I don’t know what has come over me.  I am a crazed woman on a mission. This weekend has been filled with household chores that have needed to be done for a long time!  I am having surgery in one week and I know I will be laid up for awhile.  With the holidays quickly approaching (YIKES! Christmas is in 45 days!) and my home being the place to host two Christmas parties, I have been quickly making a list of things that need to be done before December 24th! We have been busy, busy, busy!

Saturday morning started early!  Mr. T. is part of an organization working with kids in the inner city.  Every other Saturday, he along with Pastor William Harris from the Frank neighborhood, organize a “Breakfast and Basketball” event at his school.  They provide a hot breakfast for anywhere from 60-70 kids and then open the gym for basketball, dodge ball and sometimes a little Double Dutch!  (For the life of me, as hard as I try, I cannot Double Dutch!)  Well, Mr. T volunteered me to be the cook that day!  So we were up by 6:15AM and we started in the kitchen.  We made 10 lbs of eggs, about 95 sausage links and about 100 waffles.  Trying to keep all of that food hot and delivered to the school is not an easy task!  But we managed.  We got to the school by 8:45 and there were kids already there waiting for us.  For some of these kids, this is the only hot meal that they get all weekend long.  They are appreciative and always so sweet!  Even though the waffles are frozen, and the sausage “brown and serve” style, many of the kids tell me that I make the best breakfast that they have ever had!  Pastor Harris completed the feast with a few dozen apples,  about 6 dozen donut holes, a pan of pumpkin coffee cake and two huge apple kringles!  The rules are that the kids have to eat breakfast before they dive into the sweets, and they all know that rule! Let me tell you, there was not a crumb left!  Everyone had a great meal, and then played basketball and dodge ball.  The one thing that strikes me about these events that I accompany Mr. T. to is how these kids behave towards one another.  A lot of the older kids bring along a younger sibling or a little cousin or neighbor.  The older child always helps the younger one with their plate and drink, even sometimes helping the really little ones with cutting up their breakfast.  It is so touching to see these 9, 10 or 11 year olds looking out for the little ones.  I asked Mr. T. about this and he said it is always like that.  They need one another, and the older kids step up to the plate!  It felt so good to participate in this, and I am so proud of my husband. Not only does he do this every other weekend, but he gets out there with the kids and plays basketball the whole time!  Which explains why he could barely move this morning!  He can almost keep up with a bunch of kids!

When we got home from the Breakfast and Basketball, I decided to start with a little home repair that has been needing to be done for about a year!  We had a leak somewhere in the roof and every time it would rain really hard, my living room ceiling would pay the price!  The leak started out as a stain, and slowly progressed over time to a real mess.  We finally found where the leak was coming from and had the problem fixed.  Although it does not leak anymore, the ceiling still looked terrible.  So, I made a trip to Lowe’s, asked a lot of questions, and purchased my supplies.  I am proud to say that I fixed my plaster ceiling all my myself!  It was not a difficult job, just time consuming and very, very messy!   When the final coat of plaster was on, and the last round of sanding, my living room looked like it just snowed. Indoors. All over!  It took more time to clean it up than to actually do the repair.  Seriously, it looks great!  Like a professional did the work. Until it came time to paint…

I thought I could take a paint chip (that I had scraped off) to the store, and they would be able to match it perfect with their computers.  The guy at the paint counter told me it should not be a problem.  He mixed it up, painted a little sample and we held it up to the chip. Perfection!  Or so we thought.  I came home and applied, ever so carefully, the first coat of paint.  It looked right on.  Until it started to dry.  Now, not only is it the wrong color, but also the wrong type.  I had asked for the matte finish, and that is what the can says.  That is not how it looks.  It is shinier than the original color, and I really don’t like that.  Needless to say, I know what I will be doing next weekend.  Painting the entire ceiling.  Ugh.  With my neck issues, painting a ceiling is no easy task.  I just may be tempted to hire someone.  It cannot be that much to just do a ceiling, can it?  And you might be tempted to ask, “Well, why would you not have Mr. T. do the painting?” and I would say that is a good question.  But I remember many years ago, in our old house, asking Mr. T to please paint the living room.  And he did, the entire living room in what looked like, oh about 20 minutes.  Seriously, the worst paint job I have ever seen.  Now, don’t think I am dissing Mr. T.  He knows painting is not his thing.  And so do I.  

After an already long day on Saturday, I moved from the living room to the kitchen and made a pot of homemade soup.  My Mom makes an awesome Baked Potato and Leek soup and it is to die for!  I got the recipe for it and tried it.  The smell in my kitchen was simply divine!  With the soup simmering on the stove and a loaf of french bread in the oven, we could not wait for dinner.  The soup was wonderful.  I will add that one to my recipe box for sure.  I am already thinking of making it again next week!

Rolling around to Sunday…the yard work would not wait any longer!  Mr. T’s parents came and helped him rake and bag leaves.  It was so cold out, and there were so many leaves!  During the week last week, when it was still warm out, my kids would spend the afternoon raking the leaves into a huge pile and jump in them!  We had the all of the neighborhood kids in our yard, having a ball!  Boy #2 even came in to announce to us that “I am such a considerate kid.  I went into Mr. and Mrs. Carters yard and raked all of their leaves into our yard!  Wasn’t that nice, Mom?  Now not only do the Carter’s not have any more leaves in their yard, but look at how big our pile is!”  Yeah, Collin, really nice.  I am sure that is exactly what Daddy was thinking this afternoon when it was 30 degrees out and he was on his 23rd bag of leaves!  Here are some pics of the fun part of the leaves!

And one more thing…who ever said that dogs cannot smile has never met my dog!

 Confidential note to the sister of one of my best friends:

You are one tough broad!  Anyone that has ever known you would say the same thing!  On Tuesday,  I will be thinking about you and sending all good vibes your way.  Hang in there.  You are too strong to let stupid cancer get in your way!  Remember, cancer is a word…not a sentence.

Women agonize… over cancer; we take as a personal threat the lump in every friend’s breast.  ~Martha Weinman Lear, Heartsounds

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.  ~Winston Churchill

“OH Micki your so fine, your so fine you blow my mind, hey Micki!” ~ Toni Basil ( I couldn’t resist that one!)

Love you, girlfriend!