Water, Water

Yesterday, Hayden and I had an "outside" day. Okay, well really it was only 2 hours during Corbin's morning nap, but it felt like a full day to me! I decided to pull out the water toys and just enjoy the hot weather.

So I went to get the wading pool...I looked in the backyard where I remembered it was last - no, not there. I looked in the garage, thinking maybe Mark put it away, no, no big blue wading pool. I looked in the shed, nope.

Hmmm....

Then it dawned on me - it must have blown away in the last storm!! Oh dear. Our wading pool was long gone and I had no idea where it went.

So I called Mark on the phone and begged for him to bring us home a wading pool - since Corbin was down at this point and I'd already told Hayden we were gonna play in the water! And being the super Dad and husband he is, he DID bring us one.

Yay! We had a good time with the wading pool, I didn't even bother with Hayden's swim diaper or shorts. I just let him hop in fully clothed. Whatever.

I worked on cleaning up the backyard while Hayden splished and splashed. Years ago (like over 5) I had bought this little "greenhouse". Basically it was a shelving unit that had a zip up plastic cover. I really never used it. Then one day I tried to close it and the plastic had gotten hot and stuck together, and it ripped when I pulled it apart. So I was like, well there goes the greenhouse and never gave it another thought.

When my parents helped us paint our house, they moved everything to one corner of the yard, and there it sat for the next oh, 4 years.

So yesterday I sat looking at it. This time not from the perspective I previously had - which was if it doesn't serve it's original purpose, it's useless. Lately, I'm more of the "how can I use this" perspective, not wanting to create anymore waste than I have to. The shelves were in perfectly good condition. So I cleaned them up, hosed the whole thing down and brought it back on my porch. I had just repotted my tomato plant that morning and was looking for a place to put it outside. The shelves were a perfect solution!!

It felt so good to have rectified a previous "mistake" and to renew those shelves into something that serves a purpose again - not just trash in my yard. I've been trying to do that with a lot of things, but this is the first one that I really came up with a great idea for.

I finally feel like I'm making an impact on this house. Sometimes it all can feel so overwhelming. I have this idea in my mind how everything should look and be, but the reality of the situation is that I really only have a couple of free hours each day to do anything, and I have a lot of needs that have to be done before the wants. Needs like laundry, dishes, dinner, cleaning. The rest of my time is spent caring for the boys. So it feels good to do something small that can be seen, and that can't be undone (unlike cleaning or laundry which will just need to be done again).

And then those days when I do have a little more time, I'm often tired or just unmotivated. I wish it wasn't like that, but it is. Today I have a feeling little will get done, mostly because I woke up with a headache that doesn't seem like it's going away any time soon.

But yesterday, I cleaned the yard and it felt good.

Then we ate Popsicles, yum. HA!

And it all was over by 2pm. At which time I put Hayden down, Corbin down an hour later, then took a nap.

What do you have time to get done? Do you have routines? Do you have methods of getting things done with your kids? Cause I rarely have both kids napping, so I have to do things while they are up. Love to hear your ideas.