March 29, 2009
Dear Family,
It is FINISHED!!!! After gallons and gallons of paint, buckets of dust, truckloads of sheetrock, thousands of painfully parted-w/ dollars, wood, sawdust and more dust, and many many hours of hard, hard work, we are proud owners of a new basement!! I knew it would at last be finished, but I really lost sight of how nice it would be, drowning in all of that paint, like I was, but as we moved in beds, dressers, and toys yesterday, it all started to dawn on me that we have almost double the room now! I feel like some great estate owner now, (which feels funny dressed like I usually am in DI khakis and unruly hairdos). We still need the lightswitches and doorknobs put in, but that didn’t stop the children from sleeping down there!—first in sleeping bags, and last night in beds! We’re all pretty giddy, but it is quite fun—even w/ the task of unpacking that jampacked storage room looming ahead. I’ll post more pictures soon, after I’ve finished curtains, etc. I’m also nearly as tickled over just having a nursery. Sure, Anne’s crib mattress is now on the lowest rung, but after 5 children, we’ve NEVER had a nursery, and it is SO deliciously fun!
For some strange reason, I hadn’t thought much about the painting, and figured I’d be making curtains and cleaning the upstairs out the past couple of weeks, but I was busy trying to not neglect my children, home, and husband; while anxiously trying to finish this endless painting. Almost every day, I’d rearrange in my head the list of "The Worst Parts of Painting"—I know, I should’ve been so positive w/ such a bright goal ahead, but coming upstairs to filthy floors (where I could see them), rings in the toilet, meals to make (and clean up), and so many piles of clothes all over my floor, I could not really tell the clean from the dirty anymore left me bouncing between 2 notso desirable worlds of upstairs and down. I think edging definitely took the cake as the worst, w/ taping at a close second, and boring priming right behind. Ceilings were up there for a while too, but painting white over white primer was so forgiving that it actually moved pretty quick. I DID enjoy sponging Maddie’s room w/ all of her purples, and I always saved the smallest bedroom for last, since it felt good to finish something so quickly. AND, I was so blessed all along, even w/ my not always cheery attitude. I once mistakenly threw away part of the power roller w/ the disposable cover, and realized it right after the garbage was picked up, only to find it alone in the bottom of a just emptied garbage. I had goals every day of what needed to get done, and every single time, I was able to finish—a miracle w/ my typically unrealistic time management skills. Anne slept beautifully for me, Spencer became the king of making his own "Supersnack" and cinnamon toast all day to go w/ his PBSkids and computer games, we somehow ate, and had clothes to wear, and still were able to get everything done (even the touchups!!) before the carpeters arrived on Thursday. I have a couple of things to add, like a blue stripe in the boys room, and a couple of wooden trim pieces that he put in after the carpet, since he’d run out, but it hardly seems like work! Even now, the children are all just down playing happily in the very soft family room—no furniture or anything J . I was reading Nephi’s quoting of Isaiah this past week, and I loved the word he used for Moses getting the water out of the rock. He says that these children of Israel "thirsted not" and that "the waters gushed" out as he clave the rock. That’s just how I feel—that any time I am thirsting for something, and turn to the Lord, the blessings don’t trickle, they gush. We are mightily blessed. I feel like we’re sitting here on this mound of abundance, and it makes me itch to be needed or of service to someone. The compassionate service needs in our ward are pretty slim, so we may have to do some digging, but we are so grateful for so much. This week, since finishing, I have reveled in being able to JUST cook and fold laundry, and play tictactoe w/ Spencer, and read stories, and hold Anne, and hold Spencer, and all of them--THIS is what I was made for!!--my respect for professional painters is unbounded--how do they keep going?!! I took Spencer out for lunch at Arctic Circle w/ a playground on Friday to celebrate the fact that I could be a real Mom again, and to thank him for being such a good sport. Anne had fun too, and has, since mastering the stairs, decided she's ready to walk down them!! (she's NOT!, but we can't stop her!!). There's nothing like being able to appreciate the little daytoday again :).
Besides painting, we’ve enjoyed the children’s school chorus concert (a few fun broadway songs, that even off beat, and a little garbled, gets me all choked up to see them singing!!), Brent’s first soccer team!(he was #13 in T-Ball, and now he’s #7 J --he’ll say they’re both lucky), book club (I went over in my paint clothes and ponytail—I had scheduled in a break while Anne was awake, just not any time to change back and forth), stake choir, and even a stake children’s choir for an upcoming talent show, a RS board mtg, visiting and home teaching, and more of the usual. As much as we’ve enjoyed Spring coming, we had a real blizzard blow in today during church, and had to sweep all the snow off the cars to get home. We’ve had a cooler week, but I was grateful for the time it bought us on the basement, since we couldn’t possibly do that AND work on the yard!! Covered in snow, there’s not much to worry about! I can’t believe that Mom and Dad are coming this week!!! We are SO excited to enjoy Conference and Spencer’s birthday week with them!! As one of my Visiting Teachers pointed out, it was good to have them coming as kind of a deadline for all the basement work—I don’t think my motivation to paint would’ve been nearly as great w/o it, and who KNOWS how long it would’ve lasted!!?!! It will be great to see them—and Mom’s first trip to our new home!! Love to you all, The Duncan’s
Happy St. Patrick's Day!!(I don't know how we were able to find green and short sleeves in all our mess!!)

See where Anne is pointing?--She loves the pantry, and anything else that makes her feel big enough to get what she wants---she successfully pulled down the marshmallows just today

Our little performers in their broadway garb, and w/ their little fans