Matters.

I was asking Novalynn where she wanted to live when she’s older. She has her future all planned out, much to my surprise.

“I’m going to live in a yellow house, with a pottery studio in the garage. It will be called Patty’s Pottery Shop.”

“Uh, your name’s not Patty.” I suppose I enjoy the obvious.

“Who cares?” she quips. “In today’s economy, nobody’s honest”

good point kid.

Today was seriously delicious.

Martin came for dinner. He brought an amazing cheese. We demolished it. I put a few chicken’s on the rotisserie to spin. We roasted new potatoes in bacon renderings and rosemary from my plant on the deck, with lemon juice for posterity. He made a mango cherry salsa (heaven!) we had a salad. There was fresh corn on the cob. We made a fire in the back yard fireplace and made smore’s.
Life is beautiful.

Thank you for the rain.

Today’s sermon illustration. Written by John Piper. It’s really good, well worth the read.

ILLUSTRATION – Rain

“As for me, I would seek God, and to God would I commit my cause,
who does great things and unsearchable, marvelous things without
number: he gives rain on the earth and sends waters on the fields” (Job
5:8-10).

If you said to someone: “My God does great and unsearchable things;
He does wonders without number,” and they responded, “Really? Like
what?”—would you say, “Like rain”?

When I read these verses from Job recently, I felt, at first, the
way I did on hearing some bad poetry that went something like this:
“Let me suffer, let me die, just to win your hand; let me even climb a
hill, or walk across the land.” Even? I would suffer and die to have
your hand, and even walk across the land? As if walking across the land
were more sacrificial than dying? This sounded to me like a joke.

But Job is not joking. “God does great and unsearchable things,
wonders without number. He gives rain on the earth.” In Job’s mind rain
really is one of the great, unsearchable wonders that God does. So when
I read this a few weeks ago, I resolved not to treat it as meaningless
pop musical lyrics. I decided to have a conversation with myself (which
is what I mean by meditation).

Is rain a great and unsearchable wonder wrought by God? Picture
yourself as a farmer in the Near East, far from any lake or stream. A
few wells keep the family and animals supplied with water. But if the
crops are to grow and the family is to be fed from month to month,
water has to come from another source on the fields. From where?

Well, the sky. The sky? Water will come out of the clear blue sky?
Well, not exactly. Water will have to be carried in the sky from the
Mediterranean Sea over several hundred miles, and then be poured out on
the fields from the sky. Carried? How much does it weigh? Well, if one
inch of rain falls on one square mile of farmland during the night,
that would be 27,878,400 cubic feet of water, which is 206,300,160
gallons, which is 1,650,501,280 pounds of water.

That’s heavy. So how does it get up in the sky and stay up there if
it’s so heavy? Well, it gets up there by evaporation. Really? That’s a
nice word. What does it mean? It means that the water stops being water
for a while so it can go up and not down. I see. Then how does it get
down? Well, condensation happens. What’s that? The water starts
becoming water again by gathering around little dust particles between
.00001 and .0001 centimeters wide. That’s small.

What about the salt? Salt? Yes, the Mediterranean Sea is salt water.
That would kill the crops. What about the salt? Well, the salt has to
be taken out. Oh. So the sky picks up a billion pounds of water from
the sea, takes out the salt, carries the water (or whatever it is, when
it is not water) for three hundred miles, and then dumps it (now turned
into water again) on the farm?

Well, it doesn’t dump it. If it dumped a billion pounds of water on
the farm, the wheat would be crushed. So the sky dribbles the billion
pounds of water down in little drops. And they have to be big enough to
fall for one mile or so without evaporating, and small enough to keep
from crushing the wheat stalks.

How do all these microscopic specks of water that weigh a billion
pounds get heavy enough to fall (if that’s the way to ask the
question)? Well, it is called coalescence. What’s that? It means the
specks of water start bumping into each other and join up and get
bigger, and when they are big enough, they fall. Just like that? Well,
not exactly, because they would just bounce off each other instead of
joining up if there were no electric field pre- sent. What? Never mind.
Take my word for it.

I think, instead, I will just take Job’s word for it. I still don’t
see why drops ever get to the ground, because if they start falling as
soon as they are heavier than air, they would be too small not to
evaporate on the way down. But if they wait to come down, what holds
them up till they are big enough not to evaporate? Yes, I am sure
there’s a name for that too! But I am satisfied for now that, by any
name, this is a great and unsearchable thing that God has done. I think
I should be thankful— lots more thankful than I am.

progress report.

So, the other day, Tyler dug the hole for the garage. On Wednesday they formed and poured the foundations. Today they are framing the walls, and on Monday the trusses arrive. Bam! Garage! Don’t blink.

Speedo!

He’s fast.
But I knew that…
I can start moving the boxes into the storage around noon today. Don’t get excited. I will probably only do 4 a day.  Thats what easily fits in the car. I could use the van, but he has attached the trailer to it, since that’s the only way to legally park a trailer on the street. ( we have multiple tickets to prove that fact)

Tanya is on her way over!! fun!!

Packing, Storing, Stowing…

May is gone, June is here! I feel kind of soggy, how about you?
We have our plans for the new house. We have permits and plans for the new garage before the new house, so Tyler has the hole dug, the surveyor’s have pinned the corners, and the framer has been hired. We can’t demo the existing house until we get a building permit for the new place. Apparently Vancouver is allergic to empty lot’s.
As soon as the new garage is locked up, Tyler can begin moving out of our existing garage and into the new one.
We decided to frame in secure storage in the existing carport, so that eliminates the need for purchasing storage till the new house is built.  That means that next week I can start moving the boxes that I have already packed up, out!
The old house if full of asbestos. It’s going to be expensive to deal with. There’s no going back now though… so we adjust the budget and move forward.
I started packing weeks ago. It must seem too early for people because I get comments on it all the time… my theory on it…" people who have to eat an elephant before a certain day need to start early and take small regular bites."
I guess that’s what this move feels like to me. Eating an elephant.  Why you ask?
It might be that the packing responsibility lays solely on me. As Tyler said, "I will build the new house, you pack up the old one." It’s a fair deal I think.
It might also be that I am coordinating three types of packing for us all.
 Type A- Things you don’t need, but want to keep. ( memories, posters, decorations) Those get boxed and go to the storage.
Type B- Things you need daily and will take with you when you go to 1) rockridge,2) G&G’s. 3) Cabin.  ( Toothbrush, Clothes, Journal… ) These stay in open containers, bags & suitcases.
Type C. Things you will need in the fall, when we move into our rental place but won’t need for the summer.  ( Your bedding, warmer clothes, books? Toys?) Again boxed, but labeled differently since we will need these boxes first.
Did you know the definition of overwhelming is packing 8 people 3 different ways?
It might be that the end July and first week of August our family will be living in 4 different places for 3 weeks.
Dylan, Bella, Maddie – Rockridge.
 Sam Sophia Novy, Grandparents house.
Lara and Ernie, Cabin.
Tyler- unknown.. maybe the new Garage? 😉
It might be that we have no idea where we are living in September…
That said, I feel like I’m almost half way done the packing, and we don’t have to be out till July 31st. So it’s actually going quite well. But you can maybe see why I don’t want to leave it till July?
I’m off to pack a box or two before the tribe returns.

 

Going in for repairs.

Dylan is having surgery to repair his ACL for the second time. We need to be checked into the hospital before 8 am. I suppose that means I have to wake up before 8 am. Hopefully his surgery goes smoothly, and I can have him home sometime in the afternoon. Then begins the 3 legged child marathon. I hope he recovers speedily!

Our Teen friendly Paint Line

The DiGuistini family has developed a brilliant new paint line. We expect it to be hitting the designer stores really soon. And by really soon, I mean sometime after Vancouver is officially Canada’s most western dessert. Without further ado:

Skin tag pink
Black eye purple
Zit white
Blackhead brown
Passout pale
Lungbutter Ochre
Pinkeye pink
Toe jam Taupe
Blood vessel blue
Fingernail fungus green
Unbrushed enamel yellow
Furry tounge cream
Bile brown
Scab brown
Knuckle skin white
Fail blush
Booger lime
Scalp snow white
Pink blurr
earwax orange
pizza knees ( faux finish) also makes a good stencil.
Belly button bonus white
stretch mark mauve
eye sleep yellow
crusty cream white

I think "painting your own room" will be fun this time around. Don’t you?

The inevitable

You might know that we bought a house, will be tearing it down and doing a new build. This is exciting for us, as Tyler and I haven’t built a house together for us for a very long time. So we talk about it alot these days. Just about every time we talk actually. Today I pointed out that since we have moved to Vancouver 10 years ago, each move has been towards the West. "Of course." He says. "What?" I counter, because to me, it was certainly not an intentional outcome. I mean we’ve never had a conversation about "going west." "It’s inevitable" he continues. "What? Why? I certainly don’t think it was inevitable.. what are you talking about" "It’s inevitable," he starts laughing," because UBC is west." Jerk.

Time

Time does many things, I’ve heard. Mostly it passes. Not the kind of passing like that of a ball between kids, as you never get time back once you’ve thrown it. Not the kind of passing like cars on a freeway, since it moves at the same pace for everyone, despite their perception of it. It’s not even the kind of passing we find most profound, that is, the passing away that we will all eventually do.
No, time passes, and it really doesn’t care what you think about it.
Time has passed since I’ve last blogged. I think after Rachel passed, I got stuck. Writing here didn’t feel like it did before. Especially since I knew she read what I wrote and it made her laugh. That was important to me. But, like I said, time passes.
I have lots of things going on, and I’d like to share them. ( Not all in one night though)

Our house sold in December, and this week, we found a new one and bought it. Today Tyler met with the architect and they went over the pro’s and con’s of reno vs new build. This will lead to a decision about time frames. Do we build right away, which means finding rental in July, do we move in and wait a while, then find rental and move out, build and move back in? ( I see alot of boxes and tape in my future either way)

Today we finally found a better car. We had been looking for a good used Jetta for a few months now. This one suits us, and we were able to trade in the old car for the same price we paid for it, so that felt like a win.

We took a cruise for Spring Break, and it was amazing. There are pictures on facebook, if you’re that sort. If not, well… what can I say?
We are counting the days till we go to Cabin. August! WOOT!
The book club I lead is going really well, growing all the time, and I like it.
That’s all for now, more to come!