Ecclesiastes and Houses

There are three houses that have been forefront in my mind this last week.

The most obvious is my own house. Today the man came to lay the flooring. Tomorrow it should all be done.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, I can hardly believe it is actually happening. How clean it all feels! I’ll not mention the absolute mess the rest of the house is, with the ‘fridge, the table, the couches and the laundry all sharing spaces. But it is an ‘in process mess’. That is not the same as our normal mess, which, hopefully, these flooring and cabinet changes will help alleviate. A time to break down, and a time to build up....

zzz

The other house is the house of people getting ready to start school, babies growing, harvesting fruits and vegetables from their gardens, ENGAGEMENTS, weddings, new jobs, reacquainting with old friends, pregnancies, deliveries, birthday parties, peoples’ trips and vacations, projects finishing and beginning, oh, myriads of things! I don’t know what to call this place, but it is full.Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.

zzz

The other, most important one really, is the house of Mourning. One of my best friend’s close friend’s husband was killed in an accident this last week. It has had a profound impact on us and our community. My heart is full, but I have no words. At home things are beginning to wind down with Grandpa. These things are at the forefront of my mind.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.... For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly...But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Excerpts from Romans 5

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Today we began the process of remodeling and repairing the kitchen.

We may be ready to paint the room by Thursday! I picked out yellow because I like yellow. The cabinets are a lighter colored wood, and the appliances are black.

My patient painter husband said, "Hmm. Yellow and black."

I said, "Yes! Like a bumblebee! It will make us all want to work diligently!"

"A bumblebee– yes, mathematically impossible, but it may fly!"

JulesQ and I may paint the bathroom over the next two days.  I picked out a warm color that compliments the countertop.   

My very patient painter husband said, "Hmm. So you picked out peach."

"Of course not," says I, "It is nothing like peach."

"It looks like the same color of the laundry room," says he.

"Of course it isn’t!" says I.

I show him the paint, it is called Apricot. "Hmm," says I.

And this morning, before he got up I went to the laundry room area which is painted in

and sure enough, it is the same color!!

It is embarrassing to find out I’m so predictable.

We’ve had a pretty fun week. My Main Man has hayed his first field. He gets so excited about things. It was as if we were on vacation. He was taking pictures every time we turned around. We had a set up with our neighbors that they’d hay and keep a portion of the bales, and we’d keep the rest. If Ter’s foot hadn’t been broke recently, I think he would have followed the tractor all around the pasture. We just finished putting our share up in the barn loft. To quote him, it has been an epic day! 

While we were working two songs went through my head:

Psalm 148,  "From heaven o praise the Lord..." and

"The old grey mare just ain't what she used to be...."

Since I had such a grand view from the loft, I couldn't resist a photo of the Ladies.

Visit again later!

Last weekend was our Church’s annual Sunday at the river. There is a beautiful cabin, garden, orchard and the river for fishing and swimming. Often people go up on Saturday to "help set up", translated: to play. There is a sturdy rope bridge to cross the river, which sounds daunting at first to some, but isn’t bad at all. You have to cross it to get to the grounds. It is very refreshing. We have an extended time of communion after the big meal. This time we had baptisms as well. I wasn’t able to be there, but prayed nonetheless. After most of the people had left, and the final families were packing up to go, there was an accident. One of our two year olds fell in the river, and long story short, was rescued. Needless to say it has shook us all up. There is no earthly reason to explain why he should be with us here today, chatting up a storm as usual, running around playing. I know that God set people at just the right places, at just the right time.

Prayer surrounded this whole event. General prayers beforehand for safety, prayer during the day, and of course the immediate crying out for help and mercy, and the many specific prayers of thanks afterward. It has encouraged me to keep praying for others who are drowning in other kinds of trials and those that are stuck in sin. It helps me to remember to pray for those that God will use to help them. It has also reinforced trusting the Lord in all things. I cannot help but correlate in my mind the death of my friend’s two year old daughter, two years ago. It too was an accident, surrounded by prayer. But God chose to take her home. God is using both of these little lives to expand His kingdom. How do believing parents respond? How do the siblings respond? How does our church family respond? We know that our redeemer lives, we know that He works all things together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. This is hope. In the middle of things, we trust in our Holy, Sovereign God. 

This is a summer of remodeling and consolidating for both my sister and I. Consequently, this involves going through numerous boxes. These boxes have been stored by my mom, my grandma, and now us. SissyPoo and I are attempting to get these gone through so that our daughters will not have to have this particular joy in their lives. I know, I know, how could we be so heartless??? In actuality, the girls are very much involved, and we’re planning a day in July where all of ‘us girls’ will get together and go through the more interesting things, divvy up remaining stuff (mostly dishes), and more importantly, to tell stories. Sis and I have been realizing that we’re not passing down the family stories, not because we don’t want to, but because we’re getting caught up in the here and now a little too much to remember where we’ve come from.

All of this sounds very nice. We had our plans. This particular plan has been on hold for four years. We did some sorting with Mom before she died, but we had much more to do. Daughter2 has been out at my sister’s house helping organize and so, yesterday, they brought down two boxes to my house. We did a quick sort, somewhat. A neighbor was with us, and she flipped through a cookbook- one of our MANY cookbooks.

Let me Digress a Moment- The cookbook just mentioned was in a binder. Since the turn of the century- from the 19^th C. into the 20^th C.- the women in my family have written their recipes in copybooks and passed them on down. My very proper great-grandma even has pencil drawings (ok, doodling, but she was very proper, it is hard for me to say that) of two people sitting under a tree. The top of the page has, "under the old apple tree" one character has the words, "my Nola!", the other, "my Johnnie!" They are really fun. There are the early recipes for pudding, moving on up to mousse. Measurements are sometimes interesting, as well as some ingredients- alligator pears? Those are avocados. It is also interesting to see what recipes they liked, and what type of food they ate. End of Digression.

My neighbor noticed a section in the back of the cookbook that was dated, and began, "Dear Diary-" Needless to say, that was the Find of the Day. It was a week in the life of my mom, two months after she was married. Sister and I read a page or two, then, since I’m the oldest, and only because of that, I got to keep the book first, as she had to get home. So, this morning, when all was quiet I got to get a glimpse of my mom as a young bride. I’m glad on many levels to have found this. I’m glad that I am able to read this after being married 26 years, after watching how my folks loved each other through thick and thin, in sickness and in health. How do I say this, - how totally weird to see my mom as a 20 year old wife, located in a new town, far away from her family, trying to fit into the routine of their new life. How totally weird to see my dad as a 25 year old cop- and doing the dishes!

She started each entry with the date and ‘Dear Diary’. They were married June 10, 1961 and the week covers from August 27, 1961 to September 4, 1961. She closed each entry with a fancy signature- two- one with her full name and new last name, and then the other with a Mrs.– and Dad’s full name. After my sister reads this, I may share some of it.

P.S.- I got my kitchen measured today for cabinets!!!!