subtitle

or, "You're a full time homemaker? What do you do all day long?"

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Operation Scary Garage

Before: View 1 - Unbelievable chaos 

Before: View 2 - You'd think a tornado had blown through here
     I had been praying about my scary garage for years. The piles of "stuff" all over that God-forsaken place were enough to send me to the funny farm. I would worry during my pregnancies that I would trip and fall over things on my way to the spare refrigerator we keep out there. Tim is not one to give anything away. He seems to have odd emotional attachments to all sorts of things. He's also been a math and science teacher for 20+ years and gets free textbooks from his school - boxes of them.   He has a hard time refusing anything of value that's FREE. So, I don't even bother trying to convince him to give stuff away anymore.
     He was away visiting his mother last week with our littlest, "underfoot" girls. This had been my opportunuity to get "down and dirty" with that desperately overcrowded and incredibly disorganized garage. I ended up organizing most of the garage and throwing away A LOT of trash. I also established structure and order within the garage. In each different area there needs more organization, but at least all of the tools are in one place and all of the text books are in another place. 
     It was back breaking, dirty work. My feet and arms ached at night. It was about 10 hours of solid moving, sorting, throwing away, and scavenging neighbors' trash cans for more room for my extra trash.  It was, however, incredibly gratifying! When Tim saw it he was amazed and happy that I had organized things well and cleared so much space out of the garage. When he saw all of his textbooks in one place, he mentioned the ones I could get rid of - unbelievable! I mentioned to him that I really wanted to park my car in the garage. After I get rid of a few more things that is a reality. Hello easy grocery unloading!
After: View 1 - my car is awaiting its new home

After: View 2 - large appliances awaiting removal soon

     The temptation before this vacation from my little ones, with hours of uninterrupted quiet time during the day, was to catch up on some "must see" movies, read a whole lot of  books, and take a leisurely trip to the Huntington Gardens or some other relaxing place. I could have totally justified it. But I felt God urging me on, This is what you've prayed for. This will give you far more rest in the future. The time has come NOW.
     Indeed it had come. Tim and I are ecstatic with the results and the peace and rest in my spirit has far exceeded the movies I'll eventually get to. And you know what? Elena and I had a fabulous adventure in Downtown the next day. We ate yummy dim sum in Chinatown, spent hours at the Central Library where I picked up, and read, a couple of wonderful books, and then had a leisurely lunch at the Bonaventure Hotel overlooking all of LA. It was a sweet reward for hard work done well. Thank you, Lord. Only you could've  prompted the willingness, stamina, and vision for that project. Now, we need to have a little chat about that basement....
All cleaned up and enjoying a wonderful lunch at the Bonaventure Hotel


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