Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Ready for Fall


So for those that don’t know it, I am a little bit of a workaholic.  Some guys complain about “honey-do lists” but I am the opposite; I create my own.  I constantly have my list of things that I need to do around the house.  Some jobs are small and some are big, and it seems like by the time I check one item off the list, I have come up with three more to add to it. 

First of all, I have a wife and two kids, ages 6 and 2.  My wife and I try our best to spend as much time as possible with our kids and try to be very hands on.  Then I have my job; I work full-time for my dad’s construction company.  From early spring to late fall, my dad and I also mow lawns 3 nights a week (sometimes more) after work.  I am also trying to slowly work towards getting my degree in computer information systems.  Then, I have my house that I built four years ago.  I built it over an eight month period, working every spare hour I had on nights and weekends and I am still putting the finishing touches on it.  On top of all of this, I am obsessed with everything being neat, clean, and looking perfect inside and out at my house, making it kind of like a second job to me.

Spring and early summer is the worst time for this.  My wife dreads it because she complains that it feels like she never gets to see me, even though I try my best to fit my projects in when it doesn’t affect our family time.  Some mornings I get up at 5 or 6 in the morning to get things done before I go to work and then I will come home for my lunch break and squeeze as much as I can in then too, usually causing myself to have to eat my lunch while I am driving back to work.  So far this year, I have added a new landscape bed to the front corner of my lawn with big stones and bushes, I have core aerated and applied compost to some trouble spots in my yard, I re-organized my garage, I added monkey bars onto our swing set for my son, I added a brick paver sidewalk coming into our backyard at the one gate and re-landscaped around it, I have removed, divided, and added plants into my existing landscaping, and in addition to all of this, I have the weekly job of mowing the lawn and keeping it and my landscaping manicured and healthy.  Now almost all of my projects are finished outside for the year.  All I still have to do is pressure wash and stain my entire fence.  I am really looking forward to relaxing after this particular project because it is the final project I still have to finish that was on my list from when I built the house. 

As you can see, I live a pretty busy life.  I hate to rush time by but I can honestly say I am ready for fall.  Not only is it my favorite time of year but it also means I will finally get to sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of my labor.