Renos, Easter and Baptisms

Correction.  We have short-eared owls.  One of the wildlife photographers (the only one, I might add that asked permission to be on our property) came by and gave us a picture to thank us for allowing her to be around so much!  We were actually getting worried for a while there.  The cars were starting to literally line up night after night to catch a glimpse of these owls.  When the photographer dropped in the other night, we asked her how many people she had told!  She said only one other person from the owl society who had promised to keep it under wraps.  The word got out though, that's for sure.  Now it has settled down and we don't think we have to worry anymore, but it was getting a little crazy for a few days....Turns out one of the owl people counted 10 owls!

We were planning our Easter weekend and had our second "family" coming over on Sunday.  So you would think, that is, a regular family would think, "Don't start another reno until after people leave." Not us.  We start a reno right before people come over.  But the friends coming over should take it as a compliment that we are all that comfortable with one another to have them over in all the chaos and not worry about it.

So on the Thursday night, my husband got it in his head, "Now's the time to start sanding the ceilings."  Ok!  Sure!  He had been procrastinating because it was going to be such an awful job.  I didn't dare push him.  I had offered multiple times to do it on my own, but he knew it was going to be a very messy project and was not going to let me.  It was getting late on the Thursday night, but no matter.  We called the older kids and had them start taking the furniture out of the room.  Before long, the whole room was cleared.  Half was in the kitchen, some was in the loft room, and the big couches were in the shop outside.  Ready to start.  With a dust mask on, a hat and his sander, RM got to it.  By Sunday, he wasn't even half way through, but the beams are starting to look amazing.  The final product will be beautiful as we slowly but surely bring this old house back to life.  But again, not for the faint at heart.  It is a slow process.  I enjoy it most of the time, but the chaos is not always easy to live with.  I also think it's the not knowing of just how long it will take.  Sometimes I just want to know!  It could be years more.  But we've gone through all the back and forth of "Should we have just bought new?!"  and the answer is always, "But then we wouldn't have this or that or this or that....."  So we press on and hope that we make it through!  It continues to mesh with the debt-free plan.  Do it ourselves.  Don't hire, unless absolutely necessary, although I have admitted to RM that I absolutely love the word "sub-contractor"!  And, we do all this, keeping in mind, one day it will help our place sell and then we'll get top dollar if we ever need to.  A house around the corner that was recently built and looks like a new version of our's sold very high and that was with no land.  So I'm encouraged to go for the long haul.

Easter dinner was kept to one room and one room only as there was literally no where else to go!  Thankfully we had kittens to distract all the little kids.  I was able to somehow pull it all together with very little prep space.  We had just come from a very emotional service at church where several young people including a close friend of our's had gotten baptized.  I was in awe of the testimony of these kids, aged 11-19.  They were so spiritually mature at such young ages.  The power of God in their lives was so obvious and I was so encouraged to hear how sensitive to the Holy Spirit they were.  My friend had been so frustrated that her son had been getting concussion after concussion and was struggling so much with headaches and needing professional medical help.  In the end, he was really unable to do much school anymore due to his need to lay down and not read.  However, God was working in his life and He ended up using this very difficult situation to bring him to Himself.  In front of the whole church he admitted God had been humbling him as he is a very capable boy and had become proud in all his accomplishments.  I couldn't help but cry as I watched him through my friend's eyes.  We don't always see how God is working in our children's lives at the hard times.  I'm sure she can say now she is thankful for the pain God allowed in his life.

All these lessons, all these life lessons, I try to keep at the forefront of my mind all day long.  The battle is never over.  I fight thoughts of discouragement only by speaking truth to myself and asking the Lord to bring these battles won back to mind.  This is what brings the victory over despair.