A Tornado in My House!

Honestly! My house is not always this messy!

 It's just that we've been painting baseboards and trim, changing out windows, and myriad other things.

The last two days two or five of Jonathan's work guys were here working--and it always gets worse before it gets better.

 Like patching water damage up around the swamp cooler and washing dirty registers and vents.

Painting baseboards, moving stuff around for every new activity... 

and covering furniture and stuff with plastic.  

And trying to squeeze in finishing up the school year.  

The children are flying back to PA tomorrow to my nephew Kenny Miller's wedding to Morgan Yoder, and Danny is taking a couple subjects along to read and finish. 

Danny came asking about a pair of jeans which were too wrinkly to wear, but when I had to go outside to do something else, he ironed the pants himself!

All at the same time, I am trying to sell a litter of puppies.

g

So maybe it is no wonder that this morning I felt a little like this sparrow that accidentally hit our window a couple days ago and was left dazed and bleary on our sidewalk step.

I found it there, and it was so dazed that Hannah could pick it up without it putting up a fight. 

Yes, I felt like that yesterday when Jonathan let me know a couple of his work guys were coming to work for the day, and I hadn't expected anyone till the next day. 

I was frantically putting away any personal items and trying to get a little breakfast and move some things around to get ready for their drywall patching jobs and other things. 

I was also planning to take huge crockpots of  barbecued beef and baked beans, deviled eggs, and banana cream pies to a picnic with the Casalino and Norris families that evening. 

The banana cream pies kind of got put on the back burner after finding out there would be guys working in my house all day and would need lunch made for them, too!

But we survived the day, and had a blessed evening with our frineds.

This morning, however, there were six guys coming to cut out the old windows and put in new. 

I left the busy kitchen to go "read a Psalm or something," I said half in despair as I tried to get ready to meet the day

in which my house would be in total chaos with guys all over it--even changing out windows in our master bedroom and bath!

I got my Bible and started to my window, paging through the Bible while still on my feet.

 

"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden," suddenly came to mind, "and I will give you rest."

As I paged to Matthew to read that passage, another one looked up at me. 

"Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.."

It was all I needed.

No, I did not read a chapter or even pray down my Thursday prayer list.

But suddenly a very dazed and despairing mother had found rest and peace

with which to meet her chaotic day. 

"Come to Me, all you who labor," the Master had said.

So I had come.

And He had given rest.

 

 

 

My New Book--Treasures in the Sawdust in Ukraine

My newest, fourth, and last book in my Kiev series is off the press!  This is my fourth book about our time in Ukraine, and it covers the last two or three years we were there.

 

There are stories of miraculous conversions right on the work site; stories of miracles God did for our precious Ukrainian people; stories of other missionaries (with their permission); stories about our one, two, and three little ones, and many more.

I'm asking $13 for this book (it has 174 pages), and if you mention that you saw about it on my blog, you can order it postage free!

 

The Lilacs that Would Not DIe

 "We tried to kill this lilac bush," the son of the missionary told us.

"We cut it clear down, poisoned it. But it would just grow back."

I looked at that beautiful lilac bush--cut down, poisoned, destroyed--only to grow back lush and beautiful. 

"If they decide to get rid of it again," I gasped, "maybe we could come dig it up and plant it at our place!"

"Snakes would hide under it," the young man explained. It was in the way on the corner of the church where the sidewalk was. But it just grew back. 

And I thought of the church--Christ's church.

All through the ages His church has been cut down, persecuted, and destroyed. 

Yet she grows back. 

She flourishes.

The more the enemy fights her, the more she thrives and grows and spreads. 

No amount of thwarting can overcome God's people.

Because God is on her side, she will not be moved.

He will be with her forever.

She may be cut down and wounded and martyred, but she will never be destroyed.  

Like that blooming lilac bush, she  will just grow back vibrant and alive!

Load to South Dakota--Where Wild Plums and Yellow Violets Grow

Thursday we made another trip to South Dakota. Jonathan was pulling our very ancient 18-foot flat bed trailer with 32-foot trusses on them that were 12 feet wide.

Talk about an oversize load!

Rose and I followed a couple hours later with the van and a U-haul trailer packed with household items that we think we can do without this summer while we fix up our house to sell.

Friday morning Jonathan pulled his trailer up to the hill on our land where we hope to build our house.

Keith Lavery and Nathan Easley arrived about 11 a.m. to help unload the trusses. 

I shot some photos from a little distance. 

Unloading the gas cans that had been stuck inside the trusses. 

The scene from up the hill. The steel beams and parts are for our barn which is supposed to actually go over across the line of trees across from the future house.

One by one we got them off the trailer with nearly everyone taking a corner or a side, and me holding onto the next one each time to keep the others from sliding down. 

I loved how in the photo the sun's rays are shining, like God's grace shining down on this little spot with its little bunch of people just tryin' to do His will. 

 

Earlier that morning, Rose and I had wakened where we spent the night with Judy Sherman and we'd hurried off to the vacant Rosebud parsonage where there is a large garage where we are storing some things of ours.

g

With the help of an SIM missionary's son who had a key, Rose and I and he managed to unload the whole trailer before Jonathan and Hannah and Danny arrived to unload some things from the back of Jonathan's truck.  

This little chapel is in need of a pastor. The parsonage is to the right with quite a green field of grass down this way where I went to take a picture. 

This is from the road. 

This is the back yard.  

The wild plum thickets lining the driveway, in which a yellow warbler was flitting about.

And, oh, the lilac bush! (More about that later!)

Back out at our land, I discovered, to my amazement and joy, yellow violets scattered through the hillside where we hope to build our house!

Oh, I just couldn't believe it!

 Yellow violets just feet away from prickly pear cactus! (If you can see the cactus at the very top of the picture!)

 

Just like deeds of kindness and moments of joy right along with the prickly problems we encounter all through life.

I got a few quick snaps of what the draws look like in the spring. 

 

The tracks in the grass are approximately where the driveway will be after coming across the fields and across the dam at the bottom of the hill.

Further on down, about one quarter of a mile, a mama cow birthed a calf that afternoon. 

One moment she was all by herself, and then a while later, we saw the calf with her. 

Jonathan and I walked down to see the new calf, but there were hillocks and fences, and all that we saw was a bull snake curled up in an old prairie dog hole. 

Earlier, Danny had discovered a burrowing owl in another prairie dog hole.

And then there were the countless wild plum bushes in several areas of the property!

These were across the other draw. You can see the building spot and vehicles in the background.  

A spot in the draw on the hillside. 

After the guys left and the children had done their canoe trip escapade (more about that later) 

Jonathan and I stayed the rest of the afternoon to measure and pound stakes where the house and barn corners go. 

 And all we can do is leave our land, our plans, and our future in God's hands.

Trusses, Curtains, Mops--and Blossoms

Several weeks ago, a friend told us about a set of trusses someone advertised. They were the wrong pitch for the man's roof and he was selling them for less than half what they would cost.

Amazingly, these trusses have an attic room in them, exactly what we wanted for over the garage of the house we hope to build in South Dakota. Danny and Hannah are excited to think they may each have an upstairs room in the new house!

But first, we have to get those trusses up to South Dakota!

 They are about 12 feet wide, when lying down. Jonathan piled some beams under one side of them, but we pray for safety as he drives up to SD this coming week, Lord willing.

Meanwhile, I am going through everything we have and tossing some things, selling some, storing some, and packing some.  

After Jonathan painted all the window frames, Danny hung new blinds for me.

I washed and hung curtains back up.  

While Josiah and Jeralyn Randel were here for a day, Josiah helped Sam and Danny haul an old upright freezer up from the basement. That was a monster to try to get around the corner of the landing on the stairs!

They wrapped a long strap around it, and Jonathan helped pull it up from up above where we ladies were cheering our men.  

Danny and Josiah also spent that day painting the green trim on our house.

It seems that no sooner do we do one job or fixing up, than several more jobs pop up that need to be done. I have a list on the refrigerator.

I mean lists. 

Paint baseboards

 (some of that got done today)

Change out windows

Paint and install window trim

Stain, varnish, and install a few new interior doors

Install new sliding door to deck and trim  

Install door to crawl space and trim

Install doors in front of furnace room and trim

Tear out tile by front door and install new flooring 

 

 Paint bedroom, office, touch up everywhere

Tear out carpet, install new

Restore-a-finish on trim and doors interior

Paint door to garage

Paint chimney

Fix holes in stucco

Fix attic door, paint trim

Pressure wash deck. 

Black the wood stove

Sell freezer, shingle lift. 

Clean crawl space, furnace room, hall coat closet, kitchen cabinets inside and out, fodder house, green house, dog pens, garage. (That's just for starters.)

It looks like no end in sight.

So sometimes we just have to pause and play a game anyway, especially when company is here.

And when I'm running errands in town, I suggest that Hannah take a picture of the blossoms while I run into the bank.  

Because no matter how busy you are, you have to take time to notice the blooms.

I didn't write, "Take loads to the auction," on my list, but that is what we did today. Danny and I took a van and trailer load of stuff to auction for Monday's auction.

And we pressure washed a bunch of old tires, some of which went to auction. Sam pressure washed his truck, and we let the hose run a long time in the front yard.

Because it would be nice if the yard is green for prospective buyers of our home.

And we hoped for rain. We thought it was coming this evening, when the air turned cool, wind picked up, and it looked like a sheet of rain coming from the north over the bluffs.

But there was no rain.

Just smoggy, dusty air. We have never seen anything quite like it. We heard this has been the driest April on record here. 

Lord, in the middle of our work, we need rain!