Monday, March 3, 2008

Busy is as Busy Does

and boy are we busy.

We are in the home stretch for the foster licensing.

Well is being shocked tomorrow. We have negligible amounts of arsenic in our water (woo hoo). The property is looking really good. I think I have a home lined up for the fish pond and resident turtle. I have my medical clearance and I don't have TB (score!). I think all of our references have been turned in (at least two that I know of) and I haven't
heard anything about our criminal clearances, so for the time being I'm assuming all is well.

So what's left?

Childproofing the house, namely the kitchen.

Just how hard is it to childproof something that doesn't have doors? Point in case being my lovely huge monstrous island.

This was a great freebie. Our kitchen wouldn't be nearly as great as it is without it. Real maple butcher block top. Extremely UGLY everything else. Doors got removed and the whole thing got repainted ages ago.

Well we never bothered replacing the doors. But now we have to. So we ordered them last week and our carpenter had to fill in the old T hinge cut outs. That meant the whole thing had to be emptied and taken outside for sanding and repainting. It's NOT light, let me tell you.

So my kitchen got destroyed Saturday for Operation Island Patch.

That means I spent yesterday reorganizing all my kitchen drawers and shelves (at least those below the counter). All drawers were cleaned out and lined with contact paper to mostly match our granite counter tops. Stuff I haven't used since the island was brought in 4 years ago went in boxes for my MIL to pilfer on her trip.

Now it is wonderful and organized and CLEAN and I know where everything is. Best of all there are NO choking hazards in that island. None at all. The junk drawer got move
d and I can kiddy proof that easy.

There has also been knitting:

I finished these:

Fingerless mitts by Gaea (I think) in Patons SWS in Natural Violet.

As you can see they are TOTAL fraternal twins, more like negative/positive and I had to tweak the yarn on the right one to make that happen. They were for my boss for her birthday and she likes them.

A threebie:

Left to right:

Lions Brand Wool Felting and my swatch for the Purl Diva's KAL of the French Market Bag. It will be green and hot pink and light grey.

Fingerless gloves, like hubby's but for ME, out of the really great sock yarn that Doctor K sent me. I love this stuff.

The bag from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for my mom in Alchemy Bamboo (the yellow) blended with a gossamer Habu mohair. When finished it will be lined with satin or something or other in a cream to match the Habu.

9 comments:

Alison said...

I always wanted a kitchen island... Although in my case, I'd either have to buy the neighbor's house and tear it down in order to have the room to expand in order to be able to squeeze one in, or take out the family room.

katrynka said...

I have intermittently thought about commenting about the changes that you having to make. To be quite frank, in my mind they are absurd. I live in Maryland, and I have a fair amount of experience with children and families in the foster care system. I grew up with many foster children (granted that was anywhere from 25 to 30 years ago.) As well as I did MANY years of home physical therapy visits, in foster homes. Most of the time special needs foster care. I have NEVER seen someone have to do some of the things you are doing. I am not criticizing you. On the contrary, it is great that you will give a wonderful home to a child who needs it. But it is a HOME, not a cocoon. So I give you a lot of credit for jumping through all these hoops.

Tiny Tyrant said...

Katrynka,

I think in this day and ages, which is unfortunately that of the 'Let's sue someone because we can' mentality, they are simply being careful.

I know we cannot protect the children from the everything and we shouldn't. They have learn somehow. Like I said in one post, I have to lock up the guns but I can leave the butcher knife on the island. If some teenager gets angry enough to try to hurt one of us, those knives will be the first thing they grab.

Either way, it is what is. We start the adoption part of the home study here pretty soon too. I cannot wait to see what else they find wrong with the house.

If nothing else it sure is interesting.

Thanks for the credit.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog. And in reading your sidebar, I see you're the proud parent of a red ear slider, like us! :-)

Anyway, I like the gloves...I'm not into matchy-matchy. They have the same colors, so that's what counts.

Taunya said...

Thank god you can knit a little at work or you'd get nothing done.

Enjoy your week off as much you can, you gotta squeeze (smuggle) in a little ME time!

Taunya said...

PS...Yes, I'm posting once again.

Magnolia said...

I uhm am in a bit of shock. See Last month I started a blog and named it Tales of a Tiny Tyrant after my little Napoleon. I'm into knitting have two cats and the like.

Then the other day I did a google search to see where I was on the page listing and I found you.

Are we separated at birth? *G* I wanted to comment and let you know that even if it looks like I robbed you blind..honestly I didn't. Maybe you can be gracious and say great minds think a like?

Great blog..I love the fingerless gloves..I have to get off of my sock fetish though to start some.

Romi said...

Keeping all of my fingers crossed and thinking good thoughts! :)

Susan aka Chicken Mama said...

Thank you so much for putting yourself through these draconian measures in order to be a foster parent. Our community is lucky to have you!

I am happy to see you have eeked out some time to knit.

Best of luck with the final inspection. Keep us informed. XXOO