Every now and again, Kathy abandons us. We try not to take it personally. We know that she needs time away, and we really don’t begrudge it. After all, we don’t want to wake up one day and find that she’s checked herself into the Whispering Pines Home for Deranged Homeschool Moms.

So whenever she goes away, we try to make her glad when she comes home. Positive reinforcement is a very powerful motivator, I’m told. Sometimes we try to come up with a surprise for her by completing a project that she has wanted done, but didn’t have time to complete.

We decided to improve the beauty of our back yard, to please and encourage Kathy.

This weekend, Kathy attended a Women’s Retreat with about 85 other ladies from our church. We had glorious weather, and so we thought it would be a perfect time to surprise her. But there is a problem. Kathy is very curious, and she is constantly connected to the entire internet through her phone. So if we try to keep our activities a secret, we soon find ourselves subjected to an inquisition.

“What are you up to? What did you do, all day?” Innocent-sounding questions, but designed to penetrate to the very core of our secretive project.

“What should I tell her,” wails David. “Tell her we burned some boards. That’s true, it just isn’t ALL of the truth,” I advise. I’ve become wily, over the years, having dealt with Kathy’s insatiable curiosity before.

We had decided to remove several of my defunct raised gardening beds which dot our back yard. Kathy hates them, because I haven’t grown tomatoes the past two years, and I let them grow wild with grass; they do look pretty ugly. She’d like our yard to be a place she could use to host her girl friends for tea.

David and Sarah, victorious over one of the gardening beds.

I tried inviting a few of the ladies from our church over to our house for tea while Kathy was off at her Women’s Retreat, and sure enough, the yard wasn’t inviting enough, because they all declined. Come to think of it, it was a little awkward to invite them while Kathy was away. Also, they were all away at the Women’s Retreat, too, so there were some logistical issues. I tried not to take it personally.

In any case, we managed to clear away two of the garden beds. I was so proud of David and Sarah, who worked tirelessly to demolish the frames and to cart away the dirt. We all spent almost seven hours working to make our yard a little prettier.

Now we just need a little grass seed, and no one will remember the ugly, overgrown monstrosity that once stood here.

It may not yet be tea-worthy, but we made a good start.

Project 365, Day 122
Tim

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Friday we had the end of the year, homeschool co op party. After which I snuck off to go to the women’s retreat. Between the party and leaving, I had a long list of duties.

I wrote welcome cards to the ladies in my small group at the retreat, I packed up a goodie basket for the retreat speaker, I printed out the notes for a seminar I was coteaching with a friend, I gathered curriculum to present at our talk, I wrote an important email, I picked up a gift card for our giveaway, and at some point I managed to get clothes packed.

Whew.

The retreat has been wonderful. My long time,beautiful friend is the speaker and she’s doing a great job.

I’m blogging from my phone. Tim forgot to write so I’m doubling up. Please  forgive any errors.

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