Slow life

Last night we hung the newly painted swings and sat on the front porch.

It was delightful.

Anna brought out the guitar to play a song for my parents and then after they left she played and sang for a while.

That led to her coming inside and playing the piano for about an hour. Then Sarah played the harp for another hour or so.

It was so peaceful and nice.

I love to hear them play and sing and enjoy the gifts and abilities the Lord has given them.

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! Proverbs 6:6

We started staining the front of the house.

And I am really not sure if I like the color.

But now it is mostly finished so I guess I will have to learn to like it.

And yes-I do remember that the last time we stained the house I said I would never do it again.
It is a hot, miserable, tedious, sticky, exhausting job.

While we have been staining we have missed going out to sit on the porch swing and drink our morning coffee. When we took the porch swing down I painted it and another one to match. They are sitting on the deck teasing and motivating me to hurry and finish the staining so we can hang them up and get back to spending our mornings together.

It won't be long now and when this side of the house is finished we will be a quarter of the way finished and will start the next project......

The sun room. Or Florida room as it is referred to here in Southwest Virginia.

Then I will get the privilege of staining it as well.

And it really will be a privilege. I have begged and pleaded for a sun room for years and my sweet husband is building it first-oh I feel so loved and pampered.

Actually I think he has an alternative motive for building it first. He needs somewhere dry to store his tools and other building apparatus and where better than a sun room?

Really it will work well. I won't have tools and trim and extension cords in my living room OR on the newly stained front porch. And it will only be until the garage is under roof.

Oh and...... we have someone here laying block for the foundation of the addition!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go..............

Another pictureless update.....

What do bulldozers, concrete trucks, and chainsaws have in common?

They have all made a very noisy appearance here on our lovely and usually peaceful property, this week. We had 8-10 trees removed via bulldozer and backhoe--quite an amazing sight to see. Then the grading for the footer and new addition began. We have lots of red clay that was used to build up the pad for the garage and is being used to grade the driveway. A big hole will be dug at the back of the property and all of the VERY big tree stumps will be buried there.

It is actually starting to feel like we are going to see some construction soon.

Oh, the concrete truck. It is here pouring the footers.
So now we just pray it doesn't rain until the concrete cures and that we can find someone to lay the block for the foundation. Tracy has hinted at us doing it ourselves.
I really, really don't want to.

And of course the chainsaws have been going cutting up the trees that were removed. A log guy (I don't know what to call him) came and got the really big oaks and maples. He took them to a sawmill and we get half of what they pay him. He got one load and was really weighed down--some of those trees were enormous. Then he came back the next day and got another half load. That is when the chainsaws started and they have been going off and on ever since. There were several smaller trees left behind (smaller than 10in in diameter, and bases too awkward to cut neatly for lumber) so it will take awhile to get them cut up. Thankfully we can burn the brush and small twigs and limbs.

While we were waiting for the digging to be completed, Sarah and I pressure washed the front of the house and porch. I hope to get the staining done this weekend. I bought a airless paint sprayer and I am anxious about using it. It looks fun and easy but I know better than that.

So, other than our living room being turned into a storage room for Tracy's tools and other things that can't get wet and can't be on the porch because I will be staining, life is practically normal.

Okay, not really, but I can pretend. And honestly, I have to accept this chaos as normal for a season.

The monsoon season.

Yep-it's raining.

Learning to be patient

Since my trip to Colorado to accompany my dear husband on the drive back to Virginia our life has been topsey-turvey.

We drove for two very long days, rested a day, and then drove to the beach for a much needed vacation with our daughters.

While we were there my mom called to tell us that the graders had arrived to remove the trees that were in the way of the building project.

So we came home to a mess in the back yard, two happy dogs and clean house-thanks momma.

Noah drove up from Nashville for the 4th of July and we coerced him into helping build steps off the front porch. My sister Heather came down with her two kids to visit and we had a nice weekend.

Now we are settled and Tracy is waiting for the graders to finish removing trees and get the pad ready for concrete so he can get busy with the building.

But while he is waiting he is quickly making his way through the honey-do list.

And I am selecting new countertops, new kitchen appliances, paint samples, and making decisions about flooring in the new addition.

Fun, but extremely frustrating and, occasionally, overwhelming. There have been times when I have gone to the store to look at samples and after standing there and looking for awhile leaving more undecided than when I went in.

We are all very anxious to get this building project going-we definitely need a garage. Currently we have tools and all manner of 'stuff' on our front porch to keep them out of the weather.

And at the rate I have been going barefoot in the rain and working on creating a new front flower garden--I guess we are falling into the 'hillbilly' stereotype.

It is just so hard to wait when you want something so badly. Waiting for inspectors, for graders, for the weather........
You would think we would know how to wait well after so many years in the military where the unofficial motto is 'hurry up and wait'.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

I read this devotional this morning and I realized that I am so anxious because I trying to make my own little heaven here on earth.

It's human nature to want to control our own space and to create and glory in our own work. When there is so much to do it is really hard to slow down and pace yourself so that you enjoy the work as much as the end product.

We live in a farming community now and it really seems that no one gets in a hurry.

Patience.

That word is peaceful and hateful at the same time. If the fruit of the spirit were in a garden, patience and self-control would be the most difficult to cultivate.

If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. Galatians 5:25

So, if you are driving along and see a log cabin with a bunch of stuff on the front porch, a barefoot woman in a flower garden out front, and a huge pile of dirt in the back yard with trees lying all around be careful before you make a judgement.

She may be learning to walk by the Spirit in her barefeet.