Why God Created the Family

alternately titled:  How Do Mothers Manage When Their Husbands are Away?

Setting:  After dinner a few weeks ago when Josh was away.

I'm in the kitchen, rinsing off the dinner dishes.  Abby had just finished an unusually large dinner and was sent to the bathroom to wash her hands while Emma and Samantha finished cleaning off the table.

More than four minutes could not have passed from the moment I got her out of her chair until the moment I heard a loud "thud" from the bathroom.  

Trying to use an extra can of paint as a stepstool to reach the sink, it must have knocked over as she got off.

Oh - and blue paint went everywhere.  Loads of it.

And did I mention that I had the ladies from my ladies group coming over in 15 minutes?

I had no idea how to handle this mess.  I ended up trying to hook up a water hose to our water connection, but that only resulted in water spraying everywhere.

I squeegeed some of it back towards the drain, until I googled "how to clean up spilled paint" and learned that you should not rinse paint down the drain.

Good to know.  

I dumped a bucket of water with dishwashing soap in it all over the floor, just to keep the paint wet for the next few hours.  I figured I'd deal with it after my ladies left later on that evening.

During the course of our great conversation, they suggested to me that I buy this "blahblah" from a store just outside.  I wasn't sure what a "blahblah" was, but they assured me it would get all the paint out and would solve all my problems quickly.  Phew- problem solved!

We continued the rest of our discussion and as they prepared to leave - around 10:30 - one of them said, "Oh, and don't forget - when you use the "blahblah" make sure you wear gloves, a face mask, air out your house and make sure none of your kids are home!"

Ohhhhkay.  

I realized then that they must have been talking about paint thinner.  Yucky, stinky, make-your-head-hurt-all-day-and-possibly-scar-your-lungs-and-braincells-for-life paint thinner.  If there was any way to avoid using paint thinner, I'd try it.

So I spent the next hour, until almost midnight, flooding my bathroom floor with water and suds; squeegeeing and scrubbing over and over until the last bit of blue paint was gone.  And yeah....sorry about the drain business.  I just really didn't want to bring paint thinner into my home!

So the floor got clean.  The husband came home.  And my paint disaster wasn't as bad as this.

But if I ever have the honor of hosting you in my home, don't dare comment on the blue tint on the bathroom floor...