining wall is getting done before September.