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!