Easter: One

“The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is one of the best attested facts on record. There were so many witnesses to behold it, that if we do in the least degree receive the credibility of men’s testimonies, we cannot and we dare not doubt that Jesus rose from the dead. It is all very easy for infidels to say that these persons were deceived, but it is equally foolish, for these persons could not every one of them have been so positively deceived as to say that they had seen this man, whom they knew to have been dead, afterwards alive; they could not all, surely, have agreed together to help on this imposture: if they did, it is the most marvelous thing we have on record, that not one of them ever broke faith with the others, but that the whole mass of them remained firm. We believe it to be quite impossible that so many rogues should have agreed for ever. They were men who had nothing to gain by it; they subjected themselves to persecution by affirming the very fact; they were ready to die for it, and did die for it. Five hundred or a thousand persons who had seen him at different times, declared that they did see him, and that he rose from the dead; the fact of his death having been attested beforehand. How, then, dare any man say that the Christian religion is not true, when we know for a certainty that Christ died and rose again from the dead? And knowing that, who shall deny the divinity of the Savior? Who shall say that he is not mighty to save? Our faith hath a solid basis, for it hath all these witnesses on which to rest, and the more sure witness of the Holy Spirit witnessing in our hearts.”

Charles H. Spurgeon, vol. 2, Spurgeon’s Sermons: Volume 2

Budgeting

 When you ball on a budget like us, you have to make everything count.

My handyman works for free...but I do have to provide him with an endless stream of cokes to keep him motivated. :)

We're trying to save money where we can, which is so hard when you're trying to work on a home because everything is so EXPENSIVE.  Take high-quality paint for example...there is no way I'm spending $30 per gallon on paint. No freaking way.  So, we tapped into the power of the take-back paint shelf. If you don't know what this is...be prepared to have you mind blown.

There is a shelf at Lowes and Home Depot where they put the paint that people never pick up.  Most of the time it's the custom-colored paints, which usually means it was mixed with a high quality base color.  We strolled over there to look for paint for the garage...and hit the jackpot.  Two tan-ish light colored primer & paint that were almost the same color....for $5 per can.  Yes, that is a savings of $25 dollars per can!!!   We mixed the two together, and bam - custom garage color.

Now...stay with me here...if you happen upon the take-back paint shelf and find the holy grail of take-back paints - a whiteish color - you can have the worker (if you smile pretty) add a custom color to tint it to your desired color - or pick up a couple of custom sample paints and add them yourself. Mixing your own paint can be very rewarding for a DIYer - - Just be careful to make sure you have enough paint to complete your project. If you run out, you'll likely never be able to re-create the color again.

Slowly but surely, we're getting the garage back in fighting shape:

Floors: before and ah!

We started off this weekend optimistically with good attitudes (moving brings out the jerkazoid in me...can I get an amen??) our tile chisel and floor scraper ready to move and work on the floors...

 Ha, what idiots we were.

My DIY bestie and her hubby have stained concrete floors and I love love love them. When whatahusband saw them and loved them too, we knew we wanted to put them in this house. So we listened to their tips and set off to do it ourselves like they did. After all, they made it seem so easy!

(I'm sorry, did I already mention that we're idiots?)

We rolled up the carpet to see what we had....

Nailed it! That carpet came right up! Easy cheesy. The pad came up in a flash too, and the old man smell disappeared, PRAISE the LORD.
We're off to a great start!
Fist pump!

Now...what's under the carpet...

Hmmm...it's tile. Okay okay, not too bad. It's not the easiest thing to get off a slab. Maybe it's not on the entire floor....

Spoke to soon.  It's all over the biggest room in the house. Ok. don't panic. It looked like the kitchen had linoleum because I peeled away some of the fake wood floors and it looked like it was a different color and texture than the living room tile....which would be alot easier to get off the floor than tile, I've heard.

Ah! wrong again! It's just THE SAME TILE with grey glue all over it!!!!!  

Oh gosh this is terrible.

Maybe I'll just learn to live with it...it might not be too bad...

Who am I kidding. It's hideous. It has to go.

Well... nothing left to do but try to get some of it up.  Maybe we'll get lucky and it will just chip right up.  Hit it with the sledge hammer, holmes.

Well... nothing happened.

Ok, really let it have it this time. Sledge it!!

  

We. have. one. crack.

This is the hardest tile on earth.

It's 1/2 an inch think.

10 minutes of hammering, chiseling, and bleeding...he almost had one tile. ONE tile.
(ok moms, no serious blood. Just the typical Whatahusband project amount)

I think it's laced with steel. I'm serious. I could bomb this place and after the dust settled, the only thing left would be this tile. And I would bet money it wouldn't even crack. Stupid tile.

I'm not sure who said it first...What did we get ourselves into?!?!?!

Dwelling

Isaiah 32:18

"My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places."

 

 We are in the throws of moving and remodeling, but eagerly awaiting living out on our new property. Spring is right around the corner, and I'm waiting for the bushes and trees to reveal their true colors....because I really don't have a clue what we've got! ;)       

Most of all, I'm so thankful to God for providing us with such a sweet blessing.  This is our first home together, and it will likely be our last. I can see it - the vision of what it could become.  We anticipate spending the rest of our lives in this place - it will be a life-long project for sure, a work in progress - but isn't that what we are too?  God so graciously loves us when we are not what we should be, and helps transform us into something greater - less of us, more of Him. 

Family Records

I got the idea to do a genealogy chart when I was looking through the tax rolls and surveys of our new property about 2 months ago.   The papers are really just a historical record of those who have come before us - nothing fancy - just signatures and deals of people who have literally walked on the same soil we will walk on.  When we're long gone and the land belongs to someone else, our names will be on the list for someone else's history. It made me feel connected to people I had never met - cue the family tree idea.  These, too, are folks I have never met, but I wanted to know their names.   I found a template* - I'm a sucker for a simple, designy diagram - and set off to fill this baby up. 

I didn't get too far on my own, so I signed up for a 2 week free trail here to see what I could find. 

The records you can find online are simply fascinating.  The more I found out, the more exciting it became!  I found military records naming the men in my family that fought in WW2 and the Civil War, and even discovered my maternal relatives came over to the US from Scotland in 1718.   

Maybe one day I'll be able to fill it up - maybe not - but atleast we'll have a small part of history to show our kiddos....and know the names of the people responsible for giving us our crazy genes. :)

* yes.  DIY. Free template. Click HERE, download, print at kinko's. Vwala!

Stuffed

There were a few months when our hallway was clear, but... that's over now. We're (almost) boxed up and ready to roll on over to our new nest.

  Needless to say - Norman has a not been enjoying this transition. We keep telling him to hang in there, that he's going to big open fields where he can chase bunnies and play in the pond, but I'm fairly certain he's remembering the last time he moved.  He was happily living in a house full of girls and was the king of the coop...now he's just a normal dog in another man's house. Poor norms.

Love

Romans 8:37-39 "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

"Love is not only something God does; love is something God is. God would have to stop being in order to stop loving. Again, our temptation is to humanize God, because we are limited to understanding love as a verb. With God, love is first a noun. It’s what and who He is."
- Breaking Free by Beth Moore


I have been recovering from nasal surgery.  I remember when they were wheeling me back to the surgical room...I had just left Whatahusband and honestly - I was a little scared.  Ok, alot scared. I was calm up until the point when I had to leave him, and I was pushed away all alone.  I couldn't see where I was going or who was pushing me, only hear their voices and watch the ceiling move above me.  I was prepared for the procedure, but not prepared for how alone I would feel. My prayers were increasing, my mind was racing - trying to conjure up the perfect verse that would make me feel better.  I was asking God to give me peace, calm my fears. They parked me in the room, transferred me onto the sterile steel table, and a man's face appeared over mine.  He was greying, and had a sweet smile and a calm voice. I remembered he was the anesthesiologist from the prep room.  He said "Hi. It's me again. I will be right here beside you and I won't leave you.  I'll be here the whole time, until the end.  My only job is to take care of you."  I closed my eyes. Those words seemed so familiar to me...I will never leave you...

I've thought about this moment many times over the last few days, and on Valentines Day, I thanked God for loving me so well. There is no place our Father cannot find us, and no barrier too large to block His love from finding us.