Another fantastic day

Today we had incredible weather for working in (unlike what Bobby and Krista came down to, and worked in whole-heartedly on Saturday!) Beautiful clear blue skies, nice breezes, cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon, but never too hot.

Reuben's physical therapist, Brian, put in a good 6 hours or more working with Matt today. Together they were able to get the front of the house completed (two sides are now done!!! Is that a good feeling!!) It was kind of fun - I had to take Reuben to a routine neurology appointment right before lunch, and by the time he and Rinnah and I got back, they had just finished putting in the last nail on the last piece of trim. ;)

The front! Done!!!!!

Reuben knows that you need to wear shoes before you go outside. Reuben does NOT understand that you need to tell Mom and Dad (or someone) before you go outside. And that whoever you tell will help you put your own shoes on. Thankfully when he chooses Brians big steel-toed boots, he doesn't get very far. ;)

Brian giving Owen and Leah a ride up as he helps Daddy with another piece of siding.

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The south part of the east side up as high as the link roof. A very good day's work!!

There was just enough time before Brian had to go that he and the kids were able to go back and pick some of Leah's zinnias that she wanted to send home with him, AND he took Owen and Leah for a ride in his pickup truck. ;) They were gone so long Matt and I started joking that he'd taken them home with him and was just planning to return them in the morning when I brought Reuben to therapy. ;) Turns out they had just taken him on a tour of the neighborhood - around all of Owen's favorite biking routes and then the two miles away to Grandma's house.

While they were galavanting around, and then for the rest of the daylight hours that remained (minus time to take Owen to his soccer game) Matt started putting shingles up on the main part of the roof. THAT was also exciting to see getting going! He found that by using the lift he's able to get quite a few rows up which means that between the tether and harness and the foam couch cushion on the rough shingles that are already done, he's feeling pretty confident about that work. As far as I know, our framer is still planning on putting in some bonus hours to help Matt with that job, but he's got a pretty tight schedule in the good weather months, and in the meantime, Matt figures it's something he can do single-handed which he can't do as well with long pieces of siding.

We also got a phone call today saying that the flat roof over the office is ready for installation to begin tomorrow, with a target completion date of this Friday. We are very much looking forward to not have water sheeting in down that joint every time it rains. Having that roof done will also allow Matt to get the insulation and then siding up above the flat roof - some of those areas have been on hold because the sequencing of things requires the roofing membrane and its flashing to go on before other pieces.

Twelve days to go until Owen and I leave for Bulgaria. And it's looking increasingly likely that we will actually have the exterior weather tight before that happens!

And even better, two weeks from today I will be sitting in a hotel room with my friend Dondi, and my two oldest sons. That brings a HUGE smile to my face!

Krassi update

Forgot to add, and decided it's worth its own short post, Krassimir Emmanuel Glewwe has his new birth certificate, listing us as his parents!!! This is the piece of paper that we did NOT have earlier, and why we needed to push our travel dates back five weeks. But we're totally clear now, and 14 days from now I will be on a plane over the ocean on my way to bring our son home!!

Work update, and why I like the word "impinges"

As usual, I have all sorts of thoughts of things I want to share on the blog, but not the time to do it. So instead of something thoughtful, here's a quick summary of the last few days...

Last Wednesday we finally rented the lift! Actually, the one we wanted was gone, so we took the next bigger one, and Matt used it to get the rest of the foam on the front of the house, and Mike (our framer) used it to get his last bit of framing at the roof edge up on that side, then moved it to the back where he did the same, and then Matt finished the foam on the back.

Matt took this photo of me from the lift. I'm eating an apple (currently works to keep my pregnant tummy settled) and waiting for him to pass over the first piece of siding that he and I were putting up. It was on the second piece that the nailer jammed...)

 On Thursday we had to take the lift back because they had promised that one to someone else, but Matt had decided by then that the greater articulation of the larger lift was really necessary given the constraints of our project. So no lift on Thursday.

BUT, Thursday was the start of the Big Run of people coming to help Matt work! Between homeschooling and napping and cooking I really am not much help for Matt - maybe half an hour a day - not enough to accomplish anything significant. But on Thursday, Eric, the structural engineer Matt works for (who also, by the way, did the structural engineering for our house free of charge!) came over around 4 and worked straight through until dark. They were able to finish putting the large flat panels on the fireplace bump and also on the north side of Matt's office.

Matt and Eric grabbing another panel

Friday, Matt and Ray (I must have mentioned Ray at some point - Ray is Matt's Dad's cousin who grew up in the house next door. Both Ray and Matt's dad had three sisters, so in many ways they were more like brothers than cousins. There is no way to substitute for your real dad, but Ray has been able to fill part of the gap that Matt feels with his dad gone - he's over here all the time checking out the work and talking about stuff related to it with Matt, and has given us the use of his truck for picking up and moving the lift as needed) ... wow. That was a long parenthetical comment. I think I'd better start my original sentence over again. ;) Matt and Ray picked up the larger lift again today, and we're able to keep it until we're done this time. Chad came over after lunch and worked until he had to pick up his kids from school, at which time Eric came back for a second day of working until dark. They were able to get siding up on the back of the house from the point where it had been up to starting to get around the upper level windows. Late Friday night my cousin Bobby and his wife who came down for Labor Day to work came down again to put in another long day working.

Matt, Chad, and Eric working on Friday afternoon

So, bright and early Saturday morning, Matt and Bobby were out working on the back of the house. Krista, like last time, floated between helping with the work on the house, watching kids, and cooking amazing meals depending on what was most helpful at the moment. This, combined with the fact that Saturday is not a school day, meant that not only did a lot of work get done on the house, but I was also able to put in nearly two hours of work on the large sewing project I'm trying to finish up by next Friday so it's off my plate before Krassi comes home! (When you realize that nearly doubles the amount of time I've put in over the last six weeks, you realize what a tremendous benefit that was to me!) On the house, Bobby and Matt were able to finish all the siding on the back, then came in and ate lunch while the rain fell hard, then called Ray to come help move the lift to the front of the house where they were able, with Krista's help, to get the siding to within four rows from the top!!! [oops - from the top of the upper level windows - I missed that detail. But it still doesn't change my assessment of the day's work.] An amazing amount of work got done!

Krista and Owen pounding plugs into the PVC trim to cover the screw locations

Bobby and Matt in the rain finishing up the siding on the back of the house

The back face, completely sided!!! First side done.

Krista on the front, and a view of how they're starting to get siding up on the front of the addition.

Tomorrow we take the day off. ;)

Then, on Monday, Reuben's physical therapist is planning on putting in a day of work with Matt - I can't wait to see what they'll be able to accomplish with another day with two men working - it's starting to seem like we might get the exterior done in the next 14 days after all!! And I still am kind of blown away that he's taking one of his days off to come and help us. AND, Reuben's new occupational therapist who was given an in into what our family has before us this year via Reu's PT, also volunteered to come over Monday morning to help watch the kids so I could help work, too, but I had to turn her down since I'm spending most of the morning with Reu at his routine neurology appointment. But I have to say that even her willingness to come be part of what we're doing was a huge encouragement. Reuben's got some neat people working with him. ;) (By the way, Reu's speech therapist is wonderful, too, but she is pregnant and has her own small children - I just don't want to minimize her significance to our family just because she's not going out of her way to help us build a house - after all, who would expect ANY of those people to offer to help!!!)

Also next week, Matt *might* be getting some help with the shingles (may also end up being the week after next), Eric said he may be able to do another 4-dark shift, and my parents are coming up, getting in late Thursday (at which time I will hopefully get my real computer back!!!), working all day Friday and a half day Saturday.

I don't know if I can convey with words how exhilarating these last few days have been. (And trying, too. Especially Wednesday - maybe I'll get a chance to share that at some point.) Our pastor has just started preaching through the book of Ephesians. On either the first or second week he came to the third verse:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in  Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places...

And he talked briefly about the blessings with which those who believe have been blessed - "every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places!" And as he spoke, he reminded us that "heaven" is not simply some place "out there" but is rather, for those who believe, something that is right here, within us. Then he said something that has really stuck with me - the spiritual world impinges on this very physical world. I know that's not exactly how he said it (sorry, Dave!) but the word impinge really gripped me. It reminded me of how very present and physical and of-the-stuff-of-this-everyday-life the work of God is. One big part of learning to walk by faith through this year is being aware that every moment is a chance I have to either trust that he is in charge of everything, and thus I don't need to worry (even when the siding nailer jams and becomes a big deal, either financially or time-wise, or both, to replace, and we do not have an abundance of either right now! There. That was a hint of Wednesday for you) or I don't trust, and fear and worry threaten to break in. But remembering that every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in not just pie in the "sky" but is real, tangible, messy, right here stuff, both helps me to keep my eyes on him when everything seems to be wrong, and also I believe is part of the thrill when a stretch of days like this happens. This is real. I am living it. HE is real. And I tell you, there's no place like the kind of place where there is no security from our end to rely on to really get to see that.

Helping the children who aren't coming home

Our hard drive died two days ago.

We knew it was dying, so everything's backed up, but we're not sure how to access the backup. My Dad will take care of that when he comes up next week. ;) But all my passwords are in there, and I just today figured out how to get back into blogger so I could post!

I haven't spent much time talking about the conditions in Krassi's orphanage. I know I've mentioned briefly that conditions were not good there, particularly for children with disabilities, for many many years. And even though I haven't spent a lot of time here talking about it, I think it's pretty obvious that no nine year old child should weigh 28 pounds. (For reference, Reuben at just past age four weighed in at 35 pounds a few days ago, putting him in the 40th percentile for his age range.) And what really drives it home for me is that Krassi is one of the sturdier kids that I've seen there (both in person and via blogs of other parents who have adopted from his orphanage.) The other little boy who was Krassi's age whose parents were visiting (and he's now home!) the same week we were weighed less than 20 pounds. At nine years old. There are teenagers in this place who weigh less than 20 pounds. Yes, these are children with a wide variety of special needs, but anyone who knows someone with cerebral palsy, or down syndrome knows that these disabilities do not cause one to fail to grow.

These children were systematically starved, not only of food, but of the human attention and interaction that all people are designed to need.

After the old director (who had held her position for *23* years) was removed from her position (because of charges of neglect) about a year and a half ago, conditions have improved significantly for the children still living there. I take Krassi himself as a good example. At age 8 he weighed 22 pounds, and six month later had gained 5 more! He is lucky - because he was sturdier to start with, he was able to ease into a more "normal" varied diet rather smoothly. (He still needs his foods cooked very soft and needs to be spoon fed, but he can eat real food!)

Many of the other children there have been so deprived for so long that their bodies are not able to handle real food. The new director has been using the resources she has to purchase a specially designed formula that provides a more adequate level of nutrition than these children had previously been receiving and in a form that they are more capable of digesting.

But this is expensive!

Back in July I asked our adoption facilitator (Toni) in BG if she could contact the orphanage director for me and ask her if there were any things I could collect and bring to donate to the orphanage to help the children who are still living there - clothes, diapers, toys, blankets...Her response was singular - she said the one most helpful thing they could receive would be money to put toward purchasing the formula that many of these children need.

It's taken me a really long time to actually sit down to write about this (there's nothing like not being able to get to your account for a few days that gets you thinking, though!!) but I've wanted to put this out there in case anyone who's reading this would like the opportunity to help out the children who are NOT getting a family. I would love to pool together any money that any of you would like to put towards this and in 17 days when I walk into that orphanage to bring my boy home to be able to (with help from Toni to make sure it's done properly!) give the director whose done so much for my boy and the other children there a gift to help her in her future work.

I realize this doesn't leave a lot of time, but I figure if this is something that resonates with you, it should be sufficient time. ;)

His thoughts are higher...

I've had this post half started for weeks, and haven't had time to finish it up in the thoughtful manner that it calls for. But I gave it a stab tonight because I was thinking about it again today.. It begins with an anecdote from my not-so-distant past and leads into something that's been very thought-provoking for me over the last months.

Way back when I was done with graduate school, but before Owen was born, I was a stay-at-home-wife. ;) This was because of the 50 or so people who completed graduate school with me and Matt in 2003, only 13 had found employment in the architectural field by the end of the summer. Matt was one of them. I was not. So I kept busy with my part-time job at the fabric store, and, really, I have no idea what in the world kept me busy back then. I must have been so bored! I guess that's why 2003 is when I started my sewing business! One thing I had time for was providing child care at church for a weekday morning women's bible study. One Thursday morning one of the mothers whose children I watched, but who didn't know me very well otherwise asked me pretty directly if there was anything specific she should be praying about for me. I kind of muttered about being tired, and having a lot of work to do to finish my thesis book, but nothing specific really came to mind. She said that the night before she had been praying with her daughter before bed, and I had come vividly into her mind. So she had prayed for me.

It wasn't until a few years later as she and I were talking on the phone about various other things that she mentioned that night again, adding that when I had come to her mind while praying that she had asked God what she ought to pray for, and he had told her to pray for my baby. After I hung up with her, I realized I had to go back and check my calendar (this was back when I still had space in my life to keep old calendars).

The night she had prayed for me was, as far as Matt and I can tell, the night that Owen was conceived.

It blows me away to think that God chose to direct someone who hardly knew me at the time to pray for a child that Matt and I didn't even know we had yet. From the day that he came into existence, there has been someone praying for our Owen. I think that's pretty cool.

But it's also sobering. She had no idea - hardly knew me, and certainly didn't know that I was pregnant - *I* didn't even know! But she listened and obeyed, and on days when Owen is making me wonder why I've ever thought I could be a [good] mother, I think about that - God must have some purpose for this boy! ;) And He's going to accomplish it, not me.

At various times over the last year I've been reminded of something that happened to me at some point in the first few years of our marriage (so probably in the 2002-2004 range). I distinctly heard God telling me to pray for the child I would adopt someday.

I told him that I must have heard wrong. We certainly weren't adopting any time soon - we weren't ready to start a family, Matt had NO interest in adopting, and I certainly wasn't going to adopt a child that was more than a few months old, well, maybe a year old. But that would be stretching it. So I told God that he must have meant for me to pray for the mother of the child I would adopt someday, as I was hoping that this would still be part of my future.

So I did.

And I wonder now if I missed out on the opportunity to have been praying for Krassimir since the day he was conceived. It isn't fruitful for me to wonder about the "what ifs" that may have been different had I obeyed, because there's no point in that. But looking forward, it does make me think that I'd better think twice before I tell God he's crazy. ;) There are definitely times when I'm not sure what I'm hearing from him, but there are also times when it's pretty obvious. For the times that it's obvious, it's not my place to tell the one "whose ways are higher than my ways" that he doesn't know what he's talking about.

And even though I don't have that written on a calendar somewhere that I can go back and look at, it is also a beautiful thought to me to be reminded that God knew all along that this boy was meant to be our son.

Three weeks from today and I get to hold him again!

Getting work done

Just to show that it's not all heavy stuff around here, we (read "Matt") have been getting some work done on the house these last two days.

"Stop! Don't take my picture!"

We decided to push off renting the lift with two days of rain (and thus mud) forecast, and now plan to pick that up on Monday. With the rain (and mud) Matt moved inside for a while. We are so grateful that so many of the supplies have already been purchased and are just laying around here waiting to be used.

On Wednesday, Matt was primarily upstairs in what will be his mom's rooms. He started cutting holes for plumbing going down...

...and vent pipes going up.

While the girls were busy dropping bits of foam down the hole, the boys were busy stapling the plastic things that keep the insulation out of the venting space for the roof. (I'm sure there's a short name for that!) Owen was particularly helpful with this job because it's super easy for that monkey to crawl around in the rafter spaces, so he could quickly and easily do what it would have been much more cumbersome for Matt to do.

Today was a good day as well. For starters, the big huge severe storms complete with damaging winds and hail ended up being nothing more than some wind and fat rain drops and distant thunder, and was all over in about 20 minutes. Not an issue at all. And gradually over the day the sun came out, so maybe tomorrow will even be an okay day to work on the outside again.

Matt's morning was spent taking random extra supplies back to Menards, ending up with over $300 in credits and refunds. Not too bad! I'm starting to think that we might get our driveway, garage, and basement back someday after all!

In the afternoon he busied himself with prepping the main level windows for foaming in and screwing in the fasteners for the upper level radiant tubing (because we have a wood floor and not concrete on that upper level, the radiant goes under the subfloor instead of on top of it. Not quite as efficient, but I told him way back that I couldn't handle concrete floors in bedrooms. Living spaces was fine. Bedrooms were not.) The kids enjoyed helping by passing him the little clips and riding along on his rolling stand. (At least until their bickering increased to the point that it was more helpful for them to go inside, where they proceeded to play beautifully together for the rest of the day. Who knows.)

Before too much time passes

The last week especially, and the last few weeks generally have been challenging. I made reference to this briefly Sunday night. As much as we've said from the beginning that this is God's work and we are relying on him to supply what is needed to complete it, it is so easy to drift into trying to figure it out on our own. And we've finally hit the point where it is very much in our faces that the numbers as we have it figured do not line up. Even if we push completion off into 2014, there are certain things that need to be done yet in 2013 (pay the framer for the remainder of his labor and materials is a big one, and get the flat roof installed is another, and paying to rent the lift and for gas service to the house) and we simply don't have enough money to pay for it.

I'm saying this now trusting that God has things in store that we can't anticipate on our own, and in that trust, are trying to give you as our reader a glimpse into the impossibility we now face. Because my primary hope in sharing our life in this way on this blog is to open up a venue through which others may stand in awe with us at what God has done and will yet do.

And I sure can't tell you what that is going to be.

But, on a much smaller scale than the house, I do have something I want to share with you that has kind of blown me and Matt away over the last few days and weeks.

Anyone who's had anything to do with international adoption knows that it is a costly endeavor. I laugh sometimes at the insanity of the fact that the adoption is the "small" and "easy" thing that has been set before us this year. But look at how amazingly thorough God has been in providing what we have needed to bring Krassi home. I shared a few weeks ago about how neatly and tidily the money ended up settling out as we made the last major purchase (new plane tickets). Even there, God surprised us with more than we needed.

Since that time, we've had money given to us for Krassi in the amounts of $252, $350 and $500 as well as the steady $30/mo that was promised back in the spring and has been coming faithfully since then. (Wow, I'm just now noticing as I type those up that each one is bigger than the last!) The $500 check came in the mail the day after I wrote this post. The dear people who chose to share with us in this way had NO WAY of knowing the challenging place we were, and yet God moved on them to send it at just the right time to encourage us at a low spot.

We're now sitting with more than $1000 extra at the end of this adoption process! I don't know if that's typical or not, but it's significant to us. What a beautiful thing to be experiencing abundance in one area while we are experiencing the exact opposite in another! (As I mentioned to one of the friends who shared in this way with us, it helps me to begin to look forward. Adopting Krassi is not just about getting him home - he's going to have medical expenses very quickly after getting home, and likely some larger purchases developing from that. We also have to do followup reporting through our local social worker to send to Bulgaria at 6 month intervals for the first two years that Krassi is home, which has costs associated with it.)

So who am I to think that God can handle adoption costs, but not something bigger than that?

So, before too much time passes, I wanted to bring you all up to date so you can with us watch things unfold from this side of time, not knowing what the future holds, but waiting expectantly on Him who is the author of the future.

some photos as an interlude

There are many thoughts filling my head (and Matt's, too) and some of them are blog-worthy, but in the meantime, here are some photos of progress on the siding.

Owen and Matt work until dark many evenings. There's a lot that Owen isn't strong enough to do, but also many things that simply need a second set of hands and a sturdy eight-year-old's hands are satisfactory.

Sometimes Owen helps by keeping tabs on Reuben so I can help Matt. (And sometimes Owen doesn't want to have anything to do with playing with Reu, which makes this photo that much more special to me!)

We're waiting for help on the big roof, but Matt took a day and got the roof on the link finished up! This will let him get higher on the siding on the wall of the addition
that the link roof butts into.

 The above were all older photos - here are some I took just tonight, so are as up to date as the work is.

The little wall Bobby and Krista were working on now has a piece of siding above the window. This is the first window to be completely surrounded by siding!

around the corner by the office entry, there is one piece of panel on the stair bump (not yet covered with battens), the soffit edge of the roof overhang is on, and there is siding in between the basement and main level windows.

Around the back, the living room window is all trimmed out, and a bit of siding is starting underneath it. Also, the little end pieces of the board and batten panel are on the bump that will someday have a fireplace inside of it.

And around the other side of the back you can see quite a bit of siding working its way up - these windows aren't quite surrounded yet, but they're close. Also notice the other side of the fireplace bump has panel on it.

And this last photo shows the back side of the link with completed shingles, AND the trim piece that makes the transition from where we had to cut siding away from the existing house to make room for the flashing to the link.

Tomorrow Matt is working in the office all day (probably the sixth time this summer!) and then Wednesday The Lift shows up. He's hoping to be able to work with it by himself to finish getting the pink rigid insulation on, and then has a few people who are planning to work for a day or part of a day to help him get trim and siding up to the higher parts of the house that aren't as safely accomplished by ladder. (This is especially the case at the front where the window well prevents you from getting ladders in a good position relative to the house to get up to the peak.) And when he doesn't have help and I'm not occupied with my mom-work, I'll be out there as his second set of hands!

Tired and waiting

I keep wanting to update, but this baby has wiped me out! I can nap in the afternoon (on days when I can) and still be ready for bed by 8pm.

Briefly, on the house, we've been working on more siding as Matt and I or Owen are able. We are renting a small lift starting this Wednesday that will let us get safely up to the higher parts. We're still hoping to get the siding and roofing done before Krassi comes home. I have pictures, but since it's nearly 9pm I am too tired to get them up. ;) Maybe Matt will for me...

For those of you who pray, Matt and I would both greatly appreciate prayer that we would not waver in unbelief as we wait on God to supply what we need to finish the work he has set before us. What we still need to finish the house seems insurmountable from all of our accounts. We're not so much concerned that he's not going to provide what we need as much as that we will fail to trust him through waiting patiently for him. And that's not a place I want to be!

"Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength..."

I'm not in Bulgaria today.

Today was the day that we were initially set to pick Krassi up from his orphanage, never for him to return.

But I'm very much still here in Minnesota, and for what it's worth, grateful that I didn't have to spend the weekend on airplanes. Everything still smells funny to this pregnant mama, and food is still hard to work with. Tonight I managed to serve my family (which includes my very gracious mother in law at supper time) mashed potatoes and a little bit of beef round steak that I prepared by...cooking it. And I think I threw a little pepper on it or something while holding my breath through the kitchen one time. Oh yes, and a salad made by dumping a bag of pre-washed lettuce into a bowl and topping that with cherry tomatoes that Leah picked for me from our garden. Matt wisely added a loaf of bread and peanut butter to the table, and everyone went to bed fed.

BUT....

...so far as we know on this end of time, five weeks from today I will be holding my son in my arms again!!

Labor Day

What a better way to spend Labor Day than laboring on the addition?

We were so excited when, at the very end of last week, my cousin and his wife who live a few hours away offered to come down Sunday night and put in a full day's work on Monday! We excitedly took them up on the offer, and enjoyed talking with them around a bonfire Sunday evening and got a lot of work done the next day.

{An interlude: it has been neat for me to get to know my cousin better over the last two years or so, and his wife now, too. Two Christmases ago Bobby gave us a small book on an impulse - it was one that he had gotten himself and found worth reading, and after hearing about what we were going through with Reuben at that time, he felt it was worth sharing. It is a poem by John Piper re-telling the story of the book of Job (in verse). We have since passed the book on to friends of ours who we also felt would benefit from the reading of it, but one line towards the end has stuck with me, and having Bobby and Krista here for the day brought it freshly to mind. It comes toward the end of the poem when Job is reflecting on all that has happened to him, and relating it to his little daughter. He says, "Beware, Jemima, God is kind in ways that will not fit your mind." Remembering the truth that is in that little statement has tremendous value in combating concerns and fears over what is here and now or potentially looming ahead. God's kindness may not always look like what we expect kindness to look like, but the problem is not with him, but with our ability to trust that his ways are higher than our ways. And looking back over difficult times reveals this to be true to me - many of the most difficult things that I have been through in life are things that I would not now trade for something easier.}

Back to the work, through a few photos, and then I'm off to bed. Growing a baby is hard work! ;)

Krista helped in the morning by playing with Reu and Rin so Matt and Bobby and I could work. (She also made a wonderful lunch.)

Matt and Bobby getting trim around some windows.

Reuben's been skipping his nap some days lately, and spent much of Monday banging on things with his little hammer.

Look - I'm working again! Here I am steadying Bobby's foam with one hand and holding Matt's trim with the other. ;) And growing a baby. There's multitasking! (That makes me seem a whole lot more productive than I really am these days! Most of the time I'm content with "sit upright" and "make supper before the day is over.") We were hoping to get prepped to put up a bunch of siding, but to do that we need the tall corner board installed first, and before we can do that, we need the insulation up to the corner. Matt's not so into the ladder. Bobby says, "I love heights!" So he did all the really high ladder work to get the foam up so we could put up the corner board!

Leah and Owen helped Krista put the finish "plugs" into the PVC trim pieces.

Here's Reuben banging away some more, this time in Grandma's future bathroom.

Leah twisting up the swing while Matt lifts the corner board into place.

Bobby and Krista got to work together putting up the siding on this little chunk of wall. It looks SO MUCH BETTER with siding! The work we did today was huge in making it seem like this project might really be able to be finished some day!! Thank you, thank you Bobby and Krista for taking your one free day of your holiday weekend and giving it to us!

We have a Labor Day tradition at our house that involves making these rather involved fruit and ice cream sundaes. Here's Leah with hers.

And Owen with his. Reuben got his own full-size one this year, too. Rinnah, however, did not eat her supper, so she didn't get one, but we did let her have some of the leftover fruit, and she was content with that. What a great way to celebrate a great day. Next year Krassi can have one, too!