When nature calls

Fall.  Autumn.  The holiday season.  Whatever you choose to call it, it's here.  Smack dab in the middle of it and it's ready to be absorbed.

My favorite season was once spring.  All the colors and life that are brought forth would literally captivate me.  The warm breeze seemed to call out to even the most subjacent of life.

I'm beginning to enjoy Autumn lately.  It's the time of year when backyard campfires are to be enjoyed, along with the changing color of leaves, and family holidays are upon us.  Instead of feeling rushed to get all the year's goals accomplished, I'm finding it more enjoyable to just relax and just BE.

For the few years we've been in our home, (as some of you from my previous blog know) I've wanted to get the perimeter of our yard cleaned up and cleared away.  Other things were taking priority over it and what was finished only grew back shortly after.  I've learned not to do things like that in the spring.  

So, the family and I got busy the other day and it just happened.  Spur of the moment, no planning involved.  We were just outside and we began.  The girls were a huge help to me gathering all the brush Clayton cut and used the loppers on the smaller items the chainsaw had no time for.

I have to say I've missed this.  Good old fashioned family time that didn't involve being indoors behind some technoligical screen.  Nothing with buttons or beeps.  Nothing but rakes, tools, nature, and gloves touching our hands.  It was truly enjoyable.  So much has been finished because we all helped each other.   That is family.

Here is what it began as all the way around the property:

And this is only part of what we finished:



I wish the picture could show how beautiful it really is.  Just where the edge of the yard drops, are various levels of land and the creek.   It's so gorgeous during this time of year and I'm looking forward to the other 3 seasons I'll get to bask in this little piece of heaven I call my yard. 

I'm embracing the fact we still have 75% of the yard still to do. I'm looking at it as more time outside before it gets too cold, more time to do a little bit here and there and feel the joy as we walk away from it for the day and turn around to take one last glance at what we accomplished that day. 

Such a glorious feeling!

In a nutshell

The beginning of a new era.  New beginnings.  New hopes, old dreams.  That's the place where we are.

My husband.  My kids.  My family.  Me.

Every little girl dreams of the perfect life.  The perfect wedding.  The perfect marriage.  The perfect kids.  The perfect home.

Does it ever turn out that way?  Sure.  Ok, maybe not perfect in the eyes of others, but perfect for the dreamer.

Sometimes it doesn't.  Probably more often than not.

I was that dreamer as a little girl.  I remember my sister and I having to not only share a bedroom, but a full size bed as well.  Even covers.  If we weren't fighting (I still have battle scars), we were dreaming into the future.  Oh the dreams we had!  Our husbands were the perfect business men all dressed in William Fioravanti suits.  We, as the perfect stay-at-home moms, drove a van and would shop on a daily basis for toys for our children, filling the vans to the brim.

I never gave it any thought why the husband in my dreams would wear a top of the line suit while I was driving a van.  That's just not right at all now is it?  Anyway, moving along...

Needless to say, those particular dreams didn't quite pan out the way we had planned.  From divorce to blended families, crabby new husbands and ungrateful kids, we both, my sister and I, have had to make due with what life dealt us.  Until now.

I will only speak from my own experiences.

I'm not going to elaborate on where I stood in the happiness department for the past 2 decades, but I will share this...

I was happy.  I was miserable.  Sometimes ecstatic.  Sometimes I had hit rock bottom emotionally.  I couldn't ever get on the same page my husband was on no matter how hard I tried.   I would want a change when he saw nothing wrong and vice versa.  Almost 20 years of this, give or take, and we had both hit rock bottom.  That's when the light finally started shining for us both to see.

We had finally gotten on the same page!!!  It was wonderful!  Like falling in love all over again and everything being as perfect as they should be.  The way we both wanted thing to be.

Our family has been through the ringer over the years but from what I know to be true, the only way to make it work is through prayer, perseverance, hope, faith, and of course, love.  If you have those things, anything is possible.  Perhaps even the William Fioravanti suit.  Though probably less likely the daily loading of brand new toys in your van.  ;).

Come along with us as we live our lives renewed.