At Faith Builders

We are presently in northern PA at Faith Builders. They asked Thomas to come complete a renovation project. He is finishing drywall, painting, hanging doors, doing the trim work and flooring & etc. Hoping to get the project finished and ready to use in 5 weeks. One week is behind us now. He had to undo and redo some of the project before he could get started with his "calling" so he just completed the first coat of drywall "mud" yesterday. (There was a change of mind about some of the structural things after it had been done.)

It feels huge to be gone for the whole month of March. Other times when we came here for renovation projects, we were here for a week or two at the most. That was usually long enough. It can be so gray and cold here so much of the time. I was reading the weather forecast for home to the boys yesterday. It said Wednesday 55°, Thursday 55° and they said, "Stop reading!" 

Thankfully there have been at least 3 sunny days this week! Today is sunny. That helps. There is a foot of snow on the ground here and huge piles around the edges of parking spaces, by the sides of roads and so forth.

Interestingly the two deepest snows at home this winter have come while we were in Guys Mills, PA. Two feet at Thanksgiving and 8" this past week. I would like to see it but it's okay with me to not live in it. In this huge building you hardly know what it's like outdoors because the community is in the building. (There are enough windows in our apartment that you can tell if it's sunny or gray though!)

I walk a few steps out my door to the "laundromat" (a washer and dryer shared by 4 apartments), down two flights of stairs to the dining room (or I can cook a meal in our apartment if I care to), and a few steps from the apartment is the chapel where we had our worship service this morning.

Thomas and Austin made a flying trip home for today. They went home last evening and are coming back up this afternoon. Austin is in instruction class so we thought a couple trips home would be in order. Plus Thomas is Intermediate Sunday School teacher and he forgot to leave the teacher's book with a substitute. There were various other things that were forgotten that they are bringing when they come. 

Like dress clothes. Stephen wore some of the dress clothes that Thomas had brought but he had to wear his sneakers (with drywall mud on them) to chapel. A bit embarrassing but thankfully God doesn't mind such things as some people might.

Thomas & I and the two youngest came up on Monday but the three oldest boys came Tuesday. Stephen had helped to drive a vehicle to TX over the weekend and flew home Monday. We left Austin and Matthew to come with him. They had a lot of things to remember to bring and finish up before coming. It's really no wonder some things got forgotten.

The month of February was dead for Thomas as far as work. Now this month is filled up with the project here which, by the way, is in the men's dorm. When we get back home he has lots of work waiting for him. 

Thankfully, Stephen had a job in February working for Ken Yoder as secretary at the pallet shop. He made it clear to them at the beginning that this was not his cup of tea and so finally by the end of the month they had someone to replace him. They would have given him a full time job if he would have wanted it.

The month of February was cold and windy. Into that cold world was born another calf. This was what I called a "teenage pregnancy". A 14 month old heifer had a baby. Or would you say a calf had a calf? It had a bit of a rocky start. The calf would try to suck and the mother would kick it away. But finally, with some hand miking and bottle feeding and prayers they got their act together and the feeding is going properly.

Maybe you wonder what I do here? Well, we brought school along. That takes up half the day or more. Then there's always dirty laundry. I made myself useful in the big kitchen a few days. I also brought some sewing projects along and have worked some on that. Of course today I am writing.

And the boys? After their studies the older ones help with the work project while the younger ones help where they can and play in the gym a lot. The two youngest have also helped in the kitchen some. Once their boots (another forgotten item) are here I imagine they will be out in the piles of snow, digging out houses or sculpting something.

Evenings are a bit long. Supper is served at 5:15 and then the evening is open for whatever. We join the students in things they are doing if we want to. I like to watch the volleyball games. Friday evening Stephen went to listen to a stringed instrument/piano concert with some of the students. 

Maybe this week I can get out a bit and visit some people, go shopping & etc. We decided once we get some money all the boys need new socks (with a different color or style for each boy!!) and some need boots.

Here are a few pages from this week as we began a study of animals-

Matthew's illustrations

Melvin's illustrations

Christopher's illustrations

They were supposed to write the 3 sentences about Biology, Botany and Zoology on the one paper. The other paper has the song This is My Father's World on it. I told them they could illustrate it any way they wanted with things from our Father's world.            

What was the most interesting thing you did this week? 

What are you doing this time of year?

I would love to hear from you in the comments!