Making Progress....

Yeah!!!  I am beginning to feel that I am making progress in my goal for painting the inside of the Beale Bungalow!!!  :) 

Today, I put my kitchen back together and it looks so much better since I am able to store many appliances in my laundry/storage/pantry/mud room.  I actually did not want to cook in it tonight, but of course, I did.  Anyway....

I am so very tired, but I am going to continue on painting and cleaning.  Sleep comes easily to me at night now.  I am  too tired to think, so off to dreamland I go as soon as my head hits my pillow.  The funny thing is...I still wake up tired.  :(   I know that when my painting is done...that will probably change...hopefully....prayerfully...

So, some pictures.  First--my laundry/storage/pantry/mud room. 

BEFORE:

 

 

 

Yes, it was so sad...  I just lost interest in really cleaning.  Plus there was black dust coating the walls which made

 painting extremely difficult.  I had to cut in three times just to cover the unwashable black dust!  It was a mess.  :(  

 

AFTER:                                                                                              

       

 

 

Nice and clean.  I am going to make curtains for this room and the kitchen, but that will be after I finish all my painting.  Did you notice how I hung all my mops and brooms?  PINTEREST.COM!!  We had a straight rake that broke and I cleaned it--hung it--and filled it with brooms, mops, fan dusters, my Webster and such.  I am happy!!

 

The kitchen was next.  Going up and down the ladders has pulled all my posterior leg muscles, but today I am resting and they are feeling better.  Anyway..

 

BEFORE:

 

 

 

I don't have many before pictures, but take my word for it...it was a dirty mess.  Black dust!! 

AFTER:

Nice and clean.  Once again...I will be making new curtains for the kitchen, but after all the painting is done.  It is so nice to have cleanliness and order in part of my home.  I just sit and look at it and sigh with complete satisfaction!!  I despise painting, but it does look nice when it is done!  :)

I know that I have three rooms and a hallway to go, but I am only concentrating on the next room.  That would be the dining room.  I am going to pick up the paint tomorrow and hopefully get started.  Reality will be just buying the paint and prepping the room.  I can paint on Friday and Saturday.  Two rooms in one week....SWEET! 

My son is going on a Youth Discipleship Retreat this weekend, so I can get a lot of work done.  My husband is going to be doing the lawn...hopefully, but will probably be inside helping me....

We, as a family, went out to eat with our grandson this past Tuesday evening.  He is going to be sixteen this month and travels the rails of Italy by himself.  He and some of his buddies went to Rome (which is an hour and a half from Naples by rail) and they noticed that the train was packed.  They didn't know what was going on and so they decided to follow the crowd.  The crowd went to Vatican City...it was then that the boys noticed the white smoke and knew there was a new pope.  He was there when the new pope spoke.  He said that he is Catholic, but thought it was cool to be there listening to the new head of the Catholic Church.  He has story after story like this.  He just attracts adventure!  It was so much fun listening and sharing a meal with him.  He returns to Italy this Saturday.... 

Well...that is it...   :)

Tuesday is somewhat gray....

My oh my...it is a gray morning.  Not one ray of sunshine anywhere!  I have much to do today, but when it is gray...all I want to  do is curl up with a good book and read.  But, alas this is not to be, at least not this week. 

Yesterday was a sunny cool day and I loved it.  No sweating!  No asthma!  Just a beautiful day inside and out!  Oh well, there is nothing I can do about the gray, so I will just continue to work my plan.  :)

Yesterday was a wonderfully busy day.  I vacuumed, mopped, did laundry, cooked a delicious roast beef dinner, cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen...Seth did all the dusting and was taught how I clean a bathroom.  (I am beginning to train him on how to properly, well at least the way I do it, clean a home.  Bathroom now...laundry next.)  Anyway, by the time my husband was home....the house was clean, laundry basically done and the smell coming from the crockpot was amazing.  He was so glad to be home.

I made a flourless gravy that my guys seem to enjoy.  I put squash in the crockpot with my roast.  I cooked everything for 4 hours on high.  Removed the roast and allowed to set.  Took what was in the crockpot and ran it through my Vita-Mix with a little extra water and about 1/4 cup of milk and wahlah!!!  A delicious gravy that even my son enjoyed.  A beef drippings, squash and onions.  I didn't even need to season it!  I think this would qualify for a Paleo Diet that so many of my friends are on.  It was great!!!

Well, time for work! 

I no longer have a very dirty white front door.....

Today is the second day of August.  The summer is almost over!   I am usually not a fan of summer.  I don't like the heat and humidity.  I don't like the bouts with asthma.  I don't like the listlessness that I seem to experience during the non-schooling months.  BUT....this summer is different.  I have been busy...very busy.  Much is getting done and for a service person...productiveness is so very important!  I do believe that productiveness to a service person, such as myself, equates ....  life! 

Being depressed for so long causes unproductiveness which in turn causes more depression which causes more unprod....   Well, you get the idea.  If I am not being productive then I feel worthless and that is not a good feeling at all.   So, this summer, thanks to my step-daughter's visit, productivity is at an all time high and I am truly loving it!

This does not mean that I have not had any frustrations in my so called productivity, by no means, but I am happy that I finally have some energy and am back to doing what I love.  Homemaking....

This week's project has been my front door.  It has been a chore.  But...it is finally painted.  It was a dirty job and it is no where near perfect, but it is clean and fresh!

The door was born in 1946 and getting the old paint off was hard.  I never could get it all off...

Ugly....

Messy....

Pitted...

More pittedness....

Even more pittednesses....

After being spackled, sanded, vacuumed, primed and painted with two coats of paint....I finally have my gray door!  Like I said...it isn't perfect, but it is fresh and clean and prayerfully welcoming.  :)

I still have to razor blade the paint off the windows, wash the windows and buy a new door knocker (or paint the old one black)...but it is basically done. 

I was planning on doing this job in two days....LOL...it took me four!  Every project is taking me twice as long as I had expected!!  Therefore, I am only shooting for one project a week.  This way I will not be rushed nor disappointed.  I am hoping to have most things done before homeschooling lessons begin.  Then I will begin the schooling and Christmas chores....it is never ending, is it?  Sigh....

Yet, my rooms are decluttered, my bathroom and front door are painted, and three windows have new curtains.  Next.. The Laundry Room!!!  :)

Curtains, curtains, curtains...

Today I finished a project!!!!  I finished my bedroom curtains!  Simple, but new, fresh and clean! 

Yes, they are simple, but I like them.  I like them so much that my entire house is going to be done in these simple panel curtains.  Different colors and patterns, of course, but in this primitive style.  I have three rooms already done...

Here is my painted and clean bathroom.

I have yet to make my shower curtain, but the monochromatic color scheme makes my bathroom look a bit larger than it is.  I have other material I am going to make for curtains here, too.  A colorful floral, but this curtain will do for now!  :)

My computer room was in complete disarray prior to my step daughter's visit.

It has since been decluttered and rearranged a bit.  I also made the primitive curtains out of some material that I already had....I think it looks much better.

Tons of paper, books and junk went out the front door in trash bags for the dump and boxes to a home school book store to be sold.   The room actually has an echo!  :)

There is still much to do around the house, but I do believe a nice large dent has been made.  I was hoping to get the entire inside of the house painted by September, but I don't know.  Painting takes time....lots of time.  We will see....

My husband and my son has worked hard this morning mowing and edging the lawn.  It was nice a cool this morning so it wasn't so unbearable for them.  The house has been vacuumed and I am getting ready to cut up some peppers from my garden.  I am hoping to get to BJ's today and maybe to Home Depot.  Tomorrow is the LORD's Day and I plan on getting some must needed rest! 

Have a great day!

Friday morning ponderings....

I am sitting here at my dining room table sipping on a hot cup of coffee once again.  Every morning starts the same way...sitting at my dining room table sipping on a hot cup of coffee.  Sigh...

For the past few days I have been hand sewing my bedroom curtains while watching The Hobbit and all three other Peter Jackson "Ring" series.  I am about to start the Star Wars series...I am down to the hemming of the curtains.  My fingers are so sore, but I have enjoyed the process of my ancestral mother's tasks.  I don't think I have done a great job, but I like what I see so far. 

Yesterday was so gray until about 5 p.m.  Then the sun came out and the world was bright and beautiful.  The rains have terribly affected my yellow squash plants.  I am pulling them all today.  My corn isn't up to snuff either.  It is sad looking actually.  The sweet potatoes are ready to be pulled I think...They are very small.  I have gotten a few green bell peppers as deformed as they can be.  I am going to pull my garden as soon as I can and then compost it, cover it with black plastic and let it rest for the fall.  Obviously my soil is in need of replenishing and rest....a new kind of R and R!  :)

Sometimes I wonder if gardening is really worth it.  It takes up so much time and I have not been able to give it my time for the past few years.  This year is because of all the work inside the house.  Next year will be all the work outside the house...Lord Willing....  My survival does not depend on my garden, at least not yet.  Therefore, everything else takes priority.  Sad, but true.  I am terribly disappointed in my gardens and my so called gardening skills.  I look at a friend's garden on line and just cringe at the thought of mine.  Oh well, maybe someday.

I am beginning to wonder if everything I do is kind of worthless.  In one area of Christendom  I am right on target...or at least aiming in the right direction.  In another area of Christendom I am totally off the mark.  I sure wish there was a happy medium.  I know there must be...somewhere. 

Is it wrong to want a nice clean living environment?  Nothing fancy...just a clean homey dwelling to call "home"?  Jesus had no place to lay his head.  Is it wrong to support people from afar through prayer and small financial gifts?  Jesus was in full time God and God alone kind of work.  Is my little world for His Glory or my reputation?  Would I look back and turn into salt, too?  (Sitting here at my dining room table can be...well...thought provoking.)

Anyway, another day that the LORD has given me...hemming and shopping are on the agenda for today. 

Sighing....

Me oh My......

I am sitting here at my dining room table making a shopping list and sipping on a hot cup of coffee while the washer and dryer are laboring on their first loads of the day.  There is much to be done...

For the past several weeks I have battled a sinus infection, right ear infection, bronchitis, depression and feeling totally overwhelmed.  I have wanted to declutter my home for a couple of years now.  I have also wanted the rooms of my little bungalow to have a fresh coat of paint.  The problem with all these wants?  I have to do them all by myself!  No help, hence the overwhelmed feeling leading to depression.

We received a call from my husband's eldest daughter, Susan; she and her husband and three daughters wish to come and visit and stay at our place.  Yikes!!! 

Depression, I believe, causes dirt, dust and yuck to accumulate.   It also causes nasty films to appear on bathroom walls, sinks, toilets, tubs and floors, as well as, every window in a home.  Corners become a catch all for every tracked in leaf, pine needle or freshly mowed grass!  Dust bunnies become full grown brown camouflaged RABBITS and they multiply....quickly!  Doors become so smudged and dirty that one cannot really remember the original color.  Yep...depression is a dirty business!

Cure for the depression nasties....A visit that includes a beautiful young granddaughter adopted from China and THE set of familial longed for twin cuties that one has never personally met.  Yep...that will get one's depressed hinny off the couch and into frantic action!!!  :)

While I was sick...the bathroom got painted, curtains got made, the impassable computer room was decluttered and scrubbed until it shined.  As I was healing from all my ailments...each room suffered the same fate of an unexpected visit!  Walls, woodwork and floors washed.  Ceilings, furniture, knick knacks dusted.  Windows cleaned.  Doors scrubbed.  My little bungalow is almost ready for all the pink that will be flooding my home this Wednesday!

Yesterday was clean my son's room day.   Oy Vay!!!  I have never seen so much dust!  No wonder he wakes up with a stuffy nose!  After debriding his floors, window and behind every piece of furniture--I do believe that his room was and is painted with a lighter color than what I have been seeing for the last year or so!  We packed up all his prized possessions and put them (temporarily) in the attic.  Legos and 18 month olds do not go well together.  I must say that I am amazed that I do not like the sparseness of his room.  All that makes my son's room reflect my son is gone....I would rather have the Legos, Nerf guns, sports paraphernalia covering his room....It communicates life!  My son's life!  So, I am not going to moan when everything comes back down from the holding space between me and the sky.  I kind of miss it!!!

Today is errand day...Good Will, Moore's Expression, Dollar store, BJ's and Walmart.  Well, at least I will be out of the house!  

Here I am running around trying to make my little world clean, fresh and orderly....the world around me seems to be falling apart.    Egypt, Syria, and even the streets of my own country seems to be joining the chaotic party!  I was sort of wandering what would cause turmoil in America----and of course, it would be a racial issue.  Sigh...Governments are falling and the disgruntled of USA are flooding the streets over a media frenzied racially charged murder case that ended in a not guilty verdict.  We are so.....American!  

Babies are being killed everyday in abortion clinics and there is no real outcry!   Our sports figures, celebrities, and government officials are paid so much money that it is sickening while our military, teachers, firemen, policemen, and other public servants are barely hanging on with no relief in sight.  Our country (and world for that matter) is going down and going down fast!!!  Come Lord Jesus, Come!

While our privileged are being pampered....our poor are praying.  Praying for food...to make it to the end of the month...for jobs....   This may not be such a bad thing though....at least they are looking for God to supply their needs.  I do believe the harvest IS ripe, not only in the USA, but also the world.  Watch closely....times like these are just what satan is looking for in order to bring out the Antichrist.  What better place to start but in America!  The richest, most spoiled and pampered country in all the world!  

Sigh....     

The Good News...

There are times when living the gospel is hard. 

When your husband isn't perfect.
When your daughter messes up her life and thus yours.
When your son can't read and he is fifteen.
When your house is a mess and no matter how hard you work it still looks the same.
When your weight goes up more than down.
When your purpose seems so mundane that it hurts to wake up in the morning.
When children lie, disrespect and then challenge you about it.
When friends lose it right in front of you.
When you have to stick to your guns even though you don't want to.

Yes, the gospel is hard, but I believe Jesus said it would be.   Luke 14:28....Jesus talks about counting the cost.  The gospel cost God the Father His Son...the gospel cost Jesus His very flesh, and separation from the Father...the gospel cost the weeping of the angels (I assume) witnessing their King being beaten and tortured.  Count the cost...

The gospel is the good news.  The good news is Jesus.  Jesus is the exact replication of God the Father on Earth and God is all righteous LOVE.  Therefore, the good news is being able to be like Jesus and speak in love..."Father, forgive them for they know not what they do"....

I know that the good news is the difference between a Christ less and a Christ filled eternity, but it is even so much more.
It is being empowered to glorify God, in the Name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit to live out this good news kind of love as one already walking on the streets of gold....here on earth.  That is really really good news!!!

Being able to love that imperfect husband, daughter, and son.  Being able to love the work that God has given you...no matter how mundane it is.  Being able to love sinful children and friends and stick to your guns---IN CHRIST!!!  It is all good news, but it does come with a cost.

Dying to self....over and over again...and then stop taking about what it is that is causing this death...It is Gods' not yours anymore...if you are living in the good news. 

Enduring until the end...patience, deference, consistency...over and over again...and then stop fretting over what is being endured.  It is Gods' not yours anymore...if you are living in the good news.

Loving sinners...saved or unsaved...it doesn't matter....over and over again...praying not prying over their sinful or frustrated behavior.  They are Gods'.  The battles belong to the LORD...not you...if you are living in the good news.

Being consistent...even when you are tired, frustrated, disappointed...being steadfast for the sake of training your children, because they are Gods' first and then yours...if you are living the good news.

Am I living the good news?  This radical...upside down lifestyle that has the USA and other nations in an uproar kind of good news?  Let's face it...the only reason we, as believers aren't shacking up, aborting, abusing our family and friends is Jesus and the Good News! 

It seems to me that living "RADICALLY" for God, in the Name of Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit...is hard, in the flesh, but supernatural in the Spirit.  That is the Great News!  Followers of Jesus the Messiah can and do live on a different plane than the unbelievers.  We act differently.  We talk differently.  We dress differently.  We sing differently.  We love differently!  Not as the world does, but as the Messiah did and still does!  Even more Good News...Jesus STILL LOVES US and sits at the right hand of the Father...interceding for us...in Love.

When people have died and returned to life, by the will of the Father...they all speak of two things.  Number one...A bright clean white light and Number two an all encompassing LOVE!  God IS LOVE!  Hence, because we are His--we, too, can love this miraculous way of life right here on this fallen terrestrial ball we call earth! 

I believe I am writing this for my benefit, because this is really hard for me.  I am so full of MYself that I can stop the flow of heavenly love by my own sin...this distresses me greatly.  Being raised in a home where everyone fought and looked out for number one and number one only--and if this was done in the most sarcastic and degrading way...it was praised!  I was truly filled with all manner of selfish self love one could imagine....BUT ....I am no longer that person.  I am a new creation!  I have a new spirit, a new identity and a new home....therefore. a new way to live....The Good News Way!

It is sad how I seem to forget this divine truth!  Why?  Oh my!  Why would I forget this life giving truth when God has given me everything and everybody?  Why do I constantly go back to my cesspool of self as a dog returns to his vomit?...when I should be dwelling and backstroking in the "I will never thirst" water every minute of every day?  

SIN...plain and simple.  My sin.  My sin is familiar...believe it or not...even comfortable.  It justifies my behavior.  It soothes my temper.  It creates an escape from what ails me!  LIES....all LIES!  satan is the father of LIES!  I am choosing a fallen angel of disgrace and depravity over the only true and living Saviour and King.  Stupidity seems to be a gifting given to all who follow the fallen one.

The Good News...the Gospel....The Holy Begotten Son of God...has freed you and me from our sin!  We can live in love.  I am not talking Hollywood romance novel movie going kind of love...that is lust...there is a difference!  But the Love that comes from the Father.  The love that grows when we grow in Messiah...  The love that turned the world upside down with only 1 God/Man and 12 obedient disciples!  

We are not sinless..even if we are in Messiah, but we are saved to live beyond this sinful unregenerated flesh and live in the Good News...which is divine LOVE.  Yes, we do live on a different plane, and LOVE is the soil in which we are planted and grow. 

1 Corinthians 13

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. ¹¹ When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. ¹² For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

¹³ And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.



\o/