Projects, projects, projects

Today was a busy day. Danielle & the boys were at VBS all morning and into the afternoon, so it's a perfect time for me to do work.

Since there were scattered T-storms in the forecast for the afternoon, I started by mowing the lawn. It was a totally different experience mowing the lawn without the boys to "help" me. Usually, I have to stop every few minutes to answer a question, mediate a disagreement, etc, but today I was actually able to mow the lawn from start to finish without interruption. It was really boring! I missed the boys so much. I missed seeing them pushing around their little bubble mowers. However, I did enjoy getting to just listen to my iPod and nothing else. Since our church hasn't started putting Pastor Rick's sermons online yet, I've started downloading sermons by Tony out in Kansas. He's a great minister who does some great expounding on God's Word. The sermon I listened to today was on James 1:12-16. It was about resisting the temptation to sin. Part of that passage exposes the awful truth about sin...

James 1:14-16 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.

Notice, we are tempted by our own desires. It is our responsibility to be diligent and to avoid situations/people/things that cause us to sin. And, more importantly, it is only through God's grace that we can be free from the sin. We cannot do it on our own. If we think we can do it alone, we're crazy. Bottom line - The awful truth is that Sin does NOT bring happiness/pleasure/contentment. It brings Death. But, as Tony pointed out, Praise God that...

1 Corinthians 10:13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Mowing the lawn was by far the most productive part of the day!

After the lawn, it was on to the garage. A good friend of mine from church hooked me up with some free cabinets from a guy at work that was remodeling his kitchen. They were exactly what I was looking for to put in the garage. So I hung 3 of them in the garage today. Since I'm going to eventually finish the garage really nice, I put in some insulation behind them so that when I finally get around to re-doing the garage, I won't have to take them down again to insulate. Pretty smart, eh??

The problem is, the studs in the garage aren't exactly what you'd call plumb. They aren't really that bad out of line, but when I hung the cabinets all nice and plumb, it really accentuated the crooked studs. So, I ended up putting up some plywood around the cabinets to cover the studs. Problem solved...

Then, I cleaned up my lumber corner in the garage. I threw out any scrap pieces that have gotten thrown in the corner over the past 2 years of projects, and I even sorted the good wood into stacks. Pressure Treated on the left, regular pine on the right. Sorted by size, too. Now, I'm ready to tackle the next wood project - Steps on the side of the front deck. I'll explain that in a different post!

All this before noon! I couldn't believe how much work I got done. We'll see what tomorrow brings!