Wednesday, March 25, 2015

A Few Words Can Change Your Life: Personality Plus

Seriously? A book can change your life? Oh yes, it can and it did.

I decided to highlight a few of my favorite books and why they've impacted me so powerfully. The first one goes back to fall of 1988 when my husband and I just started to date. I don't know who introduced us to this book but once we got our hands on it, we were never the same again.

Personality Plus by Florence Littauer  explains the how and the why we are the way we are. There is a simple test in the book with word choices that best describe you. It's a fun activity. We've done it many times around the table with friends. You have to be honest and deliberate with your choices and then when it's done, add up the scores to determine your personality type. Then the fun begins, reading about your strengths and weaknesses. In our case, we also read about each other. Oh my, OH MY! T and I are on the opposite sides of the table. He is analytical and organized, I am driven by emotion and spontaneity. He lives by a schedule and I didn't. He color coordinates his closet and I just hang up my clothes... most of the time. He loves charts and graphs and I just want to discuss the vision. So being opposite can be horrific or amazing. We've had both. :) You know God gives us iron to sharpen iron.

There are four temperament types:

Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy and Phlegmatic.

Each one has beautiful qualities and some ugly weaknesses.

I am Sanguine/Choleric.  Think of Cinderella with work shoes on. I am fun loving, a dreamer, happy, life of the party kind of person. I also know how to lead, drive, and get the job done. 

My husband is Melancholy/Choleric.  Think of Woody from Toy Story. He is organized, a deep thinker, analytical,  and very thoughtful. He chooses his words carefully and speaks wisely. He also knows how to lead, drive, and get the job done.

Don't you just want us in your life!

Ok now for those ugly weaknesses.  They appeared early in our dating but the reality of them did not hit home until we came home from our honeymoon and were living under one roof. Remember that iron sharpening iron. So it began.

Sanguine/Choleric party girl... I am unorganized, unscheduled, undisciplined, and unrealistic and I did not choose my words wisely one or more times let's just say.

Melancholy/Choleric charts and graph boy... He is driven by a schedule, a budget, order, and lacks spontaneity.

Let me explain this in a few real life stories. We came home from our honeymoon and some friends of ours destroyed our apartment thinking this was funny. One of those "funny" things was that they hung up all the labels to our can goods in a streamer. After the complete shock was over,  I was ready to go grocery shopping and start the pantry over. He said, "I can fix this."  My husband was able to evaluate each label, each can and put them back on. That began years of my husband fixing things for me. Sweet man. After our first week home and back to work, Saturday rolled around. I was so excited it was Saturday! No work, time for fun, let's get this day going. T proceeded to pull out his daily planner. In the late 80's we wrote out our lives with ink and paper; no iPhone or Outlook Calendar to sync.  I even remember getting so excited shopping for one each December. Some of us enjoyed the shopping part more than the using part. Oh the idealistic Sanguine.

I said inquisitively, "What are you doing?" He said objectively," Seeing what's on my list for the day."  Seriously? We have a list. It's Saturday. Oh this was a HUGE eye opener for me.

Back to the book. How did it help us and our marriage? 

As much as we love each other, reality is we are two very different people. We are able to look at ourselves and each other through a new lens. A lens that shed light on how God designed each other. Understanding how and why a person does what they do takes away so much offense. I am in no way implying we don't disagree, argue or just detest the way each of us do some things like squeeze the toothpaste but we give grace to one another in times that grace is needed. 

Personality Plus gave us a deep understanding of the raw material we are both constructed from. I use that carefully and on purpose.  In the beginning of my post I wrote: He lives by a schedule and I didn't.

I should have written don't to be in context but I chose didn't.

In God's magnificent way of iron sharpening iron, I have changed. He has changed.  We have always enjoyed our marriage. Always agreed on most things from paint color to style of home to the food we eat to the way we raise our children, but on the ways we are different, we have both grown. Sometimes leaps and bounds overnight yet many times through years of allowing God to be the potter.  Now we blend more. I don't argue over a budget and a schedule; I actually like them now. I'm not undisciplined or unrealistic anymore. He isn't so connected to his list anymore and has become flexible. Funny how this plays out in real life. When a place in our garage was unorganized this January and the Christmas stuff wasn't stacked just so, I whined a bit about it. Not like I could get up that high and straighten it out. T laughed and gave the kids a look like, "Did Mom actually want something in order?" In some ways I have become the Get-Organized-Now Woman and he the Eh, It Will Be Done Soon Enough Guy.

I'm really thankful we have had 25 years of iron sharpening.  We've had our fair share of tough seasons. I know I wasn't very thankful during those times when were butting heads and feeling desperate.  I cried mostly. Honestly I don't want to relive those, ever. But the one thing T and I are committed to is not giving up and praying together. We won't always see eye to eye but our raw material is a daily work in process as long as we know who our Potter is. I adore my man and all he is. God knew exactly what I needed.

By the way... I still have messy dresser drawers. Some things never change.

Isaiah 64:8
Yet you, LORD, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Tulip Tree.. Oh How I Missed Thee

My favorite, FAVORITE flower is a tulip. This tree I affectionately call a tulip tree.  I haven't seen it in all it's loveliness since we left California. Well, the good state of Washington has some amazing foliage. This beauty is one of them. Look at the intricacies of each petal. I love how God creates.
 
"For you shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains
and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and
all the trees of the field shall clap their hands."
Isaiah 55:12 (NIV)

 







Let's Play Some Volleyball!

It has been a great season of volleyball. Hollywood is learning so much between clinics, practices and game time. We love the tourneys and the team. These three are getting to know each other more all the time. My girl has given all she has this year to her sport. With moving, sometimes things don't always go the way you would hope. I am so proud of Lina's beautiful heart. She has risen above hard times, applied herself fully and made the best of this change in her life. Having volleyball consistently has been such a blessing! 
 





 
 



Ceilings and Good Friends

These two. Let's just talk for minute about these two. I've heard Jane's name for years as T has worked with her at the Mother Ship. I knew she was my husband's friend but never did I think she would become MY friend. Why? Well.. she was here and I was there; those 1000 miles a part can kind of stifle a friendship that's established, let alone begin a new one. And wouldn't you know it, God's plans are sometimes strangely different than our own. When we found out we were moving here, Jane was SOOO excited. She started communicating all things Washington. She helped me with school choices, she even looked at our short lived rental for us. She and Wes met us at Starbuck's on our exploratory trip out here months before we moved and when we arrived in Washington brought us FOOD and HUGS and SUPPORT. All things that I needed. This one, she is my first Washington friend. Now her husband, Wes, became our second friend. Literally the evening we pulled into the rental home, after hours upon hours of driving, these two had us over for dinner. Seriously... when God handed out the gift of hospitality, these two got a double portion. They just know how to love on people. So fast forward. We are now ready to sheetrock and Wes KNOWS the trade.  He's in the tech world but as conversation would go, he did this years prior. Oh Thank you Jesus again! He willingly said,"I want to help!" No thought to the sacrifice of time and energy it was going to take, Wes and Jane jumped in with both feet.  So these two... can't say enough! Just.so.thankful.
 
 


 

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Time to Insulate

insulate
[ ˈins(y)əˌlāt ]

VERB
verb: insulate · third person present: insulates · past tense: insulated · past participle: insulated · present participle: insulating
  1. protect (something) by interposing material that prevents the loss of heat or the intrusion of sound:
    "The room was heavily insulated against all outside noise."
    synonyms: wrap · sheathe · cover · coat · encase · enclose · envelop ·  
The Bing definition sentence is perfect! This will be our theatre so an insulated room from all outside noise will go a long way! 
 

 Lina is ready for work. We all looked like outlaws  making sure we protected our lungs from this pink stuff.



We have to keep some things down in the basement as we work since we are lacking space in other areas of the home for storage; boxes, furniture, random household items. The furniture is going to need some spring cleaning before we sit down and the picture albums might just need the air compressor blowing away the dust too before they are lovingly placed on a shelf again. As beautiful as PINK is, we are ready for another layer of covering to create a finished wall.  Moving on to sheetrock next.


Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Moving to California!

Yea... not me this time. This one... my third born child, my second daughter, and adventurer. This one just left home for a new job in California. She moved back to where she came. She moved to a place we all love and is now starting a new chapter in her life. I miss her terribly.



We went to dinner the night before she left to celebrate her and have a meal together.



And then she was off. Off with her sister, driving to California to a new beginning. How can one be so happy/sad at the same time? I am very proud of Boo and know she will continue to follow the path God has her on and she knows we are always here supporting her, what may come.  I am also trying to walk this new territory. We all are actually. When you're as close as we all are, figuring out how to set the table with fewer plates and make plans with fewer people and a hear little less laughter in the house is all just a bit weird.  Life.

We love you Boosie girl! May you enjoy this adventure and find laughter each day. May God show  His profound goodness to you. May you be in the shelter of His wings and protection. May the Lord bless you and keep you.

Momma

Let there be electricity, I mean light!

And so on the second month, the electrician came. He worked alone and worked fast. Inspected, check. Then the moment arrived... we have lights!!  


T and Boo installed 18 or something like that recessed lights. The electrician installed the room lights and wire for the bathroom fixtures. Now when T is done with the sheet rock and whatever else, the electrician will come back to do the finish work.
 


 
This room required the most lights. After talking with my lighting designer brother, doing more research and then finally coming up with a design, Terrell and Boo installed 14 lights in this space.
Now to buy more bulbs. It will be an awesome hang out, movie watching space!
 


One more HUGE step towards a finished basement. Whoo Hoo!!

All Work and No Play for a Boring Basement We Make

Sometimes you just have to let the silly side shine. Capturing these moments are a fun part of any project. Now getting T to join in, well... we 'll stick to the girls. 
 




How many people does it take to measure the length of the room? Apparently 2 holding the tape measure and 2 posing with the tape measure.


Then there's just posing.
 
 
And wanting their sister's ice cream.

 
 And there you have it!
Silly X 3. Love it, wouldn't want it any other way.

Construction Boo

The basement project continues and so does our help. Boo jumped in to help during a time where we really needed her. She was there often the last three weeks in the basement using the table saw, putting up lights, discussing measurements and painting the vanity.  I know she has learned a lot more than she planned and I know Terrell is so thankful for the help as well as the one on one time with his baby girl before she moved away. (That's another post) I never would have thought that our kids would do so much construction during their years at home. Seriously, when I married this man I love, I never knew he was able to do all things he does for us. Not only can he but he has shared his knowledge with our children.  Terrell has given them a skill that they can confidently take with them or at least not be afraid of home improvement projects and tools.
 
 



Thank you Boo for all your help! We love you and appreciate your willing heart.