A Busy Saturday

Embarrassingly dirty

I still think I haven't had enough fun in my life.  And I'm working on having a bit more of it.  In the meantime, there's stuff to do.  Sometimes it can feel like almost too much to do.  It is rare that we have an unencumbered Saturday.  Yesterday was one of those.

Not perfect, but better.

After a quick breakfast we headed outside.  It was such a lovely day - low 60's, a bit of a breeze, lots of sunshine and we were together.  (No matter how much together time we have, for me personally, it's never enough.)  The Husband began the labor-intensive chore of gathering more leaves.  I decided to give a couple windows a lick-and-a-promise cleaning to last until we can get someone out here.

Leftover robin nest

The first window picture almost but not quite captures the dismal view through the crust of dirt. I had a pail of warm soapy water, a long handled car wash brush, a ladder and a hose for rinsing.  Took me all of about 20 minutes to mostly de-grime the bay window, the family room view and the doors out to the patio.  The results are clear.  It was definitely a productive 20 minutes. There are windows we can't reach and will have to call in the professionals.  For now, I'll enjoy the better view of our backyard.

The Husband needed some help.  He'd swept up a bunch of leaves with the lawnmower / sweeper. Now we had huge piles again.  After some extended bending and lifting, we've 4 more bags and a whole garbage bin full of leaves to be carted off.  I went down in the "amphitheater" (our affectionate name for the outside of our  windowed stairwell and raked and filled and raked and filled some more. It looks so much better! Surely I'll be out there again when the tree-limbs are bare.  The good news? I didn't see a single snake, though I definitely was on the lookout.

Happy geraniums.

Since we'd worked so hard, we rewarded ourselves with popcorn accompanied by a movie.  Even though it was another sci-fi, it was tolerable with the refreshments.  A "quick trip" to Costco for meat for dinner ended up taking us an hour because we kept running in to people we know, some we hadn't seen in a while which made for a grand reunion.  Our cart ended up fuller than we'd intended, extending the time spent in the store caused it to acquire a few more purchases.

I'm grateful for a Saturday that feels productive.  For the little tiny contributions I'm able to make that minutely lessen The Husband's burden.  I'm grateful for plenty of ibuprofen for my aching back.  For geraniums that haven't yet figured out that it's fall-almost-winter.  For leafless branches that reveal our empty robin's nest from the spring, love the tiny hope-filled scenes of nature. And for hope (I hope for lots of things....)