Home:: Christmas:: Parties:: Walking:: Growing

Home::

Is still a bit turned-upside-down and after the first week of flurry and walls coming down and framing going up, we're down to the more tedious part: furnace/duct work, sanding and sanding and sanding the floors to get all the lead paint off, taping & sanding the drywall, and eventually painting. I'm secretly hoping the painting part won't be so slow-going, but I have learned to hold hopes loosely when it comes to house projects!

As of now, we are still at the Dunphey's house. Who would have thought 2 weeks ago when I threw a few outfits per person in a suitcase that we would be gone this long?!?! Of course, that day we were only thinking Flooring-- not Rearranging the Blueprint of our First Story!

Christmas::

I have good chunks for my Christmas shopping completed, but am still far from being done. Yesterday I placed a few online orders to help fill in the cracks, but I'm not going to lie: it's a bit overwhelming to think about adding packages to the insanity that is currently my house!

That said, I can mostly laugh about it. This is the third time Daniel and I have faced moving into this particular house mid-December and trying to settle/resettle our things while decorating for the holidays simultaneously. I'm feeling surprisingly calm about it all.

Parties:

Calm, that is, until I start thinking about needing to get gifts for Christmas party exchanges or baking cookies for various events. I am being very slow to RSVP to much because I have no idea what we'll be up for as the weeks progress.

But I also don't want to skim over the holidays because of this project. I only get one Christmas with Gabriel as a 7-year-old, Bronwyn as a 6-year-old, Jackson as a 4-year-old, Aubrey as a 3-year-old, and Claire as a 1-year-old. I want to make the most of every minute this year.

It's a good thing the real joy of the season has nothing to do with parties or cookies or trees or baking. I am with these children and my husband wherever we go, and snuggles can be had and candlelight is nearby even when we're not in our own home.

Walking::

Speaking of Claire as a 1-year-old, she has taken a few wobbly solo steps these past few days. Unlike some kids who take steps without realizing it, she seems very aware of the feat. It's kind of cute!

At a day shy of 13 months, she looks like she will be right on track with my other children who-- except Aubrey (I can't say that I really count Aubrey in terms of the "average" since she is an exception in every way, including the fact that she really doesn't look like any of the other children!)-- were officially walking (not just taking wobbly steps) sometime between 13 and 14 months. It's fun to me that we have now established our family patterns. Doesn't it make me sound so grown up when I say things like, "All my kids have done such and such at such and such age"???

Growing::

I so pray that as my children are growing, so am I. It's not just that I want to be a "good mom": I want to be a sincere follower of Christ. I want to be able to show my children through my life a glimpse of their Heavenly Father. There is nothing I want more than for them to see Him and love Him-- no matter where we are or how topsy-turvy our lives and schedules and routines are or whether we have little or much or more or less!

Layout

I don't suppose this will make much sense for anyone who hasn't been to my house before, but for those of you who have, here's a quick sketch of the "new" layout (click through for a bigger image):

The great room? Yeah... it's pretty amazing. I plan on making 2 groups of seating (I currently only own 1, so it will surely be a work in progress-- which is a-okay by me!), plus there will be plenty of room for entering and exiting through both double doorways, as well as space for the piano, my large antique wardrobe, etc. Also remember that there are 3 windows pretty much evenly spaced along the lengthy exterior wall, which lend so much to making it a light and gracious room.

At the end of the great room where I've written "paneled cabinetry & mantel", picture something like this (which is very quick and lacking detail, I must say):

(For a general idea of the finished product, here's a little picture that illustrates the solid trim color & colonial look I'm hoping for:

End picture inspiration.)


The paneled wall/storage will be done at some point, but obviously isn't imperative to moving back in. Neither are the antique solid double doors I want to buy for between our bedroom and dining room.

(Doors like these:

End picture inspiration.)

Now, some reactions to the new bedroom set up have been, "It's pretty small, Brietta," and "In the front of the house?"

Here are a few quick thoughts on why I'm excited about the new bedroom set up:

1. I have really not enjoyed having a ginormous bedroom. It feels like totally wasted space when Daniel & I spend very little time in our room while having a growing family that could totally benefit from that square footage.

2. Perhaps it's silly or indicative of reading too many books as a girl, but I've always had this romanticized notion of my bedroom being a "keeping room" of sorts. Although this isn't right off the kitchen, it is very much just off the main living space and sounds so FUN to me.

(Oh wow-- I'm such a nerd!)

2. Also, the idea of decorating a smaller bedroom space really appeals to me. It feels more "in keeping" with my tail-end-of-colonial-era home, and is much more the style I love.

2. And anyway, the hope is that this room will not always be a bedroom, but will eventually be a library/study. Daniel rolls his eyes when I talk about how we'll make that happen, so I'll spare you the details for now!


As I write, Daniel is (after leaving the house at 4:30am for church work, I might add to give the man full credit for all his sacrifice) over at the house trying to finish up a bit of framing and get the drywall up. Tomorrow the hope is to begin the [long and arduous!] taping process, after which the floors can be fully sanded and then oiled. After that, the house will no longer be "toxic" and we can figure out how we want to schedule our return to the house around painting and trim work.


One of the awesome parts about this work is that, though time-consuming, it's not expensive work. The paneled storage/mantel will be the priciest part, and our friend Eric tells us that even that can be done rather inexpensively since I want it all painted anyway. I feel like we are getting a whole lot more than we're paying for-- and isn't that just the way God is?!?!

House work

And I mean house work-- not of the dusting or tidying variety!

(Though plenty of that will have to be done after all the project work, that's for sure!)

To make a long story short, after 5 years of thinking all the original floors in our pre-1850s house had been torn out (we'd only seen carpet and a standard sub floor), Tuesday morning we discovered that our house has beautiful, wide pine tongue-and-groove planks throughout. Excited doesn't begin to describe how we felt, and Daniel promptly began ripping up carpet so we could see exactly what we had been missing all these years!

Imagine our surprise when some friends stopped by and pointed out that we were disturbing a whole lot of lead paint in all our enthusiasm. Oops!

(Daniel and I are still novices at this home-owner/renovators thing, you know.)

A quick packing of suitcases and relocation to Ryan and Danica's house left Daniel and Ryan free to keep tackling the floors. What beautiful treasure lay beneath all that greatly-disliked carpeting! (If you want to know all the reasons I don't love carpet, ask me-- but they are too long for this blog post!)

Seeing our house emptied of all living room, music room, dining room, and bedroom furniture and decorations (for the first time ever, since our furniture had been moved in before we even arrived in the north country 5 years ago!) began playing with our imaginations. We started picturing how a few wall adjustments might make for a much more useful and utilized home. Adding fuel to that fire was the discovery of where some walls used to be and my long-time dream of a space more suitable to larger gatherings.

To make another long story short, we've removed a wall, enlarged a doorway, built another wall, and pretty much completely rearranged our first floor (aside from the kitchen/family room/bathroom portion). It's a big project, but it's mostly cosmetic and so so so SO fun!

Of course, I say "we've", but we all know that my role in this is simply producing ideas and trying to keep some semblance of routine and stability for the kids. Daniel has been doing what he needs to do at the church and then spending every spare minute working on the house. Alongside him have been a great and wonderful bunch of guys who are so talented and so gracious (and whose wives are equally gracious and generous to lend them). Ryan and Jamie have put in multiple long days with him at this point.

It's a fun adventure we're on, that's for sure! I will do my best to regularly post pictures as we go. I wish I was better at drawing so I could share a "blueprint" of sorts. Maybe I'll work on that soon. For now, here are just a few shots:

a few of the layers of flooring removed before getting to the original plank floors



after a little sanding



half of the wall that is now completely gone



some of the beams we discovered in the ceiling--
these will be left exposed, but will be white-washed

Grace

Last night, Claire hung onto the back of my skirt and cried and cried and cried while I scrambled to finish broiling the fish, roasting the veggies, and rolling out the biscuits. Halfway through this noisy and harried process, Aubrey fell and cut her lip. Then a full-scale football game started in the other room and my calls of, "Too rough in the house, boys!" were ignored until somebody got hurt and the lamp got knocked over.

Daniel came in the door and I was beyond tears. It was almost 7pm and had been a very long day. Half of dinner was sitting on the counter, untouched and getting very cold, while the other half hadn't even made it into the oven. The table wasn't set. My baby was covered in snot and it reminded me every time I saw her that I'd been ignoring her (more or less) for the past 30 minutes while I ran from one emergency to another.

Yes, beyond tears is the nice way of saying "spitting mad."

"How are you?"

I glared. I started throwing plates on the table, leaving mine off. There was no way I was going to let myself sit at that table. I knew two things:  first, I needed a major time out and attitude adjustment; second, I didn't really want to endure the noise of a busy meal table.

"Aren't you going to eat?"

I'm sure my eyes were shooting darts at this point.

Daniel is very gracious. He jumped right in and kindly excused me once everyone was at the table. I sat in the family room and closed my eyes. In that moment, I struggled between just repenting and moving on and welcoming condemnation (which, as any good Christian knows, can be a convenient excuse for the accompanying pity-party).

I never did choose last night which route I would go. After that deep breath, I just plugged back in like nothing had ever happened and got through the evening before collapsing into bed.

The bad thing about not choosing is that I never did repent and I never did tap into grace. And this morning when Daniel hopped in the car at 6:40am and I stood there, sleepy-eyed and raw from the previous day's unresolved bad attitude.

For the next few hours, I went through the motions but felt completely weighed down by my sin and my failure as a wife and mom. I am a fairly silent grump when it comes down to it, but my mood is still prevailing in my house and, boy, could I see how my children were suffering for it. Complaints, emotions, and fighting were escalating all around me. And I felt helpless to deal with it.

Daniel came home again and just in time. I had forgotten about Bronwyn's ballet that was switched to today and my barking reminders

The house I grew up in

Big, white, rambling. It looks just so big from the road, but once inside, you meander along and realize how far it continues in the back. Eaves and various roof-lines keep it from looking massive or austere; instead, it is a friendly-looking sort of house with a wrap-around porch and a wide front door that beckons visitors.

When I was little, only so many rooms were used. Over the years, bedrooms were rearranged and rearranged and rearranged again. I slept in all three of the original bedrooms during my 19 years. I always shared those rooms with sisters and can't imagine it any other way.

One enters the house through the front door. There in the hall are the stairs, immediately to your left as you come in. How many times I raced up and down those stairs, I don't know. I can vividly remember playing church, train, and covered wagon on those stairs, too.

To the right is the parlor, or "front room," as we call it. There are

One

Claire Evangeline came into our lives one year ago and swept us away with her sweetness.
What an easy baby she was.




We quickly realized she wasn't just sweet, but also incredibly cute.
At least, we thought/think so.




Of course, over the months, Claire has made it clear that there's some 'tude to go along with all that cute sweetness!




'Tude, sweetness, and cuteness aside, this girl knows how to get her praise on.




Turning one is a big deal, I think.
For me anyway.
Friends and family are always good to oblige me in a celebration.




And, surprisingly enough, gift-opening wasn't entirely lost on Claire.




But her favorite part was diving into a carrot [cup]cake with cream cheese frosting.
Can you blame her?




We love our girl!
The miracle of watching a child grow never gets old.

Doings

Claire and I tagged along with the college students to the BASIC conference this past weekend. It was a great time with lots of significant ministry from the Lord-- and Claire was a peach, which I had been very unsure about beforehand. She slept pretty much the whole way to Rochester and played happily with Alexis the rest of the time. She stayed up late both nights without much whining, and then slept in Kara's arms Saturday night so I could be a part of the altar prayer time and late-night worship. She didn't wake either morning until 8:30am, which is a record not only for her, but probably for all of my 1-year-olds! Sunday morning she was starting to seem a bit fried, but Holly entertained her for quite a while by giving her rides up and down the escalator over and over and over again. Louissa, who graciously chauffeured us the whole weekend, was the one who had to put up with fussing the last 45 minutes or so of our drive home, when Claire officially "expired"!

I was so glad to be a part. I know that what I do here at home to release Daniel to ministry makes me a part all the time, but it's really a blessing to be able to see a bit of what God is doing in lives. It's so encouraging to see so many people loving Jesus and hungry for His Word and work.

The 4 big kids stayed here in Madrid with Nana and Papa, which they loved. A giant sleepover! The aunts always spoil them, Nana always makes good food for them, and they got lots of help dressing up for the church's annual Hallelujah Party on October 31st.

Yesterday I did massive amounts of laundry (how do 7 people create that much laundry in just 3 short days???), made the enchilada sauce for tonight's celebration of Claire's first year (I think there will be about 35 of us since all the relatives are coming + the Criscitello family), and blitzed the house to get ready for the CFA Mothers Meeting that I hosted last night. Claire's birthday cake got baked this morning (thank goodness for Carina, who will help me decorate it a bit so it's not as ugly looking as most of my cakes), all the kids got baths/showers, and now I will begin the packing process for our morning departure for Pittsburgh before setting up for the party this evening.

School this week is mostly of the home ec variety, but will be finished off on Friday with a trip to the museum of natural history with Grandma Rah-Rah. The reality is that the toilets needed to be cleaned and the laundry needed to be folded more than the math sums needed to be figured-- and I am very content to graduate a 1st and 2nd grader who know how to do those things as well as they know how to read. Just last night I was reminded that good grades don't = knowing how to work, and I want my kids to know how to work! The bottom line is that a good work ethic is highly esteemed not only in the workplace, but in God's Word, and knowing how to work will enable them to learn! It's such a blessing to work together as a family and then enjoy the fruits of our labor, which this week is a house that's ready for guests and the opportunity to see friends and family and attend a special wedding.

I haven't actually written much or even thought much about Claire being a year old. We both, Daniel and I, are shocked that a whole year has already gone by. What a blur. The days really are evil and I feel so challenged and encouraged to make the most of each moment I have. My life is but a moment, and I want to serve Jesus with my whole heart here on earth while I have the chance.

Which today looks like baking and cooking and packing and voting and celebrating and loving on my family!