FORGET THE JONES'S

We love our neighborhood. It was one of the first things that attracted us to our house. During the summer families, couples and friends walk up and down the wide, quiet street. On Halloween loads of children wander to our door wearing costumes and asking for candy. In the winter neighbors help each other shovel snow from our driveways. When the weather starts to warm up in the spring those same neighbors chat with each other from our respective yards as we garden. It is a modest neighborhood, but comfortable.

That said, sometimes it's hard to keep up with the Jones's. In our case, it is near impossible most of the time. Our house is a fixer-upper and there are days when I think we could wallpaper the living room with our to-do list. Since we worked so hard to get the old 1970's paper off those walls and since our last name isn't Rockefeller, we've had to accept that we won't get the showroom house of our dreams completed over night. We are making slow progress on the inside, but the outside has changed little from the day we first saw it. It is, by no exaggeration, the house on our block that needs a face-lift the most. I've never heard any snickering, but I can't imagine that the pealing paint and tired landscaping is earning us or the neighborhood any equity.

We are trying though, and that counts for something. Little by little we are digging out the old and planting the new. This past spring The Husband tackled an ugly hedge to the ground and pregnant me wore a face mask to keep dirt from my mouth as I dug a new garden. It is discouraging though to walk past peeling paint each day. On down days I'm envious of my neighbor's newer siding and thick, green lawn. Envy is an ugly thing, so lately, when caring for The Little One gives us even less time for outside chores, I'm making mental lists of the things we have accomplished.

Yesterday, we added two things to that list. Nothing fancy- we raked the yard and cleaned out the gutters. Like the Jones's we have ten yard waste bags filled with leaves. We also have a deep appreciation for the playtime, bath time and mealtime that kept us from doing more of these chores. That attitude may not get the house painted, but it will fill it with happiness. I think we made the right choice.