Ongoing Projects

Although remodeling related tasks continue to absorb a great deal of our time in our new home, we are starting to settle into a more normal life. (Though if you ask Michael, he will say, "I want to go back to normal; boxes aren't normal.") I'm not as picky (though I will confess the piles of boxes are starting to drive me a bit batty). Kurt and I are finally sleeping in a bedroom and for me, that feels nice and normal.



We've been sleeping in our bed in our own room for more than a week now and I just love it! In the morning, dancing beams of sunlight reflect off the pool onto the ceiling in our bedroom to greet me. I love the look of sunshine reflecting off water and praise God the swimming pool ended up in exactly the right place.

I've started unpacking kitchen stuff in earnest.



I love my new kitchen so much. I've been doing all sorts of cooking just because I can. I've made homemade pasta more times since I got my new kitchen than I ever did the whole time we lived in Brewton.



I've discovered homemade noodles are wonderful cooked in the chicken broth left over when I boil a stew chicken for ginger chicken.

I love all my counter space. I probably don't have any more counter space than I had in prior homes, but I've never had it all in one long run and the sheer length of it makes all the difference.

I love my kitchen. I love the impractical "Shoreline Green" color on the walls and I love, love, love the counter tops and cabinets Bob built. And it just keeps getting better as Kurt builds my pantry space in the laundry area. God is so good. By all rights, considering our own resources, I never should have been able to have such a nice kitchen. But I do.

We brought home our new livestock protection dog last week.



He is still a puppy. A 55 pound puppy. We brought him home hoping he would keep our chickens safe from predators and would put us closer to raising dairy goats eventually. But "Strider" is such a cute little guy and we've all spent too much time playing and interacting with him. I suspect he would rather be a big pet than a working farm animal.



But poor Strider was so sad when we brought him home. He missed his goats and his family and it just broke our hearts. In fact, Strider managed to get out of the fence his first night with us and we despaired of seeing him again. But lots of prayer and God's mercy brought Strider home the following morning. We are so grateful.



Even though Strider looks forlorn in these first day pictures, he is starting to become much happier with his new home here. We are very glad.

In the meantime, Gregory has done a great job returning dirt to the back deck foundation by the pool. However, when it started raining a couple days ago, we gave him an inside job.



Gregory is removing Thinset from the concrete sub floor in the kitchen. On day two of the job, today, Gregory recruited some help.



Michael really loves helping and really threw himself into the project. I love the way my children want to be a part of the projects around our home.