Summer To Do Lists

Currently the orange tree and former grassy side of our backyard has trenches dug throughout the dirt, one long trench down the length of the yard with multiple shorter trenches branching out from it. Each trench has white PVC piping with black sprinkler heads attached throughout. All of the PVC piping leads back to multiple sprinkler valves resting on bricks and pea stone that will eventually be half buried and hidden under a black and green valve box.

A week ago the yard was covered in dirt with sporadic patches of grass a large orange tree and a patio. I am so incredibly proud and honestly somewhat envious of what my husband has managed to accomplish in his first week off of work. 

After much deliberation and a visit to the local plant nursery, we had a good idea of what we want our backyard to look like, at least where we want to eventually plant some shrubs and vines. With the help of his measurements of the yard, I drew out our backyard to scale. My husband then took the blueprint of the yard and drew out a plan for the sprinkler and drip system he planned to install.

While the sprinkler and drip system is not completely finished quite yet, my husband has made an incredible amount of progress, especially considering the heat, multiple trips to home improvement stores and having to rebuild part of the system after it sprung some leaks on the first trial run. 

He has managed to do all of this, while it feels like I have yet to complete one task and I have been off of work a week longer than him. I know that I have completed some things, but nothing compared to what he has managed to do. I feel like his moving mounds of dirt is moving mountains compared to what I have accomplished. 

While I have to give myself some credit, I really haven’t done a whole lot this week. Nothing compared to what I would have liked to have completed. I did go through the boys clothes and determined what they no longer fit and what they need. While I was at it, I reorganized the little guy’s drawers, since I made the mistake of having him determine where his clothes go when we moved in. Inevitably all his clothes ended up in the top drawer causing it to be so full, it was almost impossible to shut. Tomorrow I will take them both shopping to buy the things they need. They’re both getting so big so fast. I can hardly keep up.

Last Monday we took my car into have the rear struts replaced. Hopefully that will be the last maintenance thing my car needs for quite some time, aside from oil changes and tire rotations.

I have been slowly working on getting the office unpacked and organized. It feels like an impossible task. Number one, we got rid of two large bookcases that we used to have because they were cheaply made and falling apart. At the time we thought that the built in bookcases in our great room would be enough to contain all of our stuff. Unfortunately that is not the case. Number two we have a much larger house, but a whole lot less storage space. I think that is part of the reason it has been so difficult to fully unpack this office. I don’t know where to put anything. And because I don’t have anyplace to shove boxes and forget about them, it is causing me to actually take the time to go through each and every item and determine whether I really need to keep it or not. 

I have this to do list that I would like to accomplish while I am off of work this summer, and half the things on the list I feel like I can’t begin until I have my office unpacked and organized. I really thought by week three I would have the office complete. Nope. 

To be fair to myself, I have been focused on taking care of the kids and the dogs needs. 

One of my goals this summer was to get back into the routine of walking the dogs. Now we haven’t walked the dogs everyday, but nearly everyday since summer began. Both the kids and dogs are really enjoying our walks and so am I. The only time we didn’t walk this week was Friday, and only because I got really frustrated with our husky-lab, since she ran out the front door that the kids left open and lead us on a game of chase around the neighborhood through the allies. By the time I was finally able to catch up to her and bring her back home, I was done dealing with her and her shenanigans.

I have also been chauffeuring the kids to swim lessons and music lessons, along with helping them both prepare for their music exam and skills survey. Music takes up a good amount of my time, since I help each kid with their practice daily and depending on how well they behave, it can take anywhere from an hour to two hours to help both kids. Then taking into consideration travel time on days that I actually take them to music class, which I took them three times this week because we had a make up class on Monday, our regular class on Saturday and today was a music workshop for the oldest one. I spent a lot of time chauffeuring the kids this week.

I have also made it a priority to spend time with friends I was unable to see or hang out with over the school year and will continue to do so throughout the summer. 

That being said, it’s no wonder why I haven’t finished the office, started mending all the clothing items that need repaired, started writing my book again, or started organizing and putting all our photos in albums. 

I have managed to play with my new fancy camera. I have also done yoga most of the mornings thus far. So I guess I should give myself a pat on the back. Even if I haven’t checked off much on my to do list, at least I am enjoying myself and not feeling nearly as overwhelmed as I did earlier this year. After all it's "progress…not perfection."