Whew!

I enjoy a full weekend. I also enjoy the day after a full weekend.

Since Fridays are Danny's day off, I was able to have coffee with a friend in the morning while he stayed with the kids. Upon my return home, I found him scraping paint in our bedroom (the one room we didn't have time to work on a few weeks ago). His initial plan was to work slowly, scraping a little here and there whenever he has time in the upcoming weeks/months. Well, you know how these home projects go . . . he ended up working from about 9:00am - 9:00pm! I even joined in for a couple of hours while Karis was napping. He took small breaks for lunch and dinner and then worked all evening while I took Rach & Zekers to a birthday party. Kari Bou and I got to go on a long bike ride and visited a friend who just had a baby while the other 2 were at the party.

So . . . 3 walls scraped and 1 to go. The only thing we can figure is that the original owner of the house must have used an oil-based paint on all the bedroom walls, which was then painted over (about 5 times!) with latex paint. So for the last 5 years, we've had major problems with the paint bubbling and cracking and chipping off. Even though the whole shebang is taking about 10 times longer than we anticipated, it feels good to know we're doing it right this time.

Saturday was our church's VBS. The theme was "Camping Out in Cambodia;" it started around 9:30 and went until 4. The kids all seemed to have a blast - there were about 80 total, 40 of which were preschoolers - but man, I don't think I've been so tired in a long time! Danny and I were group leaders - he had the middle age group and I had pre-schoolers. By the time we got everything cleaned up and set up for church the next day, we were thanking God for McDonalds, where we let the kids eat and play for about 2 hours while we sat at the picnic table with glazed eyes. It was a fun day overall, though, and really great to see everyone who showed up to help out.

Sunday was a special treat: Jeremiah & Marcie Olson, 2 friends we've known since college, came to lead worship in the morning services and then stayed to do a concert in the evening. We had fun catching up with them over lunch, then came back home to put the kids down and have our last pre-marital counseling session with a really sweet couple who Danny is marrying August 4th. They were both in the youth group while Danny was youth pastor, so it's really cool to be able to get to know them in a different way now that they're adults and starting a new life together.

Danny went back to the church at 5 and the kids & I followed at 6. Jeremiah & Marcie (40 Miles North) did a wonderful concert; I think everyone who attended had a great time and left refreshed, with a new appreciation of God's faithfulness. We headed home around 9, ate dinner (since we hadn't had time to eat much earlier) and put the kids to bed by 10, and then crashed. I think Danny & I were asleep before the kiddos were!

So . . . a memorable weekend. And today I am loving just being able to do mundane things like laundry and grocery shopping and cleaning the house and watching helplessly as the kids trash the basement and their rooms and the back yard. Ya gotta love it!