Do you ever notice that when you go through a period of feeling blue and start to come out of it, that the world around you looks different? The last couple of weeks have been a little tough for me, but the last few days have gotten much better. I started noticing it in the middle of the week. I opened the fridge and all the colors really caught my attention...the orange juice looked so orange, and the broccoli so green, etc. I think everything, including colors, had dulled into a shade of gray while I was feeling that low level depression.
This morning I was in my room getting dressed. I was looking around the (extremely messy, in desperate need of a deep clean) room and really admired our wall color. It's a really creamy medium brown color and I just love it. We painted it a couple of years ago and it's just a really classy color. It was nice to notice and appreciate it.
When I was at Mass this morning I recognized that I just felt happy. I think you notice feeling happy even more strongly when you have felt "not happy" for any amount of time. Feeling happy was something extra to feel grateful for.
It was also a BEAUTIFUL day today! Sunny, warm and just perfect! We spent a lot of time outside in the back yard...uncovering the pool and watching the little boys play on the swings and in the sandbox.
We are enjoying our backyard SO much right now because it is brand new. Our backyard is actually the result of that saying, "Be careful what you pray for.".....
Two and a half years ago, I really wasn't sure if I wanted to stay in this house or not. There were several things that didn't work for our family. The most important thing that did work was the location. We happen to live in one of the best towns in the area in regards to special education for Peter. So, if we were going to move, we had to stay in the same town. I started looking at houses and we made a "must have" list of things we needed to change in order to stay in our current home. The list to stay was: putting on a garage and a family room and re-working our backyard layout so it could be functional in some way.
We live in an area that has the dreaded septic systems. They stink...literally and figuratively! Our house had this enormous raised system that we nicknamed "Mt. Septic." Mt. Septic took up a third of our yard. It was an eyesore. And we never really used the back yard because of it. The swing set was in the side yard because the septic system was so high that half of our yard had a strange pitch because of the way it was graded. It wasn't conducive to baseball games or soccer games either because of that hill.
Trying to figure out a way to make Mt. Septic better was a challenge. Jay and I threw out ideas about a retaining wall so that maybe we could take away some of the grading and have room for an above ground pool...a lot of work but I needed to have a usable back yard if we were going to stay. It was a "must have."
So I was praying for guidance about where we were meant to live and, if we were meant to stay, what we could do about Mt. Septic. The winter before last, I noticed that a spot in the snow on Mt. Septic was melted in a circle right on top of the system. My heart sank and when the Spring came our friend who was an engineer confirmed my fear that our system was failing:(
We went through the difficult, and pricey, process of repairing the system. Because of the extreme generosity of one of our neighbors that owned the woods behind us, they gave us a permanent easement to allow part of our system to be on their property. We were able to move our septic system and it was able to be a regular gravity fed system...no more Mt. Septic! It took a long time to get it designed and put in. But last August it was finished and we got a pool and poured a patio and Jay built a big sandbox for Luke to dig in with his trucks. We planted grass in September and moved the swing set back there in October.
Now that the grass has(mostly) grown in and we are opening up the pool, I am getting excited to really enjoy our new backyard. My grandmother surprised her 6 grandchildren with a monetary gift last week that I used to buy a patio set and order a new awning for our deck. The shade will be great for the baby so I can keep her out of the sun while I watch the other kids in the pool. We set up a volleyball/badminton net on Saturday. Jay is going to build a small deck for the pool in the next couple of weeks. It's so exciting to be able to have this great space for our family and friends to enjoy!
When I was praying for inspiration for our yard I never imagined that our septic system would fail! But, if our septic system hadn't failed, we never would have had such a great backyard. Sometimes our prayers are answered in very surprising ways!
