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Recently, an article about a "House of Abraham" project caugh my eye, or rather my newsfeeds.  The  project to build an affordable Habitat house for a local family was planned, funded, and built by a local group of Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Hartford, Connecticut, USA.  A little further web research shows that there are numerous other similar projects both underway and completed throughout the US.

What a fantastic idea, a grand project, a great way to bring people together to work together for something that's literally constructive.

Dave

Before the Girls came over, Nat and I enjoyed a relaxing morning out on our little patio. We have a little friend who comes by now and again and sure 'nough he showed up for a mid-morning snack. He has a little buddy that he scurries about the garden with, through the flowers and in and out of the little wood pile down by the stream, but we're thinking he's extra shy 'cause he don't come round much! Every now and again, however, he'll show up and join "Chipper" at the base of the bird feeder to feast away on sunflower seeds. So I thought I would take a couple of pictures as he was so willing to pose!!

As I'm now starting to get a bit house-bound and dusty, Nat and I decided to take a trip into St. Catharines and do a Costco run Thursday. We also headed over to our favourite bakery for some of their great crusty kaisers, along with giving a donation to Habitat for Humanity (we had some inside doors that we knew they could re-use). After lunch and gassing up (cough, cough, choke, choke!), we wanted to drop by to see our good friends, Cecil and Floris, but Floris was a bit under the weather, so we just headed home. At least I had a chance to get out in the fresh air and rid myself of some cobwebs!!

That evening we headed down to Port Colborne to Lucas' baseball game.  And what a great game it was! Lucas was in fine pitching form - didn't let in any runs - and we hooted and hollered for all we were worth. Lucas loves to pitch and he's very good at it.  He's got quite the fast ball!! The park they were playing at was beautiful and we were all remarking how nice it was and extremely well manicured. Four baseball diamonds, several soccer pitches, bike paths and grassy knolls - you couldn't ask for more in a good sports park. So a good time was had by all as we hooted, hollered, sat around in perfect weather and watched our guys beat the pants off the opposing team!

This morning (Friday) I decided to get some weekend chores done - cleaning and laundry. I must be in a good mood because I've even taken down the shower curtain and tossed it into the laundry, along with cleaning off the shower curtain hooks!! I've also tossed a couple of rugs in there just for old time sake!  I'm sorry, but who the hell does that on a regular basis??? So now that I'm knee deep into it (I'm only taking a lunch break right now and posting this), I'll be thinking it's Sunday, the day I usually do laundry. Oh well, another Sunday morning I'll have free to enjoy - yawn!!!! Gotta go, I'm being beeped!

What has been a closely held secret by some local governments has now become public - who may get what from nearly $200 million in federal money for long-term recovery projects countywide.

It hasn't yet been officially approved by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, but a proposed list has been sent to Washington from the Mississippi Development Authority. The list of projects approved to split $198.4 million in grant money contains good news for some agencies and bad news for others.

For instance, more than $7 million had been requested for local school districts, but they will apparently receive nothing. Yet Bay St. Louis and Waveland stand to get a combined $21 million-plus to build a pair of marinas three miles from each other along the same beachfront.

Of the total, $105.8 million will go to Hancock County government. Bay St. Louis can expect to get $37.6 million and Waveland, $17.4 million.

The top items approved so far on the county's list are $40 million for a new jail and $50 million to four-lane Mississippi 603 from just above Interstate 10 to Mississippi 43. However, the highway project was recently thrown into doubt when state transportation Commissioner Wayne Brown said a number of road projects - including the 603 widening - may not be done because of rising gasoline prices.

Next up is the continuing struggle to attract another grocer to the Bay-Waveland area. Mayor Longo in Waveland previously said an announcement was coming early in the year but he evidently spoke too soon.  Now Bay St Louis is willing to spend some of the allocation of the $200 million dollars discussed above to buy and renovate one of the abandoned shopping centers to attract another chain to Bay St Louis. Rouses continues to be the chain that city officials are courting. JR Welsh also filed this report:

Weary of waiting nearly three years for a full-service grocery to return, city leaders here have hatched a new plan: Build, and somebody will come.

Well, they wouldn't exactly build. But they would buy and renovate. A plan by the Favre administration would use $5 million in federal grants to purchase a property suitable for a grocery, and then offer a low-cost lease to a grocery chain.

The city has been without a major grocery store since Winn-Dixie folded its tent and left after Hurricane Katrina. Hungry citizens have few options: Wal-Mart in Waveland, a supermarket in Diamondhead, or drive many miles elsewhere to stock their kitchens.

The documented holdup to Rouses opening up is the ever present 500 pound gorilla of insurance. The story continues:

"We are talking to Bay St. Louis officials," said Donald Rouse, managing partner of Rouse's Supermarkets, headquartered in Houma, La. The company operates 32 stories in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Rouse said there's lots to weigh when deciding on a new market, especially here.

"Insurance is awfully difficult to obtain. It would be quite a bit of money and risk for us," he said. But, he added, "We're interested in that market and we're still trying to put the right deal together."

Lets take the scenic route across the Bay Bridge on Highway 90 to downtown Gulfport and today's Harrison County Board of Supervisor's meeting. On the agenda is a story Slabbed has been following for quite some time, the fight to save the old Gulfport library building. Melissa Scallan filed this report for the Sun Herald:

The Harrison County Board of Supervisors on Monday could decide whether to object to the Gulfport Library being considered for landmark status.

On the board's agenda is an item to accept a letter from the state Department of Archives and History saying the permit committee will consider naming the library a Mississippi Landmark.

The committee made the decision at its June 12 meeting, and the public has until July 19 to submit letters or e-mails concerning the library.

The board also will hear from representatives of We the People, a group that has been diligent in its efforts to save the library from demolition.

If the supervisors object to the library being designated a landmark, the decision will be made by the Board of Trustees for Archives and History, likely at its October meeting. If the board doesn't object, the permit committee will vote on the issue at its August meeting.

Supervisors said earlier this month they likely will object, not because they want to tear down the building, but because they don't want to put public money into a building that can't be used for a library anymore. Also, they have said insurance would be too high for a building so close to the water.

Even if the library is named a landmark, supervisors aren't obligated to repair the building.

"The board doesn't have a burning desire to tear down that building," Supervisor Kim Savant said when Archives and History made its decision. Savant represents District 2, which includes the library. "But what we have said is that we will not put taxpayer dollars into the building."

We wish We the People luck in finding money to restore the building.

Its back to Bay St Louis to find out what Habitat for Humanity has been up to there. Habitat has proven, along with other non profits like KaBOOM to be among the best friends the slabbed have made since the storm. Sarah Cure writing for the Seacoast Echo filed this report:

A house, depending on the square footage, usually takes about one year to build, but Bay-Waveland's Habitat for Humanity division will build an astonishing seven homes in five days while working around the clock.

Roughly 200 volunteers from Illinois, Florida, New Jersey, Texas and even Northern Ireland are "blitz-building" this week on Dicks St. in Waveland for five days straight and almost 24 hours a day. Seven Hancock County families will have the opportunity to move in their new homes within two to three weeks.

"By the end of July, our affiliate will have built a total of 77 homes in Hancock County since Hurricane Katrina," Director of Communications for Habitat Bay-Waveland Dave Walker said. "We play a big role in the solution."

It has only been one month since a "blitz-build" was conducted in Bay St. Louis during the 2008 Carter Work Project in which 10 houses were constructed in five days.

"......now we are doing an extra seven," Walker said. "This speaks about the determination and tenacity of this affiliate and how we are passionate and driven to get this community back on its feet."

Finally we take "Old 90" over to New Orleans and find that GO Zone bonds allocated to rebuilding the City are going unused, the victim of uncertain credit markets and governmental red tape. Kate Moran at the Times Picayune has the story:

For the most part, Gulf Opportunity Zone bonds have proven a powerful means of seeding private sector investment in the parishes ransacked by Hurricanes Katrina or Rita. They have had limited impact in only one place: New Orleans.

More than 40 developers with housing, hotel or retail projects in New Orleans have applied for a bond allocation in the past two years. Seven of those have managed to place the bonds in the private market and close their deals. That means a vast amount of borrowing capacity remains unused in the city that arguably needs it the most.

Some of the developers who let their bond allocation lapse simply decided to tap another public incentive, such as historic tax credits. Others grew fed up with some of the rules the state imposed on companies that wanted the bonds. In still other cases, developers had to forfeit their allocation because their projects did not pass muster with Wall Street investors waiting out the turbulence in the credit markets.

"There is just so much turmoil in the credit markets, that even if you have what may be a good project, a lot of investors in these types of securities are sitting on the sidelines," said Scott Willis, a local real estate and commercial finance lawyer.

That, my friends, was what Wesley Gibson asked me after a grueling day. It was from Wanted, alright. And James McAvoy's hot.

I wrapped up my sort of boring week by meeting up with my book club. It turned out the boys were busy so it became an all-girls dinner. It was a highlight, definitely. I got to borrow a Dilbert book from Nicole which got me through the long wait by the taxi station. Did I mention the whole of Powerplant Mall was on sale? I got some love from Goldie, my new credit card, hahaha. I'll worry about it in the next few weeks.

I woke up early today, pretty odd for a Saturday. I, together with very close friends, joined the Habitat For Humanity housebuild in Pasay (right in Malibay, yummy friend!). I have newfound respect for construction workers. It's a very tough job. I shoveled sand into sacks, transported and passed heavy bricks for hours! I am feeling sore; I actually have two Salonpas strips in both my arms right now. It was a total workout which compensated for jogging only once last week. We also did it the Pinoy way and headed to the nearest carinderia for lunch. It was humbling and still awesome.

They wrapped up the build after lunch apparently because we were fast and our group got the job done in half a day. We just changed shirts and as filthy and perhaps stinky as we were, we trooped to Glorietta to watch Wanted. It was fun! Except for Rach and Laine who practically have been with me almost everyday, we also enjoyed the company of Brinie and Iceman.

I headed home with an annoying headache. I then caught up with much-needed sleep and was only roused by Erwin's text about Night Watch. See, because I'm impulsive when I see a 'Sale' tag in books, I bought the Night Watch trilogy (which I found out today is actually a tetralogy!) at Fully Booked. To be fair to me, they were 20% off! I bought three others too but that's beside the point. Anyway, he hinted at wanting to read them so I have to cover them tomorrow so I can hand them over on Monday. He is one person I totally trust with my books, apart from my book club friends, but as a doting "mother" to my brood I just have to protect them with plastic before lending them. Okay, I can feel you judging. Please stop; it's bad for your health.

I also kind of missed House so I watched all its season finales. Season two's the least favorable one for me. The first and the fourth are still battling it out. As I watched the 13th episode of the last season though, I was once again rattled by House's lines that seem to have chased me closer to home.

In a gist, he wrote an evaluation for Cuddy. Now, when I'm in my playful mood, I think of how I am Cuddy to someone who resembles House so much. I haven't gone to the point of telling him that but the parallel's kinda nice to ponder on. Anyway, House had me again with this:

You act like employees should fear and respect you but your eyes tell us...actually your eyes tell us nothing because we're looking at your boobs. Which tells us that you're desperate to have someone jump on you and tell you they love you one grunted syllable at a time. What you want, you run away from; what you need, you don't have a clue; what you've accomplished makes you proud. But you're still miserable.

Wow, how awesome and accurate was that?

Add to this is a discovery that, though undiagnosed medically, I may be suffering from depersonalization disorder. I don't freak out at the discovery. In fact, I'm somehow proud that there is something that explains what I'm feeling. I'm not really normal, you know.

To cap this entry, here are some pictures from the week that was:

During our send-off party for a colleague. Oh, that's the Deputy Chief's office right there.

Because we're crazy and happy.

Taken by Rach at Toys 'R us in Midtown. I love Tigger, heehee.

We also bid Chola farewell. Wonderful person. No bull.

Tadaaa! This job's harder than it looks, especially if you have had no practice. Take a look at Natalya dangling from my pocket.

Taking a break. Look for the morphed Granny Goose and Pulis Oyster. Yup, that's me!

Volunteers, (almost) all. It was a fun day. I would not mind doing it again. At least after the sores have died down.

I hope you're all having a blast!!! You should be! You deserve it.

• Great staff meeting on Monday.  Shared with the staff that God is calling me to sacrifice more and more...lots of fun discussing that one.
• Road kill incident on Tuesday morning of last week.  Baby turtle.  That's all I have to say about that.
• Wednesday morning breakfast with my good friend Jeremy.  Always a great time.
• Looking at Honda Civic's for further improved gas mileage and continuing to scale back our budget.
• Friday didn't come soon enough.   A very long and extremely busy week at work.
• Note to all:  cell phones make for a pretty good makeshift flashlight.
• Habitat for Humanity on Saturday.  Fun and incredibly gratifying.
• Saturday night setup for the last time in a while.
• My Sunday morning mood - honored, humbled, and grateful to be serving God and the people of UpRising Church.
• One Prayer series continues as Perry Noble delivered our message.  Uhhh....WOW!!!
• UpRising 411 gathering last night was great.  I already see great potential in these and other people in our church right now. 
• This morning I'm still obsessed with gas mileage.  Also noticed that I spent almost zero time alone with my family this weekend.  That can't happen again.
• Looking forward to a "stay-cation" vacation soon.

That's it for now.  Later peeps!

Girma is from Ethiopia and has been in the states for four and a half years.  He has a wife and a young daughter and now a new beautiful home.  I am proud that our church peeps came out to help out this wonderful guy and his family.

Included in today's activities were hauling trash and scrap, laying sod, painting, caulking, cleaning, vacuuming, finish carpentry, wood floor installation, more cleaning, pressure washing, more painting, door hardware installation, major appliance installation and lots and lots of GOOF(ING) OFF (inside joke - you had to be there.)

All I can say is that it was a blast!!!  It was great meeting and working with so many wonderful people.  I can't wait for the next build later on in the year.

Fred and his team at One Project Closer invite you to send them Before and After photos of a home project completed this spring or summer, along with a description of how you did it. Each Sunday they will post the week's winning project photos and make a donation in the winner's name to Habitat for Humanity. At the end of the summer, one Before and After project submission will be selected to receive a 50$ gift card for a home improvement store. Actually, Fred explains it all better here.

Habitat for Humanity is a great organization doing meaningful work in communities where it is most needed. Check Fred's site for each week's winner, and think about submitting an entry or making a donation of your own while you're there. You don't have to be a blogger or even mildly tech-savvy to do it. Just email your photos to Fred, and if your project is chosen, he'll do the rest. Good luck!

A reminder for the people of the UC...don't forget we're supporting the local Habitat For Humanity this weekend.  We will gather in the Starbucks parking lot on Hwy 70 on Saturday morning and carpool to our worksite starting at 6:15 am.  Don't be late!  If you want to drive to the site, you can find directions here.  Fill out your release form early here.

Our workday starts at 7:00 am and ends at 3:30 pm.

I hope to see you there!

A disabled Weatherford woman will soon move into her new home, courtesy of one of the most well-known charity organizations in the world. Trinity Habitat for Humanity will be dedicating the house of Kylie Norton this Saturday.

“[She] has been a wonderful partner, helping build her house and put in her sweat equity…to make her dream come true,” Gage Yager, director of Trinity Habitat, said.

Her dream is a wheelchair-accessible home that features no-step entrances, high wall plugs, low light switches, an accessible kitchen sink, a roll-in shower, and more.

“Whenever we work with a homeowner that has some special needs, we will…learn exactly what those needs are and [customize] the house,” Yager said.

This is just one house of the 35 houses that Trinity Habitat will build this year. The non-profit organization has expanded its reach with chapters in Johnson, Parker and Wise Counties.

Yager believes that the success of the organization is linked to the partnership with the homeowners. “We don’t believe in give-away. We believe in partnership. It’s not about what we’re going to do for a homeowner. It’s about what we’re going to do with a homeowner. And the difference between ‘for’ and ‘with’ is monumental.”

Qualifying for a Habitat house requires a lot of hard work. “It’s not the easiest thing to get a Habitat house,” he said. The applicant must not only exhibit need, but must spend 300 hours working on his new home and attend classes on home ownership.

“It’s what they can contribute to change the trajectory of themselves and their families,” he said.

Once the new homeowner gets the house, he gets a 30 year, zero percent mortgage. The foreclosure rate speaks for itself. “Of the 330 houses we’ve built [since 1989], we foreclose on less than three percent,” Yager said.

Habitat exhibits a multi-faceted approach to home-building. One of its programs is A Brush with Kindness, which focuses on refurbishing rather than building. “We rehab existing homes for very low-income home-owners,” he said. After the crew gets done with the refurbishing, “it looks like a new house.”

Habitat for Humanity builds homes in over 90 countries, and Trinity Habitat is no exception. Build the Border is a program that partners with a Habitat for Humanity affiliate in the Mexican cities Matamoras and Reynosa. “One can imagine the need in a border town is extraordinary,” he said.

Trinity Habitat organizes week-long mission trips to these border cities. “They don’t have as much volunteerism down there as we do,” he said. “When we get to send money and bodies to build homes, it makes a huge difference for them.”

For people who are really gung-ho about building homes, AmeriCorps offers an opportunity equal to their enthusiasm.

“AmeriCorps is essentially a domestic version of the Peace Corps,” he said. Volunteers are often college students. They spend 11 to 12 months with the Peace Corps and can chose to dedicate that time to Habitat for Humanity.

Members get an educational award, a living stipend, and free housing. In addition, they get to “give back, learn some new skills and trades, [and] maybe go someplace totally in a different part of the country,” Yager said.

The opportunities to help Trinity Habitat are as diverse as its needs. Donors, house sponsors, committee members, construction workers, office volunteers and AmeriCorps members are all important to the Trinity Habitat mission.

For more information, go to trinityhabitat.org or call 817-926-9219.

The KDKR Community Spotlight will feature an interview with Gage Yager this Saturday morning at 10 and this Sunday at 9.

Submitted by MATTHEW KUCHEM.

This Friday and Saturday is one of my favorite Habitat events called Power Women, Power Tools.  We seriusly get hundreds of women in pink t's and hard hats out to a location to build homes and we have the best time.  This year is our biggest yet, nearly 300 women expected and it's been extended to 2 days.  For anyone who knows me, you know how much I love working with Habitat for Humanity so this you know I am having a great time preparing for it.  We are expecting a lot of media (yay I am earning my keep) and some talented and powerful women.

I'll post photos as soon as I can. For anyone who would be interested in participating in this event next year, we can't do it without sponsors so please contact me and help us build more homes and spread the word!

Today some newsletters I subscribe to have popped up and so I though about putting out there the links to maybe get you thinking about ways you might be able to participate.

The first one is fairly easy, can be worked on in your own home at your pace, and very little interaction is necessary in order to accomplish a worthy goal. It is Project Linus.  A National organization with many state/city chapters. The more rural areas may not have a close chapter, and if not, you can contact them to try and start your own.  Here is the website:  http://www.projectlinus.org/index.html

I like to sew and it is a great one for me to work with.  Some chapters may be lucky enough to get products donated, but generally you are on your own in rounding up the materials needed to sew a blanket.  

Please read through all the tabs and sign up for the newsletter.  Many of the local chapters issue their own newsletter, as well.  If you don't want to work through Project Linus, then think about calling a local hospital or children's service organization and make and donate blankets locally. You could start your own informal blanket giving group.  Note that Project Linus has some strict size and condition requirements given on their website for making blankets to donate; you might want to follow their requirements in making and donating locally on your own.

Another cause is one of orphaned children in Africa my uncle and his family in Baltimore are involved with through their church.  He was a Peace Corps worker/teacher in Brazil for many years when he was younger and has some knowledge of hard times these countries face.  Many churches have donated money, materials and time on this and it is all coming together although the red tape in some ways makes it slow going.  Nevertheless, spirits are not daunted and the children they are helping are responding positively.  Here is the website: http://www.akcli.org/  He spent two months last year in Africa donating his time and energy in getting the village built.  They only recently got water piped in.   And here is their blogspot you can subscribe to also http://akcli.blogspot.com/

And of course, Habitat for Humanity, is well known with lots of opportunities. http://www.habitat.org/

Volunteering locally is always needed.  No matter how small, all acts of kindness will be remembered and hopefully passed forward.

The house is looking great! If you haven't already, swing by and check it out.

We applaud Janice and Hilary’s volunteerism and will strive to find ways over the next few months to make an impact with a larger group effort.

Here is more information about Habitat for Humanity:

Habitat for Humanity is a faith-based organization that makes comfortable living available to families in need at manageable rates. Contrary to popular belief, Habitat for Humanity does not simply give away houses. Instead, the recipient is required to put in 500 hours of work on the site and can then purchase the house at a lowered rate with 0% interest on loans. For many, this makes a world of difference.

Though Habitat is a faith-based organization, not all volunteers are Christian, or do the recipients of houses have to be Christian in order to be eligible. Many schools and universities have their own chapters and volunteers can choose to donate their time over spring break to travel with their chapter to an area in special need of help in what’s called the Collegiate Challenge.

Founded in 1976, Habitat for Humanity has since built over 200,000 houses and supplied as many families with a comfortable means of living. Since the East King County chapter’s creation in 1988, 72 houses have been built across Bellevue, Carnation, Redmond, Snoqualmie, Kirkland, Newcastle, Sammamish and Issaquah.

If you think you’d like to volunteer with Habitat, or simply learn more about their organization, visit www.habitatekc.org.

I have signed the family up for the local gym again.  I have done pretty well with going.  I missed today but I went Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  I am looking for a new social networking site to track my progress.  SparkPeople is ok but it feels a bit busy for my tastes.  Ironically, for its "busy" front, I see very little chat or social activity in the forums.  It may just be the ones I go too.  They have a constant growth in material so obviously it is working well for someone.  I may need to give it another try later.

So far I am just doing some cardio to get back into the swing of things.  I started with 20 minutes the first day and moved to 30 there after.  I am going to work towards doing hour long sessions again.  Before I was buring about 1200 calories a workout.  I hope to bring that up to 2000 eventually.  I will also start working strength training next week.  I will bring out the old work out sheets and try to start over and work to where I was before. 

I haven't taken any measurements to this point.  Even the scale at the gym is broken.  The scale should be replaced this month they said so hopefully I can start tracking my weight weekly.  I am not certain how often I will do the other measurements but once a month might be reasonable.  I will give that a try.

I am taking on another project this month.  Our church is working a Habitat for Humanity house.  The take-off meeting was just a week and a half ago.  There will be another meeting on July 14th.  Fr. David talked about several of the groups that will play a key role during the process.  The publicity group struck a chord with me.  The purpose of this group is to keep the church community informed about what is going on with the process and keep interest and enthuiasm up.  I thought a blog would be perfect for this.  I am no expert on blogging (obviously) but I am learning a bit as I go.  I bought the Wordpress for Dummies book and plan to go through it and learn more about what can be done.  Luckily, my friend Chris has made him self a bit of an expert in social networking so I will get whatever help I can from him as well.  I think this site will need to be self hosted so it will give us more control but also have a bit of a cost involved.  It still shouldn't be too expensive but free is so much better.  The nice thing is that we can start using a free hosted site and convert later. 

Well that is what is happening in my world for now but more is on the way.  I am trying to do better with posting more often but we will see how that works.  I figure that I really don't have enough to say every day to make a worth while post but I think once a week should be a good amount of time to get the post going without getting stagnant. 

I will leave for now with just a bit of a teaser.  We may have some new home business ideas floating around our family.  More on that later.