perspicacious.org

Ahh, dear readers. I apologize for neglecting you during a time when I've got lots to tell about it, but no time in which to write about it. Figures.

R and I closed on the condo 2 weeks ago. Now we own it, and have wasted no time in ripping it apart. R's brother painted most of the place in various rainbow shades. The downstairs is a wonderful, soothing green color. The stairs and a rich, purpley brown. The bedroom is purple and the second bedroom is bluey-turquoise. Lots of pics here.

We spend this last weekend tearing out the carpeting. That was way more work than I would have thought. All those staples and tack strips! I poked myself too many times. I have weird little puncture wounds on my knees and hands.

Now we're having laminate flooring installed, and in theory we may be able to live in it someday! Here's hoping, anyway.

Catch up time is on Friday mornings. If the kids get all of their work done they get to have centers. If not, they do their work during centers. It's a pretty good system, so maybe it will work for the blog, too. My center time can be a cup of coffee and a movie.

First of all, we had a nice spring break with pretty nice weather, and we got to enjoy the ice park before it melted away. We took the baby niece with us, and she was super cute and lots of fun. She ran everywhere and went down all the slides.

Second of all, Happy Easter. The weather is pretty nice here, as Easters go. We've had years of below zero windchill, and also years with disgusting mud everywhere are nowhere to put eggs, so a 15 above day like today is enjoyable by comparison. The kids' eggs were sorted and everyone had a color, so there was no fighting. And the ham was pretty good, too.

Third of all, R and I bought a house. Well a condo. And strictly speaking, we haven't bought it yet, just made an offer which was accepted by the seller. We have a few more hoops to jump through before it's ours. I won't say any more about it just yet, while we wait for things to play out. Wish us luck!

I've been trying hard to emphasize service this year, because I think it's to important for children to feel like they can make a difference in the world and have control over their lives. I also think most little kids are naturally empathetic, and it is nice to see them care for other people. I have tried to choose projects (with the children's help) that the kids can really have ownership over by doing the work themselves. (No collecting coins for charity, for example.)

Our most recent project was to sew rice-filled handwarmers for the support staff in the building. They can be heated in the microwave and then put in a pocket. Most of the handwarmers seem to be staying together, in spite of the seven year old stitching. It does seem a bit late in the year for a handwarmer project, and it is on the warm side today (35 degrees), but I think it's OK. The staff will appreciate the gesture.

So far this year we have also collected canned food (the kids "earned" the cans by doing a chore at home), and we also made thousands (OK, around 350) handmade chocolates. We sold the chocolates in the school commons and used the money to buy a sheep through the Heifer Project, International. After spring break we will use our class meeting time to plan another project. I am thinking something about the environment and Earth Day, but I'm not sure. I'll keep thinking about it. Any ideas?

You find all sorts of things while househunting. We saw a couple of houses that were outright dumps, completely trashed. We also saw this house which, while clean, could use just a leeetel more space. We are considering a condo right now. We like it, but it is major overpriced, so we'll see. A girl can dream, anyway. No more details lest I jinx myself.

I am typing this on my new groovy macbook, which I love. The school district is giving laptops to all teachers (for as long as we are employed). We get to keep them over the summer, too. I like the computer and the price a lot, but there are some issues to using a computer that is not really "mine." If I am going to make this my primary computer I need to get an external hard drive, I think. Any thoughts on that?

So after a year of looking intermittently at the classifieds and pining for a real house we own and don't have to move out of each summer, R and I are finally, really looking for a house. We went on Friday to my bank and got approved for a small mortgage with a pretty good interest rate. Here in Fairbanks the median home price is maybe $180,000, with a small 2-3 bedroom running around $150,000. That's too much for us, so we're looking for a teeny house, or (more likely) a condo. Either will be smaller than our current house. But it will be ours, it won't have someone else's junk in it, and we won't have to move out for 2 months of the year. I like that.

It's really not the most spectacular time to buy a house here (do you want to move when it's -20?) so most likely we won't find anything until spring. It's good to be looking, though. Now, to try to understand the home buying process and hidden fees and all that. I need someone smart to explain it all to me. In small words.