Job Satisfaction

So we're building a house.

This has been years in the planning, since we're not building a house like most people do- pick a plan out of a book, hand it to a builder and tell 'em to call when you can pick out paint and whatnot.

I drew the house on graph paper. Refined it roughly 143,570 times in the last 10 years, and now that we're at the construction point, we're there every. Single. Day. Several times a day most of the time.

We're also not building a typical stick-built type home- we're building a log home, which means the "constructed shell" is being done by the log home company*'s crew, and our contractor and myself will go in and finish it out.

And that's who I want to talk about- this crew.

I could say they're professional, punctual, and very hard-working and all would be true.

But here's the thing.

While I (and most people I know) have a job where we go to work and do our tasks and if we're very lucky we
a) are doing something tangibly worthwhile and
b) we like what we're doing
the men on our house-building crew get to go to work every day and not just do a job,

but make peoples' dreams come true.

How magical to show up to a job site and see a slab of cement, and within just a few weeks leave out again and leave a HOUSE behind.

Oh, I know this is what they do, and they get paid for doing it, but to show just a tiny bit of appreciation to our crew- Mike, Jeremy, Darryl and DeWayne- I started cooking last night and continued this morning and we brought them lunch today- ribs, corn bread, potato salad, baked beans, and chocolate chip bars.

I don't cook from a box and I don't cook from cans- I start from scratch and set good food in front of my family- like these men started from scratch and have set our house, our home, firmly and finally on our land.

The crew is set to be finished with their part tomorrow, which means I'll be even more frazzled than I am now- because the finish work is where I'll be getting my own hands dirtier than they've been thus far on this project.

Just in case I let this writing thing slide till the house stuff is done, lemme leave you with my recipe for chocolate chip bars- a winner with my family for over 30 years.

And a little Stevie Ray to bake by. Peace.

Mama Dixon's Kickass Chocolate Chip Cookie Bars

2 sticks butter, softened
1c brown sugar
1/2c white sugar
2 eggs
1tsp vanilla

Cream the above, then add

2 1/4c baking mix (I use Pioneer)
1 package milk chocolate chips

Spread into a buttered 13 X 9 baking dish
Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or till set

*Satterwhite Log Homes in Longview TX- ask for Dusty.