Prep Monday—Getting Organized


Between kid activities and my business and a few other things, I’ve barely had a chance to get down to the farm lately; except yesterday, when I took my mom down to see the place. She’s visiting from Colorado, and won’t be back until fall at least, so we took the opportunity while we had it. It was a quick trip, which means I didn’t actually do any work . . .

However, my husband has been on the job—yesterday, he put in a new water heater and last weekend he spotlessly cleaned the bathroom and went over the kitchen again. So we’re kinda civilized now.

The downside of this is that things are getting a little crazy, and by “crazy,” I mean disorganized. Bless his heart, he’s a really hard worker and can do ANYTHING, but he tends to get off-track a little. So my immediate goal is to get a few things finished and organized, like the rest of the trash around the edges of the yard, the interim storage in the closet, and the odds and ends sitting around on the deck and in the kitchen.

THEN I can focus on what needs to be done.

Complicating things a bit is that the kid got a job and it’s mostly weekends. That’s going to slow us down for a few weeks, until school is out for the summer, but after that we can adjust. Of course, it might limit any assistance, as most people I know will be working during the week, but we’ll figure it out. And, too, the coming weekend has a rainy forecast . . . for now.

My short-term goal is to work on the garden area. Trim, pick up junk, mow, plow, plant. In that order, of course. And soon. My cabbage plants are crying for a new home.

And after that, we’ve got to get the campsite built out. No, it’s still not done, but to be fair, we had a heck of a time choosing the location. And then, too, our plans were a little ambitious that first weekend. But, we have the materials, so there’s that. Hmmm. This kind of falls under the “get stuff finished!” headline.

You know, when we started this venture, we’d been thinking about everything for quite some time; and then we figured we’d find a place in a few months and have some time over the winter to get started on improvements. As it turned out, we didn’t close until spring, about 14 months before our targeted moving date, plus we had a head start with the house and barn and utilities already being on site.

But.

There’s a lot of outside stuff to do, and come fall, we’ll be working inside, moving walls and re-doing others, and adding to the kitchen and maybe some work on the bathroom. It’s not critical that these things are done before we move in, but it sure would be easier to have the remodel finished without furniture and other “stuff” in the way.

A year seemed like a long time—but the clock is ticking!

 

Fan Friday—Planning Weddings


I have to say, this is the first wedding I’ve planned mostly via texting.

And I hate texting. I mean, it has its uses, such as when you need a quick, short response—and I don’t mean “k.” Like a yes-or-no question answer, or a time confirmation. Beyond that, just pick up the phone and call me!

Yeah, yeah, it’s 2015 after all, I get that. So I’m trying to be, what’s that word? Flexible. That’s it. Right.

My son is getting married Saturday, as in tomorrow. Naturally, I assumed that, since I’d given them ideas and tips and guidance a year ago, after the engagement (and engagement party that we threw for them, since her family wasn’t going to), that everything was planned.

It was not.

The date had been set last year, and they were going to get married at our church. That fell through, for various reasons. Then they were going to the courthouse. Ick. And having a reception, maybe at a park. It was all kind of vague . . .

So two months before the wedding, I started asking questions. Like who and how many in the wedding party, where should we have the rehearsal dinner, what is her family planning for the reception; all the normal things, right?

Wrong. Her family wasn’t doing anything. I’m still not clear on that, but in a nutshell, they’re not happy. Okay, I get that. But both the bride and groom are over 21, so what can you do? They’ve been together for, oh, a year and a half, and engaged for a year. Far as I know, they want to get married and no one has moved out or on in a huff at any time during this “courtship.”

Long story short, the “kids” are broke, and then some, and I felt bad about the whole thing. No, a wedding and reception does not make a marriage, but it’s still nice to have. Nothing formal, nothing elaborate.

I started planning three weeks out.

Yes, this is the shortest time in which I’ve ever planned a wedding.

No, contrary to popular belief, you don’t need an entire year to plan a wedding. My cousin once told me that she “couldn’t” get married for a year, because “all the books said” you needed that much time. Nope.

My first wedding was planned (yes, mostly by my mom) in two months, and so was my second (by me and my husband); and both were formal church weddings with attendants, guests, reception, etc. I’ve also planned a few professionally, and we catered our older daughter’s wedding.

Er, piece of cake, right? Mostly. A few kerfluffles. Just a few.

So anyway, we have a location, decorations, a cake, food, drinks, flowers, and even a minister—that courthouse plan got scotched, although I admit finding a minister within one week of the ceremony was a bit tricky.

Hey, maybe I should write a book . . .