help out more around the house

My wife got a bee in her bonnet about getting the retaining wall on one side of our front yard built. She has been digging behind the existing retaining wall for the last week and a half or so, just getting a little out each day. Friday afternoon she was all gung-ho about completing that side and I was roped into helping out.

The wall was only about 18 inches high, so it was easy to build. We were able to use those retaining wall bricks with the lip on the back that hold onto the brick under them. We found the ones we liked figured out how many we’d need and bought the first half for the that side of the yard. We did this Friday night and then worked on setting them Saturday morning. Things weng more quickly than we expected and we were able to complete the one side by early afternoon. I started to dig out the other side of the yard and we actually had it ready to set late that afternoon. We went out and got the first half of bricks for that side and got up early Sunday morning before a party we had to go to and got those set. We got back Sunday afternoon, made another run for the remaining bricks and finished up both sides during the weekend.

We’re both sore and a little tired today, but we’re absolutely thrilled that the main portion of our front yard landscaping is done. Now that we’ve done that we really want to complete it all.

I was supposed to go climbing today, but got sick this week and couldn’t go. My wife had a class to teach today, so while she was out I did two loads of laundry, loaded, ran and unloaded the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen and had lunch almost ready for her when she got back from teaching.

She had said that she didn’t like it when I cooked because I left the kitchen in a mess. I made sure that I cleaned it up and made it look better than it did when she left this morning. When she got home she was very appreciative and was surprised that I’d cleaned the kitchen. I said that she told me she wanted the kitchen cleaned after I cook and she said she thought I wasn’t listening to her. It kind of hurt that she said that, but I have to admit there is some truth in her words. I was glad to prove her wrong this time and hope to continue to improve her expectations.

Our neighbor was going to chop down their 9 foot tall Camelia, so we said we’d dig it out. I dug a hole in our yard and then dug the camelia up and moved it over. It looks great in our yard, but we’ll have to see if it survives the transplant. I hope it does, but even if it doesn’t it made my wife happy to have it.

I vaccumed the rugs in the house, washed the sheets and cleaned up the kitchen this weekend. I still need to be doing more, but what I did was appreciated.

While the wife is off teaching her class, I’ll be making dinner and having it ready when she gets home.

I’ve also been cleaning up around the house to reduce the day to day tidying. So far, so good.

I’ve been cleaning up the dishes and the kitchen more often and have taken the trash out earlier so that she doesn’t take it out. I plan on keeping those activities up and adding more cleaning up around the house.

She’s a very busy woman and I think it would be a big help if I were to cook dinner twice a week and make sure the kitchen is cleaned up every day.

I already do my laundry and do hers as well if she hasn’t done it, but I could do more.