A day off

I have a free day today. Every other day of this week already has something on the calendar but today is free. And I don't feel like doing anything. I'm tired after my weekend. Saturday I painted....ALL day. Jay was at the hospital all day so I got everything taped and finished priming. Most of the banister was already primed so I was disappointed by how long it took to do the rest. It was all tricky painting...in between balusters and underneath the railing so it went slow. After the priming I had to sand down everything. This felt very therapeutic because the before/after feel was so dramatic. I'd been feeling this rough, dull primed wood for a month now and after sanding, it was smooth! I know that is the purpose of sanding but we bought clearance wood and I just didn't think that it would feel so nice. Of course, peppered into the day was feeding the baby and occasionally taking care of a basic need for Seth and Sam. My kids were very neglected Saturday. I told Seth and Sam they could play computer games and Henry spent a lot of time in his jumparoo, exersaucer and high chair. I'm amazed how easily kids pick up computer skills. Sammy (3) knows how to put in a CD-Rom, click on it's icon and get a game started all by himself. He plays this Dora game and always prints out his sticker book (and uses a lot of color ink...grrrr). Seth likes the computer games his mom and dad likes and chose Settlers of Catan, Risk and Mah Jong. He understands how to play them too. Not all of the strategy planning but enough to play and not get frustrated. Odd little boy.

The whole reason I primed and sanded all day was because Rebecca and Andrea were coming over to help me paint after I put the boys in bed. I bribed them with take-out and we had a great time. The law of inertia really came into play and when I took a 2 hour break to go to ACE and get some more paint supplies and pick up Wendy's for the boys I did not want to paint again. I put the boys in their pajamas, called the much better than Wendy's restaurant for our grown-up dinner and went to pick it up with the boys in the van. When we got home, all three boys went to bed without a problem and us girls sat down to a nice long dinner. We all had Thai Noodle wraps with yummy string beans and shared some pumpkin raspberry cheesecake and triple chocolate cake. I was so grateful that they came to help and there is no doubt that I wouldn't have painted if they hadn't been there. Once we started painting, we worked for almost 3 hours! But it didn't seem that long with all of the great conversation. We ended up doing probably 3 coats and there are still some places that need a little bit more that I'll touch up eventually but it looks nice! They stayed and chatted for awhile afterwards and were still at my house when Jay got home at 12:45 am! In all of the fun and fatigue, I forgot to take pictures.

Needless to say, I was a bit tired Sunday. Henry woke up pretty early at 6:45 and Seth and Sam bounded out of bed a little after 7:00. We don't have church until 11:45 so it's always sad when the day starts that early. I gave the boys baths after breakfast and Seth and Sam stayed in for over half and hour. I had left my kitchen and living room in a post painting mess the night before so cleaned that all up. Then time to get ready for church. Fast and testimony meeting was interesting. You know when you have really good ones and not so good ones? This one was....not so good. I got an unfortunate case of the giggles after Jay gave me the raised eyebrows and had to think of some somber thoughts to stop. Ward choir practice right after church, snacks for kids, go to stake center to get music from library, come home and get everything numbered and organized, eat dinner and off to Stake Center for stake choir practice. There was a nice turnout with 26 people attending and I know of at least 10 more people who couldn't come but will be there next week. Because it was a first rehearsal and some of the music is challenging, we did a lot of part rehearsing which is always exhausting. When I came home, I watched the end of the Bronco game with jay (yay!) and then the Amazing Race.

So, my goals for today are to get all the laundry done, exercise, get my house picked up again (Sunday is the worst for messes) and stay home so I won't spend any money. Do you ever have goals to see how long you can go without spending any money? I don't know how long I can go because I don't have very many fresh groceries but I feel like I've just been spending a lot lately and want to have a week where I can log onto my online banking and just see that balance stay the same for awhile.