Our Kitchen Renovation

We undertook a major project in our kitchen the other night, namely a severe renovation. What a difference it made! The place is so much more open, spacious, and inviting now.

BEFORE: 

(Kitchen table not pictured but was also included in the undertaking)

 THE NEXT MORNING:

Note my prepared lunch, the daylight streaming (?) through the window, and our supper in the crockpot...yep, we got everything under control.  

So yeah... I kind of fail at being a good housewife, but there it is for you - the great reality of life as we know it. For some reason the only thing we tend to accomplish on Monday evenings is finishing the dishes and getting the kitchen back under control. Things obviously get a little crazy around here on the weekends. ;) And I think my husband has great justification for calling me a messy cook.

But hey...it's what comes out of the kitchen that counts, right??

Over the River and Through the Woods...and out on the Ice and Snow!

We've gone over the river and through the woods two weekends in a row now: the first time to visit Matt's cousin Wendy and her husband Tim in Bradford, and another to Peoria for my Dad's family Christmas at my cousin Andi's house. And, well, the ice and snow are somewhat of a given!

Two weekends ago, we went out to Bradford with Jason and Kelsey to spend a relaxing evening with Tim and Wendy. We had such a good weekend with both couples, and it was fun to see Tim & Wendy's home and get to know the newest Schulz in-law a bit! 

The three couples...as good of a picture that my self-timer could get!

Last Monday and Tuesday evenings were spent dealing with vehicle issues, namely the Impala that had a couple minor maintenance issues that required a trip over to the auto shop in Lockridge. Nate S. came over and helped Matt clear snow off the pond for the upcoming ice hockey game on Thursday. It got a little sketchy in my eyes when they took the Gator out there (which we just bought a week before) to make the plowing go faster, but they assured me the ice was plenty thick enough, so I just stayed inside and thought about other things until they were done.

Thursday evening, about fourteen boys and men were out on the pond playing hockey, along with two spouses and two siblings who figure skated on the side. The ice was a little rough, but that didn't seem to slow anyone down!

The hockey boys (minus a few who left before the photo)

We spent Friday evening getting things caught up inside the home (namely, the dishes) and finishing up one last pan of bars for church serving on Sunday before calling it a night.

Saturday was my dad's family Christmas, so we arrived in Peoria in time for lunch. Aside from the cousins in Phoenix who understandably were not able to make it, there was only one other person missing! To be more specific, there were 27 of us. It was nice to spend some time with everyone, as it has been awhile since we've been together.

The only picture I got of the event was Charlie enjoying his new gift - a Micky Mouse potty training seat! I'm not sure if he knew at this point what exactly he had opened...or that he was posing for the camera on a toilet.  

We served lunch for the first time on Sunday, and it went smoothly. :) It is certainly not nearly as overwhelming in such a small church, which is probably a good thing since we will be doing it again in four months! I was able to get rid of most of my leftover goodies last night at the church potluck, so now I don't have to worry about eating them myself!

Now we are into another week of seeing what the Lord has in store for us! Even when the calendar seems empty, something is bound to fill in that time...

Wrappin' It All Up

Christmas is pretty much all wrapped up around here! Or unwrapped, if talking about the gifts.

Our absence from the blog for the past few weeks was mainly due to our absence from the Internet for two and a half weeks. We ran out of data on the 22nd and just got it back this morning! Ahh...life is back in working order now.

I believe we left off toward the beginning of the eventful days of Christmas preparations. We went through with the plan of doing several rounds of caroling, I allowed myself to do some Christmas baking, and then we continued the family Christmases (after leaving off with the Schulz Christmases at Thanksgiving).

Lanz Christmas was on the 20th, my family Christmas was on the 23rd, and we drove up to Morris for the Schmidgall Christmas on Christmas day. We enjoyed spending time with the cousins and family on all three occasions! Knobloch Christmas was on the same evening in Lester so we weren't able to make it this year.

Lanz Christmas

Singing Christmas songs

When you take a selfie on our camera-it ends up on the blog...;)

The children's bell ensemble

The Seth & Brenda & Matt band with Stephanie's background tinkering

In the midst of it all, Alice came to visit one last time before winter break! She was here for Lanz Christmas and Massner Caroling, so she got a good dose of Christmas when she was here. We spent quite a bit of her time making some Christmas goodies!

She got a Chinese Bible and children's Bible for Christmas

Massner Family Christmas

The infamous Massner Christmas Schedule

The popular relish tray (this year we just put out one for everyone to avoid so much waste) 

...and there was still half the tray left! 

The soccer net Matt made for the boys 

Johnny was practicing riding his new unicycle all over Mom's kitchen 

Schmidgall Christmas

An unusual "first"occurred the week following Christmas - along with the same "second" and "third": I got my first day off work to spend at home since getting married. And second and third day. Every other day I've had off work has been when I've had other plans, so it was kind of nice to have a sneak-peak into the life of a full-time housewife. I spent the first day getting some much-needed cleaning done and was starting to wonder why I couldn't just quit my (already part-time) job and be a housewife. That is, until the next few days came around and I couldn't hardly muster up the motivation to even make supper. I was plenty ready to return to work again on Friday.

The second annual Matthew Schulz family Christmas was on New Year's Day. I officially received the frames that Matt has been making for me and he got them hung up on the bedroom wall! It was pretty exciting! We also got a small ice cream maker, so we made ice cream in the afternoon before eating our Christmas meal and enjoying a quiet evening together playing the cribbage game we got at the Massner Christmas.

Getting the finishing touches done (glass, backs, and hooks)

The finished product! 

Ice skating on the Schulz pond commenced Friday night when my brothers and Jaydon and Jordan came over for an amateur hockey game. I enjoyed skating a bit too! Snow started covering the pond Saturday morning and we haven't been able to skate since then.

Shadrach and Taren came over to spend the afternoon and evening with us on Tuesday for Seth and Brenda's anniversary! We had a fun day playing together and it was nice to have something to look forward to after work!

Matt was obviously the more popular one on Tuesday. 

Five inches of snow, sub-zero temps, and a couple cars stuck in the driveway led us to our first (and hopefully last) major purchase of 2015: a gator with a plow! It was used and Matt got a good deal on it yesterday. And with such a long lane, we really needed a plow in order to be self-sufficient when the snow dumps on us. Hopefully there will be no more concerns about being an hour late for work because our cars can't get out.

Woohoo! A much-needed blade for our lane! 

In our other free time...

Working on the new ice machine at church 

I made a little curtain for our kitchen window...waiting for my hubby to put it up! 

Matt went pheasant hunting on Sunday. He came back with a pheasant, five other birds, and a squirrel. The cat is alive and was feeling photogenic that day. 

Other than keeping warm and safe from the weather, not much else seems to be happening right now! We are looking forward to being with Tim and Wendy in Bradford this weekend if all works out. Now that a lack of Internet service is no longer keeping us from the blog, hopefully we will be back again soon!

A snowy, blustery day in the country of Mediapolis