And Straight On Til Morning

Alternate Titles:

*Progress
*I, I Will Survive
*I Think I Can, Etc.

But! I love the Disney movie, Peter Pan, where the kids are powered by Pixie Dust (<-- one feels that should be capitalized. One feels Pixie Dust is a proper noun if ever there were a proper noun.) and head off to the island under Peter's direction to fly straight on til morning.

Which is neither here nor there.

I took this pic in front of my "office" this morning. Could you die or what? So beautiful!

The first week back to school (last week) was blissfully uneventful and then this week reality set in. I've had a few days of wide-eyed bewilderment, rushing between classes and work and meetings and chores and emails and planning and reading and homework...and now I think I'm - while not exactly adjusted, which seems to be my go-to word these days - at least surviving effectively.Which is to say that I can string words together into somewhat meaningful sentences while teaching, and I'm also developing the thick skin required to deal with students who: sleep; ignore me entirely; write weird comments (instead of answers) on quizzes; yawn dramatically and repeatedly throughout classes, and much, much more!

But!

Look at the back yard! It's almost as if real humans live here!

I'm sure you remember what a mess it was before, but here's just one teensy pic to put it into perspective and affirm all of my hard work.

Now look!

I finally cleared out the entire mulch bed and trimmed those trees to death (they'll fill out again). I also used a few coats of Deck-Over to seal the old, rotted wood, and to add a pop of color back there. I highly recommend Deck-Over for projects like this. I have no idea how it does on large surfaces like decks, but I can attest to how well it seals and lasts in the CO climate(s).

Tonight G and I are gonna run by Home Depot in the hopes that they still have a bag or two of mulch. If so, that will complete this area. The rest of the yard still needs some hard labor.

I'm proud of this lil beauty. We still don't know what we're going to do with the deck. Let's see if it's still here this time next year...

There's still a lot of work to be done, though. For example, this is my view as I type this:

I'm thinking of just filling it with pumpkins and calling it a day. :)

On the bright side, though, this is me right now! Note the snacky deliciousness!

I do believe I'll just sit here in the most amazing weather and listen to the wind blow through the trees and wait for G to come pick me up for date night.

And tomorrow's Friday, thank you Lord and the Heavenly Host.

Straight on til morning...