A Momentary Leaving of the Leaves

I’m taking a leaf break. I am learning to live in balance, and so I am on a leaf break. I picked up this fridge magnet in Victoria that simply states “Live in Balance”. And seeing as how I do not have a balanced bone in my body, I have decided to start with a leaf break.

Baby steps.

I am very extreme. I do not do things half way. It’s either all the way, or not at all. I will clean the house, the closets, the nooks and crannies until it glistens like a castle of grandeur; or I will live in squalor, covered in my own filth and clutter. Ok it’s not quite that bad, but almost. I will blog like crazy, or not post for almost a month. I will be the best pastor’s wife that anyone has ever seen, visiting everyone and volunteering for everything, or I will not leave the house for two weeks. I am all or nothing. I do it all or not at all. Unfortunately, it usually happens that “not at all” wins out. This can leave one feeling quite unaccomplished in their life. (But that is another subject entirely and seeing I don’t have time to get into it in its entirety…I will not say anything about it at all. You see…I can’t help myself.)

I’m not sure how I became this way - this extreme version of myself. To be honest, I don’t really like it. It has gotten me in trouble on more than one occasion. So the magnet is good for me - Live in Balance. Harv reminds me of it on a daily basis. I asked him yesterday if he had known this about me before we got married, would he still have walked down the aisle? He said of coarse he would. But then he added with a smirk that he just would have gotten me into therapy before the wedding to have a head start. HaHa.

And so, the leaf break. In the case of my unbalanced leaf history, I will normally rake the entire yard – all 180 feet of it in one time frame, or I will not touch it. But not today. Today I am living in balance. Today I am raking for 20 minute time periods. And I may even have to leave some of it for tomorrow. I feel so liberated. Like I am growing. Changing. Becoming normal. Becoming balanced. And it's all because of a leaf break. And in an effort to continue that balance, I will not make it a leaf ending. I will now leave the leaving of the leaves and get back out there.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words...

Not much new around here...house work, yard work, church work, miracle of life...that sort of thing. Isn't it neat how when there isn't much to say, nature jumps in and speaks for you?

Oh, and p.s....I LOVE our yard!

New Appeal to an Old Curb

Oh it's a happy time here in this little household. The painters finished last night and we are VERY pleased. I keep going back and forth from extreme delight and self satisfaction to absolute relief. The house feels warm and inviting, and Harv and I have decided that we now have the nicest house on the block! Add all this color pizazz to the new roof (put on this month) and the new flower bed that my Dad helped us build, and we finally have that much coveted curb appeal. I really didn't think that much about curb appeal, that is until someone graciously pointed out that I had none. So to go from zero to complete beauty in a short month...well...it's a little much to take. But I am pleased. Here are some before and after shots.

BEFORE

(that's me at our garage sale last week...

which is another story, for another time...)

AFTER

Doesn't it just make you want to come over for a BBQ?! Well, what are you waiting for?

Happiness is...

...sitting with your feet up while 2 strange men paint your entire house, garage, shed, and back fence. Oh, and insurance pays for it. Life is good.

We All Should Have Known...

I don't know why we are surprised. After last year, we all should have been prepared. Last May I wrote a total of 3 posts, and this May is shaping up to be the same scenario. However, after a little rebuke by my dearly loved Auntie, I thought I should at least let you know that I am not still outside raking. Oh yes indeed, I am still outside...planting, pruning, digging, hauling, building, watering, beautifying, and horticulturing - but not raking. Can you imagine if I was still raking? If I was still trying to get EVERY LAST little leaf? If that was the case, then I would give you full permission to call the men with the little white coats to come, take me away, and zap the perfectionism right out of me with some sort of new-fangled laser treatment. Oh if only it was that easy.

It has been a crazy week. My mom and dad were here at the beginning of the week, working hard, and doing things to my yard that you wouldn't even believe. I would like to prove that with pictures, but my camera had no batteries, so you are going to have to take my word for it. We built a flower bed in the front of our house, because we had VERY LITTLE curb appeal out there (and were even told that by not-so-subtle-say-everything-in-my-brain-church-member). We also built a flower bed at the back of the yard. Add these to the three we built last year, and the ones that were already here, and I now have my work cut out for me. And all I can say is....IT'S SOOOO FUN!!!

Well, that is all the time I have for today...Harv and I are going to plant the garden. What a great time of year. And really, all that's left to say is what we all should have known...dirty hands + warm heart = neglected blog!

A Lesson Perfectly Learned

We raked our lawn last weekend.

Hey, do you know what job a perfectionist should NEVER do? Raking.

Do you know it is almost physically impossible to get EVERY leaf? Especially on a breezy day.

I can still hear Harv chanting in my head. "Let it go. Just let it go."

Best News I've Heard All Day...

The word is out, and not a shadow is in sight. Oh thank you little groundhog friend, for bringing us the happy news...

And soon we can look forward to this vision of warmth and beauty...

Soon my yard love-fest will begin. I can hardly wait. (Sorry Becky. I just can't help myself.)

Summer Storm Reeks Havoc on Small Saskatchewan Town - News at 11:00

Last night I saw things and heard things that these little eyes and ears have never been exposed to before. All we wanted was a quiet little supper. We were dining at the local pizza parlour when all mayhem broke lose. It was the storm of all storms. It was the likes that I have never seen. I shudder to think of it, but yet I could not look away. The wind, the hail, the rain - it sounded like a scene from Twister. Winds tearing, rain pounding, metal twisting, electricity flickering. I almost expected a level 5 tornado to rip through the restaurant, leaving a trail of pepperoni and pineapple in its wake. And as we attempted to make our way home the scene was more like a horror movie…the way the steam from the hail covered ground was thick like a fog over the dimly lit deserted park, the way the cars were abandoned on the roads that had turned to lakes. The ground was covered with white from all the hail. We even saw one couple shoveling their drive – clearing buckets of hail stones. Debris covered the streets, signs were blown over, trees were breaking like toothpicks. It was unbelievable.

But the saddest sight of all was in our very own yard. The ground is covered in apples, the plants and flowers are either completely dead and flattened, or barely hanging on. My beautiful Cana Lilies are shredded. The garden is COVERED in water. It is a literal lake. All three rows of corn are flat and broken. The potatoes are flat, and the tomatoes and zucchini plants are shredded and sitting in mud. It is a sad sad sight.

There is death and destruction everywhere. There is a dark cloud of sadness in my little heart today.

Flattened Corn

Shredded Mud Soaked Zucchini

Dead Flowerbed

Sad, Sad Shirley

Ode to a Neglected Blog

Oh little blog that I’ve neglected so badly
When I boot up the computer you look at me sadly
So many things take up my attention
I figured it time to pause and make mention

But how can I blog when the weather it teases
Luring me out with its warmth and its breezes?
How can I blog when the garden is growing, and the
Seeds are now sprouting from all of my sowing?

How can I write when the flowers need keeping
With such beautiful blooms that send my heart leaping?
How can I write when the grass needs a mowing,
the hedges need pruning,
The garden needs hoeing?

I’ve mastered the weed wacker, the shovel and hoe
I have 8 million mosquito bites, (that’s just on my toe).
My hands are all dirty, nails wrecked beyond measure,
But it’s a small price to pay for my botanical treasure!

Maybe tomorrow I’ll write once again
Has anyone heard if they’re calling for rain?
I’ve had no time for writing, and that has been hard
But how can I stop when I’m obsessed with my yard?

Clean Hands - Sad Heart

Today was going to be the day. It was the day that I was going to do my civic horticultural duty by adding to the world’s vegetation. It was the day we were going to put in the garden. We were scheduled to participate in our church’s annual spring cleaning day. I wanted to clean fast so that I would have time to get on the garden gloves. Others did not have the same drive as me. Or rather they just kept thinking of more jobs to add to the list.

And just as a side note…why is it that 20% of the church does 80% of the work? I told Harv before we left exactly who was going to be there to participate in this day of service. And for the most part I was dead on. Why is it that the same people do all of the work in the church? Why do we fill the seats for potlucks and BBQ’s but when it comes to cleaning, or volunteering for some form of service everyone is busy and doing other things? It is the same people that show up to do cleaning. It is the same people that sing in the nursing homes. It is the same people that attend the evening Bible studies. And then we wonder why these faithful people are tired and burnt out. It just drives me crazy. Hasn’t everyone heard that old expression that “many hands make light work”? Just a little plug for all of you church goer's out there to get involoved in some form or another in your churches - even if it means cleaning toilets.

But I digress…In my haste to make miraculous transformations in the church with visions of seedlings dancing in my head, I didn’t take note of the weather – cold and rainy. By the time we got home the garden was so muddy that there was no hope of planting. I stood at the edge of the garden with dashed hopes. Sigh. The spirit was willing but the soil was weak…or rather the soil was sticky clumps of mud.

I am looking out for sunny days, and hoping that soon my hands will once again be covered in mud.

Dirty Hands - Warm Heart

This old body can’t take much more of this. My feet hurt. My knees are sore. My back is stiff, and don’t even get me started on the back of my legs. My fingernails are chipped and broken. The back of my neck is sunburned. My hands look like a farmer’s and my feet have taken on what I assume to be a permanent shade of what can only be described as “dirt”. Is there a crayon in the Crayola family called “dirt”?

And yet, even with all this going against me, I still find myself daily pulling on the garden gloves and heading out to the place that makes me happier than a worm after a rain…the yard. Oh how I love that yard. It is so much work. I am so tired. It’s killing me. But I love it. It doesn’t feel like work when you love it.

Hmmm. Maybe I missed my calling in life. Maybe I should have been a horticulturist. But then I would have to go out and work on everyone else’s yard and have no time for my own, and that just wouldn’t do. I would like to have you all over to my back yard for a cool glass of lemonade and a walk through “the gardens”. Well, except that I don’t make lemonade, and it’s really just a glorified flower bed, but you would still be welcome. Come any time. Except in the mornings…cause that is when I am covered in the most dirt, and in the afternoons, because it’s even worse. And let’s face it, by evening I am just completely unrecognizable. But underneath all that dirt - you will see a big, big smile!

Lovin' Our Yard

Harv and I tackled the big job of raking the yard a week or so ago. It took us 6 hours and 17 garbage bags. In the midst of the blisters and sore shoulders I remembered one of the church ladies advising us not to buy this house because the yard was too big. I reminded Harv of her comment and we asked each other if there were any regrets. With big grins we agreed - "not a chance"!!! I just love having a yard. It is 50 by 180 feet of pure joy! I am still stiff, and I had to go to the chiropractor today for a tune up, but it doesn't bother me! I'm lovin' it!!!

Anyone want to come for a BBQ?