This year has been a crazy one for our little family. Lots has happened, both good and not-so-good. But instead of enjoying a hard-earned calm stretch of the year and dealing with the natural chaos that comes from the start of the school year and things getting busy at my work, we’ve decided to remodel our kitchen.

The job started a week ago last Monday, and we don’t have a kitchen any more. No cabinets. No counters. No appliances. No floor. No doors. No kitchen.

Today, we got some drywall to repair the holes in our walls and ceiling. A few days ago, a plumber did part of the plumbing work that needs to happen. We’ve had several days of electrical work, and have at least one more major day of electrical changes ahead of us.

In the end, I’m sure it’ll be worth it. But until then, it’s quite odd. We’ve moved our refrigerator into the dining room with a microwave and a couple of shelves full of food and paper plates and plasticware. In a week or two, we have to move all that out of the dining room, too, so we can put down new hardwood floors thoughout much of the house. I’m terrified of being closed in like that, but Ami’s confident it won’t be a big deal.

We’ll see. But until then, ONLY living in chaos looks like a faraway dream.

I’ve been on “vacation” this week. It’s been exhausting, even though we never technically left home. Here’s how we spent my week off:

• We went to Hawaiian Falls one day. The kids took me down multiple water slides and pretty much wore me out.
• The kids swapped rooms, which involved moving all the furniture between the rooms.
• We hired a contractor to do our kitchen remodel project.
• Oh, yeah...I’m painting both kid rooms, too.
• We spent a full day at Six Flags. Pretty fun, but also a lot of hot, sticky, wet, and gross.
• Ami and I saw “Swing Vote.”
• We watched a compressed version of the Olympic opening games last night.

Well, that’s about the bulk of it. My back and feet are killing me, but I’m about to go paint Dylan’s new room.