Enjoying our backyard

So, our plans to sell our home and move to a home with a flat backyard are on hold for the forseeable future. With a new baby on the way, and a larger car needed to cart around 3 kids in a few months, we would have to take out a sizable home equity loan to fix up our house before selling .... and, with the housing market being what it is, that's not happening anytime soon. At first, I was frustrated and sad that we'd have to wait even longer for a yard that the boys can run around in, but lately I've been trying to turn my attitude around and truly enjoy what we do have.

Jack and Thomas love our backyard. Jack is like a little mountain goat and he trots up and down the hill easily. Thomas is a little less steady on his feet, but he does really well (and has a blast!). He follows Jack up and down the hill and picks himself up quickly when he falls down (so far, thankfully, no one has rolled down the hill :) ). The boys play with their sand toys at the bottom of our hill, and pick grapefruits at the top of the hill and roll them down. (We have a handful of citrus trees -- our grapefruit tree, which none of us really care for since we don't eat grapefruits, is of course the healthiest and most prolific of all of them!). Today we picked tiny oranges off our little orange tree and ate them them right off the tree -- the boys loved it!!

Anyway, I had been hesitant to put much work into our backyard because I figured we'd be selling it sooner than later, but now I'm thinking of things I can do to make it more enjoyable for us while we're here. While the boys play out back, I've been trimming and removing shrubs, opening up a little more space back there. There are some spots toward the bottom of the hill that I think I can flatten out easily with a myself, and I plan to build a little frame for a garden (with lots and lots of bunny wire to keep out bunnies and gophers!). I'm buying some watermelon seeds, pumpkin seeds, tomato seeds, strawberry plants, etc. so I can start a garden this year. Not only will the boys have fun taking care of the plants, but it will also be awesome to harvest the results!

So, I'm finding myself enjoying the "ups" of our house more and more, and I've noticed that I'm much happier here. I'm sure that we'll eventually get a bigger house, flatter yard, etc. but it might be a few years and rather than grumbling about it, I'm very much OK with that thought.