Oh My Aching Bones

Well, it’s summertime in Michigan  and we are here in Cadillac as new homeowners…once again. Y’all have to remember, we haven’t had these kinds of responsibilities for about 7 years. No grass to cut, no flower beds to tend to, no major remodels to do, etc, etc, etc! You got the idea and you now know what we have been up to.

First things first, and that was to get the house to a point that we felt comfortable to move into. It was not a “move in ready” house but it has such great potentials. After a major cleaning and an almost full redo of our bedroom, (thank goodness my son is a builder, lives close and had some time to help us) it was time to make the move. Our life as we knew it was turned upside down. The days of doing whatever we wanted  and whenever we wanted were gone. We now had responsibilities and a “honey do” list a mile long. As we started checking things off our list it usually meant going to the store, sometimes multiple times in a day, if not for supplies then for tools that we no longer owned. Slowly, but surely, we are making progress. So far we have completed our bedroom and living room. We took time off from hammering, painting and shopping, to tend to a very sad looking yard. We had 6 trees removed (5 of them were about 80’ pine trees) and an almost dead, ugly maple tree (Stumps removed too.)  Every day we were outdoors while the weather was still on the cooler side, come evening we could hardly move. We are definitely too old for all this manual labor stuff but we are managing quite well, all things considered.

                                                               Trees being removed

Bedroom

                                                                         Living Room

With the warm summer weather here, we have limitations on how long we can work outdoors and what we can do while out there. Once again, we found ourselves revisiting the hardware store replenishing everything we left behind when we sold  our house to travel, including landscaping utensils and flowers. My dear friend Carol was so kind to split some of her beautiful plants and give them to us. We found an acceptable place for them to call home until I could get the flowerbeds worked and ready. Slowly, they made their way to a more permanent place to live, and, I’m happy to say they are doing quite well. There is so much more to do….what doesn’t get done this year, there is always next year.

All work and no play makes for a boring life. We have made trips to East Jordan to see my sister, a trip to Lewiston and Mio to see my step-daughter who has an amazing thrift store and then to see long time friends of Robs. We have made several trips downstate, the last to attend lunch with schoolmates from many, many years ago. I can’t forget to mention my trip to see my grandkids and great granddaughter, who is now 4 months old and has captured my heart.

                                                   

Today is officially the first day of summer with a promise of many more days of beautiful summer weather and lots of opportunities to be outdoors.  I know what we will be doing many of those days, what will you be doing? Going to the beach? Or maybe going camping and hiking? Or staying home and working on your own “honey do” list? Whatever it is, make every effort to enjoy the great outdoors, no matter where you are or what you’re doing. While out there, be sure to look up, it’s amazing out there.