A Reprieve

I was dreading the three-day weekend after all the difficulties of last week. Despite trying to have a heart-to-heart conversation with Primero, despite ending the conversation with a hug and affirmation that he is still very loved and wanted, even when he acts like a turd, I still felt a sense of dread with a long weekend looming before us. Luckily, it seems like things might actually be settling down with Primero. He stayed home most of the weekend and even helped me with a construction project that involved some serious manual labor. I was grateful for the reprieve and hopeful that we are righting the ship that had gone askew this past month. It was so hard letting go of the doubt and distrust formed from Primero lying to me and then lying to me about lying to me, but if it means we can get back to normal, so be it. Fingers crossed this time it sticks.

 

The little ones and I spent most of the weekend outside. The children have made friends with two neighbor kids and enjoy running around playing together. It has been nice for them to have friends to play with, but it has also presented some problems. Love Bug is much younger than the other kids and they get easily frustrated with him. He had to be called home early on Monday because he was spitting on one of the older kids. There is also a safety issue with the kids running back and forth across the road. I have been scolding them and showing them how to look both ways before crossing since stopping their crossing proved futile. Our street isn’t particularly busy, but accidents can happen quickly. Chica Marie had gotten a free bike from CHOR and we had some issues getting the training wheels on it. Then, because the wheels are cheap plastic, one is already broken. Sigh.

 

I feel like I did a lot of work over the weekend but have little to show for it. Primero and I replaced the back fence in the backyard. The old one was falling apart and the dogs were able to get out. Unfortunately, removing the old fence proved problematic because the trumpet vine I planted years ago had grown into the fence. So, in order to get the fence down, we had to hack apart the very large, tree-like trumpet vine bush. We did manage to get the new fence up, but it was a little shorter in length than our old one and still not 100% complete since we have some more finagling to do with it. I managed to clean out the side flower garden, which was no small feat. I need to buy mulch to prevent the weeds from coming back. The backyard is the real issue. It is a mess from the kids and the dogs. My flower bed has been razed from the dogs running through it. Most of the grass is dead and what is not, are mostly weeds. I want to put in a patio and build a wall around the flower bed. I feel like I lack the skills to do this. I am thinking about paving in half of the backyard, but I’m fearful we will miss the grass. Still, I need to do something because it’s such a hot mess at the moment. I also need to replace our back porch because it’s in sad shape from the wear and tear. I will need to have that done professionally because I’m fairly hopeless when it comes to building things. I wish I could, I wish there would be a way for me to learn how to do it, but until then I will have to rely on professionals. Hopefully next year I can afford the back porch replacement. In the meantime, I’m going to work on getting the other things in order, bit by bit.