Mr. Zip and Mrs. Mignon came into town this weekend, and I feel like I have a house full of personal handymen at my service!
Today, Mr. Zip (my amazing and completely blind father-in-law) single-handedly installed a new garbage disposal and a new floodlight in the backyard. Of course, Mrs. Mignon was reading directions and fetching various tools with names like “Philips” and “Flathead” the whole time.
Michael had our friend Steve Trabanino over to help him lay tile in our master bathroom. Another good friend of ours, Sean Harrison, came over to help out as well.
Sean’s visit was quite a surprise and a blessing for several reasons. Someone was paying him to fly an airplane into Houston today (Sean has his pilot’s license), and so he rented a car after arriving this morning and drove to our house for a few hours before catching a commercial flight back home. The best part? Sean kindly packed along his wet saw so we could cut the tile for our bathroom, saving us a lot of money we would have had to pay out in order to rent or buy one for this project!
For my part, I watched the baby and spent almost the entire day cooking. It was very important to me to feed all of my workers especially well today 🙂 So, I cooked pancakes from scratch for breakfast, homemade hamburgers and parmesan-garlic oven fries for lunch, homemade brownies for snack, and red beans and rice and cornbread for dinner.
Thank goodness I wasn’t alone in all of this cooking (and all of the dishes!). Mrs. Mignon and Mr. Zip helped a lot in the kitchen. Mr. Zip even taught me how to make my first roux. I feel like I’m finally embracing my Louisiana culinary heritage now 🙂
In all seriousness, my parents-in-law have more energy than I ever have or ever will have. They have seemed like near-tireless workers (and party-ers) ever since I met them. They’re sort of amazing.
I’m hoping to weasel a couple of more little projects out of my “helpers” before the weekend ends. 🙂 I’ve been wanting to put up Gabriel’s curtains and a couple more things on the walls…
There's nothing like having people around who are determined to do everything to help you! My mom came down when our son was born and was the extension of my hands – doing dishes, vacuuming, reading, cooking. It was great! My name is Katie and I, too, am a "humble handmaid." A happy Catholic wife and stay at home mom of 1 5-month old blessing, Liam. Amy DeRosia recommended your blog to me – I live in Shreveport and met her through my parish young adult group. Check out my blog at http://www.catholicwife.wordpress.com!