Barnaclebutt

So. Cub Scout camp was last week.

I saw a request on the Redbook website for people to submit blog posts about their heroes. Right now my vote for most heroic women goes to the beautiful ladies who volunteered their time to organize our Scout camp at Saint Mary's college. And then stayed ALL week. Five days, no joke, with 115 boys in 90 degree weather.

I volunteered for three days and by the third day I was all mumbling and grumbling at Marc about how tired I was. Because I'm wimpy like that; now you know something bad about me.

But onward and upward! Remarkably, Scout Camp was not exhausting to Jonathan. He had a fully energizing time, coming home each day excited about all he had done-and ready to play with his buddy Kiran who lives next door.

Here he is doing the things boys like:

Ellie got a book last week. It's called "Fancy Nancy Tea Parties." Oo La La, did this book ever get us thinking. As we snuggled in her bed Thursday night we planned an exquisite tea party for her friends (real and stuffed).

* POST EDIT: I forgot to put on here that I was inspired to finish this bad boy up by Kimba at A Soft Place to Land. It's a cool blog and today there are a billion other great DIY ideas linked up there. Don't do the dishes, check it out!

Katie and Maddie's bathroom was in desperate, desperate I say, need of a makeover. Megan came to help paint.
You might want to cover your eyes and peek through your fingers when you look at the before pictures of our downstairs bathroom.

In one of her books Francis Mayes refers to her little bathroom as "il bruto," or "the ugly." I think ours qualifies for the title too.Obviously something needed to be done about the floor. I can hardly believe I'm showing off those mold stains. The important thing to know here is that we didn't make those; it was like that when we got here. Which may make you wonder how we ever got here...all I can say is, Springbrook Ranch does have other redeeming qualities.

Anyway, I knew this needed to be a bargain basement makeover and stay under $100. Here's how I spent my wad:$5 for oops paint at Home Depot. The girls picked the color, it's a pretty bright for me but I totally don't care. Do you know what oops paint is? It's the paint that was mixed wrong for the original customer's order and is now for sale for CHEAP. I love the whole principle.

$60 for peel and stick linoleum tiles. These are so cool; I cut them to size with my kitchen scissors and then they stick down like, well, stickers. It's like scrapbooking for your floor.

$3 for the white picture frames. I got those at a yard sale last Saturday and cut some more pictures out of my "Pressed Plant" book to go into them.The window mistreatment was free. I was digging through my fabric looking for something to stick up there with upholstery tacks and found the old window thingie I had in Ellie's nursery seven years ago. It's not perfect, but free trumps perfect right now.The last thing the room needs is a small dresser for the girls to keep towels and stuff like tp in. I've been cruising Craig's list for a freebie. We'll see what happens.

I wish I could just swallow and digest the principle of growth through suffering. Then instead of freezing up or worrying or feeling unhappy, unloved, and confused I could just throw my head back and tell the universe, "bring. it. on."

If you're not sure what the heck I'm talking about, neither am I. But here is a sum up as I have been experiencing it.

God needs his children (you and me baby) to be something we might not exactly be naturally. In my case the list includes humble, patient, loving, tender, forgiving, understanding, helpful, brave, faithful, and diligent. To name a few.

And it turns out there is only one way to get us there. We need to face a heaping plateful of pain. Because when we are faced with something that tears us up, scares the beejeebers out of us, and seems insurmountable on our own we (hopefully) start listening to God. We recognize that any peace or success we have is going to come from him.

So here is my promise to myself today: when something happens that I can't stand, instead of reacting with anger or fear or hurt, I am just going to let it sit awhile. I'm going to say to myself, "this is okay, just a little piece of pain pie to shine me up a bit, and with God's help I can totally handle it."

Something tells me I am not entirely good at follow thru.

My garden is growing...weeds. Tomatos and squash too.

The downstairs bathroom is 90% done, but I got derailed when a potential buyer came to see the house. I decided to cease improvements and leave the trim unpainted and the floor unfinished. I don't want anyone else to like the house (was that wrong?).

Ellie and I haven't done our reading homework in 4 days.

I'm not even talking about Scouts.

Fat flush has flushed some pounds but I stepped delicately off that train for an entire weekend of banana bread, corn chowder, blt on white bread, blueberry muffin, pizza, and an entire plate of antipasta at the Trucker Huss poker tourniment.

And I love diet coke. Help me Obi Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope.