Just Rambling

As I look around my house I am frequently overwhelmed. Thick dust covers everything, no matter how often we dust. There is not one room that is clean and organized. Everything seems to be in various states of remodeling/repair/organization. There is MUCH to do, and find that if I look at all that is before me I am paralized. I don't know quite where to begin and the task seems insurmountable. I have to pick one job, or one room, and work on that. Attempting to make a little headway each day.

I have been tempted to throw a little pity party for myself. But the Lord has been convicting me of that attitude. He has been graciously reminding me that 'I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me." When I am weak, He is strong. When I recognize that I am faced with an impossible task, I also recognize how utterly dependent I am upon Him. That is right where Christ wants me to be.

My patience, never my strong suit, seems daily to be pushed to the limit. Daddy is gone, my children are needy and a little more disobedient than usual, and there is a lot to do. Did I mention that? I have been told many times never to pray for patience, because you will daily be called upon to use it. But if my desire is to grow in Christ, to be sanctified and conformed to His image, then I ought to welcome and rejoice in the opportunites for growth that He brings my way. So often I falter, I react instead of saying a silent prayer and maintaining a joyful attitude.

Yesterday I was painting (walls, not pictures) and Eli was coloring. He had a new picture for me to admire every 3.2 seconds or so. "Mommy, look at my picture! I made it for you, where do you want me to put it??" Sierra was reading a book she found very entertaining, and so she wanted to share each amusing part with me. There were a LOT of amusing parts. One child, taking advantage of the fact that mom was otherwise occupied, decided to direct the play of all the others, and it was going to be their way or the highway. Snotty attitude and whispered threats. You get the idea. These sort of things, combined with the general chaos of the house, the timeline, being nearly 31 weeks pregnant, and the standard needs of 5 young children made for a day of real sanctification for me :)

I wish I had it mastered by now. I wish I remembered at all times how blessed I am to have these children. I wish I always remembered to be grateful that they want to share their stories, make pictures for me, be where ever I am. I wish I always remembered that discipline is for their good, not my convenience, and that I have been given a great responsiblity and honor to raise these children for my Heavenly Father. Too often I forget.

I am so grateful for His patience with me. So grateful that He continues to show me, to remind me, to forgive me.

Decisions, Decisions

I am trying to get a few pictures for the frames I want to hang on my walls, so I took some of the kids out this morning for a few shots. I already have one of Ezra that I want to use, I think. I still need Ethan. And here are some that I took this morning. Not sure if I will use one of them or not. What do you think?? I want one of each child. I might make them into black and white too, I really miss that feature on my other camera :)



I really like the flowers in the background on this one, but the expression isn't my favorite.


I like the smile


Like this one too, maybe cropped a little.
I like this one best, though maybe not enough.


I like this one too.

He really should be wearing the ever-present "cowboy shirt" that I wrestled off of him this morning.

Sierra loves the camera. Everyone else is like me, at a loss for what to do with themselves. I probably need to spend an hour out there just getting them comfortable, rather than 15 minutes of "sit here and smile". :)

Into The Wild

As we have been working on the interior of the house, the exterior has been sadly neglected. The most obvious result of that neglect is our "lawn". At first I didn't want it mowed because it was full of the most beautiful wildflowers. But now the flowers have all gone to seed, and even if they hadn't they wouldn't be visible over the "grass". I'm sure the chiggers are very happy with the way we have let our yard go, but the children are swallowed by the jungle every time they step out the door, and the man eating bugs are thriving.

So, Chance has begun the task of mowing down our 3 1/2 acres of greenery. I thought you would appreciate a few photos, just in case you thought I was exaggerating :)

First is Eli, raking what Chance mowed yesterday. Notice the attire. Cowboy hat, boots, shorts, and his "cowboy" shirt which has been worn, slept in, and worn again. Oh, and he's wearing it again today. I did order 2 new "cowboy" shirts today, so I am hoping to wash this one soon.

Here is Chance on the mower, entering the abyss. See Eli hiding behind him?

And finally we have the kids acting as chigger bait so that I could go out and snap some pictures.

That's it for now :) Have a great night!

Kind Words

Chance was blessed to attend the annual Memorial Day celebration at the home of the Scott Brown family. This is a big shing-ding. This year they even had an Apache attack helicopter land during the event.

I thought I would share with you some kind words that Mr. Brown wrote about Chance and his friends. I am pasting the contents of the post here, minus the picture, because I can't get my post to link directly with the post on Mr. Brown's blog. If you would like to read the original post, see the picture, and perhaps read a bit more about the celebration, you can read the blog here and scroll down to the right spot.

Chance has very fond memories of the time he spent with the Brown family. He said their home was full of love and their hospitality and generosity were obviously heartfelt.

Three Real Men from Vision Forum

Joshua Harris, Chance Winberry and Nathan Barnes

Over the weekend, three men came from Vision Forum to stay in our home to help us with our Memorial Day Picnic. Five things were observed by all:

1. From the moment they arrived it was obvious
that they were looking out for the interests of the Brown family and Hope
Baptist Church and seemed to care nothing of their own interests.

2. They looked for ways to lighten the loads of others.

3. They worked happily and were a constant source of indiscriminate encouragement.

4. They worked heartily, as unto the Lord.

5. They worked tirelessly.

And, when it came time to leave, they thanked us for all we had done for them, when in reality, we did nothing for them, while they did much for us.When the men of Hope Baptist reflected on the behavior of these young men, the conviction was unanimous - let's spend the next few years training our sons to be just like them!
posted by David Brown at Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Sierra's Scarf

I mentioned in a previous post that Sierra had knitted a scarf when Nana was here. I thought I would post a picture of her handiwork. She did a really great job, especially for her first effort. She did decide to make it a little short though, I think she wanted to make sure it was finished before Nana left :)

Fireplace Face Lift

Mike was able to get the fireplace done before he left. I just have to fill the nail holes, primer, and paint it. I think it will really make a big difference in the room. We are trying to modernize things a bit and make them more like what we are seeing in model homes, to better compete with the new home market, especially since resale homes are moving so slowly right now.

This is before, except that the mantle has already been taken off.


And after! It looks like it is covered with plywood, but it is actually beadboard. You just can't see the pattern in the picture. Won't it look nice?!?

Update

Things are moving along here. Mike leaves on Thursday. Yep, THURSDAY. As in 2 days from now. The wood floors are done, the kitchen counters are tiled (and waiting for Chance to grout the backsplash), 2 bathrooms have been gutted and redone, ugly ceiling fan in kitchen eating area replaced by pretty chandelier, new kitchen sink, upstairs hall and boys room/game room painted, barn roof and siding replaced, pool liner replaced, and myriad other small projects tackled. It has been BUSY here.

I am so proud of my husbands ability to jump in and tackle what needs to be done, whether or not he has ever done it before. His artistry, skill and attention to detail always yeild great results.

And now, without further ado, some pictures of the latest projects.

This is my new sink. I LOVE the sink. Can you see how deep it is? I can put my roaster right in it, or my whole cutting board. There is a removable basket (you can see it in the 2nd picture) that separates the sink into 2 sides like a traditional sink.

The formica is gone! New tile counters and backsplash. You can't really tell in the photo, but the biege colored diamonds in the backsplash are 4 little stone diamonds formed into a larger diamond, and then bordered by stone.

The picture doesn't do it justice, these walls were really ugly. The entire house, with the exception of bedrooms and bathrooms was done in this brown and biege sponging technique. It made the house REALLY dark, but more than that, they did a terrible job. Painted around things on the walls, lots of drips and smears. We hired a painter to do the downstairs before we moved in, but we have been living with the upstairs. Of course, the new people won't have to :)

Again, you can't tell very well, but the new color is sort of a creamy yellow. I really like it and it makes the house so much lighter!

That's it for now! As you can see, we've gotten a lot done. Lot's more to do, but making really good progress :)

Progress

Doesn't it look great!?! It has been a lot of work for Mike to put down the flooring alone, but he is doing a great job. The living room/playroom is done, the entryway is done, and the dining room is almost done. Then he just has to do the family room and the wood will be complete.

I hope his poor body holds out for the next couple of weeks. He is at the chiropractor right now, and is drinking a daily herbal concoction designed to help alleviate pain and the interal swelling of his tendinitis. It helps a lot, but he really needs to rest his arm to heal it. The pain often keeps him awake at night.

Pray for him, that his pain will be manageable and his efforts will be blessed.

Spring Recital

The girls had their Spring Piano Recital on May 17. They did wonderfully.

It has been so nice to hear them fill the house with music. They both enjoy it very much and work diligently on thier pieces. This year they played 2 duets in the recital. They really like to do duets, even though it can be a lot of work to get the timing right. It was a lot of fun for them to be able to play duets with Nana when she was here.

Happy Birthday Eli!!

May 23rd was Eli's 5th birthday. Although the fact that it was his 5th birthday took some convincing. It seems that since Ethan was already 5, Eli thought he should just skip on to 6...or maybe 7!

It is my year to take the children for their birthday activity and Eli chose the zoo. He went to the zoo last year with daddy and there was never a doubt that he would do it again this year. He acted surprised that I would even ask :)

He proclaimed the animals cool, but not as cool as Roy Rogers.

This is him, reluctantly posing for me. Pictures really cramped his style.

The birds, Lori's I think, or something like that anyway, were fascinated by my keys. They were in a big enclosure and you could buy nectar to feed them. Which we didn't do. Because, while I was willing to enter for Eli's sake, I just wanted to look at them. But NO, they were on my head, in my lap, and finally obsessed with the keys. I am sitting about 8 inches from them.

This is how Eli wanted to pose.

On the Komodo Dragon.

The picture above was taken on the train that goes around the park outside of the zoo. He LOVED the train.

Below is Eli receiving his birthday blessing from daddy. I love this tradition.

All set to open presents

He received the cowboy regalia he was asking for. You may think he is dressed up like a cowboy, he just thinks he's dressed. Happy birthday Eli, we love you!

What We've Been Doing

The men have been hard at work here. I don't have any before shots, since being constrained to using actual film made me feel I didn't have a camera :0 Although judging from the length of time it seems to take me to get film developed, I was really better off waiting.

So, those of you who have been here know what the "before" was, and the rest of you will just have to appreciate the current beauty :)

First we have the upstairs bathroom. This project was much bigger than we anticipated. We were originally going to leave the tub and tile in intact, and just replace the floor (it was yucky carpet) and the vanity, countertop, and toilet. But we noticed a tile in the corner by the tub was cracked all the way around, and on further investigation discovered that there had been water leaking behind the tile, across the back of the tub and into the floor. Soggy flooring, soggy drywall and lots of black mold. Long story short, we gutted the entire bathroom.

We are on a very tight time schedule and an even tighter budget, so this was REALLY not good news.

But the new bathroom is much nicer than the old one was. And "they" say bathrooms (and kitchens) sell houses. Hopefully it will help.

Here is the new tile, it goes all the way to the ceiling. Previously it was white 4" squares that stopped just above the showerhead. The tub is shiny and new, and the deepest one I could find. Not the $99 builder special that was there.


This shot shows the tub a little better and some of the flooring. I mentioned it was carpet before right!?! Nasty, beige carpet. It is beyond me why anyone would carpet a bathroom.

New toilet, too.

The vanity that was here before was the standard, plain jane oak that you often see in tract homes.

We got this one at Home Depot. We just put a basic white countertop on it. I would have looked nicer with a more expensive countertop, but there are so many things we need to spend money on that we decided the vanity would have to carry the day.

This is the downstairs bathroom. It had a white pedastal sink, grayish-white floor tile and purple walls.

This shot is to show you the floor tile. It is the first tile we bought and we decided to go with a slightly different tile for the rest of the house. It's pretty though.

Here is the vanity. We got this at Costco and it was a deal, plus it came with the pretty countertop and sink. It REALLY helps the bathroom.

The light fixture and a little bit of the mirror.


On Thursday our friend John Elliott came over to help. Here are he and Mike breaking out the kitchen tile. Right now it is the same as what was in the downstairs bathroom, soon it will be the same as what is in the upstairs bathroom.

I don't know if you have ever broken out floor tile, but it is serious work. And days later I still feel like I am choking on dust.

So, that's is what has been going on here. Mike has about 3 weeks left if things go according to schedule at work. Hopefully the airplane will slide and we will have a bit more time. There is A LOT to do!

And no, nothing is decorated yet :)

Fun Times

Nana is here visiting and the kids are having a great time. The girls have spent a lot of time playing duets on the piano with her and that has been a lot of fun to listen to. They are much improved since her last visit, and our piano has been tuned, so it's really much nicer all the way around :) Many games of "Sorry" have also been played, highlighting areas of character training that need a bit more focus for my precious daughters.

Nana taught Sierra to knit, which I especially appreciate. Sierra bought herself one of those begining knitter kits and we managed to get her cast on, but we were kind of stuck. With Nana's help she has almost finished her scarf and is very proud of her efforts.

Yesterday we went to Boerne for lunch and to look around in some antique shops. Sometimes I feel like I spend all of my time repeating the same instructions to my children. But I am always grateful when I can take them somewhere that many people won't bring children and their behavior is noteworthy. In a good way :)

Here are a few pictures of our day.


Eli has a lot of trouble with the sun hurting his eyes :)

Eli opted out of this picture, due to the aforementioned sun
Here they are in the old fashioned ice cream parlor. We all had ice cream soda's and they were soooo yummy!