June 17 – “Works in progress”

 

 

The church youth group did really well on their garage sale to raise money to pay for their transportation to camp.  I think they topped $500.  That just leaves them a few hundred left to hit their goal.  I hope we can do that today at church.  There were lots of people who came by.  Not everyone bought anything of course, but for the ones who did, we left how much it cost up to them.  It was truly a donation only garage sale.  Some folks gave as much as twenty dollars for just a few things.  Thank you to all who came by and pitched it.

 

In the afternoon I finished up one of the antique student desks we have had in our back yard since Hurricane Ike.  Cleaning and scraping rust and sanding and painting and filling holes and staining.  That was more of a task than I thought when I began this particular project.  But I guess it looks pretty good now.  I just wish I could have managed to get the screws out so I could work on the wood and metal separately.  But that one is done and moved to the garage to await its final fate – a trip to San Antonio if Christi decides she still wants it.  So that leaves one more desk to go.  For that one I may have to make a trip to the home improvement store for a new electric drill.  I have one that operates on a rechargeable battery.  I even have two batteries.  But it doesn't take long for both of them to be used up when I'm scraping rust.  And while I'm at Home Depot I might just pick up an electric sander.  Josh and Christi also want the little yellow table we were given after Ike.  Chris told Josh I was on a roll and volunteered me to sand it down for them.  That's when I played the "necessity card" and said I would need another power tool for that job.  Josh's response when she told him what I had said was, "Glad I could be of assistance."  Not "Oh, never mind," or "I can sand it myself."  That's my boy. 

 

Chris must have been inspired by my progress.  She joined me in the back yard and started cleaning up some of the other stuff that has been sitting around back there.  She even let me throw some stuff away.  Now the old wagon that used to be Nathan's (but now has rusted wheels and doesn't roll so well) is serving as a toy box for the dirt mover trucks and balls that we keep for outside play.  She plans to give the plastic toy box to one of our kids if they can use it.  And she plans to paint a little table we have out there so the little guys can sit at it in the little lawn chairs we picked up at a garage sale.  Very different look back there.  Won't be long and we'll be investigating how much it will cost to get the hot tub back in working condition. 

 

Psalms 4:4 says, "In your anger do not sin; when you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent."

 

Father, thank you for calm nights of searching and silence.  Amen.