Does it Still Count?

If no actual work occurs but the day is full of errands and decision making, can it still count as a work day? Or at least a productive day? I would love to think of it that way, but it sure doesn't feel that way!

Yesterday didn't score very highly on the accomplishment chart either, though I didn't know it at the time. I did sort of run from one project to the next and then on to another, so it's hard to feel like you really accomplish anything. I know I painted the dining room with the first coat of red paint--after having primed it the day before. I also started staining the bead board for the bottom half of the wall--with a stain other than Special Walnut! I don't think I've ever stained anything with another finish before. It's the stain that Grandmother and Granddad used on all of their wood and it's what I've used on all of my wood since working with them. I can't ever smell it or work with it without thinking of them. I always smile and sometimes cry. Anyway, we are using Special Walnut in several places but for the bead board I wanted something really light and golden looking instead of dark and rich. I can't ever remember the name of the stain, but it rhymes with dip stick of nitwit--one of the two. No, really--that's all I ever remember about it. Anyway, I got started staining the bead board nitwit :-) but there's still a ton of it to be done. I think I stained two out of ten or eleven packs! I can't remember what else I did--except laundry! I did some laundry just because I could. Oh, happy day!

The part I DO remember about yesterday is what James did to my freshly painted red walls in the dining room. This is the room that used to be covered top to bottom with glass mirror squares. We ripped them down (Sam did, actually) and then Brother Hopkins came and fixed the drywall for us. He told us over and over again to be sure and call him after we put on the first coat of paint so he can come and look things over and fix whatever got missed. You just can't see the flaws until you put paint on it. (Who rigged up that law?!) Well, the red paint did show the flaws--enough of them that James couldn't stand it. I was perfectly willing to live with them and be happy (you can always hang a picture over the really bad spots--ha!) knowing that even imperfect, things are soooooo much better than they were before! I insisted that James NOT call Brother Hopkins for multiple reasons. First of all, he has done sooooo much for us already and I wouldn't think of asking for more. He would be upset if he knew I said that so Bessemer people, DON'T BLAB! ;-) Secondly, I can't bear the thought of going back to step one: sheetrock. I am so ready to proceed and am in no state of mind to start over. Thirdly, if Brother Hopkins comes over he's not just going to see the dining room, he's also going to go look at all of the other walls and--being the perfectionist that he is--will find lots of other, lesser flaws that he will also want to fix. Flaws that I can only find if I'm searching diligently for them--the kind that nobody will ever notice in a thousand years and I am perfectly content to live with. But he'll want to fix him and that means, again, back to square one. I'm not going back! (I say that as if I actually have any authoritative power to make that decision. HA!) In my opinion, Brother Hopkins isn't even allowed at our house until everything is finished and we're moved in and have things hanging all over the walls, perfect and imperfect. Again, Bessemer people--DON'T BLAB! ;-) Ha!!!

This morning I painted just part of a wall in there, wanting to see how the paint would cover the putty marks. Not very well, so after it dried I went over one spot again to see if that would do the trick. Almost, but not quite. So tonight (after our day of decision making rather than working) I put on yet another coat to see if THAT will cover the marks completely. I'll let it dry overnight then see what it looks like in the morning. If it's good, then I'll know that I need to put two more full coats of red over what's already there. (I already touched up the hundreds of putty marks with red, so they've got one coat on them to start with.) If it DOESN'T look good in the morning then it means I have to start over completely from scratch as if I'd never painted anything in that room: prime it top to bottom, then put two coats of paint on. So here we are riding the same old train--doing and undoing and redoing. It's our favorite ride. :-)

We did some deep thinking and serious math for a while this morning, then went to Home Depot and Lowes on a mission. We had been deciding on light fixtures for the kitchen, dining room, foyer and half bath, as well as adding up how much bead board we'll need for the back splash in the kitchen and how much wood and which cuts we would need for the counter tops--along with creating our plan for installing them. At the end of the day we came home with no lights, but a sink and a medicine cabinet! Ha! ALL of the lights we wanted were sold out, so that will have to wait for another day. --Still, we did finalize a lot of decisions and now have a plan. It feels good to know what you need to buy instead of still wondering. We made some decisions concerning the faucet and sconces for the half bath (mainly the decision was, "Oh, whatever you want to get, James--I'll be happy with either!") and we were able to buy the bead board for the back splash and the wood for the counter tops. Right now all of the pieces are laid out on top of the existing counter tops in the places where they will be installed--and I already love it!!! They're still in the plastic and unstained and uncut and unroutered, but just seeing kind-of-sort-of what it's going to look like makes me so happy! It's going to be great. :-)

What other news is there around here? Joe took way too long to do school today. Sam, on the other hand, jumped right into his school and had it all finished up without asking for help a sing time! That's a first. I checked all of his work and he did excellent. He did that this morning because James had told him last night that he really needed him to be in a good working mood today so he could get all of the tools gathered and organized for us. He didn't disappoint. He got up, did school, and got straight to work on the tools. We can finally find things again! Wa-hoo. :-)

That was the good part of the day for the kids. It went downhill from there! HA! We've been having some little attitude issues here lately; some rolling of the eyes or talking back (not in an offensive way, but talking back nonetheless--questioning commands or just having something to say about it--frequently) as well as having to be told multiple times to do something instead of just doing it the first time. It all sort of came to a head tonight and we worked through a whole lot of things. We ended up sitting down together and trying to work through the reasons WHY we've been having these problems and what we can do about it. We talked about each of our failures and some of the things we all could work on. We were having a good, deep, heartfelt discussion and started asking the kids some questions like, "What changes could we make that would help our family or make things better around here?" Joe answered without hesitation: A REFRIGERATOR. Ha! So much for our deep and heartfelt talk! Well, at least the deep part--his input was heartfelt, I'm sure! ;-) We told him we'd do our very best to remedy that one in the near future. ;-)

Too bad Katie missed the big family powwow. We'll have more in the future, I'm sure. :-) I heard she just completed a dress for her doll, Esther. She feels all grown up and accomplished to have sewn a whole dress! It makes me very proud. She'll be able to sew better than me by the time she's 13. Or maybe 11--that's how old she is right now! HA!

That's all the news from around here. I'll try to start taking pictures of things around here to spice up my next posts. :-)