Since we got home

While I am not yet finished with my "Home for Christmas" series--there is still at LEAST a trip to the farm and "that bug"--life here goes on. And while I'm thinking I might fall asleep tonight before Pixie does (she's having her reading time before lights-out), I thought I'd share our latest big blessing. And those of you who were with us at Christmas may remember how we had a hard time deciding on this one. HA!

BEFORE:


AFTER:
They started moving a lot of dirt before we even got home from our Christmas trip. When we left, we didn't know that this marvelous work was going to happen. The "before" shots are of how the yard looked when we moved in (the photos are 2 years old); we had added a little patio/terrace-y area, and reduced the "raised bed" and done some other things. It was hard to let those things go in order to let someone wreak havoc our yard...but we are so glad we did.

BEFORE:



AFTER:

Doesn't it look tidy?

BEFORE:
AFTER:

I love tidy.

The crew even dug up our roses, artichokes, and more before they got started. I can't wait to re-plant them!

I found times when I was mesmerized by the digger working. The crew really were craftsmen...hand shaping stones to fit together in the walls. We heard this: that before anyone on the crew is allowed to work the digger on a job, they have to use it to pick up a JAR and put it into a trash can. After watching them work, I BELIEVE IT.

We decided to pay for soil improvement while everything was torn up. The contractor mentioned that another one of his client's jobs had leftover sod, and they were having to pay him to keep it alive and would probably be glad to offload it. We had not planned to put in sod this early (read: before mid-tenure review) but the windfall combined with the idea of three children + endless quantities of mud changed our minds. WOW!

Looking for the "before" shots has been a reminder of how much was lost in the fire. Trees I forgot existed; the way there were mounds of honeysuckle. The views have all changed: without so many trees, it hardly seems the same space.

BEFORE:
AFTER:



Other improvements are underway. Our garage is insulated, for example. The folks who are coming to prep the roof & rails for our solar power system will be back in the morning. They showed up today on the dot on time for naps, and said, "We're here to prep your roof and make a lot of noise!" (Big grin). I had Wombles on my hip. "Seriously? Is it loud?" Poor guy. Of course it's loud to rip out roof vents and hammer plywood and rip shingles, etc. "One o'clock is naptime here..." So nice! They'll be back in the morning. We're actually getting a screen door on the front, too. Among other things. Among so many, many other things. So many blessings.

Um, I should mention that the playset was a gift, too.

I think the reason I rehearse all of these things is that we are not paying for any of this (except the soil improvement and putting grass in). Our HOA insurance money from the fire is covering it. These kinds of improvements are happening all over the NEIGHBORHOOD (we're all getting solar, too). I feel like we spent a year trying to claw our way (collectively, as a community) back to some form of normal. Since then, the upward trajectory has just continued.

It may seem like a stretch of a connection to make, but I walk around and am reminded of the redemption of all things, of the world, through Christ Jesus. And am reminded that I'm not just looking forward to another Eden...but to something so much better. I didn't have the vision for anything better than what we had lost when this was what we were looking at:



But Someone did. And if my yard can be redeemed in this superabundant way, in this short time, there is surely hope for the world and for my soul.

Interlude

Today was my Paw Paw's birthday. I try to always call Mimi, and today with work and the time difference it didn't happen. Paw Paw has been gone for 24 years, and had the kind of vivid personality that is unforgettable. I can still hear his laugh. I still miss him, especially this past Christmas at home.



I still miss my Pa, too. Christmas Eve just isn't the same, but it's great to think of him celebrating a perpetual Christmas, Easter, Epiphany and everything else in the light of Jesus. And I'm sure he's not coughing.




They both loved me very much, and I love them. That's all.

Home for Christmas - IV

So many stories, so little time...

Up next: The Christmas Pageant 2009.

We are working on a tradition of acting out the Christmas story from Luke (with a bit of Matthew) every year --either on Christmas eve or Christmas morning. This year we put it off until Christmas night when K and Natalia were to arrive.

We love doing presents, but don't want what--who, rather--we're celebrating to literally get lost in the wrapping paper. I really appreciate my family's willingness to participate in our efforts to ground Christmas in Christ.

One thing I love about my family is that if they are in, they are usually ALL-in. After I had written the parts on slips of paper and everyone had drawn, my mom and the other wise men disappeared into her room for costuming. J read. Whenever we came to a point where there was an appropriate Christmas carol, we sang: "Away in a Manger, " followed by "Angels We Have Heard on High," and "We Three Kings." I think that "Silent Night" was in there somewhere. Here are a few highlights:

I drew the donkey, so Mary (Pixie) rode on me to Bethlehem. My brother D was cast as Joseph.


Auntie M was a sheep (and a fabulous sheep she was), and Auntie N was the other shepherd (my second part, after the donkey). I'm really not sure how my fur jacket from when I was 8 was appropriate shepherdwear...but you never can tell what might come out of the cedar closet. It was GREAT (and N. and I postponed the argument about whose jacket it is, seeing as how she wore it but probably wasn't born when I received it).


Uncle K and Bud were the angels....fearsome and bold.


We shepherds were afraid,


and sang Gloria with them. Glory to God in the highest!

Mary stored up these things, pondering them in her heart.



Herod (and all Jerusalem) were troubled by these things, even as the star shone brightly.

(This year, as my Bible study is wrestling through Matthew, I've wondered why all of Jerusalem didn't run to Bethlehem).



The wise men offered their gifts to the newborn king. Not to Herod, who may have found this lack of gift-giving a little offensive. Or a lot.



During this season of Epiphany, I hope that you, too, will know and be drawn to the light of Christ the King.

Home for Christmas -- Part III

To quote something I think my sister would say (is that possible?), this post is O. Ver. Due.

I am having a roller coaster of re-entry to life in SB, and trying to gather my wits before the train of real-life/real schedule leaves the station Monday morning...

Homeschool starts up again in earnest, and I want to be prepared. I'm excited about what we're doing.

Spanish started up already, which was earlier than I had been thinking.

Our yard has had heavy machinery in it and has been completely overhauled since we got home. It's beautiful and unrecognizable and they aren't finished yet.

We emptied out most of the garage in order to have the ceiling insulated. A wonderful gift we're not paying for, and large quantities of time taking care of it (I use the term "we loosely here).

I've signed the contract for the solar power we'll be getting in the next few weeks.

We did a quick switcharound on the kids' epiphany present after the item we'd planned to give sold out and was on a 6-week delay. Flurry of discussions and research and last-minute decisions...but it all came together and we're all very pleased.

Besides coordinating the children's program at our women's Bible study, I am taking on the teaching for the adults for five sessions this Spring. The first is the 19th, which means I need some questions by Tuesday. Heh. Heh.

I love what I'm doing and feel overwhelmed!

And I am so happy to have fun memories of relaxed play with people I love back in Georgia:


I love this shot of D getting crazy in cutthroat. M is obviously unfazed by his shenanigans, and K and J with their unselfconscious twin pose make this one of my favorite "tableau" shots. No one knew I was taking a picture.

Mom (aka Nona) gave Natalia a very braidy hair-do.

Natalia explained to me how to get the look I wanted. Since, I've discovered that having greasy hair really is the answer. Ha!


I don't know what the joke was, but D is formulating a comeback. You can tell.



And me? I was losing miserably at cutthroat and striking a pose in my new, zazzley T-shirt that J designed for me. Can you read it?

I also had never heard of the game "Cutthroat" before, and am so proud of myself (feeling all pool-sharky) that I have used it whenever possible.

Home for Christmas - Part II

One of the fun things about our time in Georgia was how the kids made DD and Nona's house their own. And I'm not talking about merely cosmetic changes, such as leaving toys and other ...treasures... strewn over and under everything in the house. I'm talking about conceptual changes. For example, one room in my parents' house has been "the new den" ever since my parents enclosed the carport back in 1995. "Where are my shoes?" --"I saw them in thenewden."

At some point on this trip, our children decided it should be called the "playroom." So that's what they called it. And to be sure, much playing was done there.

There was musical play (and I mean more than just Country and Western Singin' Elmo, which Wombles pushed around incessantly in a stroller).


There was sports play (honestly, DD and Nona? a tricycle inside the house? Antique or no, Bud cornered on it like he was driving a racecar...which he thought he was. Thank you for never telling him it was a decoration). But I was talking about Wombles, who ran around with Uncle J's old football helmet. I think if he had looked up at the sky, he would have fallen over backwards.

First and TEN! Do it AGAIN!

There was also roughhousing. I'd like to point out that this series of shots was taken very shortly before J and I left town on our aforementioned anniversary trip. What my parents must have been thinking! DD and the boys had been playing for a while before I got the camera. I love watching the clock over the door move through the progression of shots (I'm not posting all 47ish shots here...). The boys decided that the blue chair was "base," a concept not formerly known to Wombles but immediately adopted from Bud's usage.


From the blue chair they would taunt DD that he couldn't get them.


When he left, they would stage an ambush.

After much wrestling, piling on, and attempts to squash, they would roll off and be easy prey.

Back to the blue chair!

Repeat.

Comin' for you, DD!

Here's a picture of a good sport:


It was a room for grown-ups to play, too. More soon. It takes a while to get through all 1,031 photos from our trip.

Home for Christmas - Part I

Let me announce up front: Yes, we are out of town right now.

Generally I don't like to make that info public online. However, since family members of local (home) friends are staying in our house, and the place is going to be crawling with landscaping crews during most daylight hours, I feel a little bold.

I'm sitting here in my jammies while J, DD (my father) and the kids are up at the farm. I better get dressed and wrap a lot of presents before they get back!

A day or two after we arrived, J and I celebrated our eleventh anniversary. I think I mentioned our anniversary tradition of using an old-fashioned list of gifts, and that this year was "steel."

Well.

This year, with the help of my parents, I combined J's love for puns with the theme and decided to "steel" him away. Before we left SB I booked us at a B&B in Americus, GA, which is about an hour from my parents'. They kept the kids for the night and we had a great time. It was perfect--He thought we were running out to the store while the kids were down for naps...and I just kept driving.

Being December, it didn't look exactly like this, but it was still lovely:



This was the sitting area of our room, where we sat up late watching Bogart & Bacall in "The Big Sleep" which we'd never seen. (Seriously? We were going to just start it but then we couldn't turn it off. The dialogue! The writing! Aaron Sorkin isn't alone! No, my friends, William Faulkner was there first. Duh).


It was wonderful, glorious, delightful. Thanks, Mom and Dad!!

After having a PST Bedtime, we had an EST morning because we decided to get up and go to Sunday School.


It was great. He really surprised us with his biblical literacy, which matched his knowledge of world events (he talked Middle East a bit when he got started; fitting because of the news that morning and the fact that it was the location of the events of the Sunday School lesson...Christ's birth).

Wow!

Gone to Seed

I have gotten way, way behind on deadheading the basil. Actually I started way behind and made a few (futile) slash-and burn attempts to keep it leafy instead of flowery.

I acknowledge defeat.

There is little sting, though, since J made a delicious pesto last week. Also, it's December; I shouldn't really be allowed fresh basil right now, anyway. And finally, we have flocks of little birds coming and perching on the basil plants, eating the little seeds.

They are really cute and numerous.


We love to sit and watch them. Pixie especially likes to describe the plumage of the different varieties. I love so much to see her delight!

Stay tuned for Pixie & Bud's Christmas recital...