The last year I haven’t written all that much. In part because I have been getting orders out for customers. The beginning of summer I was all set to start writing regularly again and then life just kept happening and throwing a wrench in my plans. Now here we are, October already. Crazy! But I thought I’d share a bit about my life lately. Here goes. {There may be affiliate links below. It doesn’t cost you more but helps me pay to run my website – so thanks!}

Just after July 4th, John lost his job so that kind of had us spinning quite a bit. He still doesn’t have one yet but he’s been doing some things and making some money, I’ve been making some money and by the grace of God, we are managing. Not easily, but we are surviving. I’ve spent years telling John to not freak out when something breaks, we own a house, that will happen. Now it was me starting to feel overwhelmed by things breaking. Here’s why. Just after he lost his job, my truck just wouldn’t start. John and his friend had it on a lift for four days before finding out what was wrong {a broken wire}. Brought it home, I switched back the car seats and we drove it one day. Got to the gas station and as we pulled in, it died. Then died again. So I drove back home and it was fine all the way there. It’s still sitting undriven in the driveway as I wait for him to check the wire and see what the issue is.

That’s really not enough hits though, because it just kept getting better. Our dryer broke. Luckily, it was summer and we could use the clothesline. Less convenient, but not a huge deal. {Still not working, I’m attempting to figure this out}. Our air conditioning quit working – awesome for Minnesota summer. Do you feel like this is all enough? There’s more. {For the record, I got sick of waiting for him to fix the dryer. It took me five minutes and a $6 Amazon part to fix it myself.

I walked past our bathroom one day and saw water on the floor. I asked Henry if he peed on the floor – he hadn’t. I went to clean it up and MY FLOOR SQUISHED AS I WALKED. Are you kidding?! I felt kind of panicked for a few minutes. All of these things just piling up one after another and we couldn’t get them fixed. But now here we are – the reason for this post. I had planned to redo the bathroom in the spring. Life had other plans and the floor had to replaced. It only made sense to figure out a way to make some extra money to do it all now. So I got started on my bathroom makeover. I’ll be sharing the updates and probably some tutorials for it all when I’m finished with it but for now, here’s the before photo of the bathroom {with the missing toilet that we had to take out}. Seriously – WORST before picture ever! But I had already started tearing down the wall paper I think, some trim was off and the toilet was out when I realized I needed a before picture. See the fan sitting in the tub – further proof of the joy when doing all of this when our a/c was broke. I am putting in a tile floor, painting, a pallet / plank wall, building a new vanity and I’m not sure what else at the moment, but I can’t wait! So far I have the floor done, the wall and paint done and am working on the vanity. We have the toilet back in, but that’s where I’m at for now. I’ll update you with pictures when I have time. I just finished Maggie’s birthday party and have to get Henry’s ready for this weekend. Mix in a monster cold and we’re all set.