Trip of a lifetime!

We recently returned from 12 glorious days in "the (holy) Land" where we were able to see, touch, and experience life "in that place." Our wonderful guide, Kishkush, as well as Yehuda, Neil, Marcia and Theresa taught us so much about the places we saw. We really packed a lot in seeing most of Jerusalem in 4 days, 2 days in the desert visiting the Dead Sea, Ein Gede and Qumran and 6 days in the Galilee, Golan Heights and the coast. We fell in love with the place and each other, Jesus and his people, learning sooooo much about the Jewishness of Jesus and how we non-Jews are grafted in and have a place at his table!

Here are a few pictures of (literally) the hundreds that we took...

Arrival

Our two amazing guides: Kishkush and Yehuda

A teaching on the temple mount with the Dome of the Rock in the background

The Western Wall by night

One of the Dead Sea Scrolls caves at Qumran

Youth at Ein Gede

Tommy and Emily performing in the ampitheatre at Bet She'an

Where we stayed in the Galilee: Ma'agan

Renewing our baptismal vows in the Jordan River

Dan: Karst spring from which the JorDAN river flows

Nazareth

Our last day: The Mediterranean Sea at Cesarea Marittima

Paint and floor

The mudding is completed and priming and painting have begun. Here you can see the bright white walls and knock-down ceiling.

Kevin has also begun laying the floor. I really like the light bamboo. I want them for the rest of the house as well!

Alas, we leave tomorrow for two weeks and so I will not be posting anymore pictures until we return. I expect the room to be finished then so you, like me, will have to see the finished product and no more "in progress" pictures. Hopefully the shed will be almost (if not completely) finished too!

Drywall and mud

The drywall is finished and they have begun to mud. Today they should finish that up. The outside is painted. Next is painting the interior and then flooring, trim, electrical switches/plates, closet. And then it wil be finished! The end is in sight!

View of vaulted ceiling.

View of closet taken from the doorway.

View of the other side, taken from the closet.

Insulation and dry wall

They finished installing the  insulation.

They also installed sound proofing (so our little princess can sleep in the mornings as she is wont to do).

Drywall was delivered. We had to move our wine rack so they could stack it by the door.

Here is Kevin installing the ceiling. He also put in the air ducts with a return today. It's really coming along! Tomorrow they will probably finish the drywall. The electrician is going to come out to put in the plugs. Won't be too long now! Annie promised Kevin that when she's well (she has a little cold right now) she will bake him cookies. Kevin was jealous when he found out that she baked cookies for Jordan and Adam.

Pasta con le zucchine

My zucchini plants are beginning to produce baby zukes and lots of flowers so it's time to make pasta con le zucchine. It's a quick, easy, vegetarian recipe and my 10 year old likes it!! Here's how you make it:

Begin with fresh onion, zucchini and zucchini flowers. If you have to buy your zucchini you can make it without the flowers but if you have zucchini in your garden then enjoy the flowers as well! Also if you don't have green onions you can substitute regular onions.You will also need olive oil, white wine, tomatoes (either fresh or if you don't have any you can add canned petite diced), salt to taste and fresh parsley.

Begin by slicing and dicing the green onion (mine is a red onion from my garden~delicious bacon-wrapped and grilled...but that's a different post!) and adding it to the olive oil in a saute' pan.

Then dice the zucchini and add it to the pan. Do the same with the flowers. You will need to remove the stem and the pistil and any ants (they LOVE the flowers) and give them a quick rinse to remove any sand.

Doesn't it look so pretty? At this point you can go ahead and put the pasta pan on because you are almost done. See how fast it goes? 

After a few minutes you add the wine, just a splash. Let that evaporate a few minutes and follow it with the diced tomatoes to lend the dish a little color.

Don't you just love cooking with wine? (::big grin::)

See how pretty it looks? We are having it with piccolini...

Once the pasta is cooked (al dente in salted water) drain, reserving some of the cooking liquid. Add the pasta to the pan with a little bit of the pasta's cooking water and amalgamate (isn't that a good word? That's how we'd say it in italian: amalgamare). Here's what it looks like! Sprinkle with fresh parsley (of which I was out).

Panza mia, fatti capanna! Buon appetito!

Siding is on!

We went out of town last week for a trip and when we returned the siding was almost all on. They finished up on Tues. The top part remains to be painted.

Here you can see the siding that was replaced is all painted and finished. Below is another close-up shot of the room.

This is the future site of the new shed (where that pallet looking thing is). We had to move the stuff that was there so that they can get started on that. It's gonna be big! Yey! The plan is to be able to park in the garage again!

Girl's Club: apron!

Saturday was the 4th session of the sewing unit. Vania had the girls make a reversible apron. She had made up different size patterns out of brown paper.

After the girls cut out their patterns, they sewed them together, turned them inside out, and then pressed them. 

Some girls had to wait while others where using the sewing machines.

Here are the girls sporting their new aprons:

Here you can see the other side:

They turned out so well! Don't you think?

From a window to a door!

Progress had slowed down a little due to a failed inspection but now that we passed it it should pick back up. This week we went from a window:

to no window:

to an opening:

to a door!

While they couldn't work on the room they replaced some rotten siding:. First they wrapped the space.

Then they installed hardiboard:

On Friday they passed their inspection so Saturday they were able to lay the shingle. Monday they will start the siding on the addition.