August 14

Billy came back over bright and early this morning to finish installing the can lights and some electrical outlets in our piano room. We headed off to church, and by the time we returned he was almost finished. After lunch, Chris took the big kids up to the YMCA (they went to big-kid childcare while he did speedwork on the treadmill, and then they all went swimming together) while I put the little ones down for naps and got to work building bookshelves.

Eli woke up before I was finished, though, and decided to "help".

So. That is the beginning of our wall of bookshelves. You can see two of the four new outlets Billy installed, and two of the six new can lights in that room. Eventually, the bookcases will be trimmed out and "built in", but we aren't quite there yet. I pushed this project forward because I realized that we need space to store all of our homeschooling stuff. For as much as Chris and I love books, the only bookshelves we have on our main floor are for kids books! Organization makes me happy, so I'm hopeful that once this is done I will be able to organize homeschooling materials here, and have a bright, airy room to sit and learn in!

Eli "helped" me with the screwdriver.

This baby. Does he kill you? He kills me.

I mean, really. He was so happy to be "helping"!

Later, Chris and the kids got home and Lily woke up from her nap. I had some hammering to do, and Caleb found a toy hammer so that Eli could help with that, too.

(I tried to tell him that he was using the wrong end of the hammer, but he didn't want to hear it. Let's not mention it.)

(Let's also not mention how weird my fingers look here. I promise I have all five of them on my left hand.)

I was so delighted and proud of Eli's hammering skills! Look, even Lily is standing in awe, watching.

I worked while Chris made dinner, and then Chris worked while I put the kids to bed, and I think the bookcases might be officially installed now? I'm afraid to ask. I still have some patching to do, and they need trim, and then I will need approximately 4,921 baskets and boxes to store things on them, but they must all match and they cannot be expensive, so I may never find them. Still, progress! Yay!