Home Renovations & Homeschool R Us

Since last I logged on, I've mostly been trying to keep up with cascading home renovation chores. That, and being on call for homeschool duties. (Both girls are taking online courses through the Virtual High School. One is taking algebra to catch up on some ground lost last year, and maybe get ahead. The other is taking a chemistry review as prep for an environmental science course next year. And I am being forced to remember things about both subjects that I haven't thought about in many years.)

But the renovation—aughh. Started with a kitchen floor needing to be replaced. Then a sink cabinet. Then something else, and another. The first parts we paid people to do, but we've been working on our own since February. And now the kitchen is almost done—but the hallway wall plaster is disintegrating, and we have company coming with small children, so that has to be repaired. And...oh, the list goes on.

Taking my frustrations outside last weekend, I tried to take down a mulberry tree that's been plaguing me for years, growing right up against the corner of our garage. I've never used a chain saw before, but I rented one and had at the tree. I should have saved my money. That soft-wooded tree defeated the chain saw. It has so much liquid inside it that I couldn't get more than a couple of inches into the wood before the saw just spun and smoked and skidded over the wet wood. I couldn't believe it. I still don't believe it. Out there the tree still stands, with a wedge sort of cut out of it. It looks like it was attacked by a beaver with bad dentures. Hand saw next. Either that, or I swallow my pride and pay someone to remove it.