What's left to say...

I just can't decide what to put on that last chalkboard... Any ideas?!?!?

Wordless blur...

Sometimes I think, "We are busy, but this time will pass, it is just a season."

And then the season doesn't end, the feeling of busyness doesn't leave. Instead, like a weather change from Summer to Fall, the cause of the busy season shifts to a new endeavor. Here are just a few shots of what we have been up to...

The day we found Peepacheep (a nestling Northern Mockingbird) in the trench for our pool plumbing... no where near a tree and not able to fly.

The day we released Peep after he was able to fly and we found the new nest his parents had built. We have seen him in our backyard being fed by his dad. (Did you know that Northern Mockingbird dads take care of the fledglings?)

We took a quick trip to the farm to see Molly, the cow, and Twilight, her calf, just hours old and still not able to stand.

The much awaited finished pool. Now we just need to pass inspection and we can swim!

One of the last photos of Mocha and her puppies.

A trip to the Witte Museum with friends, a nice break from the construction at home.

All dressed up for the eye exam!

"Can I get some of these glasses, Mom?"

 

When friends move...

Three years ago a new couple arrived in Sunday School class and I said "hello" to them in my best bubbly, loud, and welcoming way. Thankfully, that didn't scare them off. :) Turns out, our kids met in Sunday School class as well, and immediately became friends. A few weeks later, the wife asked if our family would be interested in exchanging babysitting for weekly date nights (once for us, and once for them, etc.). Elliott and I had not been regular with going on dates since we, well, dated, so we said YES!

And our friendship began. With a little visiting before and after "the date night hand off" each week, our families grew closer and, in the blink of an eye, a year was gone. After the first year our friends decided to make a move. God orchestrated the events, it was obvious because the timing could not have been more perfect. The location was ideal too, they became our next door neighbors (thirteen houses removed).

So, for the last two years, our children have walked, run, galloped, skipped, and biked up and down the street to see each other. They have climbed trees, hidden under tables, made forts, flown paper airplanes, built Lego creations, and put on plays. We have gone nearly everywhere together, short trips to the zoo, and road trips to science museums three hours away, birding trips across town and across Texas. We survived the "knock-knock" joke phase together, and moved on into the silly song phase. Our families have shared meals, and laughs, and desserts (oh, the caramel!).

As moms, we have shared countless cups of coffee and tea, laughed and cried, exhorted and encouraged. We have bared our hearts and been transparent and real. When it really comes down to it, life can't be shared on the periphery, you have to dive in with both feet.  We've stayed up too late chatting and woken up insanely early to go on various adventures. We've prayed together, read the Bible together, and learned from each other. Sometimes iron sharpens iron in unexpected ways; we frequently said how it was obvious if I was walking in the Spirit if I was on the floor playing with my kids, and she was if her counters were clean.

Scripture reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:1, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven". The day we met this couple and learned they were in the military, we knew the day would come for them to move on. We just didn't realize how fast that day would come, or how hard it would be to say goodbye.


My friend and I planned a super yummy "last meal" together for our families on Father's Day. I laugh looking back at all the other "last meals" we've unexpectedly shared in the last two weeks. We started making a "three year" list, instead of thinking of the lasts we decided to mark all the things we will do again in three years when they come back. The kids started figuring out how old they will all be when they see each other again. This evening as our friends stopped by for a few minutes for final goodbyes, the hugs were tight and the tears came fast. It was a great three years. I would do it all again. Even the tears.

Because we didn't have a floor...

... we had dinner at our neighbor's house. They didn't have any furniture because they are moving to another country and the last set of movers took the last bit of everything away today. If my floor had been finished, I wouldn't have invited myself to their house to share my Costco-purchased dinner. And while I am struggling to rejoice in my unfinished floor, I quickly recognized the blessing of the delay. Our kids played and all the adults visited for one of the last times for three years or more. It was God's grace to be floorless. 

Disappointed contentment...

You may think that my title is an oxymoron, and it is. But then again, really it isn't. One is an emotion and one is a choice. One begins the drag down into despair and the other reminds me to change my perspective to the things that are above. 

Our house has been chaotic for two weeks. It was supposed to end yesterday. And when it didn't, I kind of expected it. And when the work got started today well into the afternoon, I wondered but remained hopeful. And now, the house is quiet and the concrete floors still greet me, and I began to feel the pull of disappointment. I really wanted to start putting my house back together today. I really wanted to be done coordinating renovations and spend my time focusing on my kids and playing with them. I really want to not have people I don't know overhearing every single conversation I have with each of my children. 

But, then I reminded myself that the main reason that the work is behind schedule is because the man doing the work has such an exacting eye that he won't move on until the work is perfect (this is a total answer to prayer since he is correcting poorly done work from 7 years ago). And an hour of nearly every day has been cleaning up after himself which has greatly reduced the mess that I am just now beginning to reckon with. Through eyes clouded with disappointment over missed deadlines, I can choose thankfulness that the Lord provided us family men to work on our projects, that they have been kind and patient as my inquiring children follow them around, that even in moments of distress or discomfort they have not uttered one foul word (at least none I have heard). 

And most of all, when I sense a disappointment coming on, I can remind myself that the Lord graciously allows me to plan my ways, but He alone directs my steps. Each day of this renovation has proven to be quite perfectly sanctifying, it hasn't been easy or fun, but it has shown me my wretched heart and drawn me to my knees, causing me to be thankful for the finished work of Christ. 

A few more things to clean, preparing for Operation Restoration tomorrow, and then to bed for me. I am thankful for God's gifts, that come in all shapes and sizes and situations, and I am rejoicing this evening in the blessing of contentment. 

Light at the end of the tunnel...

Tomorrow or Monday the flooring projects downstairs should be done and I should get half of my house back. I am very much looking forward to moving back in. Living almost entirely in a hallway and the dining room for two weeks has been difficult. Tuesday will be carpet day for the upstairs, then I will spend the rest of the week putting the whole house back together.

While I am really looking forward to finishing our project off with new kitchen cabinets and countertops, I think we will take a week off and just get used to our house again before relocating the entire contents of the kitchen for more construction.

What have I learned during this process?!?!?! I have learned that I do not do well in constant upheaval, and that I say things I regret when I am overwhelmed. I have learned that when I humble myself and ask forgiveness of the recipients of my verbal explosions, I am humbled further by their quickness to forgive and reconcile. I have learned that I really, really, really like to have my coffee before I realize I need my coffee. My kids agree that I am a nicer mommy with coffee than I am when I am without coffee. I have been encouraged that all the purging I did in the spring months made this renovation possible. I am also convinced that there is more that could go.

Here are some "where we are at right now" photos... Can't wait for the "all done" photos! :)

Our new tile pattern... front entry, back door, kitchen and bathrooms... LOVE IT!!!

The pool is dug, framed, plumbed and waiting for gunite... MONDAY!

My living room a couple of days ago... today it also houses my refrigerator, oven, washer and dryer... 

Oh! Something else we have learned... we are not DIYers. At least not for construction projects that disrupt the functionality of our home. We have struggled to survive living here while someone else did all the hard work, much less doing the work ourselves. And, I don't think I have ever looked more forward to cleaning my house than I do right now...

A little craziness...

When we moved into our home almost seven years ago, we pulled up all the flooring and had laminate and tile floors installed. Some of our people were dealing will allergies and we were trying to eliminate all the places that allergens could hide. We have learned a lot raising six active children on entirely hard floors. Some things have made us thankful for the hard floors (potty training and stomach viruses), others have made us long for carpet (lack of sound barrier and soft places to sit on the floor).


After living pretty hard on our floors, we had banged up the tile pretty bad. We also discovered there was something wrong with the installation and it became obvious that the tile floors needed to be replaced. We tried removing the flooring ourselves. If you came to our house in the last few months, you have witnessed our efforts. We proved to ourselves that we are not DIYers, but at least we tried.

Following our DIY experiment, we had many discussions about how we live in our house; things we love and hate about our current flooring situation, dreams and "I wonders" were discussed and bids taken on the work. We came up with a plan, it sounded simple enough...

Elliott and I took a date and went shopping to select the tile to go back into the kitchen, utility and bathrooms. We decided to relocate the laminate flooring from the upstairs game room and the two kids bedrooms to the downstairs hallway and living room. We still need to go select carpet (with a nice noise-reducing pad) to go into the upstairs "kid areas". Flooring will remain the same in the upstairs craft room, downstairs office, dining room and master bedroom.

Many weeks and months of planning, and the work started this week. Tuesday, to be exact. We have had to be creative; spending our days quarantined to small areas of the house, cooking in the upstairs bathroom, sneaking out from underneath plastic sheeting which is shielding us from the dust explosion on the main floor so that we can take the dogs to potty, cleaning up after the dogs upstairs when you forgot to keep an eye on how long it has been since the last time you took them potty, breaking all the rules about eating meals sitting properly at the table and never upstairs, or on the couch, not to mention watching a jaw dropping three movies in one day.

My entire downstairs has been moved into the dining room and office. The contents of the upstairs shelved and all toys have been moved into the upstairs craft room. It looks like we just moved in and threw everything in a handful of rooms to parse back out. The flooring project should be done by the 22nd, then I have to put everything back. It isn't turning out to be as simple as I first thought...

And just for fun, we also should start having the pool dug out this week, and in preparation for that were moving some plants and broke a couple of sprinkler heads. Thankfully, my sprinkler guy was able to come out and fix everything, as well as prep things for keeping the sprinkler system from being destroyed by the pool installation. My yard in colored in various shades of spray paint and the excitement over the pool getting underway is mounting. However, it has also rained a little everyday, which is causing my pool guy to be a little reluctant to begin the digging... hopefully they will start soon, we are all ready to swim! :)

So, if you talk to me on the phone and I seem a little frazzled, or I send you an email and don't make much sense, you know why... I am totally scatterbrained with trying to schedule different parts of this juggling act. I can't wait for the results. I also cant wait to uncover my coffee maker again...