A glimpse into our crazy life

…and the fun continues!!  With the deconstruction done, our landscape architect came in began re-grading our yard.  He was able to transplant all of our plants we already had including two trees.  As you can tell by the first pict, quite a bit of ground has been moved.  All of the mounds are going to be new beds for plants.  The second pict is from one of our bedroom windows.  Gravel has been layed down in the shape of what our patio is going to look like.  We hope to have the pavers in later this month and be done with this project!  Mya’s been banned from her backyard since the deconstruction phase of our back porch completed and is ready to have it back.  Some of her displeasure may be stemming from the noise of equipment, specifically the jackhammer, which has hindered napping.

I headed back to KS last month for this year’s edition of the “Walk to Defeat ALS”. It was great to gather “Team Peggy” together again and we’ve raised $8,850!! Thank you to Team Peggy for making the trip and to all our supporters!! (BTW, we’re still trying to reach our fundraising goal of $10,000. If you’d like to donate, go here.)

While we’ve accumulated numerous scrapes and bruises during this backyard makeover, luckily the only serious injury we’ve caused thus far was to this hammer.

It’s official.  Emily and I started demolition on our unwanted back porch two weekends ago to make room for a new patio!  Unfortunately, it’s all taking place in the middle of the fall season amongst travel, both of us teaching, oh yeah, and our normal work!  Oy.
Nonetheless, we forge ahead because winter isn’t getting any further away and it must be done.  Below are some before and after picts from the past couple weeks.  They’ve been quite productive and resulted in a hot tub sized burden being lifted off our shoulders when we sold it this past weekend!  However, in our jubilation, we would like to recognize the noble efforts of a wonderful hammer whos functionality and purpose was lost in the process.  It is irreplaceable (although we did) and will be missed.

I’ve always been interested in reading one of Max Lucado’s books since his are always at the top of the Christian bookseller lists, so I took advantage of the chance to review his brand new book “Fearless” when the opportunity arose. This book is certainly covering a timely topic since fear is rather high in this country. Each chapter covers a different common fear, including fear of disappointing God, of not mattering, and of what’s next. Lucado discusses the source of each type of fear and how to deal with it from a Biblical perspective. I found his writing style very enjoyable and easy to read; he effortlessly combines accounts of real-life experiences with theology and Biblical examples. While his points about fear and how to deal with it aren’t new ideas, they’re concepts you often need to hear more than once. I’d recommend giving this book a try, especially if you’re feeling filled with fear these days. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.