IT IS FINISHED....the big reno "real"veal...

Hip hip horray...it'a all done! I do have to say, these renos and clean ups this spring have been the best ones yet. Jesus has been so great to work with and has done such excellent work. In fact, remember the kitchen grout and tile job that we decided to add on in "our spare time"? Jesus told us EXACTLY which cleaner to buy, left us his nice big sponge to use, made up new grout for us, and then proceeded to regrout our entire kitchen for us while telling us the story of how God moved his family to Texas. We did the cleaner (which made my counters sparkle in a way I've never seen before!) and did the sealed the grout after it was dry. 

But I'm not gonna lie, even thought it was only a couple of days, I was getting tired of stuff being everywhere. 

 On the bar, on the island....

 on the dining room table...

 and then in my bathroom...EVERYTHING was out of the drawers and cabinets and put on the counter...

 on the floor...

 and in boxes, laundry baskets, etc. all over my floor.

 But this is real life. I'm putting the "real" in "real"veal...For the final product to look so lovely, there's just the messy stage in the middle. Where your stuff is all out in the open, where the work is in progress and you can't tell for sure how great the end is going to look, when you are sweaty and tired and ready for it to all be over and then you realize, there's ANOTHER coat of paint to put on, or ANOTHER hour to wait before you can put the finish on, or hardware that still needs to be put back on the doors before you can hang them. Isn't that just like life, though, The reno of our lives just takes work, and it gets ugly before it gets pretty. We just have to keep pressing on...don't skip the "primer", don't let the mess wear you down, trust the process, stick with it to the end. Because the final reveal is awesome!

 Here's my sparkling clean kitchen with sparkly tile! :-)

 I didn't put as much stuff back on my counters because after looking at them completely cleaned off for days, I didn't want to fill them back up with stuff.

 And wowza! Look at my sink with the BEIGE grout (not black!!). I also scraped around the faucets to get the hard water scale off and scrubbed out the sink. This definitely makes me want to eat out for days and days! Who wants to put dirty dishes back in those sink??!!

And then...at long last.. the master bathroom!

 Isn't she gorgeous! The cabinets are darker (they started the color of the cabinets in the kitchen) and they look amazing!

 Here's our new shower. I'm loving the frameless glass and not at all missing the space we took out of the shower. It doesn't feel any smaller and with the clear glass, you don't miss the space AT ALL.

AND MY BATHTUB!!! I'm so in love! We all are actually! We've taken SO.MANY.BATHS in the last month. When Michael and the boys having been working outside, they love having a bath to soak in. My back has LOVED having a bath to soak in! We've gotten remote control candles to put in the bathroom. It's so dreamy...candles, a bath with , musical spa playing on Pandora! Aaaahhhhh...just makes my body relax just thinking about it.

I'm so very thankful to my sweet husband for making this happen! And thankful to Jesus (both Jesus Himself and Jesus-the contractor) for making it happen!

The reno continues....it's amateur hour!

So, we've just come home from CA,  we were having our bathroom professionally remodeled, Michael, Josiah and Jonathan were in Mexico on a mission trip,  Jeffrey's in Portland with Jeremy, what's a gal to do? That's an easy one. Have mom and dad come over and let's do some remodeling ourselves. 😊 And because my mom and dad love me so much, and because they kinda like to do these things too, they said yes! I really do love my mom and dad...and not just because they come and help me do these things. I love that they are who they are. They love me, they do come and help me, and they come with such a sweet, fun attitude and willing spirit! 

So bring on amateur hour! Michael had asked  Jesus (our contractor) to look at the grout around our kitchen sink because it was getting mildewy and nasty (and has been that way for a while). So despite my hints to Michael that we could just get quartz counter tops and skip the grout and tile route all together, Jesus told us just how "easy" it would be to replace the grout and clean the tile. 

Of course, that's NOT why mom and dad had come over. They came over to help me refinish the cabinets in our bathroom to match the rest of the lovely remodel. But we thought, "Well, Jesus said it was easy, and we'll have some time while the stain and paint is drying in the bathroom, let's just add this on!" So we prepped the kitchen....

 See the black line of mildew nastiness on the grout? That's what we were going after!

 Here's dad scraping out old grout to prep for the cleaner and the new grout....

And then on to the REAL job at hand...refinishing the cabinets. We used a product that was new to us that DIDN'T involve sanding and priming the old doors. That was the big selling feature for me here! The process was really pretty simple, it just took a long time. There were times when we kinda felt like we were literally watching paint dry....

 But, truthfully, we were glad for the downtime in between coats. I'm thankful for these troopers! I really, really, really, wouldn't have wanted to do this project on my own! Even with three of us, it took all weekend. Stay tuned for the results...

This was our motto! Gotta love this bucket from Home Depot! Just makes you want to DIY till you drop!! And we did....😊

Springin' and Califormia dreamin'

It's springtime here in Texas. It's the wonderful time of year before it gets too hot! Actually, winter has been so mild here that most of 2017 has felt like spring this year. Super nice for now, but it's a little foreboding when I think of what the summer MIGHT be like if the winter was so un-cold?! But for now, we are enjoying the sights of spring (and have been for almost two months now). Here's spring around these parts....

It makes me think of the lyrics from "Spring, spring, spring" from one of our favorite musicals "Seven brides for Seven Brothers"

Oh, the barnyard is busy in a regular tizzy,

And the obvious reason is because of the season

Ma Nature's lyrical, with her yearly miracle

Spring, Spring, Spring.

Every field wears a bonnet

With some spring daisies on it,

Even birds of a feather show their clothes off together.

Sun's gettin' shinery, to spotlight the finery,

Spring, Spring, Spring.

 Spring means baby lambs on the farm that we pass every day leaving our home! My favorite time of year for that farm for sure! What's cuter than lambs??!! One pasture has sheep with black faces that have black lambs and another has sheep with white faces and have white lambs. We passed this mama/baby set on our way to CC a couple of weeks ago and HAD to stop and take a picture. These lambs were probably just a couple of days old at this point. By now, they have longer legs but still cute bodies. It's so much fun to watch them grow up (and not have to be the ones responsible for their care!)

 I know just how this mama feels, nursing twins! :-) At least I could sit down while nursing!!

 And it was a stellar year for bluebonnets!! They actually bloomed a few weeks early, I think because of the rain and mild weather. They were gorgeous!

 After the bluebonnets and those yellow wildflowers (whatever they are called.."bluebonnet 'also rans'"), there is a wave of lovely pink and white wild flowers that take their turn, and then a wave of firewheel wild flowers. Those are blooming now. I just love how there is wave after wave of wildflowers each year before the spring when the yard just produces grass (on a good year) and weeds (every year)!!

Spring also means Natural Products Expo West that Michael attends every year. A couple of years I've been able to go with him, and every year I wish I could. March is one of my FAVORITE times to visit California! (April-February are my other favorite times!😉). This year we were ALL able to go. This is actually one of the (FEW) upsides to being a household of four: it's cheaper to travel!

We got to stay at the Great Wolf Lodge, because it was the cheapest hotel in Anaheim (which is where the convention was). That was so much fun for the boys (and me too as I sat in my hotel room and finished two (non-CC related!!) books in two days! J&J also met up with some friends who got them into Disneyland or free (gotta love those kinds of friends!) and they had a blast not just hanging out with their friends, but doing it at Disney and the Great Wolf Lodge. Of course, while they were at Disney, I was shopping and lunching with Gin! WIN-WIN!💓

Besides the fun, friends, shopping and visiting, another great thing about California is that it's relatively easy to eat healthily there. I took my blender and made smoothies each day at the hotel. But even outside of the hotel, there's just fun and funky places to eat. Like this Vegan pizza joint right around the corner from the hotel.

 Yep, it was all vegan and the crust was gluten free. AND it was really good!! Even the boys liked it! There was a weird video playing in the pizza place that was like a "don't smoke, don't do drugs, don't eat meat" type of propaganda film. But that added to the "California-ness" of the place. (Except for now, they would probably take out the "don't do drugs" part if Cannabis is part of the equation. 😉)

And OF COURSE, the MAIN reason to love CA is Tony and Gin-Gin. We had the chance to spend several days there (and Jeffrey even stayed on a couple of extra days before heading up to spend some time with Jeremy in Portland).  On our first day there, Jeffrey and Josiah, of course, wanted to head to the beach. I mean, come on! It's CA! You go to the beach, it's what you do. So, they headed upstairs to put on their swim suits and came back down with a dispute happening. Jeffrey was more than a little miffed that Josiah had brought a swim suit that was identical to Jeffrey's. (Here's the backstory on that...Jeffrey ordered a suit online...neon blue-no shocker there!...that he really was excited about because it was the brand he loved but was on clearance. Problem was that when he got it in the mail, it didn't fit. So, he passed that one on to Josiah and bought a bigger size. But there wasn't another color on clearance, so we had two suits in bright blue. Jeffrey didn't know that Josiah had brought THAT particular bathing suit with him to CA. He was irritated that they were going to look "twinsie" while heading to the beach.)

But the Pacific was going to take care of that concern for him. Not long after Michael took them down to the beach, Jeffrey called and asked to be picked up with an added "and hey, I got some tar on my suit, so could you bring a trash bag or something to sit on". Turn out, he doesn't know how or where, but he got a GIGANTIC glob of tar on his bathing suit. And it a place you really don't want tar! A place where it looks like there was "an accident of embarrassing proportions". So when he got home, Michael and I went to work. We pulled out the dawn dish soap (saves baby seals and ducks from oil spills, right?!) and Gin even got some Avon Skin So Soft (Hello 1990s!!) and we scrubbed...

And rinsed and scrubbed some more...most of the tar came out. But there was really no salvaging the suit. That's the thing with a bright blue suit...even gray smudges unfortunately placed render it unwearable. 

Side note (see me wearing a blue jean jacket in March?! Because in CA, it's still nice and cool in March! 💓💓💓)

So, the next day, the boys and I went shopping and got Jeffrey an inexpensive suit that he called a "dad" suit. I told him I didn't care. He didn't have to love it; it just has to get him through and it just cost $7! I thought he was fine with that. He told me he was. But then, lo and behold, the next day after Disneyland with his peeps, I find out that they've all headed to the Nike outlet and he's purchased ANOTHER bathing suit. Of course, more stylish; of course, a funky color; of course, much more expensive. Of course....

The boys didn't just play. They also did jobs around Tony and Gin's house that were needed. They cleaned the glass on their dining room table, scrubbed pencil marks on the ceiling, power washed the garage doors, fixed decor in the kitchen and hung up art work that we got for Tony and Gin for Christmas.

Once again, spring and California have not disappointed! I'm grateful for all the things that have happened (and are continuing to happen!) this spring!

From van to sedan

This spring has been filled with lots of activity:  bathtub and cabinet renos, trips to California, graduation, new job (for Jeffrey), school wrapping up, and....

A NEW CAR (must be read in game show announcer voice!) 

Our faithful, trusty Honda Odyssey was getting up there in mileage (183,000+ to be more precise) and we knew that  before the big 200K milestone we wanted to trade it in. But the question was "for what?" Another van? Sadly, that doesn't make sense in the season we are in and headed toward. Same things for an SUV. We had decided probably on doing a sedan, but were in no hurry. So we engaged the services of our local salesman (Jeffrey! surprise, surprise!) to list our van on Craigslist and see if it would sell. The local Honda dealership offered us a measly amount for a trade-in, and we weren't about to accept that. So we headed to Craigslist. We told Jeffrey we would pay him 10% commission if he would list the car and handle all of the dealings. He jumped on the chance. Believe me, it was SO worth 10% to NOT have to do any of that. And Jeffrey loves it. So it's a win-win!

But then, guess what? The van actually sold! To a family with two little ones and one on the way. Just the kind of family we had hoped would take our trusty companion and love on it. But, I've gotta admit it was HARD to leave after we signed the papers at the bank. Like, cry the whole way home kind of hard. Not because I loved THAT van so much, but because of what the selling of that van represented; the end of an era. My mini-van life is coming to an end. I no longer need room for car seats,  25 cup holders, space to tote band instruments, multiple CC backpacks and totebags and football pads simultaneously. We don't need room for six for long car rides to OK, CA, TN or Pop and Granna's house. We don't need a DVD player with screen for back seat passengers. (Michael would argue that we never really needed that...I disagree! 😉). We don't need multiple cubby holes for movies, CDs, ChickFilA kids meal toys (that can be converted into free ice cream cones), first aid kits, bags of crayons, headphones, baby wipes, and "go bags" with changes of clothes for every member of the family in case of emergency. ***sigh***

My boys are growing, have grown, are leaving home soon, have left. It's what I've prepared them for. What Michael and I have given our lives to for the last 20+ years. And I've LOVED IT ALL! I've loved having a mini van from the very first Ford Aerostar we got when J&J were just a couple of months old, to our Oldsmobile Silhoutte that we drove to Arkansas to get when Josiah was just a few weeks old (with DRIVER SIDE DOORS..that was a BIG DEAL back in the day!), to the Honda Odysseys, including this one that we bought while on vacation in Tulsa because the AC went out on our old one IN JULY. I've never been ashamed to be a mini-van driver...never wished it was something more stylish and trendy like a Lincoln Navigator or something. The minivan was just me. We understood each other...comfort meets function. So in a way, it felt like saying goodbye to the mini van really was recognizing the end of a HUGE part of my life and the life of our family. 

But of course, God never ends something without providing a beginning to something else! I KNOW He would NEVER, EVER leave me in a situation where my best years are behind me. That's just not the way He works. Right now, I just don't see it, but when I was 25, I didn't see how deeply and devotedly I would love mothering and homeschooling. I really didn't know the passion that was being sparked in my heart when we welcomed Jonathan and Jeremy, then Jeffrey and Josiah into our lives. I really didn't know! And there have been SO.MANY.TIMES in the last 20 years that I've thought "I was MADE FOR THIS!" So, guess what, 20 years from now, I'm believing that I'll be saying the same thing about something I don't even know or understand yet. 

So bring on the sedan! And all it means...

So here she is... I'm thinking I'll call her Ruby. That's still a thought in the works. 

In the spirit of trying new things (and because Jeffrey still lives here and does the legwork on things like this for me!), we bought a car using Carvana-an online auto buying site. That means, we bought a car having never seen it in person. Just online. And let me tell you IT WAS AWESOME!! It's been the best car buying experience EVER! You choose the car online...they deliver it to your house

 There she is. That was a fun day! And the customer service with Carvana...AMAZING! They were very helpful with the selection and purchase process. They even were getting ready to deliver the car and noticed some cosmetic scratches on the paint before it was put on the truck that hadn't been disclosed on the website and sent it to the body shop for a repaint before delivering it to me. (Come on! Had they seen the van with goat horn, tree branch, cactus marks, etc?! I promise I would NEVER have noticed a little scratch! But they didn't want to deliver it with a scratch they hadn't disclosed on the website!) Since it was going to be an extra week before we got the car (and since we had sold the van at this point and were therefore down to Jeffrey's car and Michael's truck, which they both needed for work) Carvana paid for us to be in a rental car for the entire week.

 They showed up with flowers when they brought the car. The guy delivering the car greeted me by name with the flowers and said "Congratulations on your upgrade!" They then give you seven days to drive the car with no obligation. You can return it for another vehicle, or just give it back and say "no thanks". No questions asked. No hassle or obligation. We decided to keep the car because it's just fine for what we need right now.

And then last week, I went to fill up the tank for the first time and found THIS in the gas tank.

A $25 visa gift card! So impressive! We just continue to be so impressed with the company, with their customer service and follow up. All of this and the price of the car was LOWER than it would have been at our Honda dealership! Love it! It was so sweet of God to make the transition to the new thing just a little easier by having such a wonderful car buying experience!

And not long after this whole experience, Josiah and I were reading in C.S Lewis's book The Screwtape Letters, and I came across this passage. (*Backstory that makes this passage make sense: Screwtape is a demon writing to his nephew talking about ways to make one particular man "the patient" fall away from his relationship with God. So he spends the book describing ways to tempt him or change his mind about things and also describing God to the nephew, of course from a demon's perspective. In the quote "the Enemy" means God, because God is the enemy of the devil and his demons, make sense?)

"The humans live in time and experience reality successively. To experience much of it, therefore, they must experience many different things: in other words, they must experience change. And since they need change, the Enemy (being a hedonist at heart) has made change pleasurable to them. But since He does not wish them to make change, any more than eating, an end in itself, He has balanced the love of change in them by a love of permanence. He has contrived to gratify both tastes together in the very world He has made, by that union of change and permanence which we call Rhythm."

Isn't that beautiful? The union of change and permanence...the Rhythm of life. So here I am, dancing to the rhythm of my changing life....in a Honda Accord.

Quintessential Jeffrey

 I can't let Jeffrey's birthday celebration go by without sharing a way he celebrated in a way only Jeffrey can! As I mentioned in the birthday post, Jeffrey's sense of adventure is off the charts and I'm pretty sure it begins where my comfort zone ends! For example...he likes taking photos with funky glasses in London...

 He interviews the Attorney General of Texas with questions about Israel, just because he can....

 He actually wears and then poses in American flag chubbies with USA socks...while IN Israel on July 4th.

 All a day in the life of Jeffrey Dagerath. However, for the past couple of years, there have been a list of gags that he's been wanting to try. One he did on his 18th birthday...fill a mayonnaise jar with vanilla pudding and eat it with a spoon, making people think you're eating mayo right out of the jar. That's really small potatoes for this prankster, though. Kinda like training wheels. Well this year, the wheels came off! He had in his mind that he wanted to get a trench coat large enough that when he put someone on his shoulders it would cover them both. They would then walk up to the ticket booth at a movie theater and try and get in with one ticket. (Yeah, this is a NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS gag in my book! The rule follower in me was screaming...loudly!) Jeffrey, obviously, doesn't share the same reservations as me, because he was ready and committed. I figured that it was a gag that wouldn't happen because, even IF he found a trench coat, there's NO WAY he would ever find someone else willing to pull off this gag with him. I mean...are there TWO people like that on the planet. Turns out..yep  there are. And he's friends with her.

So, Jeffrey ordered a trench coat on Amazon. When it arrived and it was too small even for him by himself, I breathed a sigh of relief. Whew, now no gag. I'm not sure why I was surprised, but Jeffrey pressed forward and found one hanging in Michael's closet that WAS big enough and long enough. So if you had been in the parking lot of the Casa Blanca movie theater on Saturday, this is what you would have seen.

 

 So, lucky for Jeffrey, Zoie is not only spunky and adventurous, she's also very petite! 😉

They wrapped up in the trench coat, gave them one ticket and walked right in the theater! It actually worked! Zoie told me the next day that she thought the people at the movie theater probably thought "Well, that's $11 worth of effort right there. Come on in!" I agree. Josiah and Noah (Zoie's brother) were with them and told me that the guy at the drink station applauded them when they walked by later. I guess everyone needs a little laugh every day, right?!

They did actually purchase 4 tickets before the movie to make sure they could all have seats together when they got to the theater. They didn't want to risk getting in and then not having seats. That made me (mama loves rules) feel better. I didn't feel like they were cheating or stealing from the theater.

And now Jeffrey can take that one off of his list!  It's a day in the life...what a life...what a live-r!

Celebrating THE Jeffrey Dagerath....

We had the joy this week of celebrating Jeffrey's 19th birthday! What a joy!! Birthdays are always great days around the Dagerath house, and this one was no exception. However, I truly can't believe I'm celebrating the 19th birthday of this guy....

 Wasn't it just yesterday that he was born? that he was stumping his brothers with his "lifted by" math? (that's a story there!) that he was begging for a chinchilla/Russian tortoise/German shepherd/Irish setter/leopard gecko/Goliath tarantula (Oh, wait...that one WAS yesterday! 😉)? Amazing the teachers at zoo academy with all he knew?

Jeffrey has been such a spark to our family and has since the very beginning of his life until this day amazing Michael and me at not only the things he has done, but the things he even THINKS about doing! Honestly, I can't even count the number of times that I've thought "Oh my goodness, I would NEVER EVER even THINK of doing (insert zany, extroverted, way outside of my comfort zone thing) and Jeffrey just did it..and did it well!"

Of course we would have always voted him "most likely to end up on a Jumbotron doing something" and this year that came true. But something else has continued to happen with Jeffrey. He's grown up-and I'm not just talking about reaching 19, that happens just because you've been allowed to draw breath for that many consecutive days-I mean he's really growing up...maturing, growing so humble and gracious and kind. Still spunky, full of life and adventure, but growing so much in his faith and consequently in his character.

But lest you think he's all the way "grown and no longer a boy"...here's what he requested for birthday breakfast...homemade donuts... And for his birthday cake....Receeses ice cream sandwich cake...just like always.

 It was funny that most of his birthday cards this year all had sweets on the front! A sign?

 And of course, he's not too big to decorate as we always do. The ever faithful birthday banner, construction paper numbers on the table and crepe paper hanging from the lights. Always!

But lest you think he's still a little boy...check him out with Josiah at the birthday dinner at Carrabbas!

 Kinda looking manly there, huh? And really acting more and more manly all the time. I'm really crazy about this guy! What a delight!! LOVE YOU JEFFREY!!

Making due...wizard-style

As we approach the end of our school year, fun things start happening as our year wraps up. Our CC campus has chosen to have a "Celebration of gifts" (a.k.a talent show) for the students there. This is their second year to do it. Obviously, this is our first year since we are new to this campus, but I was excited for our students to put something together to present in the talent show. The mom coordinating the show mentioned that last year the Challenge classes each put something together. So, I encouraged our class to do the same this year. They decided to act out a scene from The Hobbit. A book they had just finished reading that everyone loved. (Have I mentioned that during this year the students read 19 pieces of British Literature?!!...I LOVE that CC makes this possible!)

As our three students were deciding which parts each student would play, it became pretty clear that Josiah was going to be playing the role of Gandolf. So my mind when into motion as to how we could put together a Gandolf costume. Because, come on, if you are going to do it...do it in costume!!

As Josiah and I started brainstorming, I came up with some ideas. Start with a camo Santa hat that's been hiding out in the window seat in Jeffrey's room since I don't know when...cut off the top and paint it with black powder paint that's been in the top of Jeffrey's closet since I don't know when. Actually, I generally know...and it was probably 12 years ago when I bought powdered paint for an art class our boys did way back when. Good news...powder paint doesn't go bad! 😊

 

 Of course, Gandolf needs clothes, not just a hat. So, we pulled out a graduation gown (gonna  be using that one again soon) and a beloved Zorro cape, lovingly made by Granna circa 1998-9. Oh the stories that cape could tell!! 💕 Add a white "beard" (really a piece of square fuzzy white cloth with some elastic attached, which has also adorned a Dagerath posing as Pythagoras, and made in appearance in Shakespeare line recitations through the years), and some Roman soldier "boot covers" purchased years ago (that have also served well in Roman/Latin speeches and Shakespeare recitations).



But we didn't just need a Gandolf we needed a hobbit hole. According to the book we needed " a perfectly round door, like a porthole, painted green with a brass knob in the exact center."

Cue to trampoline, a green throw blanket that was sitting out on our couch and a couple of coasters.

Put it all together and you get a lovely hobbit hole (though "exactly in the center" isn't how I would describe our brass knob...but it's close enough!) and Gandolf. The students all did a great job on the delivery. You can check it out here on YouTube.

All this mismatch stuff to make a costume (which happens more often than not around our house!) made me think I should create my own "design" website. I think instead of Pintrest where everything looks so posh, put together, new and crisp, I'll call mine "Jentrist". 😀 The goal at Jentrist is to see what you can do with the stuff you already have. The great thing about Jentrist projects is when you are done with what you need, (like our hobbit hole and Gandolf costume), you just go home, hang back up the robe, put the zorro cape and beard back in the costume box, put the blanket back on the couch, put the coasters back on the table and then jump on the trampoline. No added new junk! I think I may be on to something! 😉

As I was looking through some books this week, I came across this darling gem from Josiah's "Faces of History" presentation in 6th grade. Though the costume was purchased online, you'll notice a Jentrist creation on his head. Yep, it's the styrofoam part of an old bike helmet, with the end of a broom sticking out of it. Around the front of the helmet is an armband from big brother's Roman soldier costume. Makes me think of a little poem I've heard before that I think will be the motto on Jentrist:

Use it up,
Wear it out,
Make it do,
Or do without.

Works like magic!!