late night blog .. The fort

It's 11:39pm and here I sit typing in the dark. Everyone is asleep. The dishwasher and dryer are both running and the shower is calling my name, but I wanted to stop in and catch up with blog world.

May is the new December around here. This week is chalk full of end of the year parties, presents, programs, games, meetings and appointments. Last week was just as crazy. How did the two longest months of my childhood, December and May, become the two shortest months of my motherhood? As a child I pined away waiting for Christmas holidays and then Summer break to finally arrive. Now I feel that I no more get the pictures from Christmas printed and it's time to get the swim suits out! I hate to sound like a broken record, but life is going by so fast!

One thing that has forced me to slow down a tiny bit is a back yard project that I took on a few weeks ago. Our fort/swing-set came with the houseand was built by the previous owners. It's one of those that you build with real treated lumber and a kit of instructions and accessories from Lowe's. When it was first built it was probably pretty impressive. I would guess it is between 7 to 9 years old now. We have done little to keep it up (aside of throwing some Thompson's water seal on it) since we moved in five years ago. Our lack of attention showed. Badly.

With a brand new set of little hands and feet to crawl and climb all over it, we decided the fort had to either be completely replaced or repaired completely. Being the cheap wad that I can be, I decided repairing was the way to go. I just couldn't spend $1200+ on a swing set. Rob has been quite busy ending his firast semester of grad school, (with a 4.0 no less!) taking on a new position at work, and catching up on all that softball he missed while he was in class. So I knew if I wanted it to happen before summer, it was up to me.

By the time I am finished I will have replaced boards, added new support beams, bricked the ever muddy sand box bottom, hauled almost 1000 pounds of new sand in, sanded splinters and old paint away, redesigned and rebuilt the back wall to be a climbing wall, replaced the faded tarp roof with a sure'nuff boards and siding solid roof, built a closing sand box cover, replaced the swings and polished the old rusted sliding poleto look silver and new. I hope to be through priming and painting the fort interior and have the new trap door/ bucket toy elevator installed by this weekend. It's been a lot of work. It's been hot. It's been dirty. I have sweat more than I have in years. I have used power tools, dangled off of ladders and hauled lumber in the van. Six trips to Lowe's in two weeks! And truthfully, I really have enjoyed it. When I was little I was quite the tom boy, and I dreamed of having a fort or club house like this. Maybe that is part of my motivation.

But in general, I like projects. I like things with a beginning and an end. (though Rob might argue that I keep extending the ending point with all my "big fun fort" ideas!) I like the instant gratification of seeing how a coat of paint (or stain in this case) can make what was old and dingy look new and crisp. AND THE ANALOGIES! My mind has flirted with thousands of analogies and life lessons while sanding and painting. I think I could write a book. Maybe not a good book, but a book none the less. When I am working with my hands out in the quiet calm of the backyard, prayers just seem to flow so easily. Even though it is hard work, it is calming and I feel very steadied. And even though I come into the house very behind on things I could have been doing in here, I still feel very accomplished!

My kids are loving the new fort and sand box. They play in it every chance they get and moan when I say they have to stay out to let me finish up some work. A month ago I couldn't get them to play in it for ten minutes. Tonight Rhett asked if I could install lights in the sand box so that he can keep playing after dark.... Lights? ...hhhmmm... Maybe I could attach solar yard lights? Anyway, I have been playing in the fort and loving almost every minute of it! Hope my kids enjoy it half as much as I have!

Didn't intend to write so much on this. Guess I'll catch you up on the rest of life another day! Good night blog world!