Week 26

Sunday, June 19th
Many stopped us at church to ask, "How are you? How's it going? Is there anything we can do to help? Please call us." Pastor's advice the first day was, "Be prepared to receive." Indeed we are learning to allow people to bless us, in so doing they are blessed. We find cards in our mail box. Others come by and drop things off or call us. We are now experiencing first hand the generosity this community is known for.

In the afternoon I attended a memorial service; the theme was Celebration of Life. Miriam was a  friend I met only a year ago. She introduced me to two other women in her circle. The four of us got together on a weekly basis for awhile and then less often as life circumstances changed. In her case it was the return of cancer. Even so we stayed in touch and did what we could to help one another. Her time with us ended, but the impact of her life continues.

Three remaining friends

Monday, June 20th
My to-do list for the day was Books and Blog.
Son Stephan wanted me to go through the stacks of books retrieved from the house, clean them up if possible and box the rest for him to inventory as write-offs. I spent most of the day sitting on a little stool surrounded by books, a large basket to carry the decent ones to the ozone area, paper towels and wipes. Wearing rubber gloves I dusted first then wet wiped each one. Soot is very hard to get rid of. I often feel a film on items that have been cleaned already.
Although we did get internet in the afternoon, I was unable to accomplish the second goal. In fact it took a few days just to get set up and become functional again. We have now replaced both my net-book and camera.
The first photo on the new camera is of the very thoughtful Father's Day gift the boys came up with for their dad--a restored photo of me (age 26) that Mike took and developed himself. It was badly damaged and even had two holes in it. They took it to friends who work at a camera shop, who then outsourced the job to somewhere in South America. They, in Peru I believe, cleaned up the photo of the original and sent it back. Sam made the beautiful frame. And now I look better than ever!

The idea came to them when Stephan said, "You should have that deer mount restored."
Dad said, "I'd rather restore the picture of Rita."

Tuesday - Friday
The demolition began and continued all week.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Saturday

By the weekend the hard working Amish crew had filled seven dumpsters.

Meanwhile, we continue the time consuming task of inventorying, replacing the lost or damaged items, and restoring the salvageable. A lot of work!
The abundant meals friends delivered three or four times a week have been very helpful.  Here is only one example, and this is what was left over after we had already partaken once!

Mike has been doing much online research to do with the rebuilding of the house, finding updated parts, systems, controls, materials. Even if he does not do the work himself, he will be very involved in the process, working closely with the contractor.

Saturday, June 25th
We took a break from house matters to attend niece Tina and husband Kyle's celebration of their marriage--Camp Camana-Wana-Marrya. We took the three younger grandsons and had a delightful time.

Although I spent most of the time running after Zion who insisted on pushing the stroller rather than sitting in it...

 ...when he wasn't talking to cute girls...

...or driving the golf cart.

Enough for tonight and for Week 26.