In which we are very nearly grown-ups...

When I was a kid my dad was always working on the house and yard. There were the inside projects and the outside projects. He'd come home from work, put on his work clothes and mow the lawn or fertilize or build something. Weekends were for the big projects like retrieving used railroad ties from the sides of the tracks to use in our massive vegetable garden. He'd then excavate the area and install the ties. There was always something that needed fixing or building and he was always there doing it. Now he's retired and he still always has a list of projects. Right now he is rebuilding the rails on his deck and no doubt is working on his list of winter indoor projects for when it's too cold to work outside.

I too always have a running list, but I am way more of a slacker than my dad. I have a few excuses. My husband usually works around the clock and so all of the projects must be done by me alone. The children need supervision and education. Hard work gets boring. Murder mysteries are interesting.

This summer has been different. Things are getting done. One of the biggest changes was that David took two solid weeks off from work after his shoot. He had time to sleep and relax and this has given him to energy to tackle some house projects which have been nagging us for years.

Some are embarrassingly simple. For example, the gun part of our sink hose has been broken for about five years. In all of that time we would just look at it and think, "My god, how will we ever fix that." Last night David decided that he would fix it. He did some research about turning off the water valve and headed to the hardware store. He had an entire new hose mechanism in his hand when he noticed that the gun part could be purchased separately and could be screwed on to the existing hose.

Five years of living like droopy-eyed one arm children only to discover that the repair would cost $8, take two minutes to install and would require no actual skill.

This sort of discovery has emboldened us. Suddenly the vast list of things to fix, tidy, paint and clean seems completely within our grasp! Where we were once feeble home economic invalids we are now mighty home improvement warriors!

Proof of this fresh resolve can be found on my driveway. The cracks are sealed. The sealcoat and applicator brush are purchased. All that stands between us and a repaired driveway is a rinse with TSP and the heady smell of fresh tar being spread across 1,000 square feet of driveway. We are even sealing over the painted bricks, which means that after the sealcoat is done, I will be faced with the task of repainting the bricks.

We will not be daunted. The driveway will be repaired, the bricks will be painted, because this is Sparta! And we are grownups.