August 7 – “Replace the wood”

Our work team arrived bright and early this morning - about 6:30.  They had to get their other team to the Habitat for Humanity house they were working on by seven.  Have to be honest here.  We didn't start right away.  I had another cup of coffee with Cary, the team leader.  We showed off the inside of the house.  Several of them had helped do sheetrocking and some other things, so they wanted to see what became of their handiwork.  We finally got going, though, and the work began in a flurry.  I returned to caulking, then sanding.  We got the girls to start scraping and priming around the windows.  The guy hooked up a power washer and cleaned off the entire outside of the house.  Cary found me as we were well into the work and asked if I wanted to go ahead and change out the rotten boards.  I had planned to wait and get Nathan to help me, but how do I say no to that?  If we did it today, we could paint it and not think about it.  I don't want to think about it.  "Replace the wood."  We had to rip out what was left of the boards, measure, and head for Home Depot for replacements.    When the rest of the group arrived this afternoon, the guy who is a finish carpenter came with them.  We asked his opinion on replacing one of the pieces of wood making up the eaves.  I was kind of hoping he would say to caulk it and move on.  Cary wanted to take two whole pieces down and replace them from scratch.  Thankfully, Grant knew what he was doing.  He said, "Replace the wood."  He actually cut away the rotten wood in such a way that we needed a new piece of wood only about half the size as we would have.  And he had all the right tools to do the job.  He even caulked around it when he finished.    Tonight we joined them at Joe's Crab Shack for supper.  We met Kel and Christina there, and then we took the boys home and stuck around until they got back from their date.  We are all tired.  6:30 again tomorrow.   Psalms 59:16 says, "But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble."   Father, once again you amaze me with what you can do.  Amen.

August 6 – “In the Morning”

The pressure was on today.  I had a bunch of caulking left to do and the painting team was due in around three.  I got up around six and worked on Seaside Christian Academy stuff until almost ten (and didn't get anywhere near where I wanted to).  But it was crunch time for the caulking task.  I attacked it with a vengeance, starting where I left off last night.  Then I noticed something I forgot last night, so I did that.  And while doing that I noticed something else, so I did that.  And once again I entered the realm of the "most urgent."  Oh, I got a lot done.  But I didn't really finish anything.  And then to top it all off, I ran out of caulk.  Again.  Fortunately, this time Chris was already at WalMart, so I called her.  And she didn't answer her phone.  So I started doing something else.  But then she called back and said she would bring some home.  So I stopped what I had started and went inside to wait for her and get some water.  She got home and I started back, but she stopped me when Josh called and said they were about fifteen minutes out.  "Some of that you can do in the morning."   I know some of it can be done in the morning.  But I wanted to do it all in the afternoon.  This afternoon.  I dutifully stopped, though, and went in and took a shower.  I finished before they arrived, but I was glad I stopped.  I got to play with Zak and Caleb, and then Jachin and Micah came over, and before we left for supper with the work team up at the church, Cailyn was even here.   It was great to see some of the people from Josh's church who had helped us so much right after the storm.  They were dying to see the house, but Josh was trying to keep them on schedule, and the schedule did not say, "Look at the Vaughan's house" until tomorrow morning.    The Seaside Christian Academy school board met tonight amidst the visitors from Arlington.  Great meeting.  Everyone is excited and positive about the new year.  I was excited and positive that we needed to hire a new headmaster.  One of the members said, "It sounds like we should try to get this person hired in the next few weeks."  I blurted out, "Days.  Days.  Next few days."    Made me think again of Psalms 30:5 – "For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."   Father, sometimes I just don't want to wait until morning.  Forgive me.  Amen.

August 5 – “Just clean house”

I waded through some emails and Seaside Christian Academy stuff as fast as I could this morning.  Our painting team from Arlington is scheduled to arrive in Galveston tomorrow around three.  They aren't going to paint tomorrow, though.  Just get settled in at Seaside and maybe go to the beach.  I am desperately trying to get as much of the preparation work done as I can before they get here.  That means more caulking.  After today's task, I am done with the parts around the windows and doors that have to be primed.  This morning was nice, but got really hot in the afternoon.   The tile guys came to build the wall behind the fireplace.  We cleaned all the stuff out of that part of the room so they could work.  Really looks big.  The wall looked like it was going to be a pain.  They had to cut out two sections of sheetrock and replace it with Hardy board, a prefabricated kind of concrete sheetrock.  Then they came back and placed the same kind of tile on it that is on our backsplash in the kitchen.  Then they had to grout the whole thing.  Believe it or not they finished the whole thing in one day.  It really makes the fireplace show up.  I like it a lot.   Our contractor came over to check everything out.  He is also working with Kel & Christina.  He has a meeting with them tonight to discuss options.  What do you do when they say you haven't completed 95% of the work, so you can't get the rest of your money?  How are you to do 95% of the work with no money?   Chris emptied a table today.  She has packed up a lot of the knick knack things, so we moved it outside.  That meant we could re-center the other one under the chandelier light.  We now have lots of room even with the boxes all around the wall and the end table sitting behind the couch.   Chris is excited.  All she wants to have to do tomorrow is clean house.  Just clean house.  No packing, no moving furniture, no stepping over stuff.  I think she might be doing a little dreaming of Pre-Ike-dom there.   Nehemiah 8:10 says: "Nehemiah said, 'Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.'"   Father, I like days of rejoicing.  If every day belongs to you, then we can live every day as sacred to you.  We don't have to grieve.  The joy of the Lord IS our strength.  Amen.

August 4 – “A Major Milestone”

I did some more caulking today.  Right up until I ran out.  Then it was time for Luby's, so I showered and we took off.    After lunch we made our WalMart / Home Depot run.  I needed a wooden dowel to repair a chair.  We replaced some door pulls on a cabinet, we got some more wood to cut slats for the bed we are going to try to return to our bedroom.  We got some mattress pads and pillows for the newly set up yellow room beds.  Mom was worried we wouldn't get the room ready in time for Zakary.  I think we'll make it.  We still want to put a little table and a lamp in there, but We don't have either one yet.   We were going to get some plywood to have on hand so we can begin cutting window coverings in case of a storm.  Thirteen sheets of half inch plywood to cover windows before a storm.  It's really hard to think about preparing for another hurricane.  But the plywood will have to wait for another day.  Once again we ran out of time.    We also got some more plastic tubs.  We're running out of room in the attic.  But at least we're not feeding the mice and roaches any more.  Speaking of roaches.  We reached a major milestone today.  Chris saw a roach inside the house.  He ran under the couch.  She said she couldn't step on him because she was barefoot.  Seems to me that would be the best time.  Then you could be sure you got him.  The story comes in two parts.  She saw him leave his place of refuge later on in the day.  She didn't say anything.  She calmly walked over and crushed him.  She was wearing shoes.  The funny thing was, we had so many different things going on all day that she never got around to picking him up.  And that began to bother Mom.  She told me she thought he was going to come back to life.  Said every time she looked at him he was in a different position.  That's weird.  I think he finally fell under the power of the broom and disappeared from sight. We found out tonight that Chris' brother was in a wreck the other day.  The loaded big rig he was driving jackknifed.  Tires came off.  Something came through the windshield crushing the steering wheel.  When he finally brought it to a stop, he jumped out and it exploded and burned to the ground.  And he called his Mommy to tell her he was all right.  God is not through with that man.   Psalms 103:8 says, "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love."   Father, every time I read that verse I feel kind of overwhelmed.  I'm not so much like that, am I?  Amen.

August 3 – “Bacon and eggs”

My first task this morning was to send a copy of the Visual Verses to a young girl who was in Church yesterday.  Visual Verses are the pictures I draw to help everybody memorize scripture.  We have a lot of fun with it on Sunday mornings.  She said it would be fun to make her youth group try to guess what they all meant.  I hit a problem, though.  The file has gotten too big to simply send as one attachment to an email.  So I had to redo them each into a separate file.  Sorry about that, Dallas area youth group, wherever you are.  But have fun.   I paid some bills today.  I transferred money over from savings to pay the contractor and his guys for their work.  I guess in the grand scheme of things it really wasn't much.  But we are getting down to the end of the piggy bank here.  God has definitely been good to us through all the people who have given us furniture and inside the house stuff.  We sure didn't have enough to buy everything.   Speaking of buying, we did have to buy a mattress and box springs for the yellow room and a mattress for the twin bed frame we salvaged.  We also had to cut a piece of plywood to go under twin mattress.  Circular saw again.  Oh, yeah.  Now Christi and Zak have a place to sleep when they get here Thursday.   I cleaned off some side rails that fit on our old bed.  The originals were too warped to use, so I appropriated some from some other bed we had in storage.  Now we need more slats.  It's already on my Home Depot list.   And we had bacon and eggs and biscuits for supper.  Always a winner.  My day is almost complete.   John 17:20-23 says, "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."   Father, I want my complete day to always include you.  Forgive me for the days that do not.  Amen.

August 2 – “Roofer’s Return”

Today seemed to go very slow for me.  Church was good.  We had the Mexico missionaries that Seaside supports as guest speaker.  It was good to see George and Polly again.  They had to leave right after the service to go see George's sister Cindy in the hospital.  She's my secretary and wasn't released yesterday after all.  That means I really need to go see her tomorrow.   Mom went out to lunch with my younger brother and his family.  They got the grand tour when they brought her home.  They seemed to like the house.  They want to get Mom a bookcase for her room for Mom's birthday later this month.  We need to find something that she likes and that fits.   We set up the single bed frame in the yellow room this afternoon.  With a few quick cuts from my power saw we had the slats we needed.  Now we just need the mattresses and box springs and we are ready for Zak and Christi and Caleb.   We had an unexpected visitor today.  The guy who set up the group from Brownwood that put the roof on our house and installed the showers at the church rang our doorbell.  He and his family were on vacation here, and had been at Schlitterbahn all afternoon.  He was tired of being around water, so he decided to come by and see the house.  It looks quite different than it did when he was here last.  It was fun to show him around.  He had comments about a lot of things.  Like when we showed him the master bathroom, he commented that he remembered the room well.  It was where he slept when they camped out here.  It was good to see him again.   After Don left we got back to emptying some boxes.  We found one that had been in our attic since at least 1992.  It was a bunch of little knick knacks from early in our marriage.  That one was fun.  Now we have two tables full of little things that we have to box back up and find a space for in the attic.   It hit me awhile ago that I have too much to do tomorrow.  I have to put together a sermon for Sunday.  I have to figure out what curriculum to order for the school.  I have to scan resumes from teachers and at some point interview some more people.  I have a ton of house prep that I wanted to get done before the group from Josh's church gets here to paint outside.  I need to visit Cindy since she wasn't released yesterday.  Chris and Mom will be at the doctor's office in Houston.  That's all on top of the usual day to day stuff.  I'm sure glad Jesus is with me.  Tomorrow I'm going to need his moral support.   1 Thessalonians 5:10-11 says, "He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."   Father, thanks for the visit from Don today.  And thanks fro leading him to pray for us again.  It was encouraging.  Amen.

August 1 – “Too Big”

We started our day by heading out to the church.  Chris did her cleaning thing.  I had to sit in on an interview with a potential headmaster.  She comes across as an excellent administrator.  We still have at least two more to interview.  Then we can start on teachers.  That also means I still have a lot of stuff to get done as interim.  I hope to figure out what curriculum to order early next week.  To say that another way, I hope we get the students to turn in their registrations.   We had to leave in a hurry.  Nathan and April were already at the house.  We are babysitting with Cailyn while they go to a wedding.  We thought it was just for the wedding – maybe a few hours in the afternoon.  When they left, though, they said the reception was supposed to last until 10:30 or so.  Wanted to know if she could spend the night if it got too late.  That's not a problem, but she has been doing the whole separation anxiety thing lately.  As it turned out, she was also having some gas problems.  So far she's been pretty fussy off and on.  And Mommy and Daddy aren't here yet.  Chris has become Mommy substitute.  Cailyn won't go to anyone else.         This afternoon I went to a memorial gathering for a young man who died last year at this time.  His Mom is still having kind of a hard time, but she's making it with God's help.   Before I came home I gathered some more stuff from our storage garage.  Among the donated stuff was a mattress and box spring that we were hoping would fit the frame we set up in the yellow room.  But it's too big.  The mattress and box spring were queen size, and our frame is a double.  I didn't want to leave empty handed, though, so I filled up the truck with boxes and the rest of the framework for the twin size bed.  Chris wants to put it in the yellow room along with that double bed.  That way Zakary will have a bed and Caleb can sleep in the pac-n-play when they come.   Romans 5:8 says, "God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."   Father, Chris is doing a great job as substitute Mommy.  Thank you for being our substitute.  Amen.