Together

What's this? That's the sound of the kids working on the chain ga-a-ng!

My husband has a few days off of work this week (a perk of being self-employed!) and so yesterday we started building our new pool deck-together.

The morning started out fine. Sunny, yet not too hot, kids happy and ready to help. The first task was to lay down plastic sheeting and cover it with rocks to stop weed growth under the deck. Craig decided to make the task especially easy by renting a tractor.

The first couple of loads were a breeze. He dumped rocks, the kids and I spread them out over the plastic. But on the fifth load, things went wrong. As Craig was dumping a load, the tractor slid slowly yet purposefully down a small slope, right into the side of our pool. Craig did the only thing he could. He put the tractor in gear, stepped on the gas and steered away from the pool, only to partially crush about 25 more feet along the side of the pool. It was as if the whole world became silent in that moment. We all just stood there and stared at our broken pool.

Now, I am going to say this right now: "This could have gotten ugly!" But Craig walked over to me, gave me a hug, vented a few words on the subject, then we regrouped and kept working-together. For Craig and I this is a huge success. We have a tendency to let little things (or big things like a crushed pool) get between us. The days frustrations have a way of becoming the "little foxes that spoil our vineyard."

Today we have a lot of work ahead of us. Parts need to be ordered for the pool, broken cement posts for the deck need to be repaired and thirty loads of rock are still sitting in front of our house. But one thing is for sure, Craig and I will be found getting the job done-together!

"My love, what we have together is a valuable treasure; it is like a garden of the lovliest flowers in the world. Let us promise each other to catch any foxes that could spoil our garden when now, at long last, it blooms for us."
-A paraphrase of Song of Solomon 2:15 by S. Craig Glickman, found in the book Love Life.