Saturday we tackled the backyard.
It needed some major attention. Attention that I had been withholding for a very long time.
If I can allow clutter to grow inside the house by using my Selective Vision, just imagine what I can do in my backyard.
And out there . . . the growth isn’t just a euphemism.
Since the weather has turned cooler, we didn’t have any excuse. We made it a family day. (If you’d like to imagine three smiling children working in the yard, go ahead . . . but you’d be wrong.) Each child was given a job of raking or sweeping or pulling, hubby and I chopped and hacked, and after about four hours, we saw some progress.
But there’s still so far to go.
In this deslobification process, whenever I have a random (and delusional) concerned thought that I might one day have nothing to blog about because my house has reached a state of perfection . . . I only have to peek out the back door to remember that I’ll be able to keep blogging for years to come.
I know that not everyone has a green thumb. I know that I may never know the Latin names for every plant in my backyard. But I also know that yards have to be maintained to be enjoyed. (Sound familiar?) My husband is wonderful about keeping the yard mowed, but the previous owners planted huge numbers of things that now have gotten out of control.
I dream of our backyard being an extension of our home. I dream of having our morning coffee out there. But right now, other than the blue sky and the sparse grass providing some nature, it’s not a very peaceful place.
As some of these things that I’ve been working on for over a year now have become real habits, I still get overwhelmed at the sheer number of habits I need to develop. I want to grow to the point where I no longer avoid certain parts of my house. I want to be able to sit on the couch while my daughter shows a guest our backyard, our garage, even . . . our master bedroom, and not feel the flush creeping up my neck.
I want our family to be able live to the edges.
———————————-
It does take work to maintain a home and I totally agree it has to become a habit to do it all and still live.
Recently I warned my 4 yr old she could not have friends over if she continued to keep her clothes on the floor instead of the closet. I usually help her hang but then decided she needed to learn that if she is going to pull all her clothes out deciding what to wear she had to put them back herself.
I won't go into the yard issue….we have 2 acres and my husband is a "collector" of things…..sigh…..
This so reminds me of the days my parents dragged my brother and me to the backyard for family yard work days. I can still hear my dad yelling, "Get back here! We only had you for the manual labor!" I'm sure the neighbors thought we were crazy. 🙂 I still hate yard work, but that isn't an issue, seeing as I live in an apartment.
*sigh* Some days (most actually) I wonder if you are secretly blogging from my house, now I know you must be. Our backyard can be very beautiful, as the woman that lived here before our landlord spent many hours a day in it. Yes. HOURS. A day. Um, thats not going to happen. I do have grand visions for it, but since we are renting we don't have a final say in it and our landlord had let it get pretty far gone. I need to get out there though… Once I can really bring my self to look at it and not "over" that is… Thanks as always for your inspiration!
My yard was pretty at one point but I would not want anyone to see it now. My hubby and kids want a dog but rarely pick up the "mess" and if the lawn gets mowed it's because I did it. Being that I live in Arizona and the heat gets really bad, I don't work on it at all in the summer. I would love to have my kids want to play outside. Would be wonderful.
I'm a tidy person, but it ends at the back door. Didn't realize it at the time, but I married a non-yard person. The only answer was to minimize. We have a yard service for mowing, two live oaks that don't drop many leaves, and basic shrubs that only need to be trimmed (by the yard service)during the summer months. Every once in awhile, my mother (who has a large and beautiful garden) will try to get the kids to sneak a plant past me to put in the yard, but I promptly send it back saying it would be cruel to send it to its death. My house is clean, husband is well-fed, the kids are happy and growing, and the dogs are thriving. Yard work isn't in my contract!! May your children (and mine) take after our mothers in their love of plant-life!
Good job! And it's always nice to involve them when cleaning…this will help them to develop good habits as adults. :0)
‘Living to the edges’……I like that. 🙂
Ok. I have finally found an area in which we are not twins. I love yard work. I hate for my husband to leave junk laying around outside.
I love you anyway. LOL #sisterslobs
What’s a back yard? Lol
Haven’t had one the whole time I’ve been married (11 years) to this dh (3rd).
So glad because I’m not only Not a yard person, but I only go outdoors because it’s the only way to get to my car!
Thanks for sharing this! Through you blog I am learning that I don’t have to work to perfect something completely before moving on and that if I get distracted by life it’s ok to leave the project, enjoy life, and come back later… progress is progress… I sometimes feel that if I can’t clear a whole room, space, house, yard of clutter, then clean, organize, decorate and/or beautify the whole thing and call it complete, I feel like there is no point. I think my slob vision is directly related to my creative perfectionism! Thank you sooooo much for just being real! I have the exact same dreams for our home and out door spaces! I am hoping to keep this momentum up once I go back to work from maternity leave… I have hope!!!