Lesson Learned....

subtitled... "If you don't have time to do it right, you don't have time to do it twice!"...

My man's out of town this week.  He heads North every 6 - 8 weeks to visit his family, and as much as I may miss him when he's gone, I'd be lying if I didn't say I equally look forward to a little "me" time.  I fantasize for days about all of the projects I can do.  Things he'd normally either question or worse, stand watching over my shoulder while I'm doing it.  Ahhhh... the freedom of a few days.

As I said...  lesson learned, my friends... lesson learned


This is the front door to my house... it's an old picture before we started painting, etc.  It's hard to see the actual wood door against that oh-so-red wall, but if you could see it up close, you'd see the crack in one of the panels, the uneven stain & the poly peeling all over the place...  

It's quite the entrance!

It only took me 3 hours yesterday to paint two coats of paint on it and transform it from my ugly wooden door to what I thought was the perfect entrance to our home.  Lesson learned...

The first coat went on smooth as silk, I tell ya'.  I waited two hours and then started to put on the second coat.  It was getting later in the afternoon and the sun was going down, so I had to set the flood lamp up to see.  Hmmm... what are all of those marks?  How come coat one looked great and coat two is bubbling and it's all streaky- like ?  Maybe I should have "kilzed" it like I was gonna....(like my man would have, had he been here.... watching over my shoulder)

No matter.... smooth it out and continue on.  It'll dry just fine.... Lesson learned...

After dinner, the boys went downstairs to watch TV... "Hey, guys... don't shut the front door all the way.  I want to make sure the paint dries.  We'll just lock the storm door tonight when we go to bed".  (we leave our keys in the car, too.... but that's another post for another day).

This is what I'm doing today.... what took 3 hours to paint will take me 10 to remove!  And then I'll wood fill the split it one of the panels, sand that down, Kilz the door, and repaint the whole thing tomorrow.  And I'll remove the hardware, too, instead of using my fingernail to pick the paint off the handle...

And for those reading this that can relate... save yourself the trouble and just go out and tell that certain someone "hey, ya know what?  ... you're always right".  Call it bankin' one for da' future!

... and hon, when you're reading this, just tell me how great the door looks.  Feel free to ignore the rest.

I know already!

"Ghosts of Halloweens Past... Finale"

Just so my kids will know well into the future that their mother was willing to mortify herself as well as them... this is for you R, D & C...

Yeah... dat's right!  Mom is rockin' the cardboard Caspa Da' Ghost mask (what adult does "bunny ears" to unsuspecting children, anyway?)

Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween!

Sunday Night Suppers....

We eat dinner at the dining room table on Sunday nights...complete with china, silver, and bottle of wine and a nice meal ("with three things on the plate" as my best friend would say... but that's a joke for another day).  In a house full of men this may seem kinda strange, but...

For my man's birthday two years ago, the kids and I surprised him (he'd been out of town the week prior and was just getting back late that afternoon).

The boys polished the silver, I cleaned the china (it gets dusty from neglect, even in the cabinet!) and we set the table, lit the candles, turned off the TVs (yes... that's plural- everyone seems to want to watch something different!) and sat down to eat as a family.  A wonderful meal and actual conversation that went beyond ("huh?" & "nope").

We must have sat at the table for almost two hours just hangin' out.  Nobody jumped from the table to get back to whatever they were doing (or watching).  And miracle of all, my two sons spent more than 5 minutes in the same room without arguing.  Heaven, I tell ya'!

I can't remember what we talked about, but what I do remember is the men folk (all three) looking at me and asking me why we never used the room.  Sad but true... and I didn't have an answer...How crazy is it to work so hard to make something so inviting, filled with things you love, and forget to include the people you love most of all?

But the most surprising thing?  From that point forward, we have eaten dinner together at the table (sans TV, but with some pretty hip rock 'n roll in the background... and a mean game of "name that tune"!) nearly every Sunday night since. Stranger still?  My "boys" are actually 14 and 15 year old "young men" and they are the ones who look forward to it the most!

Last weekend we were out of town and the boys stayed with friends.  When we got back on Monday afternoon, Davis was the first one to ask me if we were going to have "Sunday night dinner tonight, since we missed it yesterday"

Gotta' Love It!

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Between Naps on the Porch...