back porch

 

this picture shows the back porch in a sad state 4 years ago.  We had just built the blue shed you can see in the background.  The happy orange paint is peeling.  The railing is sad and blocks out the view and there is a dip in the porch where one post has sunken down.

We have since lifted the post, replaced the rails, painted the house, painted the deck and fixed the lighting....  :)  It looks great!

gator hat- There's a talk in that

 When P was in grad school he marched with the gator band.  I made uniforms for the kids and P got extra hats from the band.  I cut down the hats for their wee little heads.  It was so cute.

In 2013 G work the hat to conduct the gator marching band at this epic game.

In 2019 he took it to scout camp and it got lost.  When another scout showed up wearing it during the skits G told me that boy took it.  Really he had found it.   But when I asked the boy to give it back he gave me a story about how his family had lots of those hats.  I could believe that his family did somehow have many Gator Band hats, who knows.  But I could not believe that they had a lot of gator band hats that had the rim trimmed down and hand sown back together.  Because I had been assertive about getting the hat back, another leader suggested that it shouldn't have come to scout camp if it was precious, or at least it should have had a name written in it.  That is certainly true.  So as soon as we got home I wrote our name in all the band hats.

In June 2020 we went to Utah to see my mother who was dying of cancer.  We took home made masks, sanitizing wipes and everything, including the hats.  P took the kids to see waterfalls while I took care of my mom for 3 weeks, taking turns with my sisters.  The hat was lost again but we didn't know it until a friend found it by a river in Utah.  He brought it back to us in Florida.

painting doors- There's a talk in that.

 Our children carved their names and other precious things like "I hate dad" into the doors of the home.  They looked pretty bad.  I started painting them 2 years ago.  I have learned a lot in the process.  I recently re-painted the first door because it looked bad and had worn in some places.

 

The change in vibe is amazing.  The dark doors used to draw a lot of attention and light.  Now they are neutral, light.  I love it.  

So I'm thinking what are the dark doors in my life.  Places that are functional but dark.  Can I make them light?  

Memories?  How can I add perspective and gratitude to my past?

Unpleasant tasks?  

Cleaning the house...?

I think gratitude turns dark to light.

Put a coat of gratitude on the dark times in your life.  Even if all you can do is be grateful for lessons learned, that is important.

switching rooms

 We've been going turbo on the home repair and cleaning.  Today we had the boys and girls switch bedrooms.  It forced them to put a lot of stuff into boxes.  Most of that is not stuff we should keep anyway... but at least it is no longer spread all over every flat surface.

boxing up

 I'm getting everything boxed up and put in the garage.  Looking at other people's listing pictures, most of their stuff is not out in the open.  Some people have trendy furniture and what not.  But mostly the pictures show not much.  I'm trying to get to that not much stage. 

I've loaded 20+ boxes of just books.  

The realtor is going to host a neighborhood openhouse and then a public open house.  She hopes that is all we need to do to get a good offer.  I hope so too.  

It is nice getting things out of the way and fixing things that have needed to be fixed.  I like feeling super competent.  

Sometimes when we're cleaning the house the kids will ask "Who's coming over?"  I recently say "Me, I'm coming over."  I'd like to have less stuff out generally.  It's nice.