July = Enjoy an Outdoor Oasis

We spend a lot of time hanging out and entertaining on our front porch. Since our summers are short, we eat dinner out there just about every night in the summer. We enjoy our morning coffee, reading the news and waving to early morning walkers. Afternoon porch parties are fun too and take advantage of our sunny days. Because we enjoy our porch so much, we neglected our backyard. It was a nice backyard with a wooded dune behind us instead of another house, but it needed some love. This spring, with a graduation party around the corner, we decided working on the backyard was long overdue.

After spending numerous weekends weeding, transplanting, edging, spreading mulch, scrubbing and staining the back porch, and having a cobblestone patio installed, the yard we didn’t spend much time in was transformed. It has become a peaceful oasis where I sit and enjoy lunch. It allowed us to spontaneously host friends over for dinner and a bonfire and when a bunch of teens joined us at the last minute, it was no big deal and we just grilled a few more pizzas.

Sometimes we put off dealing with those neglected places in our lives because we think it will be too hard, take more time than we think we have, or won’t be worth the effort. It makes me wonder how much more do we miss out on, in our relationships, in our place of work, or at home, because we just can’t get past a hurdle and work on something we’ve put off for far too long?

We’ve missed out on a peaceful and fun place to relax and share with friends and I don’t want to neglect anything else!