Absolutely Not!

We’re coming up on the five year anniversary of moving into our house, and I’m happy to report that we have finally done something with our backyard…or at least part of it.  We bought our house shortly after we got married, and thought—at the time—that it would be a good idea to buy an acre lot.  Looking back, I think that we probably bit off more than we could chew.  But here we are, five years later, and we finally made some real progress.  Don’t get me wrong—we have been working on developing our desert space on and off for the last five years, but now, we finally have something to show for it.

Since we live in the desert, we decided to put down artificial turf.  Many of you might be wrinkling your nose at the idea—and I know that my husband initially did as well—but I just couldn’t, in good consciousness, throw away the amount of water that would be needed to keep up a nice lawn here in Arizona.  I admit, it’s a little “crunchy” to walk on, but overall, we are so pleased.

(Sorry...I seem to run into problems with turning pictures from my phone)

That tree you see in the corner?  That is the tree that we planted the week that Ella was born.  We had been wanting to add a tree, and it just made sense to plant it at the same time as Ella’s birth so that we could marvel at the growth each year (though I admit that I never got around to taking a picture of her in front of the tree on her birthday).   

(I apologize again for not knowing how to turn these pictures)

 If you look carefully, you’ll see that the placement of the brick patio didn’t end up perfectly in line with the tree, so the path narrows a bit in that corner.   It shouldn’t be a big deal because—like I said—it’s artificial turf, so it’s not a big deal if you step off the path to walk around the tree. 

 

But my husband—bless his heart—had the nerve to suggest that we cut down the tree—the “Ella tree”—so that we could fix the corner to look like the others.  My response:  “Absolutely not!”.  Perhaps the tone of my voice made him reconsider his proposal, because he didn’t push the subject.  I recognize that my “magical thinking” isn’t real, and that cutting down the “Ella tree” doesn’t mean that we would be causing her any sort of harm, but it just feels so entirely wrong to even consider doing such a thing.  Who cares if the path isn’t perfect?  She’s not going to be perfect either, and we will most definitely love her anyway!

I’m very excited to have this new space for Ella.  She came home yesterday and immediately walked to the backdoor pleading “Outside? Outside?”.  We’ve been having amazing weather in the evenings, and I’m so glad that she has this new space outdoors in which to play.  I look forward to playing catch and soccer with her in the future, but for now, I’m totally enjoying her fascination with moving the rocks and picking up flower petals.

Today’s blessing was the chance to go out to lunch with my supervisor and our “big boss lady”, who shared a really nice compliment with me and told me that I’m doing a great job of balancing being a mom and a good employee.  She can be a little on the critical side, and is never afraid to share her mind, so I feel that I must be doing something right to get such a compliment from her.  I really am blessed to have two amazingly strong women (and mothers themselves) as professional role models.