Ever since my younger sister, Annie, learned to talk, she has been paving my way to adventures I never would have attempted on my own.

I remember when she called to invite me on a trip to Ireland.

“What??!? You get a trip to Ireland for graduation?” I shrieked through the holes in the now-obsolete receiver. “Mom and Dad only got me a ring!”

“Well, now you get a ring and a trip to Ireland!”

Annie just makes practical sense like that.

My tendency to overreact might be one reason she neglected to tell me she would be using our radial arm saw when she came to visit a couple days ago.

On her way to my house, she picked up Rigo — one of my husband’s younger brothers. He’s pretty good at keeping all of our extra “help” occupied.

Annie has always jumped into projects feet first.

I don’t ever do that.

If I needed to use the radial arm saw, I would need to plan time to read the manual first. Without step-by-step directions, I could possibly make a Mistake!

Although I restrained myself from looking for the manual, I did ask her to please not cut off any fingers…

“Change of plans, Rigo,” my sweet sister said.

“We will not get to cut off any fingers today after all.”

After Annie had roughly cut some 1x2s as borders for her St. Patrick’s Day sign, she spray painted the wood.

Chalkboard paint for the face of the sign…

And green paint for the border…

While we waited for the paint to dry, Annie fixed sandwiches for the kids. She asked what I wanted.

“A Southwest chicken wrap with minced onion, tomato, cilantro, and guacamole,” I joked. I didn’t have a recipe for that. I hadn’t added those ingredients to the Shopping Plan.

That’s the difference between me and Annie.

We picked an Irish proverb that I liked. Annie used a chalk marker to start writing on the sign (freehand, of course).

(Tip: Brushing on an extra coat of black chalkboard paint – from any craft store – helps the chalk marker not to bleed. It’s also nice for correcting Mistakes, if you’re like me and feel more brave with an extra contingency plan.)

Add a little wood glue on the frames, and we’re done!

Then it was time to chat.

Because out in the middle of nowhere, we roll like that.