Remember this little summer to-do list?  It's almost the summer to-done list.  Booyah! (Does that word exist?  And does anyone else use it?  And yes.. it's completely necessary in this situation.)

- Finish painting the hallways of our house (this weekend)
- Clean the grout and reseal all the tile in our bathrooms (STILL HAVE TO DO!)
- Figure out how to get the hard water stains/ soap scum/ who knows what off the glass shower door (done!)
- Make dentist appointments... like 6 months ago (whoops) (done.. unfortunately.. AND we have to go back..)
- Get a plant (other than our lovely tomato plant) to decorate our front steps (done!)
- Get something to put on our walls so it doesn't look so apartment-esque (done!)
- Fold clothes as soon as they come out of the dryer

We currently only have one item left to check off!  Well, except for the folding clothes as soon as they come out of the dryer.  I feel like we may have mildly improved on this but it could use a lot more work for sure!Cale is currently finishing up the touch-up work on the walls in the hallway and it really didn't take us that long.  However, after this project every inch of our house will have a new coat of paint on.. except the laundry room and the guest bath.  But who's counting.  And there are no plans... ever... to repaint those rooms.  That might be a slight exaggeration but painting seriously brings nightmares of our week of painting madness.  
Our house is also getting a new roof on it next week due to that lovely hail storm we had in June.  

Our bathroom has three windows that span the wall near the ceiling (trust me.. this is related).  

We don't have any blinds on those windows since the look out onto open space and no one can see in them.  Except if you have roofers on your house.  Yikes! It's the perfect excuse to stop using the shower for a week which will be the perfect time to reseal the tile in our bathroom.  Last item on the summer to-do.  And it's still summer.  I'll take what I can get.

These pictures have nothing to do with anything..except that I just found them tonight when ordering prints for our wall (another item of the list)... and except for the fact that I love them both.  Apparently the feeling isn't mutual.  Geez people.

We had an interesting sermon this week on sacrifice and non-negotiables based on Genesis 22.  


SIDE NOTE: This is the story where God asks Abraham to sacrifice his only son Isaac.. who God decided to wait until Abraham was the ripe old age of 100 or something before God blessed Abraham and Sarah with a child... only one. And Abraham did it.  I mean, well God, after He saw that Abraham would actually sacrifice his son God told him to not do it... You should probably just read the story.

Anyways, we got on the subject of non-negotiables.  Like, as a Christian, you may be willing to give up most everything for Jesus but usually we each have something or things that fall into the non-negotiable category.  As in, I would give up anything for Jesus, but if God really asked me to sacrifice my husband, or parents, or sister for Him I would truly question my devotion to God.... and I would question my sanity even more but I digress. 

So on Sunday we have the sermon and then midweek (On Wednesdays.. also known as slow-cooker night at the hiz-house P.S. Why did Snoop Dog bring an umbrella to the Oscars?  Fo' drizzle!!) we have a small group Bible study that delves deeper into the message... and it comes with a study sheet.   It's intense.  Like camping.

Cale and I got talking about our non-negotiables and obviously said that Abraham was a greater Christian than us (duh) because we would probably at least question God if asked to sacrifice a person closer to us.  But really, if I was honest with myself, it would probably take much less to test my faith.  I say that I would be fine without money, material comfort, a car, my health, my husband's health, my Kitchen-Aid mixer (.. k, maybe not), etc. but it this was all really taken away from me I would have to admit (ashamedly) this would probably be real test of my faith.

P.S. I did not really think about this until Cale brought it up.  That husband.. he's a thinker.

Shoot, I've already failed at my giving up Starbucks.  And that isn't really even a sacrifice. Dang!

Truth of the matter though, Abraham had fantastic faith that led to fantastic obedience.  While we look at that story and see a great act of obedience think of the even greater act of faith that was behind it.  And what's even greater is that God actually followed through and sacrificed His only Son.  Because we are his non-negotiables.  What awesome love.

The End.

Also, you can listen to the sermon here.   It's the sermon entitled, "Does This Mean I Have to Sacrifice...". Because I'm sure I missed a lot of good points.  And messed up a bunch of others.

P.S. I still haven't drank any soda at home (this was my original Lenten sacrifice).

P.P.S. I realize this may sound pitiful to some of you.  Until you realize how much I love soda.  Hey, don't judge.  I rationalize this by working out, not smoking, not drinking, and getting plenty of sleep.  

P.P.P.S. I'm really good at rationalizing.

We have been blessed with such excellent jobs that we have to pay more into taxes (again).  We thought for sure this year we would at least break even because we [A] Changed our filing status and [B] Bought a house.

Nope.

Still paying. More.

Dang.

So we threw ourselves a pity party.  We decided to go to Panera for lunch... and it was packed... something about everyone having off for President's Day.  So we hiked across the street to Mimi's Cafe.

Ordered some Coca-cola's and tried to laugh taxes off.  Which was only kind of working.

Until a crabby party of 8 entered the restaurant and they moved us to a different table and gave us FREE lunch! 

What?!?!

Have I mentioned that I love free food?  Only a couple (lots) hundred more free lunches and we'll have made up our tax contributions.  

We're over it.  We really are.  God has blessed us with awesome jobs.

Our day improved dramatically after free lunch.  Until we were being helpful with laundry... realized that the clothes in the washer had been moved to the dryer... mad sprint to the dryer was 20 minutes too late... and sweater got irreversibly shrunk.

Darn.

Except I'm not exactly sure if her name is Mary.  
And she lets her dogs poop in our 'yard'.  
And our yard is only 10 square yards so it's really easy to let your dogs take care of business elsewhere.  
And we still think it's hilarious when we gave you an eyebrow that asked, "Yo, why are you dogs pooping in our yard?"  And you replied, "Oh, they're just checking things out..."  

Oh reeallly. 

Anyways, we named her Mary.  

And we need to better neighbors.

Amen.