A lot has happened around here in the last 2 months! Unfortunately, our camera broke so I don't have much to visually share at this point other than a few random pictures of the kids. So, without further ado, here they are: Recap ...The last week of February, our upstairs and attic were sanded (we hired the crew for a day and half to speed this up and it was so worth it!).
In March, hubby primed and painted the walls, installed the carpet in the hallway and bedrooms, installed the bathroom linoleum, wainscoting, sink, and toilet (we had to return it twice - bummer!) and tweaked some mechanical things. In April, hubby installed light switches and fixtures and we moved up to our own bedrooms and finished bathroom! I have been busy hauling, organizing (which I secretly love), and finding a permenant home for many of our belongings. Although it has been a lot of work, this step of the project has been therapeutic in many ways. We did have to shock our well to treat a rust bacteria, which made for an exciting weekend to say the least, and are glad to have that task behind us. Today marks the first day of a week-long stretch (maybe a week and a half) of the crew working on our main level to sheetrock, tape and mud, and sand. The kids and I are spending the week at my parents and are enjoying spending time with them, and also celebrated my sister's college graduation on Saturday with extended family. We are excited to see the progress when we return home, but most of all, we are looking forward to being with hubby and daddy again. Thanks for checking in and a belated Happy Easter to you all!
0 Comments
Yes, we are moving into our finished upstairs (minus the trim and doors). It is exciting, exhausting and, totally overwhelming. More pictures and such to come when our home is little more orderly. Remember, I have a 2 year old helping, so it might take a little while :)
I did read another blog post that I wanted to share. I read this while feeding baby boy this morning and the big kids were getting a little fresh air. It was refreshing and a very necessary reminder. I really enjoyed listening to this today, and I hope you will too. It is a brief talk on the dignity of Christian vocations. I used to have such a flawed view of vocation, and am thankful that God is teaching me otherwise. I love listening to this when tinkering in the kitchen, or, in this case, cleaning up after a baking session with my 2 year-old helping - yikes!
We are so thankful to have benefited from help from family members throughout the last month! In mid-January, hubby's dad, 2 brothers, and brother-in-law showed up on a Saturday for a surprise work day. They all got so much done (taping and mudding our upper level and attic) - hubby says it easily put him weeks ahead! What a boost! Also, hubby's dad has spent multiple Saturdays here mudding (he is crazy good at it) and the kids and I have enjoyed some visits from grandma and even great grandma. Thank you!
Check out this excellent article written at The Federalist:
http://thefederalist.com/2014/01/16/giving-marriage-the-old-college-try/ Well put! Bit by bit we are getting closer to moving upstairs. The attic and upstairs are now fully sheetrocked, and, boy, does that ever change the look of things! Thanks to our dads for help recently. Christmas 2013Merry Christmas to you all and God's blessings in 2014!
Happy Thanksgiving!It is so easy to be thankful when everything in life is going well ... kind of how little boy is so sweet when everything is going his way (ahh ... the "twos"!). It's another story when nothing seems to be going right. It is easy for me to entertain not-so-thankful thoughts when dealing with the challenges of our house project. I won't bore you with a list of those challenges, but they are there. By doing this, though, I overlook the many benefits of our situation. For example, we are able to live on one income instead of one and a half while our little ones are, well, really little. In many ways, our life is very home-centered than ever before ... instead of me working a regular part-time schedule or hubby taking on second job, he works at home where he can still be apart of our family. Not many families have that option and I am so grateful for it. We live one and a half miles away from our church and school, where little girl will be attending next fall. A PRN job fell in my lap a little over a year ago at a care center that is only 7 miles from us, which means I can work when it works out best for our family and hubby can usually watch the kids in the late afternoon/early evening. For us, these benefits outweigh the costs. I am not saying that this is the only or the right way to do things - I don't believe that. I can attest to the fact that it's not necessarily the easiest way. I am simply thankful, especially for God's promise not to give us more than we can handle. I recently read the book Glorious Ruin: How Suffering Sets You Free by Tullian Tchividjian. I keep picking it up and re-reading parts of it because it is just that good. One of my favorite quotes: "Suffering has a way of stripping all resources away from us so that in the end, all that we have is the only thing that matters: the approval of God based on the accomplished work of Jesus."The challenges of this past year have certainly shown me, time and time again, my total dependence on Christ. And this is exactly where I need to be.
It's a difficult, blessed, exhausting, precious busy ... There is nothing else I would rather be so busy doing. For those of you that know me well, you know that I love lists ... I love routine and predictability. Newborns, however, to-do lists and routines do not mix! At least not the kind of lists and detailed routines that we (okay, I) had grown accustomed to. My very streamlined to-do list now looks somthing like this:
I read this post today on someone else's blog and thought it was worth sharing ... especially if you have little people at home. Talk about a timely reminder for mom trying to adjust to three little ones!
If you need encouragement, check this out: http://www.memoriesoncloverlane.com/2013/10/quiet-moments.html We were blessed with a healthy, beautiful baby boy last Tuesday, September 17th, 2013 at 3:05pm! He arrived one day prior to his due date and weighed 6 lbs, 0 oz and measured 19 inches long. He is doing great and we are so happy to have him here! The story ...I noticed some contractions once I got out of bed last Tuesday, but didn't think too much of it since I had been having intermittent contractions throughout the past week. I encouraged hubby to go to work and the children and I went about our normal day. Around 8 am I started to keep track of how far apart the contractions were and called my doctor's nurse around 10:00 to try to decipher if I was in early labor or not. She suggested that I monitor them for the next 30 minutes to an hour. I drank a bunch of water and sat on the couch to read stories to the children and 30 minutes passed without a contraction. At this point, I was convinced that this was false labor. My mother-in-law just happened to call mid-morning to check in with us and I reassured her that I probably wasn't in labor. Then my sister-in-law, who was our short-term childcare plan, called and I also reassured her that I probably wasn't in labor, and, if I was, I was certain we would have time to transport our kiddos to her house. Then I touched base with hubby just to let him know what was going on, but, told him to keep working. Thankfully, they were now working about 7 miles from home as opposed to 30+ minutes that they were in the morning. I was serving lunch to the kids and began to get frustrated that they weren't letting me focus during contractions. At one point, little girl said, "mom, I'm sorry you're so overwhelmed." It was at that point that I thought, "this must be the real thing" and called hubby again, but this time to ask him to come home. Hubby raced home and arranged for his sister and our nephews to come to our house. After a few more minutes, he also arranged for his dad and brother-in-law to come to our house, as they could arrive here sooner, which allowed us to hit the road for our 45-minute commute to the hospital. Then, he called my dad, and he jumped in his car and made his way to our house to watch the kids for the remainder of the day and the next. I remember thinking "what have I done ... all of these people are coming to our house to help us and this is probably false labor ... they are going to send us home!" To make a long story short, we checked in at patient registration at 2:30pm and baby boy was born at 3:05pm! It was a pretty intense 35 minutes, but oh-so worth it! Thanks be to God for such a tremendous blessing!
|
Welcome!
You can read a bit more about us here. Archives
July 2020
Categories
|