All Work and No Play...

...you know the rest of the saying.

We have been busy little beavers here at our new homestead.  Projects inside the house.  Projects outside the house.  Projects at the old house (although we're almost done there, yay!).  

These past few months have been so unusual for us.  Wonderful.  And hard.  Blessed.  And Tiring. I've never had to work so hard in my life.  I don't say this to complain (not this time anyway), but just as an observation.  Mainly an observation that I have apparently heretofore lived an entirely too-cushy life!

Now everyday we wake up with a to-do list a mile long...and go to bed with it just as long.  I've never slept so good, though.  

An oasis in the craziness.  Our bedroom is my sanctuary...
but don't look around at the other parts that you can't see in this picture.

It is exciting to see all this coming together...things I've dreamed of for years.  But being the "List-checker-offer" that I am, I have struggled to keep my long-term perspective and not become too focused on just getting it all done yesterday.  I've spent too much time over the past few months looking grim-faced, dead-set on getting "it" done.  (Whatever "it" happens to be at the moment.)

Everywhere I look, I see projects that still need to be done.  But "one thing at a time", and "do the next thing" are both sayings heard often around here now!

So, I try to not freak out as I look around and see unfinished projects, but just know that they'll eventually rise to the top of the global "To-do" list, and then we'll get them done.

So far, we have spent hours outside the house.  One example of some of this work:

BEFORE:

The playhouse

AFTER:

You can see one end of our "soccer field" over the picket fence to the right of the playhouse.  Also, about ten feet away, from where all this pruning took place, the moccasin slithered through just 3 days later.

I'm currently in heavy negotiations for rights to the playhouse.
The kids haven't been using it and I think it would make an eggs-celent henhouse for our upcoming chickens!

We are a long way from being done with yardwork, but we've already accumulated quite a "burn pile" in the back pasture. (And we've got marshmallows just waiting to be roasted over it!) The burn pile represents hours and hours of hot and sweaty work by all six of us. (We're letting G off the hook for now...but only until he can walk!)  

We've FINALLY figured out the best way to do this kind of hot and sweaty yard work:  As early in the morning as we can manage (before the temps reach 90+)...and wearing our bathings suits...

...so that when we're done...

...we can cool off.

Knowing that we'll get to cool off in the pool after we're done, seems to make the yardwork go that much quicker and easier!

Why did it take us so long to figure out this strategy?