The Porch Project

We have been in the midst of remodeling the front porch on our almost-century-old farmhouse for the past week.  The carpenters came to put in the floor underlayment and the rafters on the ceiling, then left it like that while we had our graduation party.  This past week they have been working like the proverbial beavers and that space has been transformed!

It is with bittersweet feelings we engage in this project.  I loved the old porch.  It had originally been an open porch, then somewhere along the years, long before we moved in, someone had enclosed it and lined it with windows.  I would have preferred an open porch with a cozy porch swing reminiscent of bygone days.  But, in the state it has been, it was not used a great deal by us and tended to be a catch-all for the things we didn’t know what to do with: toys, lawn chairs, even the benches from the van when we needed to remove them for some reason.  In general, it wasn’t a space we had utilized to it’s full capacity.

So, when the season of our lives changed, it became apparent that it was time to make the porch into usable space.  My mother-in-law will be joining our family circle as soon as this project is done.  She suffered a stroke six months ago, and has spent that time since in a nursing home for rehabilitation.  We are pleased that she has made so much progress.  However, she has only partial vision now and that precludes her from living alone or in assisted living.  So, we chose to offer her a home with us.

That meant, however, we needed to find a space for her to move into.  With ten people living in this house, there is no spare bedroom.  In fact, our oldest daughter is complaining she needs a space of her own, but we tell her she can move into the attic. 🙂  Grandma, of course, cannot do many steps anymore, so the best place for her is the back room which now serves as our office/library.

This 10×10′ room houses thousands of books, and that’s no exaggeration!  I am a bibliophile, and cherish out-of-print childrens books.  Over the 24 years of homeschooling, I have collected thousands of books.  I often tell my husband I never met a book I didn’t like (which isn’t REALLY true) and that you can never have too many books (which, of course, IS true).

So, with the prospect of Grandma joining our household, what to do with all these treasures is the main question.  Fortunately, it hasn’t been too hard to find an answer.  The Porch Project will be the new home for our two desktop computers and their miscellaneous paraphernalia.    The bookshelves already in residence in the present office/library/soon-to-be-Grandma’s-room will be able to stay in their familiar surroundings.  We will nestle her bed and chair and personal belongings in between and around the bookshelves.  Hopefully she will be comfortable with all the words that will envelope her!   The good news is that new bookshelves in the Porch Project will give  homes to the many books that are stashed in many corners of the house and reduce the claustrophobic feeling of being overwhelmed by them….I hope!

We have watched eagerly as the old windows were removed and all of the outdoors felt like it was in our living room.  Then the new walls and windows went up and suddenly it seemed like a room, a real room.  From the outside, with siding applied, it looks attractive.  From the inside there is still much to be done.  My dear hubby, handyman that he is, got the electrical wiring done last night, and the sheetrock will be going up early next week.

Then comes our part, for which we went shopping today: constructing bookshelves, painting, finishing off the woodwork, putting in the oak flooring, installing the lighting.  The goal is to be done in two weeks…we’ll see if that goal is met.  Grandma is eager to join us, and we hope to have her here for a couple of weeks before she heads to Oklahoma to spend the rest of the summer with her daughter’s family.

This is the first time we’ve ever hired anyone to do work around our house.  It has been a fascinating process to watch, even as we mourn the loss of the original design of the house.  On one side of this room will be our computer stations, on the other, a reading corner and the musical instruments, music and practice space.  However, I’ve been eyeballing that corner and have determined that a five-foot grand piano will fit lovely into the corner, so now I am waiting for that to appear in my life.  I have the long-awaited space for it, that’s a big step in the right direction!

Read Full Post »

PRECIOUS & PERILOUS TIMES

Once again it’s been awhile since I’ve posted on my blog.  Life has been busy; what can I say?  In three days we’ll be celebrating Son #4’s graduation from homeschool-high school.  So for the past two weeks we’ve been cleaning the house top to bottom.  Finally, I think that marathon is done, and we get to the fun part of preparing the food and decorating.

My son, the graduate, is embarking on a career as a pilot–well, of course, he has to go through all the training first!  But that is his desired field and has been since he was four years old, when he can to me and asked me to teach him how to fly!  Come August, this son will begin his pilot’s training, and this mother will be on her knees a lot, praying for his safety!  I just got to the point where I can ride in the car when he’s driving without being extremely nervous!  I’m glad I don’ t have to fly in the plane with him for awhile!  Those pilot instructors must have nerves of steel!

As I watch one more child leave our nest and begin his flight pattern, so to speak, I have bittersweet melancholic feelings.  As one more of my offspring graduates, I see how the rest have grown and matured, and every other year now another one of them will be taking their leave.   I’m so glad I have lots of children because it will still be ten years before my last little one is ready to try her wings.  But having many children doesn’t make the parting easier, just familiar.  I know that the letting-go process is is just that–a process.  Sometimes my young’uns are impatient with the process as I peel my fingers off one-by-one.  I try to explain to them that I’m still trying to get used to this whole idea: that they’re adults and capable of making their own choices.  (Gulp!)

Sending a child off into the world in these days is challenging because the world around us is so uncertain and tumultuous.  As a mother, I want to embrace my children tightly and do my best to keep them safe.  I was just reading about the increase of tensions between North and South Korea (as if they need more to fight about!) and the escalating situation in the Middle East with Iran and Israel.  Some investors are saying cash is the best place for your money right now since the stock market is so volatile.   Add to that the economic meltdown happening in Europe, the border tensions with our country and Mexico,  the distressing governmental decisions, and the world seems like a very unstable place.  Almost like walking on a water mattress–every time you move, the surface underneath you changes.

Every day seems to bring more news of an entire world in free fall.  I think most people are trying to cope the best way they can by focusing on the daily aspects of their lives and hope the rest of the world doesn’t totally disintegrate.  I know,  just keeping body and soul together these days is a struggle.  If a person tried to carry much of the weight of the world events,  they would collapse under it.

I’m so glad I don’t have to carry that weight!  World events truly are out of our control.  Do you know why?  Because they are in the hands of the One who created the world.  Out of OUR control and in HIS.  It makes it so much easier to cope all the insanity of the world around us when you realize that it is ultimately in the hands of the Ruler of the Universe.

This year in our homeschool we have been concentrating on ancient history.  My main exposure to that time period was an extremely boring school session long ago, and I dreaded tackling it.  I can’t tell you what an amazing experience it has been!  I’ve read the Bible most of my life, but to see how all of that actually fits into history, that all the people mentioned really did exist, is mind-boggling.  And how God used all these events in history to bring about His will.

For instance, Persia was a powerful empire in the BC-years.  They fought with Greece for dominion, they aligned with Assyria awhile, and they were the dominating force of the world for a period.  Cyrus, the ruler of Persia, was used in a mighty way by God even though he was not of the Jewish faith.  He allowed the Jews to return to their homeland and rebuild Jerusalem and even supplied them with the materials and valuables to do it!

In the course of human history, nations have fallen and new ones arisen.  In their own turn, various countries were dominating world powers: Persia, Assyria, Egypt, Greece, Spain, England, France.  Now we come to this day and age, which has been the age of the dominance of America as a world leader.  As a nation, America is only 230 years old.  Yet we see before us the possible diminishing of the power she has held as our economy falters, our debt load overwhelms our productive ability, and our government becomes more socialist instead of republican.

In the natural sense, I fear for my country and her future.  And I fear for the future of my children in this unstable world.  But in a spiritual sense, I know God is in control, and He will rule the nations.  In 1948 He established the nation of Israel.  After centuries of disbursement, the children of Israel had a homeland again.  However, it came at a very high price, as a result of the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust.   Prior to that time, no one could conceive of a Jewish homeland and suddenly, there it was.

I know God has all things in His hand, even though it looks frightening to us.  He has a Master Plan.  America is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible, so we can’t know what His plan is for us as a nation.  But as His children we can rest assured that He will care for us through all the trials and challenges ahead.

So, with comfort and trust in that, I send yet another of my precious children out into the world.  His purpose for each  of us is revealed as we walk in fellowship with Him day by day.  When things look too frightening, I need to fix my gaze on Him, not on the world around me.  None of this is a surprise to Him.  Someday we will be able to look back and see how perfectly He brought about His will in the world.

Read Full Post »