December to Remember

Our December was very full indeed.  It was brimming with service, traditions, family, and blessings. I can't possibly try to contain all the activities in this post, because there are so many.  But here are the highlights!  Come on the photo tour with me!

The older two boys and I had the privilege to serve at Operation Christmas Child once again.  It is such a great organization, which collects shoeboxes filled with goodies to distribute to various countries, directly into the hands of children in need, who would not normally be in the situation to receive anything for the holiday.  It is so much fun to be a part of this endeavor, and they even tell you where the boxes you worked on for that day will be going.

Here's Luke packing boxes!

And Austin weilding his scanning gun....right up his alley :-)

We made our traditional Christmas yummies....

 Bordeauxs (Coffee filling...tastes just like See's Candy!)

 Snowballs (Russian Tea Cakes)

           Toffee....and also sugar cookies, truffles, and red velvet cheesecake bars.  

We brought home a lovely tree!

 

 I cherish putting on our ornaments every year.  I love our tradition of picking out a new ornament for our boys each year. I try and find something that matches their interests or current hobbies.  

Christmas puppy!

 Our annual Hanukkah celebration with my side of the family.  Making latkes with Dad!!!  Each family member grates an onion and potato, no exceptions...even the gentiles!  I also tried my hand at brisket this year.  It came out delicious.  I was actually quite surprised, as nobody can really live up to my Mom's brisket.


Christmas Eve is always wonderful.  We look forward to having Dave's family at our home every year for dinner, dessert, and gift exchange.

 Enjoying the festivities!

 Dave's Mom and Step Dad...my sweet in- laws!

Receiving a larger than life Nerf gun.  WOW!!!

Then it was Christmas Day!!!!  We spent the morning as a family with our breakfast tradition of cinnamon rolls, presents, remembering the birth of the Savior and how that reality affects our lives.

Appetizer dinner!

And this beast for dessert.  Chocolate heaven.  Soooooo amazing.

The day after Christmas, we surprised the boys and told them we were going to San Francisco for two nights!  Everyone was so excited.  We packed up and headed up to NorCal.  My Dad so sweetly and generously provided the hotel for us as a birthday gift.  We have not been on a trip with the kids in a long while, and usually it's camping, so this was a treat.  I tried to justify it by saying it was my big birthday celebration....I did turn the big 4-0 after all.  We spent our time touring around the city by cable car and bus. Austin, armed with his map, got us to every bus stop and trolley pick up, and it was so nice!

We went to Chinatown and spent a few hours at the shops!  The boys bought lots of cool trinkets and some, ahem....fireworks.  Just the little stuff, like sparklers, the little ash snakes that ooze out when you light them, and the flower that spins and sprays sparks, and then has a surprising ka-boom at the end.  The cute little Asian woman in the store says "You have to try these."  I asked what they do, and she said "they go whooosh then pow."  Yes they did.  Too much fun we had on New Years Eve in our nice little Saugus neighborhood.  Glad nobody called the police on our ka-booms and pows.

Cable Car riding.

Views of the Golden Gate!

Clam chowder in a bread bowl while exploring Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39!  We did so much more, and just had a great time together as a family.  I love the city!

But for now, back to reality....school, work, diet and exercise that has been neglected!  Wishing you all God's blessings as we start the coming year.  May it be full of much grace to love God and love others more.

Before and After

Left side of yard before.........

And after......

Still lots of finish work to be done, but WOW!  What a difference!

Almost there......

Do you see this????

Freshly rototilled yard!!!!

Do you know what this means?????

Grass soon!!!!!  We did nothing in the yard for a couple of months.   Dave had been hired to do some extra work, so he was working long days and weekends for several weeks.  We are thankful!!  It was finally time to proceed, so Dave drug out the rototiller once more.  A little tilling, a little watering, a little more tilling.  Dave moved some of the dirt to the side yard to lower the level a bit, then he raked it all nice and neat.  We were all ready for sod last weekend and then......it rained.  We needed the rain, and it actually helped compact the dirt a bit and show us where low and high spots are.  So Dave will do a final raking, and we are ready for the sod. Could be this weekend!!!!  We are only doing one side at a time, so the dogs will still have a place to run and go potty, so we will build a temporary fence around it, let it get established, and then move to the other side.  I am beside myself with excitement.  I haven't seen grass in my yard for a longggggg time.  And never weed-free grass.  Ah, the simple joys of life.

Thanksgiving week is here, and I am hosting at our house this year.  While my house is small, I do truly enjoy the preparation and having people in our cozy home.  Thankfully my kitchen is rather large for a small house and I have lots of counter space.  Add in that I love to cook, and that's all I need!!!  My sister and family, and Dave's family will be coming.  I am looking forward to it!

No Thanksgiving camping trip for us this year.  I am rather relieved, actually, even though I will miss it.  I have come a long way in my recovery from my neck problems, but am still not completely there, and the idea of sleeping in my camping trailer just didn't appeal to me.  I am proving to be a rather tough and unique case to my doctor, and he is still trying to figure out my complicated little self.  I truly enjoy watching all the other patients go in for their treatments and leave within 15 minutes, while mine last 1-2 hours (hint of sarcasm).  Ha!  I never used to be that patient nobody could figure out.  I guess that's what happens when you are about to turn.....ahem (not telling you).

But seriously, what I have learned from all this is well worth all of it.  God has been SO faithful.  I am so blown away at how much He cares for me, and how gracious He has been to allow me to experience limitations so that I can appreciate smaller things and focus on what is important.  I am thankful He has allowed me pain so I can have compassion and pray for other who experience pain far greater than mine.  It has made my problems seem insignificant in comparison.  If I never felt any relief from my pain, God would be good.  But He has chosen to relieve me of a significant amount of it already, and for that, I am so thankful.   I can't specifically think of any Scriptures that come to mind that have helped me, but what I believe to be true about God and who He is have always been my strength in weakness.  Knowing that God is faithful, trustworthy, and in control even in the midst of great discouragement have flooded my mind and heart with peace during this whole process.  It would be so easy to worry, and believe me, I have had moments of worry.  It would be so easy to despair, and I have had those moments too.  But if I look back on my life thus far, I can see that God has always provided for us in ways I could have never imagined, and then I ask myself what did I really need to worry for?  I have seen His provision, His healing, His faithfulness, and His mercy.  I wish I could be so faithful.

Backyard Makeover, Part 3

Phase one of the side yard path is almost complete!  It has taken several weekends of work to accomplish, and a lot of sweat and elbow grease.  Here are some pics of the process.

Here, Dave and Austin are finishing laying the shape of the path with the bender board.

It was pretty simple to install.  Just hammer in some stakes, and screw the board onto the stakes.  I say simple.  I watched.

Bender board complete, all the way to the deck.

Then came several trips to the builder's supply for scoops of gravel.  We did it one scoop at a time, so we wouldn't overpurchase.  Or overload the truck with weight.  All in all, I think we ended up with 5 scoops, which was less than $100 to fill the entire path and the deck with pea gravel.

The boys brought it in by the wheelbarrow full!

Time to lay the pavers, which, if you haven't been following my blog, were FREE!  Craigslist baby!!!
Dave used the motorcycle ramp as a large level!

Continuing the process!

Starting to come together!!!

Almost done!

We shoveled in more gravel on top of the pavers so they are almost buried, but we still need to fill in some low spots.

The dirt areas on both sides will be phase 2 of the side yard makeover.  We will be planting some various plants and trees someday, and filling in the area with bark.

Next on the docket is to rototill side one of the yard and plant grass seed, and also work on getting the top of the deck finished too!  Fun!

Backyard Makeover, part 2

Well, slowly but surely, the yard is coming along.  It is so fun to see progress.  It has been so stinkin' hot here, that not too much work is getting done.  The boys have been going out to work in the yard once the afternoon sun is gone, so they don't have to bake out in the sun!

The rest of the frame for the deck is done, and we have managed to almost completely fill it with dirt from the side yard, one wheelbarrow at a time.  Dave would rototill, and the boys would fill and dump all the dirt into this corner deck area.  We also went and picked up a truckload of dirt from someone locally who was getting rid of dirt. Found the guy on Craigslist, and he even loaded it into our truck with a giant bucket tractor.  Nice.  Here is the almost completely filled deck.  And a dog added in for interest.  You can see the little gas line popping up out of the dirt right in the middle.

Dave lowered the level of the dirt down the side yard to prepare to lay a path with pavers.  I was able to score 300 square 12 X 12 gray pavers for FREE on Craigslist.  I just checked every day, and happened to find these just at the right time.  We took both our SUV and our truck, and loaded as many as we could fit!  SCORE!!!!!  I would recommend if you want to do any sort of project that you check Craiglist before buying new.  Even though we weren't ready for the pavers yet, if you can get stuff you need for free or extremely reduced cost, it is worth the time to check back daily for the things you may need.  I have also scored all the lava rock for our future fire pit for free.  So we just piled it up somewhere out of the way until we need it!

Ok, so back to the project.  We wanted to put a path down the middle of our sideyard, leaving the sides available for some plants later on.  So Dave ran some sprinkler pipe down the sideyard for me so water will be available in the future when we want to plant some things.

In order to create the path, we needed some way to define the path with edging.  I really wanted to use large landscaping rocks, but every time I checked Craigslist and found some, they were either too small or already taken.  Landscaping bricks are cheap, but we have such a long side yard, so it would have cost a couple hundred dollars just for the edging.  Nope.  They make some rubber type edging also, but again, gets costly. Dave is really good at thinking outside of the box, and he found some wood bendable edging stuff.  It comes in like 6 or 7 foot long strips, in a bundle of like 10 of them.  Cost :  $40.  That I can do!

Here is Dave beginning to lay out the shape of the walkway.

This path will go down the sideyard, and then veer off in two directions. It will meet the concrete by the house, and will also continue on to the deck.  Once the path is completely defined with the edging, we will begin laying the pavers down, and then fill with small variegated pea gravel.  I am still hoping to score the gravel free too.  If not, it's relatively cheap anyways!

Well, that's all for now!

Backyard Makeover

A few weeks ago, I posted that we put up a new fence.  I may have mentioned the need for an entire yard makeover, that has been needed for years now but always seemed such an overwhelming and costly task.  However, building the fence sort of motivated us to move forward on it a little at a time.  And when I say "us", I really mean Dave and the boys, since I am sort of useless right now.  It pains me that I cannot take part physically in this process, as I always love being a part of projects.  I love getting my hands dirty, trying new power tools, and just working alongside my husband.  To me, it is so fun and rewarding.  But for now, I will be a spectator, designer, shopping companion, and refreshment coordinator :-)

I thought it would be fun to blog the process of the makeover, because frankly, who doesn't like a good makeover? It's so much fun!  I thought it would also be fun to show others how projects can be done by being thrifty, thinking outside the box, and by considering various alternatives to the "normal". I want to encourage people that they can accomplish their dream projects, even with monetary hindrances!  I happen to be married to a very handy, very mechanical, very creative minded husband, and that is helpful too!  So welcome to...............................................

Project DeShong Backyard Makeover

Left side of yard before.  Nice dead grass, weeds, holes from dogs digging.....

Right side of yard before.  Same story as the other side.

Goal:  To turn a yard full of dead grass/weeds into a beautiful haven for fun, rest, and relaxation.  The goal is to landscape the side yard, plant grass in the backyard, and build a deck complete with fire pit!  Since there is a logical order to doing things, here is the step by step.  This is more for me, so I can organize my thoughts:

1) Rototill side yard (check)
2) Lay gas line for future fire pit on future deck (check)
3) Build frame for deck, so we can move on to step 4 (halfway finished)
4) Backfill deck with dirt from side yard
5) Landscape side yard (details to follow, including how we will do this on the extreme cheap....I can't wait to share)!
6) Rototill side one of the yard, and plant grass seed  (so the dogs will still have access to one side of the yard at a time)
7) Meanwhile, while grass is growing and becoming established, build deck (stay tuned for how we plan to do this for next to nothing in cost)
8) Rototill side two of yard and plant grass seed
9) DONE!  Ah, I can't wait for the day!



Step 1: We were blessed to borrow a rototiller from some dear friends, and since they hardly ever use it, we are able to keep it for a while, and use it at our leisure, instead of the cost of renting a machine for 4 hours at a time.  The first thing Dave did was to kill the remaining grass and weeds with total vegetation killer.  One container did the job, and Austin did the whole thing.  Dave soaked the side yard with water to make it easier to rototill, and then he was able to make light of the job.  It took him a weekend and he had the entire side yard rototilled up.  I wish I had a before pic of this side yard.  It was knee high in weeds, most of them already dead.  It was not a pretty sight.

Step 2:  One of the things we have longed to do in the yard was to build a small deck in the back corner (pretty much where Dave and Vance are standing in the pic below) ,and put in a fire pit.  So the next step before any more work could be done was to dig a trench to run the gas line from the house to our future deck site, since it needs to be buried underground.   Here is breaking ground for the trench.

And here is the gas line.  We had to run it from the house to this spot, about 10 feet.  We now have fire.

Step 3:  Build the frame for the future deck.  This needed to be done before we could level out the side yard, since we needed to use all the leftover fill dirt to fill the deck area.  After considering all our cost options, we came up with the idea to use railroad ties as the frame for our deck!

I have always loved the rustic look, and at $16 a piece, this is an extremely cheap way to do it, as opposed to stacking bricks or other building materials.  And, it takes a jiffy to build.  That's a plus.  The first layer of them had to be buried about halfway in the ground, so here is Dave at work doing this just last weekend.

And here is half of the first level buried.

Once the first level is completely buried, Dave will stack on levels two and three, attaching them to each other with brackets, and using rebar for extra support.   Stay tuned for more pics and an update. Thanks for coming along with us on this adventure!