Friday, May 30, 2008

Playing Catch-Up

I know I've been unusually quiet these past couple days - life just continues to be busy. No "funny business" today, just a recap of the past week.

First off, I want to share a pic of the grad and his proud mama (click for a larger view) Hard to believe that the little boy I met 12 years ago is now all grown-up... and his sister, the flower girl at our wedding, graduates next year! Time to get all sniffly and nostalgic :) Seriously, though, it was a nice service and the parents of all the graduates hosted a very nice luncheon/party afterward.

We had a rather quiet Memorial Day, although the "simple" home project we had planned ended up being a real pain in the patoosie. We have a room added to the back of the house, which includes a closet with our washer and dryer (a very nice bonus, as the washer was originally in the kitchen but no dryer, so many of these style homes would add a dryer in the garage). We have bifold doors on the closet which had been broken numerous times - mainly from the kiddos playing hide & seek. Anyway, the doors themselves were falling apart, plus I could no longer open/close them properly. We headed off to the orange warehouse to pick up doors - simple task, right? Well, we got the right width. But they were too tall. And the doors were hollow, so it wasn't a simple trim job, either. OK, that's finally done. Hubby hung them, only to discover that the right one didn't open all the way due to the trim on the wall. Pried off the trim, cut it down, and nailed it back up. But the problems are even bigger on the left side - these doors are much thicker than the previous ones, and the recessed corner in closet for the rails isn't big enough. And that's when we learned what a hack job the closet was. We had sheetrock with sheet metal, all with a nice thick layer of plaster. It wasn't pretty, and the fix involved utility knives, a crowbar, a chisel, and eventually the router being taken right to the wall. Sigh. And after all THAT, we discovered that the extra thickness meant that there wasn't room to open the dryer. Seriously, it was just one stinkin' thing after another. Oh, and did I mention that we had company coming for dinner, and our back room was now covered in a nice layer of sawdust? It all worked out, though, and we even managed to share a lovely meal with a couple from church.

I had my "mommy morning" on Tuesday, so ran errands unfettered. A friend and I prepared some little goodie bags for our last MOPS meeting. We had another family over on Wednesday night for a meal of campfire pies, hot dogs, and marshmallows. Have to get a few more fires in before we put the pool up (we use the dirt circle from the pool as our fire pit area). Painted some shelves last night. And hubby is having the guys from work over tonight for "Meat on a Stick" night. We may put the pool up this weekend... still not quite sure.

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I also wanted to draw your attention to a great post on the "Mommy Wars" over at Making Home. Our son will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. At - gasp - public school. We happen to feel pretty strongly that we can make the most impact on our world by actually being involved (as opposed to protecting our children by homeschooling or even attending Christian school). Boy oh boy, is that ever a hot topic! I really appreciated this post as a reminder to let the scriptures guide our behavior... and I found it convicting, too, as I certainly am guilty of judging other moms.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ahhh...the 'joys' of home improvement. Been there, done that at least a hundred times! :) And we are one of those fruitcakes who plans on sending their kids to public school too. :)

Shay said...

Anytime we are embroiled in some horrific renovation, I think about the Extreme Makeover people and how they can build a house in a week. Maybe we just need bullhorns? Whatever it is, hope you survive your projects! :) See you tomorrow in pink!

In Pursuit of His Call said...

Glad the closet door turned out well!

Thanks for linking to the "Mommy Wars" article/post. I was struggling with the burden of these Mommy Wars because I felt like with every part of child-rearing or even homemaking I needed to choose a side and if I didn't choose a side then I would be judged by those on one side of the fence or the other...I am so glad for the Romans 14 reminder and how we are to biblically deal with other people who make different choices from us. To deal with my own issue about feeling a burden of being judged, I have been reminded that when I am too concerned about what other people think, then what I'm looking for is still my own personal recognition, which is a form of pride. I am to seek wisdom from my husband and the Word and trust that the decisions and choices we make on how to handle child-rearing and homemaking is from the Lord and based on His Word. If we are reproofed for doing wrong, then we are to thankful for the reproof and accept the reproof and to then seek God's word and wisdom all the more for the truth.