Raised Bed Garden

Last Saturday morning Rebecca and I awoke and found ourselves in a very strange place. It occured to us both that we actually had two days with no kids and no plans. Two whole days with nothing, nada, zip, zero, nothing to do. I should have known better. I knew she would have something up her sleeve, and sure enough it wasn't long before she was informing me of a new project.

She has always, even though we haven't done much of it, enjoyed planting and gardening. The problem is we live in a rent house and are limited to what we can do. So her resolution was something called a raised bed garden. We then began look at different examples on the Internet and finally found one she liked. It stands about waist high and is around 8"-12" deep and could be as big or small as you want to make it. After some discussion I was sold and we were off to Lowe's. (Of course it was an easy sell for me because it involved lumber and power tools!) After spending about an hour buying the material, we were home and off to work in the garage on our latest project. On Sunday evening we were able to stand back and look proudly at the finished project waiting to nurture and grow what I am sure will be the best tasting vegetables in the world!

What's my point you ask? Well, it is something even I wasn't expecting. I think I have a good relationship with my wife. We have our moments like all couples do, but for the most part we have a great relationship. What I found was this was one of the best things we have done for our marriage in a long time. First of all, it got us out of the house and away from the television. Even with me not working, it has become so easy for us to sit in front of the TV during our down time and simply zone out. Not communicating or spending any real quality time together. The second thing was it gave us a very attainable common goal, and the satisfaction of accomplishing that goal, and seeing the end result. I think it can help us with our long term goals as well. Seeing what we are capable of when we work together, and seeing how well we work together. We never argued or disagreed the whole time, not once. It gave me the satisfaction of teaching my wife to use power tools, and the joy of watching her discover that she liked working with wood, using tools, and building something. (And come to find out, she is very good at it!) And for someone like me, a male with a very Type A personality, it was good to stand back and not completely take over. And it was good for me to teach someone else something while not trying to control them the whole time. Part of learning to let go and let someone else. It gave us two days of exercising our bodies and minds while enjoying each others company. It gave us the chance to talk like we hadn't in a while. And we did.

So I guess my point is this. I will now look for other common tasks we can accomplish together. Not only did we build something that we can physically touch, and something that we can use on a daily basis, but we built something in our marriage that we can continue to build on. We made memories those two days in our garage, with no one else around. We strengthened our bond, our communication, and our sense of teamwork. And the best part is I got two days of being with my wife. Priceless.

Remember every day to put one foot in front of the other, drink a lot of water, and don't forget to breath.................