No Pics

Usually when DH kisses me goodbye in the mornings at 4:35 or so, I go back to sleep for another hour-and-fifteen-minutes. This morning, I didn't. When our clocks struck 5:00, I was busily caulking the trim on the second window.
Today will be Paint Trim Day, after I get home from the church, where I will prepare the slideshow for Sunday's Contemporary Service. I usually do this on Wednesdays, but this week, worked out a delay til Thursday so I could focus on Finishing the Floor.
After I caulked the trim, I wiped down the now-shiny floor with clean damp paper towels to get up any tiny bits of dirt, then applied the last, final, sayanara-baby, coat of poly. It's either coat #7 or 8, I can't remember, but I don't think it's 9 and I am sure I'm past 6.
The doors are still sealed with plastic drop cloths and duct tape (if you buy disposable plastic sheets anywhere but Dollar Tree, you really need to try these...) although the duct tape's patience is wearing quite thin. Every time I re-stick it to the door frame, as I climb in and out, it sighs and says, "One more time? Ok, this had better be it."
So by 6:20 I was done with caulking and had the final coat of poly on the floor and was washing out the poly applicator AGAIN.
Note: I am not caulking the windows shut but filling the little cracks where ornamental molding has pulled away from the window frames for some reason over the past 70 years. Also cheated a teensy bit and used the caulk to fill the zillion nail holes left by countless curtain rods, some of them actually put there by moi. Also the diagonal seams where window frames meet at the top corners of the windows had cracks in them. Now they don't.
Time to shower, fix breakfast, pack LO's lunch, take her to school, and run to the church. When I get home at 10:30 or 11, will paint trim.
Hmm. Title was "no pics." Honestly I looked for the digicam to take pics of the floor this am. Got the camera but the batter & charger are either under the pile of clothes from her closet (in the office over the easy chair) or in a drawer somewhere. This place is truly CHAOS. Which is WHY I am staying up till 11 and getting up at dark-thirty to try and finish. Might be best to post pics when we are at a later phase..
Some of this typing is weird. The keyboard, being only NINE years old, sticks terribly, so that as I am typing, the words are appearing two or three words behind my actual keying speed. I will notice that this or that letter that did not get pressed hard enough and then I have to back space several words to repair, then type again. Sort of discourages blogging!

Yet Another Project

Must blog this one quickly b/c I really have to get to the project. Having totally emptied Little One's room, I have been sanding and staining her floors. Her furniture, clothes, toys and shoes are everywhere in this house. So are tools, sandpaper, cleaner, ladders, stain, and dropcloths. It's crazy.

The sander is on long-term loan from our plaster man. He had mentioned one time that he had a good one and would be happy to let us have it for as long as we needed it, until he needed it back. I called him in November and it sat here for months. Last Friday, after watching the Varathane video like a zillion times (compelling video -- you must see it!), I started in. The video had lots of tips and tricks, and the guy actually had a precious sense of humor, so that watching it was not too deadly-boring. One cool example: fill a plastic bag with loosely crumpled newspaper. Stuff the bag into the heater duct so the ventilation system in your house does not become impregnated with sawdust. I never would've thought of that on my own.

This is hard work. I sanded the room a total of 6 times: 36-grit, then 20, then 36 again, and finally, 3 x of 80. Because the giant sander does not get a 1-inch margin around the edge of the room, I did each grit with a palm sander on my hands and knees to get the edges.

We vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed. Vacuumed after each sanding, and then vacuumed 3x with the shop vac after the final one. After the three shop vac runs, washed the walls and doorframes/windowframes, also shelves in closet. (Had already removed closet door so we are doing closet floor as part of project.) Then we hooked up the household vacuum and ran it several times. When I felt we had gotten everything, Little One used the Swiffer and it was coated with sawdust. So, we Swiffered about 10 times until it came clean.

The sander he lent us is great, and really does not kick up a lot of dust as other sanders do. When DH did the kitchen, it seemed the rest of the house was coated for weeks as I made my way through, cleaning. Sawdust was even in the tufts of the LR sofa where the little buttons are.
This sander is like a 130-pound palm sander. It just vibrates in place, rather than spinning. On Friday I sanded, vacuumed, and repeated over and over. On Saturday, I had the luxury of LO being in there with me to vacuum behind me as I sanded. That worked out much, much better. We had a little cord conflict on occasion, but it was worth it to have the work virtually cut in half.

On Sunday we stained the floor. I truly believe she enjoyed helping! I had filled some cracks with a wood filler that purported to be stainable, yet when we stained the floors, the filler showed up as bright ivory in the dark brown floor. We attempted a number of fixes for this problem, and finally found a small bottle of craft acrylic paint in the studio, chocolate brown, and rubbed a drop of it into each of the filled cracks. Voila! (or, walla, as I am seeing it spelled nowadays)...success.

I duct-taped a clear dropcloth across the door to her room from the start, which I am sure helped in the dust control. I am sure it has helped me NOT to have cat-prints across the house as well.

I am going to damp-mop the floor now (teensy bit of damp) so that I can poly today. Will post pics maybe tomorrow or next day.

The Perfect Morning

Took the Little White Dog with me this morning to take Little One to school. She (Little One, not dog) is in the midst of End-of-Year testing, which is very stressful for her. She frets and worries about it. We have been supportive by getting her to bed extra-early, keeping her physical activity up (relieves stress), and cooking high-protein breakfasts.

So after lots of hugs and kisses and finally watching her march up that long sidewalk to school, Little White Dog and I parked the car and took a walk on the town's Greenway. The stretch that we walk (not all the portions are connected yet; ours is about 2 miles long) has a variety of systems along it, including grassy fields, woods, swamp and bogs, and a good low wide creek.

LWD has some instinct hinting back to her forebears, but most of it seems to have been domesticated out of her. For example, she is so busy sniffing and wagging about racoon scat beside the trail, that she totally misses the brown rabbit running across the path 4 feet in front of us. As we progress, and she actually comes to the warm scent of the rabbit, she bounces around like the great hunter she is not, looking at me and saying, "A rabbit just went by! I'm sure of it!"

The blue was azure blue, as they say in the poem about the Mighty Casey, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Although I usually listen to the birds and bugs and sounds of nature, Tuesday is mowing day on the grassy fields I mentioned above, so I had the Ipod along. The songs lined themselves up in perfect form: Copeland's "Fanfare for the Common Man," "I'll Fly Away," (this version from the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack), Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone," and the Scherzo from Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Who can beat a lineup like that??

When we got the creek, things got even better. This creek is about 25 to 30 feet wide, and the Greenway has a lovely covered bridge that arcs across it. This thing is SUBSTANTIAL. When you walk on it, your footsteps take on this lovely deep timbre because of the thick wood. LWD knows that when we reach the center of the bridge, I like to stand at the edge and watch the water for a while. My breathing slows as I watch the ripples, look for wildlife, notice the changes in foliage, and study the play of light on the water.

Today, the sun in the east was shining brilliantly on a large tree beside the creek. The leaves glowed as if lit from within. But I was not looking up at them -- I was looking at their reflection in the water. It was heavenly, and Joe Cocker sang through my head, "You Are So Beautiful to Me."

We walked the 2-mile stretch, twice, and came on home, to work on yet another project. That one deserves a blogcast of its own.

Brazilian

I am quite weary of the mentality that you cannot be both a liberal and a Christian. Come ON.

I read the following and laughed til I cried. To my ultra-conservative friends (do I have any?) and my dear sons: no apologies. This could be true!!!

Donald Rumsfeld is briefing George Bush in the Oval Office.

"Oh and finally, sir, three Brazilian soldiers were killed in Iraq today."

Bush goes pale, his jaw hanging open in stunned disbelief. He buries his
face in his hands, muttering "My God...My God".

"Mr. President," says Cheney, "We lose soldiers all the time, and it's
terrible. But I've never seen you so upset. What's the matter?"

Bush looks up and says..."How many is a Brazilian?"

Moving Up

With Little One completing the fifth grade this year, we are having several "moving up" ceremonies. One of these was just this Wednesday, as the Children's Group at our church recognized the 5th graders and bade them farewell as they prepare to move up to Middle School. The program for children at our church is called First Kids because our church is called First Presbyterian, and it's a fantastic program.

The children meet every Wednesday night from September through May, with a couple weeks off at Christmas and Easter. They eat dinner together, recognize birthdays, sing, play, study the Bible stories, and learn verses. The program began three years ago and Little One has missed less than 3 evenings in the three years. She can't stand to miss. On occasion, if she had a lot of homework, or was really tired from her schedule, I have suggested, 'maybe it's a good idea to stay home from First Kids tonight and get your homework/rest/take a break,' depending on the situation. This suggestion has always prompted a quick refusal. "I'll work extra hard and get my homework done!" or -- "I'll go straight to bed when I get home at 7:45!"

The leaders are three women who have been involved from its inception in 2003. They plan, purchase, teach, encourage, discipline, and play with our children. They are supported by several folks who lead the music, two more who serve the dinner, and two more who serve as assistants to the primary leaders. The original ladies actually enjoy what they do, and have already agreed to lead again next year.

Wednesday night, the new hall was decorated and ready for dinner. Lovely plants in flowerpots served as centerpieces on the tables. The big screen was up with the First Kids graphic prominently displayed. Our new tables seat ten per and the kids sat with kids and the parents sat with parents. After dinner, we had The Great Spoon-Off, a contest to see who could balance a spoon hanging from his nose the longest. Then we had the graduation.

One of the leaders had prepared so carefully and had a dedication to each of the seven fifth-graders. She featured each of the seven individually and made remarks as to that child's talents and gifts. Little One was featured as bringing Energy and Excitement to the group. She spoke of Little One growing up so beautifully and being so confident. At the end, they presented a gift to each of the graduates -- LO's was a book on "The Christian Girl's Guide to Growing Up Right" and we all had lots of hugs and tears.

It was a lovely night. The graduates' parents were encouraged to take home the centerpieces as a gift for our being supportive and bringing the children to the program.

Next "closing ceremony": I am planning a tea for the 6 girls who have been so close this year. We are having it the 3rd weekend in May at the park. ALL the girls are worried about being able to open their lockers at Middle School next year; in the favor bags will be combination locks so they can practice this summer! More to come on this...

Honors Chorus

Little One was invited in February to participate in the County-wide Honors Chorus program. All the music teachers in the county selected small groups from each school, representing 10% of the school's population. The program involved only fifth-graders; Little One's school had 8 students. I believe our music teacher expected more dropouts than we actually had; so in the end we had more than our 10%.
Beginning in March, the kids stayed after school two afternoons a week to learn the songs and practice. There were 8 songs representing several cultures around the world. There were 2 American songs: "Turkey in the Straw," and "Glory Bound."
On Friday of this week all the kids boarded buses at their respective schools and traveled to a high school out on the edge of the county to practice for the first time on the stage as a large group. There were 200 students. The county, thanks to a generous grant, had hired a fantastic children's music director to come in for the weekend. She had written or arranged many of the songs they performed. She was there on Friday to teach them movement for the songs and direct them vocally. The kids practiced on Friday from 12 to 5. How exciting -- to ride the bus 15 miles and practice at the high school!

Yesterday they practiced all day -- from 9am to 3pm. They were provided lunch and snacks. The performance was at 4pm, with the doors opening at 3:15. I had noticed on Friday that the auditorium did not seem big enough to hold families for 200 kids, so I got in line for the door at 3pm and saved a seat for DH. Good thing! We were on the 3rd row, right by the aisle and diagonally across from Little One's position on the stage, so she could see us. Many, many families wound up standing up in the back.
I was familiar with the songs due to her having practiced singing, and she had played them on the piano. (They were loaned the sheet music from February through yesterday.) Each child had also been given a CD to practice with, I guess in case they forgot the tunes and could not read music.
The program was awesome. It's quite a weird feeling to clap, yell "Woo Hoo," and cry, all at the same time. She clearly enjoyed it, with smiles and laughter and intense concentration throughout the program. ALL the children seemed to have a blast, and I hope the county will continue this worthwhile program in the future.
We are thankful she was included. I believe she'll always remember the experience.


Little One and one of her best friends, after the performance.

Another Interlude

On the day after September 11, 2001, I wrote a piece called, "Interlude in Wonderland." Some of my friends who read this blog might remember it. I had a lunch date with Little One on September 11, and I went from the chaos and tension of the middle school where I worked at the time, to the blissful innocence of Little One's elementary school, where the administration had wisely decided it was up to the parents to decide whether or not to tell their children what had happened, and how to go about it. The school was amazingly normal, calm, peaceful, and full of little smiling faces. It was amazingly healing for me. What a gift from God to allow me that time!

I have had another interlude this week. Friends/neighbors/members of our church had a death in the immediate family and had to travel 3 states for the funeral. Taking their 2-year-old and 4(and-a-half!)-year-old sons seemed a daunting task. Having a pretty flexible schedule, and loving to Nana (verb) any children available, I offered to move in for 3 days and keep the boys so the young wife could go down and be with her husband. DH and Little One generously went for it, despite some minor inconveniences.

Staying in this home with the boys was my pleasure and delight. The mom is THE best housekeeper I have ever observed, and I had 3 whole days to study her organization. The boys are sooo sweet and unspoiled -- meaning, unspoiled by the world. They are basically sugar-free, commercial-free, sweet-spirited and happy little boys. I was away from the distractions of my life (ie, email and politics) for 3 days, wrapped in a happy little cocoon.

I am back home now and very pensive as to what changes I can make here so that the things that distract, bother and worry me here, can make a big EXIT from our life.

I did not realize that this simple gesture to the family would become a gift to me, but it did. How cool is God.

Haunting Day

Today has been totally weird. There are some commercials on TV where the characters have things hanging over their heads. In one commercial, it's a fast-food logo. In another, it's a dark cloud. I guess today I had fog.
It started well enough. I have made a commitment to have my morning coffee on the porch in the mornings, instead of in front of the computer looking at the news. The goal is to set the tone of the day with nature instead of .. well, the computer and news. This morning was very very foggy and everything seemed ethereal. Well, can things seem ethereal? I guess they either are, or they aren't. To seem ethereal, somehow that seems to be an oxymoron. Or maybe redundant.
But I digress. Had a lovely morning drinking coffee and watching the fog.
We are "redo-ing" Little One's room. Out with the twin beds, back in with her old iron bed. Right now, no beds are in there, as we are in the process of removing the carpet. Today I spent about two hours pulling staples out of the hardwood floor with a long pair of pliers. Got the blisters to prove it.
When the mail arrived I learned of the suicide of a member of our church. I won't go into the "who" or the "how" or the "how I learned," it's not important. It happened several weeks ago and, living in the fog as I do, I had no idea this had happened.
My heart is heavy for the man who felt he had no choices left. I cannot imagine the sadness he felt.
My heart is heavy for the person who found him.
My heart is heavy for his family.
DH and I are shaken by the whole event -- we feel, well, shaken, is all I can say. I am still processing this. The day started with the fog, and in one sense, that's how it ends tonight as well.

This is One Amazing Child

Little One had to research her name and develop a corresponding coat of arms for her AG English class. Her paper is copied below; I don't have a copy of the coat of arms. When I get it, I will post it. I thought the paper was dear-- I will save this in her scrapbook. Here it is:


Traci Niquole (Nick-ole) Leak
My name is Traci Niquole (Nick-ole) Leak. My mom named me this because she had a friend named Traci and a friend whose last name was Leak. Niquole (I have no clue where she got the spelling), has nothing and nobody that I’m named after.
Traci means, ‘Brave’ or ‘Valor,’ and it comes from the English language. Niquole as Nicole means, ’victory of the people,’ and comes from the Greek language. Leak means, ‘to escape.’ It came from Middle English and probably came from early Dutch before that.
On my coat of arms, I drew a griffin for bravery. I drew this because my name means bravery and I thought that it would relate very nicely. I chose the crescent (top right), which means victory, because of my middle name. Also on my coat of arms, I drew a dolphin. The dolphin stands for my love of swimming and love of dolphins. Last, I drew bubbles because they are colorful and are very pretty and I love them.
Through all my life of bravery and victory and escapes, I have been known to learn quickly and have fun, doing almost everything I do.

The Auction

Yesterday at 5:30 I sent the following email to my DS1:

Well. son, I have to leave in half an hour for this thing. We have worked our little hearts out and I truly hope it is a success. All the neighbors gathered at the shop at 10:30 this morning and just started working. No one stood around and said, "what do I do?" -- everyone just found something and started. We got home at about 4pm.
We've got great food, beer, wine, champagne, and sodas + water, most of it donated. Our little DJ is awesome. We've got lights and seating and fun games, cool doorprizes and great auction items.
We had very good coverage in the paper yesterday: www.salisburypost.com .In the search window, type in Maggie Blackwell and find it in there.
We planned for 120 guests and so far, we have 105 registered. So many have said they will pay at the door that we are afraid we will have to turn some away. The Fire Marshal certified the building at 145.
I just told (DH) that if this fails, it's MY failure. It was my idea, my implementation, and my decisions.
So, I am taking a deep breath and going to do my makeup. Cross your fingers for us.
Love,
Mom

Now it's the next day. I would have to say it was a ..... success.

I never quite understood the meaning of a "grass roots" effort, but if anything was, this was it. We just decided to do this thing. We blocked out afternoons and went to area businesses and said, "We're building a park and need to raise $32,000. Can you donate anything to our auction?" They gave. and gave.

We had an article in our neighborhood newsletter, asking for new, unused items, or antique items, but not second-hand general items. The neighbors gave. and gave. We had 5 trips to auction: one to North Myrtle Beach, two to Ocean Isle (a week trip and a long weekend) , one to Hilton Head, and one to the mountains. An antique armoire. 3 bikes. gift certificates to every restaurant in town. Haircuts, color, pedicures, manicures, waxing, tanning, personal training, and massage. Games. Big cardboard standup thingies of Star Wars and Nascar. Art. Art lessons. Music lessons. The final item of the night was a scrapbook of the elementary school here in the neighborhood that has long closed. It included school photos of children, letters from people who went there in the early 20's, attendance awards, news articles, all collected over the years. The local folks who had gone to this school, primed themselves to bid on this book.

The team gathered at the shop at 6pm to be sure we were ready. The DJ, bless her heart, had set up in the morning. She was ready. The caterer was ready. The bartenders, two college girls who needed community service hours for school, were ready. Our auctioneer was ready. And we? We were ready.

At 7 folks started coming in. At 8 they were still coming in. From 8 to 9 or 9:30 the place was packed. The food was great. Our loveliest neighbors greeted the guests at the door with a flute of champagne. The music was wonderful. Understanding that the group would be mostly 35 to 50, our little 17-year-old had loaded her IPOD with a zillion tunes including jazz, Cajun, Beatles, Van Morrison, a little reggae, and one or two rap songs. She hooked that tiny thing up to these awesome speakers that had a mike attached for us as we auctioned and gave door prizes. The caterer brought 2 servers in their white coats and they filled and refilled the food. The room was dim, illuminated only by tiny white Christmas lights and the various antique wall sconces in the room.

Our invitation had said anything goes on clothing, from jeans and sneakers to top hat and tails. Well, folks took that to heart. Tuxes. Bermuda shorts and sandals. Beautiful evening gowns. Jeans and Chucks. Plaid shirts.

As is always the case with our neighborhood, we had a great variety of ages represented. Our youngest guests were somewhere in their 20's. Our oldest were, I'd say, 75 or so. And there were lots of us in between.

At 8 the music stopped and we began the auction. I gave door prizes and our auctioneer called the auction for 30 minutes or so. When she needed a break, she called me over and I gave more door prizes. We alternated in this fashion till shortly after 10, when the last item sold.

The faithfuls stayed long after the guests had gone home. The money gal rang up our total. The helpers danced and drank and laughed. We were happy and tired and had never once had lost our focus that we are building a park for our children.

As for me, I was too excited and anxious and busy to see if people were truly having a good time, if it were a really good party. In retrospect, everyone ate a lot and drank a lot and talked a lot and laughed a lot. The place looked great and we did not run out of beer or wine. At the end, all the faithfuls recapped the events of the evening and agreed it was a great "do."

I had been hoping for about $3,000 net to go directly to the park. After repaying the expenses of putting the thing on, our take is a little over $6,000.

It didn't stop there. Today at church, one of our church members approached DH with a check in his hand. "I grew up in Fulton Heights," he said. "I am so proud of what you folks are doing over there -- I want you to have this." It was a check for $500.