How to rejoice when the car gets fixed

I thought everyone would like to know that my van is fixed! I now have power steering again. The really exciting part is that I fixed it myself. I am not in the habit of fixing cars, or even checking fluid and changing tires. But I do hand over wrenches quite nicely, so I felt confident I could tackle this project with a little help from Doug.

The part that I needed to replace is a hose having to do with the power steering. When I sound a little vague in this story, it's because I hope you won't notice my ignorance. :) I didn't know where this hose was, so I pulled out the new one and started looking around until I found a hose that looked like it. As you can see in the pic above, this can be a challenge. I am very proud to say that I got black grease up to my elbows in the process.

So I finally located the part and Doug gave me the wrench. What a switch! I loosened the top end of the hose, only to discover that the bottom end would require me getting under the van. (I have a full size van.)

Doug prepared to jack up the van, but realized that he needed the handle for the jack. He couldn't reach it so he asked me to get it. I leaned over him to reach it, but found out too late that I couldn't reach it either. My hand slid down the side of the wet van and I somehow dove over Doug and landed in a heap on the other side. (Hey! I didn't even touch him! I wouldn't want to hurt him.) I managed to get myself out of the pretzel which involved a leg twisted under the rototiller. I will confess that this took me a few minutes. But I overcame and got on the little wheely cart and slid under the van. Shortly thereafter, I had the hose disconnected. (Woohoo!) It was easy to ascertain the problem. A faulty o-ring. Isn't it always a faulty o-ring? Even Apollo 13 had problems with a faulty o-ring!

So now I was ready to put in the new hose. Doug gave me a lecture on keeping everything clean so as to get a good seal. (I'm covered in mud, grit, and grease, but I'm supposed to keep everything clean.) Okay, bottom end secured. Top end will not align with the hole. Remove bottom end. Align top end. Resecure bottom end. Discover that to bleed the line, bottom end must be disconnected. Egats! Disconnect bottom line. Read manual! Discover that bleeding can be done without disconnecting bottom line. Resecure bottom line. By the way, we were still very calm at this point, and even enjoying ourselves. (Yeahh!)

Note to self: Pin hair back before working on a car. When I tried to wheely cart myself out from under the car for hopefully the last time, my hair got wound around the wheel. The more I tried to get out, the tighter it got. Doug had to pull me out with the cart hanging from my head, and pull my hair out of the wheel. That's when I had Gramma braid my hair.

So we bled the system, which involved me watching the fluid burp and bubble up, while Doug turned the steering wheel back and forth. Finally the bubbles stopped and we declared success! Then Doug got the great idea of showing me where some of the other fluids are located and discovered that I was very low on oil, so we took care of that, too.

I fixed my van, acquired black under my finger nails, grease up my arms, a few bruises on my leg, and a very satisfying sense of accomplishment! Praise YHVH!

Happy Summer Days

I'm so happy to see the kids entertaining themselves outside. We have huge willow trees in our pasture, which happen to drop a lot of deadwood every winter. We use some of it  for firewood during sukkot. But there is plenty more, so the kids have been building things with the help of some baling twine.

Here is the little house that they built.

This ladder is about 8 ft. tall. They tied the rungs on with baling twine.

And they even climb up and down on it! Be still my heart.

What fun things are your kids doing this summer?

Elisha gets a haircut!

Okay, so he was beginning to look a little shaggy. I loved his long hair, but it was time for him to look like a little boy, and the girls needed to be discouraged from putting a ponytail in his hair. Also, it is 90 degrees out, so he really needed his hair off his neck. So we swallowed real hard. I held Elisha's head and Doug went snip, snip.

There! That wasn't too bad. Hair grows, and in a few days we can fix anything that still looks funny. :)

Bulletin board letters

My children found some bulletin board letters from my old Sunday School teaching days. I have them organized in a file box. They were quick to put them to good use making words, etc.

They also had fun with numbers. My set has punctuation, too, so they could have fun making sentences.

Do you have old forgotten items that your children could use? They have wonderful imaginations and are fascinated by old, interesting things that we forgot we had. Way better than toys! And, for your enjoyment, here are some pictures of Elisha with a diaper cover on his head.

Now go have fun enjoying your children!

Wardrobe?

At the beginning of this post, I am going to make it clear that I am in a silly mood.  That said, I have been enjoying the pictures of all the ladies in skirts this week.  I have been wearing skirts or dresses only for at least ten years now.  But I have not participated for a few very important reasons.

1. I only have two skirts that fit right now.  The number is only so high because I made another skirt on Monday.

2. Due to reason number 1, I have been wearing my pajamas, because they fit around my belly.  (By the way, it is officially big, measuring 7cm ahead.)

3. Even if my clothes were actually fitting, I don't go anywhere all winter, and my primary concern is warmth.  In other words, I'm not all pretty like the pictures I've seen.

Okay, I lean towards the funky in my dress.  I like bright colored knee socks, wild print head scarves, hot pink rubber boots, etc.  But today, I went over the top even for me lol!

So, I wish to share with you my award winning outfit today.  No, you do not get a pic, because my camera batteries are dead.  Be grateful!  I am saving your eyes!

Starting at the bottom, I have gray and black striped knee socks, think wicked witch of the west.
My new skirt is great, wrap around ankle length blue denim with purple butterflies fluttering all over it.
My maternity tshirt is gray with little tiny flowers all over it.
I'm cold so I added a pink and purple plaid flannel shirt.
My headscarf is a bandanna with blue and purple large flowers all over it.
Hey, don't be so mean!  I remembered to put my tsitsiyot on!

Now, aren't you glad I didn't post a pic!  May I provide you with a healthy chuckle that seizes you suddenly in about 4 hours.  Have a great day!