Our old house is a bit of a patchwork.  The main part was initially a one room farm house with a wood burning stove for cooking and warmth, built about 140 years ago.  Throughout the years, various rooms have been added on around that room, and above as the family grew and more modern amenities were added on.

My upstairs was built sometime in the 1960's, and as evidence of that, when we moved in, it had this lovely linoleum tile still in place: 

I've always hated that ugly floor.  I hated the way it looked, the way it felt on my feet, the way it made all my hard work of fixing up the other areas of the room less attractive than they should have been just by virtue of being in the same room with it!  

After 6 years here, I was finally able to be in a position to get it changed - financially, motivationally, etc. - and that was my project for this weekend!!  It was not without hormonal late pregnancy tears, but I got it done!  Mike had to take the doors off the hinges and saw off a 1/2 inch at the bottom of each, but no matter what, I am absolutely thrilled to have it done finally!! 

Everyone in the family has actually been excited about it!  All of us are spending more time in that room playing, working, and just hanging out than we ever did before.  In a way, we've gotten a whole new room on the house just by making it a nice place to be!  I'm thrilled.  Each morning (and 3 bathroom trips in the night!) when I step out of my bedroom onto that carpet, it's such a blessing to not feel that cold vinyl underfoot! 

After that big project, I didn't have much energy for anything else left, but I started working on a baby wearing sling.  I didn't get too far, so I'm hoping to be able to complete it next weekend - along with a million other things that are on my list that have to be done to be ready for this baby!!

It's coming up soon.   Part of me is getting really worn down and tired and just "over" being pregnant, but then at other times I feel completely unprepared and so "not yet!!" about it.  I know he'll come when he comes and it'll all be fine in the end, but I've got the last minute panic and frenzy to prepare right now. 

Only 2 more weekends to go to get things accomplished….. 

It didn't take long.  Back just school just a couple of weeks and already a cold has swept through the clan.  Anneliese brought it home first, shared it with her baby brother and dad, and then….. after a week had gone by and I was feeling pretty relieved that I hadn't gotten it… I got it.  Not only did I get it, but I got it worse than anyone else.

I have waaaaaay too much to get done before this baby gets here.  I just don't have time for this!  Good grief, the clock is ticking!  I can't be sick!!

I didn't get much done toward all of the projects I want to finish before this baby gets here,  but I managed to stand up long enough to get a little bit more done on my mosaic back splash.  I'm just about half of the way around the area that I'm working with in framing it out right now. 

Next weekend:  Fall Apple Picking!!!! 

Whew!!  It has been a very busy, but SUPER awesome week and long weekend to say goodbye to Summer and kick off the Fall!  We started by the annual end of Summer trip to the New York State Fair on Tuesday.  This is always what we do to mark the end of the season, and it's something of a tradition.  At the end of the day, we sit in the same spot and have ice cream from the same vendor and that marks the official end.  We were there ELEVEN hours this year and I was mostly on my feet the whole time, so it was exhausting!  It was a lot of fun though. 

Vinny really loved it.  It's the first year where he could really enjoy it with any cognizance and he thought it was awesome! 

There was something exciting to do everywhere he turned! 

This little baby goat was very cute! 

Now this monstrosity - this is something my entire family just loves, but it just makes me want to vomit every year that I see it.  I mean, it's hundreds and hundreds of pounds of butter!! That's just a vile thought, no matter how you sculpt it. 

By Saturday I had nearly recovered enough to get to the meet up again at Shamballa's and do a little knitting. I didn't accomplish enough to show off anything, but it was a nice time.  The Shamballa Cafe is a very nice little local spot and the owners seem very nice as well.  It's very warm and welcoming and comfortable.  It doesn't have the pretentious air about it that other coffee spots seem to have.  I am sad though that with soccer season kicking off, and a baby on the way, it will probably be a good long while before I'll be able to get back there again.  

With a nice long weekend, I was able to get so much done, and it was wonderful!  It was a little frenzied, so I do suspect it was an early taste of nesting since I have now officially entered the 3rd trimester! There is so much to do before the new baby arrives.

I've been working on some yarn for the store, and some baby alpaca yarn for a custom spin job and I was able to make some really good progress on those items.  The multi-color will be going into the store probably this coming weekend after I get it all measured and weighed.  I think it's a total of 8 ounces, with 2 skeins of the primary standard spun, and a skein of novelty spun for coordinating trim.  The black is for my custom job - 32 ounces! - I have a lot of spinning to do!! 

 With my nesting frenzy, I gave the kids assignments in the kitchen to wash walls, all surfaces, windows, mop floors and get everything spotless.  I even had David wash the ceiling as he was the tallest, and boy did the whole room need it.  Until you do just a giant cleanup like that, you don't even realize how much has been missed in the day to day cleaning! They did a super job and I'm all ready for fall baking now!

Once that was done, I started on a project that I've been meaning to do for some time.  I've got a back splash that goes around my entire kitchen counter and sink area that has long been prepped for tile, and I just haven't had any time to do anything with it.  I've finally gotten around to starting the project, and I'm really excited about it!  I'm doing a mosaic with white tiles, and broken pieces of the same dish pattern that I have.  I can't wait to get it all done, but I think it's going to be a bigger project than I had anticipated.  With helping (supervising!) the kids' cleanup in the kitchen, I wasn't able to get as far as I had hoped, but at least I've gotten started.  It took far too long just to get that far. 

The weekend ended with a nice relaxing picnic at the in-laws house.  Luckily, it was warm and pleasant and the little ones were all able to enjoy the last 'swim' of the season.  Even with all 7 grandkids there, it didn't get chaotic!!  It was really great! 

And so, Summer 2008 is over, and we are now ushering in Fall.  I don't generally look forward to Fall all that much, but I am this year for some reason.  I've got some great things planned!  I'm going to be canning tomato sauce, and apple sauce which I'm really thrilled about!! We'll be going to do our annual apple picking in a few weeks. 

Oh, I haven't talked about the garden lately… it's doing fine, but I've been banned from it.  The hubby says it's too warm out and I'm too pregnant and he doesn't want me doing too much work in the gardens or yard from this point out, so he's handling it.  I keep telling him I can do it, but he's trying to just take good care of me, so I try to just let it go and let him help.  It takes an effort at times, but I probably do need him to temper my fits of work frenzy that I get myself into.  I know I need the balance because I can really overwhelm myself with all the things I try to do.

I'm also really looking forward to the 2008 Fingerlakes Fiber Arts & Craft Festival in a few weeks that I go to every year with my mother-in-law.  I love it, plus we'll be making our usual stop at the Mennonite store for canning supplies and whatever other goodies we may find there.   

After all of that, it won't be too long before it's time to figure out how I'm going to cook the Thanksgiving turkey while in labor with baby #5!!    I think it's going to be a really, really wonderful Fall and I'm so excited to be getting it underway.  So many great things planned, plus a new family member to meet… it's going to be awesome!

Yay for Fall!