School Days and Better Days

The House Project

Pictures are the greatest because they capture moments and memories! We have made progress on the house even in the middle of transitioning to "School Days and School Nights." Each day I find something--some joy or some happy--about this house and this move. I hope those moments never go away. I'm sure they will, but my word for this year is JOY. And I am CHOOSING JOY.

 

This picture was last week before work. We have a front porch. And the night before I took this picture, we laid outside on our porch and listened to the crickets and the roads. No highway noise, no crazy music, no sirens every 10 minutes. It was peaceful and I loved it! The front porch had disappeared for a few weeks because of unloading things from storage and deep discounts on insulation for the attic. But it's back and I love it! Last night we sat on our front porch with our neighbors and just hung out. Peaceful friendships and life are happening on our front porch!

 

This picture is the very beginnings of our kitchen! We have a rug and a mostly functional kitchen. We are getting there. It's a process. 

 

This is the beginnings of our living room/soon-to-be office. I know it doesn't look like much but y'all, I can sit on our couch. Small victories!

Rain, Rainbows and Creatures

It rains a whole lot more here in Celeste than it did in Richardson. Like way more! Typically rain is good because it brings cooler temps (but more humidity). It also shows you where there might be ground drainage (flooding) problems. So with lots of rain comes the biggest rainbows I have seen in a long time!

 

 

And with rain and rainbows, also creatures. 

 

This guy was in my front yard once the rain waters receded. For you city folks like me, that's a giant craw daddy. There were (and still are) several holes in and around my front yard from these creatures. This one was out and about, so I caught him and gave him to the neighbor kid. 

School Days

School is great and my 5th graders are sweet. What I'm having to adjust to the most are ALL THE QUESTIONS. They ask questions about anything and everything, ALL THE TIME. I'm sure you parent-folks know what I'm about. I have been informed that I was THAT KID---sorry Mom and Dad and teachers. But it is exhausting! And I wasn't prepared for this because I'm not a mom yet so I think that's the biggest adjustment. 

Other than that, my students and I are having a blast learning together. These students of mine LOVE to learn! It is so refreshing to be able to teach and students to be actively involved. And 5th grade is a fun age because they are beginning to grow up a little bit but are still kind and sweet and helpful. I'm enjoying these days, even with all the questions. 

Plus, my school staff and principal are phenomenal and helpful and encouraging. It's been such a joy so far! My hope is to blog more about schools later this weekend when I get a few moments to do so. I'm loving it!

Here are some classroom pictures and beginning of school year stuff. If you want to see more of my classroom adventures, you can follow Mrs. Kipp on Twitter @Herndon_Kipp. I have to tweet at least one thing a day so you can join the classroom adventure with us!

 

Huge shout out to my mom for her help with the pictures below. 

 

 

 

Also, another huge shoutout to my sweet husband for helping hang things and organize my room before school started. These are the things Shae helped with...

 

 

 

Also, I had a kid give me an apple because teachers and apples always go together! Precious!!

 

Thanks y'all for the support and encouragement with our journey!

It's a marathon...

Things are slowing down at Project Kipp house. We have come to the realization that, at this point, we need to be in marathon mode not sprint mode. We sprinted up until this past week. We have moved in almost completely (minus a storage unit or two), but our home is livable. We have the necessities of our bed, most of our clothes, plumbing, the ability to do laundry and a mostly functioning kitchen. 

From here, we start the decisions and how-to's portion of our renovation: how-to redo the floors, how-to set up the floor plan to work best for us right now, how-to set up the kitchen, how-to rework the add-on, and many more decisions just like that. 

Thanks to Habitat for Humanity Restore Lake Highlands we have been able to get almost half the insulation we need for the attic. So that is on the list of things to do this week. Also, a big to do this week is unpacking and getting things for organized and functional. Those things will have to be evening tasks this week because I started back at work today. 

So with that being said...

Today starts a new adventure for me, and I am so excited to see what God has in store for me at Royse City. There is no doubt in my mind that God orchestrated this process and these events that have led up to me standing at a new technology line at a New Teacher Orientation this morning. Today, everything is NEW! New house, new route to work, new district, new school, new job, new grade level.. And I'm excited!! With new things comes feelings of refreshment and I am exciting. 

Last week my mom came with me to help set up the beginnings of my classroom. I have moved from middle school/junior high to an intermediate school of 5th and 6th graders. I'm teaching 5th grade so I've decided that decoration and making my room feel welcoming is more important. So here are some pictures of last week's work and progress. I will post the finished work when we finish. 

 

My new clip on tool belt. It's so cool because it has a magnetic outside part to hold nails and screws.

 

Still a work in progress but this is behind my desk.

 

Our first poof! These are fun to make..

 

Calendar bulletin board

 

School news and such.. 

 

I have a window in my room that requires a cute valence. 

Lots happening today and it's time for change!

Demo and Daily Projects

Yesterday's "Daily (Nightly) Project" was laundry room installation. We have officially moved into Celeste as of this weekend because we have our bed and our dogs here with us. Because we live here now and work so much each day, having a functioning laundry room was a must on our list. So last night we begin the project and of course it took longer than I thought it would but it looks so good! The nice thing about starting from scratch is that you can make things like the way you want them to. Instead of a major flooring in the back section of the house, we decided to go with carpet tiles. The great thing about carpet tiles is that you can piece them together like a puzzle and make them fit the space that you need. We were able to go to Habitat for Humanity this weekend, the one in Lake Highlands, and find exactly enough squares on sale for the pattern that we wanted. We lined the floor yesterday with the carpet tiles and nailed them into the floor since we are moving appliances on top of them. It took some finagling because we had to cut squares to fit around the different plumbing fixtures in that room. Before we did any of the carpet squares, we worked with the venting pieces that we bought at Lowe's to vent the dryer underneath the house. My husband did a phenomenal job yesterday working through that process. It really is like a puzzle with semirigid Lego pieces. So once we got all the venting bits into place and the carpet tiles on the floor we were able to move the washer and dryer and set them into our laundry space.

 

 

The lighting is a little challenging in that room as of right now because we have to find a better way to word the electricity in that room. We have a window unit in the window of the laundry room so plug space is at a high premium. We also found out that one of the plugs doesn't work in that room so we will have to go through that process later to make it functional. Basically I will figure out a way to hang a power strip in the appropriate place so that we can plug in all the pieces that we need to in that room.

On Monday night, I was at training and Shae was tasked with getting things ready for our pre-fridge installation. Thursday our new fridge is being delivered, so we also needed a waterline hook up for this fridge. One of the really cool things about starting from scratch in her house is you can do whatever you want. It is also a challenge sometimes to figure out exactly what you want because you don't want to do it wrong and have to redo it later. So what we decide is that we want to inset the fridge into a portion of the wall in our kitchen. So Shae started demo of the existing guest bath that was nonfunctional on Monday. He took out the toilet, the vanity, the mirror, and the medicine cabinet.he then took out some walls and laid a basic framework for us to finish out this weekend once the fridge gets here. 

 

This photo appeared on Facebook Monday night with the caption of "See, what had happened was... The light didn't work in the half bath, so..."  It is true the light did not work but the real reason behind everything was that we're getting ready for our fridge. Either way, Shae worked really hard and did a great job! The way it looks now is below.

 

The fridge will be partially inset inbetween the shiplap walls and we will frame out the wall behind it. The little white box on the ground is thanks to the awesome plumbers we have through Charter Plumbing out of Wolfe City. These guys do good honest work, and they work hard doing it. They spent a total of 9 days at my house over the past two weeks and came out again Tuesday morning to set up our waterline and water box for our fridge. And they worked in exactly where Shae wanted it. It is great to work with people who see and understand your vision in place, and will come alongside of you to help you get there. 

Pieces of our house are really starting to feel like a home. Each little bit helps. Last night we started moving furniture into our bedroom to make it work better. We have rugs on the floor and three armoires to hold our clothes. If you remember from a previous post we have no closets in this house so the armoires are especially handy in holding all of our clothes. And now that we have our own washer and dryer working we can begin filling them with clean clothes. A big part of my Thursday will be to continue to get the house in a more functional state. With a real working fridge, we can begin to make dinner at the house instead of picking something up on the way home. So hopefully Thursday or Friday I will have some pictures of our functional spaces. 

Everyday is an adventure, and in between working on projects at the house, I am also getting my new classroom ready! I start new teacher training on Monday, August 8th and we are desperately trying to get my room mostly done this week so that I can focus on everything else next week. 

Maybe I'll post a few pictures of that as well. Thanks to my mom, my room will be Pinterest ready by the time school starts. It's been fun working with her and getting this stuff rolling. 

Off to more work and more adventures to

Demo and Daily Projects

Yesterday's "Daily (Nightly) Project" was laundry room installation. We have officially moved into Celeste as of this weekend because we have our bed and our dogs here with us. Because we live here now and work so much each day, having a functioning laundry room was a must on our list. So last night we begin the project and of course it took longer than I thought it would but it looks so good! The nice thing about starting from scratch is that you can make things like the way you want them to. Instead of a major flooring in the back section of the house, we decided to go with carpet tiles. The great thing about carpet tiles is that you can piece them together like a puzzle and make them fit the space that you need. We were able to go to Habitat for Humanity this weekend, the one in Lake Highlands, and find exactly enough squares on sale for the pattern that we wanted. We lined the floor yesterday with the carpet tiles and nailed them into the floor since we are moving appliances on top of them. It took some finagling because we had to cut squares to fit around the different plumbing fixtures in that room. Before we did any of the carpet squares, we worked with the venting pieces that we bought at Lowe's to vent the dryer underneath the house. My husband did a phenomenal job yesterday working through that process. It really is like a puzzle with semirigid Lego pieces. So once we got all the venting bits into place and the carpet tiles on the floor we were able to move the washer and dryer and set them into our laundry space.

 

 

The lighting is a little challenging in that room as of right now because we have to find a better way to word the electricity in that room. We have a window unit in the window of the laundry room so plug space is at a high premium. We also found out that one of the plugs doesn't work in that room so we will have to go through that process later to make it functional. Basically I will figure out a way to hang a power strip in the appropriate place so that we can plug in all the pieces that we need to in that room.

On Monday night, I was at training and Shae was tasked with getting things ready for our pre-fridge installation. Thursday our new fridge is being delivered, so we also needed a waterline hook up for this fridge. One of the really cool things about starting from scratch in her house is you can do whatever you want. It is also a challenge sometimes to figure out exactly what you want because you don't want to do it wrong and have to redo it later. So what we decide is that we want to inset the fridge into a portion of the wall in our kitchen. So Shae started demo of the existing guest bath that was nonfunctional on Monday. He took out the toilet, the vanity, the mirror, and the medicine cabinet.he then took out some walls and laid a basic framework for us to finish out this weekend once the fridge gets here. 

 

This photo appeared on Facebook Monday night with the caption of "See, what had happened was... The light didn't work in the half bath, so..."  It is true the light did not work but the real reason behind everything was that we're getting ready for our fridge. Either way, Shae worked really hard and did a great job! The way it looks now is below.

 

The fridge will be partially inset inbetween the shiplap walls and we will frame out the wall behind it. The little white box on the ground is thanks to the awesome plumbers we have through Charter Plumbing out of Wolfe City. These guys do good honest work, and they work hard doing it. They spent a total of 9 days at my house over the past two weeks and came out again Tuesday morning to set up our waterline and water box for our fridge. And they worked in exactly where Shae wanted it. It is great to work with people who see and understand your vision in place, and will come alongside of you to help you get there. 

Pieces of our house are really starting to feel like a home. Each little bit helps. Last night we started moving furniture into our bedroom to make it work better. We have rugs on the floor and three armoires to hold our clothes. If you remember from a previous post we have no closets in this house so the armoires are especially handy in holding all of our clothes. And now that we have our own washer and dryer working we can begin filling them with clean clothes. A big part of my Thursday will be to continue to get the house in a more functional state. With a real working fridge, we can begin to make dinner at the house instead of picking something up on the way home. So hopefully Thursday or Friday I will have some pictures of our functional spaces. 

Everyday is an adventure, and in between working on projects at the house, I am also getting my new classroom ready! I start new teacher training on Monday, August 8th and we are desperately trying to get my room mostly done this week so that I can focus on everything else next week. 

Maybe I'll post a few pictures of that as well. Thanks to my mom, my room will be Pinterest ready by the time school starts. It's been fun working with her and getting this stuff rolling. 

Off to more work and more adventures today!

Sprinkles of Affirmation

I love when God sprinkles us with affirmation! What I mean is sometimes we make little or big decisions that have been prayed for and I believe align with God's will and purpose for our lives, but then the naysayers and Satan's negative words and doubt creep in and tell you all the lies. But this week, God has blessed me with sprinkles of affirmation in our big decision to move to Celeste. 

Here are some sprinkles of affirmation I felt like I have received in the past few days...

1. Get out of the boat! The sermon on Sunday by Scott Marshall was focused on Peter and he talked about how he got out of the boat. What an crazy act! He got out of the boat during a storm and walked on water. All the other apostles thought Peter was crazy and I tend to agree with them. I'm sure people think our idea to move to an 800 person town an hour away from family and friends and work on a "broken" house (according to my 5 year old niece) seems crazy. And sometimes I might have agreed. But we were looking into a small storm of our own and decided to get out of the boat. In training last night with my jewelry company, we are told to "Do it afraid" and I feel like that goes hand in hand with getting out of the boat. Sometimes we have to take a step/walk/crawl/leap of faith, do it afraid, and do it anyway. Also, with Sunday's sermon he talked about not ever giving up. Never ever! So what is it that we might give up? Our dreams, our hopes and wishes, our goals? Some people give up their integrity or values to chase after things. Some people give up when things get tough or solo or dreary. And at times, Satan tempts me with these little tidbits to give up or negative thoughts that I know are not from the Lord. This week I am convinced that God is affirming me that we got out of the boat, made our decision, do it afraid and don't give up on what He is going to do from this situation. 

2. Our bible class has been doing a study on the book of Proverbs. Lots of nuggets of wisdom. So Proverbs 19:21 is my second sprinkle of affirmation! 

 

The top version is NIV and the bottom version is ESV. We have plans but the Lord's PURPOSE will prevail--it will STAND. So no matter what plans I have, as long as I submit them to the Lord, HE will weave HIS purpose into my plans and my life. So in our move, in our fixer upper, in our crazy adventure, God has shown up and revealed himself to me and to us in phenomenal ways! So no matter what steps we take, AS LONG AS I SUBMIT MY PLANS TO THE LORD, His purpose will prevail. That is so comforting to me!

3. Our dogs LOVE our backyard! It's so much fun and has so much room for them to play and run around and wear themselves out! I have been enjoying spending time in the shade of our pecan tree this morning watching them run, play and lounge. They are having a blast and I love it! I love that we have a great amount of yard! More blessings will come of this! 

Check out my view this morning... I feel peace here and THAT is invaluable!

 

 

 

 

 

Those are horses! Real ones on the other side of my fence!

And then of course, my dogs try to find ways of escape, so this morning I made my very own section of fence from the rails to the pickets. Maybe this isn't a big deal to you, but I used all the power tools correctly and finished up a section of our fence. I can do things for my house! And it's awesome!

 

I love my adventure and God is sprinkling bits of affirmation which is the love language that speaks loudest to me! Thank you God for your blessings!