No pressure, Jonny

Jonny began working on our unfinished basement last month. It's a big job that will take several months, but it'll be so nice to have a designated playroom when it is done. (We may or may not finish the three bedrooms and bathroom at this point. But he is planning to frame it all.) With all the hammering, sawing, and construction-talk going on around here, Julia has taken especial notice to how our home compares with her friends' houses.

A few weeks ago a concerned Julia said to me,"Naomi has an upstairs, Lassyn (Allyson) has an upstairs, but we don't have one. Mom, can we go to the store and buy an upstairs? Please!?"

And last week, after playing at the Chamberlain's home in their newly-finished basement, she said, "Ums (this is how she says them, or thems in this case, meaning their) basement is all built. Ums dad built it as fast as he could. Ours daddy is not building ours basement as fast as he can."

But in Jonny's defense, he is doing the best he can! He is down in the basement for an hour or two after work on most weekdays and spends free Saturdays down there as well. (He'd work into the evening hours, but all the noise would keep the kids awake.) And, mind you, this is his first time doing such a project. The deck was a big one. But this is an even greater endeavor. You can do it, Jonny. I have no doubt whatsoever.

  Julia is crazy about helping whenever she possibly can.

 Okay, okay, I don't help out all that much with the hard labor. But on this day we did all carry in some wood. 

And Gabe mostly gets scooped up and out of the way. 

And of course I kiss him when I scoop him up.