A Glimpse At Our Home

I'm finally back, and with pictures no less! You finally get to see some of the finished product. The living room, guest room, and back porch/pool will have to wait as they are still works in progress. I want the guest room to be perfect before I let you see it, that way hopefully I can lure some visitors to the sunny south. Those of you who know me well, know that renovating a home has been a dream for me. I wouldn't have wanted a house ready to be lived in, that is no fun. Harold and I have had an absolute blast picking out colors and flooring. It feels like our home has been custom made for us. I guess it has been. While I know that I am no interior decorator, I love doing it anyway. On nights that I work HGTV is my weakness. Believe it or not my house is almost completely furnished and decorated from garage sale, thrift stores, and hand-me downs. (That even includes my bedding, which I dearly love) My goal in decorating this house was to create a haven for my family. Kids face so much more now than we did when we were growing up, home should be a "safe place", a place that they look forward to getting back to. I also want my home to be a place that enables romance to continue to blossom through the years. We've all heard stories about the man who never wants to come home because of the chaos. While everything here is far from perfect, I hope that Harold feels like coming home every night is like going on a little retreat. We are also looking forward to having a continuous stream of guests in our home. There always missionaries coming through MFI who need a place to stay overnight. We are so excited about being able to open up our home to them and exposing our kids to some real "heroes". I know, I know, come on Kayla and show us the pictures.

I'll start with the kitchen. My dear Father-in-Law did a phenomenal job painting the cabinets. Since the previous owners stripped the house of appliances I finally got my dream of stainless steel ones. Actually they aren't the real thing, just the cheaper version, but they make me happy. I'm trying to give my kitchen and dining room a LA feel. Does anyone get a craving for a good cup of coffee or a big bowl of gumbo? Oh well, I'll keep working on that. So here's before,

and here's after.

I can't seem to find a before picture of Harold's office, but here is the after picture anyway. We were trying to find office furniture when someone brought over these two tables. It worked perfect to put one in the middle of the room looking out at the yard and the other behind for the printer, books and other junk.

We didn't have to do much to the main bathroom to make it usable, just put in a toilet. We did rip out a box light over the sink and paint it a lighter color. So here's before,

and here's after.

The boys room is definitely the most fun, as it should be. Ethan and Collin's room was done in nautical stuff before so I decided to just make it the same for all four. This room is so big that we decided to put all of them together since they prefer it that way. Here's the mustardly before,

Since I can't fit it all in one picture I'll go clockwise around the room. Here are Collin and Landon's bunks.

Dylan's bed is definitely the focal point of the room. I told you before about exchanging cheese for the boat. It is no longer sea worthy, so Harold offered to take it off the owner's hands, so with a little bleach and paint we now have a boat/bed. My Mom hit the after Christmas sales and got the tree. Harold wants to put some coins and beads in the chest, but it sounds like a nightmare to me. I don't want the rest of the house decorated with fake gold and that is exactly what would happen.

Ethan ended with the Captain's bed since he is the oldest, not because he is in charge (contrary to his opinion)

Last but certainly not least is our room. (mine and Harold's) This was the room with all the dog hair, if you care to remember.

Here it is as it appears at this time. Please excuse the curtain, I realize that it needs some work. Don't be too hard on me.

Since I'm trying to cultivate romance I'll let you see our AMORE sign under our wedding picture. Now don't you feel warm and gushy.

That's all you get to see for now, come back for more in the future.

We are still so overwhelmed with the home that God has given us. We are paying less a month to live here than we were paying for our trailer. It hasn't sold yet, but we are confident God has everything under control. Thanks for your interest in our lives, we have the best friends and family.

How's Your Hearing?

The last few days my boys have been having problems with their ears. I don't know if it has been caused from moving anxiety or is just unique to little boys. Sunday mornings are always a little hectic around our house, but even more so since we are between houses.So while driving to church I wasn't paying complete attention to the conversation behind me until Collin asked "Mom, was Amazing Grace an angel?". I have no idea what he heard that made him attribute that name to an angel. Then yesterday morning the boys where watching an old black and white version of Robin Hood when I heard Collin say "they must be in hell". I was quite astonished until I heard Ethan respond with "No Collin it's Nottingham not Naughtyham". I thought everything was going along rather nicely until I told Landon that we were going to Constitution Park later on in the day. He eagerly ran out to tell his brothers, when I walked in the room I was greeted by a very concerned Ethan. "Ummm Mom, did you say we were going to Constant Pooping Park?" If anyone has any suggestions to help remedy these problems we are having please let me know.

Alumni Reception

I wanted to remind everyone who is able to attend about the Hobe Sound Bible College/Academy Reception on Friday night following the evening service. It is always a really fun time of reconnecting with old friends. We will have lots of good food, old yearbooks, and slides. There is no formal program so that everyone can have an opportunity to fellowship. It doesn't matter if you didn't graduate, just so long as you attended. We hope that everyone will make an effort to attend.
Also just a reminder that they will be announcing the Alumni of the Year in the Sunday afternoon service. I am personally very excited about it this year. I'm not allowed to say who it is, but I will say that it is one of my heroes. I can't give any more information or trouble may come my way, but come to the service and you won't be disappointed.

The Power of Paint

This is not the official blog on the "house"but I thought I would give everyone a preview. We are aiming to be moved by the end of the month. Everything is done except for some painting and hanging doors. These pictures are before and after paint and flooring. It is amazing what new paint can do for the atmosphere of a room.

This is the room that we are putting all four boys in. It is huge and they always end up in the same room anyway. Before we painted it I wanted to ask for some Grey Poupon everytime I walked in.

I'm not really into murals so I'm trying for a sky, ocean, sand look without being drastic. My big project for this room is the boat that we are using for Dylan's bed. Yes, it is an actual boat. It was sitting beside the canal for months, so Harold asked the owner if we could buy it. He said we could have it in exchange for cheese. NO, I don't make cheese but I have a BJ's card. So for the price of cheese we have a boat bed. I will be sure to post pictures when it is finished.

This is our room (Harold and I). I zoomed in on the floor so you could see the layer of dog hair that was covering it when we started.

It is now a little cleaner looking I think. Notice the French Doors. When we started they had no trim. The yellow insulation was oozing out.

This is Harold's office. It was yellow with concrete floors before. I'm not sure what happened to the picture. He is so excited to finally have a place to organize his books and papers. He does have to work from home quite a bit, so it will be nice for him to have a place where it is quiet.

That is all I will let you see of the house right now. You will have to stay tuned to see the kitchen, guest room, play room, and dining room.

Last weekend I had the privelidge of attending a Revive Our Hearts conference with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. It was a time of true soul searching. I also had a great time just being with some good friends and sharing lots of laughs. There were seven of us that went together. We have been studying the book Lies Women Believe for the past year. This was a great time for us to join our hearts together and unite as Christian women who are hungry to see God move in our families. There was another group from our church that attended as well. We left behind thirty-eight kids with the fathers in charge. We are so thankful that they all stayed safe in our absence.

To end this rambling post I will share a picture of what greeted my eyes when I opened them this morning. It seems that I have to share my bed with many people these days, but these actually looked so precious that I didn't feel the least bit resentful. Hope everyone has a restful week.

Prayer Request

Emergency Medical Flights are not unusual in Harold's line of work, but every so often there is one that grabs my heart and won't let go. Tomorrow he will be bringing this little girl back to the United States for surgery this coming week. The doctors don't expect her to make it through surgery, but felt like they had to try. It is a lot of pressure on the pilots knowing that someone is critically ill, especially when it is a little child. This little girl is only three years old. The tumor is growing so rapidly that the missionaries who are caring for her say that it was noticably larger just over the weekend. Please keep all of them in your prayers tomorrow and in the coming week. I will try to update when we have some more information.

My New Discovery

I know that there are those of you out there who are not happy with me right now. I promise that there will be house pictures coming, but it's hard to do before and after until the after is complete. I also plan on telling about my weekend at the Revive Our Hearts Conference. These are stories that will take a little time so please be patient with me until I have time to share completely.

This is for those of you who live here locally. Mrs Ruth V told me about a discount grocery store on Sunday, so today I went and checked it out. It is located on Indian St. in Stuart. They have only been open for three weeks and are depending on word of mouth for advertising. They sell dented cans, bent cereal boxes, that kind of thing. I can be pretty picky about that kind of thing, but I checked carefully and nothing had been opened or tampered with. They have everything from canned goods to diapers. Cereal that would be $4 in the store was .50 to $1.59. I am always looking for a bargain so I thought I would share since I know a lot of my readers also have kids and are on a budget. Hopefully this will be a help to someone.

Sonel

Harold recieved this email this morning. I just thought that someone out there might be interested.

Sonel may be moving into My Father's House Orphanage at the Light & Peace Mission in Bon Repos, Haiti. If anyone would like information about adopting Sonel, please call Carol Hawthorne at Dayspring Ministries: #908-879-6116
Sonel with his friend Frank from Hackettstown, NJ.

Sonel is a beautiful baby with quite the personality. He doesn’t like to sit still because during his stay at Grace Children’s Hospital he has to learned how to walk. He is also a little bit of a trouble maker at meal times as he impatiently grabs for his food.
Sonel is full of life and when he looks at you with his big brown eyes and delightful smile, you know he’s a blessing from God to all who work at Grace Children’s Hospital.
Although Sonel is a happy baby, his last name reveals his unfortunate situation. “Innocent” is the name that the hospital gives to a child who is without a last name. Sonel was found abandoned in a severely malnourished state near the Grace school on January 26, 2007. Due to the fact that he was found alone, the staff does not know where Sonel is from or how old he is. They estimate that he was born around March of 2006.
No one comes to visit Sonel, but he is loved nonetheless by the mamas and other staff members at the hospital. Sonel has now fully recovered from malnourishment. In fact, he eats so much that the mamas call him “petit cochon” which means “little piglet.”
Grace Children’s Hospital has brought Sonel from sickness to health and, in the absence of his family, continues to love and care for him until a place is found for him to go. Each year the hospital takes in many sick children who end up being abandoned. In May, 2007 there were eight such children at Grace. One must wonder what would happen to little ones like Sonel if Grace Children’s Hospital weren’t there. Praise God that International Child Care has the ability to help “the least of these.” .
By Sarah Pascoe. Sarah, from Winnipeg, Manitoba, spent the month of May volunteering at Grace Children’s Hospital.