Hard at Work with Grammy & Papa

Every time that Grammy and Papa visit us, they generously help us with all kinds of at-home projects. During this visit, our major undertaking was staining the boys' new playset. With our snowy winters, the stain will make the playset last much longer! 

We were especially appreciative of Grammy and Papa's help with this job, as they had just completed massive painting projects of their own at home. Painting more was probably the last thing they wanted to do on vacation! Of course, they didn't complain at all, but just jumped right to work.

Papa easily put in the most hours of on-the-job staining. He even stayed back one morning to work for several hours straight while Grammy & I went to a few garage sales and ran some other errands. 

I even was able to put in a few hours of staining work while Grammy was watching the boys. After many days of being with the boys on my own, staining in peace & quiet felt like a vacation to me! :)

Grammy was our quality-control cleaner, scrubbing off the drips of stain on the windows and other surfaces. The final product looks beautiful and will be SO beneficial to the life of our playset. Thanks so much, Mom & Dad!

Grammy and Papa also jumped right in with work in the kitchen. It was such a relief for me to have helpers again for meal preps! One day, we purchased some fresh sweet corn from a local farmer. Grammy headed up the corn shucking while Papa fired up the grill for our delicious BBQ chicken meal.

Grammy had both boys help her with the shucking process.

They both enjoyed using the brush. Cody, here, stayed particularly focused on the task.

Cody helped Papa unload the dishwasher another night. Papa commented on the boys' speedy help. They definitely love this job!

Another outdoor task that Grammy and Papa helped with was to care for our sickly apple tree. We recently noticed a few dying branches and a loss of both apples and leaves from all over the tree. Grammy wisely suggested taking a branch sample into a nursery to ask for a "diagnosis." Right away, the employee said our tree had fire blight, a common disease that had spread to many area trees following our spring hail storm. Back at home, we all worked to prune back the dead branches. It was tedious work, as we had to disinfect the clippers between each cut. Hopefully, our work will pay off with a tree that will stay alive!

Finally, Grammy helped with an interesting sewing fix-it project. During our garage sale outing with Grammy, we had found this great cloth tunnel for only $1. The boys were a little rough with it, though, falling on top of it rather than climbing through it, and the tunnel ripped a bit. Grammy was convinced that she could repair the tear. 

This tunnel was NOT an easy object to repair, but Grammy did it! The boys were very intrigued by the mending process.

Thanks SO much, Grammy & Papa, for so willingly helping out with many projects around our home! We are always impressed with your wide knowledge of fix-it skills and are thankful when you share your expertise and wisdom with us!