Kitchen Renovations - Day 1

Prior to this last push, we've already done a fair amount of work on the kitchen in our house.  In July 2011, I started painting our wooden windows, so the two in the kitchen were the first ones I did.  I also began painting the cupboards.  When we got the house they were raised panel doors with the rails painted white and the panels a glossy dark wood.  Oh, and don't forget the floral door pulls.  Not exactly my dream cupboards!  I got most of them finished, but stopped before I finished the ones over the oven and fridge.

In June 2012, while I was still visiting family with the kids, Peter replaced the counter top, extending it out over the dishwasher we had been using for 2 years without it being covered by anything.  He also installed a tile back splash at that point.  A few weeks after I got home, we installed a microwave / vent hood combo (we had no vent hood up until that point).  The new counter top and getting the microwave off the counter gave me an extra ~4' of counter space - approximately doubling my counter space!

At some point this year we also ripped off the plastic corner protectors.  We think they're tacky looking and we knew we wanted them gone before we painted.   A few weeks ago Peter primed the crown molding (which is staying in place, but we want it changed from brown to white). 

Today, Peter touched up some crack-filling in the corners and filled in the holes in the wall.  He also removed the baseboard (we're replacing it with white colonial baseboard).  I primed the remaining four cupboard doors, put a coat of paint on the last two cupboards, and caulked the cracks between pieces of crown molding.  Peter also took the baseboard heater off the wall.  For some reason, the heaters in this house were all installed above the baseboard (off the floor by about 2").  Weird.  Anyway, we've been slowly lowering them as we renovate.

The plan for the next week is to:

• finish painting the remaining cupboards and doors
• finish installing dishwasher (it's still just sitting under the counter)
• purchase and install new hinges and door pulls
• 2 coats of paint on the crown molding
• prime and paint walls (we're going for a medium taupe - still need to purchase paint)
• install, caulk, and paint new baseboards and window trim
• purchase and install new light fixtures (3)
• purchase and install new thermostats

It's been so long since we started fixing up the kitchen.  The list above looks long, but hopefully reasonable.  It will be so nice to have our kitchen finished!!

My least favourite time of the year

While the season leading up to Christmas is my favourite time of the year, the time between Christmas and New Year's has to be my least favourite.  Even as a little kid I did not enjoy these few days.  So, when Peter ended up working almost the last 24 hours straight it did nothing to help my mood! 

One thing that helps is to start to re-focus my energy.  In December, so much energy is focused on preparing for Christmas (which is awesome!).  Afterward, it's nice to take some time and set some short- and longer-term goals.

Right now, our short-term goal is to finish our kitchen renovations.  Peter has 10 days off starting on Friday, and we can definitely get it finished in that time frame if we make it a priority. 

Longer term, I want to spend time in the next few days nailing down some goals for the next year in several areas.  I've done this before but, sadly, can't find them written down anywhere!  I do know 2012 was the year of Consistency for me.  I didn't make any other specific goals, but instead chose that as a theme.  I do think I made good progress on that front this year, especially when it came to my prayer life and health goals. 

One unexpected thing that I ended up focusing on for the last half of this year was that of living with joy.  It started with reading 'One Thousand Gifts' and continued when I found this blog.  Focusing on the joy to be found in each day has helped me in every facet of my life, especially through this crazy fall. 

So, on to planning for 2013 ...

DONE!!

Merry Christmas!!  I got the best Christmas present ever when I finished up the requirements for my BEd yesterday.  It was a long time coming (over 5 years), but I'm so glad to be done :)  Now to go through the paperwork to get my license to teach.  They're in desperate need of supply teachers at the high school here in town, so I imagine once I get that straightened out I'll be able to get several days a month if I want them.  It will be a challenge to strike a balance.

Now that I'm finished I've started back up a bit more with YNAB, my regular job.  It's been such a fantastic opportunity to work from home around the kids' schedules!  Not to mention the software helped us get our finances on track a few years ago and has kept them there.

And, of course, I'm still working on losing the last 5 lbs.  Although, as of today, I'm on a 'break' until the New Year.  The goal is to not gain any weight in this 10 day stretch.   To help reach that goal, I'm going to attempt to work out almost every day and not go crazy with eating.  We'll see how it goes!

I'm thinking of signing up for a short triathlon next June.  I've been toying with it over the past couple of years but the timing has never been right.  A friend told me about a good one that's close by so I'm hoping it will work.  I used to swim, but I think biking will be the toughest part for me.  Looks like the one I'm probably signing up for is a 300 m pool swim, 12 km bike ride, and 3.3 km run and it looks like it's on June 23rd next year.  I'll have my mountain bike and nothing in the way of specialized equipment, but my friend assured me that's the case with 85% of the entrants in this event :)  And, it's women only!  Should be fun.  I'm kind of hoping she'll sign up with me.

6 Days!!

When I started my internship, there were 16.5 weeks.  I am now down to 6 remaining days.  I am so excited!  I am just about finished my prep work, have two more sets of projects and a unit test to correct, and then I'm done!  I can tell the kids (mine, not my students) are ready for me to be done, too.  I think this fall has been exhausting for everyone.

I'm slowly getting back on track with eating.  I'm not sure I want to go back to being as strict as I was at the beginning, though.  It just doesn't seem sustainable.  Although, the other half of me says I just need to do it for another couple of months and I'd reach my ultimate goal!  Decisions, decisions ...  Whatever I do I do not want to gain back the weight I've lost.

Some of the things I've learned so far from SFL:

• I was eating way too many grains / carbs before!  I think one or two grain portions a day is  good for me long term.  Right now I'm supposed to only be eating one per day.
•  More vegetables!  Eat at least 2 cups of veggies with both lunch and supper.
• Snacks will be fruit, raw nuts, or greek yogurt for now.  Not sure what else will work long term.  Muffins and granola bars are out, though.

We're almost all healthy right now.  I'm praying it continues for a while.  We've had enough sickness to last all winter around here.

Tomorrow is a new day ...

Mom and Dad have been here for a visit over the past several days, and my resolve has gone completely out the window!  If I had been straying before, I'm definitely way off the path now.  Not as bad as before SFL, but still not great.  The nanaimo bars were my downfall.  So far no real weight gain, but no loss, either.  Not what I wanted for this week. 

It has been so nice to have my parents around!  Unfortunately we're all still sick (all fall!), but it's still been a good time.  I'm finally feeling better, Abigail got (another) antibiotic today, and Nathan seems quite healthy.  Hopefully we can all get better in time for Christmas.  It's going to be really sad for them to leave tonight - the kids, especially, will miss them a lot.  The leaving is always hard - whether it's us coming back to SK after a visit east, or them going back east after a visit here.  Once I get to the status quo I'm better, but that transition is hard.

Since I'm finally feeling better and my internship is winding down, my plan is to crank up my exercise for the next month.  I really want to get below 125 by the New Year.  It's very do-able, but I'm going to have to buckle down.

I'm just about ready for Christmas - I have a few more gifts to wrap and a few to deliver.  Other than that and some Christmas baking (just a few days before Christmas so I don't go too crazy!) I'm feeling all set.  Looking forward to enjoying these last two weeks before Christmas.  I can't believe my internship is into single digits!!  So glad to have almost accomplished this goal.  Now to start the paperwork to get my teaching license ...

Nothing to say!

I haven't forgotten about this blog, it's just that every time I sit down to write my mind goes blank!  Of course, I can think of lots of ideas when I'm out and about, just not when I have time to write.  I should remember to make a note of them.  I think maybe having Peter home keeps me from the 'need' to blog as well, since there's another adult in the house to talk to.

On the SFL front, I'm holding my own.  I haven't done any Christmas baking yet, which is helping, but I haven't been sticking too closely to my plan.  I need to be more diligent.  I've had a cough for the past several weeks, so I just made an appointment to get it checked out.  I've not been exercising at all.  When I had my last meeting, my consultant said to treat up until Dec. 21st like normal, and then just have a goal of maintaining and exercising lots until the New Year.  Yay - I can have some Christmas treats!

I have passed my internship and now just have to finish the last two weeks of teaching.  Two weeks seems like such a short amount of time.  I really can't believe it's almost over after having it hanging over my head for so long.  I have really started to enjoy my time in the classroom in the past month - the stress has lowered considerably since I dropped back to two classes per day.

My parents arrive for a short visit today, which is very exciting! The kids are really excited for them to come. I finished Christmas shopping for the kids last night so tonight I'm planning to sort and wrap everything. When I'm buying from multiple people I need to organize before I wrap! I was saying to Peter last night that these years when the kids are little will probably be the most fun Christmas mornings we'll have until we have grandkids! There's something about kids and Christmas.

Well, that's about it for a boring update!  The countdown is on ....