What I Hope

With all the craziness of the past week(s), I am in a reflectful mood tonight about what this all means.

What I Hope Will Come From This

The hand wave and a smile return every time people pass each other on the road.

The porches are full of families and friends, chatting with passerbys.

Biking riding as families, gangs of biking kids are the norm.

Libraries are full of people checking out books, real books, to cuddle up with a night.

Gardens grow all summer long, full of food that people share and save.

All ballgames are packed full of people sitting in their folding chair who just want to eat a hot dog and popcorn and cheer on the hometown boys/girls.

Courthouse squares are a gathering place for the community to listen to music deep into summer nights.

Kids spend more time outside catching fireflies and putting them in jars to watch their lights.

Families grow, babies are welcomed because having a sibling is having someone to play catch with, someone to talk to, someone to share a room and a life with.

Couples spend time holding hands, walking, talking, looking each other in the eye.

Everyone has a new appreciation for their grandparents and grandchildren and the elderly.

Churches are full every Sunday for fellowship and worship the One who is most important.

We all slow down just a little and remember when life is slowed, what is really important.

Previous Work

While we purchased the Starting from Scratch property last winter, most of the real work began this past summer. All last spring we cleaned out what was inside and that took a significant portion of our time. The house was nearly full. Most of it we burned, some things that were still useful went to our local thrift store and during our town garage sales, a bunch of it went as it was marked free. And we still have things inside that we are unsure what to do with but hope to continue to filter it out.

After the majority of the stuff came out, we could see a little better what we were dealing with. While there wasn't anything worth salvaging from the interior, the foundation was good and so we decided to take it down to the studs.

Here's a little bit of that process.

The wall between the kitchen and the living room coming down.

My 80 year old dad who refuses to listen to anyone up on the ladder swinging the sledgehammer half the time. #goals

This is only about 1/10 of the stuff that was left behind.

Basement wall between living room and kitchen taken out.

A room in the basement without the carpet and the ODOR.

The outside of the house in the spring of last year with all of the shrubs and trees removed. We have lots of dirt work and stumps to pull at some point.

And that's all for today! What seems like a small amount of work was a TON of work. More to come soon.

Blast from the Past

Here's a blog post I wrote back when I blogged for Real Housewives of Eastern Iowa.

It's all about breakfast ideas for your kiddos. I thought this might be a handy reference now.