Wish List 2010

A year ago I posted  House Wants/Needs List, and I thought it would be appropriate to update that list this morning.  We were so blessed this year to be able to cross several items off the list.


House Needs/Wants --August 23, 2009
1) roof--repaired but not replaced.  still desperately needed.  this is the first thing that will be taken care of with any extra money this year.

2) garage door--second to roof.   but considering most people in the world do not have a garage, who am i to complain about a beast of a door that is about to fall off the ceiling?  :)

3) Simone mattress & bed frame--frame received from Cassie 9/18/09 and mattress was purchased shortly after

4) girls' closet doors--closet doors on but still don't have handles, so they pretty much just stay open.  one thing at a time.

5) basement carpet and padding for toyroom/future girls' bedroom--march '10 basement bedroom for girls complete!

6) refrigerator--just purchased for HALF price!  it was an amazing deal.  and for those of you who were aware of my dilemma...i did go with offwhite and LOVE it.  i feel like a chef with such a huge refrigerator.  however the kids were sooooo excited to get ice and water from the door, and we discovered that we don't have a water line that runs to the frig.  bummer.  but, oh well.  we are blessed, nonetheless.

7) toilet seat--bought dec '09. yessssss...

8) kitchen stools--awesome deal on sturdy sturdy stools. purchased from scot's boss. jan '10

9) ceiling fan for bedroom--i can't even remember why this is on the list.  i guess b/c our current fan makes noise and dustin is constanting getting out of bed to mess with it.  the solution has been to just keep it off.

10) sliding glass door with screen for dining room--nope.  maybe sometime in the future.

11) screen for front window--no again.  windows haven't been open as much due to reuben's allergies. 

12) locks for all doors--dec '09 bought lock for one door

13) vacuum--mother took pity on us and let us have poppops old one.  as much as i use my vacuum i am sad to think that this one won't last long either.  i helped poppop pick it out.  so i'm trying to take really good care of it and have not been vacuuming as much. 

14) futon frame--still looking.  in the meantime, the kids just sit on the futon mattress while they watch movies in the basement
 
And for this year's list...
 
House Needs/Wants 2010
 
1.  New Roof
 
2.  Garage door repaired or replaced
 
3.  Other side of basement finished
 
4.  Upstairs painted
 
5.  Decks repaired and painted
 
6.  Cana's dresser repaired
 
7.  Futon frame
 
Sounds like a lot of repairs for this year!!  Neither of us are handy, so it'll be an act of God to get all these things accomplished!  I will post an update on our progress this time next year.

Six Months

Last week on the 10th, Reuben turned six months old!!  I didn't forget about it.  Its just that I had more than my allottment of blogs in that week, so I thought I'd save it for this week.  We did celebrate with many pictures, pizza at Ma Ruth and Pa's, and a Mountaineer win.   Its hard to believe six months of his life have past already.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I was waddling around waiting for his arrival.  Six months later Reuben is as pleasant as they come and as cute as can be.  He's a big boy...weighing in at 20 pounds and 27 inches long.  He has two teeth, some brown hair starting to grow, and a smile that starts with his eyes and spreads through his whole body.  He is one loved little boy!

let's GOOOOO....

one good thing about this time of year is MOUNTAINEER FOOTBALL!   i was so giddy before last week's opening game that i could not sleep the night before.  i know it sounds crazy, but all i could think about was the drive over to morgantown, the cars backed up for miles, the crazy people dressed in blue & gold, the smells of grills, exhaust, and beer, the music (country roads), the beautiful almost-fall day, and the feeling of walking into the stadium.  i could do it a thousand times, and it would still thrill my soul!  the night before the game dustin was very patiently watching me get everything ready and listening to me go on and on, and finally he said, "i just can't relate...i don't get that excited about football...or anything really".   while he was downstairs praying, i thought about what he said.  and i have come to the conclusion that i really am very simple and childlike sometimes.  i am easily excited, and look forward to different events like a kid!!  one of those evens just happens to be mountaineer gameday!  its not just a sports team (because really, i'm not into sports much at all),  its an experience, and i love it!  time to go put on my gold...let's go mountaineers!!  

Christie Martin

When I lived in Minnesota Thursdays were "Girls Day".  The tradition started just months before I moved, and consisted of a group of friends gathering together with all our kids and solving all the world's problems while drinking box wine from mason jars.  At our last girls day, everyone promised to visit West Virginia the next Thursday.  (I have it all on video for proof!!).  FINALLY, after almost SIX years, my dear friend Christie Martin just made her first trip to West Virginia!!    Christie is just a one of a kind sort of gal, and I have missed her so much! 

She most definitely has the gift of hospitality!  Christie is the one who gave me a chair to sleep in and hosted daily gatherings of 10+ adults and 20+children on my trip out there in 2007.

She has been known to gather RVs in her yard so that the party never has to go home. 

Her dog just birthed 11 puppies, and Christie spent weeks caring for each puppy, swaddling and bottle-feeding because Mama Daisy couldn't keep up.

Visits with Christie always include large quantities of coffee and wonderful discussions on God and life.  She asks the questions that most people don't want to ask, and doesn't give up on God even when people and church fail her.  Once, when I was being dumb, she actually yelled at me.  She might have thought she was just mad, but it really changed me for the better.  She addressed my stupidity (like a true friend )when others were staying quiet. 

And a couple of weeks ago, Christie drove for almost 24 hours with her three youngest kids for her first WV vacation!  I'm pretty sure they thought they were NEVER going to get here and arrived all wobbly and glassy-eyed.  But, we had a wonderful time, and I am so thankful that she came.  We just sat around drinking lemonade and talking.  Well, that and feeding constantly hungry kids.  She got me addicted to cracked pepper and olive oil Triscuits, and I watched in amazement as she downed more pickles and hot sauce than any person I've ever seen.  This picture of her sandwich the last day she was here is classic Christie and a good picture of the kind of person she is--a mix of so many good things!!

I love you Christie Martin!!  Come to West Virginia any time...

abc's & 123's

After much internal debate on what to do this year, we have officially started "school" here at the Turners.  I will once again be homeschooling the oldest three--Cana in 5th grade, Judah in 3rd grade, and Eden in 2nd grade.  From the beginning I have said that I would take homeschooling a year at a time, discerning each year what would be the best option for each individual child.  I am not in the "once at home, always at home" camp, and I have never made the claim that homeschooling is always best.  Therefore, I end each year and spend most of the summer in prayer and thought, trying to determine what is best.   I was THIS close to sending Cana to 5th grade this year but opted instead to keep her home another year.  The beauty of homeschooling is the flexibility, so Cana will be in 5th grade math, 8th grade spelling/language, doing a unit study on the book of Job, and her daddy will be teaching social studies in an "unschooling" kind of way.  Judah will be in 5th grade math, 3rd grade spelling/language, learning cursive, doing various theological studies, and will be learning science and social studies from dad as well.  Eden will truck along with her math at grade level, but will work ahead a year in language and spelling as well as begin weekly creative writing.  I'm sure she'll get in on the science and social studies lessons with her older brother and sister.  We still haven't received half our books (that were ordered TWO weeks ago), but we started today anyway, and it was a good day.  I'm sure it'll take a couple weeks to adjust to the new routine--especially considering Reuben and Nadia still require so much of my time as well.  I feel spread so thin right now, but it just takes time to get back into the swing of things. 

Simone will be going out of the house to pre-school this year.  I had a few reservations about sending her, but after two weeks of her being there, I know we made the right decision.  She absolutely LOVES it.  The reasons for sending her are too numerous and complex to go into, but I have confidence that she will have a great year!

As I have said so many times, I am so blessed to be at home during these years.  Everytime I start to think of the grass being greener on the other side and am tempted to wish the time away, I take a look around at my kids and my home and am quickly brought back to the reality of the amazing opportunity I have here to be here at home.