Upon Further Review: Spring tasks take the back seat yet again
Every spring I hope to have a little more time to do things that need to be done around the house.
For years I have wanted to expand my deck in the back of the house, and do a little more landscaping. The siding needs to be cleaned, the bushes need trimming, and the yard needs to be fertilized.
When your kids are young, most of your spare time is spent going to T-ball games on Saturday and going outside on Sundays after church — working with them on all the things they did wrong playing ball on Saturday. And if you have two or more kids, your loss of time is doubled. Each deserves his or her time practicing with dad and that doesn’t leave much time to do anything else.
As spring turned the corner each year, I just knew the kids would be playing less ball — or at least not need so much time practicing in the back yard with dear old dad. But anyone who has kids knows this is not the case at all.
The older they are, the more time we spend running from ball field to ball field. Between practice and games, the time I needed to spend working around the house seemed to disappear.
As the kids got older, I naturally thought there would be more help around the house and more time to spend with the family working around the yard. The girls would mow the yard and help keep all the flower beds nice and neat. I would spend my Saturdays and Sundays working around the house repairing all the little things that need to be done.
Then, it’s a simple matter of cranking up the grill after all the work is done and enjoying the rest of the afternoon with the family as we admire all of our hard work to keep our place looking so colorful and bright.
But it never did happen.
Well now my kids are both teenagers, and time slips by faster and faster each year. They both help out around the yard, but it seems we never get to work together. Each one of us takes turns mowing and the girls do they chores, but with each one of us running in different directions, I just can’t seem to get all the little things around the house done or spend the quality time with my kids like I used to do.
And as I look back over the years, I wouldn’t trade all those afternoons watching my kids play ball or the time I spent throwing and hitting with them for the biggest most beautiful house in the world.
As I look around the house, I see a thousand things that need to be done and with a little wishful thinking I can imagine how beautiful things could be.
But as each day and year goes by, the most important thing I have learned about being a father is the house will always need work and the yard will always need mowing. But my kids wouldn’t always be there.
I am fortunate to be able to watch my kids grow up and I will only have them for a few more years before they’re ready to meet the challenges of the real world.
So who cares if the flower beds get a little over grown, or the grass isn’t cut every four or five days? Who cares if all the little things don’t get done?
In just a few more years, I’m going to have all the time in the world. And it can all wait until then.
Yeah, I would have still had great memories if we had only cut the grass. But watching my kids develop in to young ladies with the help of athletics has made me happy for the rest of my life.