Whitewashing the Fence

I feel like Tom Sawyer.

Remember the episode of whitewashing the fence? It was a hard, tedious job, but Tom made it look like so much fun that his friends were paying him for the privilege of doing it themselves.

So I had this wallpaper border around the top of the kitchen walls that needed to come down. Lisa the niece worked on it last week. She peeled off the vinyl outer layer all around, they she'd spray with water to soak the rest and then scrape it off with a paint scraper.

I started working on the rest a couple of nights ago. Up the stepladder, spray spray spray, down the ladder, wait wait, up the ladder, scrape scrape scrape. Suddenly Jenny showed up. "Oh Mom, can I try that, pleeease? I'll be really careful, I promise. Pleeeease??"

"Welll...[stifle a chuckle]...if you're really really careful..."

Jenny removed about 5 feet of wallpaper. During this time, Steven was at the kitchen table trying to do homework and fussing at her. "Jenny, you're being noisy." "Jenny, that's really distracting."

Last night after supper and dishes I was off doing something else for a while and when I came back to the kitchen, what should my wondering eyes behold but Steven up on the ladder, happily scraping, with bits of paper falling around him like clumps of snow. He is cheerfully finishing the job today as I sit here in comfort and type.

No wonder Tom Sawyer felt so smug.

Quote of the Day:
Me: What do you want for supper?
Ben: Something good that does not have green beans, mushrooms, or tomatoes in it.