Welcome to this heart of mine. Paint your stories and trade your talents and Respect my truths.

Here is a recent update of our back yard and the compromise we struck for our Son's Graduation Open House.  It (his graduation open house) has come and gone.  He's due to move out and start at OTC in six days!  His Open House party went really well, and he got some great gifts from many.  It lasted until 1:00 am around the bon fire out back.  I am still really tired from all the work it took to put it together, and very thankful for all the help from friends and relatives. Our yard is now re-landscaped, with a full head of green grass and only one large wood pile with a tarp separates us from our neighbor's pig pens.  So that I agreed to keep in place for the open house.  We lucked out and were loaned all the chairs, tables, coolers and tent!  I am so grateful!

  Right now we are working on putting up a pole barn roof in the back woods for the year's wood to go under -- and not under the tarps in the yard business!  That way next year when our Daughter graduates, she can have a  landscaping-stress-free Mom and Dad, a rut free yard, no junk or debris to trip over and flowers for all to admire.  He gets a road to his pole barn and I get no more ruts!  He gets no more tarp strained shoulders, and I get a full grass lawn again!  This is phase one, which includes my Pottery Kiln Shed and a new roof with a sky light over my kitchen.  I need him to take out some "wife insurance" so I don't go bazerko this next winter.  I need LIGHT!   Phase two will be the converted garage for more living space and a new basement level garage with an Art Studio/workshop above it for phase three.  There is finally a plan with the home equity loan to finance it and some light at the end of this tunnel!

I know that things were really shaky for a while between my hubby and I.  I didn't realize he needed a map of my limitations.  I just thought if you were married to someone, that they care about you and your feelings,  that you know them well enough to see, understand and respect their limits, and  that you do all it takes to learn what they put up with and won't put up with before you go hurting them over and over.  But I was wrong again.  Men need maps, and a legend and a NS & EW compass on everything that women expect.  ( Banging head into desktop in repetitious manner)  But if we women were to play dumb about our man's limitations like that, we'd be history in their lives.  They'd just dump us and move on to the next woman who cooks, cleans and sorts their dirty underwear while they sit in an air-conditioned office talking to sales reps in New York or Mexico, so they can come home and go straight out to work at their second job without a moment's glance her way, and come in expecting a hot meal and a warm bed.  (Okay, so I still have issues.  But it is finally coming to the point that we are working out our needs for respect.)