Home, Sweet Home.

2/7/10

This weekend has been a whirlwind of amazing and tiring events.

I've never been more in pain, tired, stressed, annoyed. I've never worked harder, or for as long as I have been. I've never gotten so many bruises, cuts, and sore spots before. I've never wanted to break down and cry, scream, or punch the wall more in my life.

This has been the best weekend of my life.

Let me attempt an explanation.

*****

So like I've said before, I work at Jacob's Well. And it's looked and felt the same for the last 8 years of existence. Deep red walls, yellow in the kitchen. Holes in the wall, dirty. Lame.

It's been in the works for a while now to repaint the insides, revamp the furniture, and overall give the entire place a new look and a new feel. We began this process late Wednesday night and have not come up for air since then.

So far, we have hauled out 50+ pieces of furniture, including 5 couches and a diner booth, packaged up all the dishes and mugs, the silverware, and moved out the appliances from the kitchen. We've scrubbed the walls, primed them, and painted them dark purple and bright green. We've got the doors and trim painted black.

I've been on MULTIPLE runs to Lowes, Meijer, McDonald's, and everywhere in between for this project. Getting more paint, loading up on food and water, going to friends houses to borrow supplies. I'm the driver. That's a way that I really love people. I take them where they need to be. I help them run their errands because I love to be with them, and see them get where they need to be. I value this quality in myself very greatly.

I've spent this weekend with some of the most loving, supportive, funny, tremendous people I know. I haven't smiled while working this hard before. I haven't been COVERED head to toe in all colors of paint and been called 'adorable'. I haven't been able to dance around with a paint roller and use it as a microphone, stand on counters and look over room separators and spy on others. I'm having the time of my life doing this.

The greatest part about all of this is being able to spend all of my time in my home away from home. Literally, it's about 5 minutes from my house. I call Jacob's Well my home, I call these people my home.

This is all worth the pain, because we're creating a place of love and happiness.