Moments

There are little snippets of time in which a memory is seared into your mind and your heart. 

You wonder, why that one? The thing may not have seemed significant when it happened. There may be hundreds of similar incidents that you do not remember. But for some reason, this particular moment is remembered vividly. 

At church on Sunday, two separate things happened that brought a long-ago moment in time to the front of my memory. 

First, Bekah played the beautiful hymn "He Leadeth Me" on the piano as a call to worship. 

A little later in the service, I looked over at my six-year-old granddaughter Macie and she was lustily singing with the congregation "He Will Hold Me Fast." It moved my heart so much that I had to turn away lest I become a bucket of tears.

And both of those here-and-now moments took me back to a little snippet of time when Kati (now a married woman with two young children) was a small girl, sitting in a ladderback chair in our farmhouse kitchen. She was kind of twisted around in her chair (because in those days she never just sat). I don't remember if anyone else was there with us, but our family was singing "He Leadeth Me" and little Kati (like her niece Macie many years later) was singing lustily in her sweet, clear voice. In that moment, I was so moved and the memory was etched in my heart. 

I am probably the only one who remembers that moment. And yet . . .

Life is made up of moments, one after the other. 

The moments of planting seeds of truth, of living out the Gospel, of lending a hand, of speaking a soft word . . . those moments are seemingly small, but they are vitally important. 

Life is built of small moments. 

On the Calendar

For the past several years, Nora Murphy Country House has offered a free monthly calendar to use as a computer background or lock screen, and I have enjoyed that gift each month. This year, however, there is no monthly calendar available on the website, so I decided to create one for myself. 

Here is February's . . . 

This first full week of February has been "full" indeed! Whew!

A few highlights:

My mom had cataract surgery at the beginning of the week. Everything went well and Mom is seeing a difference already. Truly, the most difficult part of the whole thing (for me anyway) was getting up at o'dark thirty to be at the surgery center at 6:05 am! 

It was my week to teach our ESL class. I am nervous every time, but I love it. It is so rewarding!

I provided taxi service for a grandson to get to work one day. His family is down one vehicle temporarily and there was a scheduling hitch. I am always happy to fill in when I can because it offers some one-on-one time with a grand. 

There was a ladies' brunch at church this morning to kick off another year of reading the Word together. It was a time of sweet fellowship and encouragement. 

Work on the stairwell makeover continued this week. 

The new light is up.

Alas, it looks as if the stairs themselves are going to be more work than anticipated.
There is some sort of adhesive on all but the very bottom tread which will have to be removed before finishing them.

And work on the sunroom has begun! So exciting! 

How has your calendar been? 

House Projects 2022 | Project #2

Last week, I told you about how Ron and I plan projects for the year and I told you all about Project #1. Progress was made over the weekend and, even though it is a long way from being finished, I hear the angels sing every time I walk past! The space has gone from dank and dark to cheerful and bright. It feels like our home. 

There will be more to come on this stairwell makeover. You're probably not hearing those angels sing yet. 😉

But now, I want to tell you about the BIG project we have coming up. 

PROJECT #2: 
SUN PORCH to SUNROOM 

Yes! We're going to close in the sun porch to essentially add another room to our house! 

Now before I begin, I will tell you that we are not going to DIY this project. We decided together that this was something that we did not want to tackle ourselves. 

Since I didn't do a post about our 2021 house goals, you do not know that this was on last year's list. Let's just say that it is more than a notion to get work done these days. On our third try (and with my good friend Barbara's recommendation), we found a contractor . . . but it took most of the year to get to this point!

~ May 2016 ~

We have a lovely sun porch on the back of our house and we have used it like crazy!

We eat meals on the porch when the weather allows. The grands often eat out there when we have family meals, unless there is rain or cold. (Heat does not dissuade them as it does me.) We have had ice cream parties and seafood feasts in the porch. We've even had a few photo sessions! 

When we moved into Pineapple House, there were vinyl windows over the screens. (You can see them in many of the above photos.) These windows kept out dirt and dust, and made the porch slightly warmer in the cold.

We had not been here a month when a grandchild tipped over his chair and tore one of the vinyl panels. Oops. (No shade on the grandchild; these things happen.) Over the years, others were torn while trying to lower or raise a panel. (They were especially brittle during cold.) The windows were somewhat peevish about staying on track too, often requiring a bit of a struggle for those who were trying to get them up or down. And if they weren't securely in their tracks, you could hear them banging in the wind. 

Manzy peeking out of one of the holes in the vinyl

On one particular day, early in the pandemic when we were all still on lockdown, I was struggling with adjusting the windows when all of a sudden I decided that I was not going to wrestle with those stubborn windows any. more. What good were they doing anyway with their multiple holes? They didn't look good and no longer served their purpose. I started pulling them from their tracks and piling them on the counter! Then I remembered that I hadn't asked Ron if he was okay with that, so I went to his office (he was working from home at that point), told him what I was doing, and asked if he had any objection. He didn't. (Or maybe he saw my crazed look and thought it better to let it go!)  

We put the panels in the attic in case we wanted to put them back in, but we never did. No regrets! The porch looks better without them! 

But all of that talk about vinyl windows vs. only screens really has no bearing on why we want to close in the porch.

It really all comes down to how we live in our house. 

• We have a large and growing family! (We love that!)
  
  
• We host holiday meals and birthday celebrations and other gatherings. (We love that too!) 

On a given holiday meal, we could have twenty to twenty-five people, occasionally more. So having another room with a dining table and other seating available consistently  (not just when the weather is right) will be a huge asset for us! 

We can use the extra table for seating or for serving. And the three of us can use the porch for reading or ordinary meals or morning coffee. 

One great thing about our porch is that it is already a structural part of the house. It is on the same foundation and is part of the roof line. That will make our remodel much simpler! 

Pineapple House from the back yard

We have gathered inspiration through drive-bys (although those are from the outside) and through online resources such as Pinterest and Instagram. Here is a sampling . . . 

My favorite inspiration photo!
~ Pin ~

So what are our plans for the remodel? 

We want to keep as much natural light as possible, as well as keep our traditional aesthetic, so we are going to install ten 5-foot double hung windows. We will have double French doors opening to the outside. We will also have a ductless mini-split installed for heating and air. 

We are not sure when the work will begin, but our porch currently looks like this . . . 

. . . so we are eagerly anticipating a new sunroom this spring! I'll keep you posted!