Here are some pictures of our two cats, Tom (the furry one) and Pumpkin. They both seem to be suffering some post-sunroom demolition depression and disorientation. They were used to spending quite a lot of time out in the sunroom soaking up the rays. Now they can be out there, but all their favorite nooks and crannies are gone, having  been replaced by sheetrock dust, splinters, and nails.

My dad always says about Pumpkin, "When God was handing out brains, Pumpky thought He said 'trains' and so he missed his." So true, so true. Poor kitty.

Everything is topsy turvy.

Where did my sunroom go?

We finally had Jim's birthday dinner (homemade chicken enchiladas) and he opened his gifts last night. His birthday was a month ago, but all of the kids have been so busy working and our calendar has been booked in other ways as well, so his celebration kept getting bumped. My dad took this picture of our family at the end of the evening. The beautiful young lady sitting to Jim's right is our "oldest daughter", Jules.

My Christmas cactus is in full bloom now! I must admire it a dozen times a day. I'm absolutely in awe of it.

Well, we are having a very busy, but fun summer here at our home. Besides doing the round-the-clock-remodel we have been doing some other varied activities to keep us sane. (Okay, to keep ME sane. All work and no play makes for a monotonous life!) Cassie, Isaac, and Seth are keeping VERY busy with their jobs at a local berry processing plant. Lots of hours, lots of money, and very little sleep. But they seem to be enjoying it. Natasha is loving her new job (she recently was promoted to clerk at the library) and since she is out of school for the summer, she has been able to have a bit more time at home.

Cassie's birthday was on May 6th, before she came home from college. She and Isaac both wanted to wait to celebrate their birthdays together (Isaac's is May 21st) so we did that once she was home and the dust had settled. Here the kids are displaying some of the gifts that Isaac and Cassie received.

For Dad's and Mom's 55th wedding anniversary, all four of us kids and our spouses met at Red Lobster (Mmmmm...) and had a wonderful evening of eating, visiting, and laughing.

For Seth's 15th birthday we went to the Boeing Museum of Flight. Titus and Abigail each took turns taking a spin in this Blue Angel. Next thing I knew, Seth had climbed aboard and was taking it for a flight.

And Cassie was hitting her forehead saying, "Please tell me that is not my brother!"

Here we have the traditional picture of all the kids holding some of the birthday person's gifts (in this case, Seth's) so mom can take a picture. I don't know what all the goofy faces are about.

And I just have to show you my beautiful Christmas Cactus! I always kill these plants, but for some strange reason, I have two cacti right now that are healthy and blooming! I don't know why, so I don't know if they will ever bloom again. But I'm enjoying the pleasure of this accomplishment while it lasts.

Other news is that we (mostly Abby, Titus, and I for now. Jim and the boys work at it in the evenings when time permits) continue to tear off framework, separate wood, pull nails, etc. We had the cedar shakes off by the end of June which was my goal. My next goal is to have all of the framework off by July 27th when the four oldest kids and I leave for WCWC. We will be gone for 10 days. Hopefully it will be a very refreshing and renewing time so that when we get back we can knock out the remodel in record time. We should have our permits by then so all will be a "GO!"  Hope you all are having a great summer!

The demolition of the sunroom hit full throttle this past weekend. Friday night Jim, Isaac, and Seth removed all of the glass panes (sixteen of them to be precise, each of them 3'x8').  It went amazingly well.

Friends began showing up at 8:00 a.m. Saturday morning to commence the tearing down.

Paul worked hard tearing down the sunroon closet, hauling and separating wood, and pulling nails.

Abby, Claire, Titus, and Minu pulled thousands of nails throughout the day. They just kept at it, only breaking for lunch.

We only had one "sliver incident". Jim has always been gifted at removing them painlessly and Minu was a brave patient.

A bird roosting. Oh! Wait! That's Seth taking a break on the roof!

Dad grilled all the hamburgers and hot dogs for the hungry crew. Mom worked hard in the kitchen getting lunch ready to set out.

We all enjoyed a nice lunch break in the shade. Here you see Joon, on the left. He and Minu live in Canada. Mike, in the middle, lives an hour and a half south of us. And Vic and Claire live in Canada as does Paul. All of our Canadian friends had an hour wait at the border that morning. We sure appreciated their coming! Even with Mike's hour and a half commute, he was here by 8:00 a.m. That's dedication!

Paul and Vic got back to work right after lunch, pulling more nails.

Good buddies, Minu and Titus, check out the progress from above. These two boys worked so hard all day. At the end of the day Titus was heard asking, "When can we have another work party?" That's the spirit, Titus!

Joon is a workhorse! He was a tremendous help, pulling hundreds of nails from the time he and Minu arrived, until they left. He only broke for lunch and then was back at it. Thanks Joon!

Push! Hard! Jason was determined to get the outer wall down and he did as you will see in the next two pictures.

She's a going...

She's gone!

Here is our sunroom at the end of Saturday. We were so happy with all the work that was accomplished.

A hearty thank you to Paul, Vic, Claire, Joon, Minu, Mike, Jason, Jack (Dad), and Donna (Mom)! We appreciated your help so very, very much!

I recently read through a sermon of Rob Rayburn's on Genesis 49:1-33 entitled, "The Testament of Jacob". In these verses, Jacob is on his deathbed, giving the blessing to each of his twelve sons. But right in the middle of his blessing, he interrupts the flow and says, "Lord, I look to You for my deliverance". I quote from the sermon, "He is in the midst of the blessing of his sons, the prophecy of the future nation that would come from them. And, he interrupts his prophetic survey with this prayer. It comes unbidden out of his heart. He has said enough about his sons to feel how many difficulties lie ahead. It is a prayer like Habbakuk's, who knowing that the Babylonians must come to punish Judah, cries out, "Lord, in your wrath remember to be merciful!" Jacob realizes how frail his sons are; perhaps he realizes how many sinful tendencies they had inherited from him ! "I look for Your deliverance, Lord."" Rob continued on to say that the Church is full of sinners; each and every one of us stumbles and falls and sins; sometimes in grievous ways.  And yet, the Lord uses us, a motley crew, to further His kingdom. That is the way He has chosen to work all throughout history. It is a very humbling and sobering thought and one not to be taken lightly. Rob concluded the service that day by addressing the congregation in this way:

"Lord, I look to you for my deliverance

How many times does the Bible say this to you and to me? It obviously is the thing we must know and understand. We have this short while to live in this world. And eternity awaits us thereafter. And in this world are difficulties of every kind. Difficulties produced by our own flesh (the worst difficulties of all), by the world and by the devil; and our task is to remain faithful to God and to His word and His covenant - always to depend upon Him!

Lord, I look to you for my deliverance

Say it every morning when you get up. Say it every night when you go to bed,

Lord, I look to you for my deliverance

and make sure that as long as He gives you to live in this world, you are living in faithfulness to His covenant and taking care to be sure that the generation rising behind you is living in faithfulness as well. That's your LIFE, that's your SUMMONS, that's your INHERITANCE; and God promises to reward all those who live that way...reward beyond our power to conceive!!"

We live in an unusual little house with a flat roof and cedar shake siding. Jim and I have been talking for years about what to do with it and just recently firmed up some plans. We will be tearing off all of the old siding and replacing it with hardy board. We will be re-doing part of the foundation under the dining room and kitchen. Currently, there is no footing under those rooms, only a stem wall. We will be putting on a pitched roof and installing all new windows. And we will also be replacing the flooring throughout, tearing out the stairwell wall for a more spacious look, raising the kitchen ceiling, and replacing the water-damaged living room ceiling. It's going to be a big project, but I think we will be happy with the end product.

In the evenings, Jim, Isaac, and Seth have been pulling off the metal flashing around the upper edge of the roof and then tearing off the first six to eight rows of shingles. I can reach the rest of them and pull them off during the day when they are all at work.

We thought we would be finding bees and bats in the framework, but so far we haven't run into any real trouble. I think we have found probably 300 small bees' nests, but the most bees we have found on any one nest has been three. We have killed about 50 or so bees in all. No bats as of yet! Wherever you live, you will hear me scream if I find one. I promise!

There is a framework underneath the cedar shakes that has to come off as well. We have a wood burning stove that we use exclusively for our heating, so all the wood will go to a good cause.

The shakes and the framework are FULL of thousands (make that millions!) of nails. My dad has been coming over almost every day and pulling hundreds of nails to help us. He is pretty amazing because he had an entire lung removed just over a year ago due to lung cancer. He then went through chemotherapy. But here he is, working as hard as his one lung will let him. He has been a huge help!

Titus's job has been to pull nails out of the shakes. He's pulled a couple of thousand already. He is a hard little worker and so far has kept his enthusiasm about the commencement of the remodel.

Abby has been working hard at stacking all of the cedar shakes that we will be burning throughout the winter in our wood stove. It's unbelievable how many shakes were used to side this house!

We hope to have our permits for the foundation and trusses in a few weeks. We will keep you posted as the work progresses. We plan to have a work party when we tear down the sunroom. Sure wish all you Xangans could be here for it! There will be lots of good fellowship, food, and fun that day!

We sold our van today. I have a sort of sad feeling in my heart. Okay, maybe I'm just a wee bit sentimental, but we are talking about one very faithful van. It never complained when we drove it over 4,500 miles on our "Trip Through Eight States" in 2001. It patiently waited while we loaded it up with the tent, campstove, camping chairs, sleeping bags, air mattresses, coolers, etc., not to mention eight very noisy excited family members eager to go on vacation. It never broke down once and it faithfully waited for us at every sight we stopped to see; Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Mammoth Hot Springs, The Mammoth Site, Buffalo Bill Cody's Museum, Temple Square, Yellowstone National Park, Twin Falls, and many more as well as numerous friends' and relatives' homes. It listened to us sing our theme song for that trip, "Trashing the Camp", dozens of times. Then there was our trip in 2004 when we travelled down through the interior of California and came back via the coast. It never broke down and again waited patiently at the Ironstone Winery, Knotts' Berry Farm, Legoland, the beach, The Reagan Library, The Golden Gate Bridge, The Redwoods, The Trees of Mystery where we saw Paul Bunyan and Babe, good friends' homes, Jim's family reunion, etc. And it listened to us sing our theme song for that trip, "Sloop John B." sung by the Beach Boys ("I wanna go home. Please let me go home! This is the worst trip I've ever been on"). And then there were the many trips to the hospital and doctors' offices when Abby was hospitalized, Titus had a lego surgically removed from his ear, Seth had surgery, Titus had stitches, Abby had stitches, Titus had stitches again, Titus had whooping cough, Titus had a severe allergic reaction (Titus put a lot of miles on that van!). We went to church in that van probably 600 times as well as to numerous weddings, birthday parties, family fun nights, badmitton tournaments, catechism classes, Bible Studies, etc. But the kids are growing up and this era of our lives is coming to a close. We have bought a smaller, more economical van. So good-bye our faithful friend! We hope the family that bought you will have as many wonderful memories with you as we have had.

If there were ten thousand thousand millions of worlds
and as many heavens full of men and angels,
Christ would not be pinched to supply all our wants and fill us all.
Christ is a well of life
but who knoweth how deep it is to the bottom?

I found my copy of 'The Valley of Vision' last night and have been reading it every spare moment I have had today. It is full of honest prayers from the hearts of the Puritans. It always amazes me how they struggled with the exact same things that we do today. These prayers are as applicable now as they were when these dear brothers and sisters in Christ wrote them 200 years ago.

The Cry Of A Convicted Sinner

Thou righteous and holy Sovereign, In Whose hand is my life and Whose are all my ways,
Keep me from fluttering about religion;
fix me firm in it,
I am irresolute;
my decisions are smoke and vapour,
and I do not glorify Thee, or behave according to Thy will;
Cut me not off before my thoughts grow to responses,
and the budding of my soul into full flower,
for Thou art forbearing and good, patient and kind.
Save me from myself,
from the artifices and deceits of sin,
from the treachery of my perverse nature,
from denying Thy charge against my offences,
from a life of continual rebellion against Thee,
from wrong principles, views, and ends;
for I know that all my thoughts, affections, desires, and pursuits
are alienated from Thee.
I have acted as if I hated Thee, although Thou art love itself;
have contrived to tempt Thee to the uttermost, to wear out Thy patience;
have lived evilly in word and action.
Had I been a prince I would have long ago crushed such a rebel;
Had I been a father I would have long since rejected my child.
O, Thou Father of my spirit, Thou King of my life,
cast me not into destruction,
drive me not from Thy presence,
but wound my heart that it may be healed;
break it that Thine own hand may make it whole.

And a quote from C.S. Lewis-

This past Saturday night, June 2, our church held a graduation for our seven homeschool graduates. It was a very special ceremony and we are looking back on it with fond memories.

The cake.

Isaac giving the Valedictorian speech on behalf of his fellow graduates. He did a fine job and my mother's heart was bursting with pride. ( I hope that doesn't embarrass you too much, Isaac! ) Thank you for the beautiful roses that you presented to me. I was very surprised!

All of the graduates had collages made by their families to give an overview of some of their years leading up to graduation. Here, Isaac is standing next to his collage.

Isaac with Grandpa and Grandma.

Jim, myself, and Isaac at the end of the evening. Jim surprised me with flowers too!

I arrived at Cassie's school yesterday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. We went out for Thai food and talked and talked and talked. Then we came back to campus and went for a really long walk and talked and talked and talked. Then we went to bed and talked and talked and talked. Then we got up and did a bunch of packing and talked and talked and talked. Then we went to Saturday morning breakfast and talked and talked and talked. Then we layed in the sun for an hour and a half and talked and talked and talked. Then we went shopping and talked and talked and talked. Then we came back to her dorm room, had some Lean Cuisine and talked and talked and talked. Now we are getting ready to go to Baccalareate and we have to BE QUIET!!!

We plan on being home tomorrow (Sunday) night at 8:00 p.m.