Introducing our Yellow Belt champ!

Allen's big day finally came, and on Thursday, he successfully completed his testing and became a yellow belt in Tang Soo Do. What a happy lad! These are Allen's teachers, Mr. Nicolas (left) and Senior Master Miller (right), whom he loves dearly. The name of the school is Miller's Tang Soo Do Institute (MTSDI).

Allen has the most wonderful classmates. In TSD, the more advanced students teach the younger students, which means everyone in Allen's class had a chance to teach him. Allen's classmate, Dylan (red belt), also tested that day. It was amazing to see the difference that Dylan's 3 years of study makes! His power and energy were impressive.

Sr. Master Miller has a blog that makes for good reading. Take a look at http://www.mtsdi.blogspot.com/

Yesterday we got a lot of cleaning and painting done around our home. This is Mike in our bedroom getting ready to paint the brick chimney. I decided to paint the chimney because our bedroom is a typical farmhouse bedroom with mostly whites. Because the chimney is a big, bold statement, it is a drama point. I think it will fade nicely into the background once it is white. I will show you an after picture.

I really surprised my family when I announced my decision to paint the chimney white. I normally don't like painted brick. But we are getting ready to have hardwood flooring installed in the entire upstairs, so I knew this would be the best time to paint. While Mike painted upstairs (we all took turns helping him), I was downstairs cleaning out my pantry. Fortunately, for my pride's sake, I forgot to take a before picture:-)

Now that it's clean, welcome to my pantry. The picture says, "Give Thanks." We enjoy having this pantry. Many times we will go in here for private discussions. It's a nice size, 22x5'.
This is the right side. We call the wood shelves on the right the Broom Closet because we intended to put a door on it and store our broom in there. I forgot to tell my brother until after he had installed the shelves. Now I'm glad to have the shelves instead. (Our home was built by my brothers.)

And this is to the left. I keep my juicer in the blue bin down below. Anything that I hadn't used in one year got sent to my amish friend or the thrift shop. To the far left, behind the wall, is a dead space that is 4x4'. Someday when we are bored, we hope to punch a door through the wall and make the space a telephone booth. It was originally supposed to be a dumbwaiter...but the cost ($1500 at the time) seemed ridiculous.

I enjoy having the steel shelving on wheels. Yesterday I rolled the shelves out to vacuum and wash the floor. What a breeze!

Today we are putting the second coat of paint on the chimney. Mike and Allen got up at the crack of dawn to go hunting but they didn't see anything. I would like for them to take care of the same three deer who keep my orchard trimmed every evening but the orchard is too close to our home to be legal. Of course!

Have a profitable weekend. Many blessings ~ Kathie