My goodness I love the sunshine.  Whether it is painting my living room with its bouquets of yellows, red and oranges, casting shadows across the landscape, or simply washing me over with beams of joy, the sun does something to me that is undeniably happy.  Though this past week may not have seen much of it, we have been teased in recent memory of what is coming – the odd day peppered into our mid-Spring routines where the temperatures have hit the low to mid-twenties, the sweaters have come off, exposing just how pale we’ve gotten in the past 8 months, and we’ve brushed the dust from our sandals.  The up and down fluxes of cold to rain, to warm, to sun is at time cruel, but when we do get those days of grace, there’s nothing I want more than to get outside.  And, of course take on some projects.

Glancing back at the two-plus years worth of posts I’ve done so far, it’s notable how many of them have started with words along the lines of “My wife is patient with me”.  As such, I’ve crafted this post to at least inject that sentence somewhere into the middle of the second paragraph….and yes, my wife is patient with me.  See, at the change of each season my brain and my body not only want but need a ‘project’ to tackle.  Naturally these projects occur indoors during the cooler months, and gravitate outdoors with the warmth.  With the teases of weather we’ve had so far this Spring, my list has been taking shape, and herein lies the patience part.  While the intention of a project is, at least in some part, to take time and last a while (re: keep me occupied/distracted/busy and out of the nuisance zone/periphery of my better half), my eager and anxious self, ends up shoving a months-long design and build into half of a weekend at most.  While my focus and dedication to a project ends up “getting things done” it also means I am quickly, well, out of projects… and in need of more projects.  It’s a vicious cycle that can end up costly – for the pocketbook, yes, but perhaps more so for my body, for as it turns out I’ve accumulated more limitations within my 40’s than I had in my 20’s.  That said, I still have the stubbornness to push and break my body as any young adult; I just complain about it more…another area where my wonderful wife’s patience comes into play.

In years past (and even in this one) we’ve used our calendar to try and pace things out for me, slotting specific tasks into specific days, which I will say has helped me from impulse projecting quite as much, but the problem still seems to be that, we are what?  A few weeks, arguably less, into the outdoor patio season, and I’ve run out of things to build.  How did that happen?  I accept responsibility for this, I truly do.  I am utterly incapable of leaving a box full of parts unassembled, so if something, say an outdoor grill cart as a completely hypothetical example, arrives earlier than expected, then of course I’m going to put it together within an hour.  Some might say I need patience or that I need to pace myself – to find a way to stretch that hour into a weekend activity – but I would say that I’m being efficient, proactive, and making effective use of limited time we have here on earth.  I was always taught not to procrastinate my way through life, and so I am taking the lessons of those far wiser than me throughout history to ensure that doesn’t happen.  Plus, there’s now a free bonus day coming up in the calendar for us to spend quality time as a family, appreciating each other while we can, for it only seems like a handful of days before the kids have grown up, moved out to somewhere far away and only want to visit us once a year at Christmas.  So, yeah, given those cold-hard facts, of course I’m going to assemble the “hypothetical grill cart” as quickly as I can.

Fine, so maybe that’s a stretch, but still, with all those excuses aside, there is one aspect of a project that brings me more joy than anything, and that, of course, is when our kids show an interest in joining in to assist.  Helping to build is something they have always shown an interest in – be that through assisting to gather the tools, read the instructions, hold the screw driver, and now, as they’ve gotten older, start to use and apply some techniques and more ‘serious’ tools from the shop.  Yes, it does slow the process down, comes with a lot more questions, and can be at times frustrating, but those things pale in comparison to what I am hoping are memories made for both of us.  Not only are they learning what I consider to be valuable life skills – the knowledge of how to safely use tools, in my opinion, is knowledge that can be incredibly rewarding, provide a sense of pride and accomplishment, save you money, keep you safe, and allow you to help others* – but it’s also that the things that we are building together instantly become a reminder of a moment and story to tell in the future.  When I look outside at various things we’ve built or put together around our property, be it a fence for our chickens, a gazebo to give us shade, or some shelves to provide extra storage, I get to say “my daughters and I built that”, and that statement will never not be true.

Tinkering with things was something I also loved as kid.  I would play with my dad’s tools in the garage or at his workshop, trying to understand how they worked and what they did.  I would observer and join in with my dad as he, too, invited my brother and I into projects and taught us how to create things with our hands.  I’ve spoken of this before, but these memories bear repeating, as they reinforce the point I’m trying to make: even though they have an end point and reach their final constructed stage, these projects can last a lifetime.

*just another very important point to highlight the importance of introducing Lego to kids, and supporting that exploration no matter the age.  Learning to read instructions, understanding angles, engineering, perspective, supporting mental acuity, and dexterity in your hands; there are so many longer term benefits to investing early.  I mean, who doesn’t want their kids to grow up being able to help others?