Some F's.....

Finally Finished with school......Fence Building......Physical therapy (OK, it makes the F sound)!  Just a few of the things going on around here.

First,  it is such a tremendous blessing from God in this season of my life and living with daily pain, that He would see fit for school to be finished!  No more commitments for a while, and the busyness of homeschooling dies down for a  nice long summer respite.  Austin is wrapping up a few more 9th grade details, Luke has finished 7th grade, and Vance has finished 5th!  And I just don't know where this year went, along with the last few.  Still enjoying all of joy, frustration, busyness, and blessings of homeschooling.  What a privilege it is, and I am still learning.

Fence building.  Let's just say this has been longggggg overdue.  Along with the entire backyard that has been in shambles for years.  The whole project has just always seemed so overwhelming, and every idea we had to improve the yard was met with large price tags and an overwhelming amount of manual labor.  But sometimes you just need a kick in the pants to get it all started.  Last weekend, our relatively new neighbors that own the hill above our backyard decided that they would have some fun sliding all the way down the hill to the bottom.  Our dogs went ballistic.  Magnum, the dog who knows how to jump our small retaining wall, is thankfully the wussy dog of the family, shamefully afraid of even the sound of the electric toothbrush.  And the vacuum.  And, well, lots of things, frankly.  But he does know how to bark ferociously, and looks rather mean and vicious.  Summer, on the other hand, can't jump the wall (or hasn't figured it out yet).  She is the one we worry about.  Usually, her bark is much bigger than her bite, but we don't want to assume she never would use her bite.  So, we felt the urgent need to get that fence put up.  Wow!  What a difference a weekend makes!  The first day, Dave and the boys had the supporting frame up.  The second day, half of the fence boards were hung.  Finally, the third day, Austin completed the hanging of the rest of the fence boards all on his own while Dave was at work.  I was totally impressed!  It's amazing how much better the yard looks already.  Well, if you ignore the rest of the problems, it looks better!  So this has begun our journey to improving the back yard, and there is so much to do.  Next, we will be rotolling up the whole yard, and planting grass seed, one side of the yard at a time, so we can still give the dogs access to the yard.  That will be a cheap fix.  Among other things, and a little at a time, so as to not disturb the budget, we would like to create a small seating area with homemade fire pit, plant an orange tree, and do a path down the side yard.  I know each small improvement will get us closer to that beautiful refuge I long for!  Here are some before pics of our horrendous mess of a yard:

The right side of the yard....at the beginning of the project.  There was a pile of dirt and junk behind the shed that took a while to clean out before they could even begin.

The left side of the yard, complete with dirt, weeds, and gopher holes!  Our neighbor's ice plant is taking over.


And now:

Getting started!  Looking nice.....

 All done!

Love the look of raw cedar.  Smells good, too!

Finally, physical therapy.  I feel like my life is very simple right now.  Cook, clean, go to physical therapy!  I have dealing with this neck, shoulder, and arm pain since the beginning of March.  It has been a process to get where I am, including three MRI's and a lot of heartache.  I am about 5 weeks into physical therapy, and I am happy to be on this side of a diagnosis. I am also happy to be seeing small signs of improvement.  I have learned so much in the process too.  And I have been humbled by my limitations.  God has been completely and utterly gracious to me in so many ways, that I can't even begin to list.  I am thankful for a great PT and massage therapist, both of which come with my wholehearted recommendation if you are looking for one or the other.  They have made this whole process so much more comfortable for me, no matter how much pain I experience.  It is comforting that the Lord provided excellent hands for me to be in. Above all, I am in God's hands, and nothing I am experiencing is outside of His knowledge and will for my life right here, right now, and that is SO evident.  I will wait patiently for the day in which I hope to be pain free.  I am seeing better days, and even though I still have much pain every day, I will take the good with the bad.  Thank you to those of you who have served us, prayed for us, and loved us during this time.  We are all so thankful.

The saga continues.......