Well, folks, we've clearly let school and work get to us again.  All of our projects are on hold for at least the next few weeks.  I don't even have any pet pictures to share or any new recipes to brag about to hold us over.  So, what have we actually been up to?

When we've found the motivation, we've gotten some spring cleaning done, and in more ways than one: 

A few weeks ago, we took our couch to Goodwill.  For those of you who didn't know, I once had a beautiful, cream-colored, suede couch.  And it was perfect...for a single girl.  Who is it not perfect for?  A husband and pets.  When I moved into the house 2 1/2 years ago, it didn't make the move so well.  The back ripped and I never fixed it (usually I forgot it was even there), but as of late, Henry started to snack on the filler.  Nice.  And over time, the springs came out of the bottom (was CJ jumping on it while I wasn't at home??) and then we never kept Henry off of it, so it had spots on it where he'd licked something.  And it was just S-A-D.  We ordered a new couch and CJ finally talked me into a recliner, but....the couch is on back order for several more weeks (at least) and they're delivering the recliner with the couch, so our living room is a bit bare and less than cozy right now.

In even bigger news, we got rid of CJ's truck and car last week.  First, it was ridiculous to have two vehicles.  But for awhile when we were dating and first married, we were upside down on the truck, so it made absolutely no sense to get rid of it.  Since last fall, CJ's car, a '98 burgundy Buick LeSabre, which was our lifesaver (read: relationship saver) at one point, has been on the verge of breaking down.  Our mechanic advised us this spring that the problem had worsened and that it was only a matter of time before the car just shut down.  Or we could fix it for one thousand dollars.  At some point, you can hardly justify dumping a thousand bucks into a 13-year old car with more than 175,000 miles on it.  So, it was a sad day, but we rid ourselves of the truck and the car, purchased a used car, and have slashed our car loan and gas bills by more than half.  Not bad.

Aside from our "spring cleaning" (in quotation marks, because we really don't clean our house much -- let's be honest), we're just busy with school and work.  CJ is done with school for the semester here in a few weeks.  And I'm down to less than four months left of grad school.  (Can you hear me rejoicing from wherever you are?)  It's probably a pretty good thing that I'm down to that much time, because I'm completely out of motivation.  I'm running on my last available fumes to get me to August.

You're now caught up on what we've been messing with for the past few weeks.  I'm not sure when we'll get to our projects or when you'll hear from me again, but we haven't forgotten about the blog and our three faithful readers.

By the way -- Happy Easter, friends.

the 5 shelf

Instead of completing my projects that have been sitting in the garage for months now (grrr), CJ whipped up a few of these 5 shelves (free plans on ana-white.com) as a baby gift for one of his co-workers.

Here are the shelves hanging up in the baby's room (and the dinosaur is the one CJ made too):

dinosaur puzzle

Last December, CJ bought a scroll saw.  He's used it a few times, but this dinosaur puzzle is the only thing he's actually finished.  School kind of got in the way.

Cute, right?  He found a whole book on dinosaur puzzles, so I have a feeling I'll have more to show off in the future.

Oh, and I apologize for the poor setting.  He took these pictures on our kitchen cart.  Typically, the kitchen cart is covered with papers, which CJ removed to take the picture of his puzzle ... and then put right back.  Nice.  (And he wonders why I want to hire a cleaning lady.)

whoops.

Seems like I kind of forgot about the ol' blog.  I typically only post once every week or two, and post far enough in advance that I never seem to run out of material.  Apparently everything came to a complete halt over a week ago and I didn't realize it.  It's not like anything super exciting is going on.

CJ is still in class, but there are just a few more weeks left in the semester, so that's really great news.  I'll be highlighting two of his latest projects this week, but his secret woodworking projects still aren't done.  Can you tell I'm getting a bit impatient -- especially since he started working on them just after Christmas?

I'm in a Law & Ethics class now, which I would probably really like if I didn't have group troubles (again), if the instructor didn't keep us until just past 10 pm every class, and if there wasn't a ton of work to do each week.  Can you tell I'm getting impatient for August to get here already?

Other than the secret woodworking projects, we're starting to work on our yard and I'm starting to think about what to plant in the garden this year (again, getting really impatient for that), and we're going to start to tackle our office, which is a complete and utter disaster zone.  But really, that's it on our front.

So, to sum up what you've learned:  We're not doing much but work and school.

dog treats

I made Henry some dog treats a few weeks back.  You know, because I don't have absolutely anything else to do with my time.  I mean, I've got a spotless house, I'm always up to date on laundry, and I'm typically about two weeks ahead in my school work.

I found the recipe from The Organic Dog Biscuit Cookbook and while it was a little pricey getting some of the ingredients (it called for carob powder and oat flour, for instance), the recipe produced 5 dozen treats.  And I had plenty of ingredients leftover.