of paint and praise and pride

I chose paint colors for our living room and bathroom, bought the paint and have begun prepping the bathroom that started this whole business. Our master bathroom has bred mold on the walls and ceilings since we built it. I suspect an inadequate covering of paint over the plaster combined with the poor choice to not use mildew-resistant paint started the whole problem. This morning I donned white underpants & tank top, rubber gloves, a rain poncho and goggles and got to work with a bucket of bleach water and a scrub brush. Up the ladder. Scrub, scrub, scrub. Down the ladder. Move the ladder. Up the ladder. Scrub, scrub, scrub. Down the ladder. Move the ladder. Lather, rinse, repeat. My shoulders are killing me. My lungs are wheezy. The bathroom looks much better. It's almost ready for TWO fresh coats of mildew-resistant paint. What. A. Job.

The painter will be here in two weeks and I can hardly wait.

Green Girl rocks the official Cubbies leader uniform. Mr. B looks strange because he has a sty in his eye. Otherwise, that's a pretty accurate image of her and her tribe.

This week we wrapped up another year of AWANA (yes, evangelical Christian websites are about 20 years behind current trends--it pains me to see how they cling to the 80's for style tips in all their media--music, hair, clothes)--the boys and I had our annual photo taken together--Mr. T is DONE with the program and moving on to middle school stuff, Mr. B is moving on to TNT and all three boys got book awards and felt pretty darn proud of themselves. The awards program was awesome. Our church has had AWANA for 20 years and the director (an old friend of mine from elementary school) took it over when it was only 2 years old. Her goal was 150 kids and leaders. There are over 180 leaders today. Over 600 kids. God has grown the program beyond K's wildest imaginings. During this past year our club has sponsored clubs in Lima, Peru. Our goal was to send 400 kids to club (there's a waiting list of 1,000) at the cost of $10 per kid. By the end of the year they were about $1,000 short of the goal so they passed buckets through the rows super-fast. In under a minute they collected almost $1,300 to exceed their goal. Between my boys earning their awards, Mr. D showing up to watch and seeing God at work in such mighty ways I felt absolutely choked up.

The arctic blast has sent the Box Elder Bugs scurrying into hiding for now.

I'm close to the end of the movie script.

No one has stepped up to lead Happyland Elementary's PTA since I tendered my resignation as president.

My sister is moving to town over the weekend.

(How's that for a cliffhanger ending?)

Posted in: generosity, God stuff, gratuitous photos of Team Testosterone, SMELLS