Remodeling

We are in the process of fixing up our kitchen! In the summer of 2006, we bought this home and we've been slowly redoing everything. Much of the work on this house was done by Mark with help from his dad before we even moved in. New walls, new carpet, new flooring, electrical work, and many, many, many other details. What a long process it has been!!! So many projects have required more time, more money and more patience than we had to give so we've had to go at a slower pace. I've been very eager to have the kitchen projects completed and we are finally making progress in that room again! When we are finished, we'll have freshly painted walls, trim, and door, new tile wall paneling, new trim, removal of old cabinet over the microwave, new flooring, new ceiling, and hopefully a new dishwasher! I am so thankful for a husband who knows how to do EVERYTHING!!!! He is absolutely amazing.

So if you were in our house now, you would see dust all over the place from sanding the spackling, plastic hanging from the cubboards, our dining room table covered with kitchen things, and it is a mess!!! But because I know how nice it will look when we are done, it's OK! It is worth the inconvenience, the dust, the mess to have a pretty kitchen.

That thought reminded me of my children today. As a homeschooling mom, sometimes our days are long and we struggle with attitudes with our teen and tween and math and assignments.... Sometimes I wonder, "are we making progress???" and "are these kids going to turn out OK?" and fear and doubt try to enter my head when it's not smooth sailing. But when I keep my eyes on the reasons we are homeschooling and the investment we are making in their lives, I realize that despite "messy days", this is all worth it! The teaching and training of my children is not easy, but it is very, very rewarding and worth all of the time, effort and challenges it brings.
After all, whether it is just a pretty kitchen or something far more precious like great relationships with my well educated children - these things require inconvenience, mess, sacrifice, and time, but the results are wonderful!!!

But even more wonderful is the fact that God is doing the work with our children! I need to be faithful in teaching them and Mark and I need to do our best with nurturing them in the Lord, and training them to be disciples. God is the One who is ultimately working in their lives, sanctifying them so they are more and more like Christ. It is a life-long process for all of us.

Here are the verses I shared with my children today from I Thessalonians 5:22-23

"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.

May your whole spirit, soul,and body be kept blameless at the

coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The one who calls you is faithful and HE WILL DO IT."

Here are some pictures of our kitchen project to share with you!

Mark had to cover the cabinets with plastic to protect everything inside from the dust. See the wallpaper we had to remove on the far wall?
Then he took down the microwave and this cabinet off the wall. We don't need the cabinet and we are going to have a shelf there instead after the wall gets painted.
This is the wall where the cabinet and microwave were (and the stove and refrigerator goes). Mark's least favorite task is spackling and sanding, spackling and sanding.... so much prep work before painting!