13 Fun Family Pandemic Projects

The 2020 pandemic has brought out a significant number of projects at my house. So, I thought I’d write a (satirical) post to give you 13 Fun Family Pandemic Projects.

1) Ration Snacks – In our house, we found that we can sit and eat a bag of chips or most snacks in one sitting. So, we rationed them.

2) Move the TV to the other side of the room – our TV used to be on the right, and we moved it to the left as you see below. Luckily, we didn’t have to move any cable!

3) Replace a broken sump pump – Definitely don’t want water overflowing.

4) Tile an entryway – I have to give a shoutout to my friend Dan who helped tremendously with this (he basically did it – LOL!) While nobody will ever come in this door, this looks so much better!

5) Add new electrical outlets – All of our bedrooms have had at least one outlet added, often because the existing outlets were not in the best place.

6) Dig and bury a sump drain – since we moved in the sump drain was an above ground tube that drained right out by the tree. This created a swamp by the tree. We could not even mow it and we were afraid about gators.

7) Build a closet computer desk – because…why not. Right?

8) Replace the lights on your porch – Do you like wasps? I don’t. Our lights before had a gap between the light and the can. When we pulled out a bulb to replace it, there were three wasp nests inside. We have 6 lights like this that we needed to replace. All had nests in them! We replaced them with lights that do not have any slit for a wasp or bug to get into. Totally worth it!

9) Sign your will – We have wanted to do this for almost 20 years. Last year we went through Financial Peace University (recommended) and we committed to getting our wills done. We were supposed to sign the week we were shut down due to COVID-19. Once Phase 1 opened we were finally able to sign our wills. Huge for us!

10) Build stairs to the bunk bed – my daughter has been asking for this since we moved in…finally got to it. It used to have a ladder like thing…but this is better.

11) Build tool hangers – Have tools…why not use them? This was actually a bit easier than I thought, and turned out pretty nice. I used most of my tools to build these. Good thing I had them. ๐Ÿ™‚

12) Build a fire-pit – The family had a fire-pit night and noticed some rust in there. This started a conversation about alternatives. One thing led to another. New fire pit! Hope to have you over soon. ๐Ÿ™‚

13) Paint a dresser – We have one child who reorganized and got rid of a dresser, and another who needed a dresser. Worked out great. But, it did need a paint job…primarily on the drawers.

I am hopeful that we will not have another quarantine. But, if we do, you now have 13 Fun Family Pandemic Projects! Don’t do them all in one day!

Love and blessin’s,

David

Quarantine: Rest or Work? Yes!

Hey Friends, I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted, and this one will be different.

Right now I am about to start the fourth week of Quarantine due to COVID-19.

The youth pastor at our church asked several of the youth leaders if we would do a 3 minute devotional for the students. I did one, and I thought I would just share it here for you.ย  Below the video I’m adding a few more comments that may be helpful

Work: Produces something and benefits someone.

Examples (besides the things people do where they get paid by an employer or someone else for doing):

  • Chores – whether you are asked to do them, or you do them because they are needed.
  • Homework/schoolwork – you probably didn’t want to do it, but it produces a grade that should benefit you (hopefully) ๐Ÿ™‚
  • Serving – even at church – I suppose you might categorize serving as an act of worship, which is fine, but if we are honest, serving can be hard, and sometimes not what we wanted to do. But, it does produce something and benefit someone.

My point about what is neither work or rest is also important. There are simply things that are vital to life: eating, exercising, sleeping for instance. God clearly does not tell us we can only sleep one day a week. That isn’t the type of rest he was talking about on the Sabbath.

Similarly, reading the bible, praying, and worshiping God are vital to our life. They are not work. Well, you might say, well don’t you benefit when you read the Bible. Yes, but I also benefit when I eat and drink and sleep. This is a benefit that is vital to my existence. Therefore, I would not say that is “work”.

And, I love how Jesus covered the topic of the Sabbath in Mark 2 when he said:

27ย Jesus said to them, โ€œThe Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.ย 28ย So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.โ€ย 

I pray you pick up the heart of what this devotion is about.

Work and rest are not the totality of life. God does say that we should have more work than rest, which does not make work more important, or rest less important. I think God just knows how we are designed.

Please take care of yourself. I love and miss you, and I look forward to seeing you soon!

Love and blessin’s,

Flatland Dave

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Quarantine: Trapped inside? Lie!

Hey friends, I know it’s been a bit since I’ve shared. Since we have been in quarantine these last few weeks, our youth pastor asked some adults to do a video devotion for the teens. This is one that I put out there. I pray this blesses you.

I also pray you and yours are staying safe and well in this time!

Just wanted to give you a link to this text Proverbs 17:24, or even to Proverbs.

Love and blessin’s,

Flatland Dave

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