Church Updates and Remodeling

WARNING--LONG POST WITH A LOT OF PICTURES

 

 

Now that that disclaimer is out of the way, you may read at your own risk.  I always feel bad about writing these massively long posts with tons of pictures because I forgot to update sooner.  However, it doesn't make sense to break them up into multiple smaller posts. 

 

Since we have been here in NY nearly a year, I thought it fitting to post about all of the changes that have occurred at the church here in Granville.  Since being here, we've undertaken quite a few projects at the church.  We did a few things outside that I didn't take pictures of, like spread more gravel, take out some dead shrubs, and re-paint the playground equipment. 

 

 

A few weeks ago, we held a church workday, to rake all of the stones and gravel back after the plowing season, as well as to clean out the front flower beds.  They had been let go for several years. 

 

This post will primarily consist of updates done on the inside of the building however.  This is just a random photo of a service. 

 

When we started updates, we started with the office of the pastor.  You may need to click on this photo to really see the difference.  These are the before photos.  It was just very very full of stuff and had wallpaper on the walls, and just looked rather cluttered. 

 

 

Dan and a few men from the church took off the wallpaper, repainted the bookshelves, and cleared out all of the random stuff.  It looks much more spacious now. 

 

The lobby was the next area in need of updating.  Dan sanded and varnished all of the wood trim in the lobby.  We took down this bulletin board since it wasn't being used for anything.  It had previously held missionary letters, but we moved those to the auditorium and hung them on the back wall. 

 

 

 

We removed this bulky tract table and mirror and replaced it with a small sofa table and a nice mirror.  (photo beneath)

 

It is still big enough to hold tracts without looking cluttered or bulky. 

 

 

We also got a few small armchairs, a table and lamp for the lobby.  There was previously nothing here.  Dan also installed the crown molding with the help of a man from church. 

These things sure make the lobby more homey and welcoming.   

 

This is what the lobby looks like now.

 

Another change:  The curtains in the auditorium.  These long drapes were very nice, but made the whole room quite dark.  Also, they had small tears in them, so one of the ladies in the church suggested we replace them.  Another lady in the church showed me a photo of some sheer curtains she saw online and asked me what I thought.  I said "Go ahead and order them!"

 

I will say, it took forever to figure out how to hang them, but I think we finally got them looking the way we wanted them. 

 

This was when I was just fiddling with them, trying to figure out how they hang. 

 

They really brighten the place up a TON.

 

I don't have a before picture of this, but when the men's bathroom upstairs was last painted (years ago), it was painted pink- of all colors.  Dan repainted the stalls white and the walls a light brown.  It looks much more manly now, I must say.  😀😀😀😀

 

 

Another big project Dan took on was to redo the baptistery.  The baptistery in general wasn't holding water, so he fixed that first.  Then he painted over this mural of the empty tomb.  There wasn't anything wrong with it at all, but it was in need of something fresh and updated. 

 

The church already had this big cross sitting in the attic, so Dan mounted that and put backlights behind it. 

 

These lights are remote-controlled and can change color.  I took a few photos to give you an idea. 

 

 

On Easter Sunday, we changed the color to purple and put a sash on it.  It is very tasteful.  Of course, some of the crazy colors, we don't use.  And we don't ever put it on the flashing setting, when the lights flash like Christmas lights.  😀😀😀😀

 

 

 

And this last project was by far the biggest.  The fellowship hall downstairs was in need of some repainting.  This is what it looked like before...nothing horrible.  I've certainly seen worse.  But the green made the room dark, and the paneling on the beams bothered Dan a lot (if you look closely, you can see that some of the pieces of paneling are loose).

 

 

We started by tearing off all of the paneling.  Dan re-wired a few of the electrical things so that he could mud this wall and have it be smooth, rather than look like painted concrete blocks.

 

After all the paneling was down, Dan mudded the whole thing, and put drywall on the beams, replacing the paneling.  I picked the new paint color, a light grey.  We had a mini-work day and a few people from the church came and helped us to paint the walls. 

 

 

We put this painting up, and one of our theme banners (Prayer Changes Everything).

 



Along with the fellowship hall, Dan also painted the hallways leading down to the fellowship hall, as well as the bannister and trim.  He also installed this new carpet on the stairs as the old carpet was worn and had stains in it. 

 



 

I mentioned in my last post that I was holding my first ladies brunch two Saturdays ago.  Well, this is the one and only photo I have from that!  It was a nice time.  I am planning to hold these ladies events once a quarter.  It's important for the ladies in a church to be able to fellowship together and be challenged to be the best women they can be for God.  I enjoyed planning it out and making the food for it.   

 

 

SO there is my long post about the updates at the church.  Probably a lot of people would say many of these changes were unnecessary ones.  It wasn't like the building was falling down and had to be repaired.  Most of these updates are repainting and new furniture or curtains, or a lit cross.  I used to be a person with the mentality of "It it's not broke, why fix it?"  But since marrying Dan, I can see how that thinking can be detrimental.  Dan is a man who, when he goes somewhere, puts a fresh coat of paint on everything, and tries to make everything look sharp and new.  His philosophy is that people get excited when they see something fresh and new.  At first I thought this was nonsense, but now I tend to agree with him.  I had just never thought about it before.  Walking into a church that hasn't seen an update or new paint in years and that smells like fake flowers and mothballs, makes me think "Nothing's happened here in years".  But walking in and seeing new paint, and smelling a faint smell of new ANYTHING really makes one think "Something's happening here!"

 

It's a strange thing, I know.  And perhaps I'm only changing my view because of Dan.  But I really have seen people here start to get excited and start to desire change because they SEE change.  Even if that's just a change of color in the fellowship hall.  But thankfully, that isn't the only change they see.  They also see a church that is seeing visitors come from the community.  Things are happening at Calvary Baptist in Granville, and we are so excited about that!   

In my next post, I'll show some photos of the updates we've done to the HOUSE!  See, exciting things are happening everywhere!!

😀😀😀😀

 

Gardening with the Shedd's

I tried quite hard to make a punny topic about Garden Shedd's...but it didn't make sense.  SO I ended up going with a drab title to this post. 

😀

 

 

Well, I hope you all have had an excellent week so far!  I mentioned in my last few posts about our garden and how excited I am about it.  Well, I'll post a few pictures in this post to show you what I mean.  I grew up on a farm and never really got too excited about gardening, weeding, or any of that.  But now that I've been away from it for a few years, I really miss being able to just get outside and plant things, see them grow, and tend to them. 

 

When we were living in Baltimore, I attempted to plant flowers and tomatoes, but a few birds ate my plants so I never tried again the next year.  When we moved to New York and saw the big area in our backyard, we decided this year we would try planting a garden. 

 

Almost everyone up here said that we shouldn't plant directly in the ground, but rather, build raised beds and do it that way.  But I convinced Dan that we needed to try a regular garden first and just see how it goes. 

 

A friend came over and plowed up a plot for us and we spent a few weeks tilling it and raking grass clods from it. 

 

On our anniversary (April 30th), we planted tomatoes, cantaloupe, and watermelon in empty cottage cheese containers and yogurt containers indoors.  They sprouted pretty quickly.  I honestly wasn't counting on them to come up at all since we got a lot of the seeds for 50 cents and 25 cents a packet at the dollar tree.  haha.

 

 

Two weeks ago, I transplanted them into bigger containers.  I figured we may as well go ahead and plant them outside, so we did that last week.  As you can see from the picture, Dan was very excited. 

 

 

 

I felt sort of silly outside, taking pictures of our tiny tiny squash plants and corn plants which have already come up, but hey, I'm a hobby farmer.  What can I say? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So that's the huge news about our amazing garden.  Dan is supposed to build a fence around it soon, to keep the critters out. 

Also, I love walking around the house and seeing all of the beautiful flowers.  The lilacs were blooming two weeks ago, and now it is the rhododendron.    

 

 

Also, our chickens are growing and Dan made a little cage for them so we can move them about in the yard.  Hopefully their pecking around will decrease the tick population. 

 

 

Also, I'm sort of counting my eggs before the chickens have started laying.  I can't wait to gather eggs.  Hopefully they will start laying this month though.

 

In other not-so-interesting news, we discovered this spot about a mile from our house where there are small waterfalls.  We usually do a sunday afternoon walk there each week now.  Of course, we always bring lots of plastic bags for gathering cans.  I was trying to take a panoramic photo here and must have been moving too fast...because Dan looks hilarious. 

 

 

And Gwendolyn is doing well!  She had her first visit with a pediatrician last week.  She hasn't grown much, but she is back to her birth weight.  So that's good. 

 

Dan loves to prop her up against the cushions on the couch and have father-daughter chats with her.  I think they look hilarious.  Especially Gwen though...

 

 

That's about it for now.  Hopefully my next post will be an update on the church and all the remodeling projects we've completed.  Also, I am hosting a ladies brunch this Saturday, so I will try to take some photos of that. 

Until next time!

 

A new Shedd Addition.

When I ended my last post on this blog, I genuinely thought I would be posting more about the garden, our life here in NY and not focusing on the baby. 

Time sort of got away from me though and I never had a chance to post about the garden. 

Our baby arrived on May 15th, 2018 at 8:29am. 

 

I really was starting to think that I would go past my due date, so I was trying quite hard to not focus on the pregnancy anymore.  One of the staff ladies at the nursing home ministry we lead each week predicted that the baby would arrive on Mothers Day, so part of me was ready just in case.  But the day came and went. 

Monday I decided that I was going to get a lot done.  I cleaned the entire house and helped Dan plant out in the garden.  We also went out to eat that day at Golden Corral.  My mother had given us a gift card to GC for our anniversary, and so we were using it before the baby came.  While I was sitting there enjoying their fried chicken and mashed potatoes (which I could eat all day), I remembered that an old wives tale I've heard said that eating pineapple brings on labor.  So for dessert, instead of getting a huge ice cream cone with all the toppings, I got a big plate of pineapple chunks and ate them.  That evening after getting home, we cleaned out the garage (quite a task, to say the least). 

 

That night at 10:30, I felt my first contraction (though I didn't really know what a contraction felt like, so it was a guess).  I waited for about 45 minutes and called my midwife.  She suggested I try to get some sleep and call her back if they didn't subside but got more intense.  I finally called her back at 2:30am to let her know that they had intensified and that I couldn't sleep through them or between them.  She and the other midwife headed to our house at that time.  By the time they arrived, Dan had the pool blown up, the bed made, and coffee brewing :) 

 

The next three hours I just slept between contractions, and was in the birth pool most of the time. 

 

 The labor got intense at about 7am.  I have never been one who is very tolerant of pain, so the pain level was what I worried about the most throughout my pregnancy. 

When my contractions began at 10:30pm, I told Dan "If this is what giving birth is, I don't know why women complain.  It doesn't feel all that bad; only slightly uncomfortable." 

 

By 7am, I retracted that statement.  :)

Giving birth was by far the most pain I've ever experienced in my life.  Finally, after what felt like days, little Gwendolyn Jayne was born at 8:29. 

I mostly was in a hazy state of mind, but I remember Dan "catching" her and saying "It's a GIRL!"

 

And I remember my midwives putting her up on my chest and myself saying "She's so slimy!"

It wasn't quite how I expected it.   

 

Gwendolyn weighed in at 8 lbs exactly and was 21 inches long. 

 

 

After resting for about two hours, my midwife escorted us to the hospital, where I had to go to have stitches.  I've never been admitted into a hospital except for when I was born, so I was quite nervous.  We weren't expecting to have to go to the hospital, but because my tears were so severe, my midwife thought it best. 

I have to say though, I had such a positive experience at this particular hospital.  The nurses and doctor were SO kind and friendly and funny.  They were talkative and kept my mind off of the stitches. 

Dan took this photo while he and Gwendolyn were waiting for the procedure to be done. 

 

After it was done, we started driving home and actually got stopped by the police on the northway.  We were informed that Dan was following the Ford Focus in front of us too closely.  The police officer saw me sitting in the backseat with Gwen and said "Ahh, a new baby.  How old?" 

Dan explained that Gwen was just five hours old and that we were just coming back from the hospital.  After checking Dan's license, the officer came back and said that he just couldn't stand to give a new mother and baby a ticket so he warned us to not follow cars closely (we really weren't even that close) and wished us good luck. 

Of course we were very grateful to not get a ticket.  The whole situation was sort of embarrassing though since two cars actually pulled us over. 

 

As you can see, Gwendolyn was not amused.

 

Life with a new baby has been interesting.  We are all adjusting to the newborn schedule. 

 

Dan enjoys being a father.  :)

 

And of course, we are just completely in love with our little Gwendolyn Jayne. 

 

 

I promise, the next post WILL be about other things than just the baby.  Although...I'm sure it might have SOME pictures of her in it.  Forgive me if I overdo on the pictures.  Being my first baby, I've been going a little crazy with snapping photos.  She's too cute and will only be an infant once. 

 

 

Baby Shower and Baby Preparation

Wow.  Have the past nine months flown by or what?!

It's sometimes hard to believe that (hopefully) this month, I'll have a baby at some point. 

I haven't posted much about it, since focusing on it so much seems to make the time go more slowly for me.  But now that I'm in the final stretch, I figured that I'd devote an entire post to the baby and the baby preparations. 

 

Of course, we haven't seen the baby since the one and only ultrasound we had in November when the baby was 12 weeks old.  By now, it is much bigger and probably has much less room to move around.  I sometimes like to just look at this picture though.  I think its big head and tummy are so cute.  And I say to Dan that it's brain takes after his.  Maybe its just me, but I keep thinking I can see either the skull or brain line. 

 

 

After we found out that our insurance wouldn't cover the baby or any costs related to the pregnancy, we decided to not have any more ultrasounds.  That was the reason why we decided to be surprised with the gender also.  But hey, I think it has been more fun this way.  I imagine what the baby will look like...(I'm seriously hoping it looks like Dan). 

 

Since I found out I was pregnant, I decided right away that a homebirth with a midwife would be the way to go for me.  Several of my sisters have gone that route in their childbirths, and have had good experiences. 

It's a concept that many people don't fully understand: why one would choose to have their baby at home in what may seem more primitive as opposed to going to the hospital and having a conventional birth.  When people ask me about it, I just tell them that I would prefer to have my baby in the comfort of my home and with the only people being people I have gotten to know personally. 

 

While many people probably get to know the doctor or OBGYN who helps deliver their babies at the hospitals, it's unlikely that the nurses know them personally.  Also, the doctor isn't with you the whole time.  As I understand it, in most cases, the doctor is brought in at or just before the actual birth. 

And not even to mention the fact that because the expenses would be out-of-pocket...going with a midwife and homebirth would be much less expensive than going to a hospital. 

 

 I've really enjoyed getting to know the three midwives I'll potentially be working with.  The owner of the midwifery and midwife I've had most of my meetings with is out of the country for the entire month of May, so there is a chance she will not be there for the birth of our baby. 

But the two other midwives she works with are wonderful people and have really helped to  make this pregnancy smooth and easy for me.  They've helped to answer all of my questions and reassure me the entire time. 

 

That being said, one of the things I love about my midwife is that while she is required by law to tell me about the state regulated blood tests and different ultrasounds, she doesn't require them.  I have only had blood drawn twice during my pregnancy (the only two times in my LIFE actually!).  One was to check my blood type because I didn't even know what it was, and to check my thyroid.  The other, was for iron levels. 

I passed on a lot of different tests that, had I gone with a hospital, I would have been required to have.     

 

Another thing I love about my midwives is that they are personable and down-to-earth with me.  The last time I went to an appointment in Albany, the receptionist asked me if I wanted some maternity clothes and then gave me a huge bag full of really NICE, name brand maternity tops all in my size.  I thought that was just so nice.  Especially since I had been alternating through the same three tops for a few weeks. 

 

The ladies in my church are all very supportive of me and many of them love to guess the gender of the baby based on how I am carrying it (although my midwife says everyone carries babies differently and no two women are alike in that way).

 

Two weeks ago, I had planned to go to this huge children/baby consignment sale I had seen advertised on facebook in the winter time.  I put it on my calendar in December and had been telling Dan for weeks about it and that I wanted to go. 

The thing about this consignment sale was that it was open from 9am-12 noon, then re-open from 1pm-3pm with everything being 50% off.  Being the thrifty person I am, I decided I would go at 1pm and get some good deals, even if it meant missing out on lots of items for sale earlier in the day. 

 

The Friday night before the sale, Dan was asking me all about my plans for the next day.  I told him about how I would be going to the sale and going during the 1/2 off part of day.  He got all weird and starting asking me if I could please go in the morning instead because he wanted to take me on a lunch date at 1pm. 

At first I resisted because I really like to get deals, and also because I don't like it when I've been planning something for months and then someone tries to change it a few hours before. 

 

Finally I gave in, and the next morning, I got to the consignment sale which was in this massive old warehouse.  There were aisles and aisles of children and baby things.  I only looked through the books, and through one aisle.  I ended up getting a boppy lounger pillow for $5, along with two extra covers for it for $2.  I found a portable infant bed which can fold up (super convenient) for $5, a nursing cover and car shades for $5.  And I found a small black diaper bag for $5.  After paying for the things, I headed home.  I texted Dan when I got home and sent him some pictures of the things I got and he started frantically texting me back saying things like "Wow, you were really quick.  Maybe you should take a nap now.  Get some rest." 

I thought that was odd. 

 

I started getting suspicious when two of the church people pulled into the church parking lot (which we can see from our house window) and they went into the church through the sidedoor.  I texted Dan and just said that I might head over to the church and see if the ladies needed help cleaning (since I assumed they were cleaning the church).  He called me and said that I shouldn't worry about it and that I should just have fun and rest.  As more and more cars pulled in, I started realizing that maybe it was going to be a shower for me...

Dan called me then and admitted that he wasn't planning to take me to lunch at all, but he just needed me to not be at the consignment at 1pm, since that was when I needed to be at the church. 

 

Such a sneaky guy.... 

 

 

 

I tried to snap a few pictures, but of course I missed some people as some came late and some weren't able to stay. 

It was such a kind gesture to throw a baby shower for me.  I really enjoyed my time. 

 

 

They really did shower me with gifts too!

 

One of the ladies was snapping photos as I was opening gifts.  So pardon my odd facial expressions.  My candid faces are not too attractive sometimes! :D

 

It was such a nice surprise!  Quite unexpected!  It was a good thing that I ended up not getting much at the consignment sale after all. 

 

 

 

I feel very ready for the baby to come.  I'm drinking raspberry leaf tea and eating dates every day.  A few weeks ago, we picked up our birth pool rental and set it up and gave it a trial run.  I recently re-arranged this room as well so that it is more spacious with the pool set up in it. 

 



 

And the last picture!  This was taken last week, when I was 36 weeks pregnant.  I am 37 now. 

 

 

 

 

I hope you all are having a fantastic day.  The next post about the baby that you see will be a birth announcement hopefully!  :D