"THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD"

"The skies proclaim the work of his hands...There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard." Psalm 19:1&3

We woke up today to a beautiful covering of snow. I thought I'd had enough of it for one winter, but it's just so pretty. I never get tired of how it brings out the beauty of nature......and covers the scars of old wounds.

One of these days we'll finally finish cleaning up all the storm damage, but for now we've got taxes to do, roses to prune, and a hutch to refinish while it's empty and in the garage awaiting it's debut on the newly refinished floor.Meanwhile, 3 weeks later, the monsters are back! After removing the last of the ruined hardwood floor, there was still too much moisture content in the plywood underneath to lay the new hardwood as scheduled. So this morning, much to the cats' chagrin, the monsters moved back in. It really doesn't matter as the cabinets are still 3 weeks out anyway. It's just that they're so noisy!

"Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands: Sing forth the honour of his name: make his praise glorious." Psalm 66:1&2

"This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON HERE?!!!

Sorry, I've been incognito for so long. Since last August I'd had Carpel tunnel surgery scheduled for both hands. We wanted to make sure I would be ready for gardening in the spring. So January 5th Dr. Zirsky did my right hand. Then on January 30th he did the left hand. But I have had little time to recuperate with everything else that's been going on at the same time!You're probably wondering why I'm putting pictures of my kitchen on here. Well, I'm reminiscing. We've had a long month and a half. It all started that week after Christmas when our 18" of snow started to melt and we were busy sawing up all our broken trees into firewood, when we noticed our wood floor start to look like we'd had an earthquake. We knew it had to be water, but from where? A broken pipe under the kitchen floor maybe? Dennis went under the house and checked and then checked again. Everything was dry as a bone. He looked under the sink and dishwasher...nothing. So we put in a call to a plumber, who all, as you can imagine, were too busy to even call back. Good thing because about 5 days later we finally noticed a wet spot on top of the floor in front of the dishwasher. I actually found it when my stocking feet got wet. So again Dennis checked under the dishwasher while it was running this time, and sure enough when it drained, it drained all over the floor flowing under the hardwood, with the vapor barrier keeping it from leaking under the house. So we called the appliance repair guy (much cheaper than a plumber by the way!) and discovered it was a ruptured drain hose! Mystery solved...nightmare begins.
Yes, I do believe God uses insurance companies. State Farm has been great and are paying to put everything back as it was before...only it will be better because it will all be new! This is not the way I would choose to have a makeover...but after all, it is God's kitchen. We are learning so much from this experience. When you stop and really let it sink in that "this earth and everything in it is the Lords", it takes all the worry out of the situation. I know He will make all things beautiful in His time. I trust Him with all my heart...and HIS possessions!
In the meantime we struggle with no kitchen. We've learned some tricks, heating water on the woodstove for tea, cooking pasta in an electric fry pan, and of course we still have the use of our microwave. Praise the Lord for that! We have eaten out some, until we all, except Carissa that is, came down with the flu. Then it was back to making soup in the crock pot and tea...lots of tea! Everyone's back at work as of yesterday, thank the Lord! Things are looking up!

EMOTIONAL DEMOLITION

Thursday, February 5th was the day scheduled for the removal of the damaged wood flooring and wet underlayment, but first the cabinets must be removed. It was thought that they could just be unscrewed from the wall and stored in the garage. NOT! They were not only screwed, but glued! They had to "Tim Taylor" the cabinets to get them out!
God knew I couldn't handle this alone. He sent my friend, Linda, up from Grants Pass, for a visit that very day! No coincidence in my mind! She spent from 10:00 in the morning until about 3:00 in the afternoon with me. We shared some leftover stew heated up in the microwave for lunch, and had a great time catching up, talking about everything and nothing as we used to do when she was my neighbor and walking partner. It took my mind off the splintering and cracking going on in the other room. Her godly presence kept my fragile post surgery emotional state from plunging into a sea of tears and despair.
Before we knew it they were tearing up the wood flooring. The same wood flooring that Dennis and I had put our blood, sweat, and tears into laying ourselves 18 years ago! They were so good about hauling all the debis out to their truck to haul away, but I caught them before they got rid of the oak. Dennis sawed it up and it is now helping to heat the house. Waste not. Want not you know. After all, do you know how much a cord of oak goes for these days?

The proverbial "straw that broke the camels back" as they say, happened that evening. The vibration from the sledge hammering took its tole unbeknownst to us. As I opened the upper cabinet to put away one of the cobalt blue glasses that we had just washed by hand of course, two glasses fell out and hit the one in my hand breaking them all into hundreds of pieces at my feet. I stood in shock and horror amongst the sparkling blue fragments decorating the newly exposed subfloor. Then I cried.

BUT my God cares even about the smallest things. He knew how special those glasses were to me. We found the irreplaceable on Ebay of course! The torture was not over yet though. They brought in these horrible "green monsters". At least that's what Bernard and Sheba viewed them as. There were 3 of the fans you see on the left spaced around the room and a dehumidifier to dry out the subfloor and walls. They had to remove the bottom one foot of sheet rock because it had soaked up the water like a sponge. It would have felt like a sauna in there if it hadn't been so cold with all that outside air coming up through the cracks in the subfloor. These noisy things ran for 3 days and nights. When they finally came and turned them off, the silence was deafening!
We went about a week without anything to keep that cold air out. It even snowed 2 inches during that time! (Sorry, no snow pictures. It's not fun anymore!) But I'm happy to say, we now have new vapor barrier and plywood down again keeping the cold out and the heat in. Putting down the new wood flooring is next, but we have to wait for the wood to acclimate stacked behind the sofa. Then there will be more upheaval. I managed to get the hutch packed up yesterday. Still a little weak from the flu, but the hands are much stronger. When they put the finish on the floor, we'll have to go to a hotel for a few days. Not looking forward to that. My home is my castle even without a kitchen! But the Lord will help me through that too.