Blue Jeans and Cotton Tees

Poppa Sanding

We are in the final stages of a massive home renovation. Eight years ago we moved a large beautiful old farm house to our land and have been slowly fixing it up.

We gutted it, rearranged the rooms slightly, replaced windows, put in a ground source heat pump, replaced the roof, redid the electricity and the plumbing, all before finally dry walling, painting and now refinishing the floors.

Eight years worth of hard work and we’re down to just a few more tasks before we can move in. Yet these few tasks have been very frustrating. Everything is taking longer than it is supposed to and not going according to plan.

We “planned” to spend 2 weeks on the floors. We’re now on week 3 with work still to be done.

We “planned” to just sand the pine floors upstairs, stain them and use them as is. We ended up spending days painfully removing the glue-like gunk from those floors before we could even think about varnish.

We “planned” that the varnish would seal in the stuff between the cracks in those pine floors- but it didn’t. It keeps floating up and coming out. Yuck.

We “planned” to be moved in by November 1st.  Not gonna happen.

Our new plans include carefully removing the gunk from between the cracks and varnishing them again.

We just added it to the to-do list that gets longer every day.

I was telling my woes to my brother the other day and he very wisely said, “Plans are what you make while real life happens.” So true.

He also said, “The best battle plans only last until the enemy army approaches.” Thanks, Tim.

I think it’s time to stop looking at my to-do list that never gets any shorter and start looking to my Heavenly Father who knows all things.

He knows my needs, my desires, my dreams. He knows my frame- He designed it! He knows our schedule, our finances, our strength.

He has great plans for me- He promised.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you hope and a future.”

All the rain and flooding yesterday left us without telephone service and internet for several hours.

No checking emails, no blogging, no research, no incoming calls, no outgoing calls, nothing.

It was frustrating! I’m ashamed to admit how dependant I am on my links to the outside world.

Now most of you are asking, “Where’s your cell phone?”

It was here, but worthless. As one friend put it, “Honey, you really do live in ‘E I E I O Land’, you have no signal anywhere!”

She was right. We drive up the road to the cementary to talk on the cell phone!

Thankfully we didn’t need to resort to smoke signals or passenger pigeons. It was a minor inconvenience and all systems were up and running again by noon today.

Ahh…

Good News: The computer that was hit by lightning was still under warranty and HP fixed it. They replaced the mother board for free and had the whole thing returned to me in just under 10 days!

Bad News: My poison ivy is still bothering me.

Good News: It’s not as bad as it was! I’ve been washing it with soap and hot water and rinsing with hydrogen peroxide. No new spots and the older ones are much smaller.

Good News: No sign of Lyme disease from my tick bites!

Bad News: My husband has had 4 more bites in the last few weeks.  The ticks remain more prevalent than they have ever been.

Bad News: My garden is pathetic.

Good News: I have more time for other things because I’m not canning and freezing produce. (I’m really trying to find good in this one…)

Bad news: I stepped on a honey bee last night as I was bringing in the laundry and it stung the bottom of my foot. It swelled and ached! How did it ever get inside my sandal?

Good News: The kids pitched in with supper preparations and hubby helped with dishes. The swelling was down by bed and no sign of pain today! I had a great excuse to lie on the couch!

Good News: I have a fridge full of leftovers so I can take a day off of cooking!

Good News: I don’t have any big plans for this weekend. My oldest three will be on a camp-out and I can actually relax a little!

Good News: God loves me today and has amazing plans for me!

I always laugh when I hear comments from friends who think that our life here in rural America is one long parade of beautiful sunsets, berry picking and picnics in the meadows.

Don’t get me wrong, we have lots of those. But there are also many other unsavory parts of rural living.

These are the things that we country folk like to keep to ourselves. But for the sake of reality, I will expose one rather nasty part of country life- BUGS.

At any given time on any given day in the spring, summer or fall, you could find a wide assortment of strange or unusual bugs crawling or buzzing through my house. (If only the kids would remember to  close the screen door!)

Flies, wasps, mud daubers, June bugs, moths, lady beetles, and a variety of spiders are just the ones that I’ve identified.

But right now I’m fighting a losing battle with ants. I get them every year about this time and they take over my kitchen. One year I had made an angel food cake for Pedro’s birthday the next day and left it sitting upside down on the counter while we all went to VBS.  When we arrived home, it was covered with ants! I’m not talking one or two ants, I’m talking covered! They had even burrowed inside!

That meant war.

I threw it to the chickens, put the kids to bed and stayed up until after midnight baking a new cake for his birthday. Then I took the cake to bed with me to keep it from the ants. (I might not have been thinking very clearly by that time- but it did work! It was ant free in the morning!)

As for getting rid of the ants, I can tell you a half dozen things that don’t work! But it would be faster to tell you the one thing that does, Terro. We put some out on a piece of cardboard and those little buggers start drinking it like there was no tomorrow. (It’s rather fascinating to watch in a morbid kind of way.)

Then they take the poison back to their nest and wipe out the whole colony. (Can you hear me laughing?!)

Ahh…but there’s a problem! I’m having trouble finding Terro. I have my last bottle sitting upside down on a piece of cardboard right now hoping there’s enough drops to wipe out this huge colony. They are eating it up as fast I can get it out. Some are even climbing the sides of the bottle to get more!

And so the hunt for Terro begins…because this is one battle I aim to win!