We got the shed painted! Think a smallish unpainted wooden garage with barn doors. Think of painting this in 90 degree heat for six hours on Saturday and five hours on Sunday. Then rejoice with me. Now we have to paint the unpainted front wall of the car port. Then we have to rig up a gutter system on the open end of the car port. Then we can quit with the home projects for this summer. Or...we could die first.
I think I have turned some sort of corner food and exercise wise. I am ready to take care of my health again. I have struggled to just hold my own over the past year. Really struggled. But suddenly I want to get back in the game. I am hopeful and excited about taking care of me.
Why?
I had to create a home for my soul before I could take on the challenge of creating a healthy body. I need order and quiet for my soul to thrive. And this past year has been anything but orderly and quiet. A good part of the time I felt like I was just holding on by the skin of my finger tips. I could handle only what was immediately in front of me and was unable to plan or hope or dream. My soul did not feel "at home" in either my house or my body. I was living amidst chaos. Chaos is a killer for me.
With each project we finish I feel more "to home." I am calmer, and hope and peace have begun to seep back into my life. The fence made the biggest difference. It defined my space (for starters), and it gave Dog-dog some place to run. The deck has been pure delight. We eat out there at least two meals a day. Each morning early I sit out there with my tea, look out at the green mountain valley, and thank God I am alive. I have humming birds. When we go on our evening walk I have been picking wild flowers. I get enough for a bouquet for the house and the deck table. They last a week. I also have honey bees. Painting the shed to match the house made it look more like a yard tool shed and not like a farm out building. I have figured out where I want a long flower bed and where I am going to plant veg next year. I planted poppies in the old weedy irrigation ditch that circles the yard. I have crab apples by the bucket load (and the dog is eating them.) I may have even finally figured out how to keep the lawn green. There is light at the end of the fixer-upper tunnel. I can finally relax and dream about improvements rather than worrying about putting in the essentials. By-the-by, a deck and a clothes line were essential for me. A dishwasher and a vented over the range microwave were not. I have a friend who thinks I am nuts. I don't care.
Any hooo, I am eating better. Because I want to.
Take care. Love Bea
6 comments:
I know someone that built her dream house and moved in (to my same neighborhood) - as one of the very last things - she asked her builder to put up her clothes line - clothes lines not allowed. they knocked on the door of their old house and asked if they could buy it back - they had to "make it worth the new owner's while". So, she left her nice, new home and moved back to her old one - all for the sake of her clothes line.
When I was reading about the shed painting I was thinking how spiritual it was, healing and preparing for better things, etc. Then I read the rest of your post and you confirmed it. I totally understand. I am so happy for you I could cry!!!! You tell my story. And give me hope.
Your description of your mornings on your deck made me smile...and feel the peace along with you....your place sounds beautiful. :-) And all that work burns lots of calories -- go you! :-)
I'm with you on the clothes line. Couldn't live without one. I read of states passing legislation for "the right to dry" because so many homeowner groups have outlawed clotheslines as "eyesore".
Good grief.
and we wonder why we are in so much trouble?
pish.
Glad you've found some ground to stand on. cup of tea out on the deck. That's living.
Boy! You would think that all of the "greenies" would be up in arms about the disappearance of clothes lines. Imagine the electricity this country could save if every family hung just ONE load of laundry per week!!! Seems a simple enough concept. I read somewhere that the average family could save $100.00 per year on their electric bill if they hung just ONE load of laundry per week!! (Not to mention the glorious smell of air dried sheets!)
Your house is definitely becoming a home. :-) It makes me happy to hear of the good changes going on.
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