Duplex interior before & after

I'm currently sitting in the waiting room at the Dr's office, hoping they'll be able to save my right thumb. A digit that wasn't much considered until three months ago when a fine silver sliver that had gone unnoticed over the summer became infected and has since turned into an open wound about the size of a pencil eraser. All my efforts of natural healing have been futile, here's to hoping that the great medical community will have more success.  

I've finished the book I brought along. Stephen King's On Writing proved to be a great read, if anyone's interested, and then started in on Plato's Republic. If I have learned anything from Stephen King it would be to put away the computer pronto and return to my book, any book will do, but here I am computer screen open, wasting away my brain.

It's been a real effort to move quickly on the home front as our quality of life always suffers during the first stages of these projects. After two months of sleeping in a sleeping bag and finding food from plastic packages, transitioning to a finished space has been beautiful. Our bed feels like heaven and the angels sing every time we sit down at a real dining room table with healthy homemade food. 

I've added in a few before and afters so you guys can check out the progress. The unit next door is now under progress but we've yet to tackle the exterior.

Kitchen before:

Kitchen after:

Living before:

Living after:

  

North bedroom after:

Bathroom before:

Bathroom after:

South bedroom before:

South bedroom after:

Where the Spirit Meets the Bone

Compassion

Have compassion for everyone you meet

even if they don't want it. What seems conceit,

bad manners, or cynicism is always a sign

of things no ears have heard, no eyes have seen.

You do not know what wars are going on

down there where the spirit meets the bone.

-Miller Williams

Yesteryear

 

  

The day before we flew home from Kona Denver somehow lucked out and finished his surf session solo at one of the best spots in town. I was also lucky and had already grabbed the camera out of the Toyota after rinsing off. From what I hear it's a super cool experience to have the wave to yourself.

Home for Christmas and a New Year

Home for Christmas is a positive spin on a series of events. A series of rather disappointing events that has landed us smack dab in the middle of a remodel in the middle of an Oregon winter. The management on our new place here in Bend wasn't working out leaving one unit empty and another soon to be without quick intervention. It's kind of remarkable how quickly a perfectly laid plan can unravel. 

Of course, as you can probably tell from the photos, it hasn't all been bad. Christmas really is best spent with family, a hot beverage in hand and a cheery fire nearby.  There have been so many good moments that have taken me by surprise, bright sunny days and sparkling snow, warm home-cooked meals, hot showers, an incredibly choreographed Christmas service, new terrain to ski and explore, the neighbor's tortoise that likes to go for walks across the street (rain or snow) and the unexpected empathy shown by strangers are just a few that come to mind.        

This latest upset is just another reminder that I'm not in control of life, that some dreams are left unfulfilled. A fact that has been snowballing unhealed and rough around the edges these last few years until it's entirely impossible to ignore.  It's easy to say that God's ways are different then mine but so much harder to accept that truth when the paths don't easily coincide. I find myself in the tension of believing that God created me to dream my unique dreams but also realizing that He cares more about the state of my soul then the fruition of those dreams.  In the Problem of Pain C.S. Lewis writes: 

"The mold in which a key is made would be a strange thing, if you had never seen a key: and the key itself a strange thing if you had never seen a lock. Your soul has a curious shape because it is a hollow made to fit a particular swelling in the infinite contours of the divine substane, or a key to unlock one of the doors in the house with many mansions. 

Your place in heaven will seem to be made for you and you alone, because you were made for it -- made stitch by stitch as a glove is made for a hand." 

2016: a new year, un-chartered territory and a stitch in time.