My summer resort

Here are some pictures of my new house. We plan to be into it the first week of October.. this will explain why we aren't moving into it quite yet!!


This is the view from the living room, looking through the dining room, then through the mud room to the great outdoors!! Are you lost yet??

This is the front part of our living room. The view from the front windows is amazing. Down in the valley there is a track where trains are still running... no distraction there!!

This is the kitchen. The cupboards are to be gutted... they are disgustingly grimy, small and in poor condition. Due to what we have found behind some of the walls.. you really don't want to know... its important to find out what is behind these walls as well!!

Here is my friends daughter, Jenny. She is coming through the mudroom into our rather spacious kitchen/dining area.

And this would be the dining room, with the living room behind it. Charming don't you think??

We have really been enjoying our resort town summer. The kids are very comfortable walking to the library, various parks, beaches, youth center, playground, or just walking!! I love the view from my front windows and taking the kids to the beach across the street!!

However, its about time to get back to work. I think the kids will still be happy doing their schoolwork at the park or in the yard... barring another hurricane!! I'm ready to pack up... sloooowly to mosey on home. Home will be ready in another month. I think I said that a few weeks ago! We really should be in by our Canadian Thanksgiving in October.

Well... the house is coming along.
There are no longer any stairs... or walls.... or ceilings.. toilets... bathtub...
Basically its absolutely minimalistic in style.
We have utterly cleaned house. I use the term "we" loosely.
I have showed up to check up on the progress of Mark and his brother as they have done every stitch of actual labour. Mark is allowing me to use the "we" word if it makes me happier.
We noticed the electrical needs to be redone on the main floor.
We are having difficulty in putting in the new stairs.
We have discovered a horrific absense of vapor barrier.
We will be working hard to get it all fixed up.
We will also continue to fight the flippin' fleas....
and I'll check up on it all occasionally!!

New house!!!

Let the bells ring out!!! After searching for months, we have found and purchased a house!! Whooooo hoooo!!!

This house has 6 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, 3 staircases and fleas.
The house will be GREAT once the renos are done. I don't need 3 staircases, one will do. We have also decided that one dog is enough, we don't need the fleas.

The dog was kind of left with the house... as were the cats that left the fleas. The cats are gone, but we are crazy about Teddy, the dog. A good friend of mine is dog sitting until we can move. Hopefully we will be into the house next month.

I am also hoping to put pics of our house reno on this thing... if I can remember how. I need Caitlyn for that and she is finishing up at camp this week!! Yeah!!! She will be home Friday.

Not that we are home, exactly. We weren't exactly safe in the last community we were in and have been summering at the resort town my mom is from. Grampy's house was empty, so we filled it. We are loving living across the street from the beach!!

The renovations start tomorrow. What have we gotten into now??

Myth Busters

Wow, we made it through this week.
This week, we had 7 kids with the flu.
Somehow Matt and I escaped the violence of the stomach flu.
Of course, those who were sick got lots and lots of sleep where Matt and I didn't.
Caitlyn asked me if I didn't regret being sick as I got to have 4 nights of next to NO SLEEP.

The best part was, after the 4th night of NO SLEEP, at 10 am, a very put together woman showed up at my door... stepped into my kitchen (my horribly messy kitchen) where the kids had hooked the laptop to the TV and were watching a movie.

Some people have the delusion that I am up at the crack of dawn, shower and dress with my best MK face, make a "hearty breakfast" and the kids are happily homeschooling at 9am with their rooms clean and devotions done. That may be what I aspire to, but certainly this was not the case yesterday morning.

Drat, another myth busted!

I was looking back on my archives... to see where I was about 2 years ago. This spoke to me again...

Saturday, May 05, 2007

sometimes God gives you cool things to say

Rosetta Stone Contest

A contest I can’t resist

Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers for a while — next week they are unleashing a brand new curriculum, and you can WIN the *all new* Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3… FOR FREE!


This is a $219 program (and believe me it’s worth every penny!) and the winner gets to pick from any of these 14 languages: Spanish (Spain or Latin America), English (American or British), Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Irish, Hebrew, or Russian.This will also include a headset with microphone, and students will participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program. Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well, in addition to speaking. Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they’re included! For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.

To win this most excellent program — in the language of your choice — copy these paragraphs and post it in (or as) your next blog post – then to enter the contest, go to the original contest page HERE: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/JenIG/501132/ and leave a comment with the link showing where you blogged about it. And please make sure the link works to get back to the original contest page when you post it. And good luck! The winner will be picked randomly on March 26, and will be notified thru the link they left to their blog pg. And if you have more than one blog, you can post them and enter those separately for more chances to win. Yay for free stuff!

What does God expect??

I was asked today if I thought God expected more from a believer than a non-believer.
That person didn't think it was really fair that God does. Here is my answer.

Suppose you wanted some sewing done for your bedroom. You wanted 2 sets of pinch pleat curtains (for fullness) with a beautiful ruffled valence for each set (because the tops of p.p. curtains is really quite boring). With that a new duvet, pillow shams, sheet sets (one for extra of course), some dresser scarves, etc....
And you'd like everything ASAP

3 women say they can do the job.

One woman does everything by hand.
One woman has a machine and is learning to use it.
One woman has a sewing machine, serger, a frequent user card at the best fabric store in the province and has a list of thrilled customers the length of your bedroom.


Who would you expect more from??

The lady who does everything by hand? When would it ever get done?
The lady who is just learning? What kind of quality would you have?
Or the very experienced, lady with everything she needs to get the job done and a resume to prove it?

Who does God expect more from?

Is it the person who is really trying hard but does not know Christ personally?
The new Christian who is just starting out and taking their first steps?
Or the person who is saved and has been studying the scriptures for years? Someone who has lived a life of Bible study and has experienced God's working in their lives?

He expects mature believers to act like it. To show maturity and to stand firmly when the storms of life come because they are grounded in His word.
Is it fair?? Yes it is!!!

Don't sit and whine because God expects "too much" from you. He is never going to ask for too much.
I expect more from my 13 year old then my 5 year old, and more from my 5 year old than my 7 month old. Is it fair?? You bet.

Josh is a baby. I do not expect him to make his bed and put his toys away. He is just mastering.. no not mastering.. laughing at our attempts to assist him to sit!!!

Molly is expected to make her bed and put her toys away, but I do not expect her to multiply and divide fractions.

Caitlyn *loves* fractions!! OK, does them because she has to. She also helps with babies, laundry and cooking. She sometimes babysits and sometimes is in trouble for not being where she is supposed to be on time.

God is not unfair to expect more from some than from others. He is not here to molly coddle us but to push us towards growth. We all have different experiences. These are not rewards or punishments for good or bad behaviour, they are life experiences. How we handle them depends on our level of maturity in Christ, or if we are in Christ. I can't tell someone that they handled something wrong because it isn't how I would do it. Maybe they are responding more maturely that I would.

Tonight I am told that being obedient to Christ means that I am not experiencing freedom in Christ. Its legalistic. Tonight I say being obedient to Christ means freedom. It doesn't matter what my circumstances are.
I am standing on the sure foundation I have in Christ which I find wonderfully laid out in God's Word. I am obedient to Christ because I love Him.
I deserve punishment, He gave me life. He deserves all glory and chose to die on the cross for me. All He asks is for me to give Him my screwed up life so He can fix it. This is a complete win win for me. I don't want "freedom" from obedience to Him. I don't want Him to expect nothing from me. I don't want to respond like a baby instead of a more mature believer. He's not done working with me, there is a looooong way to go!! I think I'll let Him keep on working thank you very much.
If you are in a place where you can't/won't trust God... I'm so sorry. I have found that He is completely faithful and worthy of my trust. I am not going to change my opinion of Someone who has done so much for me regardless of your insecurities. I am not going to pretend that God is not true to make you feel better. I am not going against God's Word to assauge your guilt. I am not going to pretend that God isn't upholding me through some really tough stuff because you are afraid that it makes you look like you aren't handling things well. I'm not handling things well either. I can't handle all this stuff so I am letting God do it. Mostly I remember to leave it with Him. When I try to help God its just a mess.

Now I'm going to bed. Happy that I got all this out without having singed anyones ears.
If you want to argue this post, don't bother. 3 hours tonight discussing this was enough. God is enough.

The end