The Bleeker Mishpakha: Home

“Home is the nicest word there is.”~ Laura Ingalls Wilder

I have always loved my home. As a child and even a teenager, home is where I loved to be most. I went to college only 10 minutes from my home, because the idea of leaving home for an extended period of time made my stomach turn. As a grown adult, I still love home. My stomach still aches the night before we leave on vacation. Just thinking about being away from home for two weeks, makes me physically ill. At one point this winter, I realized I hadn’t left my home for 3 days and I really kind of liked it.

A home encompasses so much more than the walls in which make up the structure. A home is more about the people who live in it, the activities that take place there, and the feeling you get when you walk in the door. It is my hope that my kids feel the same way about our home as I did about mine. I believe that as a wife and mother, a large part of my calling is to make our home an atmosphere where my family feels safe and comfortable. It is important to me that my family feels loved, encouraged, nurtured (emotionally and spiritually), but also physically comfortable in our home. It is very easy for me to fall into the trap of thinking that the daily chores I perform in my home are meaningless and insignificant. That they are simply a check-list of things that I have to get done. When I see them as a check list, I am left feeling weary…like a a hamster on a spinning wheel that never reaches it’s destination. Let’s be honest, it’s very frustrating to see the things you have worked all day at, come undone in the first 1/2 hour the kids are home. Having the meal that you carefully planned and prepared, scarfed down in less than 15 minutes is tiresome. Being left with a heap of dirty dishes adds insult to injury. Personally, I don’t like feeling weary and certainly don’t like feeling like a hamster…because they are just gross and rat-like…sorry hamster owners. So, instead I view those tasks as opportunities to give back to my family. All of the sudden the cleaning and organizing and washing and folding don’t seem as daunting. I have to make a conscious effort to remind myself that even the smallest tasks I take on each day help foster the feeling I so desire for our home. Weather it is keeping up with laundry, de-cluttering a closet, providing a meal, mopping the bathroom floor, or keeping our fridge stocked with milk and orange juice it is all done for a purpose and with a purpose.

“She sets about her work vigorously, her arms are strong for her tasks” Proverbs 31

Caring on….

When I said, “Home is more than the walls that makes up it’s structure”, that is true, but the structure is still pretty important. You know,because leaky roofs are not my idea of a good time. So, we used this summer as an opportunity to tackle several project around the house that really had to get done…first off the roof…

As you can see from the pictures, we had the best help ever with this project! Russ and Laura and their family came home to help with our roof. You know how much your family loves you when they take a “vacation” to help shingle your roof! It did make the project so much more enjoyable. As you can tell, almost everyone got involved. Even the little girls helped pull nails and clean up the roof.

Three cheer for no more curling shingles!!!!

On to project #2. Staining the swing set…

Many hands makes light work was certainly the case for this project. I gave each of the kids a brush and a container of stain and they went right to work. I

Next up the laundry room…

Space and storage are of the essence in this little ranch house, and our laundry room had neither. The space we can’t help, but the storage we could. This project really started this spring and continues as we speak, but we did make some progress this summer. Our hope is to try and make it more functional and of course, more pleasing to the eye!

The room was originally a third bedroom on the main floor. The previous homeowners plopped a washer and dryer in the middle of the room and called it the laundry room. When we moved in we tore out the carpet, put in hard word floors, and threw down a rug.

We are in the process now of adding storage and folding space. I also painted and wallpapered an accent wall. I hope to show you completed pictures soon!

Our shed project…

Although very cute, this little shed just didn’t cut it! It really serves as the third garage stall we don’t have, so with 7 bikes, a couple strollers, a wagon, and many balls, bats, rollerblades, etc. we needed more room. Hazel also needs a shelter from the cold Iowa winters, so a new shed was next on the list. This one was moved to Ireton to make room for a larger one.

Who said men don’t read directions?

We decided that Uncle Ed and Grandpa Bert would be very proud of these “Harskamp” boys!

Dave and Marlon are building the rafters here.

The first rafter is up!

Slow and steady wins the race…or builds the shed. With less daylight these days, Bryan isn’t getting as much done in the evening as he would like, but I think it will be done before the first snow flies!