1.  Slept in

2.  Woke up, started baking a sheet cake.

3.  Striped down my bed to start the decontamination process.

4.  Folded laundry

5. Cleaned kitchen, wiped down every surface I had touched and moped the floor

6.  Cycled comforter, mattress pad, sheets, towels through the wash

7.  Mopped floor everywhere I could have walked

8.  Scoured bathroom, in process found rusty sticking out nail on underside of cabinet, punctured finger.

9.  Thought about tetanus shot, applied peroxide and rubbing alcohol liberally.

10.  Washed hands several times.

11.  Cleaned kids bathroom, finishing seconds before family arrived home.

12.  Had sweet, happy reunion with my baby girl.

13.  Interrogated the children about their week with Grandma and Mema

14.  Pulled out all the gifts and treasures I had packed for them to do while they were away that they hadn’t seen.

15.  Bathed and washed 4 filthy, unbathed for a week children.

16.  Brushed and detangled hair.

17 Dressed children for Noah’s baptism.

18.  Went to baptism.

19.  Took massive family photos.

20.  Ate the best hamburger of my entire life.

21.  Listened to my dad play classical guitar, watched my mom swell up with pride and love

22.  Brought kids home, brushed teeth and tucked them in their own beds.

23.  Reflected on the perfect day…

To save money we decided to buy our kitchen cabinets and countertops at Ikea. It is much cheaper because we have to pick up the cabinets and assemble them ourselves. We also had to measure and design the kitchen ourselves. Here are some things we have learned in the process:

1. Measure 5 or 6 times before you buy

2. Measure 5 or 6 times before you cut

3. Don’t trust designing software

4. When making a kitchen order through Ikea, make note of which items are “self-serve” because if you don’t pay attention you will get home without purchasing any drawer pulls.

5. It takes twice as long to jerry-rig a kitchen sink as it does to actually install the kitchen sink

6. It is going to take forever to assemble all those cabinets

7. It is going to take forever to install all those cabinets

8. After we tally up the cost of gas for two trips to ikea and the time spent assembling and installing all these cabinets…we probably aren’t saving any money.

9. It looks so easy in the video

10. If we ever get this done, it will be beautiful