Preparing for our 50th has at times been frustrating enough to make a person "lose their religion". Well, not really of course but the quest to get our front porch and back deck power washed and stained has been a challenge. First of all, so much rain and so many days of it. Joel actually put tarps up Monday night to try to keep the porch dry with the plan that he would stain on Wednesday. Tuesday night I watched him taking the tarps back down and asked him what he was doing since it was going to rain again! He had checked the weather channel and they said clear skies, but sure enough last night it started to drizzle so out he went again to attempt to cover the railing with tarps. (It sticks out a bit from the porch roof.)
He had purchased the stain beforehand so at about 11 Wednesday morning he started to stain the railing only to discover that the stain was one of those solid color stains? Say what? He had purchased the wrong kind.........so he decided to buy a different stain at the local hardware store, but he came up with nothing. So, off he went back to Sherman Williams to see about an actual stain. Twenty minutes and much frustration later he left that store empty handed and headed way across our little micro city to Menard's. He finally found what he was looking for and arrived home 4 hours after he began the task of staining our porch. At 9:30 pm he came in the house and announced it was finished!
I was little help at all, basically encouraging him as I watched the weather all night. I once went out to tell him that our storm free night was turning into another rain event by 8:45 pm. I asked him if he wanted to "look at the radar" and he replied "No!" He just kept staining away at endless rails and then the floor of the porch. He kept thinking, God will hold the rain off until I get things done. And God graced him with that desire. He finished staining, put the tarps back up (with a nail gun in hand) and cleaned up, finishing just as the rain began to fall.
With 6 hours of bending, dipping, and knee walking behind him, Joel was pretty achy and stiff. I took coconut oil and added Frankicsense and Lavender essential oils to it, rubbed it all over his back, shoulders and upper arms and off to bed he went. He woke up today feeling pretty good and we had a good laugh over the mud walking drama to stain one little porch! And today? I am looking out the window at a very nice freshly stained porch, although the view is not very spectacular since the tarps are still up! Just in case................
Sometimes it seems like we have to walk through mud to get things done. One step forward and two steps back. It takes perseverance to keep moving forward, whether it is while staining a porch or much more important things in life. Our circumstances can be complicated as life or the ol' enemy gets in the way with some form of resistance. But with persistence, hard work, prayer, and God coming in to save the day, we can get it done, and it will be worth it!
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