A Possible Yard

We have been here in our new home for 4 1/2 years now.  I love it and feel very grateful to have it.  The only scar on my contentment is our yard.  That condition is my current "bug."  It seems to have fallen on me to determine how to design and plant it.  That's the problem.  I've come up with various ideas, carefully drawn up and then, rejected.  I know for sure that this is not my gift.  So I flounder.  My eyes take in the lovely horizon to horizon view from here, and the beautiful hillsides, now filling with green from the recent rains.  All is candy to the eyes, except when they fall upon the outside space that is actually ours.  I have reached the end of my patience with it.  Yet we don't currently have the funds to buy an expert to help us resolve it.

But here is where our serendipity comes in.  Recently a friend referred a young man to us that needs a place to stay for a time.  He simply needed a spot to park his RV while he tries out a new job here in this area.  If it works out he will move his family here and get a home.  In the meantime, he will be here with us.  Guess what he does for a living?  He's a landscaper!  What a magical thing!  I told him with a smile that his rent would be his help planning our yard.  He happily agreed.  So I'm very hopeful that, before long, we will actually have some plans for our very needy yard.  It's a challenge, you see, as we have poor soil, wind, and poor water.  Not a good combination.  But Beecher, our landscape friend, seems unmoved by the problems.  I'm excited to see what ideas he comes up with.

In spite of my complaints about the yard, I am going through a spurt of exceptionally pleasant times.  Perhaps it is the time of year.  I love the rain, and the holiday season.  Or perhaps it is my new approach to housework.  I have a collection of dance music that is now accessible on my iphone.  So I plug it into my ear during my cleaning sprees and dance my way through the work.  It has proven itself to be a glorious way to move me through my working routine.  I move with more energy and the music fills me with positive enthusiasm.  Dancing just does wonderful things for me.  (I wish it did for Layne!)

For the first time ever we spotted this large two point
buck in our yard!
 

Here's Audrey trying to calm our youngest grandson
Jonathan.  He's having tummy trouble these days.

At our extended FHE I caught Cliff tossing a napkin over
grandson Bruce's head.  Bruce didn't mind a bit.

With the word getting around about Layne being a patriarch, there seems to be a growing number of requests for him to speak to youth about blessings.  This past weekend, I spoke with him on just that subject.  It was a lot of fun.  I've discovered that, if I am excited by my subject, speaking is fun.  One- shot exposure is lots easier than weekly ones; as in my sunday school class.  My usual students listened to me with interest when I spoke on blessings, but have quite a bit of trouble doing so for my usual sunday school lessons.  Hum.  What's the deal with that?

Our Halloween was a non-event this year.  Layne and I cuddled together on spook night and watched a decidedly unspooky movie, North and South.  It is a romantic English movie with a theme not unlike Pride and Prejudice (my absolute favorite love story).  I liked it lots better than trick or treating.  Sunday our local gang came over for extended Family Home Evening.  That was lots of fun.  I am going through a particular enjoyment of people phase right now.  I like it.