I’m working on several areas of my life to become the man God intended me to be. One area of focus, as of late, has been to become a better son to my mother. I’m not a bad son (anymore), but the QuickTrainer business has consumed me over the past year and a half.

The good news is, I have been working hard not to work nearly as much on the weekends. This has freed up time to get some things done for my mother, while still leaving ample time to spend with Denise, Makayla and Jackie.

For instance, this past weekend, I managed to cut the grass for my mother. In the past, mom has always seemingly enjoyed cutting her lawn. But at 68 years young, and then add the heat and humidity, I would rather my mother have someone do this for her. A lot of times, Makayla, our 13 year old daughter takes care of this for her grandmother. This past weekend, our girls were spending the night with good friends. Therefore, it was an honor to do this for her.

Feeling motivated after Saturday’s lawn cutting, I decided to carry on in this direction on Sunday. Denise and I decided to lay a perimeter of wire in order to get the dog fence working again. Maggie, long ago discovering there is no “hot” perimeter any longer, has begun making a daily visit across the street. Not a huge deal, since she has tags and I’ve watched her cross the street (she looks both ways, really). But one of our bitter and nosy neighbors will make it a “big deal” in a heartbeat.

Sunday was hot (as Robin Williams would say, “damn hot”). But with the encouragement of my beautiful wife, we persevered and finished the task. It even works again.

I don’t know if Maggie will appreciate the work we did nearly as much as my mother. Every time we put “the collar” on Maggie, she has this look of concern. While chilling out, watching us work yesterday, she had a look of disgust on her face, as if she knows what’s coming. I try to explain to her, as best I can, we’re doing this for her own good and one day she will thank me for doing this.

With this project complete, I’m already looking at my next two projects. One is to fix a small leak around the well pump used to water my mother’s lawn. This project should take me all of a 1/2 hour. but then again, those simple projects don’t always go as planned, do they?

My second, and a little more involved project… replacing the pictured sliding glass doors with french doors. The sliding glass door is simply wore out and a regular door will serve better for the heavy traffic this door gets.

#ilm