Hard work is good for the soul

I am a bit like a wind-up toy. Once I start working around the house, I tend to keep on working until I finish or until I drop from exhaustion. Yesterday was one of those days.

I started out with a two-hour trip to the gym. I go every Saturday morning at 7:00am, right when they open. I am a morning person, doing my best work, thinking, and working-out early in the day. After the gym, I came home and went for coffee with Sweetie. We came home and I started working in the yard.

I have a good sized yard- by California standards at least. The lot is about 14,000 square feet and the house takes up about 3200 square feet, including the garage. That still leaves me with lots of yard to tend. We do have a pool in the back yard, but it requires some tending as well. I started off by brushing the pool walls and cleaning the skimmer. Then weeding, clipping, trimming, and mowing. After mowing the back lawn, I noticed how bad the deck and spa were looking. The spa sits on a redwood deck that Sweetie and built the first weekend we moved into the house in 1998. The spa came with me from my old house. The spa and deck need to be stained every year or so, and this was the year. I power washed the deck, knowing that it would dry while I mowed the front lawn. After getting the yard all cleaned up, I started staining the spa and deck. This is a job I really don't like to do. It just kills my back, and it has to be brushed, so hand and knees get roughed up in the process.

It was a warm but windy day. Not a bad day to do all this. Good to get it done before the really hot weather sets in. It looks great and was worth the effort.

After all this work, about four and a half hours outside, I went to the store to get something to make for dinner. Sweetie has a really bad cold and is feeling lousy. So I made a dinner that I thought he would enjoy. We had tequila lime grilled chicken, salad, and a new dish- asparagas bread pudding. Sounds kinda strange, but it was really good. Sorta like stuffing. I made it with sourdough bread, peppers, onions, asparagas, and topped it with shredded swiss cheese. It baked for about 45 minutes and was just very tasty.

Even though he enjoyed dinner, Sweetie just didn't feel well. He also had a bad night. He tossed and turned and coughed all night. He is still sleeping, but I bet he will be exhausted today. Poor guy!

I don't know what I'll do today. Maybe a trip to the gym, although I am a bit sore from all the work yesterday. I'll have to see how I feel later.

I think I'll go sit in the spa for a few minutes and then check in on Sweetie. I hope you all have a great Sunday.