House Woes

Things are coming along with the house. The basement is poured and the garage is up!.... But, here's the woe part. The driveway.

When we picked the lot for our house it was VERY important to both Chris and I that we have a flat lot. We specifically said multiple times that we wanted a flat driveway for our kids to play on. We made that abundantly clear to our builder. The kids ride bikes and play soccer all summer and when they get older we'd like to put up a basketball hoop for them to play with; hence the need for a flat driveway.

So, we got to look at the house last night and I'm not kidding you, it seriously looks like they made a 3 foot mound of dirt right where our house is sitting and just built our house on top of it! The house is pretty close to the road too so it's not like they can make the top part of the driveway flat and then just slope it at the bottom. Nope. It's gonna be a hill. A huge hill.

I know what you're thinking. It's not that big of a deal, you're getting a brand new, beautiful home and you are complaining about a slope in the driveway. OK, to some degree I'm upset with myself for getting so miffed about a driveway, but this is my home, the one I'm gonna live in for the next 20 plus years and I want it to be usable....or at least fixable. A driveway is not fixable. I had visions of Chris and I sitting on the front porch watching our kids play outside, drawing chalk, riding bikes, playing soccer and basketball. Not anymore.

So, we're driving away from the house and I'm almost in tears telling Chris how the kids won't be able to ride bikes....we made it very clear that we wanted a flat lot....why would they decide to build a hill under our house... on and on. I keep hearing Hannah's voice pipe up from the backseat, "mommy, we can still play on it, it's OK, it's not to steep, don't worry." She's such a sweetheart. After I rant some more I hear Hannah say, "mommy, I already prayed two times for our house." Thank-goodness my children are learning the lessons I'm trying to teach them even though I'm obviously not putting them into practice myself. So, then we all prayed and I felt better. A little.

Anyway, Chris called the builder and told them about the problem. We're still waiting to hear back from them. I already know there's nothing they can do. It's not as if they can rip up the entire foundation. Oh, and even if they could, we don't have time, we HAVE to close on that house November 15th. We already paid a big chunk of change to lock in our interest rate and that is only good til Nov. 30, so basically if we don't close before then we lose the cash.

Ok, enough ranting and raving. I'm upset, but I'll get over it. In the grand scheme of life it's a SMALL problem to have. We're just hoping that somehow the builder will work with us and let us make a big patio on the back at no charge so that at least our kids have some place to play.

Psalm 121

"I lift up my eyes to the hills - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep."

This week has been hard for many reasons. Partly because we're living in a rental house with half of our things in storage. Partly because I am sinful and my children are sinful...and well, that just makes for some long days sometimes. Partly because I miss my family. Partly because I am overwhelmed by all the decisions I have to make for our new house. Partly because I have GOT to get things organized for Women's Ministries at church and that is always a challenge for me.

Anyway, today I took the kids to the park to play with Cury and Praja and I was talking to Angie about some of this. On the way home these verses just popped into my head. It was just a reminder that I am not doing all this on my own, my GREAT and AWESOME and POWERFUL God is my help. He does not even sleep because he is watching over ME! I don't have to muster up my own strength to be a perfect mom and wife and Women's Ministry coordinator. The same God who made Heaven and earth is my help.

We have a hole!

Finally! Our basement is being dug. We went and checked it out last night.

Pantry challenge: Day 6 and 7

Day 6

Breakfast:

Cereal

Lunch:

Baked potatoes with cheese and bacon bits. As a child I LOVED eating baked potatoes for supper, but since I have a husband who doesn't like potatoes I rarely cook them. I had bought some a few weeks back because I got a 5lb bag for only .86 cents! I was surprised that my kids both really loved them.

Dinner:

Chicken fajitas. I took all the leftover chicken from Sunday and added in some onions and peppers from our garden.

Day 7

Breakfast

....I cannot remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday...Hannah had a bagel with cheese. I know we were out of milk so I didn't have cereal. Well for all I know I completely forgot to eat breakfast yesterday, it's just been one of those weeks!

Lunch:

Fajita nachos.

Dinner:
Grilled tuna sandwiches, cucumbers and rice

We did it! We survived our pantry challenge, and I think we ate surprisingly well. Of course we didn't have the variety of foods we normally do but we weren't eating mac-n-cheese every meal either.

I actually learned quite a lot from this little challenge. I am BLESSED! I sometimes spend my time complaining about the food that I can't afford to buy instead of seeing the abundance that God has given us! It also taught me to think about my meals before I prepare them. Every time I would use an ingredient, like an egg, I would think through how it would affect my meal planning for the rest of the week. I'm also very thankful for our garden, that thing was a life saver!

I will make a little confession though--my husband did stop by the store at the beginning on my challenge to grab some milk. While I did have powdered milk on hand, I remember drinking that nasty stuff as a kid and would rather "cheat" then make my kids drink it.

Anyway, I'm really glad I took the challenge and it's probably something we'll be doing more of. It saved the time and hassle of going to the store and I also have $75 bucks in my pocket. Let me know if any of you decide to do it, I'd love to hear how it goes.

Pantry challenge: Day five - breakfast day

Breakfast: Cinnamon bread....yet again. I do love that stuff but I also need a little variety in my diet. I think Hannah and I will make some banana muffins for tomorrow... oh wait, I'm out of flour...nevermind.

Lunch: Cereal. Hannah thought it was SO fun to eat Golden Grahams and Multi-grain cheerios for lunch. We watched a home movie in the morning and made popcorn so we weren't that hungry at lunch.

Afternoon snack: Granola bars

Dinner: Sausauge, egg and cheese bagel sandwiches. We also had some green grapes left so we ate those as well.




After dinner we went swimming in the pool and of course when we got back Hannah was "starving". So, what did she request for snack time. Cereal. Apart from the morning snack of popcorn we truly did eat breakfast all day!

Pantry challenge: Day three and four

Day three

Breakfast: Cinnamon bread. Hannah and I had fun making that on Saturday

Lunch: Grilled chicken, vegetables and biscuits



Dinner: Party at a friends house...I lucked out again. I did make some almond sugar cookies to bring along.


Day four

Breakfast: Cinnamon Bread

Lunch: leftover lasagna, vegetables and biscuits. Let me take a second here to tell you how I feel about leftovers. I don't like them. But, wasting food is wasting money so I have been trying to eat our leftover food before I make new dishes, and I can honestly say it is saving money.

Dinner: Salad and Pizza sandwiches




We also ate green grapes and pretzels for snack time today at the pool.

So far so good, 4 days down only 3 to go.

Pantry challenge: Day two

Breakfast: Blueberry pancakes with boysenberry syrup

Lunch: leftover burgers and brats.

Dinner: BBQ Pork Sandwiches. We actually got invited over to a friends house for dinner so it saved me from having to make a meal myself. Although, we thought we should contribute some food for the meal so my natural reaction was to just swing by the store on the way and grab some chips and dip...but then I remembered I can't go shopping. Hannah and I had just finished making a batch of cinnamon bread so we brought that over along with some vegetables from our garden.

So, another successful day without a trip to the grocery store. I have to say so far this has been a lot easier then I thought.