Today, huge boulders are being delivered to my backyard. Boulders and dirt and rocks! I'm thrilled. You see, out here in Arizona that is what constitutes a yard. And am I ever ready to finally have a yard.
Recently I confessed to my husband my only fear of eternity. I'm a little concerned I'll get to heaven, be escorted to my lovely Mediterranean-style mansion (I can ask!) and shown around the palatial rooms, only to look out the window and find nothing but dirt in my yard. I'll turn to the angel who has escorted me to my heavenly abode and ask, "What gives?" He'll shrug his shoulders and sigh. "The yard will have to come a little later. Don't worry. It will be done soon." But I'll have to wonder.
My husband and I have only owned two homes for a total of five years. The rest of our married life we have either rented, house sat, or lived in parsonages (homes supplied by churches for their pastors). Lest I sound like I'm complaining, you must understand that we have parked our possessions in some very lovely parsonages, rental homes and apartments. The only problem with those generous living arrangements was that we were not gaining any equity for the future. (Of course, after five years of making house payments we still don't have any equity, but we're working on it!)So we built one house in Texas and lived there about three years and now we're in a new house in Arizona that we've been in for a little over a year.
Because my husband and I really try to live within our means (he'll laugh at that statement, but I really do try!), we have to "delay gratification" often. One of the greatest delays of gratification we've experienced is waiting to put in the yard around our homes. Of course we've had land that is technically the yard, but those yards have consisted of dirt, dirt, and more dirt. Now, I'm really not very hard to please (he's laughing again!) and my parents raised me to be able to wait for things (now they're laughing), but I've really wanted a yard, an oasis, a place to entertain, a refuge, just some ground covering for pete's sake! In fact, we did get some trees and some flower beds (no flowers, just beds, mind you) at our house in Texas about six months before we moved. But then... we moved. And when we moved, we moved to a rental house that had lots of rock (Arizona, mind you), but that's all it had. Lots and lots of rock. No trees, bushes, or even boulders.
So today, I'm quite excited. I'm getting boulders. I have a lovely patio that extends into almost half of our postage stamp sized yard, thanks to the generosity of a friend of ours. That patio is begging for patio furniture and potted flowers, but right now I'm just glad to be getting boulders. James, my husband, says there will soon be rocks, a water feature (that's a little stream of larger and different colored rocks that looks like water...if you use your imagination!), dessert flowers, a few trees, and a fountain. Dare I believe this could happen any time soon? I think I'll take the plunge and believe it with all my heart. I'm getting boulders today! What a blessing!
1 comment:
I am sharing your excitment as you start to see your yard take shape. Since we've moved into our house almost 2 years ago, we've had a list of things we would like done to our home. My biggest one was getting the cactus out of my backyard. With little ones, it wsa a hazard. I finally pulled it all out, but it sat in my yard for a year. This summer it got hauled away. I was so thankful for that. Now I dream of the rest of the yard taking shape. It will come one day. But I can sacrifice having a yard done now to continue being home with my children.
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