THIS IS MAYHEM!!!!!

This is what the whole downstairs of my house looked like this weekend. 

 It sorta reminded me of when my kids were little and I was sick in bed with the flu and Daddy was watching them. I just knew mayhem would sneek in the back door while I was too sick to care! I knew that mayhem would be downstairs making my house look like a tornado had ripped through it, disheveling my children so much that I could hardly recognize them with peanut butter in their hair and mismatched shoes and big grinning chocolate covered mouths!

This weekend mayhem revisited StoneGable!

It did not start with the flu this time... but a trip to the jewelry store...

There I was... standing at the jewelry counter last May with an armload of bangles on, clanking and clinking and making the most musical bangle sounds!

Bobby had taken me on a little surprise trip to my very favorite jewelry store to buy me that big gold bangle I had been dreaming about! After all, it WAS for Mother's Day. Bobby is a very very generous gift giver... lucky me!

I was lost in bangle land for about a half an hour, turning my arms full of pretty bracelets this way and that as they made their magical music! I love the feel of real gold on my skin... and the sparkle of diamonds!

It had been awhile since I'd been on the hunt for real gold... and for a big piece of jewelry. We had kids to put through colleges and weddings to pay for. We called those years the "lean years". There was no big gold during those years!

And now being on the "other side" of those happy obligations I was in for a treat... and a rather big treat at that!

As I was standing there admiring all the gorgeous golden pieces sliding up and down my arms I had a wee tiny prickling on the back of my neck... a sign that something was not quite right!

Bobby was attentive and although he would have probably been happier playing golf, he examined each lovely bangle and chatted about what he liked and did not like about each one.

The feeling that started out as a wee and small prick at the back of my neck had now turned into a pounding in my head! Not a headache pounding... but a realization that I at first did not want to acknowledge or admit!

"No, not bangles", my head pounded!  I took the golden circles off my arm and told the lady to put them back in the case.  Then I turned to Bobby...

"I don't want a gold bangle", I softly told Bobby  "Okay", he said. "Do you want a ring or a necklace. I know you love those monogram necklaces over there".

"No", I said... "I want hardwood floors"! "Hardwood floors in the family room for Mother's Day".

"Really?"

 "Really!"

 "Oh, I see!", he said as if he had been bested!

The family room had been carpeted only 3 years before and although I never really liked it, Bobby did.  He was quite firm about not replacing a good carpet... and I would add... no matter how ugly I thought it was!  It was the only room in the downstairs that did not have hardwood. Bobby is very generous but he is not a pushover and can be quite stubborn.

Standing in a store full of glistening glittery things I have a fond weakness for, I told him my hearts desire were hardwood floors! I don't use the "hearts desire card" unless I really mean it! As crazy as it sounded, I actually wanted that floor more than jewelry!

"Are you s-u-r-e", he said drawing out the words. 

"Yes", I answered. "More than jewelry... really"!

"Okay, then... but I won't install them till the fall".  

I knew this full well. We have a very tidy annual schedule for doing things.... Fall and Winter are indoor projects and painting. Spring and summer is yard work, gardening and golf.

However, fall rolled around and I had surgery and was sick and Bobby spent his time after work making dinner, and cleaning up and doing the laundry and taking care of me... taking care of me so so well! And that schedule ran into winter. So the floors were put on the back burner... until this past weekend. The weekend mayhem came to visit StoneGable!

Bobby single handedly moved all the furniture out of the family room...and all the accessories all by himself... albeit all over the entire first floor... welcome mayhem! He ripped out the carpet and the padding and removed every staple in the sub flooring on this hands and knees!

When my son-in-law Jonathan came they worked together like a proficient dance... one cutting boards on the back porch... the other using this big, noisy nailer thingy... hammering the boards into place. One measure and the other sliding the next board into place.

And just before dinner on Saturday... just in time to go out to dinner... my Mother's day gift from last year was completed.  Maybe it wasn't golden or did not make magical clinking sounds. But it is beautiful!

If you are thinking this is my Mother's day from last year...

new floors

... think again! 

It was the mayhem.

Wrapped up in all that mayhem was my gift... a gift far greater than gold or hardwood floors.  Wrapped up in the mayhem was great effort, and toil, and sacrifice and selflessness and sore knees and great big LOVE!

That's the gift I love the best. That's my real, true Mother's Day gift from last year... and I am so blessed!