Where there's a will....

Where there's a will, there's a way...or....
The power of positive thinking.  
(I think I can, therefore, I can.)

I've always been one to lose patience waiting for someone to help me with stuff. I'll ask once, but if I don't get help...
Fine! I'll just do it myself. 

Interesting how kids learn by example. 

This is Belle's closet. It always looks like this. Clothes are organized by color and hung up nicely. Her actual room might be a different story-but her clothes rule. Belle works and buys a lot of her clothes herself.

Belle's Beautiful Closet

This is Bunny's closet on a REALLY good day. On this day everything is sort of put away and you can actually see the floor. It does not normally look this good. She doesn't seem to understand exactly HOW a coat hanger works. Or what drawers are for. And because her clothes are usually wadded up and/or on the floor, Bunny has a tendency to "borrow" Belle's clothes. 

Bunny's Rabbit Warren of a Closet

Belle gets a little tired of that.

So Belle asked her dad to bring a door lock home for her room. Which he did. But he didn't install it for her. 

The next afternoon Belle breezed into the kitchen, grabbed the "lock in a box" off the counter and disappeared. 

And look:

Voilà! A lock.

I've never put a lock on a door, but that 17 year old figured it out on her own. As she said "It's upside down, but it works. That's all I care about." 

...

A couple of days later, Bunny asked if she could chevron her room.
Sure, as long as you clean up and I don't have to help. 

Her friend Micayla was there to help. Leave it to two 15 year old Math GT girls to figure this out. (with a little help from Pinterest)

Out of curiosity I went to see what they were doing. The entire wall had a chalk grid drawn on, with the chevrons being marked off with painting tape.

See the faint chalk grid? 

Taped and painted, waiting for the reveal.

And here's the final result: 

Not perfect.  But perfect enough.

I'm impressed. Not sure I could have done it, but they certainly figured it out.

...

And that brings us to this: 

"Come try me out" it said...

This is a new 9" band saw that has been calling to me from the garage. The potential!
(Why do we have a band saw? I have no idea.)
But I have always kept my distance from most power tools. Especially things that cut. After almost chopping my thumb off with a paper cutter a few years back, I've been cautious with sharp objects. 

But a quicky fix on the back fence was driving me crazy.
A board had broken and the hubs threw a new board up-except it was TOO tall!
He said "O! It's behind the tree, it's ok." (Besides, it was getting dark and he was about to leave town.)
But I felt bad leaving that odd board visible to our nice neighbor. So while the hubs was in Colorado, I took action.

Sorry. 

This is just a little too 'white trash' for my taste.

We had an extra fence board. And a saw. 

I approached the saw with trepidation. 

But you know what? It was a perfect pussycat. It purred gently when I hit the "on" switch. It didn't grab the board from me, just gently sawed off the end. Don't look too closely. I may not have gotten a straight cut, but it worked.

That first cut wasn't quite enough. 

Or quite straight. 

Where there's a will, there's a way. 

Belle wanted a lock. She made it happen.

Bunny wanted a new fancy paint job in her room. She made it happen.

I wanted to fix the fence. I made it happen.

MUCH better.

Never underestimate the power of a woman that wants something done.
Or that thinks she can.