Work your fingers to the bone and what do you get?

Well, not boney fingers yet. But I'm working on it!

Friday I had the mate's Eldest and her boy, the #2 Grand coming to give me a hand with yard work the next day. The boy was silly enough to tell me he didn't get poison ivy. The Mate's Eldest was silly enough to need some cash...LOL.

Work messed me up. I had the fence guy coming over for his "final" ok at five thirty and then the FedEx man decided not to deliver our order. This was bad. We had to have the product so I called and arranged to have them get it to us but it meant staying until 6:30. ARG! I raced home, met the fence guy, he says he will be back on Monday and I pay him cash instead of the bike because he blew up his truck. (Yes, I "un-sold" the bike) and the kids arrived just as I ran in the door on my way out to go racing back to work to meet the late delivery on my (not sold) bike. After I closed up I rode home.

Yes, it still pains me to ride the bike. The last two weeks of "no bike" because I won't ride a bike once I have sold it, were bad. And I couldn't really afford a new bike until next spring. I try to remember that the pain is only from the love the mate left here with me in the things he did for me out of love. I try to remember it could be him here trying to cope and that I am probably better equiped for it, so I am saving him from this hurt. I try to keep in mind that I am blessed to have so few, tiny regrets about our life together. So I rode on his loving reconstruction of a motorcycle just to fit me and back to the house where we were happy determined to keep this one thing he did for me if I can bear it.

That was almost the last recreation I got over the weekend. We really got after the yard and stuff. Eldest pulled weeds, #2Grand removed poison ivy that has infiltrated my garden, friend of Eldest and her two littles came out Saturday and dug lilacs to take home while moving my poor iris to a new location. I chain sawed the trees where they smack you in the head if you walked under them, the lilacs, in the center where I had 6 and 8 inch logs to get through with my little electric chain saw, the pines, where the fence was put and the weed trees in the ditch are next. We built piles of brush bigger than the last one I had.

That called for a cook out. The Eldest got polish dogs and chips out, cooked one each for the littles and discovered none of the rest of us was hungry. Leaving the tray on a chair by the fire, she went back to hauling brush. We discovered later that one of us was hungry, Buck the boxer. Our polish dogs were gone. We had a few marshmallows and called it good. Rotten hound! He never does that kind of thing but it was fresh meat unguarded. I guess we had it coming.

The side yard was mulched out the rest of the way. I had run out of mulch. There is one new corner garden in and the yard is looking lovely. The mate's eldest even filled the bird feeder for me. I know she heard me swear I was going to sit on my butt with my coffee and watch my birds on Sunday morning, brownie point!

The mower was run Thursday by the Eldest Grand and pal, the basement almost cleaned out by them, I found a few more things they missed, and the patio cleaned. Friday night my Nephew came by for the freezer and he and the mate's Nephew loaded it. Today the dog pen area has been rototilled and the drive way swept, de-weeded and hosed off by the mate's nephew. Yesterday I cleaned stuff out of the upstairs and the back porch was cleared. I still need the scrap guy to get over to pick up the stuff from the basement we have piled up for him.

The kids all bailed on Saturday night. The nephew was coming the next day to move in. The #1Son and family came to visit, too. I did get to watch my birds. When the kids got here we walked the flowers and the fence. The best daughter in law picked up two full hands of wire scraps and steel post tops left by the fence people. Then we re hung my poor mistreated roses.

Is this so hard to understand? "Cut the old fence on either side of the roses, lean them back out of the way. Put in the new fence. Lift the roses back up and hook the old fence to the new fence to support them. "

Now, if you understood that, why couldn't they? They took an eight year old climbing rose and pulled it all out of the old fence. It was wrecked! The same with two other rose bushes. Anyway, we put them back up, comforted the trampled rhubarb and put the steel where it would not hurt the mower. I fed them pizza and we had a nice time watching the little feed pepperoni to the cat and bites of pizza to the dogs. Good to see my son the man is doing well and his family happy! I always enjoy our visits.

I worked Monday and took Tuesday off to meet the fence guy, the furnace man and the gutter estimate people. The furnace guy is the only one who showed up. I was not happy, as per the post yesterday. But we had some good luck, too. After digging down to it we found we do have a larger door into the basement. The first step really is a doozie, about 20 inches, but it will let us get the furnace and water heater in and out easier. Plus the porch is more empty.

I spent some time calling for pricing on guttering yesterday. I think the crappy idjits that didn't show saved me a bunch of frustration and money. I can get all I need at a local store for an affordable price. I have all these kids around. They can hang gutter! Good plan! The Nephew and I figured out how to get antenna to the upstairs tv, too.

My Eldest Daughter called Monday night and we got caught up. I love it when she sounds so happy and busy. It was good to hear from her.

If this is a little messed up and confusing - welcome to my world. We all did so much this weekend and so quickly that it is all a jumble in my head. Then Monday the nephew and I continued to work. Tuesday we worked. I was just getting some more seeds into the garden when a guy stopped to show me his bike. It was the mate's ex's husband. I got all distracted and never did get my flower seeds in. But somewhere in there the nephew had started getting dinner for us and I had burritos ready for Bible Study.

The session was a good one and we learned more on the light and life. I cracked the sis up so bad once I thought she was going to smack her head on the table laughing so hard. That was fun.

The mate's Nephew left to meet a friend before we started last night and I finally had a moment to call mine when mom and sis left. I got to bed late again but I think I went right to sleep. I dreamed a friend and I lived in a big house, like a rooming house, together. I put a big bag of ice near an area I related to as his because I knew he would thaw it fastest. When he came home I went upstairs to my room, clutching my laptop to my chest and didn't speak to him or look at him. Later I was down in the kitchen making food and he found me there. He had been looking for me to give me something. We spoke but I don't remember what was said. I know I was answering his questions. I left him there and went outside then woke up. Weird.

The Eldest Grand just called and the teens are coming back out. They are so going to be sorry! I have a ton of work yet to do! But I have the three boys to help with it and it keeps me having to keep my face on and distracted so I am glad to have them.

How do you get kids to eat food instead of all the chips? One sandwich and two packages of chips is not a balanced meal!