The Matt-sterpieces

The plastic wading pool we've had a couple of summers finally got a crack in it, so we got a new pool. This one is the vinyl kind with plastic sides that the pressure from the water holds up. Matt, being who he is, decided to improve it. We now have a pool with a ledge to sit on and when he and I decide it's hot enough outside (the kids have thought so for a while now) we'll be able to sit in it and get wet up past our waists.Here he is after a half day at John Deere, going on only a few hours sleep, making his little kiddies a fun pool. Camie was a big help. She dug with him while the other two were with me picking and eating dewberries and huckleberries. Notice Camie carrying the hose. She brought it all the way from the shed for Daddy.

The excitement level was high, so he let them get in while it was filling up. Lissy demonstrates how the ledge can be a slide.

Another Matt-sterpiece:

No, Matt does not do oil paintings. This is one my sister Lauren did and had hanging in their restaurant (The Station). But he did build the frame. The Station has been closed for a year or two now, and she asked us if we'd like to hang the picture at our house.

Of course, Matt, being who he is, found a nontraditional place to hang it. It's on the upper story slanted wall of the living room beside a window, so it sort of looks like you're looking out at the night sky. I love it. What I didn't love was watching him balance on rungs of the opened-out ladder that was stretched between two beams, while reaching over his head to screw the thing in. To even get to that wall he had to climb over the loft rail and walk along the beam. Thankfully we have a basketball game enclosed in volleyball netting that hangs right beside where he was walking. He used that to help him balance10 or 12 feet over the living room. Yikes. My job, aside from praying and trying to maintain silence from the audience of kids, was to slide the big thing up the wall to him and then to stand on a tall chair and support the bottom of the frame. And then after he'd gotten all four screws in, he found he'd gotten it two inches off center. I told him his easy-to-please wife thought it looked great, but suspected her perfectionist husband wouldn't be able to stand it. He agreed. Repositioning it turned out to be not quite as difficult as the original hanging, but I was relieved when it was over. Camie was too. She'd sat in silence on the sofa staring in fear as Daddy balanced up there.

Yeah, that's WAY up there.That's the front door below him. (He does own clothes that are not all the same color, but these two projects each took place after work, so he's still got his work uniform on.)

And the finished product, picture taken from the loft. Micah told me this morning that he "wiked Daddy hanging that picture up dere."

Y'all come by and take a look!

Credit and Thanks:

Lauren for her gorgeous picture

Matt for his carpentry and acrobatic skills

Rose for her support of the arts (literally)

Kids for being silent so Daddy could concentrate

Cassie for making typing this a challenge as she squirmed in my lap