President's Day of Service

On Sunday morning I asked my sweetie what he was planning to do on Monday. I knew he had taken the day off so we could spend it with the kids, but as far as I knew, he had yet to make any plans. Like usual, he threw the question back at me, but this time I was ready with an answer. "I think we should do a service project," I announced.

He looked a bit surprised, "Really?" I was a bit offended by his response. Our family often did service for others so this wasn't really a strange answer. "Well," I defended, "I was thinking maybe we should go visit your mom and see if we can help her with anything."

Now he really looked surprised. "That was exactly what I was thinking!" So the plan was born. He called his mom and got a feel for some of the things she might need done and then we gathered some tools and packed a picnic and early Monday morning (ok, it was ten, but it felt early to us) we got on the road. I even convinced the kids that our little army of helpers should wear their blog shirts so we all looked like a team.

We arrived at Grandma's house just before noon and the Dog Walker immediately got started cleaning up a bunch of deer poop that was trailed along her sidewalk. Apparently the deer were not a bit timid about wandering through her yard.

After greeting Grandma, everyone settled in to work. The kids cleaned cupboards and bathrooms, wiped cabinet fronts and washed windows. The Dog Walker changed out a bunch of burned out light bulbs that required a ladder. My sweetie fixed a cupboard door and put away boxes and Christmas things in the garage.

We ate sandwiches for lunch including some fabulous Terrel's doughnuts, and then started Round 2. There was sweeping and mopping and Grandma wanted some hand-sewing done on her curtains. That took me, Princess, and Drama Queen several hours to complete.

Some of the little ones got bored and brought out games and Legos. Sport made an awesome pair of glasses from basic blocks. Baby Doll loved the I-pad and Crafty and Scout played Mancala. By about 4:30 we finished all the tasks on Grandma's list. The kids put away their games and gave her a hug. I herded them all to the van while my sweetie vaccumed his way right out the front door.

We made the 2-hour drive and arrived just in time to grab dinner at Village Inn. (I love coupons!) We fed 10 of us for $36. Then we drove home so we could clean up our own house before we started the new week.

Did you do anything fun for President's Day?