Week 11 - Hot, hotter, hottest

For the second time this summer, we've been hit with a heat index over 100 degrees and it doesn't seem to be changing anytime soon.  So, you can probably guess how the volunteers and myself were working this past week.  Even though we may have been moving slow and easy, I'm happy with the progress we made on the houses.


The Catholic Circle of Faith house moved right along with the framing process.  The walls were stood, the trusses were set, and blue board was put on.  Next on the agenda...roofing.

The other house continued to have awesome leadership from our AmeriCorps staff working on the interior finishes.  I was able to help out the first part of the week installing the laminate flooring but then they took over the rest of the week and worked on installing cabinets, trim, blinds, more painting, etc.  And the house looks great!  I even noticed that we have power running directly to the house now.  Let's hope the electricians and the heating/cooling trades can get there soon.  

  

I, on the other hand, didn't get to work on the front of the women's build house like I had hoped.  So, depending on the other tasks on the schedule, let's hope I can squeeze in some time this week to try and work on it.


I'm over halfway with my volunteer time with Habitat for Humanity and I've started thinking a lot about what I've learned these past eleven weeks.  The one thing that stands out the most is learning to take my tool belt off.  For those of you that really know me, I'm a do'er and being single all these years, I've learned to do a lot of things on my own.  And I mean a lot.  So, as a do-er and an independent person, being tossed into a leadership role has definitely thrown me some curve balls.  


I've really had to learn to take the tool belt off and show someone else how to do things and not do it for them.  Along with leadership, comes patience, something else that I struggle with.  I've had to learn to be patient with people because they don't all learn at the same rate of speed as the next person.  It's hard for me to show someone something and then walk away to have them do the task without constant supervision.  However, I'm always surprised by coming back a little later and seeing the great work they are doing without me watching them all the time.  I don't know if that is leadership or something else, but I think I'm getting better at leaving the tool belt off. 

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Highlight of the week...

Seeing progress on both houses.

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Scripture...

Brothers and Sisters: The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought... 

Romans 8:26