Starting them young!

As you have probably gleaned from the recent posts, I have been a little down. Well, yesterday I got much needed boost. My grandkids came for a visit!!

As I was painting the basement wall, I knew that these little gaffers were on their way so I made sure that I left some lower rolling available because I thought it might be fun to give my 3.5 year old grandson a chance to help oma.

YES - I am an OMA and Bernie is an OPA! I don't remember lots about my own oma and opa but I remember things like: orange tang in the clear glass container with red pouring spout, peppermint cookies, playing with a wodden top on the rubber mat at the sink, a wooden marble 'roller coaster' made by opa, books in the corner behind sliding doors and an incredible rose garden.

So it was important to me to continue to use the Oma and Opa names. (We had referred to Bernie's parents as oma and opa to our kids - so they were familiar with the terms.) Yes. It makes me sound old and you know? I don't care! Bring it on. I am a very proud oma.

So Bentley came over and I called him into the basement and asked if he wanted to help oma. 'Yes, I would like that,' he said. So without doing the proper thing and asking his mother if he was dressed to paint, instead I acted like the 'psycho, don't pay attention to what i am wearing when i paint' person that I am - I set out to teach Bennie how to paint - clothes and all!

Well, by the time they left AND after an ice cream treat, my little boy had blue paint in his hair, on his arms, on the back of his shirt and the back of his shorts... oops! But his paint spots matched with oma's and that made him proud of the work he had done with oma!

And so he should have been! He was a great little help and a joy to my soul. We could chat and work together and get excited about our upcoming weekend. (We have a Rempel semi-annual gathering at MCI in Gretna over the long weekend!) The motivation this little guy (and his little sister too!) brought me yesterday is almost indescribable.

Now, I felt the need to gett'er done! I want to have this little family and the rest of my family be able to drop in and visit without having to worry about nails on the floor, hammers lying around, paint cans and wet paint all over. I want to play with my grandkids and sit and chat with my kids. My heart is yearning to entertain and visit and relax after a day of work. SO THANKS, Judson and Ashley for dropping in and bringing those little guys along to motivate me to keep going!

THAT was not the only highlight of my night. Check this action out!

Rayzanna is right - she is that good! Laminate flooring is fantastic though - you get that look of wood for a lesser cost (not always!) and an easier install. I will also take this time to thank Kevin Dyck - friend and cousin-in-law who stopped in this week to help my dad put up pine on the kitchen ceiling and lay laminate in one of our closets!! Awesome!

AND one more big deal - one of the reasons Judson stopped in was to measure our opening for the patio door we bought through his company, Duxton Windows - shout out to them! (http://www.duxtonwindows.com/) Duxton specializes in Fiberglass frames which work well in our Manitoba extreme temperatures.

SO things are looking up. It's sometimes the smallest things in life that can change our trajectory! Thanks to some very small people, my trajectory has changed and once again I am pumped up to get to work and create a home where we can celebrate with each other, cry with each other, fight with each other and ultimately and simply love each other.