We're done!

Our 2014-2015 School year is closed--we are finished.  Well, not completely. But I have declared that our year is done.  It feels good.  It is a weight off my shoulders--and my mind. I feel a sense of accomplishment and completion--no more guilt or worry or persistence to get those last few things done. No more cajoling, persuading, commanding, bribing.  No more patience, graciousness, firmness, mental acuity, calmness, kindness, biting my tongue. No more angry outbursts, tired eyes, headaches, interruptions of house work, interruptions of school work, waiting around for students, searching for books, pencils, paper, calculators, etc. Yay--let's celebrate!

Of course, we still have to read a few more chapters in Mark Twain's Joan of Arc.  And we are working through SAT/ACT prep books throughout the next 2 months.  And I still have to finish recording grades, finish out the semester assignments on Home School Tracker, begin the new school year on HST, start planning 2015-2016 school year. And there's always our foreign languages that we try to work on more in the summer because we have more time. 

But otherwise, we're done! And not a moment too soon--actually we're done when I thought we would be, even though we tried to finish earlier.  It didn't work.  But at least these last two weeks (after a two--make that three week break) were not as intense because we were already mostly done. 

Now on to the summer projects!  

  

Cozy Kitchen

We've been tearing out and re-creating elements in our kitchen for the past 10 days.  What fun! I am being just a little sarcastic, but really, it has been fun to realize ideas, plans that have only been in my head until now.

So far, we've removed (the experts call it demo) the tile countertop and backsplash. We've had new countertops installed and a new sink (with basically new plumbing). Now we're waiting to install the backsplash, touch up the nicks on the lower cabinets, and touch up the paint that was messed up by the removal of the backsplash.  I'm hoping this will all (or mostly?) be done by the end of next week.  We're having people over for Canadian Thanksgiving (Columbus Day) in a week and I'm looking forward to using the kitchen to its fullest again.  

It's all material--literally.  It's different, gorgeous, even (I'm a little biased), but still only stuff and things.  I 'love' my black-charcoal-subtly green-veined soapstone counters, my soon-to-be white beadboard  backsplash, my future kitchen island (when the budget gets built up again) and my new QUIET dishwasher (it actually cleans the dishes!).  I'm thankful that we were able to finally do our kitchen remake that we talked about since we bought the house.  It's actually been a really good time of the year to do it, schedule-wise.  But we could have waited.  I would have waited.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I am content.  I'm thankful we could afford to improve our kitchen so that we can enjoy it and use it more effectively.  But I know there is a time and place for change, including home improvement, material change.  This is our time; if it weren't, then we would be using what God has made us stewards of somewhere else.  We do use it elsewhere: kingdom work, college tuition, music lessons, family, . . .

Our project isn't finished--there will probably always be something that requires fixing up, if not in the kitchen then somewhere else or for someone else.  But I'm happy about how it is right now.  A work in progress, moving toward completion.