Friday ended up being a day with a lot accomplished, but none of it what I was originally planning!  I wanted to get a bunch of gardening related stuff done, but realized my dh was feeling a bit swamped by all the home repair type projects waiting for his attention.  So I thought that I’d try to give him a bit of a boost by applying myself and the kids to his list. 

I did get ds10 to mow the yard, which was the only thing on my list done.  But the garage is such a disorganized disaster that getting it out of there was a big deal.  (Organizing the garage was on dh’s list.)  Ds15 took a lot of initiative in getting it into shape – there was a huge pile on the yard where he pulled everything out so that there was room to move and rearrange things.  Then he did something I suggested almost three years ago when we moved in – he built supports that use the space above.  Now all the sukka boards and schach are up there, and that freed up lots of space below.  I enjoy finding ways to use ‘dead’ space effectively!

I was shocked at what a disaster the garage was – it’s not my jurisdiction, and I very rarely go in.  I send kids to get things from there or put things in, but it’s been over six months since I set foot in it myself.  It was definitely a good thing that I didn’t know how bad it was.  So hopefully now finding tools and supplies will be much easier than it has been for quite a while.  Just in time for the summer, which is when you need things from the garage the most!

I spent a couple of hours out there organizing, but when dh came out to the garage and joined ds15 and his younger siblings who were enjoying helping out (ds10, dd8, ds6), I headed inside for a nap.  I was pretty wiped out.  My dh’s sister came to visit an hour before Shabbos with her two daughters, which wasn’t exactly the most convenient time, but I slept through their visit.  (Being in the middle of the ninth month is a good excuse because no one can be insulted by that. :))  Everyone else made themselves available to chat with them, though, except for ds15, who was hard at work until the last minute.

It was so nice to be able to get this done and I was very appreciative to my dd14 and dd12 for handling everything related to Shabbos preparations.  Most of the food was in the freezer, which simplified things, but you know how there’s always plenty to do except for that! 

Avivah