What had happened was…

I committed to a project that nearly broke me. In all fairness, I had good intentions (doesn’t it always start out that way?). At the top of my lawncare list for a while now has been the backyard hill. Every year it needs fresh mulch. We’d skipped last year, so by this point it was starting to look barren. Weeds were growing. Plants were overtaking the stone walkways. Dead pine needles from the tall pines out back had buried whatever mulch was left. It was a mess.

But I had so many other things going on, who has time to deal with the mess right in front of them when you can be distracted by so many other messes? Every day I told myself I’d get to it. And every day I quietly accepted that I wasn’t actually doing anything about it. This is very unlike me. But it’s also exactly what happens when I get overwhelmed. When I don’t know where to begin, I just don’t begin at all.

---

I’m not sure when it was, but one day I got inspired to do something about the yard. I remember telling myself, I keep tackling all of these other problems that seem so complicated and are taking so long to resolve. I need a win that I can see, right now. So I went to Lowes and purchased about 20 bags of mulch, as much as could fit into the back of my minivan. Then, I came home and started clearing space along the sides of my yard and in the walkways to lay down the first few bags.

And then, it rained (like a monsoon) everyday for nearly a week, so I couldn’t make any more progress. All I had was bags of mulch leaning up against the side of my house everyday reminding me of a job I’d begun but couldn’t complete.

Finally when the sunshine returned, I got back to work. I spent an entire morning clearing space, pulling weeds, and laying down new mulch. I actually cleared my schedule to make it happen. Satisfied with my progress, I did the same thing for the other side yard space. Now I had some momentum! After a few days, I was ready to celebrate. I called Samantha and the girls outside to come see the transformation. Needless to say, their response was underwhelming, but I was undeterred.

Now I had momentum, I could actually see my progress, and a deadline! A holiday weekend was coming up and I decided on a whim to host a cookout with family and friends in our backyard. I thought, this will be the final motivation I need to get everyone else in the household mobilized to help me finish the biggest portion of the project, the hill. After measuring it out, I ordered a truckload of mulch (100 bags worth). When it arrived, I thought, this is it. We’re going to get that mulch on the hill.

And then it rained again for nearly a week. And I got busy tackling other projects. And no one wanted to help. The cookout weekend came and went. We ended up having a great time in the yard with all my friends, cousins, and their kids running around having fun. But off to the side of the house sat the mountain of mulch, a reminder of my uncompleted project and stalled momentum, just mocking me. Or perhaps reminding me about the real pace of progress.

A few days after the cookout, I was riding my bike through the neighborhood when I came across some lawncare workers who were putting down mulch in a neighbor’s yard. I asked for their information and eventually called them to come by and provide an estimate. At this point all I wanted was the job done, I didn’t really care how or even how much it would cost.

But Samantha had a different idea: why don’t we pay the girls to do it? I was skeptical at first though, because, let’s face it… I had my own vision of how this would get done and this didn’t fit. Besides, would they even want to do it? And if so, would they do a good job? But, since Samantha usually has the best ideas and they tend to work out in ways that are amazingly and annoyingly successful, I figured it was worth a shot.

I sat the girls down and explained the project. Samantha even suggested that we draw up a one page contract explaining the terms, deadlines, and payment conditions. I must admit, this was the most fun I’ve ever had writing a contract. All four of the girls, from the 16 year old down to the 8 year old signed and I walked them outside to show them the materials, model what I expected for how to spread the mulch and pull the weeds, and then I left them to it. I went to work, and they went to work as well.

Within three days they had transformed the backyard. I walked in the house on Wednesday and I could hardly believe my eyes. You can see the hill from the bay windows in our living room and it looked amazing, walking outside was an even better view. The girls were pleased, but perhaps their biggest emotion was exhaustion. Olivia (who served as the official taskmaster of the group), declared, I’m done with outside for a while.

Meanwhile, I was just so proud. I shared with them the story of how I didn’t believe they could do it, and then I apologized for not believing in them. Once again, they’d proven me wrong and I was so glad they did. Also, once again I was reminded, things have a way of working themselves out. I just have to be open and flexible to new possibilities and the fact that the timeline is rarely mine to decide. Everything happens in its own season.

SDW3