Looking Up.

This has been a wacky, stressful and overwhelming week. Rather than complain about the things that went wrong, here's a few things I'm psyched about.

Lil' One's room is painted. She picked pink. Caught us in a weak moment and we let her pick the color.

It's done and that's what's important. 

 We now have a "high efficiency" washing machine. We were able to go to the store and pick one out and take it home today. My dad lent us his truck so we wouldn't have to wait on delivery, and a dear friend helped with the install. (That's the guy that looks like Mr. Clean here.) This machine should help with the electric and water bills. 

 Kiddo went apple picking today with her cousin, aunt and uncle. We have 2 apple pies and this lovely apple & blueberry pie to show for it. 

Winning.

Playing House

Now that the little one is 4 (and a half), she plays pretend, like, all the time. It got me thinking how we're still just playing house. 

Sure, the money has real meaning, and if the bills don't get paid, we'll have a cold winter, but grown-up house is not all that different from the "house" of the preschooler. When playing pretend at 4 or 5, it is your whole world and things can get very serious. 

Flash forward 25 years. Our house sometimes becomes our whole world. This is one of those times. 

We're currently in the process of weatherizing our home. The utility company got a grant which helped us to get 50% off energy upgrades on our home. There's another program in place locally that helps homeowners get the other 50% at a 1% loan. 

So we took them up on it. Our main concern was Kiddo's room, as the knee-wall was getting frost last winter. Usually these guys go in from the outside and blow insulation in. We had our house roofed and painted last year, so messing up the outside was not an option. I insisted they go from the inside, and it's a good thing, too. They opened up the wall and found some very wet insulation.

So they pulled it all out.

And insulated with some spray foam.

Tomorrow, they will close it in.  

We had lots of attic work done and they sealed up the basement as well. 

Lil' One will get new paint on her walls soon. We might even let her pick the color. 

Some of it was even paid for with pretend money.

Playing house is still an adventure for us.