Halfway Home

We all await the arrival of “da neice”, Isaac and Allie’s first child! We are confident she will have a different name upon birth, but until then we work with what we’ve got, which is two creative uncles who have come up with their own names, hence, “Da Neice.”

Saturday, January 21st came and went, and still we all wait. Yesterday I “took” Allie for a walk down a long, bumpy country lane, complete with several sloping uphills. She kept pace with me all the way, and we walked even farther than last Wednesday. Neither one of us was too out of breath. I am happy to keep up with a very beautiful and very pregnant and now overdue daughter. She is very thankful to be in the place of her dreams with the man of her dreams. And we all have dreams for the coming few days.

Unlike Allie’s birth, which was a bona fide 21 days past due, I think today’s medical practices do not favor such long waiting periods. Yet we happily wait, we prayerfully wait, and we are thankful for those waiting with us!

Well, a new year has come,and soon many 2012 events will be being written down filling in a fresh calender. Thankfully, we got the chance to move into the new year with our friends the Walkers, shooting off  fireworks at midnight accompanied by Auld Lang Syne being played on the bag pipes(which was pretty awesome). But in the wave of that,  it’s good to stop and look back at the event we celebrated only days before. Funny how we spend weeks preparing for Christmas day and shortly after it is over we soon move on to the next event, so think of this as a Christmas/New Years post!

Around our house pens are problematic. I know we have an abundance of them, and a place to keep them, just not an abundance in the right place. Hmmm….I thought I had something to do with the problem, and the best part was that I was right. The harder part? I “found” nearly a dozen pens in my sewing box accumulated over a four week sewing stint. I knew from home schooling that I cannot think clearly without a pen in my hand; apparently, I can’t sew clearly without a few in my box.

Well, fast as it has seemed to sneak up on us, it is now Christmas Eve day, and between preparing for the church play, visiting with  friends, baking lots of cookies,and all the other Christmas things there are to do, it is safe to say we have had things to keep us busy. But it’s always good  to take time to enjoy this special things of the season and what it is about! So merry Christmas!

‘Tis the season to prepare for many things, one being the Christmas Pageant at church. This is a big deal in our home, because it is the first CP we’ve done which actually reenacts the traditional pageant. Goats, chickens, pony, shepherds, kings, Mary, Joseph, Gabriel, lots of angels and a baby, then two year old Jesus. The boys have waited out many a cantata focusing on other aspects of contemporary drama, wondering when will we do the story as we know it, sing it, read about it?

It was last night when I realized that Chris was lacking in his costume. This is embarrassing, as I am costume coordinator with some very helpful gals. It is good news for Chris, as all fabrics are now available and he can have his pick.

Two months? Two months?!? TWO MONTHS!!!

That’s how long since the last post! I can not quite believe it.

So, we could post lots of mini-posts. Or not. Best to leave it at Dale has been working strange China hours, getting to IBM before 6 a.m. a few days a week. So, we think this is not much, until we realize it impacts all the rest of the day, the sharing of cars, the travelling to soccer games, college schedules, cow milking. Throw in the joy of having Allie and Isaac nearby ( a little weekly visit is so nice!), a baby shower, a big Lego project, hunting season, making many costumes, a few music practices, a faithful Bible study, family conversations that get longer and better, a few downed trees and a large broken drainage pipe, chickens that are on hiatus from laying, and the little secret that Mom likes a Sunday afternoon football game on tv, and there you have many posts all in one paragraph. And a reason why the web-site has been quiet. It has all been productive time with people and projects, and God willing, we see no end of either in sight! So, it shouldn’t be too much to organize and manage our day for a new post a few times a week, should it ?

Isaac and Allie’s first child is a little girl with wiggling fingers, cute toes and we think a nose that wrinkles up like her mama’s!

Sonograms confirmed Dad’s opinions that, like the Angells and the Blues before them, the first-born is a daughter.

Great rejoicing and thanks to God to know a little more about this little one!

We started an in-ground swimming pool project today, but decided it was more important to have a furnace, washer, dryer and freezer instead.

The good news is we found the broken drain pipe 40 feet away from the house. It is amazing what 6 feet of crushed, soil filled pipe will to do 1800 square feet of basement. The second piece of good news is that we will all sleep well tonight. The third piece of good news is more basement cleaning is in store, and I love reclaiming basement space.

Any happy homeowner knows the thrill of managing one’s property in preparedness for winter, or a snow storm, or hurricane. If you have this responsibility, and are not happy about it, you are really missing out!

I love buttoning up for winter, a job done the weekend after Thanksgiving. All the stray sticks are gathered, the final dead plants are tossed in the compost pile, and errant gardening tools hopefully get found and put away. Sounds so peaceful, especially with the anticipation of winter, the quiet season of rest.

Now hurricane readiness is a lot more energetic, but can be just as much fun. The basement, or flood zone, gets much attention; rugs are rolled up, stray boxes, of which we have many, get squared away, and the legos form a consolidated community again. The kitchen is busy. Two loaves of bread are baking, and dinner will be cajun meatloaf and fresh mashed potatoes and garden broccoli. Perhaps we have had the last of the tomatoes and raspberries. Too early for their season to end, but who knows what will be standing 24 hours from now. I think there is a trip out for light bulbs scheduled for this evening. Not really because we need light bulbs for a hurricane, but we do need to continue in the sense of purposeful labor, and storm readiness provides just that.

Mixed with the activity of the day is prayer for those without husbands and strong young men to care for the flood zone, generator and wife. Not everyone lives in the country where we have options to care for ourselves and those around us when weather comes our way.
I am thankful for those preparations we can make here and pray for those with whom we wait out the coming storm.

…is another man’s treasure.

A popular story book line from the 1990’s, and also evident today as Chris, Andy, Christian and Jordan loaded up 664 pounds of “trash” from corners of the basement, edges of the field and other hiding places Dale knew of. Off to the metal recycling plant it went. For the boys, the big pay off was cash; for me, it was watching their faces and listening to the retelling of the experience. And, oh, yes, I no longer see the discarded 300 pound orange engine block as I was the goats around the field. I did suggest perhaps the old motorcycle by the stream was a candidate as well, to which I was told “No! Some things are sacred.”