19/52

We've made an executive decision of convincing ourselves that the previous owners never raked the leaves in the yard -- ever. We have a lot of trees standing plus the 5 or 6 that were cut down last weekend but are now just laying horizontally in the yard (we plan to do something with them, I swear). The yard is just nonsense. I'm not one to enjoy the outdoors. On Thursday afternoon, I got an impulse to rake leaves in the front yard. I got ready. I got the rake. I went outside. After a few minutes, I was done. The impulse passed. On Saturday afternoon, Sean asked if I wanted to go outside and finish what I started two days before. Again, I got ready. I got the rake. I joined Sean outside and then it turned into me just standing and watching and swatting bugs away from me. After 30 minutes, I was done. So I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed when Sean got out of bed this morning and went straight outside to continue Saturday's project. He was all about it. And unlike me and my 30 minute commitment -- his lastest for 6 hours. Unfortunately, there are so many leaves -- there's still so much work to do. 

Today marks five months in this house. The whole owning a house thing hasn't gotten old. Though it was a little close when the quarterly water bill arrived. Right after taxes were due. But then the heating bill came and it was only a fraction of what it's been (thanks, spring!) and that made up for some of the feelings of defeat that were surfacing. Last week we attended our first town hall meeting. It was the annual meeting and there were 41 articles on the agenda. I begged Sean to take me (I don't do anything by myself…) and he reluctantly agreed. So after my brush with raking on Thursday we left our house and drove down the road, to our former high school and sat at the meeting. First things first -- have you ever gone back to your high school? It's the weirdest thing… I hadn't set foot in that building since graduation day, oh, nine years ago? Once I got over the initial shock of being there I noticed that there were tables set up, sort of how things are set up when you go to vote. We had to go to the right table and tell them our name and address. That's when we were informed that since we're not registered in the our town yet (apparently, that doesn't carry over from previous towns...) that we would have to be silent observers, sit off to the side and not participate in the voting process. And then the moderator of the meeting, asked through the microphone, the entire audience if the two of us (he called us out by name and street address) could listen in on the meeting… and then they all took a vote. Fortunately, they all said yes, or that would have been embarrassing. And then for the next few hours we watched and listened as the people in the town fought and argued and not so politely interacted with one another. It was true politics at the core. And I loved every minute of it -- especially, the extremely involved  and "concerned" elderly citizens.

I guess it's about time to talk about goals, being May 11th and all… so here's how April looked:

Home:

- clean-up the yard - I wouldn't call this a success or a failure since we've started… just not finished quite yet

- plan out & plant a garden - we've planted, just not outside because of the weather

- buy a bathroom sink

- buy an area rug for the living room

- hang canvas above fireplace

Personal:

- organize computer files/pictures

- go to the Boston marathon 

- organize all my clothes

- blog 15 times

- get a pedicure

Not the best, I'll admit. April was a bit overwhelming for me and I didn't do much… let's hope for a better May.

Home:

- clean-up the yard

- mow the lawn

- hang something above the fireplace

- finish painting the living room windows

- plant our vegetables outside

- re-organize the kitchen cabinets

- hang a gallery wall in the living room

- buy fans or air conditioners

Personal:

- choose books for this book challenge

- make two things I've pinned

- get a manicure

- blog 10 times

Here we go!