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Bethany went out with a friend tonight to catch up and get away from the house for a while. I don’t mind watching the boys, but they can be a handful. After I fought Parker to eat his dinner, I gave them a bath and then we spent some quality time jumping around and singing.

After that, I needed to catch up on the 24 season finale so I let them play downstairs while I watched it on Tivo. I was so engrossed I didn’t even realize the result of their playing.

I love getting to spend time with the boys (but is nice when they finally make it to bed!).

Vacation’s over tomorrow. I’ve gotten used to sleeping in the last week. I’m glad to be getting back to work, but this week hasn’t been very relaxing. Going to the Dells was a nice getaway but taking the boys (especially Kent) away from home can be a bit taxing. Anyway, I got a ton of work done. I finished shoveling the dirt in my driveway onto the appropriate places on the lawn, seeded and then fertilized it. It’s a good feeling, though a bit exhausting.

But then there are the rewards of work. I had seeded the backyard about a week or so ago and today I saw new grass beginning to grow. I was so excited that I keep coming back to check it every couple of hours. Hopefully my time away from the office will help me recoup and bring “new growth” to the ministry. Either way, I gotta get used to getting up early again.

For my first day of vacation I spent the day relaxing with thousands of my little friends.

Rocks.

I put an ad on craigslist the other day in an attempt to give away the thousands of river rocks that plague my yard. Only two people came by an took small loads. I quickly realized that if I wanted to get anything done with them in the near future I needed to do something different.

I called my dad.

He’s always got crazy ideas and perspective on things and he had a great idea. So I took his advice and this,

became this.

On Friday I’m going to put the rest of the dirt from the driveway down and seed it.

I’m tired just thinking about it.

I had a strange experience today. Actually, it’s sad that I qualify it as “strange”.

The other day I had a semi-load of dirt brought to my house, which translates to 20 cubic yards. Here’s a picture of what it looked like on the driveway.


I spent all of my day off shoveling it into a wheelbarrow and hauling it to the backyard. Our backyard needs serious help.

I’m basically just filling in low spots (which are everywhere) and covering rocks (which are everywhere). It’s been a mess since we moved in. This is the current status of the driveway.

And this is one area of the backyard by our deck after the dirt.

Here’s the strange thing. This afternoon I just finish unloading my wheelbarrow when the next door neighbor comes around the corner of the house and asks if he can help me with anything. This is odd because this is the son of my neighbor who I’ve never met before. By his own admission, he avoids the house whenever he gets the chance. I think I’ve seen him only a couple of times and today he walks into my yard with a shovel and starts to help me.

After and hour or two, he has to go to get ready for work. I thank him and he leaves. Then our neighbor behind the house comes over with his two sons. The older son who is only a couple years older than Parker asks if he can see our dirt pile. We go to the front and the dad disappears. The next thing I know, he returns with a wheelbarrow and shovel of his own. After another hour or so of work, he and the boys return home for dinner.

As I am cleaning up the tools, my new neighbor (moved in a month or so ago) drives his riding lawnmower over and asks if he can mow my lawn. What? I told him it wasn’t necessary, but he insists and he proceeds to zip around the lawn and finishes in a matter of minutes.

I’m appreciative of my neighbors and I know that they didn’t offer their help for favors, but it challenges me to be a better neighbor to them.