Nesting, Harvest & Waiting

The painting projects are complete. Hurrah! We painted the garage doors, screen doors and shutters a sort of pewter color and the trim around the doors and windows is sort of the color of coffee with cream in it. We really like the finished look. I went on the Sherwin Williams website where you can pick the house picture that looks the most like your own and then play with the colors 'til you like what you see. It's a great tool since I am not great at envisioning what something will look like. After I picked out my color scheme, I headed for Restore for Habitat. If you haven't heard of these, they are stores where new and used building and renovation supplies are sold and all the profits benefit Habitat for Humanity. Anyway, I went there and miraculously found exactly the colors and types of paint I needed for $5.00/gallon. So for about $50.00 (paint, primer, rollers and brushes) and a lot of elbow grease, our little house got a terrific face lift.

My dear sister-in-law Carolanne called me about a month ago wanting to know the colors in Joel's room which he'll be sharing with Maxim when we bring him home. She's planning to make some sort of blanket/quilt for Maxim to welcome him home. I was about to tell her, when Joel, who was listening, piped in and said he would really like a change. So another paint project was off and running. Joel loves legos and building in general so decided he would like walls and trim in the primary lego colors. Red walls, blue trim on some doors and windows, yellow trim on the remaining doors and windows. Lets just say it is very bright and bold. We are going to do a little bit of 3-d block and logo stuff in a few places on the walls later. Thinking, too, of putting up a double picture frame with the boys' photos in it with the caption "lego studs" (studs is also the term for the bumps on a lego block). We'll see what Joel thinks. We want the room be something both boys enjoy despite the age difference.

Meanwhile, the raccoons have completely wiped out every bit of the most beautiful corn we've ever had in our garden. Everyone we know has said the 'coons were terrible this year. Tomatoes are wonderful though, along with plenty of green beans, salad greens and potatoes. We always plant in a huge garden plot at my in-laws 10 minutes from here. What a blessing.

Just as we were finishing our painting projects on Friday, friends called to say our two bushels of peaches were ready to pick up, so there were canning bees on Sunday and Monday. Between all the households involved around three hundred quarts were put up. Yesterday, I made pickles for the first time with some of the little cucumbers my mom-in-law saved for me. We'll see how they turn out. I here that getting a flavorful pickle that is still nice and crisp can be pretty tricky.

No more word yet on a time frame for getting Maxim home. Just encouragement that if we have heard no requests for new/additional info by the end of the first week in September, we can be fairly confident that they like what they see in Ukraine. Also, the liason for Ukraine should supposedly have more concrete input for us by then. Time will tell. Boy, is the quiet waiting ever hard!