In Which We Get To Work

After yesterday's much needed break time, we felt like it was time to get moving!

Today we had respite care all day, and instead of going out on a date we used it to get some things done in the yard.  Jeremy stained the rest of the decking boards while our friend Jake worked on installing them, and I got started on staining our fence.  We had to wait for a while before weatherproofing it because the boards were really wet when we built it (water would drip out when you screwed the boards in place), and we didn't want to lock the moisture in.  Hopefully staining it will help it last longer in our extremely wet weather.  Of course the boards just soak in the stain and we have a really big yard, so it's going to take me a while to get the whole thing done.  I got about three-fourths of the way down one side of the fence today, and that took me about three and a half hours.  Oh well-- I'll just keep chipping away at it and eventually it will be finished.

I also spent some time laying down landscaping fabric where I've cleared the ivy, salal, bindweed and blackberry from along our fence and retaining wall.  Once I've finished that I'll plant some perennials and then cover the whole thing with mulch.  It's taking much longer than I expected because I haven't been able to take Connor outside to work on it due to the heat, but since our temperatures are back down to reasonable levels hopefully things will move faster.  I think it's going to look pretty great when it's done!  If it is ever done, that is.  I've been fighting a losing battle with the ivy for nine months now, because I keep pulling it all up and then having some crisis and neglecting it to all grow back.  I'm hoping that the combination of weeding, Roundup (a necessary evil with this stuff), landscape fabric and mulch will do finally do the trick.

I didn't want to work too hard today, so I knocked things off around four in the afternoon or so and got cleaned up.  My plan was to leave for a coffee shop to do some reading and writing around five or so, but I ended up not leaving until close to six because Connor had a seizure.  This one was pretty short; it was probably about a minute or so long.  I was sort of hoping since we didn't see any yesterday that the little guy would get a break from them for a while, but I guess it wasn't to be.  He's pretty exhausted right now; the seizures are hard on his little body and he's not getting enough of a break between them to recover fully.  We'll be stepping up his new medication for the first time on Tuesday and I'm hoping they'll start to taper off. 

So after the little guy was settled in bed, I took off for the coffee shop and spent the evening curled up in a comfy leather chair reading-- just what I needed to recharge my batteries after the adrenaline rush wore off.  I feel much better for having the chance to escape and get a little bit of alone time out of the house, and that's a good thing.

I have the feeling I'm going to need that energy this week.

~Jess