My husband and his father are both hard workers.  They have worked together since my husband was really young.  Now, when they have projects to complete they still call each other and help each other out.  There have been many times when I have been annoyed that my husband was gone all day helping his dad.  It was his day off and I wanted him home helping me and spending time with our family.  It seemed that my father-in-laws projects were always at a bad time, right after my husband had been out of town or on a day when I wanted to do something else.  Of course when my father-in-law was helping us I never thought about what he was giving up to be there.

The week between Christmas and New Years my husband decided to refinish our floor.  It’s been unfinished since June when we remodeled and I have been anxious to get it finished.  My husband and father-in-law got to work.  They rented sanders and I packed the kids up for a day at my sisters house.  When I got home that night they hadn’t gotten very far.  My husband was working alone because his dad had a meeting and another responsibility that night.  I put the kids to bed and tried to help out but I’m not much help when it comes to projects like this.

I was wondering how long this would end up taking.  I was tired and it was getting late but I felt bad leaving my husband to do all of the work alone.  Then someone pulled into the driveway.  I was so happy to see that my father-in-law had come back.  He got out of his second responsibility and came back to help.  I went to bed about 11pm and my husband and father-in-law kept working.  All night long.  When I woke up the next morning, they had just finished putting the stain on the floor.  Instead of going to bed to wait for the stain to dry, they loaded up the rented sanders so that they were returned on time.  When the stain was dry they put on the first coat of sealant.  They just kept going with only minimal rest here and there.

I am still so full of gratitude for my father-in-law.  So grateful that he came back when we weren’t expecting it and that he was willing to work all night to get the job done.  For all of the help that he gave us not only that night but many other times throughout the years.  From now on whenever he has a job that he needs help with, I won’t be annoyed when my husband helps him.  I will just be grateful that they help each other and we all benefit.  And every time I look at my floor, I will be grateful for a father-in-law who came back when he didn’t need to (and that I have a beautiful floor that I LOVE).

In one day I went from having this view outside my front door…

to this view outside my front door.
I’m freezing!

I know my presence around here has been rather sporadic lately.  I decided to take some time off for the holidays which was nice.  Now I am ready to get back into it but I’m going out of the country for a few weeks.  I promise that by February I will be back to regular posts.  (Maybe sooner)  Until then I’ll leave you with a link to blog post I read last week that I liked.  I hope you enjoy it.

Just wanted to share a few things that happened over the last week or so.

I was making some gifts for the boys friends and needed an xacto knife.  I knew we had one but couldn’t find it.  I looked everywhere I thought it would be and it wasn’t anywhere.  I even looked in the garage.  Our garage is a disaster and for me to find anything out there it is a miracle.  No miracles happened.  I ended up using a plain razor blade.  It hurt my fingers and didn’t work as well but I managed to get the job done.  After I got the stuff cut out I needed to paint it.  Off I went to find a paint brush.  I looked in the garage again.  I never found a paint brush but you know what I did find?  The xacto knife.

We chose to refinish our wood floor a few days after Christmas.  The plan was for me and the boys to spend a few days at my in-laws house so we would be out of the way and because access to most of the main living space in our house would be off limits.  About a half hour before I was going to leave I got a call that my niece, who was also at my in-laws house, had thrown up.  We all thought the sickness was really contagious and we probably didn’t want to go to their house.  It had been going around and seemed to be caught quickly and easily.  My nephew was there and they were sure that he would get it, my mother-in-law too.  I decided that I didn’t want to risk the boys or I getting sick and spent the day at my sisters house instead.  The next day my sisters kids were both sick, throwing up all over.  My mother-in-law and nephew, fine.

We ended up staying home for the night, sleeping in the basement while work went on upstairs.  I woke up in the morning with a tingling lip, the first signs of a cold sore.  I have a prescription that helps a ton if you take it as soon as you feel the cold sore coming on.  It was upstairs in my bathroom.  The same bathroom that is at the end of the hall that had just been stained and couldn’t be walked on until it dried.

I had heard a few people talking about the peppermint shakes at Chick Fil A in December and how good they were.  I really wanted to try one but we don’t live close to a Chick Fil A.  We ended up having to stop at a store to get something for my father-in-law one night.  The store was close to the Chick Fil A.  We went there for dinner and all I really wanted was the shake.  It was Dec. 30 and they didn’t have them anymore.

I bought a whole case of oranges a few weeks ago.  My kids love oranges and we were going to have company over Christmas.  I thought we would eat them.  We ended up having most of the case left and they needed to be used.  My father-in-law has a juicer so we brought them up there.  They made the best fresh juice.  We made a few batches and drank it fresh but before we left my husband and I spent about an hour juicing all of them.  We put the juice in a washed milk carton and brought it home to enjoy over the next few days.  The next morning when we went to drink some of it, it was disgusting.  There was a bitter taste that totally ruined the whole gallon of juice.

We are going on a family vacation soon and my husband and I will be scuba diving while we’re there.  I haven’t dove since 2009 and he hasn’t dove for awhile either.  We decided to go to a place close to us as a refresher.  We invited other members of his family who dive and figured we would just bring the kids then we could switch off diving and staying up on top, swimming with the kids.  We had bought something for my father-in-law and he was going to repay us by paying for us to dive.  We ended up getting there really late but about a half hour before the others.  Since we were there first we ended up paying for everyone.  Then Baby Boy wasn’t too happy to be in the water and just wanted me to hold him.  I spent the whole time holding Baby Boy while my husband snorkeled with the other kids.  We never actually dove.  The rest of the divers in the family did, just not us.  And a scuba tank fell on my toe.

Yes, it seemed like nothing could go right for a few days.  Some of it is due to lack of planning or organization and can be fixed but most of it is just life.  It is easy for me to spend my time focusing on all that went wrong with my week and not even give a second thought to all that went right.

But you know what?  The friends gifts turned out adorable and now I know where the xacto knife is the next time I need it.  None of us got sick.  I only had to wait an hour for my cold sore medicine and it didn’t make much difference.  I didn’t really need to eat a shake for dinner.  My mother-in-law is going to babysit the boys this week and pay for us to go back up and scuba dive and our floor looks amazing, better than I had hoped.  Sure, I’m out a few dollars and an hour of my life for bad OJ but if that’s the worst thing that happened to me this week then I’m doing pretty well.

If I were to name 2011 it would be called The Year of Star Wars.

Last Christmas I wanted to get my boys a new Wii game.  They were both really into Legos so I figured a Lego Wii game would be the way to go.  I checked them out on Amazon and decided to go with Lego Star Wars, mostly because it was the cheapest.  Little did I know the impact that decision would have on my life.

By New Years Eve we had purchased The Phantom Menace.  All six movies were in our dvd cupboard before the end of January.  The Wii game has been played more than I care to admit.  Clone Wars is a regular recording on our DVR.

It doesn’t stop at media.  We have light sabers, masks, Lego sets and alarm clocks.  Even matching Halloween costumes and a pair of Darth Vader shoes.

That still isn’t all.  Probably 80% of what comes out of Big Boys mouth, if not more, is about Star Wars.  Baby Boy can sing The Imperial March for heaven’s sake.

All because I spent $15 on one video game a year ago.

It is amazing how much one small choice can affect your life.