With Hayleigh at Canada’s Wonderland with a friend, I asked Abby what she wanted to do today. The suggestions were to head to the trailer and whip around on the golf cart and get some work done, go on a hike, or perhaps clean the garage as it’s another household job that is never ending. The hope has been to get that space cleaned out so that they could use it as a hangout spot. They have liked going out there in the past to play barbies, watch movies, or play XBox 360. There have been times where there was at least space for these activities, but between someone storing some stuff in there for a while and just a ton of crud in general that needs to be organized and purged, now was not one of those .
Abby, being the one who enjoys time in the garage the most, chose this activity. She is always up for cleaning the garage and has spent many hours over the past couple of years with me out there going through things. She is also not good at parting with things. She comes by that honestly. It’s something we work on together.
After a couple of hours, Abby took a break and played some cards outside with Tara with it being a beautiful, hot last long weekend of summer. I took this opportunity to take apart the XBox. We realized a few days ago when we first started moving some things around, that the disc drive wasn’t working.
It took me a couple of hours and a trip to the local office supply store for a can of compressed air, but thanks to HandyTube once again, I had it all back together on the second attempt (Abby pointed out that I forgot the internal screws). She was back in gaming business.
While Abby was eager to play a game, I encouraged her to finish cleaning the Barbie toys so we could store them out of the way. Once she was done though, she enjoyed that activity while Tara and I prepared dinner.
There is a lot to do, but it’s always fun doing this with her. I truly feel if I can have three more days with the kids’ help, we can have this garage ready for teenage parties, drum pounding, and a spot for me to work on housing projects over the cold winter months.
It’s also time to finish this bedroom project. Remember that from early on in this writing journey?
I take on too much and it’s time to focus on this house and spaces for the kids to enjoy the last of their teenage years here.