Build Me Up

Buttercup? In complete honesty, I wasn’t entirely sure that a buttercup was a flower until I searched for a picture of one. I’m glad it was because it leads me into my story.

My daughter is doing better in the super structured 24 hour inpatient program at the hospital. She is eating, accepting treatment, learning some new coping skills, meeting some new friends and she is not unhappy being there. This is a HUGE relief to me. I feel like I can almost breathe again.

I am still feeling very anxious, though. The unit has extremely limited phone and visiting sessions and I spend a good part of the day worrying until I can just check in with her. Then, once we hang up, the worry starts all over.

My equally anxious hubby, JW, decided that we need something to keep our minds occupied. For all of our sakes. He’s a very wise man.

We’ve decided to tackle some existing home improvement projects as well as try to build some new things!

First, we finished the garden in the empty space to the side of my new front porch. I didn’t plant any buttercups (at least I don’t think I did) but I got several different kinds of flowers, some cute flower pots and we picked some gold colored cedar chips to accentuate the area.



I know, Home and Gardens magazine won't be calling anytime soon, but it looks WAY better than the pile of dirt previously occupying that space. I’ve been watering diligently so I’m hoping the flowers grow a bit more because it still looks a little puny. This is my first attempt at gardening and those plants have been in the ground for almost 3 weeks and are still alive! This is a major accomplishment!

I also stained my bench!



It came out a little more orange than I envisioned. Maybe I should have waited and let the wood weather a bit before I stained it, I don’t know. I think it looks okay but it wasn’t the color I exactly had in mind and it's a bit blotchy where it didn't take as well in some parts.

JW and I had a lot of fun building that bench so we’ve decided to build more stuff. We found these plans to build an easy (cough cough- for who????) garden chair and while we were working, he even came up with a name for our new woodworking hobby!

e=mc²

JW says it stands for entertainment equals moronic construction squared.

You know, because there’s two of us geniuses at work here :)

Despite the periodic calamities, JW sort of knows how to use the power tools and I kind of understand geometry, so you’d think we’d be ok combining our skills.

We cut all the chair pieces as instructed and drilled the bolt holes. We were so careful and I double checked everything as we went and we were SURE that by last night, we would be sitting in our new “easy to build” garden chairs on our new front porch, sipping iced teas and enjoying the cool evening breeze after a long day of woodworking in the sun.

Yeah, not so much. We tried assembling one and the pieces don’t seem to fit together. I don’t get it. Maybe the plans are crappy, I don’t know, but I’m far too embarrassed to even show you what they look like right now.

We are, however, determined to continue to build ourselves and our patio furniture up, though. With any luck and probably a few new power tools, I’ll have a picture of our finished chairs for you this weekend!

Even if we don’t end up with anything we can sit on, we’re having fun doing it and it is totally helping keep our minds busy. I'm still too anxious to sit anyway :)

Ohhhhh and Jessica Morris.....I got my CVS card and I'm going to give it a try! I'll keep you posted!