Awake, O Thou Sleeping Blog!

This blog has had too much of a summer's nap, and I think it's about time to catch you all up on what's been happening over here in the quiet countrysides of Kentucky... and beyond!  Well, I'll be starting with the beyond, because at the very end of May, I (Joanna) set off on an adventure of a lifetime to visit the amazing state of Tasmania!!!  For anyone with that puzzled look on their face right now, this is an island right under the mainland of Australia.  It is also where my sister Martha, her husband Terry, and their family live!  The trip was a total of 26 days, including travel time, and was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.  The only downside was not having my husband Curtis along with me... I am so grateful to Martha & Terry for allowing me to be a part of their home for the month of June - it was a complete privilege!  And I can't wait to share all about it with you... So stay tuned!

Home Improvement - Landscaping

So here are a few snapshots of the work we did on our yard so far...  

Isn't it fun to fix up a place and make it "your own?!"

Before.... and in the dead of winter...

After... in the beauty of spring! Curtis made two tree rings!
I can't wait to plant the flowers I just bought for inside of them.
We also put down the stone border surrounding the house.




This is the front of our home before...

And right now those big bushes are in full bloom
with deep-magenta roses!  We added the five small shrubs
in front of our porch, and put a lot of mulch down in
the area between the house and the stone border.

Facing the house, this is the right side before...

...And after, when the stone border was put down. 
Later we also added some new mulch for that area where the
hose is, and where the flower garden is on the
right side of the picture.






Left side of the house before...

The left side with the border and mulch!  Since then,
we've also planted 40 sunflower plants here, and hope
to put in some strawberry plants and a blueberry bush!
The dirt area is the beginning of our big garden! :)




The back of the house before...

And after!  I fixed the stone steps that were there.
Also, since this pic, we filled in the area where that small 
tree is on the before pic with mulch, along with a few flowers.  
We also continued the stone border up to the back porch on
either side, and we finished it right before the BBQ we had on Saturday!

Just a few more touches we added to the home and outdoors... two small trees at either end of our driveway, and a little welcome decoration I put together (with fishing line!) for right next to our back sliding door.  I've always loved little trees at the end of a driveway... you?  And there's got to be a way to invite guests into the home besides a kind word or two, in my humble opinion! :) 

Maybe at some point after this I will put up pictures of when the flowers
are more in full bloom, especially the ones I'm planting in the backyard!  

I LOVE SPRING!!!!

Home Improvement - The Main Bathroom

The main bathroom really didn't have any big issues.  The main issues it had were the older floor & plastic sink, and the fact that it was just too white!!!  This is the before look of our bathroom.  

We have to admit, we did love the blue curtain... but the room needed a little more excitement... 

 So excitement is what we gave it!  This color is called "apricot smoothie," and I was going for more of a pretty lighter orange... Well, it does look like it turned out rather yellow!  But actually the look in real life is somewhat of a yellow-orange, and more on the orange side.  It's vibrant and we actually love it!

 Here's my friend Megan!!  She helped me paint the room.  I quickly found out that applying the tape on alllllll the edges was the hardest part, at least to me.  But it was so much more fun doing the whole job together!

  

Here's a pic of most of the room, as you look into it from the door!  The changes are: 

1. New, white edge trim everywhere (courtesy of my talented husband Curtis!), 

2.  Fancy trim around the little glazed-type window above the toilet and around the mirror above the sink, 

3. The new, soft-on-your-feet floor!  (We used to have a peeling, old, white linoleum one).

4. The new light/fan fixture on the ceiling we decided to put into this bathroom as well!

5. A new sink (to replace the plastic one) and new faucet.

6. The new white corner shelves Curt added to the walls near the sink area!

7. New brushed-nickel towel bar and toilet paper-holder.

 This gives more of an idea of the actual orange-ish color.

A close-up view of the sink area.. yes, this is our "tropical room."  The fish picture on the right is from our honeymoon in Cozumel, and so is the fish ceramic piece on the shelf.  On the right wall are vibrant nature pictures from our honeymoon as well (you can just barely see them in the mirror)!

Hope you enjoyed our overview of the updates to our main bathroom... next up is landscaping! :D

Home Improvement - The Master Bath

After coming home from visiting family late January, we found out we had 2 water leaks (in both bathrooms), and a rather large water bill!  After fixing one leak rather quickly in the main bathroom, we realized that to fix the other leak we had to tear up a small part of our master bathroom!  So we decided to go ahead and remodel the whole bathroom while were were at it!  We figured this late winter/spring season was a good time to do some home improvement projects anyway, since things will be REALLY busy in the summer!  So we're thankful to God that we've got done a bit already. 

Here are some before pics of our master bathroom.  Unfortunately they're so old, they date to before we even bought the house, when we were looking at it!  I just hadn't taken any since, I guess...so the stuff in each of these before pics is not ours. :)

The leak was under the jacuzzi tub; so we tore it up, gave it to Curt's sister, and in its place decided to put in our first and only full bathtub/shower.  I was probably the one most sad to see it go, but Curt wasn't a huge fan of it, and we only used it a few times in 2010.

The sink area - the sinks were plastic and had some pretty old faucets! 

 There was a very, very tiny shower in it, so that you could barely turn around in it without bumping your elbow!  Also, the removable shower head simply would not stay in place, so you would put it up, and it would fall down and knock you in the head as you showered! :( Needless to say, we almost always used the main bathroom for showering (unless we had guests).

Here's Curt after the whole room was gutted!  He's working on putting up the sheet rock.

Dad Crick and Curt putting in the tub

 Sanding, sanding, and more sanding!

 Our living room turned into a work station for several weeks!  Dust was everywhere, but it was the area with the most open space, close enough to the bathroom, and a place we wouldn't get snowed on or rained on as we worked!
Here I am painting the trim.

 Here the room is painted with our favorite color - blue! :)  

 Next step was trim and floor!  And the new light/fan fixture!  (This was Curt's invention: to take this light, drill holes in the base, and make it into a two-featured device - light and fan.  It worked really well!)

 Now the vanity is put in, the mirror/medicine cabinet (one of my favorite features), the toilet, 

and the shower rod with plastic shower lining.

 Joanna added the black curtain, the towel/magazine rack (we love how close it is to the shower!), and a few decorations, and Curt added the towel bars!

 Instead of the tiny, almost useless shower, Curt put in a new closet!  Yay!  It's directly to the left as you walk in the door, before you come to the sink area.  We don't have an attic, so the more closets the better!  Hopefully soon we'll put in shelves.

Here's a picture of the vanity and mirror more up close!  

I love all the drawers and amazing amount of medicine cabinet space (behind each mirror)!!  

Hope you enjoyed walking through our master bath home improvement journey with us!  Let us know what you think, or if you have done some recent remodeling in your bathrooms or elsewhere in the house!  

We'd love to hear from you! 

Finally... the remodeling pics!

For a while now some of you have been asking to see pictures from our recent remodeling and work around the house! Since we do live so far away from many of you, and you can't simply stop by, I will oblige you! ;) I hope you enjoy the pictures! We're so grateful to God for what He's helped us accomplish!


I will post the pictures in a few separate posts, so you don't get overwhelmed. :)
Outlined here is what order they will be posted, as well as what order they were accomplished in!
1. Master bathroom (February)
2. Main bathroom (March)
3. Landscaping (March and April)
4. Garage (April)

Thoughts on "My Story"... looking for your thoughts, too!

Dear friends and class-mates!

I’ve so much enjoyed taking a class with several of you these past several weeks - you know who you are! ;)  Time really flew – I feel like we practically just got started, and then classes were over already!  Did it feel like that to you?

Ok, so I promised you I’d share a little of my life story with you!  I tried to make it a little interactive, so it’s easy for you to comment about things.  There are three parts - I decided to post part 1 last - it's at the top - so it's easier to read the whole story all at once (just scroll down for part 2, and then part 3).

I hope you enjoy reading "MY STORY."  Leave your comments about it!  I'd love for you to share just a tidbit (or however much you want to share) of your story as well!  Nothing fancy, and it's certainly not necessary to be anywhere close to as long as mine!  Lol!  Just a mini-version of "your story," maybe, in a comment?  And if you'd like to, answer this question, too: where are you at in your spiritual journey?  You definitely don't have to "have arrived" at some destination spiritually in order to share!  I'm very open to hearing whatever you have to say! :)       

Thanks for reading & thanks for sharing, too (in advance)!! 

Love,

Joanna

MY STORY - Part 1

              I was born in Wisconsin, the oldest daughter and third child in our family.  I came after my 2 brothers, and after me came 5 more siblings, so yes, we have a 10-member family! J  As you can imagine, having a growing family wasn’t easy with my dad’s teaching income, especially since he was teaching in a small, private, school.  But my mom was a coupon-cutter, financially-savvy person, garden-grower, home-made food and hand-me-down type of person, so we ate enough and ate healthy, and even had plenty of clothes!  (They just weren’t Disney or brand-name, but who notices that around age 5?!)  Then, after I finished the second grade, my family (there were 8 of us at the time), moved to Michigan, because my dad believed God was calling him to be a pastor.  So after 2 years of working and saving in MI, my dad entered a new seminary, PRTS, in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  During this time, I struggled to make friends at school, being naturally shy as well as being the “new kid” at school.  I also had a lot of fears when I was young – not just fears of not being accepted, but fear of the dark, fears of terminal illnesses, fear of death, fear of the unknown – you name it!  I remember being “dumped” from friendship by a girl in 6^th grade that I had so much fun with for a small, but blissful time.  She simply told me, “We just don’t have anything in common anymore.”  I never could understand this, and it devastated me, since I felt like with her I finally had a real friend in school I could have fun with.  Have you ever experienced this before, or been let down in a big way by a friend?  At such a young age, it’s amazing how much it affects you, isn’t it?!  My parents decided to home-school me in 7^th and 8^th grade, because they wanted to try it out, and also because they knew I was struggling socially in school.  Besides, my class was considered one of the most notorious ones in our school at the time (or so I’ve heard), because for some reason as my class grew up, they got more & more rebellious!  So I got taught at home a little Hebrew & Greek by my rather intellectual father, a thorough bit of grammar including sentence diagrams, as well as the rest of the subjects a middle-school kid generally gets. 

 However, it was at this time that my life took a turn down-hill, because as I hit puberty, I hit a stage in my life that my fears became the most real thing to me.  I was most of all afraid of dying.  You see, I had been brought up in a Christian family, and knew very well that if I died without Jesus as my Savior, I would go to hell.  I was scared-stiff of that.  Also, because of various growing-pains, all my fears became larger-than-life, and I would regularly get panic attacks and have crying spells in secret.  The main problem was that I knew I needed God, but I didn’t know how to get to Him.  I had been brought up in a Christian family and in church, but I just didn’t understand how salvation worked, or what it really meant to “believe.”  I knew my life had a very large void, an emptiness I couldn’t fill, and I knew God was supposed to be there.  I was empty, I was lonely, and I was very afraid.

You see, I knew in my heart that basically not just this world is full of sin and evil, but my heart was, too.  I was born this way, and so is everyone else – we simply all have an inclination to do wrong instead of right.  A lot of people argue this, but they forget that our motives are often the hugest factor in what makes a right-looking action, actually wrong.  You see, God sees us with His perfect standard of goodness, because He IS completely good and perfect, and this is what He sees: “There is none who does good, not even one!” (Psalm 14:3).  The most basic measurement God has given is in the 10 Commandments found in Exodus 20 – it’s like God’s 10 commands for human life.  We may think we do well, until we realize that these commands not only apply to our outward behavior, but our hearts, thoughts, and motives as well!  For example, when God says not to commit adultery, Jesus reminds us that when someone looks on a woman with lust, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart! (Matthew 5:28).  Wow!  With this kind of heart and thought-searching according to each of God’s commands, each one of us finds that we are all completely guilty!  Those that sin against God in any way are worthy of His punishment.  This punishment is in hell, because God’s justice goes way beyond ours: “But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death."  (Revelations 21:8)   Hell is real, and I knew it!  And who of us can claim that we’ve never lied, never been faithless, never been cowardly, or never been immoral in our thoughts?  We all deserve God’s just punishment in hell.  (Some people say that hell isn’t fair, but they forget that we’re not the one who calls the shots on what’s fair – we don’t make the standards – God is the Creator, the Standard-Maker, and ultimately, the just Judge of the universe.  He’s the One that makes “fair” fair!  He knows complete fairness as well as complete goodness, because He is the epitome or height of fairness and goodness Himself.  And He always operates in complete fairness & goodness, consistent with His Person!).  So we’re in a predicament – we don’t want to go to hell, but that’s what’s coming to us, unless something drastic happens!