Major Project

It has been too long since David and I had a Big Project to keep us up late at night once the kids are in bed. Since we now only have one kid at home, we thought it would be a good time to start… Painting. Shelly’s been asking for a new look in her room for years. Now that she’s finally gone for the week, why not see what we can do on a little makeover for her? Here’s hoping we can get it all done and the paint’s dry by the time she’s home in a week!

Fast forward through five frantic days of painting late into the night, poor Eli entertaining himself until bedtime and us parents getting paint in our hair but almost no paint in the carpet. We managed to even fix up the curtain rod, organize her closet and clothes.

Shelly and Archer both arrived home on Saturday morning. Finally, the day of the big reveal. We announced our plan to stop home so the kids could change their clothes before going out for lunch. Shelly started proclaiming that something was different. Before she ever got near her bedroom. She noticed that a chair had been moved and we had new placemats on the table. But finally, we managed to get her to wander into her room. And there she stopped. In the doorway. Silent. It seemed like she would never speak, and doubt started creeping in - wait - doesn't she like the colors? She picked them out herself! Finally, she turned to us, and very softly said "thank you." She loved it so much that she could barely speak. And that was thanks enough for us. She hadn't suspected anything. She had waited for years. And now, she has a brand new room to enjoy for the next 25 years. Because I'm not planning on painting it again anytime soon.

So, what's next? The boys have begun picking out paint colors. I don't know if I'm up for that yet. Anyone else wanna come paint? We'll feed you!!

Habitat Day

The company I work for strives to encourage people to serve their community through volunteer work. Since I started there, fourteen months ago, I have attempted to support this mission and once every two or three months I suggest we spend a day working for Habitat for Humanity. Habitat does new construction, but also rehabs older houses that are in disrepair. Finally, after a year of asking the question - when can we do this? - we managed to put together a team of seven people. We all showed up at a house in Milwaukee and spent the day painting. We painted the entire thing. Three bedrooms, bathroom, hallways, living room and kitchen. There were some really bad parts like a few spiders, moldy ceiling and walls, stains splattered everywhere. But mostly there were some really GREAT parts like meeting new people, working hard with each other to do this great thing for someone else. The house still has a lot of work ahead of it, but it was nice to contribute in our small way to helping a family get on their feet with their own place to live. I still have paint in my hair. I wonder when we can do it again?  ;)

P.S. While I was off painting, David and Archer were at a Highway Cleanup with the Scouts. It’s really disheartening how much garbage people toss out their windows with no regard for their communities. It’s really wonderful when a group of people can come together and clean it up. It was nice to hear about the people who honked in support or shouted thanks to the boys as they drove by. Perhaps our own kids will learn to pick up after themselves, after seeing the mess it makes when others don’t?

Vacation, and More

The kids had an unusually long Christmas vacation from school, two full weeks. Add the weekends on either end, and that's 16 days at home. We had a great time together, David also had almost two full weeks off from work. We played games, put up the Christmas tree, took it down again, celebrated the holidays. Then... The arctic freeze set in. The jet stream of cold air from the far northern parts of Canada, or something. They predicted it for a week and then it came, the cold. On Friday, they cancelled school for Monday. The kids were happy, an extra day! Except, we talked about the people who don't have homes, who will be seriously at risk over the coming cold days and even colder nights. We prayed. We took a spur of the moment trip to the store to buy blankets and then dropped them off at the homeless shelter. We prayed some more. Last night the cold really set in, the kids and I haven't been outside for days. This afternoon I got another call from the school, its cancelled again, no school tomorrow. I'm so thankful for this warm, safe home we have, and the furnace that just keeps running and keeping us warm.
 

We'd be going a bit crazy, but we're all in project mode, and we've got lots of work to do! We'll be throwing a birthday party for Shelly, there are LOTS of girls on the invite list, and we need to get planning! Its amazing how there's no fighting when there's a common cause. Making invitations, working on making yarn dolls, brainstorming ideas for games, crafts, food, decorations.... I've got a shopping list two pages long, but can't leave the house to buy the stuff. In the mean time, we'll use what we have and listen to some fun music while we party away the day!

I got a CD from the library and we discovered this fun little song, we listened to it over and over, laughing every time!

Crafty

I'm not too crafty, I don't really enjoy being creative with construction paper and glitter. However... I've been saving up some toilet paper rolls lately, now I've got about 30 and E has no playmates at home, so...

Yesterday we made these spy glasses. Toilet paper rolls, construction paper, it doesn't get more crafty than that! (Not for me, anyway.)

When Shelly came home from school and saw what E had done, she was inspired to make her own set.

Today, we made monsters. That's kind of cute, but the real fun began when we brought out the weapons. E entertained himself for at least 20 minutes with shooting the bad guys, knocking them down when he missed with the rubber bands, and coming to me to reload his ammo.

We've still got 23 rolls left, I wonder what's in store for tomorrow?

You have to take control of it because it wants to go it's own way.

-- Archer on using the electric sander

Archer (and the rest of us too) had the chance today to play with a few power tools (power washer, electric sander, air blower and nail gun (DAVID ONLY on that last one)), make a bit of a mess and come inside with paint chips in our hair and covering our clothes. We're getting ready to paint the railing on the porch, I'm sure that will be even more fun tomorrow... hopefully we don't end up with PAINT everywhere. Update to follow tomorrow!

P.S. Tonight Archer asked me if he could put E to bed. Including the whole singing 3 songs, countless kisses and hugs, requests for one more "bayten" (blanket). They did well, thanks for the help Arch!!