King

My son came again this past weekend, Memorial Day weekend. He came 2 weeks ago and cleared out all my big items, sofa sleeper, dining room table, stereo system, huge file cabinet and on and on. (See previous post)

They arrived at 2:30 am because he had driven himself to put in his flower beds and finish his patio. We all slept in. By the time we were up and fed, it was after noon.

He started with a little pep talk. We were going to attack the job, room by room. He cleared out the shed, heaving heavies over the fence into the yard, from where we dragged them over to the trash pile. I had to pull him away from that project since the shed is not even on my property and cannot be inspected. All sheds behind my house and the neighbors' houses are on the university's property, but this is just a piece of their woods and for now, they do not mind. But the main thing was to make room for the lawn mower and yard tools. There were ants and mice and a huge spider.

Next the work room, full of half used paint, out of place tools, mini-blinds, old electrical odds and ends, a drawer full of toilet fixing things.....pieces of wood and glass and screening,etc.

He made me sort paint. The touch-up paints for the next homeowner went on this shelf. On the other, paints I intended to use. The rest went to the hazmats pile to haul off to the special recylcing place. Even now as I write I am remembering one of his mantras: Is it worth enough money that you are willing to haul it and store it? like my extra cans of paint in colors that I want in my ideal office. Five or ten dollars for a new can when I'm ready...I think I'll go and add those to the hazmats. The silly voice in me is protesting: but I got such a good deal. It was only a dollar and it's the exact color I want.

We installed the drawers of my beautiful new IKEA drawer unit. I used my new power screwdriver, woo hoo! Since I'm not going to rent out my basement any more, I don't need it for the kitchenette...we put my art supplies in it. It has 12 drawers with glass fronts, very nice looking piece with a butcher block top.

The biggest relief is that I sorted my husband's books. The King put a stack in my lap and walked inside to get another with these words trailing off with him: "by the time I get back I want those gone. Left side is give away, right side is keep." He comes back and finds me opening and looking through one "No, mom, you cannot look at them. If you aren't sure, put them in the keep pile and sort them again later". OK OK, I say and I start flinging books. "Yes, that's it, he says, good. That's what I'm looking for." I don't know how long it took, but I was amazed that I actually got done with all the books.

That was hard, actually, just like going through his files. So many years of collecting books for his ministry. Books about missions, theology, discipleship, God's character, God's holiness, prayer, family, support-raising. I planned to give them to my church until I came across one that he had bought from our church library when they must have been culling their books....oh, well, that's just one book. Someone will be interested and helped by SOME of them at least. I wonder if they have room for them in our little study building. Or if they'll have to store them. If they don't want them, now, I shall have to offer them to a church with room for them.

I don't remember which ones, but I think I hugged a couple of them to my chest and sighed. Then there were our marriage and family workbooks, I had to peek in to see if they were leaders' guides or our own personal copies. If they had our hand-writing in the blanks, they got thrown away. A few years ago I probably couldn't have imagined I'd want to throw them away, though why I'd want to go through them I wouldn't know. Still, I did picture myself reading through them again one day. Tossed.

While I was sorting the books, he was organizing the bedroom downstairs. We stored the blankets and pillows in the wardrobe that used to be in my daughter's room.

We had eaten Chipotles, a very late lunch at dinner time. After all the rooms were done but one, most of us were ready to quit.....except the KING. He said we are not done. We attacked the laundry room. He made me throw out all my emtpy milk jugs which are supposed to be filled with 3 days of drinking water and 3 days of washing water for 3 of us in case of emergency. He said there are no hurricanes here. I whined it's not hurricanes, it's terrorism, and they tell us on the radio we are supposed to have this. (Of course I had the jugs but they were not filled with water. And the crackers and tuna and non-perishable food has long since been eaten.) Out they went, being rudely kicked and thrown towards the back door.

The dog cousins were underfoot at times "What's happening? What's all the excitement about? Do we get to do anything? Anyone want to play? Oh, there's the neighbor's dog! Let's go out and bark at him!" A few minutes later you'd look over at them and they'd be stretched out on their sides in identical poses enjoying the coolness of the basement floor.

The laundry room. Lots of "someday project" material went. The T-shirts I saved from the King's and my years as tennis players, which I was going to make into a quilt one day. There was a discussion about the reverse osmosis water filter. He said what's wrong with a Brita? I'm considering that one. I asked him to install my 3 new filters, but he did not. It is a nuisance to have to hook it up and I expect I will not have space in which to park it at my smaller house. It's probably time to give it up.

I tried to by-pass the cedar closet, that's just my winter clothes I said except I think my wedding dress might be in the bottom. He starts holding up things and putting the keepers on hangers. I ended up throwing out a lot of things and finding a few of my 'lost' summer clothes.

He kept saying, "holy schmokes and a pancake." and then he'd laugh. I finally asked him what movie is that from? He said an Austin Powers movie, that I don't recommend you go see....it was a Dutch guy who said something about smoke and a pancake and he added the holy to the smoke. Now I'll be saying it and I haven't even seen the movies.

Under the stairs, the last place, out came the suitcases and Christmas decorations and large pieces of art boards. Back in went the suitcases and a few sleeping bags.
My dear daughter-in-law swept everything as we went.

Then we all stood in the middle of the main room and the King said, "Now, Mom, how do you feel?" I said If I had finished only Dad's books, I would have felt I had done a huge thing, that in itself was huge, but we have done the whole basement. It feels wonderful! He said I know I pushed everyone, but I knew I was the only one who would keep us going and if I stopped everyone would stop.

I'm tired, he said. I intended to go upstairs and finish the mia and make rice or fu fu yam, but no one was hungry and I was shocked that it was midnight.

Why did we call him KING? In case you didn't pick it up, he was bossing us all around and we were jumping at his command. Long ago I remember a Christian speaker saying that the best government is not democracy, but rather a benevolent dictator. That is how he was functioning. He was unquestionably boss, but he had my best interest in mind, not his own selfish comfort.

We had to call the daughter in Seattle and discuss July 4th plans, so I called her and he lay down on the kitchen floor and was asleep within about 5 minutes. His wife had to wake him and get him to go to bed.

I am so blessed to have such wonderful children, including my son-in-law and daughter-in-law. My son has his father's drive and ability to focus on a project. He is distractable, but you wouldn't know it when he's helping me declutter and organize my house for moving. After all that physical work, I made him talk through options for paying my bills between now and when I have cash in hand from the sale of my house.

Next day we talked for a while over breakfast and then they left with the partially cooked mia, my kids' favorite meal from Africa. He deserved so much more than that. I told his wife how to finish it up. He will enjoy that. I just shake my head in disbelief at how blessed I am to have children that are so fun and make me laugh and help me and return love to me as adults! Thank You, Lord.