More Trappings on the House

Yesterday we acquired some steps into the trap door leading to the upper crawl space. The trap door runs perpendicular to what was once the ceiling fan and drops down directly in front of the attic and bedroom doors. Here's a picture of one of our favorite guys, actually referred to as "Jr" putting in the final screws. The electrical inspector came yesterday as well and it looks like he approved most of the work. As soon as the final approval comes on that, the drywall goes up!!
They have also delivered all the doors and trim and deposited it in the two back downstairs bedrooms. Betsy wanted to model one of the new doors (most of these go upstairs although you can see the new pantry pocket door to the left of Betsy). Notice her new Dorothy Hamil hair-do. Aunt Beth took one look at the chop job she did on herself and decided that had to be corrected. It looks really cute but I have to admit I've been having flashbacks of being that age w/the same haircut and having all the old men at church call me a "cute little boy". Hasn't happened to Betsy yet, though, so I guess I can stop worrying about it now.

Holy Zeus Batman!

I wanted to share yesterday's fun project. We made little sculpey statues of the Greek gods - and got a good taste of everyone's artistic....er....expression.
Going 'round the pan we have Ruth's artistic expression of the Goddess Aphrodite, then Philip's fine interpretation of Zeus sporting a lightning bolt (although admittedly it does look quite a bit like a hammerhead shark), the lady in pink is Betsy's Persephone (aided somewhat by Ben) and below her in shimmering blue is her mother Demeter, fashioned by Miriam. Next to Demeter is JT's attempt at Apollo who lost his cloak along the way and closely resembles a chicken he once drew. Above Apollo is Mommy's rendition of Poseidon bearing his trident which appears to be stabbing Ben's Hermes in the foot. Now, I have taken a real liking to dear little Hermes. If you look closely you can see the little wings on his feet - how cute is that?! And, last but not least, let's not forget the blue blob by Poseidon's head. John Michael carefully crafted this addition to the showcase of the gods. He titled this work "Apple Pie".

Special Day!

Betsy's First Communion Friends: Sam Huff (he's always surrounded by girls at our church), Marcie Pilcher, Betsy, Sarah Carico and Grace Northwood They were a little punchy by the time we took this picture.

This is my body....Betsy was so nervous about doing it "right" that Fr. Rob got out "Betsy, this is..." and Betsy responded loudly with, "Amen!"

Since she had to stand up to reach the cup, Fr. Joel had time to get all the words out for that before she said, "Amen!"

Betsy in her pretty dress and in her pretty dress with her Knight in Shining Armor.

Kid Vocabulary

goggie - the large furry thing that eats all David's food

hotgoggie - a long skinny thing that often gets fed to the goggie

uppeas - a polite appeal to be moved in an upward direction

peas - often referred to as "the magic word"

tank too - the polite response to getting what you want

no! - this means whatever you need it to mean in response to whatever was just said

holyholy king - the man on the altar wearing the cool robes, also often referred to as a king of holyholy

gangtee - largish piece of quilted fabric used to keep warm in bed, not to be confused with GeeTee, brother to the owner of the gangtee

RoarRoar - small, plastic dagger so named by the noise the wielder of said weapon makes when wielding the weapon

BoomBoom - also known as a shield (but often resembling a cowboy pillow), also named for the noise it makes when in use

sideside - the opposite of inside

Eyeclops - mythical one-eyed giant

wetter - appliance whose job culminates in the need for a dryer


As part of our study of Ancient Greece, I had the children watch a documentary film on the subject. The two older boys were complaining that the film showed too many naked statues for their comfort. I tried to explain to them that the statues are art and that God created our bodies as something wonderful, not shameful. Ben responded quickly, "Well, Mom, I prefer to put clothes on my artwork!"

More House Pics

The siding is completely finished now. The sheetrock was brought in through the front window into Steve's room. That window was installed and the siding completed the beginning of the week.





This is in the kitchen addition. I was trying to get a picture of the little tiny gas hook-up in the middle of the floor. This is where the cooktop will go. Underneath the window in the bottom picture you can see the plumbing established for the sink. As far as I know, we plan to keep the same sink but hopefully with a new faucet. I'd like a taller, goosneck faucet so I can fit my rather large pots under it.

This is an alcove they have roughed in (standing on its side - sorry). This is located in between the kitchen and the dining room. The wall on the right runs along the line of the original outside wall. I plan to make this into the "command center". I have a piece of closet orgnizer furniture picked out to go in there. It will have cubbies for incoming mail, a place for the telephone and possibly a flat-screen computer and drawers for telephone books, scissors, etc. This is my attempt at eliminating some of the clutter that always seems to collect in spite of our best efforts to the contrary.

This is a picture of the wall going up the steps. I just wanted to point out that the doorbell hardware will be HISTORY! No more will the doorbell come crashing to the floor everytime someone goes up or down the stairs and no more will anyone ever ring a doorbell while I have 2 sleeping children and 4 times as many in quiet time. We could never hear it from most of the house anyway but the dog could!

Sweet Suite!

I got some pictures today of the rough-in for our bedroom suite. Those who once lived there will probably appreciate these finer details...We are creating a master bedroom suite out of the front and back bedrooms on the top floor and the "boys'" bathroom (which fortunately will have lost all traces of ever having been a boys' bathroom by the time these guys are done with it!!). The door to Steve's room will be walled across and the door to Tad's room will be moved down the hall to the other side of the bathroom. Tad's closet has been removed to make a large archway between the two rooms, leaving the other closet intact. This will create a suite with a bedroom, library and bathroom area for own private use - SWEET! Here's the pictures. If you look closely hopefully you can see the rough-ins for all the changes.


If you lay on your side and look at the new wood (the parts that aren't white) you can see the rough-in for the new door frame. This would have been the door to Tad's room and has been moved down the hall past the door to Steve's room and past the bathroom door. To the right of the picture you can see the doorway to the girls' bathroom which should give you some perspective. There must be some way to turn this picture around but I haven't found it yet - sorry!



This is standing in the bathroom and looking into the what-was-once-the-door-to-Steve's-room. You can see two 2x4's have been put in to wall this door off. This will create a little alcove in the library which Tad has some sort of plans for setting up a computer command station. (You can also see the sheetrock piled up waiting for the completion of the electrical and plumbing work.)
This is standing in Tad's room and looking out the front of the house into Steve's room. You can see that Tad's closet has been removed while Steve's remains. This will create an archway between the two rooms. I would like to make the quieter back bedroom our bedroom space and the front room the library space but that means our closet will be in the library...I'll just have to decide if it's worth it. The back bedroom would also put us in direct line to the bathroom which is important as a pregnant woman but I'm not so sure how important that will be when I'm *not* pregnant. We had originally planned to take out Steve's closet and leave Tad's which would have naturally made Tad's room our bedroom area but there was too much electrical wiring in that wall to mess with it. This is the place I daydream about when the walls in Riverside come closing in.

Oh Boy!

I went to Target today and got to park Clifford in the space reserved for Pregnant Customers. I love this spot. It's the only time I can park that big honking van anywhere remotely near a store which is nice, not because I'm pregnant, but because of all the other little ones I need to haul across parking lots. Anyway, I always get a kick out of this sign. I was pregnant with someone else (can't remember who) when they first posted these signs there and had Fr. Joel in the van with us. The kids remarked about the sign and asked "What does that mean?" To which my husband replied, "Oh Boy! That's a Large Customer!"

SNOW! (yuck)

Well, in spite of my hopes that the weathermen had once again miscalculated we've been dumped upon. I'd say at least a foot if not more. I had a wonderful dream that it all melted within the afternoon but then I woke up....and it was still there - in all its white glory. How many times will I now have to dress and undress little people, locate hats and matching gloves, pull snowpants out of the dryer...and put them back in. Snow is a lot of WORK! yuck

Life Goes On Attempt II...

Fortunately our lives aren't stymied by the construction. We may have one delay after another on the house, but the life in my womb continues to grow and have its being right on schedule. I had my sonogram this morning. I'm measuring at about 15 weeks with an estimated due date of August 2nd (give or take a week). It was great fun to see the new little one swimming around in there!

It's Electric!

Our current house project is the electric. This is a photo of the electricians installing outlets into the floor - very exciting. Unfortunately they also got down to the basement and began to fear for our lives. The whole thing will need to be rewired. They are working on juggling upstairs work w/basement work so hopefully that change order will come out to a zero balance. Considering in the past two months we've paid out almost $10,000 in change orders, I kissed our construction foreman....on the cheek...he does try...

They are continuing the siding now that we've had dry weather again but this time it is COLD dry weather. They finished the gable on one side of the house and were moving around to the front of the house when I left this morning. UPDATE 2/12/06: Actually, they moved to the gable on the other side and then quit before the snow came. All that's left for siding is the front of the house. Notice all the antennae are gone.

Sheetrock should be delivered this afternoon. They've left a window out of the front of the house just for that purpose - all the sheetrock will be delivered right through the upstairs window. So after today we should have the last of the windows installed as well. The sheetrock can't actually go up until all the plumbing and electric is finished, tho, so that it can all be inspected at once but at least we'll have a few nice piles looking like they're ready for some business....

It's coming along but the electric snafu in the basement may cost us up to another month...so it'll be really close to a year by the time we're back in....sigh....

Here's the heating ductwork disappearing into the brand new crawlspace underneath the addition. This was once the window over the basement sink. I wonder if the toads will still
collect here in the summer. I'm going to miss them hopping about and banging into the glass while I fold laundry...


Here's another picture of the kitchen from another angle. I was trying to get a shot of the rough-in of the little pantry closet in the corner. That's a 2' by 3' closet with a pocket door. No more sending the children up and down the steps to the green cabinet - yay! This was one addition to the kitchen which I gained from living in Riverside and got spoiled by the small kitchen pantry here. The refrigerator will be on the side of the pantry and then the double wall oven next to that. The sink and counter space with wall cabinets will flank the other side of the pantry. You can see the existing plumbing sticking up out of the middle of the floor. That's next week's project...

Kid Pics

This is JT standing on a horse with Philip kneeling in front of him. I don't know what took more practice - for the boys to learn this vault or me to stop worrying about it! At least the horse wasn't moving...this time.



And this is David demonstrating his best skill - not doing whatever it is anybody wants him to be doing.


Here is Betsy in costume for today's show. Fortunately (Oops! Did I say that?!) the show never happened and I was just blessed with the costume parade.





Here is John Michael dressed for the show that never happened. Who can resist that face?!



And..one more of John Michael. All the bigs were going outside and JM wanted to join them. I told him he needed to take off his jammies and get his coat on first. So...he took off his jammies and put on his coat (upside down I might add).

Siding!

These pictures are about a week old but due to the weather, not much progress has been made since then. The siding is complete on the back of the house and on the gables on the sides. The front is still barren of its siding. Inside the only progress has been to mark off where the new cabinetry is going in preparation for the plumbing and electric. This seems to be a slow and tedious process and I'm hoping this will be the final hump which will thrust the project to its end. Of course we are way over-budget but we are slogging along.



I love the color of the new roof and the siding but the blue trim has got to go now!! I've always loved the blue but boy does it clash with our new colors! The best news, I think, is that we have had much hard drenching rain and the basement remains bone dry!

Heartbroken

We are heartbroken this week. Tiffany and little Ava went home for a weekend visit on Thursday and aren't coming back. Saturday she called to say that the trains weren't running their usual schedule, she'd try to catch one on Monday. Monday her mom called and left a message that Tiffany would be home "later" as she had some relatives who wanted to see the baby. We've played the train game before and had already decided we weren't going to stand for it. It's very difficult to plan our whole day around a time when I need to get 8 children to the train station only to be told at the last minute that she has no intention of being on that train and so thus began a series of conversations with Tiffany's mom trying to explain why they were being inconsiderate. She didn't get it.

In fact, she didn't get a lot of things. She didn't get why Tiffany was living with us in the first place - isn't the best place for her in her own home with her own mom? She didn't get why Tiffany didn't see a future for herself in DC - wasn't this where she'd been raised and isn't this the city she loves? She didn't get how a 16-year old girl could have the will to change her heart and her circumstances - how can she know what she wants when she's so young? The conversations with her over the next couple of days were very revealing to me. They were filled with lies, half-truths, broken promises and a lot of self-pity. By the end of the first day I was up all night reading a map written on my soul of Tiffany's spiritual heritage. It was truly frightening and I prayed for her, begging God to bring her back to us before she slips away for good. But she'd been in the city for too long and she'd been sucked back in. The next morning Deacon Jeff called to tell us Tiffany had called him to tell him she wouldn't be coming back. She didn't have the guts to call us - and still hasn't. That seems to be her family way - if there's some unpleasantness just don't talk about it and you won't have to deal with it. Convenient for them, infuriatingly frustrating for those who are at the other end of it.

I spent 3 hours today cleaning out her bedroom - she had, afterall, just gone home for the weekend and so she left behind most of her things. I sorted through a mound of laundry, I put aside her wallet and her WIC coupons, her medical card and her important papers - things you just don't abandon somewhere if you're thinking rationally. I sorted and packed and I cried. There was so much evidence there of her growth since she'd entered Sparrow House. I found her baptismal certificate, her pamphlets on parenting which she'd been reading religiously, CD's filled with Christian music she'd been trying to use to replace the filth of the world which had filled her mind and soul until her recent conversion. "Please, Lord, don't let bitterness take root in me!" I cried out and He listened and He replaced the bitterness with an overwhelming, heart-wrenching sadness.

I'd been contemplating yesterday in a particular way the marriage relationship between God's people and His church which scriptures describe most vividly in Song of Solomon. I had been thinking that intimacy between two people married so long that they begin to acquire one another's thoughts, characteristics, even looks is a wonderful picture of the intimacy Christ desires with us. When we use the phrase that we are to "be Christlike" we are placing ourselves in that relationship with Him in which we are so acquainted with His ways and so intimately connected to His thoughts that His Being begins to seep into ours. It is as much a curious happenstance of Friendship with God as it is any intentional effort of our own. And so, in the midst of my turmoil over Tiffany I stood in the bathroom and called out to Christ as the Spouse of My Soul. And He responded with likewise intimacy by revealing to me His Heart. I saw Him stand and watch Tiffany wherever she was at the moment and He began to weep and the pain overwhelmed me and I had to weep with him. I wept for only a moment compared to His eternal weeping for all of us. It was too much. It was too overwhelming. His love for us is so lavish. His gift to us, too generous.

My heart is broken. Betsy watched me sort through a pile of papers and immediately noticed a colorful picture full of butterfly stickers she had given to Tiffany. "Mommy!" she cried, "I gave Tiffany that picture! She loves that picture! Why did she forget her picture, Mommy? Why didn't she take her picture? Is she coming back? Is she coming back to get her picture I made her?" How do I answer that? How do I wrap up all the generations of someone else's bad choices in a simple answer for a 4 year old? I can't. There is no answer for my dear little Betsy except to assure her that Tiffany will get the picture back. She'll get it because it will be on the top of the pile of things I send to her that she's too irrational to realize yet that she needs. She'll see the picture Betsy made her along with the picture of our family I tucked into her wallet and the broken crucifix we'd given her which was broken because she'd been carrying it in her pocket faithfully.

Tiffany is teachable - it's the thing I love most about her. So when she sees her things, she will remember that her sights were set higher here, that her soul was more free here and that God has a wonderful plan and purpose for her life. She will remember and she will rise above it. No, I don't think this chapter is done yet but there is still the lingering sadness of the present moment. I am still living in that place in life where we allow God to have His way with our hearts so that we can learn more of His heart. Tiffany and Ava have taken up residence in that place of my heart already occupied by Jake. They are the ones for whom I will pray without ceasing until God sees fit to raise them up out of their circumstances to walk solidly on His path.

This House is Loud

I've taken up the habit of sitting outside for a few minutes during the day when I feel like I just need to clear my head. It does me wonders. The weather here hasn't been particularly nice so I've sat in the rain and the clouds and the cold usually in my sox and no coat but my mind doesn't seem to notice except to take in with delight the sharpness of and the contrast between what's inside the house and what's outside.

Tonight I made it through the hour of power - 5:15 - 6:15 pm - when I am trying to make dinner for a lot of little people and the little people are doing their best to exert their limited power over me and each other. I actually had a nice dinner prepared a few minutes before Fr. Joel was due to be home from work and so I snuck through the house, tried to quietly exit through the front door and sat on the porch breathing in the cold, wet air and working my way into an inviting welcome for my dear husband. About 2 seconds into my escape I felt the eyes of little people boring through my back and turned to see no less than 3 or 4 faces pressed against the windows of the front door staring at me. I squawked, I shooed and I skeedaddled those faces away. A couple left silently, one hooted at her brother and another let out a war cry and ran willy nilly for the nearest target to torture. It's ok, I thought, I'm right here, how much damage can they do in a couple of minutes? I'm still going to take my time on the porch.

I put my head in my hands and breathed deeply as I thought about the loudness of it all. This house is loud, no doubt. The collective noise of that many people can be overwhelming - even when they are all actually acting like civilized human beings and not whooping and hollering like hooligans. At the moment there was a lot of hooliganian shenanigans going on and with great effort I put my chin in my hand and chose to ignore it. From that vantage point, I could look across the street at my neighbors - people I barely know, who after 7 months time here are still virtual strangers. There's Loud Boy (so named by my husband after just a few weeks in residence here) on the corner. His family is rarely home. I don't know where they go but it was months before I even realized that this young man has 2 parents and a little sister. It's loud at his house too, the kind of loud that just seems to happen when you get a bunch of 18 - 20 year olds and their cars crammed into a small space of tarmac. They don't mean to be loud but, really, take it to a college campus please. This is a neighborhood with, you know, grown-ups and young children who take naps in the afternoon and dogs who bark at every disturbance to the territory surrounding their households. Yep, I'm awfully glad, I thought, that we're not that family (momentarily ignoring the fact that at some vague point in the future we will have several 18-20 year olds of our own in our household at once).

Next door to Loud Boy is the Quiet Family. They only have one little girl that I know of. I'm told through the grapevine that her mom would like to have more children but she is frustrated by a closed womb. I see her and her daughter outside together looking incredibly lonely with just the two of them rattling around that house all day without anyone else to play with them. Well, I think to myself, I'm glad we're not them too.

Next door to her is a family with two children (I think). One of them is a young lad of about 3 or 4 who likes to hang out his 2nd story bedroom window and call out to passsers by. That, I thought, is more like it. I get a kick out of passing by that house when I walk down to the mailbox and I hear that little voice scream out, "Hey Lady, whatcha doin''?!" I'm happy to tell him I'm getting my mail and then counter with an equally enthusiastic, "Whatcha doin''?!" Yep, that house is a little closer but you know there just isn't enough of those little faces hanging out the window - it still seems, well, lonely.

I turned my sights to the family who live behind us whose house I couldn't see at the moment. We know them the best. They have two children and are very loud - in a whiny, demanding and dysfunctional way. I am soo glad that's not us that I didn't even have to dwell long on that household. Which is good, because just as my thoughts turned to them I saw one of my favorite sights - a silver Saturn driven by a very handsome gentleman - come around the corner and pull up to the curb in front of the house. The gentleman got out of the car with a surprised look on his face. He's not used to seeing me sitting on the front porch when he gets home and he asked, "Is something wrong?" I replied with, "It's really loud in there" and gestured vaguely toward our front door. "Yeah," he said and I completed his thought, "but I'm really glad. I like our kind of loud."

I got my hello kiss on the front porch that night uninterrupted by the loud and then he proceeded to his favorite part of the day - walking through that door into the loudness after a long day away. He always says any man who doesn't have at least 6 little people scream out his name in delight and offer excited hugs and streams of chatter about their day the moment he walks through the door is missing out on the best part of life. He's right, you know. There's some loud you just can't beat.

Locks of Love

On Thursday Miriam and I finally got our hair cut for Locks of Love. It was a year and a half of growing it out. Miriam was at the point where her arms were too short to even brush out her long hair and I'm just too hormonal to deal with all that hair cascading around my shoulders so it was perfect timing and now we both have the cutest little haircuts...The pictures are of her with her long hair, then getting it cut and the bottom picture shows her with her bag of hair to send away.

Who knows, maybe we'll do it again in another year and a half. It feels good to help someone else.

Today's Progress

This is today's picture from my spot in the backyard. As you can see, the siding is going up around the addition. It probably got finished today on that part of the house. You can see the new French doors from the outside. Obviously we'll need a few steps down to the yard.



This was how much siding had been done as of Sunday. I didn't realize what slow going that can be - especially when cutting around edges, roof, windows, etc. I pleased that the guys were taking their time and making sure to get it all fit nice and tightly. They asked today if we needed to keep the two antennae on the roof since we have cable. Fr. Joel said we may as well trash them as they don't seem to work very well even as lightning rods...






Here is the most recent picture of the basement. The gutting of it down to the insulation is now complete.

This is my day today...

The big boys are at their grandparents' house for the week and the girls were at my mom's. Life should have been pretty good...except for that thing called lack of sleep caused by a lack of furniture which was removed from the house yesterday afternoon thanks to our insurance company wrapping up the whole relocation bit of our settlement. Unfortunately, with renovations being done on the house, we are still about 2 months from being able to move back in...so away went the rental furniture. We bought new mattresses but they don't arrive until tomorrow sometime which is the same time I'm supposed to be in an appliance showroom an hour away from here to finally choose the appliances - which has been a whole complicated mess of its own. The clincher is that the inside work can't go forward until we have our appliances chosen since the next step is plumbing and electric. I'm beginning to realize why marriages suddenly dissolve when couples decide to take on major home renovation projects. These deadlines, decisions and ultimatums from the contractor are enough to drive the sanest person to the brink of madness. That and lack of sleep in my case. I have to admit I've been a terrible bear today. The closeness of space, the decisions that need to be made, the morning sickness...and afternoon sickness...and evening sickness, the regular bickering and bantering and , oh yeah, did I mention lack of sleep, have all started to creep into my brain and make me a good candidate for the nearest nut house. We just keep looking at each other and saying, "Why is life so *hard*?" Is it too much to ask to just be able to walk into Sears, pick out some appliances and then have our contractor work around it? Apparently so.

So, anyway, I decided to declutter some things. And I decided to use my favorite venue - Freecycle. If you've never freecycled then please stop reading now, go to yahoogroups and look up a freecycle group for your local county. I have decluttered, gained valuable items which someone else mistook for clutter in their homes and made some terrific friends along the way. These were my posts for the past two days:


OFFER: Lite Brite Cube - Brand New

This was a gift and I have no desire to even open it and let a single one ofthose little colored pegs come tumbling out of that box...lol..


OFFER: Itty Bitty dollhouse
This was also a Christmas gift for the two children voted most likely to lose any tiny loose piece of anything given to them. It is adorable. It is a little dollhouse w/furniture and two itty bitty dolls. The dollhouse is about 4 inches high and 6-8 inches long. It opens up with the little furniture and dolls inside. I prefer pickup before the owners come home from their grandmother's house tomorrow.


OFFER: Itty Bitty dollhouse - OFFER RESCINDED
I'm sorry to say I can no longer offer this item. The 18 month old and the 21/2 yo have taken all the itty bitty peices and stuffed them into the tape deck of a boom box here. I cannot get them out and what remains of this item has been thrown in the trash in frustration.


OFFER: "Boombox" CD/Cassette player
I have up for grabs a boombox type CD player/tape player /radio. There are two cassette decks. One of them has been stepped on when the 2 yo shoved the 18month old off of it and the door has come off, the other has pieces of an ittybitty dollhouse set stuffed into it which I cannot get out. I think the CD player works ok and I know the radio works but I can't really make any guarantees since we haven't used this thing in a while. I am considering adding a 2 yo and an 18 month old - two adorable boys - in with this offer.

It amused the freecycle community and gave me a little therapeutic release anyway...Oh yeah, did I mention I also bought a balance beam today? Yep, a bonified gymnastics balance beam for 10 bucks - now how many cool mom points do you think *that* will win me?! I'm going to need them....it's been a rough day.

Merry Christmas!

Moving Right Along...

Construction is really progressing nicely. The kitchen plans are just a foretaste of the many, many decisions we are going to have to make under the gun. It's funny to have our very own cabinet consultant...The guys from our contractor are great. The foreman called today to thank us profusely for thinking of them with our cookies in a jar for each one. Really, they're so simple to please...We, on the other, require lots of heavy work and the downing of entire walls in order to be pleased...teehee....Here's a sample of their latest work. In this picture, you can see the new roof - the whole house, including the addition has been completely roofed (notice the new color - red has been replaced with Virginia Slate Grey). The siding goes up early next week, so we're told. It's sitting in the garage.





All the windows in the upstairs have been installed except for one. Here you can see Fr. Joel testing out the wonderful tilt and clean feature. He seems to have the tilt part down, now if I can just get him to work on the clean part....










This is my VICTORY! picture. After many expressions of consternation over the state of the water-damaged basement, the whole thing (with the exception of the shop area) has been completely gutted. They are hanging dry wall and re-hanging the drop ceiling! Yes, Virginia, there is a guardian angel of moldy basements!






And now for the really fun part. Here you can see the guys holding up the piece of plastic between the old dining room and the new. There is NO MORE WALL! That opening to the outdoors now holds a double French door w/blinds sandwiched by double paned glass - pictures of that will be forth-coming. Now *that's* a dining room we can fit our family in! (if we only had a table big enough ....lol). To the left of this picture is also a new window which sits directly over the basement stairwell.



And here is this week's picture of the back of the house. You can clearly see the addition, the new roof and all the siding removed. You can also see all the new windows in place. The piles of dirt behind the addition are an attempt to redirect the water run-off around the side of the house. I think that's still a work in progress.

To Tree or Not to Tree?

That is the question. We have found ourselves this year crammed into a 3 bedroom house currently with 12 bodies occupying the space and very little extra room to move. Where would we put a tree here anyway?! But then, how can Christmas go on without a Christmas tree? It somehow wouldn't quite be...Christmas without one.

So we took a family vote and there was a unanimous decision to make the tree work. We picked out a corner of the kitchen which was occupied by our bread-making flour bins but provided the only spot in the house within eyesight of all and out of mischief- making site for the little ones. So the boys headed off to find the tree while the girls and I moved those flour bins and scrubbed the floor.

The tree stand was lost in the fire - I don't even recall seeing it, it may have been one of those unidentified mangled lumps of plastic - so the first stop was Home Depot for a new one. This was also the last stop as they found the "perfect tree" for just $10 right there in the Home Depot tree yard. It is perfect - just the right height and roundness and length of needles but we all had this uneasy feeling inside at the thought of our Christmas tree being plucked off the lot of a department store. That's not how the tradition goes! We're supposed to all bundle up on a cold Sunday afternoon (the 2nd or 3rd Sunday in Advent to be precise), drive way up to the tree farm in the northern part of the county, hop aboard the wagon out to the tree sites and then wander around for a good hour debating the merits and demerits of each specimen until our fingers turn just frosty enough that everyone suddenly gets quite agreeable on a final selection. Then the boys proudly crawl underneath the spreading canopy of bottom needles with Dad, bearing saws and smiles a mile wide. Many hacking attempts later, Dad makes that final cut and we all put mitten to trunk and haul it back to the wagon stop. On our way out, we have one last show as we watch the men put our tree on the shaker machine (the wonders of modern Christmas tree shopping!) and then run it through the netting. Dad makes that last push to the van where it gets dutifully tied to the top of the car and we drive home, the wind whipping through the cracks in the windows which are opened just enough to anchor the tree to something solid within the van.

And then there is the decorating. Dad, of course, has the job of fighting with the lights - there's always that one stray bulb which defies detection and blows the whole string. Three strings of colored lights and string of white lights at the top - with a few carefully placed to sit beneath the skirt of the angel. The angel is special too - we bought that on our honeymoon at a neat Christmas shop in Mt. Snow Vermont. A visit there isn't complete without going out back to pet the two pony-sized Newfoundlands Luke and Hannah. We thought we were being lavish when we blew $20 on that angel, dreaming of having her top our tree for many years to come.

Then the joy of each child pulling out his or her ornaments, one special one collected for each year of their lives. Then the ones given by friends, Sunday School teachers and grandmas over the years. Of course Mom and Dad have many ornaments of their own - ones labeled, "Tad/CCD, 1975" or "Mary, From Scott, 1974". Dad always had to stick his little red knitted stocking off the end of a branch (after he pulled out and hung the plaster drum Aunt Paulette painted for him eons ago) and there was always the argument about whether or not the Star Trek ornaments would be allowed to grace our hallowed evergreen this year.

That was before the fire.

This year there is no angel, no ornaments, no strings of ancient lights.

This year we forged a new tradition. Muffy, with great foresight, had long ago sent a shopping bag full of wrapped surprises. We opened a snow globe which played a tinny version of Joy to The World when wound up and provided the background music for our tree decorating. There was an angel ornament for each of the children to open and hang, a set of felt nativity figures with strings for hanging and an assortment of cookie cutters with Christmas themes (although I'm not sure how the giraffe snuck in there!). She even thought to put in a small creche for under the tree which was unwrapped and lovingly placed there by Betsy. Dad picked out new high-tech lights - these have LED's and a bit of a sharper glow to them. We had managed to collect a few ornaments each over the past months and so our tree isn't completely bare. The fact that is sits in a corner makes the baldness of 3 of its sides bearable. And, after having watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" no less than 5 times in the past month we sat back and sighed prayers of thanks for our lives, a home to live in and people to share in Christ's love. Dad prayed his blessing prayer over the tree and a pile of jammied children went off to bed. It's not what we *usually* do but it's ours and we're going to make it even when everything seems upside down and backwards. Thank you, Lord for our $10 Home Depot tree and for our Muffy who just understands which gaps need to be filled at exactly the right time.

Ava Gabrielle

Well, for those of you wondering what we've up to the past week, I must say it's been rather eventful. Yesterday afternoon 16 year old Tiffany and her newborn daughter Ava came to live with us in this lovely little 3 bedroom bungalow. We spent Tuesday and Wednesday building furniture and moving bedrooms. Poor John and David have been relegated to the basement w/the rest of the boys and walked around like little lost puppies for awhile wondering what happened to their comfortable little world upstairs.



I was driving from one place to another today and meditating on what it has meant for our family to take in a young lady and her baby who had nowhere else to go. I was particularly musing on its effect on the children and thinking that our children truly know what it means to sacrifice for a greater good. I believe giving up some personal space or position in family - or whatever - will help them contemplate Christ's tremendous sacrifice for them as they get older.

The more I thought about this, I began to cry. The tears ran down my face and I was overwhelmed with my sense of unworthiness. How unworthy we are to receive the blessing of taking in these two little sparrows! How God must lavish His love upon us to allow us to play a part in His plan. I don't know why He chose us to bless. It seems there wasn't much more room in this inn and yet He placed this precious baby here. He blessed our humble stable with a mighty gift of Love.

How appropriate that this little one should be named after two such notables from the bible - Eve and St. Gabriel. Eve, mother of all and St. Gabriel the archangel who came to Mary to announce the coming of the Spirit to stir within Mary's womb. Mary, who was young , alone and brave enough to say yes to the life within her - just as little Ava Gabrielle's mother has done.

I am in awe of God's graces poured out upon us. I am in awe and I often think of those things in my life which shaped my character and allowed me as an adult to say a million yes's to things which seem absurd to the world. Eight children and still counting?! I say Yes, Lord! Burn the house and keep persevering? I say Yes Lord! Build the house even bigger to accommodate more of the Lord's orphans? I say Yes, Lord!! From what strength does this still small yes come? From the strength of Christ found in my own mother's million little yes's. I grew up in a home full of Mom's "3 Dollar Bills" - the folks who just didn't "fit". We were the overnight stay for the stray seminarian, our Christmas days always included the most recent widow, the friend whose family had suddenly become inaccessible, the one or two who had nowhere to go and on the way home we were sure to drop off something to the refugee family living down the street or the one-armed man who spent his days leaning against the parking meter and greeting the town. I have untold such memories of kindnesses done out of love for Christ and love for neighbor.

And now, today, I am humbled to realize that my own children are learning this lesson as well. God has seen fit in all of our unworthiness to pass on this rich spiritual heritage to another generation. As I look into it deeper, I pray that not a generation will pass without this caring for the lost, the forsaken, the forlorn, the widow, the orphan, the prisoner, the sick. Thanks, Mom. And, Mom, if you ever think we've gone in way over our heads this time...just remember that you did this to me!!

View from the Dining Room...

Here is the current view from the dining room window. The window framed out is the new kitchen window - the sink goes under it. When this photo was taken on the 7th, the roof rafters were being finished. It is probably all sheathed by now. Pretty cool, huh?!









Here is the same view from the outside. That small opening will actually be the walk-out from the dining room. You can see that all the siding has been removed around the whole house and the roof is tarped over.









On the inside, the kitchen cabinets are being removed and the whole fire-damaged area has been sprayed with Killz - the fumes are awful!!