Today Michael is off work so he can focus on getting lots done at the Monroe house.  But as he headed out the door to start for Monroe, he found that the car has a flat tire.  So now he’s out there on his back working on changing a tire.

I hope the rest of the day goes a bit more smoothly than this…

We are staying home this morning to get some of the boring things in life taken care of. Things like dishes and laundry and piano practice aren’t glamorous, but they do need attention, so we are here paying attention to them.

This morning as I was holding Lilly Jane, I made the comment that I wished I could get a photo of her. Luke offered to take photos with my camera, so I let him. I didn’t think the photos would work, since we had to use the flash, but I was pleasantly surprised by Luke’s photography skills.

Lilly is more alert these days, and getting a bit more demanding. She’s also showing a definite preference to being with me instead of anyone else. That makes it a bit tough for the rest of the family to help out, but we humor her as much as we can. Sometimes she just has to cry and wait for me to be available.

It’s hard to believe that Lilly is four weeks old today.  Was it really a month ago that we met for the first time?

This afternoon we’ll head back to the Monroe house to work, and tomorrow I think Michael is going to take the day off to work at the house. We’ll see how this week plays out. Meanwhile, I’m glad for a little break.

What a beautiful day here in Central Illinois! The children ran around barefoot, tracking mud into the house, and having a wonderful time enjoying the fresh air.

We spent almost the entire day at the Monroe house. At 1 pm we met with our realtor, Judy Glenn, to get her suggestions for what needs to be done before we list the house. We walked through each room noticing every little thing that needs attention. I wrote a separate list for each room. Now all we have to do is work through the list.

This past weekend has been a very productive one for our work project. Todd helped us out two nights in a row taking children home so we could stay and work uninterrupted. And today we worked even more intently knowing that Judy would be there soon to look things over.

Fortunately, Judy thinks we are definitely on the right track, and she feels we’re close to being ready to list. She was very encouraging, and the best part was when Judy, Michael and I bowed our heads and prayed that God would direct our paths. It’s so comforting to be on the same page as our realtor, knowing that the whole deal is in God’s hands.

Tonight I am so tired. We have worked harder these past four days than we’ve worked in a long time. But it’s good for us! Sure doesn’t hurt us to work hard and honor God with our labor. Also, it’s good for me to stay busy and active and not sit around all day munching on chocolates.

This evening we have some vigorous thunderstorms rolling through. How funny to have thunderstorms in January! There was even a tornado warning earlier this evening. All we can do is smile and shake our heads at this funny Central-Illinois weather.

The one thing that sticks out to me most about this day is a comment that Michael made as we were eating supper. He said that he still feels very confident that we are following God’s leading. So, we follow on, and it feels like we’re wandering in a wilderness, but as long as we follow the path God has us on, we can “wander” in confidence that we will actually arrive in the “Promised Land” someday.

Tonight Michael and I were able to spend the evening at the Monroe house working, thanks to Todd taking the kids home around supper time.  What a treat to be able to focus on our work without having to worry about getting kids fed supper or bathed or sent to bed.  (Thank you, Todd!)

Michael ran out to grab supper for us, and decided to try the Chinese place just around the corner.  We sat on the kitchen floor eating hot, delicious food, and eventually we made our way to the fortune cookies that are routinely dropped in the bag.

The first cooky fortune read, “You shouldn’t overspend at the moment.  Frugality is important.”

How interesting!  Just what we feel God has already been trying to hammer into our heads recently!  Hmmm.

Next cooky?  “A pleasant surprise is in store for you soon.”  That would be nice.

There was a third cooky, and of course we were curious to see what else was in our future.  So Michael broke the cooky open and read, “You will find your solution where you least expect it.”

What interesting words.  What interesting bits of encouragement.

So now we can’t help but wonder, does God ever speak to us through funky ways like fortune cookies?  God can use anything to get messages to His people, so we decided to just be encouraged and realize that no matter what, God is in control of our situation, we don’t know how He’s going to work everything out, and we certainly should be frugal.

Ok, this is silly, but I couldn’t help but take this quiz.  I don’t think I’m terribly addicted to Apple.  After all, I’m not as bad as my dear husband!  But according to this quiz, I’m 72% addicted.  How about you?

72%How Addicted to Apple Are You?

Today Lilly is three weeks old. What a wonderful three weeks it has been, too! Not only do I get to hold and delight in my baby, but I can now eat, sleep, walk, bend over, climb ladders, and everything else like I used to do without having a huge tummy getting in the way. What a great sense of relief that has been!

It seems like, in many ways, life has gone back to how it was before, with all of our extra attention being focused on the Monroe house project. We got sidetracked when it was time to have a baby and then get ready for Christmas. But by Christmas night, we were back at work, and we’ve been busy at it almost every day since then.

Today, on the way home from spending four hours working hard at the Monroe house (those four house sure seemed longer than that!), I told Michael that I hope we can continue our push to the finish line. We are so close. The kitchen project is almost done. The floor is beautiful, the crown molding is up, the wainscoting is going up, and there isn’t much more to do after that. But this is the stage of the project where it would be so easy to slow down and lose heart. It reminds me of being at the end of labor and not wanting to make the final push to get the baby out.

My big job in this project is to get the crown molding painted. Then I’ll move on to painting the wainscoting. Michael’s job is to do the construction, such as putting up the wainscoting and finishing the trim around the kitchen.

I’m eager to get some photos taken and posted so you can see what we’ve been doing. Maybe next time we head over there I will remember to take the camera. Until then, you can just imagine a beautiful 100-year-old heart-pine floor that shines with a rosy complexion. I can’t believe it was hidden all this time.