sunday, a day of rest....or is it?

Driving kids places...picking kids up. There was no church today because of the young brother's conference, but there was still activity club. Paul left for Boston. And we spackled the main bathroom and the kids' room. I paid Joseph to sand the kids' room, and I sanded the bathroom. Then the painting began....oh my goodness. The kids room has one coat of blue paint on the walls, and also on the baseboards and on the carpet and on Evelyn. Joseph and Sam and Ev painted in there while Suzanne The Monkey helped me in the bathroom...she can climb on counters and on the side of the tub to reach the top of the walls....Ashley came in and finished all the high parts. Suze went into the kids' room and couldn't believe how "awful a job they did". She helped finish up that first coat, and was telling them they have to be more careful. Now, Suze is only just-turned-ten years old....she is just a good painter. Anyway, the bunkbeds are all pushed into the center of the room, with just enough room to go around the edges. They can't really sleep in there, so they are in other rooms tonight, with Suzanne on the couch.

In the midst of this, Camille dumped out a few games, and I made dinner....chicken wings...I baked them in the oven with the convection on, on parchment paper so they got super crispy without sticking. I soaked some in barbecue sauce (Sweet Baby Ray's), and some in Frank's Hot sauce mixed with butter. Served with sweet potato fries and corn and green beans....yum. We sat around the table solving the world's problems, and planning a bake sale....(because gas is so expensive and the girls' youth group is planning a trip to Detroit soon) Then Ashley and the little kids started tickling and playing and fooling around, and before we knew it it was bed time....they are not sleeping yet, due to the fun of their temporary sleeping arrangements....

The new color of the bathroom is the same paint I used for my bedroom and bathroom during the summer. I already had the spackle for the kids' room, so I figure it was free to give the bathroom a new look. Well, cheap...I DID buy two new mirrors for $7.92 each a few weeks ago...the old mirrors, besides being 20 years old now, are so "eighties". Victorian-looking, pretty, but we are sick of them.

Couch: one load of unmatched socks.

Livingroom floor: not too bad, Ashley picked up about twenty Barbies and some books before she got her phone call from Benjamin....

Joseph and Aaron are teasing the dog.

Aaron brought home a package of Oreo cookies from work...(he bought them)(he works at the little grocery store in town)....and he just gave me one. Oh, it was good. But I am NOT having another one. Before you go thinking how virtuous I am, know that I had peanut M&M's after dinner.....

Abigail made Jon's day. She took him along with her activity club girls to a place called Paradise Market, which has flea market-type vendors and food places and a band playing.....anyway, they found HESS TRUCKS there!!! Jon has like ten or twelve trucks but was missing a few years, and he got them today, two for twenty bucks, brand new in the boxes! He is so absolutely thrilled. He never knew there was a place to buy brand new Hess trucks for so reasonable a price....(he loves to go to Hess.com and look at the trucks....he knows by looking at them which years they are....)

brr. It is so cold in here. It has been snowing on and off all day long. blah. We have gotten over 160 inches of snow this year.....

I am ready for spring.

I love the smell of fresh paint. It says, "things have been improved".

Tomorrow morning I have to call the doctor. Mali's throat hurts. Kathryn's foot still hurts.