Balancing the Un-balanced

The kiddos got fish.
From Mimi- ill throw that in there :) No mommy in her right mind trying to balance life, a house renovation, part time work, 2 children, and a dog goes out and buys goldfish to take care of.

I'm kidding. They are just fish. And my kids are obsessed with them. They are beta fish named, Charmy and Sam. Guess you can pick which gender of child named each fish.

Anyway, I had a beta fish that lived for 5 years so that is why i saw this as a big commitment.
We had to cover some ground rules about the fish, but un-mistakably we've had some trial and error with the fish.
The morning after we got the fish, I went into my 3 year olds room to find her hovering over the aquarium with a big smile. There were about 4 crayons floating at the top of the bowl and my sweet one looks to me and says, "Charmy wants to color mommy."

After we got past fish don't color, drink orange juice, or like their bowl being toted around the house.... I think we may be at normal now. Thank you so much Mimi. I think we should return the favor and maybe get Mimi a pet hamster for her birthday, wouldn't that be thoughtful??

David and Mackenzie are just really fascinated by little creatures in general right now. They build bridges for ants outside, dig for worms, make bug houses out of bricks and left over wood around the house.... you know, because most normal families have construction material laying around.

We aren't normal. Our life is not balanced. Again, some curve balls life has thrown and some pitches we have purposely swung at. Either way, our journey is unique. And so is yours. You have to figure out how to bring balance to chaos at some point. Sink or Swim.
Anyway, I think we have somehow figured out how to live our life perfectly unbalanced balance. Clear as mud, right?

We have to communicate a lot right now as we are close to bringing this project to a close by the year end. We do many things wrong, but communication is one thing we do well. That is my only warning when you take on something big as a couple. Communication is huge and if it isn't being done before a major life event, never assume a major life event will call that to be. Communication is how we balance the un-balence. We balance Tim's normal work with his work on the renovation. I balance grocery shopping with Home Depot, craigslist, and amazon shopping for the house. We balance a tight budget with income and then income brought in by creative ways to pay for our home. We balance productive saturday mornings with a lazy saturday morning. We balance family afternoon time with let the kids go over to mimi's house while we rip our ceiling out. We balance our marriage with blueprints and then a night out to dinner.

It somehow all works even though there are days where I feel like I am miserably failing. I do know this phase of life requires a lot less sleep and a heck of a lot of planning. To have the have-tos taken care of so that I can fulfill my kids want-tos and more.

I would give the world to them and my very life for them, but I know the greatest gift I can give them is a great marriage of their parents and instill that we work hard for what we have.
It's hard to have a good attitude about that sometimes. Especially when I am supposed to be the adult ;)

As we push the ball further, the light gets brighter. We are somehow really doing this. And the momentum to finish keeps pushing us on. My children and their future in this house pushes me on and a dream fulfilled to a husband pushes me on. The future purpose of this home and children that may be in this home someday pushes me on. God is so good.

I promise to posts pics soon. I honestly have to get around to taking pictures, but here is what we have done since we moved in 12 weeks ago:

bathroom completely gutted and renovated
meth lab shed ripped out and carport repaired
house painted from a bright yellow to a grey- still have to cut in
all landscaping ripped out
new landscaping planted
new front door installed to a new floorplan
new shutters installed
flowerboxes installed for curb appeal
The Addition- a huge 19x15 room was added to the home and done poorly. We have-
ripped out the sliding glass doors that were on the interior of the house
taken out the permanent window unit for hvac they installed
took out windows and doors to make a new layout of the room
ripped out ceiling
ripped out flooring
framed in new ceiling
framed in built in bookshelves
Tim made a new mud room for me
We have most of the bedrooms how we want them

Things we have left-
finishing touches on the exterior, brick mason coming to do a brick water table
Drywall crew coming to finish off the addition
Renovate kitchen
Renovate Master bath
spruce up the screened in patio eventually

With it being the beginning of September, we are hopeful to finish by January. The kitchen is a big deal, but we are not moving around plumbing and electrical. Just cabinets, appliances, and hopefully refinishing the hardwood floors underneath the current linoleum.

That is where we are. This house is blowing my mind.... we have really fallen in love with it. It is the perfect size, location, and area. It is different and pretty awesome to be renovating a house that you see yourself in for a long time.
I never could have dreamed up this journey we are on. Everyday I am so thankful that God has blazed a more exciting and more rewarding plan than I could have ever come up with. And that is my Hope here, the if He is led me here, then He will give me the strength to do it. I love how every season of life God is always our Savior, always.