November 25, 2002 - 10:23 p.m.
I took a shower but I still smell like paint.
The human body has an annoying ability to absorb odor - or mine does, anyway. The worst is crawling into bed at night and slowly realizing that dreadful diaper smell is my hands. Doesn't matter how many times I've washed them. Sometimes I just smell like baby, which is rather nice. Most of the time, however, it's milk.
But tonight it's paint. Our little to-do list left by our realtor included repainting the rails of the front porch, touching up the back door where Solo scratched it, and painting over the ugly (and flaking) cream paint on the ceiling of our bathroom.
So I called Dad and asked ... no, begged him to drive down and loan us his drop cloths and painting paraphenalia and a few hours of his and my mother's time to watch the boys so I could get a start on the porch. I really did intend for him to just babysit, but Dad does not like to sit idley by while there are chores to be done. Soon after they arrived and Mom took charge of the boys, Dad asked about what kind of paint I planned to use. He likes to opine on such things. After he approved of the cans in the garage, he commented that it was a nice day for getting the work done and we ought to go ahead and tackle the porch railings. So we did. Then he asked about the back door. We looked it over and decided the whole thing ought to be repainted rather than just a little touchup here and there and so we did that. By this time the sun was going down and it was time for Marcus's dinner. Dad inquired about a step ladder and, while I fed the baby, began lugging things upstairs. By the time I got up there, he had already scrapped all the peeling paint off the ceiling and was taping around the top of the wallpaper. We finished it in about a half hour. Not a bad day's work. There are still a few things on my to-do list this week, but the major ones are now covered and I didn't even have to hire daughtcalm to come spend hours and days at my house to get it all done :)
Thank you everyone who has sent notes of encouragement for us this week! We appreciate your thoughts and prayers :)
