To Do List

Early Tuesday morning, Andy and I drove up to C & C's so Andy could do some more work on their addition. He was able to put the closet doors on and get started on installing a storm door to their main entrance. The closet doors took longer than anticipated because he kept running into snags - to be expected when doing any projects on a very old house.

While Andy worked, I played with the kids. Here is Naomi's new tricycle that we gave her for her birthday.
I braided Grace's hair. (I really liked having 3 girls - Sunday morning French braiding 3 little blond heads!)All the kids were riding bikes for a while. Aiden practiced going really, really fast. And Grammy got to push Asher once down the hill and back up (all I could manage).Because of being away all day Tuesday, the rest of the week was spent in doing laundry, cleaning bathrooms and other household maintenance work.

I've always been much more productive when I work off a to do list. What a feeling of accomplishment to be able to check off chores as they are completed. We've been continuing to work at cleaning up the back yard from when all those trees were cut down. Andy hired a teen to help again for an hour this week and got another pile of branches and brush to the street for the township to pick up. (They've already picked up 2 piles.) All that was left to do was rake everything else up into piles and bag it up for trash.

So this morning after I exercised, but before I got my shower, I went out with rake and resolve to not come back into the house until the yard was clean. It took me 2 full hours of non-stop raking to get everything into piles, then another hour to get all those piles into trash bags and containers. It was so humid this morning it was like working in a sauna. Yuck! But I'm very happy to have that job done - cross that off the list. I got 2 trash containers and 4 trash bags full of little sticks, sawdust, and tree dirt.Another stroll around the yard afterward revealed more flowers in bloom. My goal when we moved here 17 years ago was to plant things so that there would always be something in bloom. Mission accomplished! From early spring, throughout the summer, into the fall and even all winter something is blooming. It reminds me of the hymn: For the Beauty of the Earth:

For the beauty of the earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies.

Refrain

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,
This our hymn of grateful praise.

For the beauty of each hour,
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale, and tree and flower,
Sun and moon, and stars of light.

Spirea & abelia

Up close
LiliesEven the tomato plants are blooming!

So what's next?

This evening, we're going to our nephew's wedding. Andy is officiating.
Tomorrow evening we will be hosting our small group. I need to provide refreshments. First, I need to come up with an idea of what to serve, then make it.

On Monday afternoon, we're hoping to drive up to my Mother's and help her with her gardens. She wants to get some mulch around a number of her trees.

On Tuesday, I'll be cleaning and doing laundry again. Didn't I just do those chores??? If I have time, I hope to plant some lilac bushes that my Mother is giving me. I also plan to bake a cake for a staff birthday party on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, Thursday & Friday I'll be at work, but hope to leave work early on Friday to go get Grace so she can spend the weekend with Grammy and PopPop.

No lack of places to go, people to see & things to do.