I honestly did not intend to go so long without writing a post but last week and the weekend was so busy that my time just got away from me.

My husband and I did spend the weekend assembling and putting up the gazebo and laying out the pavers. Although we did have a little assistance to start with we could have greatly benefitted from a couple more able-bodied folks helping out.

What should have taken 8 hours took us 12 and I am pretty sure we both went well over our physical limits and I know we will be paying for this in the next few days. My knees are making sounds no knee should be making and I pray that I did further injure my elbow, I feel like I have made so much progress with it in the last few months.

I am also so grateful for my husband, even though he may not be as handy with tools as I am, he put in just as much effort as I did in putting together the gazebo, we made a really good team, and he handles part of the assembly that I could not handle and vice versa. He also did the bulk of the real heavy lifting to save my arms from further injury.

I am not only proud of what we built but also that we were very mindful of our bodies, we ensured that we drank plenty of water throughout the day although thinking back we should have probably drank Gatorade instead. We also made sure we took plenty of breaks to rest and cool off, and we also ate meals to stay energized. In the afternoon when the temps reached 95 degrees we decided to take a two-hour break and did not resume until the temp started to go down again.

By the time we finished we were proud of our work but only had enough energy to shower and crash on the bed.

We had originally planned on doing the pavers later in the week but to my pleasant surprise, I found my husband had woken up earlier than me the next morning and had already laid out half the pavers by the time I woke up. so, with a couple of hours Sunday morning, we wrapped up the rest of the work, and thankfully it was all finally done.

We still have some more work to get done in the backyard but the hardest part is finally finished.

Although our bodies may be tired I feel mentally satiated, this is something that we have been wanting to do for a long time. We have lived in our home for more than 15 years and this is the first time that we actually did something with the backyard that will result in a more permanent structure that we can enjoy and relax with as a family.