Lincoln is now in Time Out for the rest of his life.

Never, EVER, say- even to yourself- "I just have nothing to blog about". Like I did, just yesterday, before I pulled out that Fruit Salsa recipe. Because God has a sense of humor, and, thankfully, plenty of grace to share!

Today was supposed to be a nice, quiet day. Nothing planned to do, no school or Bible study or playdates. Just the kids and I, hanging around the house. (Well, actually we HAD to hang around the house b/c my car is once again in the shop, but don't get me started about that!)
I had been painting baseboards in Georgia's room- painting baseboards being one of the jobs around here that will probably drag on for years. Mom had called and asked if we wanted to go to lunch. We readily agreed since we'd been at home all morning, and while I was getting things done, the kids were getting wild and it was time to get out of the house. I closed up the paint, and went to my room to change out of my painting clothes, seeing the kids happily watching cartoons in the living room on my way by.
Three or four minutes later I came out of my room to make sure they were ready for lunch and noticed Lincoln was now missing from the living room. An immediate- UH-OH. I went straight to the kids' bathroom, b/c lately he's taken a liking to playing in the toilet (a boy thing I guess b/c Georgia never even tried that!), but he wasn't there.
I heard him... in Georgia's room... where I left... the PAINT!!!
Oh No Oh No Oh No Oh No Oh No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh Yes.
He had found the paint.

Do you think he knows he's in trouble?

Saying "MESS". Yes, son, MESS! Big BIG Mess!!

I honestly think I just froze for a minute, staring at him like I couldn't believe my eyes. And I think he could tell by that stare that he had done WRONG. Finally, he started to walk towards me and I snapped out of it, saying Don't Move! and grabbing him. I took him to the tub and washed his hands, legs, and little white-covered feet and toes, the whole time thinking about that MESS on the floor.

Our beautiful, newly varnished and restored wood floors. Our expensive floors! Yes, did I mention the first thing we did when we moved into this house was restore and refinish the 60-year old floors in the front of the house. Sigh.

But the Lord gives us grace and teaches us to give grace. I was as upset at myself as I was at Lincoln because I had left the paint out. Only for 3 minutes, but I still did it. With a Lincoln in the house, you can never leave anything out for 3 minutes that is not 100% childproof, and I shoulda known!

So I rinsed him off and put him in Time Out -for the rest of his life- and started cleaning. The Lord also showed Lincoln and I both grace by sending my mom in the door right at that time. The whole time I was cleaning him off, and thinking about that Big Mess, I was also telling myself- Grammie is coming! She will help! She'll be here soon!

So we scrubbed, and scoured, and mopped, and picked paint out of cracks with safety pins, and the floors look great. Thank goodness for that shiny new varnish that kept the paint from soaking in! Mom may have sacrificed a cute pair of pants for the cause by getting paint on them, but she said it's a small price to pay for saving Lincoln's life!

And Lincoln tried to get out of it by falling off the back of the couch onto his head on the tile floor. So then I was more worried about him having a concussion than him being in Time Out for the rest of his life. (He's ok, just has a new bruise on his noggin.)

This kid... what am I going to do with him!

Thank you for saving me today, Grammie! :)

And, yes, of course I took pictures! I very quickly took a few- AFTER my son was safely scrubbed clean and in Time Out -for the rest of his life!