Life is fun

First, another one of the Deatrick's got glasses. We thought Grant may have been struggling a little bit with his eyesight; not as badly as Laura was (one near and one far sighted eye), but still worth a check-up. Sure enough, he did need a pair with a minimal amount of correction. He and I both got new glasses on the same day. I had not had a new pair in 10 years - I could still see through them and they weren't broken and I am selective of where I spend money - but I did need new ones.

Kara just happened to be sitting here when we decided to take the picture. Yes, getting new glasses is fun when you know that they are needed (and when you know that you have gotten your money out of the previous pair and WILL get your money out of the next pair).

Next, we took another trip over to Missouri; this time for tax preparation. Tax season is not really that bad for us at this stage in our lives (with 7 dependents), so our trip to stay with Dad and Mom is usually more like a day or two of vacation. Mom kept our kids one day and Carol and I went to lunch in town and then went to visit with my Grandma Deatrick for a while (with coffee and cake). The next evening, Carol and I went out with my brother, Stephen, and his wife, Jennifer. A young lady from the church in Wayland, MO kept our combined clan of 11 Deatricks under the age of 11, I think she had fun and I know the kids did! The evening with Stephen and Jennifer was a little reminiscent of past times with a meal and a meander through the mall. We also stopped at a "Ben Franklin" general store that was going out of business; Starbucks on the way home to top of the date. Sorry, no photo, but the time with Stephen and Jennifer - and especially Carol, was fun!

Then, once we got home from Missouri, I had to hit the ground running in order get our new addition ready for our big workday (today) when we would start hanging drywall for the restrooms in the church. We are getting closer and closer all of the time. Even insulation and drywall is fun in a way. Sorry, no photo.

Joel, our oldest turned 12 on the ninth of February. He had seen his Uncle Stephen solve a rubik's cube in less than 3 minutes. Carol and I could tell Joel thought this was fun and so when at the "Ben Franklin" store with Stephen and Jennifer, we found one and bought it for him. He has an instructional video and directions and I'm sure is finding great fun in learning all the tricks. But, is it really a challenge or a game if you have learned all the tricks? Isn't a game fun because of the challenge? Maybe the challenge is shaving off seconds or in beating your old time . . . By the way, I'm having fun watching our children get older . . .


Finally, for any of you who enjoy hearing of God's provision - a lady in our community gave our church a Yamaha G2 (grand) piano. It is beautiful! When I was getting to know the piano at church this evening, Carol told me, "it seems quite loud." I responded by telling her that I was playing loud on purpose. For those of you who play the piano, you understand the sheer pleasure of hearing and feeling the lower registers reverberate with deep octaves! This is GREAT FUN!

The piano will be a great blessing to our congregation, a great joy to our pianists, and I believe a wonderful supportive addition to our corporate edification and worship! I'll close with a video of Carol playing our new piano. She also had fun!

Some recent things

First, sorry for the "s" that those of you on the e-mail list got to begin with - I accidentally pushed "publish post" before I had even finished the title. :-)

We went to Missouri for a few days after the new year and I was at Camp Joy in Wisconsin for a retreat last weekend - however, some interesting words have come from our little ones recently and I didn't want to forget them.

Kara - she called a paper plate a "plaper plate." Also, she was watching as we looked at some pictures on the computer, we came across a picture of last fall when I had grown some facial hair - Kara saw the following picture and said, "you used to have a beard, but you shoved it off!" It is fun to listen to them begin to try enunciate the different tenses.


John - is reading quite well for a six year old. Carol loves hot tea; yesterday John saw this box of tea on the kitchen counter and asked his mother with a little confusion, why do they call this "horbal [horrible] tea?" Obviously, we laughed about that one!


I went to Camp Joy for the annual Pastor and Deacon Retreat; Fred Moritz was the speaker. All three of our deacons were able to attend this year and we had a good time of fellowship. The video is of Darin Kennelly going down their "sky-glide" zip line. A couple of years ago, I tried using my phone to video going down, but invariably, you end up going down facing rearwards and so the video is not real exciting, so I just decided to catch Darin coming down this time - I'm posting it on the internet for his son, Joe! :-)



Camp Joy has completed some very nice cabins in the last couple of years; they call the complex "Driftwood Village."

Above: Lowell Mest, Donnie Wright, Darin Kennelly.

The previous week, we had gone to Missouri to see my family; we hadn't gone over during the week of Christmas because there are too many children and grandchildren to all stay at the same time, so we staggered our trips (our kids were all sick the week of Christmas anyways).

Carol and my Mom went to an Amish store in Rutledge, MO. to spend some Christmas money. We all met that noon at my Grandma's house for her Deatrick favorite zucchini stew.

The following video is of the road on which my folks live - perhaps a strange sight for those accustomed to straight and flat roads in Illinois. After Carol stopped recording the following video, there was a beautiful red fox that ran across the road just about a hundred feet in front of us.



My brothers and their families came over at various times, as did my Aunt and Uncle. We exchanged gifts - ate, played some games - ate, talked - ate some more; you know how it is at family gatherings. . . !

I also had a chance to shoot a little bit with Joel, Laura and Grant - Laura had never shot a pistol and turned out doing pretty well. Dad has a Ruger Mark III 22 caliber that she and Joel shot - I was tickled by the surprise that Joel showed when she was shooting . . . you'll have to listen carefully.



I learned the hard way that there are two release buttons on the left hand side of the grip - one releases the clip and the other releases the action on the chamber - I had a blood blister for more than a week and a half as a painful reminder that you should not release the chamber with your finger in it.

I grew up shooting rifles and shotguns a lot, but feel like a bit of a novice with pistols; I've had some teaching in the past years though and am enjoying this side of things.



Believe it or not, I didn't intend to blog much this evening; it just happened that I didn't want to forget what Kara and John had said recently, and so to use a "web log" for its intended purpose I thought I would record it quickly - but once logged on here, just decided to keep going. But, that seems to be the nature of talkative people . . .

Happenings . . .

Much has happened in the last several months. This is kind of a "part two" of a long overdue update.

To start, we had our first snow of any substance last night; we had about a 1/2 of an inch around 2 weeks ago, but it was gone in a couple of hours. This one is about 1 and 1/2 now and maybe another 1/2 inch expected throughout the day. Last December we had a record 22 inches in December, this year we have had 2 and the month only has 4 days left in it!


September:
I think I need to go back to September to pick up where I left off - of course that means Grant's 8th birthday on the 10th. This year we've been letting the kids pick out a cake at the bakery. Grant picked out this big, decorated chocolate chip cookie. It reminds me of the cookies we used to buy in the snack shop at college (they were baked in a 9 inch pie pan and cost $1).

Carol and her Mom took their annual retreat to Camp Assurance.


The rest of September was pretty normal - working on the church addition and the kids doing school work.

October:
October brought the normal change of weather. However, there were still some very nice days for the kids to expend more energy before being mostly house bound for the winter. Do you notice the dichotomy in attire? Grant and Kara are wearing jackets and hoods while Josiah and John are wearing short sleeves!


Gardner loves to be outside, but he has learned to get the door open by himself and isn't afraid to be outside by himself - so we have to leave the storm door locked. Even when he is supervised outside, he is fast and knows no bounds so we have to be very careful about just letting him go. He spent a lot of time in a stroller this fall . . . maybe by next year he will comprehend the danger of streets and cars.

The boys would play baseball year round. I finally had to issue an executive order that until the weather was warmer, there would be no more ball. The siding has gotten so brittle in the cold weather that even wiffle balls have broken holes in the siding on the house! They have played so much that they have worn the yard down to just dirt. . . :-}

We have also had to retire the pack and play. Gardner learned to get out of it and so it lost its value to us. It took him a little while to learn to get out, but along the little educational journey he would get to the top bar of the pack and play but not quite have the courage to come all of the way over, so he would just lay on the top bar. It is similar to the internet craze of planking! Here is a still photo and a short video.

The video is nearly a minute long, but only the first 15 seconds show him up there.



At the end of the month, we celebrated Josiah's 5th birthday. We went ahead started him in kindergarten when he was four. He has done well in school and is very business-like in his approach to his work.

Here is the cake he picked for his birthday on the 30th.


November:
The first weekend of the month, I spoke at Camp Assurance for a Youth Leadership Retreat. The 4 older boys went with me and Carol, Gardner went to the Stilleys and the girls went to the Kennellys. The boys rode the zip line while we were there; it was the first time John had ridden it. Grant took right off, but John needed a little help. Finally, the man operating it just had to lift him off and let him go . . .



We had a change of plans at Thanksgiving; Carol's parents had planned to travel to MN to see her brother and family, but due to sickness up there they decided to stay home and so we joined them in Belvidere. Somehow, I didn't get many pictures that day, this is the only one - but Kara's smile shows how we all felt about getting to be at "Grandpa and Grandma's house" for Thanksgiving.


The day after Thanksgiving, we all watched the live stream of Handel's Messiah performed by the Ambassador Baptist College. The kids are all huddled on the floor to be able to see it on the computer.


Maybe not too important, but I love Carol's Salisbury Steak and when she served it I simply had to take a picture of it! Several years ago, she won a cake contest at Camp Assurance, when she received her award, the director announced that her husband's slender frame was "false advertising" for her cooking abilities! So here is the plate of food of which I had to to take a picture . . . as the saying goes, "Eye appeal is half the meal!"


Carol and I watched the video of our wedding about a week ago. At the reception, Mrs. Sheets (the wife of my Hebrew professor) advised us on the video that "kissin' don't last but good cookin' do!" I think that after almost 13 years of marriage I can say that I have the best of both!

December:
Dad and Mom came over on the 14th and 15th. Mom has been wanting to go to the Repeat Boutique in Wheaton with us for some time and Dad has wanted to show us his old haunts in Chicago. Dad's birthday is the 15th and so we planned a couple of days together. I didn't get any pictures of our time at the Repeat Boutique, but we did get some much needed things: clothes, shoes, housewares and BOOKS! After that, Dad took us all to lunch and then we drove through Chicago where he used to run a church bus route when he was in college. The old houses in the pictures used to be very low income housing, but with money from the city and private investors, these apartment buildings are now quite nice. Dad took us up and down 5 or 6 streets each about 5 or 6 blocks where he used to minister . . . quite a bit of history for our family.


Dad also took us by Moody Bible Institute and Moody Church where he spent his first year of college. If my memory is correct, the LifeWay Christian Store is on the ground level of Culbertson Hall, the 19 story dorm where Dad lived his first year of college. The pictures aren't great because they were taken from the van moving through Chicago traffic (I was driving - Laura took them), but they still tell the story.

1. Culbertson Hall; LifeWay Christian Store
2. Moody Bible Institute


3. Moody Church (now has gas stations immediately adjoining both the North and South ends of it.)

Dad has gone through several stages of ministerial education and he has developed into a very balanced pastor. It is intriguing how God takes different aspects like small Kahoka, large Chicago, educational Moody Bible Institute, practical Hyles-Anderson, a mother and father, several mentors, lots of books, various experiences and a life partner and then He forms a mosaic that is far larger than any one of those influences. It is God that makes a man.

When we got back home that evening, we had Pastor Camp's Hillbilly Chili and birthday cake for Dad's birthday. Dad makes a big deal out of celebrations because it makes the grand-kids so happy.


We had family portraits made the week before Christmas. I told Carol that when I get frustrated with the children for various reasons, I should just scroll through our family pictures - it sure helps my perspective. These photos are from the disc we got from the studio, so they are un-cropped.



Gardner - 18 monthsGrant - 8 years

Josiah - 5 years

Laura - 10 years


John - 6 years

Kara - 3 years


Joel - 11 years


It's hard to believe that December is nearly over, let alone the year! We had a different sort of Christmas this year - all the kids had the residual flu (it didn't hit all of them at the same time and it lasted for several days in various stages). However, the sickness forced us to re-plan some activities and all in all it has been quite a restful holiday season.

The LORD has blessed more than we ever would have anticipated this season and we are thankful that we have so much. Even more so, our spiritual blessings far outweigh God's abundant physical blessings.

So, there is a 4 month panoramic of "life in the Deatrick family!"

Remodeling

I'm going to do two separate posts to catch upon on the past couple of months for our family. The first will be our remodeling project and the other will be family happenings.

A little explanation on our remodeling. I took a couple of weeks of vacation time this past fall in order to work on the house. We had decided not to go anywhere, but to spend our time doing some much needed work to the house.

I spent the first week working in the garage on some of the things that I had never finished when I built the garage last fall. I still haven't finished everything, but did make some good headway. I also needed to organize my tools; I had spent the last several months of last year and the first few of this year building the garage and then had spent most of this year working on the church addition. So, I had tools scattered at the church, in my house, in my garage, in my shed, and in my van.

I hung some shelves in the back of the garage just for storage.

I also moved my work bench from the shed and mounted it in the garage. Carol's aunt and uncle had given me a large cabinet and counter top on which I put casters for a rolling work bench.


Here, I had not put in a big enough entry into the attic, so I reinforced the truss and then moved the header back so that we can go up and down without hitting our heads. (The original opening was only a little over 4 feet high; it is now well over 6 and 1/2. Josiah asked me why I was moving the header; I told him it was so that we didn't hit our head any more. He replied, "I don't hit my head on it!)



For the first year in the garage, I had just had the kids carry stuff up into the attic for storage. It is amazing how a big storage area begins to look small when it is disorganized. I spent one afternoon just organizing everything that we had been putting in the garage attic for the last year.

I also worked on getting more of the electrical wiring done in the garage. While doing some of the wiring, I came across a spider that had just caught an insect in its web and he was wrapping it up very quickly. I took a video of it for education (and entertainment) purposes for the kids. It isn't often that one comes across the activities of nature like this.



The second week, I remodeled the living room. I first tore out the wall separating the little front room and the living room to enlarge the living area. The next step was to tear out the carpet (we just couldn't get it clean any more) and linoleum that had been in those two areas. After that I put in a picture window to replace the small window that had been in the front room. Finally, I put in new laminate wood flooring in the living room. By taking out the smaller room, I lengthened the living room from 16 to 21 feet.

Here is the "before" picture (I had already taken out the book shelves that had been on the wall and all of the furniture).


The video is of me tearing out the wall the next day. It scares me that our kids love destruction! (Listen to the excitement as the wall comes down.)



The next photos are just showing a progression.

Here we are putting in the picture window.


Ken Massey stopped by just in time (providentially) to help me install the new window. It is 64X53 and I would have tried to put it in with Joel's help - but who knows what the result would have been . . . ?

I replaced the window and got all the siding back on in one LONG day.

This is a short while later (several days) once the new sheetrock was in and the living room was painted - still hadn't put in the new floor.

Finally getting to the floor. Laura stayed up late with me one night (it was a Tuesday so her day to do some special things); she though it was neat to get a "ground level" picture.

Here are several of the finished floor. I know you can see light under the front door; no new threshold yet.

Now, life with a living room is getting back to normal. The furniture and pictures (as well as toys) are back in place and Carol has her piano back in the house after having it sit in the garage for a couple of weeks!




In other news, I have the fixtures and and supplies to put the bathroom back in upstairs; now just need the time to do it. Also, we have a dishwasher ready to be installed in the kitchen and a few plans in mind for making some cabinet and shelving changes. In a family of 9, a second bathroom and a dishwasher (mechanical, not human) will be more than a relief.

Well, that is all for tonight! I'll do another post with "family happenings" tomorrow.