The love of a father

Sometimes you think you know a person. Then you learn a little more about them and you realize you don't know them so well, after all.

Here are some things I know about my husband:
--He loves Star Wars
--He is the youngest son
--He is an amazing cook
--He HATES to read
--He is very, very handy (and knows a lot about handy-ness, too)
--He's a pretty good guy, thank you very much.

Something it took me 5.5 years of marriage to learn about him:
--If you really want something done, tell him it's for his daughter.

We live in a town home--two story, connected to one other town home, etc. Not our dream home, but it's ours and we really do love it. Since the beginning of time, I have wanted one specific area cleared so we could have an outdoor seating area. (Just as an aside: H LOVES having a nice yard. He's diligent about fertilizing, mowing, planting, plucking, edging, blowing, what-ever-else-must-be-done-in-the-yard-that-will-keep-him-out-of-the-house-so-he-doesn't-have-to-clean. We often have the nicest yard in our modest neighborhood.) This particular area was overgrown with weeds, vines, spiny trees, etc. It had such potential, you see. I could envision a few nice patio chairs, a table, a glass of wine being enjoyed by yours truly while reading a nice book. Yeah, only too bad for me, that never happened. UNTIL...

I had the biggest brainstorm of my life! Just start buying M outside toys. H would never, ever let them sit on his beloved grass, so he's going to have to find some place for them to go. What better place than my poor overgrown sitting area!?!?! It worked! I asked him if he would design an area for M to play with her new toys.

Genius at work here, please watch out for smoking ears and crossed eyes.

H has been working so, so, so hard on this play area. He's hauled away 32 bags of yard debris, chopped down at least 3 trees, drawn up a plan, researched the costs of plants, wood chips, whatever-else-is-required-for-this-project. He even likes the idea of a touch garden and is giving me blanche carte on the plants, pots, ideas for that.

He bought a tiller...which thrills me to no end. There is something about KNOWING that you are tilling the land...preparing the earth. It moves me. MOVES. ME. I do feel slightly guilty that the tiller is already all tangled with the vines that grew along the ground. H assures me that I can untangle the mess. I'll let you know how that goes.

Aside from untangling the tiller, I have appointed myself QUEEN OF THE BEAST-TO-BEAUTY PROJECT. I like to sit in my queen chair and boss H around. He pretends to be too busy to hear me. It actually works out quite nice for us. Until he asks me, so sweetly, to use the ax to cut through a root. Then I remembered some important work I needed to be doing inside.

The love of a father is a powerful thing.