Building Classically
In March of 2009, my husband demolished the addition on the back of our house. It had wall-to-wall crank windows, a flat roof, ceiling tiles that wreaked of mildew, and three layers of berber carpet. The roof was leaking and we found black mold in the ceiling tiles. My sweet husband is a dreamer. He loves to make plans. Big plans.
He sketched up our new addition and got to work; one nail at a time. Not long after starting the rebuild we participated in Financial Peace University by Dave Ramsey. We felt very strongly that we needed to put the addition on hold while we worked our way out of debt. After paying off about 80% of our debt and interest rates reaching record lows, we began working on the addition again with the hopes of refinancing the house once it was complete. The entire addition was paid for with cash. When Josh got to a step that he was unsure of, he’d read a book about it or find a YouTube video that showed him the step-by-step instructions. He learned new words, used new tools, and surprised us all every step of the way. He put his high school geometry skills to use while framing and building the roof and proved over and over the old saying: measure twice, cut once!
I was an observer for the majority of this process; constantly going behind with a broom or dust pan. He never showed any signs of being discouraged. He never feared that he couldn’t do it. He just worked.
Every spare weekend, many late nights, a few vacation days. He worked so very hard. On occasion our dads and a few close friends came to help. Those days were full of laughter and much thanks. There’s something so rewarding about working with your hands long and hard beside a friend and then sitting down to a meal together before the day’s through. Like days of old when neighbors came together to build a house. If a barn needed fixing, the community would come together to get it done. Many hands make light work.
God is so good.
I began to think today as I recalled the journey in my mind; Josh is a classical learner. He has slowly built the foundation of his skills through studying, reading, and hands-on, life experiences. There is no task too large for him to accomplish because he knows, with confidence, that he can learn whatever is needed to conquer the next mountain. He is a lifetime learner and he loves it. Realizing this gave me a huge boost of confidence in our classical homeschool journey. Once again, where I fall short, Josh is right there to balance me out. I was created to be his helpmeet. With each passing year I realize more and more that we make a pretty great pair.
Here are some pictures of our journey. I guess I haven’t taken any pictures of the outside of the room since it’s been finished. I’ll have to do that this weekend.
~audrey