The Deck to the Formerly Unreachable Front Door

Once upon a time, the front door to the Lucas residence was about seven feet above ground with no way to get in! 

 Enter Lucas children, Hagerty boys, and three nephews from Missouri. 

Things began to change around here!

  Along with the barn-raising, they began our deck the Saturday before Labor Day.

Jonathan's work crew in Colorado had torn down a deck some time before we moved, and Jonathan had saved all the decking for our own deck in South Dakota. It's been sitting out in the back yard behind the clotheslines.

We gals helped the boys haul all that to the front for the builders. 

We gals also watched from the dining area window (also salvaged from one of Jonathan's jobs in Colorado before we moved). This house is a lot of piecemeal!!

For a while the deck looked piecemeal, too!

But especially Joey kept at it late that Saturday night.  

The decking spacers (or whatever they were called) ended up not being quite the right size, and some of the guys and gals both worked for hours trimming bits off them to make them usable, in the absence of being able to buy new ones.

Everyone was up late waiting for Krissy Miller and Carrie to arrive back from the Rapid City airport. 

 Tim looks ready for bed after sawing all sorts of decking boards and getting black in the process. 

Working in the dark

 

Busy as beavers Tuesday morning

More views

 

 This was probably Monday, actually.

 Building the front doorstep.

 

Building the steps to the deck. Having our house built into a hill creates the need for lots of steps!

Danny working under the steps 

Hannah grabbing an unofficial photo that was too funny to not put on the blog. 

This is the official photo we were getting ready for above! Tim and Danny helped till nearly noon on Wednesday to make sure the steps to the deck were finished.

  

Crystal posing for me with the deck and steps! Now we need the little roof over the front doorstep. Jonathan will saw the posts down to size, and hopes to have some kind of log beams across. And stone on this one front wall of the house. 

One step at a time--one day at a time--because there is no use quitting.

We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but today we will simply do the task at hand and trust God to do the big things that we cannot do. 

An Almost Amish Barn-Raising!

 We've loved hearing about Amish barn-raisings, but we just experienced an Almost Amish barn-raising our very own selves over Labor Day weekend!

Our Tim spearheaded getting all our seven children together over Labor Day weekend, along with several cousins and friends, to raise the barn for us.

 

Only a couple days earlier, Jonathan had a concrete company pour for a job near town and then empty the truck for the barn piers at our place.  

And then the sons, nephews, son-in-law, and Hagerty boys arrived, 

along with two nieces, Elizabeth Hagerty, and Sam's girlfriend Caitlyn who helped with meals and good cheer.

Here is what our basement kitchen looked like each meal for a couple days!

 

The first day went slowly as the guys tried to figure out how to put the kit together that Jonathan had bought in Colorado off of Craigs list, before we moved up here.

There were no directions and they discovered one wall's worth of tin was missing!  

But by hook or by crook (or maybe both) they got that frame up and tin on the walls and roof.

Those guys were just amazing.  

 Barn-raisings would never be complete without the ladies doing the cooking, would they?

 So here they are!

My girls with Krissy, Iva's daughter. 

Getting steaks ready to grill--some from Rose's elk and some from our steer. 

Home baked french fries along with the steaks.  

 Burgers and fresh salsa another meal.   

What a happy time!

Will I Be Forgotten?

When I arrived home from several days away near Colorado Springs for medical appointments, Jonathan, Crystal, and Danny had walked down the drive to meet Hannah and me. 

 

And when I came into the kitchen, this beautiful wooden message met my eyes.

"Today--Tomorrow-Always--I love you."

Jonathan had found it at the Runnings ranch store recently.  He had known a little of a heartache I had shared--the fear that if I don't make it through this physical battle, he and the children will be left without me.

And I was afraid that in an effort to forget the grief, they might forget me.

Like a young lady, Jill Riddle, with whom I went to college, who married, had two young daughters, and then passed away with ovarian cancer perhaps 15 years ago, who shared her fear of being forgotten by her young daughters, I was also afraid of being forgotten.

"I will make sure our daughters do not forget you," the young husband had promised Jill. And although he had remarried, he had made good on that promise. I have received more than one letter from one of those daughters through the years, one not that long ago.

Ever since Jonathan's mother passed away, I have hoped that I have been an example of remembering someone we cared about--by encouraging Jonathan's dad to buy wreaths to place on her grave, and then going with him to visit the grave.

We've remembered Mama also in little, happy ways. It doesn't have to be sad forever, the remembering. It can be happy once again once the pain of the loss is further in the past.

Like wearing Mama Lucas's lavender skirt last weekend for the first time, and when Jonathan told me my outfit was pretty, letting him know that it had belonged to Mama.

And in each other's arms together, for just a moment, we had just remembered.

Softly. 

This morning in church four cousins sang "My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me," one of my personal favorites, ever since a fellow missionary sang it to me over in Ukraine, when I was terribly lonely. This time, a young son sang as a solo the verse, 

"He makes the rose an object of His care,

He guides the eagle through the pathless air.

And surely He

Remembers me,

My heavenly Father watches over me." 

And I know that whether living or dying, there is Someone Who will never forget me, on Whose hands my name is engraved.

My heavenly Father will never forget me,

and He will never forget you, either. 

Happy. Sunday--Our Family Together

It was such a happy Sunday--all seven of our children in for the holiday weekend, and Rose's Tom, and Sam's girlfriend!

Just missed Ricky, Crystal's boyfriend, to make the family circle a little more complete. 

It was good to have a day of rest after a long, hard day of work yesterday. The "boys" visited in the livingroom...

while we gals made breakfast and got dinner going. Jonathan got this picture!

Conversations happening on the main floor while Tim observes from his high perch in the loft.

Hannah and Ezra trying out guitars.

Part of the crew crossing the road to church at Lakota Community Chapel. 

Crystal sang "His Eye Is on the Sparrow" while Carrie accompanied on the violin. 

Four cousins sang "My Heavenly Father Watches Over Me."

And Jonathan and I did our best to sing "I Will Trust When I Cannot See."

At home, the young people gathered in the livingroom to go over Scripture memory (several cousins are memorizing the entire book of James), playing games, and practicing music. 

Ezra had brought some prints of Rose's wedding for her. Jonathan and I admired those together with her...

including this totally charming one of everyone watching the kiss--except for a couple boys who covered their faces with cowboy hats! 

 

In the evening service at Hope Family Chapel, three of our girls and several cousins sang "You Are My Hiding Place.' 

I felt so rich and full--with beautiful music in church again.