Year End

One year ago tomorrow I started this blog. My goal was simple, to post once a week, a total of 52 blog posts in one years time. This is post number 52.

I wanted to share my journey, my thoughts as I make my way through life, the lessons I've learned and joy I've found. The majority of my posts tell my journey with our home and my losses this year. Several share the little things I'm learning along the way.

I desired to write for myself and also for my kids, but I was also excited to hear from my "readers," to learn from your insights and expand my understanding. I have heard back from so many of you, some whom I know quite well and others I've never met. Some have prodded for more research and growth, others encouraged me in this journey.

I wanted to push myself outside of my comfort zone and "broaden my horizons." Hmm I have shared even when it wasn't comfortable, even when the words I was typing brought tears and break downs. I have put myself, my life, my thoughts out on the world wide web for all to see...for those who know my well, that is waaaaay outside my comfort zone. But in return, I have grown and learned so much about myself.

I don't know what next year holds...but one thing I know, I will most certainly be blogging about whatever it is!

Wishing you all a very joy-filled and blessed New Year!

Above: Little Miss playing with the nativity set during service on Christmas Eve.
Below: As the kids shared the Christmas story and the angels left the shepherds, they were (very quickly) removed from the grassy hills and placed on the hostess counter!

Above: Uncle and Auntie play/sing during music while R dances with a flag.
Below: The advent wreath and lights set up for Christmas Eve service at HomePage.

Siding

Finally! The siding is going up! We agonized over the color...this wasn't exactly a decision we had been planning on making when the year started and it felt like a very heavy decision. In the end, we knew we wanted the white roof and we both enjoy shades of blue. The company that we were working with had two shades of blue, a very dark navy blue and this one, called "Hawaiian blue" although it is darker than the name suggests to me.






The front will have brick wainscoting, in a very nice smoky blue that ties in the blue and white very nicely, in my opinion. Due to cost, it will only be on the front, the blue steel will be continued to the ground on the other sides of the house, as it is on the garage.

Blessings

Sometimes in the midst of challenges and struggles, it is easy to miss the blessings and joy. Many times this year, I have stopped myself in the midst of complaining, of succumbing to the stress of the challenge at hand and literally count my blessings, everything I have to be thankful for. I love this poem by Annie Johnson Flint:

"God hath not promised skies always blue,
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through;
God hath not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow,
Peace without pain.

God hath not promised smooth roads and wide,
Swift easy travel,
Needing no guide.
He hath not promised we shall not bear
Many a burden, many a care.

But God hath promised strength for the day,
Rest for the labor, light for the way,
Grace for the trials, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love."

This path called life that I am walking with God has been hell some days and nearly heaven others. Sometimes I feel so very alone and others so very surrounded by love and support. But I count myself blessed because He has never left my side, never asked my to walk completely alone, and when I can no longer stand...that is when He carries me.


Below: Some photos of a few of the Christmas gifts I made with my new sewing machine...one of the many blessings I am counting this year! An altered apron, a quilt, an apron from the original pattern, a twist on my crocheted towels. Not pictured; stockings, hand woven fabric baskets, more variations on the towels.

Porch

As I mentioned in a recent post, the way the roof and trusses were designed made way for a lovely little porch. It is 12' x 20' and features the front door in the center. We are installing both can lighting in the soffit as well as carriage lights on the house, which will mirror the chandelier in the entryway.






I am looking forward to many evenings on this porch enjoying the sunset and sharing our day together. I also think it will be a lovely spot to watch the sunrise on warmer mornings!

Garage

Our builder priced out doing the garage himself, as well as having an Amish group from the Jesup area do it for us. Their bid came in much lower, so he suggested sub-contracting that out, especially since they could work at the same time and not slow down work on the house.


The garage is to the north of the house, on the same angle, facing south-east. We seriously debated two or three stall garage. Cost now verses adding later. We decided to go ahead with the three stall, especially since the storm shelter is also going in the garage. Two garage doors will be installed after the concrete floor is poured and cured. One 8' x 16' and the other 8' x 8'.


Once basic construction was completed, they placed plastic over the doors and ceiling to help hold in the heat. They placed a heater in there to thaw out the ground, which now had frost a few inches down. Once prepped, four inches of concrete will be poured. And this becomes the base to secure the storm shelter. These little "rooms" are rated for EF5 tornadoes, with enough room to seat six adults. We will have emergency supplies stored inside. The likelihood that we will ever need it is not high...but then neither was the likelihood that the corn crib would be blown over!

Christmas

Merry Christmas from Corn Crib Acres! While this year has been full of ups and downs, the holidays are a chance for such tremendous joy. Our celebrations started the week before, shopping, preparing, mailing and delivering care boxes from our church. I always enjoy this ministry opportunity!

Thursday brought the gathering of women to my sis-in-law's home for our annual lefsa making. For those non-Norwegians out there, lefsa is a potato tortilla which is usually served warm with butter and sugar and then rolled up and eaten quickly! Flour usually ends up covering the kitchen and the cooks, as does laughter and joy. The babies come along too and join in the fun. Below is my mother-in-law (Mavis) holding her newest grandchild, my nephew Ansel at his first lefsa making.

Friday night was Sabbath dinner at the in-law's. Mexican done right, or so I was told! Putting up the tree and stockings, hanging the lights and decorations, eating lots of yummy food and treats makes for an evening full of precious moments.

Saturday was a special Christmas Eve service at church. Lights, candles, special music, stories and dance. I always love our Christmas Eve services!

Saturday night we spent in Iowa City with my side of the family. Lasagna, salad and cheese bread...yumm! The guys played some games and the kiddos enjoyed a movie while we ladies visited and caught up on our week. Below is our Little Miss in her adorable little Christmas dress opening a gift from her Great-Grandma.

After the kids are in bed Christmas Eve, "Daddy Santa" and his "Elf" helper fill the stockings, put presents under the tree and eat cookies! The kids know it is just mom and dad, but seem to really enjoy this tradition. (It also keeps little ones from discovering gifts before its time!)

Sunday morning...Christmas morning! Sweet rolls baking in the oven, lights twinkling on the tree and little ones dancing around the house excited open their gifts. Each child receives one gift from us and a handful of items in their stockings. Christmas is not about getting "stuff" in our house. We emphasize the gift that God gave us in the birth of Jesus and the awesome opportunity we have to give and share with others. This year, the older three got a Toy Story 3 "life size" doll. Here are the smiles of joy after opening them!

After loading up the vehicle and heading out of town, we stopped by the "house site" to make some special Christmas memories in the new house. We had been gifted an additional artificial tree and set it up in the entry way of the new house (without telling the kids). Then we bought them each something else they weren't expecting and set them up around the tree. Then daddy brought them in through the front door as I tried to capture their surprise with the camera.

Our oldest got a "Polar Express" train set (Menard's Black Friday sale!). Next one received a guitar to replace the one lost this summer, which she uses for music at church, as well as a new princess doll. Little Man got a Batman toy (a recent favorite) and a little Mario toy for his new room. Little Miss received a toy purse. And I surprised Ben with a rc helicopter to replace the one lost this summer. Very precious memories!

Then we traveled the five minutes to Ed & Mavis' for Ben's family Christmas. Yummy dinner, lots of laughter and more fun!

From our family to yours...Merry Christmas!

We have a roof!

There are moments when progress seems SO SLOW! And then there are days where big changes are visible! The day the roof went on...was one of that was very visible and very exciting! We chose white steel again. We enjoyed the energy efficient benefits that it gave us with the corn crib. This is one piece we are keeping the same.




Next house piece....garage!

Windows and Doors, oh my!

The doors and windows were largely debated. Where, what size, how many, what color, what brand, well, you get the idea. We settled on Anderson Window's 100 series casements for the house and matching in the garage. White trim, energy rated glass and basic screens. We made most of them standard easement windows (2'6" x 4') for safety. But I had fun creating a couple unique windows that, in my opinion, really look sharp!




The doors are a Jeld-Wen 36" insulated steel door. Three exterior doors, one on the front, one off of the kitchen (to the north) and one in the garage (that lines up with the one in the kitchen). I ordered them in bronze to match the hardware and limit the number of contrasting colors on the front of the house. I also have a special project planned for the front door and want that to be the focal point, so I wanted to give it a simple, elegant backdrop.

I'm sorry these photos are not very good, but they are all I have of the windows without seeing the roof...which is coming up next!

Lessons

Amazing, how no matter what I face, I always have lessons to learn! Lessons about who I am, who I am becoming, who my God is, about my life, my goals, my relationships... This process has been no different. Some of the lessons are familiar, apparently I don't have them down yet! Some were new ones this time around. Some have involved others, some I've had to face on my own. I have coveted prayers during this year, but not just for the house stuff...for the me stuff too!

One of these lessons I would like to share, just a bit of. I keep revisiting this one, but this time I had a new piece. I am not the center of the universe! I know, shocker, right! I seem to need to be responsible for everything and everyone and look, no I hunt for what I've done or said or should have done or said to make it better, to prevent it, to keep peace and harmony. I have to consciously work at letting things go. I repeat to myself more often than I'd like to admit "It's not about me!" That person being mean on the phone, not about me! The cashier cursing, not about me! The phone message I left that hasn't been returned and my husband's bad day at work, not about me! Most of what I encounter really has little to do with me. I have to let it go!

I cannot own everyone else's feelings, emotions, bad days, challenges, struggles...I can only own mine.

I can, however, support my husband, children, family, friend, or even stranger in working through their feelings. I can be a listening ear. I can be a shoulder to cry on. I just might be the one God uses to meet that need.

And this is the new piece. The thing I knew, but didn't really "get." If I am truly His temple, His hands and feet, if I embody the risen Christ, then it is never about me and always about Him. Who does He need to minister to today. What does He need to say in this moment. It isn't about what Jesus would do...but rather, what He is doing in and through me.

When I'm facing a long line at the store, a sales person with a bad attitude, someone being rude, I will ask God to bless the people I'm encountering. I ask Him to give me the words, the actions, even the expressions that this person needs from Him in the situation. I know, it sounds a little strange, but it totally changes my attitude, my outlook and my experience. What could be a nasty situation has all the potential to bless...and I want to be a part of that!

I invite you to join me in this, to see each situation and encounter as raw material for God to use. And please, let me know what happens!

I also encourage you to look into The Ultimate Journey from Christ-Life Solution, based out of Des Moines, Iowa. Their three phase class is life changing! (Feel free to ask me more about that, too!)

Trusses

This story starts with a bit of history. We had played with several designs before making our final decision. We knew we wanted a ranch style house, but we tried laying it out in a U shape, different widths and lengths, and vaulting various parts of the ceiling. We decided the cost of the U made it unpractical. Making it longer didn't get us the space where we wanted it. Wider sent costs shooting up and narrowed the crawl space (the lvl's and floor joists would have been custom made and much larger to support the weight over that distance).

We settled on 64 feet long by 40 feet wide, which is about 600 sq ft larger than the living space in the corn crib, but a more efficient layout and no stairs. We added an office, bedroom, second bathroom and playroom and moved the laundry/utility room from the garage to the house (to help prevent freezing pipes and limit the piping needed).

The one unique feature we decided we really wanted was a vaulted ceiling over the "entry" area of the main room. Just 3 feet, not much, but enough to hang this beautiful light fixture I fell in love with. Steve (our builder) helped us figure out the roof line to make this work within our budget and even worked in a porch while he was at it. It really was brilliant!

So when the trusses finally arrived, I'm afraid I scrutinized the vault. It just didn't look right to me. I finally got up the nerve to mention it and sure enough, when measured, they were half the pitch they were suppose to be.

New ones were ordered and delivered inside of a week and they looked great! Steve got them installed and all I could say was "perfect!" It was exactly what I had wanted and I'm so glad I spoke up and had this fixed!

Above: Kitchen
Below: Porch

I just love being on the property...it always feels like going home! I am looking forward to making this new beautiful house our new home!

Closets

On a beautiful, sunny, and very cold afternoon in November, our family made the trip out to the property to meet with the builder and install the closets. Each of the kiddos helped raise the walls for their closet. Mommy photographed and Daddy videotaped the event. The kids have real ownership in their new house, which we hope will help make it a "home" much faster.

Above: J pushing up the framed closet wall in his soon-to-be room!
Below: Next, A took his turn raising and holding his closet wall while the builder nailed it in place.

R's closet wall was interrupted by a support while we wait for the roof to go on and reinforce the building. So she put up Little Miss's closet.

Below: Little Miss loves visiting the house...lots of room to run and stuff to get into! She tried to help hold her closet walls too!

Next...the saga of the trusses!

Framing

I got to be out at the property the day most of the interior walls were framed. It was so exciting to see each room take shape from the 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper that held our design. Ben's office, the bedroom, master bathroom, laundry/utility room, second bathroom...I can see paint and curtains and our family actually living here!

Above: View from the entry way (middle) of the kitchen (north-east corner).
Below: View from the entry way (middle) of the living room (south-east corner).

Above: One of the boys' rooms, closet walls still to be installed.
Below: Standing in the girls' room (south) looking through to the office (north).

They had already started the trusses before I got these pictures taken...but that's another story!