Adventures in home building: Graduation and moving on from there

Hello my dear friends.

Natasha's window finally!

I have a lot to share with you at this time so I suggest you pull up a chair and grab an iced coffee or whatever beverage of choice. It has been a great couple of weeks and a tough couple of weeks. First of all the great couple of weeks. Graduation! It was so nice. I wish we could have had everyone up here to celebrate Tasha, but that is not possible. The speeches were so

Don't touch, it's mine!

great and so personal pointing to my beautiful daughter, it was very touching. I did a speech, Sean did one and so did Logan. Tom welcomed everyone and that was nice too. The room was decorated nicely and a lot of people came. That really

Decoration

meant a lot to us because the drive for a lot of people was not just down the street. After the speeches we prayed for Tasha, which I thought was the most important part of the whole celebration. Then we ate, and let me tell you there was a lot of food. I had prepared a ziti and it was pretty good. We have enough left over for the next day to share with the church after service. I got a little choked up at the end of my speech but, well that was that. I actually almost

Valedictorian and class prez.

forgot to introduce Tasha for her speech. She did such a great job. Her speech was honest and addressed a lot of people in her "audience", reminiscing. After dinner and all that, we proceeded to the house. Yeah, we lost Dave and his family on the way. I don't know how. It just happened. But he was found and that was good. I really didn't want Dave to be driving around Windsor county for the rest of his life. As we (about 15 people) stormed the house, remembering it is a work in progress, we did have our first accident. Tom had been working like crazy to get some of the upstairs floorboards in and thus the whole upstairs ladder-downstairs hole into the basement had shifted, leaving the downstairs hole just a little more open. The dog was very excited to see all the people coming to see him and he got a little too excited and ..... yes he fell into the basement! Of course there was great concern for the poor pup, and he was a little shaken up. He was very apologetic that he fell into the basement, looking at Tom: What did I do wrong? Funny at this point, but really not at that point. But he is fine. His tailbone hurt for a few days but that was all.

So sorry for falling.

We visited for a while and people left (of course they are not here anymore so it would stand to reason that people left at some point, but I just wanted to point out the obvious). My sister and George stayed a little while, which was great because we got to visit a little one on one. I was a little distracted with so many people and so I kind of tried to spend some time with everyone. I hope I did. Anyway, moving on, I am rambling, sorry! Focus Anne, focus.

So graduation was a success, with the minor disaster of falling dogs. Doesn't happen every day. I mentioned the floor boards. Tom, my wonderful hubby, wanted to have Natasha's room all finished with the boards and he sure did. He worked like a madman (he is not, please understand that).

Drying floorboards

Some of Tasha's floor.

It is wonderful to walk upstairs and have some floor boards. We have to be careful, splinters, but both sides of the stairs, that is both Logan and Tasha's rooms, are done. Now we just have half the floor upstairs to be done. I am very happy about that.

At this point we are quite happy and comfy up in our little house. We are still working on the water but it is coming along. Tom has been researching power and he is ready to start working on it. The limiting factor is funds but, God provides. He is waiting to be hired by the school bus company and they are quite happy to have him. So, when you see a school bus, it might be Tom driving it. A word to the wise, be careful!!! I'm kidding. He is looking forward to start. He already has a very bright vest to wear in the parking lot. He is going for his bus/truck drivers license soon and then he will be able to have a route. I just hope that the house won't come to a stand still, which I am sure it won't.

In the meantime, fall is upon us almost. I am getting ready to homeschool again. In fact I just mailed my core study this morning and it is now in the hands of the authorities. Well, I know which Authority is mine so I am sure that the core study will go through. It will be really quite a change for me, since it will only be my Logan and I doing school together. Boy, that I have to get used to this. Tasha will be around, which is nice, but she will be doing her school online and working. She has gotten into a nice routine and it is not so crazy at home anymore. We do tend to eat later than we have, though.

The "kids" took a bike ride down to our new covered bridge the other day. Tasha took some really nice pictures and I would like to share them with you. (Thanks Tash.) I will put them at the end of the blog.

But now, to me (remember that this blog is all about me, people, so stay with me here!) and the more serious stuff, the spiritual stuff. I told the family since we declared ourselves once more publicly, we would have some, em shall we say, issues. The enemy always seems to slip in when things are going really good. And sure enough he did. Sean and I went down to CT for him to shoe my friend Julie's ponies. We had a great time and lots of laughing with his friend and we enjoyed a nice visit with grandma and grandpa. I also got to visit with Julie a bit and that was a treat. And it was pouring!! Well, when we got back home, things just were not right in my heart. I was totally out of sorts. I was disgruntled with everything. There was such a cloud on my heart. And then things just got worse from there on. I finally realized that I was "naked", without the Armor of God, and that the fiery darts of the enemy were getting through to my heart. I once again had to deal with my old enemy fear and he won, for a while. I just couldn't stop that old-in-the-gut feeling of fear. I was totally aware of it, but couldn't shake it. It just spread throughout my whole being. I wanted so to stay in His presence as I had done with Tasha's graduation. It took some time for me to get there. He had to reassure me and reassure me and then slap me in the face to wake me up! Oh yes, I consider myself slapped and rebuked. I needed it! I am so glad for the divine slap I received. It was much needed. I have to say that fear is very real, but scripture warns us not to succumb to it. I was driving in CT and God sent me a reminder through the Christian radio station down there. I have missed that station, since it has always been a great encouragement from God. So once again I was told not to fear. This morning I had some time to reflect on this. I have been told that courage is standing firm despite feeling fear. I don't think that is quite right. God tells us not to fear. We have to lean in Him when things get tough and BELIEVE that He is capable to take care of our situation and those around us. So the God Who put this world together, who knew me in my

Beautifully created

mother's womb, knew and anticipated where I was going to be today, right now. Can I believe and trust that? I would say yeah, for sure. Can I trust that if He tells me not to fear that He is the answer to my problems and everything that is going on, that he has my family in His hands, and that there is really nothing I can do except to stay and abide in Him?

And what is this abide in Him, anyway? I have been thinking and meditating on that a lot. We are reading a wonderful book by a Muslim woman in Pakistan, who became a Christian late in life. She felt His presence with her and learned to stay in His presence. Wow, I have felt God's presence, but never have I realized that it might be nice to stay in His presence. The world and business and my fear and my wants and my, my, my, my....... Do you get the picture, because I am beginning to get the picture as I write this. (I will digress for a moment so bear with me.) This blog helps me work through things spiritually, so as I am writing, a lot of times I am working through things. Anyway, back on track. Do you get the picture, because I am starting to. There has to be a complete and utter surrender or else the weeds, the cares of this world start taking over, squashing what He has for you. Eternal life in Christ! I need to put my wants before Him every day, every moment until I am abiding in Him without question. Tom has managed to do that, so it can be done. I am still not quite there. Why is that? What is He trying to show me? He showed me something that I didn't like this morning, therefore the slap. So my response is? The only response I can give. HE IS LORD, HE IS RISEN AND IN HIM IS ETERNAL LIFE, PEACE, JOY, LOVE, FAITH, TRUTH, MERCY, MEEKNESS, TEMPERANCE. And against those, there is no law, meaning no rebuke for us. So, my prayer is to abide, to rest in Him, and Him alone. Everything else is just extra, just fluff. When I do that, I will have eternal life, life in Christ.

Find that eternal life, my friends. It is the only thing that saves, that makes this life here worth living. It is mine to grasp right now right here in the middle of turmoil, it is yours too. Our pastor said something really great last weekend. In this world there are always problems. If you follow the world, you will be encountering difficulties, if you follow Christ you will too. But, there is rest in Christ, and I choose to follow Him.