Friday, January 13, 2012

I often find God waiting for me in the garage...

Even though I live a pretty hectic-paced lifestyle, there are occasions I sneak in a free day. Thanks to my lovely wife of course.


Seems like there's always something to do when you have a house full of kids. I wouldn't have it any other way though...at least for now.


By nature, I love to tinker with stuff. Always have. As a kid myself, I would often take my dad's power tools or appliances apart just to see how they worked. Growing up, I was also always building something or trying to make a better mousetrap with things that already had solid paperwork filed with the U.S. Patent Office. Those were the days...

Today when I do manage some much needed time off, there are those times I do absolutely nothing but veg out in from of my favorite all-time day waster- Lonesome Dove. That's over 6 hours of pure testosterone-laden entertainment!  I only manage that awesome day, however, about once a year.

Most of the time, I will spend the free day in my garage rearranging, cleaning, praying, organizing and just generally being to myself.  With a four bedroom house and a stable of three girls plus mom, dad doesn't have a space to himself at the moment...except the garage.

I'd like to claim my garage looks a lot like this- 





But, I'd be strecthing it a bit. Okay...a lot. Actually, you'd probably find this a closer comparison-



We can, however, at least park our cars in the garage.

I've discovered through the years that my mind is much more creative when my hands are busy. I've conjured up more than one blog post or Sunday School lesson while fiddling with shelves, vacuuming cars out or cleaning up tools on a Saturday. I don't actually consider any of those things chores. Mowing the lawn is a chore. Making the lawn mower run better is a happy moment to yours truly.

I took the week off between this past Christmas and New Years as sort of a stay-cation. Most of the time I spent cooking with my wife Candice or visiting family. I managed to get all of the Christmas decorations put up, Christmas toys put together and our home back to a relative normal setting. A little reading, a little writing and way too much History/Discovery/Military Channel time made the week go by far too fast. I did squeeze in one day in the garage though and managed to get a lot of tinkering accomplished. I just didn't have enough time to get finished...

Oh well. Guess that will require another free day sometime soon.

   






3 comments:

Kerry Luddy said...

I can tell that we could be friends. I love your humor and honesty. Hope to meet in person someday. Love the garage photos.

It's Something Beautiful said...

Tony...I actually froze when I saw the first photo of the neat garage. My first thought was " no way am I going to invite him into my craft/art/storage room!" I laughed when I saw the next picture and breathed a sigh of relief! You see a lot of my "stuff" just isn't "stuff"...they hold great creative possibilities
You and my husband Marcel would do well together watching all the War/History Movies and Documentaries. Now if he could only remember to turn the volume down during the battle scenes. ( I was blasted out of here, the other day while he was watching the Normandy Invasion!) Thanks Tony
Linda Maynard

Andrea York said...

Your personality comes through in such a great way in your writing.

I laughed, then laughed some more because it's so relate-able, thanks for your post.