God is still so funny ~ and still so good!

My oh my!

Today is a great day!  So many things in life are uncontrollable, and that is what it is ~ we are little people on a huge planet, made for God's companions.  Lots of aspects of my life right now and unpredictable.  I have been trying to relax and enjoy how God works and to leave everything in His hands.  I have been feeling the emptiness of not being able to "serve" God in other areas besides my family/home.  I have just returned from another 2.5 days helping in the kitchen at a local Bible camp for kids.  OH the joys of constant busyness and making litres of whipped cream, dozens of cookies and muffins and hundreds of pancakes!  I enjoyed little visits with people of all ages and walks of life.  So many foster children volunteering on the "work crew" and doing an absolute awesome job (even though some had never cut a watermelon before!).  Life is good.  I feel good helping others.  It was great and I know my Mom will enjoy helping in August.

AND today ~ my list is very very long.
1.  Figure out why our internet is hardly ever working.  On the phone for 1.5 hours with 2 different technicans and have a diagnosis.  It is our wireless router.  Now I can pay bills, surf and such is a time friendly manner again!  YEAH!  I also learned how to empty  my browser history and temporary files.  GOOD.
2. Phone BC Health again and ask about premium assistance and if we will be getting a retro-payment.  WE ARE!  It will be enough to cover our basic expenses for 1 month!  YEAH YEAH
3. Figure out how we are going to make it to our big family reunion this July...#2 has really come in handy to solve that! Also received Shell gas coupons in the mail that I had redeemed Air Miles points for.  That helps with gas.  ALSO received some samples in the mail...deorderant, body wash, shampoo/conditioner, etc all in little containers!  Perfect for camping!  HA HA.  GOD loves to make me laugh!
4. Someone that owes us a fair chunk of money phoned today and hopefully the money will show up soon (or at least some of it).  I can always hope and pray for that.  That is really needed right now.

So today my girls and I will be searching on line (with a speedy connection) for fun things to do between us and our reunion that I can use up $120 of homeschool money for.  We're thinking my childhood dream "Enchanted Forest" or the Zoo, Heritage Site or Callaway Park.  It will depend which one has some coupons available on line.  VERY EXCITING!  So even though we're not knowing where the next day's bread is coming from, we will be able to take some time with our girls this summer and attend the reunion and maybe even do something fun.  God is so good.  So today God I'm smiling and laughing at your sense of humor and being encouraged by your loving care of your little ones.

God is so funny ~ and good!

So, well, me and my man have a bit of a daily routine going to and from work.  We stop at "Share Sheds" along the way.  I should take a picture of one.  In BC, almost every dump yard has one.  It is a shed where anyone can put their "someone may still use this" type items.  So we try to stop on the way home from work each day, check it out.  Not quite like dump running in Oak Lake, but it will suffice.
In my last post I was at wits end with growing children and clothes that fit and timelines in which to fill their lists of needs with little or no money involved.

So yesterday we popped by a share shed and Gregg plunked a garbage bag of clothes into the trunk for further inspection on the way home.

WHAT A FIND!

Mei now has
 A. Speedo swimsuit (her's split)
B. little brown sweatpant shorts
C. Swim shirt (Roxy)

Kate will have:
2 more pairs of pants (hopefully)
1 nice Nike sport bra
a couple shirts

Jo know owns
LU LU LEMON sweats!   Oh my!  They are the bomb!  SOOOO comfy and nice and wonderful.  I feel so rich!  Maybe I'll post a picture of those later.
Also some hiking type/sport type shirts, sweats, pants AND the pair of Penguin Flannel PJ's I wanted this past Christmas!

So, Christmas came in July for us and I am feeling so happy about how God laughs and says "here you go, stop worrying, I've got you!"  So we laughed.  And gave thanks for a God with a sense of humor and even one that threw in the pengiun pj's for kicks.

Children grow like weeds

Oh it was fun when they were little, growing into new cute adorable little dresses and outfits.  Not so much now-a-days.
My eldest is not quite 13 years old and has outgrown borrowing my clothes already.  She was blessed with flat feet/fallen archs from her Daddy and it makes finding size 8 girls shoes near impossible if you want something under $150.  For the past few months I have been searching for clothes for her.  I have found 1 pair of pants, capris and shorts.  One dress.  WOW.  Still no bathing shorts and she goes to camp in a few days.  She's been swimming in light weight cotton PANTS.  Yes, pants.  Things need to feel right, and I guess they do?!  Can you read my frustration as a parent here?  She is at an important age and I have very little funds to shop til we drop for her like she deserves.  I want her to be comfortable in her every changing skin.  At least I have her on the waiting list to see the foot doctor.  She has been limping around here for days.  Poor thing.  Her shoes are all but hanging together by a thread and I can't find anything else.  What are we going to do for camp?  ughhh

At least the 9 year daughter seems to have her pick of clothes!

Poor 6 year old, bent over the other day and split her bathing suit right up the backside!  very amusing, but now she has no suit and goes to camp tomorrow. 

It's not like it used to be, buy a size 4 because they're 4 years old.  Gone gone gone.  Now it's all dumb and boring.
Sorry about my posts lately, I do seem to have an Eeyore hanging over my head like a little black rain cloud.

The house completed and FOR SALE

I realized I never really posted any final product pictures of our Oak Lake home.  Please refer back to "Soon to be a memory" post of Januar 13, 2010 for before pictures.

This is what was hiding underneath all the carpet and stuff!

Looking from the West to the sunroom area

Heading to the North side

Sheds to the East

Going towards the garden shed and garden

Lovely new deck on the south side, where we always entered.

From the South East entry

Enter into kitchen, a little feeling like a retro 50's look

From the door looking into living room

Looking right

Right is master bedroom door, left is basement door.

Notice the antique grate on the wall...lots of hours spent cleaning it up!

I can't find any good pictures of the master bedroom for some reason...hummm

From living room looking into the "baby room"

Looking from the West sunroom into the house

Finally, after 6 years trying, got the varnish off the glass above the stairway door.

Landing above the stairs...see the reflections in the flooring!  WOW!

Looking right, original doors and copper/brass hardware

Into the West room.  New window, notice the little box on the right.  We made it into a toy box of sorts because it is the stairwell underneath.  Oh how many people loved it and thought it would be a good reading seat!  Just add pillows and a book!

Some more of that room, it could fit bunk beds to the right.

The east room upstairs door

Part of the East room upstairs, hard to take pictures, there are fun corners everywhere!

Mainfloor bathroom joins the laundry and master bedroom

Other side of bath, obviously

West sunroom, which was very handy for our sleeping arrangements!

That was a bit of a tour for you!

Very hard to leave this home, as it was in EVERY way a HOME for us.  We are praying for it to continue to be a blessing to others.

Choosing JOY daily

Psalm 28:6-8

Praise be to the LORD,

for he has heard my cry for mercy.

7 The LORD is my strength and my shield;

my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.

My heart leaps for joy

and I will give thanks to him in song.

8 The LORD is the strength of his people,

a fortress of salvation for his anointed one.

Part 2 Life of a Renovator...

In order to survive a major renovation when you are living in the home, you must be prepared for some craziness...such as...

~dead batteries~

~breakfast on a new deck~

~ eating your free box of sugar junk cereal on said new deck~

~eating on make shift tables, whenever, wherever~

Sharing perogies with friends while having an indoor picnic

~then being prepared to wrangle the child that ate the aforementioned sugar junk!

Be prepared for children to use your paint drop clothes for other purposes!

Be prepared to offer food and take food from others while eating on the floor

~ to take your tea on the piano bench ~

~ to enjoy spur-of-the-moment family gatherings

~to share a snack at 1 AM with your sweetie who is starting to look like Grizzly Adams~

Grabbing the internet connection whenever you can.  Here I am advertising our house for sale.

Watch your children find new uses for your disposable latex gloves.  This is a cow milking station!

Kids get a little bored of raking leaves, but burning them is more fun.

Be prepared to swallow your pride when friends show up to help on your final day and you offer them water in a measuring cup ~ and they just giggle and drink!

Hard working yard clean up crew!  Makes good byes hard, but the moment sweet!

Spontaneous picnics are fun

Be prepared for your girls to find new uses for your ropes.  Here Mei is in her swinging chair.

Be happy to sleep wherever, whenever you can.  Even if it means in the middle of a living room, with no curtains and with an edge sander screaming away.  Daily we just shook out our blankets and fell asleep!

Be prepared to break your own personal record for longest and most painful sliver.  1.5 inches long!

~ to trust your 12 year old to clear coat the floor with you.  Not once, but 3 times on each floor.

Then also trust same child to prepare meals safely while her father is still in the house!  ha ha!

~ relax and goof around when you can...which is not often! Be thankful for the friends that show up and let you be the recepient of their many decorative talents!  Thanks Ronalyn Art!

 

Be prepared to shed some tears as you look at your baby bed and remember all your sweet memories  

The crazy life....the life of a renovator!

This post has been delayed due to getting pictures uploaded, so here it is.

If you know me, I do like to plan or at least have some sort of idea of what my life requires of me...I did NOT think this one out so clearly.  Maybe that was my blessing in disguise.  I just knew that I wanted to be with my honey as we renovated our home to sell and our family to be together.  We were definately together and if a happy that works together stays together, then we will!  ha ha

We arrived the beginning of March in Manitoba to a few feet of snow blocking our path to the entrance of the house.  So I got shovelling.  The heaters had all been cranked up in the house so it was steamy warm (poor hydro bill).  We unloaded tools, etc and paints that were temperature sensitive and then headed to friends for the next few nights. 

Looking at what needed to be done and where to start...

some before photos, or at least when we had just started out.

Bathroom after old "barker board" removed.             Ruth and Mei's pink & purple room, floor scrapped.

Kate's green room, painted subflooring.              Middle area upstairs with wallpaper on drywall...stuck!

So I started some priming, etc and then went for my "girls weekend" AKA Stepf's Wedding Fun and came home to this...my toilet and sink were outside.  A little miscommunication, but we made do....poor Mei will dislike me for these next posts!  Roll with the punches they say?!

Father and son work in the tiny bathroom ~ J. the drywall king

When you renovate, there is no such thing as "personal space"...

Now this was exciting...for me!  This huge cord went across our bedroom ceiling like a giant umbilical cord.  It was hideous.  It took the better part of a day to do the wiring properly, but oh so nice to not stare at it!

I would catch Gregg doing this constantly...the fir flooring has soooo many slivers.

Found Gregg's teenage cool dude shirt in the rag bag...

Do I ever learn?  This time I returned from town with supplies and had to stradle what was left of the deck.

The nice weather also brought out the bees...1000's of them!  They love MDF sawdust.

Getting the borrowed paint sprayer ready and working around the SNOW

This is what a real working kitchen looks like.  Fuctional, not pretty.

Renovators replace kitchen windows after dessert and even if your company is watching!

...and use cheap labor...

Part 2 later