Poor Lily, and a Six Year Old Dollhouse

Lily's poor little nose looks terrible. She's such a little trooper about it too. Back at Family Camp in August when her neck hurt so bad she had to keep her ear pinned to her shoulder, anytime someone would ask her how she felt she would respond "Perfect!" or "Great!" from her 90 degree angle. Now we get the same response from her, after she looks like she got hit in the face with a brick. In addition to her swollen and bruised nose, both of her eyes are black and the skin on the left side of her nose is carpet burned. Everyone at church today did a double take when they saw her.

My friend Monty bought Sarah a dollhouse (the Greenleaf Garfield... google it to gasp) when she was less then a year old. It's a beautiful Victorian thing, and weighs about fifty pounds, but we were quite surprised to find out that it's a kit. For six years Stef and I have been intimidated by the enormous box of thin wooden sheets die cut with inscrutable shapes. It got even worse when some of our nephews found the box and extracted some of the pieces from their wooden sheets to use as swords. Now we have a box of sheets and an assortment of parts with no context. Yesterday, we started the process of building it. We managed to get as far as the foundation and floor of the first level. Stef stayed up way too late and managed to assemble a staircase. It looks okay so far, but it needs a lot of putty, sealing and finishing. This thing is so big and beautiful (on the box anyway) that I don't want to do it quick and have it look shoddy.

It's currently on our kitchen table. Stefanie has declared that the kitchen table is repurposed until it is done. I hope it's done by June. (nervous laugh)