Peace

This week has been anything but peaceful, so it was refreshing when the other night Todd and I went for a walk along the river.  Nothing bad has been going on, just a lot of busyness.  It started when at 4:30am Sunday I got a call from the elderly couple I help take care of.  The husband had taken a bad fall and was certain that he had broken some ribs.  He asked if I would come out and stay with his invalid wife while his son took him to the hospital.  Fortunately, nothing was broken but he was very sore, so I hung around long enough to get his wife out of bed, showered, and to the breakfast table.  I eventually made it to church, which was followed by a counseling session, a hospital visit, and Bible study.  For the rest of the week he has asked that I come over every morning to help him get his wife ready for the day, which means my day starts off an hour earlier than usual.  Monday after tending to them, I rushed home to pick up Bryce, then we headed to church to set up for a medical team that was using our facilities for the day.  Shortly after they arrived, Bryce and I left because it was my day to take care of my father in law, no sooner did I get to his house, then I was called back to the elderly couples house to deal with a situation.  Todd who was monitoring the church, came over to deal with his dad, so I could deal with the couple.  Once that crisis was under control I was back at my in-laws and Todd was back at the church.  Once I was done there it was a made dash to the church to relieve Todd.  It was his day off, by the way...sigh....Finally at five Todd relieved me again so that I could go home and get supper ready.  Thank goodness for crockpots!

Yesterday was better as we didn't have as much on the schedule.  Although our time at the church was spent cleaning up from the medical team and setting up for our AWANA Awards program.  Somewhere in all of this we are trying to get school done. Bryce was wanting to work on his treehouse at the property especially since I told him I found a bunch of plywood in the grandparents basement. We managed to cart all of it to his treehouse, before heading back to the elderly couples house so I could make the beds, then over to another widows house to pick up a bunch of stuff.  So in reality yesterday was pretty busy as well. 

Today is no different.  Morning help for the couple, co-op, shopping at Costco, finish setting up for AWANA, then the final awards program.  I wish I could say the rest of the week is going to get better, but it is not.  Actual, Sunday afternoon might actual be somewhat free.  I think I will schedule in a nap.

Progress

We are starting to see some progress on the property.

Bryce driving the backhoe to get some dirt for the tire wall.

On The Brink

It's co-op day again.  Time to catch up on reading and blogging while Bryce is in class.  Right now we are on the brink of many changes.  For one, Todd is meeting with the septic guy to verify what kind of septic system we need for the property and how much it will cost.  Eek!  Praying for a good perk test.  

The next big precipice we are standing on is concerning school and work.  As Bryce nears high school I have become more and more apprehensive about his future schooling.  While the older two went off to the local public high school, I do not feel that is the best option for Bryce.  So, do I continue to home school him or put him in an online school, or enroll him in our local Christian school.  Todd and I have opted for the third choice, Upper Valley Christian School.  It is a small school of 35 students K-12.  The next big problem is tuition.  The answer...UVCS has asked if I would teach science and math either part time or full time.  I have said yes.  So in short, this is most likely my last year to home school and next fall Bryce will go to school and I will go back to teaching.  In reality, it won't be a big change for me.  I will be teaching out of the same curriculum that have used with my own kids and teaching multiple levels of math and science like I did at home.  The only difference is I will have more kids to deal with.  If they want me part time the church has agreed to let me open the church office in the afternoons so I can teach in the mornings.  If I am asked to go full time then the church will find a new secretary.  In short, all of this will answer many prayer concerns such as, Bryce's education, financial needs with the new house, etc.  So as we stand on the brink of so many new changes I am excited.  Excited to see everything come together.  Excited to see my kids growing, changing, maturing.  Excited for the future.

Metal Shop

Brian sent me this picture today from his metal shop.

Metal shop is a class I know Brian should be enjoying but he has a classmate that has been intent on making Brian's life miserable.  From elbowing Brian every time he walks by, to pushing him out of line, or sabotaging Brian's metal shop locker, life in class has been miserable.  There have been a lot of talks around the table of how to deal with this obnoxious classmate.  I have found myself furious and very " mother bearish" but also mindful of this is why my son is there ...to learn how to be a Christian in an ungodly world.  It sounds like things are dying down.  Apparently the other students are becoming more aware of the bullying and are stepping up the pressure on the other kid to stop it. It was nice today to hear Brian excited about class for a change.

City of Tyre...I mean...Tire!

Yesterday, the kids and I joined Todd out at the property to help him sort through tires.
Did you know that with this awesome property that we have purchased, we have been blessed with hundreds, that is not an exaggeration, hundreds of tires.  Big tires, small tires, fat tires, skinny tires....more and more tires.  (I feel like Dr. Seuss is whispering in my ear.)  The BIG dilemma is what to do with all of these tires.  We could hire someone to haul them away.  We figure that would cost us over thousands of dollars...i have done the math...OR we can get creative.  We have opted to be creative.  However.....if you want some....PLEASE...PLEASE...feel free to come over and take some.  Believe me, we won't mind.  Our creative idea for our awesome tires is to build a retaining wall. 

Todd has built a dirt ramp to the back "yard" behind our soon-to-be constructed house, however, to make sure it doesn't wash out he is going to shore it up with a tire wall.  Which brings me back to last nights project.  The kids and I went out to the property and sorted the tires.  After sorting them we had to haul them over to the ramp sight and stack them up according to their size so that Todd can then place them and fill them with dirt and build the wall.  Oh...just to add more work and to make it easier to fill each tire, Todd is also cutting the rim off each tire so that the dirt will go in easier and we can pack it tighter.  It is a LOT of work, but we hope it will pay off in the long wrong.

Although the kids weren't too excited about traveling out to the property to work they made it a lot of fun.  Before long the tire puns were flying.  "Mom, I didn't know that we lived in the city of Tyre."  or "Mom, this is soooo TIRERING.!"  "Mom, I am all tired ou."  lol  Glad they made it fun. 

Prepping the site

We are getting closer and closer to building our house.  We have had to delay the process a couple of months because we changed builders.  Our previous builder was not returning our calls or listening to us.  When he notified us that he was going to change our price by $20k because he failed to understand that we were still going to build in the hill even though we were not going to have the basement garage, we fired him.  I was worried at first, but we have signed up with a local builder that we know personally and is going to give us what we want and a few extras all for the original quote the first builder gave us.  Last week we met with the architect who will draw up our new house plans. The new house will be very similar to the old house plans with a few alterations.  I am excited, nervous, but excited. All of the changes give Todd more time to prep the land.  He has the initial hole dug.  Now he needs to push back the top layers of dirt away from the house to make it safe for construction. He also is putting in a dirt ramp so that he can drive the back hoe up to the yard area behind the house.  We are so thankful for the backhoe that my father-in-law had.

Speaking of my father-in-law, I have now taken on the job of caring for him on the days my mother-in-law volunteers at our local community cupboard.  So far things have gone well.  This past week, he did "snap" towards the end of my time with him.  I had to call Todd to come over to defuse the situation.  It was very sad, but now I know what Susan goes through and I am wiser on what Not to do when I am with him.  Susan wants me to get certified for in-home care so that I can get paid at a higher rate, so it looks like that is what I will be doing this summer.

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