A Little ADHD and A Whole Lot of Positive Thinking
This week, I was looking through my pictures and thought, Oh my goodness.
If you are someone who can race around thinking all the things, doing all the things, planning another seventeen things, throwing the entire plan into the air and then starting over again… YES. You are my people. That pretty much sums up this week around here.
As many of you know, we made a trip to Allie’s Gift and Garden, LLC looking for plant ideas now that the driveway is finally in place and the front entrance is starting to take shape. That woman is amazing. She was also having a 50% off sale, which obviously meant we handled ourselves with tremendous restraint and practically bought the entire place. We had ideas! We had a budget! Completely thrown out the window within minutes. We decided there will be grass in one section because Clark loves his beautiful green grass, and honestly, the man deserves his own little patch of lawn in the middle of all my flowers, paths, bricks and questionable landscaping decisions.
Then came the discussion about solar path lights. Where do they go? How many? And, most importantly, how do we place them without making Clark lose his mind every time he comes through with the weed whacker or push mower? These are the important marital discussions, people.
But some of what we're planting has a little more meaning behind it. When we first visited this house, Clark remembers seeing butterflies everywhere. He felt like his mom was there with him, cheering him on to buy this crazy old house and move back home to be closer to his dad. So butterflies have always been special here. We brought home a few dwarf butterfly bushes, and we also ordered one giant beauty that will eventually sit in the center of the turnaround drive. We picked up tea roses in memory of my dad, too.
And then… Well… There may have been a few other plants. And trees. And flowers. Okay. There were a lot of plants. We were so excited to get started. Which is exactly when Mother Nature looked at our plans and said: Absolutely not.We are heading into one of the hottest stretches of the summer, with temperatures around 95 degrees every day, and probably getting even hotter. Of course we are. Just when we finally say, Okay! LET'S DO THIS!, Mother Nature plays another cruel joke on us. So instead of planting everything immediately, we're going to move some dirt, put down landscape fabric, dig some holes, prep what we can…
…and wait for the weekend. Go ahead. Play it. “Working for the Weekend” by Loverboy. Because apparently that is now our landscaping theme song.
And then we got another little piece of motivation. Clark's family is coming to visit at the end of October. Let me repeat that. THIS HOUSE. Family. The end of October. Family members are coming from all over the country, including some who have never had the insane pleasure of seeing this place in person. Or smelling it during the early years. Lucky them. Naturally, I responded to this information in a completely calm and rational way by creating a list containing approximately 500 things that absolutely must be finished by October 23.
Plants. Decorating. Wallpaper. Fixing upstairs floors. Finishing the door and trim in the parlor. Finishing the fireplace in the sitting room. And approximately 494 other things. But here's the good news: If we're getting the house ready for family in October… That means we can finally start talking about Open House: Take Two with all of you at the end of October, too! Whoohoo! Are you ready? Because apparently nothing motivates home restoration quite like telling a bunch of people they can come see it.
And finally… THE FOOT. Because I know some of you have been following this ridiculous little side adventure. I'm cranking right along. Apparently my pain tolerance continues to confuse people because most patients aren't immediately asking when they can start weight training again or go for walks. WHAT? Seems perfectly reasonable to me. Today I officially returned my scooter to the rental place! They couldn't believe I was the person who had rented it. I choose to believe that's because I looked remarkably healthy and recovered. Not because I am a cranky, stubborn person who can somehow force my brain into believing my body is completely fine. Even better? My trainer is allowing me to start wearing shoes tomorrow. SHOES. The excitement is almost too much for one person to handle.
So that is life around here right now: Hundreds of plants. One giant butterfly bush. Approximately 500 projects. Family coming. An Open House brewing. And one extremely stubborn woman who finally gets to wear shoes again.
Anywho…
What's going on in your world?
And more importantly…
Are you ready to come join us at the end of October?
Because if everything goes according to my wildly optimistic plan…
It's going to be ah-mazing.