Biggest Project Yet (Part 2)

Part 1 of this project is HERE.   ***LONG AND PHOTO HEAVY POST***

If you remember from the last post, we are now to the point of mudding.  This was the most ridiculous part of the entire project!
We went through SO MUCH mud!  Like way more than any of us would have ever thought.  I think we had 4 complete 4.5 gallon buckets plus a couple smaller ones and then part of another 4.5 gallon bucket

We had never done this part of a project before and were totally winging it.  Steve watched several YouTube videos and we bought some special tools and gave it our best shot.  If you notice the ceiling is VERY high and has some seriously funky angles - with accompanying enormous gaps.

Steve worked his regular job during the day and then came home and worked here for hours more to fill holes, seams and then did all the final sanding himself.  Crazy and so wonderful!
Finally we were at the point where we gave the boys the task of washing walls (ok - I did help a little) and then a couple gallons of primer and some rollers (this I did NOT help with!).  And let them go to cover the ceiling and the walls to seal the sheet-rock and get ready for paint.

They also painted the ceiling with only minor touch ups after the fact.  They did a great job and I was very thankful for the help.
After some negotiation and about a hundred paint chips and some samples on the outside area wall, we decided on a two color scheme of Behr paints "Dark Storm Cloud" and "Tibetan Orange".  I'm not sure who names paint colors.
Then Ben helped me paint the walls.  I started with all the edging of the ceiling and where the two colors would meet and he began with the first coat of roller work.

It took about 2-3 days to do two coats of each color on the walls, but it came out really terrific.

Next came the windows - which all had to be trimmed out with extension jambs, sills, and molding.  We also opted to simply cover the yucky window with a vinyl privacy film until we can figure out about replacing it. I painted a million feet of baseboard molding to be installed after the floor was installed.

Then onto the flooring!  That remnant piece of carpet we bought was almost large enough for the space, but not quite, so we decided to install laminate floating 'wood' flooring in part of the space and do the carpet in the rest - sort of a divided living space idea.  It was, again, something we'd never done and Steve did some research, rented a tool and we dove into carpet installation.

Then Steve installed the laminate flooring.

To be continued...here.

Biggest Project Yet (Part 1)

**Warning: Long and photo heavy**
16 months ago we moved to our home.  In those months we've tackled a lot of projects here.  We've ripped down wall-paper and painted, had the roof done, painted, had septic & well work completed, painted, had a floor re-done, painted, built a chicken coop, painted, got chickens and did I mention all the painting?  So we have been pretty busy.
On Memorial Day weekend B (our teen son) and a friend were hanging out and discussing how it would be cool to take the storage area over the garage and make it a hang-out space for all the teens that God has blessed us with as friends to our 2 young-adults.
So Steve told them that the first thing that needed to happen was to clean out the space of all the piles of junk/stuff that was there.  It was a massive catch all for anything and everything from recycling buckets, chicken food to outgrown bikes and light fixtures we didn't need.  It looked like this.

In short... it was a disaster!

But during that one day the boys and Steve worked hard and by the end it looked like this.

It is hard to see, but the walls and ceiling are covered in sheetrock that looks like it was installed by drunken blind people.  The gaps are HUGE and it is crooked, not screwed into studs in some spots, hung in wonky directions and with LOTS of odd angles and about a zillion seams. And the window in the center of the back wall is an old mobile home window with a broken seal and moisture between the panes of glass.

At first we thought - fine - they can hang out in the empty space.  We found a remnant piece of carpet on craigslist and bought that to throw on the floor.

THEN... Steve started thinking, and drawing, and planning.  I prayed that God would allow us to do whatever was possible to create a fun, comfortable space for our kids and their friends to hang out here at home.

Steve took the week of his birthday off in June - the plan was that he was going to begin building himself a shed in the yard.  Then he did something characteristically marvelous of how he lives his life and loves us so well.  He and B and his friends started working on the room - jokingly christened Club Temple on Steve's drawings.
First - Steve took down some water damaged sheet-rock and did some electrical work - moving a ceiling fan and switches.

Then he and the boys built a wall.

Then they hung sheet rock on the new wall.  We also took turns beginning a first coat of spackle/mud on the 90-bazillion screw heads and seams.

To be continued....here

Chapter 2 - Lines

All page references are from the above pictured book

Ch. 2  The Wonder of Oneness

p. 29 ... people will admit to being lonely in anonymous polls, but when asked to give their names they will say they are independent and self-sufficient.

Loneliness, said Mother Teresa, is the leprosy of modern society.  And no one wants anybody to know they're a leper.

p. 30  Albert Schweitzer said, "We are all so much together, but we are dying of loneliness."

[Edward} Hallowell points out that our society is increasingly devoted to, obsessed with, and enslaved by achieving, and increasingly bankrupt and impoverished when it comes to connecting.

p. 31  No matter how little money we have, no matter what rung we occupy on anybody's corporate ladder of success, in the end what everybody discovers is that what matters is other people.  Human beings who give themselves to relational greatness - who have friends they laugh with, cry with, learn with, fight with, dance with, live and love and grow old and die with - these are the human beings who lead magnificent lives.

We were made to know oneness. That is why loneliness is so painful.

p. 33 [Robert Putnam] and a team of researchers documented that for twenty-five years American society has experienced a steady decline of what sociologists call 'social capital' - a sense of connectedness and community.

p. 34 ... the idea of the Trinity turns out to be vitally important because it tells us that God himself has been experiencing community throughout eternity.   **I find this idea fascinating!

p. 37  Dallas Willard states, "Ultimately, every human circle is doomed to dissolution if it is not caught up in the life of the only genuinely self-sufficient circle of sufficiency, that of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For that circle is the only one that is truly and totally self-sufficient.  And all the broken circles must ultimately find their healing there, if anywhere."

p. 38 The Trinity is "a self-sufficing community of unspeakably magnificent personal beings of boundless love, knowledge, and power," as Dallas Willard puts it.

p. 40 What is most amazing is that God invites us into the Fellowship of the Trinity.

p. 41 When Jesus prays for us (John 17:20-21) to be invited into the divine circle, it is not a casual request. There is an enormous price to be paid for our admittance. The Son will go to the cross. The Father - who had known nothing from all eternity but the perfect intimacy with His Son - will now see his Beloved suffer the anguish and alienation of sin. The Spirit will come to earth and allow himself to be quenched and grieved by human beings.  At enormous cost to every member of the Trinity, you and I have been welcomed to the eternal circle, to be held in the heart of the Father, Son, Spirit.
*** I had never considered it quite this way before... what sacrifice!  How can I not have ever realized the enormity of what transpired - not just at the cross, but from the Father, and the continuing work of the Holy Spirit?  Staggering...

Beginning More Lines

I am one of those readers who makes notes and copies down lines when I read something that I'm trying to study.  I find it helpful to use the old fashioned method of paper & pen (or pencil) to write things out long-hand to drive home points that touch me as I read.  This series of posts will be a collection of the notes, quotes, lines, etc. from my reading of the book by John Ortberg, Everybody's Normal Till You Get to Know Them.  This is just one of several books I have read, am reading and have stacked up to read  - all relating to living life as part of God's community of believers and the world at large.  This is a journey of discovery and change and is, quite honestly, hard & painful at times.

So ... here goes.

Part 1: "Normal: There's No Such Thing, Dear"
Ch. 1: The Porcupine's Dilemma
"To make a start where we are, we must recognize that our world is not normal, but only usual at present." ~Dallas Willard

p.14  When you deal with human beings, you have com to the 'as-is' corner of the universe. We are tempted to live under the illusion that somewhere out there are people who are normal. When we enter relationships with the illusion that people are normal, we resist the truth that they are not. One of the great marks of maturity is to accept the fact that everybody comes 'as-is'. 

p. 15  Of course, the most painful part of this is realizing that I am in the 'as-is' department as well.  ... the writers of Scripture insist that no is "totally normal" - at least not as God defines normal. (see Isaiah 53:6 and Romans 3:23) 

p. 16 Because we know in our hearts that this is not the way we're supposed to be, we try to hide our weirdness.  Everyone of us pretends to be healthier and kinder than we really are; we all engage in what might be called "depravity management."

p. 18  And yet... the yearning to attach and connect, to love and be loved, is the fiercest longing of the soul.

p. 19  "The natural condition of life for human beings is reciprocal rootedness in others." ~Dallas Willard

p. 20 "Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone." ~Dietrich Bonhoeffer

p. 25  This is a book about how imperfect people like you and me can pursue community with other imperfect people.

So it begins... and I have the strong sense that I'm going to learn a lot.  There are personal reflection questions at the end of each chapter, which I'm attempting to answer for myself in my journal, but I'm not willing to share here on the blog.  Some things are private and the internet is most definitely not.

Blessings on the journey~

Halfway through 2014

We are half-way through 2014 and WOW has it seemed to fly by so far!  July 1st already!

It's been a pretty busy year with more changes than I can remember, but generally it has been a really great year for our family.  We have seen God moving and growing/changing us all, which is always a very cool thing to see even when it doesn't especially feel comfortable.

Right now we are in the midst of a pretty ambitious home-improvement project to benefit J&B and their friends.  I'm pretty astonished at what has been accomplished in about a month's time - mostly by the efforts of my most awesome and amazing husband with some handy help from B and his friends and a bit of painting on my part.   Big reveal will come when we are done.

I haven't forgotten about the book study posting, just slow going as I've been doing a lot of other reading as well lately.  I finished Love Does by Bob Goff and was blown away, challenged, and encouraged.  I would put it on your 'must read' list if you have such a thing.  I also read Notes from a Blue Bike by Tsh Oxenreider and would recommend that as well, though I do disagree with her claim that it is absolutely needful to travel outside the country with your family... I'm not a big traveler anyway and have pretty much no desire at all to leave the country.

Blessings on the journey,

New Book Study...more lines!

Quick back story...
We moved in part because we craved small town living... and hoped to discover the lost art of community.   We also left our church after 10 years in large part due to the serious lack of genuine community & depth of relationship.  In recent months God has been speaking into our lives loudly on this topic.
I read a great book called

Authentic Relationships: Discover the Lost Art of One Anothering by Wayne Jacobson.

Then we did a study at a local church called "Christian" by Andy Stanley - which was truly excellent. (The link takes you to the YouTube playlist of all the sessions)

This week I began a new book study and have begun again making lots of notes of the lines that speak to me most loudly.  So those I will share in coming posts along with anything of note that I am learning and changing in my own life.
This is the book:

Blessings on the journey~

Today's Reading

During my morning 'quiet time' I often read the day's portion from this book My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers.   This is often considered a classic for followers of Jesus as part of their devotional reading time.
Today is May 6th and the following is what I read this morning.

Liberty and the Standards of Jesus
"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.." ~Galatians 5:1
A Spiritually-minded person will never come to you with the demand - "Believe this and that"; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you align your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One whom the Bible reveals (see John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions.  And if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty - the liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ. 
Always measure your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful never to place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ.  It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God's view. There is only one true liberty - the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.
Don't get impatient with others. Remember how God dealt with you - with patience and gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, "Go... and make disciples..." (Matthew 28:19), not, "Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions."


Blessings on the journey~