My view on ladders and life...

                   My life of late has been busy,

                                                    but busy in a weird way...

A good three quarters of my summer has been spent away from home.

Between Summit, vacationing, spending time with family.

I really don't know what the weather was like in New York this summer.

Now Ohio and Tennessee on the other hand...

I could tell you exactly what the weather was like there.

On this first day of Autumn, I look back over my summer, and think...

It has been a good but challenging summer.

It has been full of new adventures, new faces, new experiences,

now some of these experiences I never want to experience again.

But I know that every experience,

and every thing that I have experienced this summer is all part of a bigger plan...

Even when I can't see what that plan will be.

This has been my view of late.

The caption of the photo above is very true. In many different aspects of my life, it is very true...

My view literally has I have been on a ladder a lot more then I normally am, as I have been helping rip old siding off our old/new house and put on new vinyl. It has also been the view of my spiritual walk. I am sure this needs an explanation.

'You feel like your walk with God is like being on a ladder???'

Well, no, not exactly, but there are some similarities.

First of all, you must make sure that you ladder is on level sturdy ground. You must be set upon "the Rock of Ages." And as soon as you are sure that your ladder is on firm level ground, you start your ascent, just starting the climb up a ladder can give you a thrill, you get that, "this could be an adventure" rush to the head, and your heart starts racing just slightly. A whole new exciting world with just one step off the ground.

As you climb you discover new things about yourself,

such as your fears, where you are afraid you will fail or fall.

It can be a truly terrifying spot... especially when the breeze blows and the ladder quakes just slightly. That is when all your fears are revealed in their full light. And it can cause you to freeze in your ascent to the top. Now it is when you are frozen to one spot that the most work can be done on the house that your ladder is leaning against. I mean you can't work when all that you are doing is climbing. It is at these frozen areas in your walk where you can get out the hammer and the crowbar and you can start accomplishing the work that you were on the ladder to do in the first place. I feel as if I am in one of these frozen areas on my way up the ladder. In fact I feel like God has allowed my ladder to be shaken. Which having your ladder shaken by someone can be the most terrifying thing one can ever experience, it sure will make you sure footed though. ;) It is a time that you truly get to know yourself. And hopefully a time when you can work on areas of your life that need attention. A time to get out the old crowbar and hammer and start prying away the old beat up layers of house, to reveal the original work of the carpenter. For it is only when the old battered pieces of protective layers are gone that the house is ready for the new protective layer of vinyl to be put on. What a mess it would be if we tried to just ignore the old aluminum and just started putting on the new siding... what a mess. It is a long and sometimes painful process. But oh, so worth it. Because someday the ascent will start again, move one hand, one foot, the other hand, the other foot, until finally you can go up one more rung on your ladder, and so starts the adventure once more. One rung or...

one day at a time.

Just take it one day at a time.

Our house before

And so ends my ladder object lesson to myself. It sometimes is just therapeutic to write stuff out, so if you read through it and were like, 'she can live on her ladder if she likes, but I don't really think life is like a ladder, she is a little whacked.' That's okay, this is the kind of post that comes out of me when the hour is getting later and later, and I am listening to Emile Pandolfi Radio on Pandora (piano ballads) Listening to piano music tends to make me a little reflective. ;) And sometimes strangely... emotional. But that is besides the point. Back to our house transformation, and enough about how piano music affects me.

During

Our house literally looks like it had a face lift.

I think it actually looks more sure of itself and cheerful with its new 'garments' on.

And I don't have a better after picture yet. So this will have to do.

Our house just needs a porch swing for the front porch to be perfect... Time to get into that wood shop that I have been talking to much about and start working towards making a swing.

Just hanging out on the ridge.

What better place to hang out after ripping stuff off the sides of the house then the roof? Josh didn't help but he ended up being in the picture 'cause he brought his Pepsi out onto the roof and that happened to be when Mom came out to snap some pictures. He at least gave me a sip of his Pepsi. ;)