Last week was Spring Break for me and the kids. We didn’t go anywhere, but we sure did a lot. I crossed a lot of things off my to do list.
THE BIG ROOM SWAP. I think I have mentioned before that the kids wanted to swap bedrooms. With all of the home maintenance projects done upstairs and Aunt Mar back home we were able to take this project up again. Vicki and I spent Monday and Tuesday painting and moving furniture. The nice thing is that all the kids have more closet space now.
The boys are now upstairs. We painted several walls upstairs a tan color with the rest in red as an accent color. This room has an odd shape (eleven walls) making furniture placement a challenge. My only complaint about the boys being upstairs so far is that when they play it sounds like we are in a thunderstorm.
Jenna is now downstairs. I asked her if it felt like a homecoming since this was the bedroom she had when Ben was born and kicked her out of the nursery. We haven’t painted this room yet so it still sports the murals Vicki and Michelle Garst painted on the walls ten years ago. We held off on painting because we want to get at least one more electrical outlet installed as well as insulation in the outside walls. The plan is to have this done by her birthday. Jenna is a better housekeeper than her brothers which makes the view from our bedroom (across the hall) much more pleasant.
We also told the kids that before any toys went back into their rooms we had to go through everything. There’s a lot of stuff they’ve outgrown and a lot of cheap, broken stuff that came from places like Sonic or McDonalds that just needs to go. Nate even understands this and said to us, “When little children get bigger and bigger they don’t like some stuff like that ... if you want to know some stuff about that.”
Even trying to go through their toys several times a year I have been amazed at how much they have to play with. I like Legos as much as anyone, but those things seem to be everywhere! Add to that the fact that Nate is our child who likes to dismantle everything and you’ll get the idea.
RA RACERS. A couple of weeks ago I wrote that the boys had participated in the pinewood derby at church. The Associational (county) race was held Saturday and several boys from our church participated. In a role reversal Nate’s car didn’t perform so well. He was eliminated early. However, Ben’s car ran fast, and he won second place in his age division!
AUNT MAR’S BIRTHDAY. Aunt Mar celebrated another birthday Saturday. We celebrated by having a barbecue supper at their house. She has been home over a week now and continues to do well.
HIKING. The weather was so nice yesterday afternoon the kids and I decided to go hiking. We had originally planned to go exploring around Mom’s farm, but wound up walking all the way to church where Vicki was doing a little work. Then we cut back through the woods to visit Mom and Aunt Mar. After leaving there we walked up to Kenny’s house to visit a while. By this time we had walked about 2.5 miles! Vicki got done up at church while we were at Kenny’s and gave us a lift home. Nate had so much fun on our hike that he’s reminded me of it three times today.
NEW CLASSROOMS. East Robertson Elementary School is undergoing a lot of renovations this year. A new wing of something like 24 classrooms and a new cafeteria has just been completed at the back of the school. When the boys went to school today they were in new classrooms. The work will continue through the summer. In about a month the original part of the building (the part I went to high school in) will be demolished. I guess its about time. That section has held classes for sixty years and is showing lots of wear and tear. The only thing left of my old high school will be the gym. The facility will be really nice when it’s done.
Joe
