It's been awhile since I have praised the genius of the Amish Envy Club. This is a group of four families who gather four times a year to undertake home improvement projects. Each family gets to claim a Saturday. The other families show up with tools, sandwich fixings, their kids, and good attitudes. What could have been a weekend with one spouse grumpily working alone and the other one unhappily herding their children out of the way becomes a party. Theo woke up this past Saturday saying, "It's Amish day! Amish day! When do they come?" He then went to the window and waited for the next two hours. When the families did arrive the pack of boys quickly disappeared up to the legos and the adults got busy redoing our kitchen floor and taking care of some other small projects. Little Harriet stayed close to mom and dad- but there were no noxious chemicals in this project, so that was fine. She was a fabulous help tamping down the carpet squares by stomping on them. And just about when she would be getting bored the swarm of boys would be coming through and they would catch her up in their tide and get her laughing for a while. 
We spent the day chatting and laughing with friends, watching our boys delight in the company of like-minded kids, and getting a new kitchen floor. The old lineoleum was completely worn out when we moved in 7 years ago. Now, because a delivery did not arrive in time, the 'intestinal' chandelier (so named the day we moved in by a friend who was sure we would be replacing it immediately) still sways magestically in the dining room. The new light should arrive any day and I think we can replace it without the aid of the Amish Enviers.
We spent the day chatting and laughing with friends, watching our boys delight in the company of like-minded kids, and getting a new kitchen floor. The old lineoleum was completely worn out when we moved in 7 years ago. Now, because a delivery did not arrive in time, the 'intestinal' chandelier (so named the day we moved in by a friend who was sure we would be replacing it immediately) still sways magestically in the dining room. The new light should arrive any day and I think we can replace it without the aid of the Amish Enviers.
Our project was just the right size for an Amish Envy Saturday. After a hearty communal dinner the crew departed and Jon only had about an hour of work to finish up while I put the boys to bed. Well, the cabinet doors that were removed for cleaning and possible restaining still lean against the wall in the dining room, and will probably still be there in 2010. But that's how it goes. Yesterday I stopped by the Spencer household, the site of the last Amish Envy meeting in October, to drop of a left over stuffed animal and saw that a ladder still leans against their garage. Propped there in late October from the Amish roofing experiment. For the record, the roof appears done. The ladder is just there as a reminder of good times.
1 comment:
awesome! nice post.
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