The Week In Review

 I wasn't sure if I'd post today. My body is in pain (I'll explain shortly). I decided I'd go ahead and post because a) I'm sitting down so I can type as long as I'm comfortable, and b) I want to be consistent. I slacked for too long; it's time I get on track.

My week has actually been quiet for the most part. It consisted of cleaning, cooking, and doing laundry. Pretty standard stuff. I studied for my Friday night Bible study on Wednesday and Thursday. We are working through Jesus' parables and this week we looked at the parable of the wise and foolish builders in Matthew 7:24-27. We looked at the entire Sermon on the Mount and broke down the conclusion. It was a powerful study.

In my entryway I have a light fixture that I've wanted to change out since we moved in. It's the original fixture from whenever this house was built, and it's not only ugly, it's nasty.

It's a builder grade light fixture from the 80's that is plastic. It's up high so cleaning it is very difficult unless you get on a high ladder. This apparently was never done, and it's grimy at this point.

I don't know if this picture does it justice. The dirt does not come off. It's been baked on with the heat from the light. 

There were two of these whenever we moved in, this one at the front entry and one at the top of the stairs. I was able to change out the latter.

I got this light fixture off of Amazon. Not only is the size perfect for the space, the rustic farmhouse style fits my decor. Changing this fixture was simple. I could reach it from the living room; I didn't even get the ladder out to take down the old fixture, but I did have to whenever I was ready to put in the new one because it's metal and it was too heavy. 

The problem I ran into whenever I was ready to switch out the second fixture was reaching it. I have an extension ladder, but even with that I just don't reach. It also makes me very nervous to try and balance on an extension ladder while holding a heavy light fixture and attaching all the wires and such. I have friends that are electricians, but they live in our old area which is kinda far from where we live now. So I contacted the children's ministry director at my new church and asked for a recommendation. I figured, if I'm going to pay someone to put up this light fixture, I'd much rather give the job to someone in the church. So, after months of having the light fixture sitting in my office, hopefully it will get installed either this Wednesday or Thursday. I'm so excited, I can't wait!

This week I went to Publix to do my groceries. I needed some thin steaks and chicken wings, and while Aldi has really good meats, they don't have much variety. Publix has excellent products but the price is higher; Walmart has better prices but the quality of their meats is lacking in my opinion. So Publix wins whenever I need meats. Since I had to go there anyway, I got everything else I needed as well.

I found steaks and chicken wings, and while I was at it I picked up Luigi's Italian Ices for my son. They're his favorites.

One thing I always like to get whenever I go to Publix is their sweet tea. It is by far the best sweet tea out there. 

I really didn't need much from the store - or so I thought. When my son saw what I'd picked up, he asked if the store was out of his water. I totally forgot his Clear American flavored waters! It's a Walmart brand so I wasn't going to find them at Publix. It's the only water he likes to drink, so Saturday morning I headed out and picked him up some water and snacks.

The other thing I did on Saturday was plumbing work. My daughter and son-in-law are remodeling their master bathroom, and they're trying to save wherever they can. They have a contractor doing all the major stuff like tiling, installing the new toilet, wall repair, and putting in a frameless shower door. They decided not to change out the vanity because it's newer and in excellent condition. All it needs is a coat of paint and new handles, so I offered to paint it. The other thing it needed was new faucets. My daughter asked if I could change them out, since I've done it before and they didn't want to have to pay the contractor to do it. I have to be honest, changing out faucets is one of my least favorite things to do. It's not difficult; as long as you follow the instructions it's pretty straight forward. The hard part is removing the old fixtures, and these were in pretty bad shape. It's also really hard to get under the bathroom sink to pull out/install the faucets. It's the reason why my body is in such pain today.

It took me forever to get this old handle out, and then I didn't think I'd be able to get the water supply line off, but eventually I managed to get it off. 

I think the faucets turned out beautifully (there's two sinks in this vanity and I changed out both) but y'all, it took me four hours to get this job done, and I feel like three hours were spent in just getting the old faucets out. I'm so glad I was able to do this for my kids, but I'm paying for it today. Even my fingernails hurt! I've been sitting on my couch with a heating pad on my back for most of the day. I'm finally feeling better, and I thank the Lord for that.

And that's been my week! Hope y'all had a productive week as well. God bless.