Moldy Deck Foam

I might be raising one of the laziest children on the planet.

Might.

Saturday- I armed each person in our family with a bucket of cleaning water and a scrub brush and onto the deck we went.  Determined to get the dang thing sealed this year, I realized it was going to take a bunch of man hours scrubbing off algae to make that possible.  Fortunately- I am part of a team of five- instant man hours.

One child in particular could not fathom why we would be doing this.  And they were none too quiet about it.  They wanted to know why, how much longer, what will happen if we don't, who else does this, what is the point.  They were whining, screaming, and throwing a bit of a fit.  And then they began crying.  No joking- crying.  Shoulders heaving, tears rolling, sobbing.

Mind you- each and every other member of our family had green algae foam up to their elbows and all over their legs from crawling around our slippery deck while scrubbing.  My fingers were cramping and my knuckles were raw from rubbing on the brush.  It smelled like a really stagnant pond full of dead fish in our back yard.  We were not even a quarter of the way done.  And they were crying.  Like cinderella.

I couldn't believe it.

I explained to them that part of being good stewards is taking care of what the Lord has blessed us with.  We had to clean and seal this deck, or it would rot and fall apart.  Then- next year when it came time to budget our money we would have to replace the deck instead of take a vacation.  No vacation next year- that is why we are working so hard.  To make the deck last so that we don't have to pay to replace it.

There- they should understand now.  Back to scrubbing.

Only they, through their tears, said that was fine.  They would rather not take a vacation next year and just pay to replace the deck instead.

I'm not going to say which one of my children I am rearing to rely on public assistance and food stamps for the rest of their lives- that would be too embarrassing for them.  But I will give you a hint..........

She'll be looking for somewhere to stay next year while we take a vacation.  But don't expect her to pitch in and help out or anything.........at least not without complaining and producing tears.

And no- the deck still isn't cleaned.  It's been like 8 hours total of cleaning and we are 3/4 of the way finished.  Dan has now resorted to just power spraying it- none of us have the elbow grease for that kind of scrubbing.