steady progress

our upstairs project is finally nearing completion. i am just over the moon excited. this project has constantly been in a leap... pause... sort of rhythm. but now, it is flowing along quite steady. in the photos above we were "filling" the cracks... and this floor had many cracks. we would smear the wood filler over the cracks and let it harden and then scrub over the top with a wet rag until everything washed off except the filler in the crack. yes, it was as daunting as it sounds. matt worked on that step for 10 hours one day. we are very glad it's over. now he is on the fun (and beautiful) part... sealing and finishing. 

the chore charts above are an attempt of mine to keep things running smoothly around here. at the very beginning of summer i made a list of things that would need to be done every day and things that would need to be done certain days of the week. then i typed up a document for each day of the week in open office. now, i just go and print out the days checklist at breakfast time and they know when they finish breakfast they have to complete their morning checklist.. and after lunch they have to complete their afternoon checklist... and unfortunately we haven't completed the evening checklist once, but we will get there. it has really been helping. in the morning i don't have to say anything to the big kids except "have you finished your checklist?" i do go around and help eislee complete hers and ollie doesn't have one yet. there are some days that i don't even print it out but it really does help the days that i do. and anything that helps at all with keeping the order around here... i am very excited about.