Garage Update - and Luke on a Bike

So a lot has happened in the past 3 days. Here is a picture of what was actually at the end of the last day the last time I posted (make sense?). Seven courses of block up in the back and scaffold ready for the next day.


The next day:


Did I mention that guy up on the scaffold is 83?



Here's my front garden bed. Alec trimmed the lowest branches off the trees. Would have been nice a day earlier so I wouldn't have had those branches slapping me in the face for an hour while I worked there.


Beginning to expand. I try to reclaim a little bit of yard each year for more flowers, but I am resigning myself to admit that I am a seasonal gardener. If the weather was like this all year round, I would have beautiful gardens. As it is, I have perennials and bulbs. And weeds.


On Friday, Mr. Jim took his son with him. He is also a mason and didn't have work that day. He is also quite a fast worker.




On Friday we went on an impromptu playdate to a friend's house. Luke played with a little bike there the whole time and after about 15 minutes on it, was riding like an old pro. We took the training wheels off his own little hand-me-down bike as soon as we got home and he was happily occupied for the rest of the afternoon.

I like this next little video because it shows how he starts to get himself going - hasn't quite learned how yet at this point:



Erin runs through the next one. It's really her bike - pink princesses - and she's a tad bit peeved that she can't ride it yet. I told her she has to learn how to steer on the tricycle first. I'd forgotten how pitiful 3-year-olds are at that important skill. She frequently tips herself when over-correcting her direction.



Erin played too - mostly ran around. We took a walk to the playground down the street and Luke discovered that the basketball court there is better than anything else to ride on. It isn't regular concrete - I think maybe it's asphalt - and is VERY smooth. He practiced going in circles.

It was quite warm and when we got home they wanted to lay down in the shade. Luke asked to take off his shirt and of course Erin wanted to, too!

By the end of Friday, the walls were up as high as they need to be. There are spaces for 3 windows - 2 in the back mostly to just let in more light. Next week is the tricky part since Alec has to chip out bricks on the existing front so the new bricks can be toothed in and the metal piece put in for over the garage door.

And totally unrelated, but today I finished another crocheted baby blanket. This one is special. I have a friend in CBS who has been trying for years to have a baby. They went through numerous IVF cycles and even had 2 miscarriages about 2 years ago. They moved away and last spring I learned that she was pregnant - with no IVF this time! Pretty clearly God's timing and power. As soon as I heard, I got out some scrap yarn and started crocheting. Every time I got it out I prayed that the baby would be healthy and everything would work out this time. Last week they had a little girl and tonight I finished the last round in pink. I'll send it out on Monday.

GARAGE ADDITION!!

Remember this? This week, after a year and a half, Alec finally took the next step. A mason friend of his had offered long ago to help and this week had the leftovers of a load of sand he wanted to bring over. He ended up staying 2 days. Well, he went home to sleep, but there is now 2 days' worth of work out on that concrete pad.

The first day:

Luke and Erin "helped" dig around the base.


That's our friend in the orange sweatshirt, Mr. Jim. Or Mr. Harkleroad, which I started making the kids call him when I learned HE IS 83! A very interesting man. He told me today that he has 9 kids ranging in age from 60 to 32. My parents are 59. I'm 34. Weird.


He came back again today when the kids and I were at CBS. We returned home to find a bit more finished.


Including some "real" brick in the front which was already taller than Luke.


It's been nice out and the kids want to be out anyway so I took the opportunity to prep my front flower bed for some tulip bulbs. I'm going to outwit those squirrels this year. I'm armed with oyster shell. They don't like to get their nails dirty.


No, that is not our car. Our neighbor has the exact same one.


The block is much higher now but Alec forgot to take a picture before the sun went down. I'll post another update later.

End of the Year

Last week was our last week of CBS for this year. It's always interesting because the little children do the opening the last week and share some songs and verses they have learned. This year was Erin's first year in a class and so it was her first time "performing." Thankfully, I remembered my camera. She's hard to see in these pictures because I had to hide from her or she would fuss, but she did OK.

Her teacher used to be a music professor at UMD so she frequently uses her recorder when they sing and march. Erin is to the left of the teacher in the back (the recorder is kind of pointing to her).

Here's a close up. Like the other children in her age group, she didn't really sing. Just stood around while all the ladies oohed and ahhed at how cute (or mischievous) they were.

Luke, on the other hand, did a complete 180 from last year. Last year, he and another boy ran circles around the communion table the whole time. This year he was in front, singing and doing motions while most of the other little boys stood there like duds. Here he's doing the "yes sir!" from I'm in the Lord's Army.

And here he's zooming o'er the enemy.

And bubba-bubba-bubbling over with joy. I was pretty proud of him. At the beginning of the year, he didn't participate during the singing time with 2 combined classes - just stood there while the other kids sang and had fun. His teacher told me at the end of the year that he was one of the best singers and loved singing time, so I guess his attitude changed. Progress.

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We've had some pretty chilly days again. Erin likes to snuggle.

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This picture is from May 3. I took it because Erin is wearing a dress that Mom made over 20 years ago for cousin Erica Beelen. It just fits her now - probably not for much longer since the skirt is so short and the sleeves so tight. I wish I could've gotten a better picture, but she doesn't hold still for more than a second.

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Our irises bloomed this week. I don't think we've ever had this many blooms before - and they were all so dark and full. Lovely.

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Remember this picture, taken last year after I planted some new perennials in the front?

Well, I've been working out there some more lately. Reclaimed some more from the yard for my curving flower bed and planted a few new perennials and also some annuals for color.

Those lamb's ear were tiny last year.

Planted a spirea that is already flowering.

Some Gerbera daisies for color and height.

Impatiens in the front where there is less sunlight.

The lamb's ear with new spikes shooting up.

Anyone know what this clump is? I've been leaving it because it looks like peonies and I'm hoping it will flower one of these years but it never does. If it doesn't do anything this year I'm yanking it.

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Alec bought a blueberry bush. Not sure where it's home will be yet, but if it does well we might get a few more.

It already has berries on it that are starting to darken in color.

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Alec's current project - backyard shed. He's working on it today so I'll add some updated pictures later.

He's also been splitting a lot of wood. He had to move the logs to build the shed so he figured he might as well split it and stack it so he won't have to move it twice.

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My latest new project. A few friends had new babies and I wanted to try something new. Thanks to sister-in-law Kelly for the idea - she does something similar on t-shirts for older kids.

A New (Out)Look

So you can see I've changed the blog. I've been blogging for 4 years now and thought it was time for a face lift. "Wai Hale" is just the literal translation of "water house" into Hawaiian (I think). The picture is of Bathtub Beach, Kipu Kai, Kauai - backyard of the family ranch.

I haven't been blogging much lately because things around here have been pretty awful. However, in retrospective, I think that writing about it may have helped a little. I'm not too good at stepping back from a situation and thinking about it objectively. I tend to get bogged down and depressed about it, instead of thinking up a creative solution.

After a particularly bad night last night (2nd peanut butter sandwich supper in a week because Erin falls apart after her nap and I haven't been pro-active enough with meal planning) Alec and I ate something I pulled out of the freezer and talked a bit about what's happening. Then I did my Bible study for the week on 1 John 4. First I read in my commentary:

Once again, John reminds his readers of the old commandment to love one another (3:11) . John recognizes a perfect example in his Master, who had washed the dirty, dusty feet of His disciples and then given Himself into the hands of His opponents to be humiliated and crucified (3:16). One reason for the tremendous impact that Christ's teachings have had on the world is that He never failed to practice what He preached. His glorious example of love motivates us to love one another.

Then I read:

We're not always responsible for our emotions, which can be affected by everything from what we heard on the evening news to what we had for dinner. But we are responsible for our attitudes, which are determined by deliberate choices of our will. Right attitudes result in right actions. If, by an act of our will, we choose to think and act as God commands, He will eventually bring our emotions into conformity and enable us to obediently love not just "with words or tongue but with actions and in truth" (1 John 3:18).

Then I read in 1 John:

⁷Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. ⁹This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. ¹⁰This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

I began to feel very convicted of my own deep selfishness. I have a really bad attitude about many of the things that are happening in our family right now. If I could see another's perspective and love regardless of how I feel about the situation, things might be a little more sane around here.

Also, I have decided to plan more (meals, activities, etc.) and set a fairly strict schedule and see how that improves my very cranky daughter. She is so clingy right now - and at the most inopportune times - and it drives my crazy. Some of it is related to hunger, which throws me because Luke used to be that way about sleep. If he was tired, nothing mattered, only that he took a nap. Erin gets irrational when she is hungry so I think I need to wake her from her nap earlier and give her a snack before supper. I think this may be better for all of us too, since my doctor told me I should stay on a diabetic diet (to be proactive in prevention) and regular snacks are part of that.

Well, it's about time to wake the kids and get ready for CBS. I'll be doing some more thinking here later, but here are a few recent pictures for the folks.

Playing with Auntie Em (very old picture)

Coloring Easter eggs at church

Playing cowboy with friends - poor Bessie

Using goggles in the tub - the new fun thing to do

Listening to "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle" in Luke's bed - lasted about 5 minutes before they were out giggling and playing

Taking the neighbor kids to "Rita's" in the Model A - last weekend was gorgeous

Erin wearing Mommy's gardening hat