February Notes

 

Hello February!

 What a couple of months it has been. I wanted to thank you for you who said a prayer or thoughts for my nephew, Garret. He had his second brain surgery on Thursday, Feb. 6th. They were able to get 97 percent of it. It is still cancer so there is a lot of other stuff going on and hard decisions to make. So thank you very much for those prayers.

I wanted to share our kitchen. We had painters come in to do the kitchen. I am so glad we did. They are so much better than I think I would be, it was and is such a huge job.

Here is the morning before he started. It was early so I didn't take very good pictures.

Here is another angle. All of the brown in my kitchen.

Its been a little, well maybe a lot like camping. We have the microwave in the dining room the refrigerator in front of the window in the breakfast area. I have been using my laundry room to wash dishes and my Hoosier cabinet to keep the silverware close. 

Ron has been cooking outside. We have had our coffee out here. Its been fun and it makes me remember how much I do love camping.

The color we picked is called Alabaster. the kitchen should be all back together by Wednesday. I will show you then the after pictures. Next week Ron is going to take out the carpet and start putting in wood floors.  It is going to be so pretty. I wonder why we just didn't do this sooner.

I will take more pictures of the upstairs bathroom we redid last weekend. Its really pretty too. I will be up there tomorrow. The light isn't really bright up there this time of day.

I have packed most of my rug hooking stuff away. That hurts let me tell you. I have kept out this one project to work on for now. I have really enjoyed the days when I get to stitch a bit. This is my project from Stacy Nash. Its called Miss Baxter's House.

I love the colors I used. I wanted darker reds than the pattern called for. I hope that when we move I can have a place for just samplers. I plan on having a room with just all of my sewing things together.

Its all bittersweet right now. I am thankful though for the the continued strength that only the Lord can give.
Have a wonderful week.
~Kim~

"We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt like the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God." ( 2 Corinthians 1:8-9)
"If we open our hands when the disconcerting experiences come, our darkness will reveal many treasures---and draw us closer to our Father's heart." (In His Everlasting Arms, Gail MacDonald)

January Notes

 

We have had a nice amount of rain, so far so the pastures are turning green. I am going to have to get out my trimmer/lawn mower thing and do the fence lines. I love that thing. I have always loved my hula hoe as you know, but that trimmer is just so cool. We have continued on the path of selling the house. I have been cleaning my tile on my hands and knees with this cleaner called" La's Totally Awesome All Purpose Cleaner, Degreaser & Spot Remover" I don't normally buy things that say "As seen on T.V. but I did that day because it said no harmful anything is in it.
I have never used a cleaner like this before. My tile floors are so clean. I am buying it by the gallon now. You do have to wear gloves, though, so there is something in there that is pretty strong.

 

Right before Thanksgiving, my top oven in my double oven broke. We had bought a whole house home warranty. We bought it only in case we had air conditioners go out. We decided to see how happy we were with one since the double ovens were covered. I went November, December and mid January, without a oven. They came out sent the part away, and a couple of weeks installed the new rebuilt part, which didn't work at all so then they decided to buy us a new double oven. My ovens were 20 years old and very much used. I have been okay with it, not having to shell out the money for those new ovens, and the people who buy this house will have new ovens. Maybe all new appliances too.

Ron is measuring right now so we can take out our carpet and put in wood floors in the living-room, office and the stairs. We will get the kitchen cabinets painted and the laundry room cabinets painted and down stairs will be all new. We are up against lots of competition for the price range we want for the house. I am just a tiny bit excited now. Its kind of like labor, I just have to go through it, but how nice once its over.

  
  Just an aside, if you think about it could you pray for my nephew Garrett. He will go in for surgery on Tuesday at 5:00 A.M. for a massive brain tumor. They will do surgery on Tuesday to try and remove the biggest part of it and then continue the rest of the brain surgery on Thursday. He is 29 and was finishing up grad school in Michigan. We are praying that it is non-cancerous. Please pray for the doctors wisdom. My family and I would greatly appreciate it. Its been very hard this month and all of the upheaval this kind of thing brings. But God is good and He is never surprised by anything.
Thank you.

 

I hope you have a lovely weekend. Work will continue, but its good. Its always nice to have something to do with my hands.
Thank you for stopping by,
~Kim~

 

 “Do not wait; the time will never be ‘just right.’ Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.” —George Herbet

Happy 2020

Here we are at a new year, and the decade of the 20s. Wouldn't it be fun to wear flapper dresses, hats and dance the Charleston? Men wear suits and hats and we drive those great big cars? Since I am a fan of hats, I think I would love it and of course, I have always wanted a flapper dress. Not too wild about the hair styles though.

Did you make any New Year plans? I didn't because my plans are pretty much the same as they were in 2019. But my word for the year is brave. I have to be brave. Ron's is freedom. Its kind of laughable talking of freedom living in California. We had the first showing of our house on New Year's Eve. Our house isn't on the market yet. Its not even ready. But it was a large family who needs space for animals. The lady is a therapist who needs room for horses. She uses them in her practice and she is currently boarding them and wants them on her property. They liked it very much, but we haven't even figured out what we are going to ask for it.

That is why I need to brave, because I really just wanted to throw up, seeing them walk through it and walk in the pasture. I have to hold my picture in my mind of my grandkids to be able to do this.

Other than that its pretty boring around here. I will begin to clean and clean and clean. I have cleaned and thrown away and I think everything multiplies in the night. We have decided to hire a painter to paint all of the cabinets. Which is a big relief I won't have to do the kitchen.

We have had nice weather this winter. When you watch the news if you do watch the news and they say The Grapevine. That is us. So when its snowy, its really cold here. We live in the middle of the state. We are not Southern California, with Hollyweird  and we aren't Northern California with the fires. We are just oil and farming, which the Governor and the state legislature wants to destroy.

So I will stop for now, this could get political and I don't want to ever do that.

I hope you have a lovely New Year,

~Kim~

“All shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

---Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love.

Almost Thanksgiving

Good Morning! Its almost time for Thanksgiving. This has been one fast year don't you think?
2020 is just around the corner. We have been busy getting the house ready. Ron should and hopefully finish the roof today. Then we will begin painting well, not real soon, because we have some great storms coming next week. I feel sorry for people who have to travel this next week.

I imagine we will get frost next week. The snow is supposed to be really low. Perfect for cooking. I love cooking on rainy days and I love a  gloomy Thanksgiving.  A couple of weeks ago a lady in my Thursday morning Bible Study invited me to Bible Study Fellowship. For the day class. I haven't gone to the day class since 1989. I went with all of the kids to the evening women's class when I had all of the kids home. So its been awhile. I enjoyed it so much I signed up. Now I go to Wednesday and Thursday.

Its so different from years ago. What is different too is me. For one thing I am 30 years older. The baby I had then is thirty. I was thinking about it sitting there in the church last week. How my life has changed from then to now. I ran across a verse yesterday that said it better than I can.

"I am accomplishing a work in your days. A work which you will never believe though some one should describe it to you." Acts 13:41

I have never seen that verse before and I have gone through this study, Acts of the Apostles, three times.
I think it will be my verse for 2020. I will cling to this as God continues to lead us to the next chapter of our life. But looking back at our life has been just that, because if someone would have told me that my life would be as it continues to be, I would not believe it.

I am very, very thankful and very small. Do you ever feel very small? When you look around you and think, "how can this be me?" I do all of the time. I think of the dark threads, that outline the light threads, and I see how the pattern of my life continues to focus and get more and more clear. Things 30 years ago that I thought I had to have, are not the things I need now. Looking at houses, because I have a little bit, I find really all I need is something to keep the rain off and a few garden beds to feed us. I still never can buy a house for what it looks inside, but for what is out in the yard.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving next week. When we built this house in 2001, the Lord gave me this verse." How long will you mourn? Fill your lamp with oil and GO, I will send thee. I have provided." 1 Samuel 6:1" Twenty years later, as I look back, God did just what He said, He has provided and took care of us in ways I never dreamed. I am also glad he gave me a new verse.

There is a book title I love. "If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of the boat.?" I have one of my legs out of the boat now, but I am still clinging to the side of the boat. I hope to at least to walk on water in 2020.

Have a lovely and blessed Thanksgiving.

~Kim~

Life continues to move as such a fast pace. We have doubled in number from when this picture was taken and they have gone out to other places to make their impact on the world. God is good.