Home at Last!

So we've FINALLY moved in! Needless to say, we aren't totally unpacked or anything like that yet. And the kitchen floor is still waiting for its lovely laminate tiling, but it's so good to have place to call our own once more.
Our sweet church family blessed us with a welcome grocery shower and I spent the morning trying to fit it into our pantry! Screwed up a few more cupboard doors(Darren finished that up this evening) and tried to do some laundry. I say tried because I discovered first that the washer wasn't hooked up, and secondly, after washing the first load, that the dryer wasn't either and couldn't be without a new vent pipe. So now the load will wait and hopefully tomorrow Darren can find time to fix it.
Snow is on the forecast, and Darren is to bed early with prospects of being out plowing in the morning. He really hopes to be able to, as we can use the cash after all those moving and remodeling expenses! Thankfully his foot, which he was afraid that he re-broke at volley ball is doing much better. An answer to prayer - because it did NOT seem we needed that on top of everything, an added expense and a hindrance to work.
I got out some school stuff and played word dominoes with John today. He had fun and we laughed over the silly sentences I made up for the words he created.
Here is a picture Faith Yoder took for me after we had started priming the kitchen -

Before

And now the after! The fruit basket is just a part of the abundant blessing our church family poured out in welcome. We had double that much to start with - and THREE pineapples! Yummy! You see that empty gray wall to the right of the sink? That's were I'm going to put my wall art! It's going to say - Today I choose joy
That's because each day's joy is a choice and choosing to see my glass half full instead of half empty helps my life to be not just half full but overflowing. That's how I want to live - full, not empty. I want to splash God's love on others as I come in contact with them, and that includes my little ones.
As you can see the floor is still a work in progress. Below is a photo of some of the progress while in progress :) The tile laminate in the lower right of the photo is what the finished kitchen floor will be.

Here's my start at a home coffee/tea center. I want to give our future guests a warm welcome. :)

Coffee, hot chocolate mix, sugar, and creamer. The tall canisters are thrift store finds repurposed. The ones with the clear knobs were candle holders, and the lids were two for twenty-five cents and happened to fit perfectly. I just took out the votive holders from the top and replaced them. The sugar container used to hold vanilla bath salts(don't worry, I cleaned it well) and the creamer container was part of a Christmas gift from Dara Weaver several years ago. Thanks, Dara.

Repainted some orange Christmas tins - also a thrifted find to make these silverware holders. My drawers are too riskily unstable to hold heavy items.  The curtains below - another thrift find, but perfect.

So there you have it - a peak at my kitchen today. Maybe I'll add some other photos another day.