Working in My New Kitchen

For now it's mostly in my head, but now that the kitchen cabinets are installed in our new house I have a better picture of what it's going to be like to prepare a meal in our new kitchen.

Refrigerator here, canned goods there, utensils in that drawer, potholders in the next.  Gas stove on that side, dishes, bowls, and plates on the other.

Time to serve lunch.  Can you smell it?  Mmm, I almost can!  

Progress On the New House: Wordless Wednesday

Our New House: Building Blocks for the New Year

I wasn't going to post another house construction picture so soon, but my good friend Joan reminded me today that, "A new home foundation going down is one heck of a way to start a brand new year!!!!!!!" (Those who know Joan will know that I'm quoting her exactly, down to her contagious punctuation!)

Joan is absolutely right, so I decided to share this picture, taken today, January 1, 2012.  It truly is symbolic of all the good things we expect in this new year.   I know everything about the year won't be perfect, and some won't be good at all (we're not in Heaven yet!) but Chris and I head into this year thankful for all that we've been through, with appreciation for the gifts that have yet to come.

Happy New Year from our family to yours.  I hope you have much to look forward to and even more to be thankful for!

Our New House: Digging the Footings

We visited the site of our new house yesterday and found activity!  The forecast is working in our favor right now (look at that blue sky!), so yesterday they were digging the footings and planning to pour those later in the afternoon. 

I don't know exactly what footings are, but I sort of do.  Guess I need to do a bit of research on the technicalities of homebuilding.  I'm more interested in the outward appearance, what the new house will look like as it goes up.  But certainly a firm foundation is very important and I'm glad we have a builder we can trust to do that part right.

Sort of like in our lives.  No  matter what else we do, if we have a firm foundation then the rest of life sort of takes care of itself, guided by our Builder.   

Visit again soon for more updates on our new house as construction progresses.  Feel free to get excited about it.  We are!

One More Seasonal Greeting (Wordless Wednesday)

Best Christmas Ever and the New Year Ahead

It's almost New Year's and I forgot to say Merry Christmas.  Hope everyone had a happy one!  We had what may have been our best Christmas ever, with a very special gift of family photos from our kids with help from various relatives who provided copies from their own stash.  Now we have an organized chronicle of our lives, neatly cataloged and scrapbooked, plus several framed 8 x 10's.  It was hard losing family photos in our fire, but we had the memories.  Now we have both and a place to add new memories, too.  What an amazingly awesome gift from our sons and daughter-in-law. 

Now it's time to put this too-memorable year behind us and move ahead to 2012.  Our new house is in the beginning stages of construction and we're very excited about getting to choose all the things that will go inside.  I'll be taking pictures and posting them along with progress notes here on this site.  

Have you set goals for 2012?  I'm working on doing that this week, too, since life-other-than-building-a-new-house will go on as usual.  I need to remember to include personal physical and spiritual goals along with the business goals, which are much easier (at least for me) to address and plan. 

No matter what your goals, I wish you health, wealth, prosperity, and bundles of blessings for 2012!

Win Free Content for Your Blog

My friend Rhonda, aka Mommy Revenue, is giving away three free memberships to her site, NewsletterClips.com.  It's a cool site and, if you're ever in need  of some quick content for your blog or newsletter, it could be a lifesaver - and certainly a time saver!

I've known Rhonda online for a number of years and recommend her highly.  In fact, she's the one who referred me to Squidoo!

Enter the giveaway by following the easy instructions here.  Hope you and I both win! 

Homeschool Band and Orchestra Christmas Concert: (Almost) Wordless Wednesday

Even retired homeschool moms can make joyful music unto the Lord.

We Promise to Remember the Seventh of December

Ever watch the John Wayne movie The Fighting Seabees?  Our family did, multiple times, and every December 7th (Pearl Harbor Day in case you're not in the know) the song from that movie goes through my head all day.

Best part for me are the lyrics, "And we promise to remember the seventh of December."

We promise, too.

You'll find the lyrics and the music to "The Song of the Seabees" here, the movie here.