The House that Jay Built

The week before Christmas, Jay was gone for an entire week.  As history always repeats itself here at our house, whenever he is gone for a long period of time, I tend to come up with a plethera of Home DIY  Projects.  And, I've been known to rip up carpet and tear out walls on a mere whim ready to surprise him when he walks through the door.  It helps keep the spark in our marriage!

 

This time was no exception.  I didn't weild any crowbars - but I did let the HGTV portion of my imagination run WiLd.

 

As our family has grown, our house has not.

 

With 6 kids, I feel a little like this on most days

So, after a few months of having our house on the market with no lookers - I decided to present Jay with my plan for increasing the number of bedrooms and living space in our home.  The whole "Let's just stay here and make it work because I'm going crazy in this house waiting to see if it sells" mantra.   It's a multi-phase plan and one which will not be quick.  But, we must make it work on our limited budget - paying cash for most as we can save up.  I thought our bloggy friends might want to follow along - so I'll be posting pics of our before and afters along the way.  Here is the jist of what we plan to do:

Our home is a typical 1970's tri-level (think Brady Bunch).  It is meant to have 3 bedrooms on the upper level, a small living room and eat-in kitchen on the main level, and a den in the basement.  The garage steps down just off the kitchen.  Total square footage is about 1850 sq ft.

Phase 1:  Make 2 bedrooms in the basement - giving us 5 bedrooms.

Phase 2: Move all the "garagy stuff" to a storage shed and make the garage a den and another bedroom (grand total of 6 bedrooms - we were going for 7 - but 6 will do)

Phase 3:  Create a computer/work area in the kitchen, expand the countertops to include a big "cookie making" counter (does anyone else envision cold winter nights spent rolling out cookie dough with the kids in a big country kitchen like the Waltons?), build a small pantry into the kitchen corner,  and move our family dinner table into the current living room making it the dining room

The biggest faults with this house are the small size of the bedrooms and the lack of space to have people over for meals.  By creating more bedrooms - even though the spaces will be on the smaller side - we can spread the kiddos out a bit.  Then, by moving our living/dining spaces around - we can accomodate more people around the table. 

We are gaining excitement and have used our bit of Christmas money from parents to buy 2x4s, drywall, and mud.   So far, a stud wall is up in the basement and the sheet rock is being prepped.  It should be a fun winter!

Here are a few "Before" shots.  Excuse the Christmas present aftermath.  Storage is another problem around here.  This side of the basement will become a bedroom and where the Barbie house is - that's a future closet.

So...where are we headed?

As I face the morning today, I just continue to shake my head in disbelief. When I think about the fact that a little over half our country is proud to support a movement that praises homosexuality, that welcomes the killing of the unborn and calls it ‘choice’, that rallies around muslim nations while it lifts it’s hand of support from Israel, that encourages a socialistic agenda encouraging the nation’s poor to sit back and collect handouts while eliminating any and all incentive to succeed on their own, and that continues to spend money we don’t have creating a mountain of debt for our children and grandchildren to face one day….it troubles me…it saddens me…and honestly, it scares me.

I believe that God’s people reside in the United States of America, but it is becoming obvious that we are no longer the majority. And if this course continues, and wickedness and laziness are commonplace, but labeled things like tolerance, choice, and welfare…eventually, if history repeats itself, God will allow judgment to befall the USA, and we will see our great and glorious nation fall like the empires that preceded us in history.

I was blessed recently to watch the documentary “Monumental”, which is phenomenal (You need to buy a copy and pass it around). It takes a hard look at how this country was founded. All too often, progress is made in the best way, by looking back and ‘reforming’ what has happened by looking back and going back to the basics. In looking back to the true story of the pilgrims, we find an incredible group of courageous people that sought to glorify God, and wanted to establish a nation that would be a blessing to the world and to their children’s children. They had multi-generational thinking. Their actions were not to achieve self-centered results for them during the here-and-now. They knew that they were planting seeds that they may not see the results from in their lifetime, but they knew it was the right thing to do. And they knew if they were focused on being obedient to God and seeking to glorify him, that their efforts would be blessed in due time, and that others would join them in their efforts.  But their thinking, their perspective was multi-generational. They looked beyond what the effect would be in the present.

I feel that one of the main problems we have today is that people (a) no longer seek to glorify God with every aspect of their lives, and (b) primarily think in the here-and-now. That is why I believe the election resulted in the way it did. People no longer have God in their thinking…and their focus is on how will this candidate help me now…how will he or she make my life better, easier, more the way I think it should be or that I deserve in the immediate present. Thinking of what is best in the overall and how it will affect the next generations is no longer a trait for the majority…and this can be true for people of either party.

What we need is a generation of people that like the founders of this country go back to the principles of God’s word, and that make decisions that bring God glory and that sustain us for generations to come. And that we once again have the courage and the character to think from a multi-generational perspective. The blessings of 2 Chronicles 7:14 are only promised “IF” the nation seeks God first. That is what made this nation great…and it is the only thing that will make it great again.

And the Winner is......

Becca Underwood!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the American Girl Doll Giveaway.  The Williams' Family are getting closer to their boys everyday!!

American Girl Raffle for the Williams' Family Adoption

It's been exciting around here lately!  Our dear friends, Mark and Shawdi Williams, have been matched  - not just to one little boy - but 2 little brothers, ages 3 and 4.  They never expected this - but are overjoyed (and a little nervous).  As many of you know - this now means their adoption costs are going up!  So, we are offering a chance to win the American Girl doll of your choice
                                                                                                (yes - you get to pick it!). 

We are selling chances to win for $10 each or 3 for $25. 

This is the perfect gift for any little girl in your life and Christmas is only 3.5 months away!  So - dig deep and buy some chances.  The winner will be announced on Sept. 24.  That 's only 3 weeks away so please help us by posting this on Facebook, your blog, or sending to your friends and family through email.  Our goal is to raise $1000.

Hybrid Homeschooling

Recently, I was having a conversation with my 13 year old and she shocked me with a hard-dose of reality.  I was asking her about school clothes and mentioned an article of clothing that seemed to be "what everyone else was wearing these days".  She profoundly said, "I don't want to be like everyone else."  Ughhhh.   That's exactly what I'd wish for her to say - yet I missed it myself.  We are not to be conformists.  We should live true to ourselves and our callings.  Yay for her!  She gets it.  I love that about her - always willing to live outside the box.

This is our 7th year to homeschool - yet I've never had every kid at home every day of the week.  We frustrate both the  homeschoolers and the public schoolers because our decisions don't "make sense" to those who live inside their respective boxes.   We are ok with that - it was hard at first and I've probably jeopardized from friendships.  But the real friends have stuck by and don't judge us - at least not out loud :-)

The first year that we felt God calling us to homeschool - our two oldest were in 2nd and 4th.  They had already been accepted to the Gifted Program at the local public school - which met 1 day a week.  As they transitioned home - they continued to go to public school 1 day a week for the next few years.  As #3 came along, she did not jive well with our homeschool routine. She's a different kind of child - very lively and social - easily distracted - loud, boisterous, needs lot,s of attention.  We quickly knew that our homeschooling program was not a good fit for her.  Without numerous options, we thought public kindergarten might work.  So, in October of that year, she started public kindergarten and thrived!!  She came home in 1st grade and it was a little better because she had learned the ins and out of being a "learner".  When she started 2nd grade at home - she needed lots of attention from me or things would go south really quickly.  I would look away for half a second -and she'd be busy painting her nails, playing with toys, or bothering someone else.  To give her more time - I enrolled my twins in kindergarten - they loved it!  My big girls were in 6th and 8th grade - and they were working more independently at home by then - so it seemed like the best decision.

Since during that school year - we were also adopting Lori, when it came time to plan our trip to China, we enrolled our 2nd grader in public school for the 2nd semester because I knew I'd not only be out of the country for a while - but once we got home - Lori would need my attention.  So, once again, we were a mixture of homeschoolers and public schoolers - it was a beautiful fit.

Now, here we are this year.  My oldest is a Sophomore at the local high school.  Jay really felt that she needed the high school experience and some time to transition into the world while still under our umbrella.   I love it.  She gets to come home and debrief and has already had opportunities to put her faith to the test.  She's ready for this and has stood up under pressure.  I'm not naive enougth to think that she will always make the best decisions - but for now, it's working.

My next oldest is in 8th grade.  Since we foresee transitioning her to HS next year - this school year she is attending the Jr High for 2 classes each morning.  She loves it.  Her teachers have accepted her with open arms and the kids have been really friendly.  It's been a great way to connect with our community and meet some folks we wouldn't meet otherwise.

My middle is at home.  We are muddling through - bless her heart!  It's still a struggle to get through the day.  Ughhh

My little guys are again at public school and doing great.   They may come home next year.  We'll see.
And my little bitty is home - and is busy learning Sign Language and a few sounds. She will start going to the PreK two mornings a week for therapy and instructional time.  I hope it goes well.

It's a busy year of a little this and a little that at the Lancaster House.  Lots of fun - lots of craziness!  That's what we are all about.  Like she said, "we don't want to be like everyone else!"  Sometimes I lose sight of that - good thing my kids are quick to remind me.

Two Ears to Hear With?

So its been a while - but I feel like giving our bloggy friends a little update.  On July 5, Lori recieved her second implant and the surgery went well.  After giving it 2 weeks to heal - they turned it on last Thursday.  She gave very little indication that she noticed it being turned on - maybe a little look toward the computer - very anti-climatic.  Typical Lori. 

So, we worked up the volume scale this last week and went back on Thursday.  The team worked very hard with Lori - trying to pull out information from her.  They look for anything - a head turn, a grimace, eye movement, anything - to determine if she hears the sounds they are pushing through her head.  She gives them almost nothing.  They have often assumed that maybe its her personality.  But, I felt like the tides turned a bit this week, they mentioned that they "arent't throwing in the towel just yet".  They said they had talked about her and think she may actually be the only kid ever that they have seen who showed almost no interest in her implants.  They would expect this if she had other issues or her MRI showed reason to believe that her inner ear/auditory nerve anatomy were inadequate.  But they are ok. 

So......where do we go from here. 

If we only speak to her and she's not picking up the spoken words - then we are missing out on valuable language learning time.  If we sign to her - then we are limiting her need to learn to listen to the spoken word.  Blah Blah Blah.  We've been presented with all the research telling us that children who sign have lower test scores and run the risk of not functioning well in our hearing world.  We've been cautioned that her speech may sound "deaf".  We have a team of 4 professionals working with her and they don't agree with each other on which approach we should take.  Let me just tell you that that is VERY frustrating.  Sometimes I want to just stop the madness and just let her be.  I've questioned why we even implanted her.  What's so bad about being deaf - that's the way with humans - we're always trying to fix everybody. 

Jay and I have had some heart to hearts lately about this.  Much to the dismay of at least one part of our "team" - I think we are choosing to pursue the TC approach.  This stands for Total Communication - meaning she will learn both signing and speech simultaneously.  We run the risk of limiting her speech - but seeing that she doesn't speak at all right now - I'm really not too concerned about that.  She signs beautifully and it seems to come very natural for her.  I'm ok with that.  I don't know a lot of sign - but we are learning, learning, learning.  She's deaf.  I'm ok with that, too.  I don't feel the need to fix her.  I want to give her all the opportunities I can - but I don't want to pretend that she's not deaf.  The frustrating part of all this is that even if she were to hear with the implants - at night, in the bathtub, in the swimming pool, anytime the implants are off - she's still and will always be deaf.  We are ok with that.  We knew that coming into this.  I guess you could say that we signed up for that.  It's everyone else that doesn't seem ok with that.  Again, this lends itself to frustration.

So, another part of this puzzle, is that since coming back to Miner Baptist last year - every Sunday I see this posted in the front of the church about bringing the gospel to Deaf people around the world as I sit next to a little deaf Chinese girl.  Hmmmmm - it makes me wonder if God orchestrated this very frustration so that we would learn sign, so that Lori would learn sign, and hopefully reach her people, and other deaf cultures for the Kingdom.  When I think about it that way - I'm ok with that, too.  Really ok.  This week - because of Lori - we were asked to teach a Sign Language Class at Vacation Bible School.  Only because of Lori and her deafness were we able to tell 40 children about the gospel through sign and hopefully plant the seeds in each of them to learn more sign and encourage them to become missionaries to the deaf world.  Statistics show that only 2% of the Deaf people in the world are Christians. 

We have a heart for missions.  Lori came to us.  We fell in love with China.  China has a huge deaf population that needs to hear about Jesus.  The implants aren't working.  We have been forced to learn sign.  Loris loves learning sign which leads us to learn more and more and more to keep up with her......Did God set all this in motion?  As I study His Sovereignty - I must say "Absolutely".  And I'm ok with that, too.

Gut Kicks & Bedtime Lemonade

(From Jay)

I find myself today having an interesting mixture of feelings. I read Camille’s heading below of ‘Bloom Where You Are Planted’…and it makes me smile.

Yesterday, I got some tough news. The kind of news that you don’t like getting in your life. The kind of news that makes you feel ill and sick to your stomach. But life goes on. It wasn’t anything life threatening or health related. It was just some bad news about something very important and very personal to me. I felt like I had approached everything carefully…I was prayerful…and cautious…and in the end, I was left with egg on my face going, ‘what just happened?’. From my perspective, it involved some deceit and misinformation, but in the end, it doesn’t change the fact that I spent half the night watching the clock going, ‘what just happened?’.

The only thing you can do is look up and say, “God, you are in control.” You give…and you take away….blessed be the name of the Lord!

So, while intentionally keeping this general…I remain where I am and must resolve to continue to bloom where I am planted…