Play Room Pixs, Weekly Update, & Mortgage Challenge

Boy that was a mouth full. FINALLY getting around to taking photos of the new play room. Believe it or not I hand made all those Lego's on the wall. Really not that hard, took time more then anything. I used a straight edge and we went off of 4 x 4 inch measurements. Hard to see on some of the photos but I did draw in all the circles as well. I used canned food and drew around them.

I brought a table at surplus for a whopping 5 dollars.

No idea what Cole was doing back there?

We put in new carpet. I am NOT a fan of carpet and all the chemicals it comes with. BUT this room is in the garage, and the floors get very cold in the winter. So far so good with no puppy pee on it. The door is closed when no one is in there. And the puppy is about 99.5 % potty trained.

Some close ups.

I LOVE the gray above. I have my eye on some Lego art work, I think once I get that, it will look awesome up above.

Our Lego sorter. Got from surplus long ago. Each bin holds a color. 

Mr. Tucker and his new glasses. Took Tucker in to get his eyes checked because we have really fallen behind in school with him. Every day has been a struggle. Come to find out he is blind as a bat. Things have changed so much in two years he is off to see a specialist in December. Although he can see now. I don't think it will be long before he will catch up. We shall see? The fit throwing during English and reading have stopped, probably a good sign?

Fall has set in and hit us hard. One day it was summer and in the 80's, next day fall and pouring rain and just yuck. I'm sneaking out when I can, and cleaning beds. The neighbors horse was helping last night, he cleared the grapes for me. ARG.We have a few dryer days coming up so I should be able to clear most of the back beds and get them covered for winter. I'm putting up food daily. So we will get there. I picked a 24 pound squash yesterday. Yikes.

We have started constructing the raspberry bed. I'll take photos soon. It will be interesting on where I"m putting it. Feverfew was moved and looks good. Chicks sale is coming up, and I'm hoping for planters. Lots and lots of planters. 

On the Mortgage front, we are moving along. Down to 115,652.00. Just LOVE seeing the total go down, but dang there have been some hard weeks. Middle of one now, add in trying to save for the chicks sale, and my shopping list this week is insane.

Weekly Update & Mortgage Challenge (plus new garden bed)

So I did it again. Hubby and I were out working in this herb bed. Remember this guy? Well my Fever View has spread like crazy. Tuckers plant is having babies everywhere, and my Lilac's are buried and not being treated with the love they should have.

So this bed is for the lilac's. I will move the Fever View into the bed. I will this spring find all of Tucker's babies and put them into the bed. I plan on getting some Wintergreen and that will be placed in this bed, because it's also a spreader. Just kinda a catch all bed. 

So I bought a bunch of brick, this is four yards of dirt. Holes in the brick will hold Lavender. 

If you are wondering about the post and well. This is an RV parking site. We unhooked the electric long ago and the well is not working at the moment.  But we want to keep everything in place, until we decide if we are ever selling or staying?

And then yesterday our neighbor surprised us. She ordered ten yards of gravel, and now we have to rearranged our weekend in nearly 90 degree heat and work on the road. A bit surprised because we chatted about picking a day a wee bit later into fall to dodge the heat. But nope. And hubby can't take the day off. So he is working on road and then going to work, to finish off Sunday. All neighbors are working. 

Fall is coming, tomatoes have tanked, so now it's time to tear apart the garden. It's not just me on the tomato front, after talking to a few it's everyone in town. So it's more weather then anything. Just sad. 

Our Mortgage has dropped to 115,792.31 With each drop it's much easier to breath. I can't believe how close we are to 115k. That will be an exciting day.

About it here, just crazy busy with school, and garden. Tough money week ahead, but we will breath through it and be ok.

Weekly Update and under 16k Mortgage Challenge

The garden is slowly coming to an end. But there are still a few things to take photos of! The light was just right for Teddy the other day. Oh how pretty he is. This is a Teddy Bear Sunflower

An awesome sunflower.

How pretty is this mini rose? I'm not a fan of pink but crap this is pretty!

And finally, a photo of what I picked up in OR. A Prickly Pear. Hubby talked me into it. I really need to stick to NO. Because this was a pain in the ASS to bring home. A prickly pear is nothing to mess with. You don't touch this unless you are fully gloved and clothing. We actually lost a few paddles coming home, but it's still a pretty thing. 

A bumpy week. We are on day 8 of homeschooling. We've had bumps, the other day we got so far off, I couldn't figure it out. But today went so smooth it wasn't funny. But taking it one day at a time here. We are taking off Friday, as Tucker has an eye appointment and then stay in town to do errands and save on gas. Daddy had an eye appointment on Monday and needed new glasses. So as daddy was looking, Tucker picked out a pair. Oh he is all set if he needs glasses. He is really struggling so I think it's time for him. But he looks so good, so we shall see. Glasses are not paid by insurance. so we've been saving for this. 

Our Mortgage is under 116k. YEAH. Currently at 115,924.31, working hard at keeping on track. Just hope there are no more mortgage bumps.

Weekly Update & Mortgage Update

Oh how I LOVE these tomatoes. I think I will have to do these every year. These tomatoes are very tiny. BUT I bought some seeds this year that are suppose to be smaller? we will see. These are Matt's Wild. And they just melt my tomato picking heart.

Not a great tomato year, this year. I think it's more of a weather thing then a me thing? Too wet, not enough sun, they are turning brown and dying off on me. I've lost one whole bed so far. Although Siberia is doing well. These are new to me this year. Seem to be a study stream of tomatoes for me. A bit larger then a cherry. We have a week of sun ahead so I'm hoping for a bunch of red tomatoes. I'm watching the weather. Hoping to give everything a few more weeks before we are talking frost? 

We started school on Monday. There are a lot of wrinkles this year. We are slowly ironing them out. We are trying some online things this year. After Monday we realized it's more of a guide. It's good for science, history and art. Not sure on the spelling. But trying it for now. The math SUCKS. So I'm still doing Saxon, We realized the English sucks so we will keep with Bob Jones for English. We have expanded reading. This week it's 20-30 minutes in a week or two it will be a strong 30 minutes each.

Money wise, things are going from tight to tighter. Oh boy. You add in Christmas is coming. It's scary. We lost a LOT of food money this month. No idea why as nothing money wise has changed, but we were hit hard. I went over every number when we got the paperwork and they didn't input any wrong numbers so IDK. But it will really hurt. We are barely getting by as it is. But then you think that is the government for ya, never wanting to help, keep ya poor. Because you we would be ok if we were not paying down the house. 

And that is something I'm torn about daily. How can one pay down a house with a budget like this? But yet paying down the house will help the budget in about a year or so, and set us up, to look good. And the feeling you get every time you log in and see the total going down and down. If all goes well we will be below 113k at the end of the year. I would LOVE to be at 100k at the end of next year. I will run the numbers closer to the end of the year to see if that is possible? 

IDK I am taking things day at a time. I'm hoping to use swags for most of the Christmas. We may have to get creative on food here. I just hope the hit doesn't hurt us too bad. 

Mortgage is currently at 116,056.31