Day 2 - No Power

Two days ago, a big hurricane hit the east coast of the US.   We were one of the less fortunate ones who lost power during the storm.  Luckily, we have a generator, (thanks to Y2K worries) so we are able to stay in our house.   We have the heat hooked up to the generator as well as a few other appliances such as the sump pump and freezer.   It actually hasn't been as bad as I would have thought.  

We've all slept in the family room since that is where the heat is.   We've played lots of board games to keep busy.   We've showered at the YMCA and our church.   We ate at the church and enjoyed a meal at Hometown Buffet.  

I've been reading a lot of Janette Oke books lately and many of her stories are back in the "olde" days when the fire needed to be started every morning, the items that needed to be kept cool were stored in a cellar and so on.   It's felt a little like being back then except that we get to escape every now and then to civilization.   The only bummer is that we have no way to cook food or even heat up water in the house so that has been a major pain.  

Right now, it seems like we will still be without power for a few days.   Our neighbor and our house are the only 2 on the street without power.   That means we are low man on the totem pole for getting fixed.  

So here we sit... in the dark...

Carving Experiments

When my husband was doing construction full time, he knew he didn't want to be fixing up houses forever.   We had talked about investing in a small CNC machine (computer operated cutting machine) to start to make cabinet doors and other wood objects.   We took a portion of our tax return and bought a machine.   Unfortunately at the time, it was on back order and wasn't expected to be in for a few months.   They had predicted we would receive it in May.   During the months that we waited, my husband got a full time job.   The machine finally arrived mid-May and we were so busy trying to finish up left over construction projects and starting a new job that we didn't have any time to dig in and play with it.  

Then my son and I finally decided to pull it out and try to use it.   We faithfully watched the instructional video and started to set everything up as needed.   Then, we realized we were missing the cutting bits... an essential piece of making the machine run.   My husband contacted customer support and had some replacements on the way.   Once we got the new bits, a few more weeks went by.

At last, about two weeks ago, we got it running.   We've essentially did a bunch of trial runs just to see how it worked.   Then last week we created something worthwhile to give as a gift to my cousin at her wedding.  Tonight we had our first SALE!   We made a plaque as an anniversary gift for our most faithful customer.... my mom. 

So... all that to say, here are some pics of our creations.....

(up)  Playing around with doing pictures.   Realized we need to use wood with a very light grain.  

(up) This is the untrimmed and un-edged version.

(up)  Ditto for this one.   Didn't actually get a picture of the finished product.

(up)  Our first sale!

Happenings

Wow, I hadn't realized it had been so long since I wrote.   Often I think of a bunch of stuff to write on here, but I seem to never make the time to sit down and do it.   Well today had a funny moment, so I'm here.   But, I'm going to save the funny moment for last.  Ha, just to hold you in suspense.

It's been busy as usual, but all in all things are going well.   My son turned 10 this year and since it's kind of a milestone birthday, we decided to throw him a birthday party with his friends.   He is really into Legos, so it was a lego themed party.   We had 23 kids present, which was kind of nuts.   We played lego themed games.... 1- broken up into teams, they had to scoop a cup full of legos and fill up a bucket at the other end of the drive.   The first team to fill up their bucket won.   2 - We packed legos into a jar and they had to guess how many legos were in there.   3- We had a building contest.  Who could build the tallest freestanding tower in 1 minute and then in 4 minutes won.  The kids had a blast.   We also made a lego cake, which came out really cute.   Thanks to my hubby who finished it when I got to the end of my nerve with it.  Here are some pics...

 

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We also started building a treehouse.   We cleaned out the garage and found some very long 2x4s that would work nicely with some trees we had in the back yard.   We also had some left over 6ft fence pieces that my dad has been hanging onto from our old house that would work nicely as the floor.   The kids and I were going to tackle it ourselves, but when I started asking my husband questions about what screws to use, etc.... he kinda got involved and wanted to be present.  Ha, funny how that works.   It's starting to take shape although we aren't done yet cause it definitely needs sides, but we let the kids get up there for a view.   With 4 boys in the family, how could you not have a treehouse, right??  

 

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Last week, my son's friend's mom stopped by to see if we wanted an old electric 4 wheeler that they were getting rid of.   My husband and I had never been interested in them because we thought the kids should actually use their legs and muscles to get around, so we decided not to purchase one.   However, if someone's going to give it to us for free... well I'm up for that :)   Only 4 of our children are small enough to ride it and the battery doesn't last too long (takes 14 hours in between charges).  So that means each kid gets to ride it for about 6-7 minutes a day.   I don't think that will affect their muscles too much :)   They've been having a blast with it.   They gave us a really nice helmet with it also so everyone is staying safe!   We're thankful for the blessing/gift.

 

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The last update prior to my funny story....(Yep, still holding out)... is that we finally got everything moved around as I had mentioned in one of my previous posts (I love change).   Actually I take that back, there are still about 3 pieces of furniture to move, but we'll eventually get to those.   The nice thing is that we were able to get our "school room" in order and start using it a few weeks back.   It's been nice to keep the school books, etc off the kitchen table, so we can actually sit down and eat lunch without having to clear everything.   I also commandeered my father's white board that he uses occasionally for bible studies to the school room.    Unfortunately, I wrote on the board yesterday with a Sharpie!!!  ARGH!!   I've been working at it since then trying to restore it.   Luckily there were suggestions out there on the web for removing permanent marker!!   Here's a pic of the kids working- (pre-marker accident).

 

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And now to the story...   As I mentioned before, we've been doing  a bible study with our kids every morning.  Last week sometime, we started reading the Proverb of the day with them.   Well today being the 5th, we read Proverbs 5.   Word to the wise, maybe not the best proverb to read to younger children.   Within the first few verses, we hit adultery.  My son who was reading finished the verse, and I thought he would just continue, but he didn't.   He stopped and asked what adultery was.   I gave a very PG rated answer, something to the effect of people who are not in a marriage relationship doing things that married people are allowed to do.   Or people who are in a marriage relationship doing things with someone other than their spouse.   I kind of smoothed it over (although I'm sure it created some questions in their heads)... and on we went.    Much of the chapter is on the adulterous woman, so we didn't even have much to expound on.   Then we got to talking about the "wife of your youth".   Verse 19 was the kicker.... "Let her breasts satisfy you"... umm okay.   Let's have daddy finish reading the chapter and pre-screen the verses.    Then I opened my mouth at the end to try and offer some explanation and decided... nah, let's just let that one sit for now.    My husband and I were just looking at each other like "Okay... how did we get HERE!".   Ahh the joys.   

 

So I hope you got a little chuckle out of that one.   Also hope you like the pics as an addition this time.   Hope all is well with you and yours.....