Sometimes I sit and really think about how lucky I got in this story called life.
Because I have this habit of looking at completely ordinary or run down things and seeing what they could be instead. Everything has the potential to level up.
Our backyard is a perfect example of that.
There was this old stone patio area right off of the garage that used to just be there with two Adirondack chairs and a falling-apart pallet bar leftover from my niece and nephews’ wedding. It wasn’t bad… it just wasn’t really anything. Grass was overtaking the stones. The 4×4 beams used as borders were falling apart and moving around. The boys would actually steal them to make “extreme sections” for their bikes.
We’d been talking about an outdoor kitchen area for a while. We spend the bulk of our time outside, and the boys LOVE outside meals. It stayed one of those “someday we should…” ideas that lives in your head for longer than it should.
And then Ryan just started making it real.
No big announcement. No dramatic start. Just a project that finally moved from talking to doing. Dirt was moved, land was graded and leveled. Concrete was framed up, ordered, and delivered. Wood was ordered…then a trip or two to Lowe’s happened…then said wood was delivered.
He’s only been working on it for a few long days so far, but it already looks amazing out there. And of course, it’s been on the days I’m either at soccer with the big or at work, so I’ll come home and see a little more progress than there was before.
That’s kind of how he works, though.
Ryan has this way of taking my ideas, the ones that are a half formed, a little “what if we did this”, and somehow making them turn into perfect finished products.
The chicken tractor is another perfect example of that.
I came up with the idea, gave him my vision and a drawing on a piece of scratch paper from school. We took a trip to Lowe’s like it was just going to be a “quick project.”
It turned into a 6×12 chicken tractor with wheels, chicken wire, and a tarp top. He told me to be careful because there was nothing to stop the top door from slamming shut on me. Told me that he would have to design something, because of course I responded with “oh crap, I didn’t think about that”. So, he added these little piston arms so it opens easily, stays open, and shuts like slamless kitchen cabinets. It’s two feet tall, to accommodate my only 5 foot tall body needing to lean over into it. The thoughtfulness behind it and all the intentional little details are what make me smile every time I see it.
And the truth is, what I love most isn’t even the building part.
It’s him.
My amazing husband has this quiet way of making what I want to happen… happen. He listens, he thinks it through, and then he starts figuring out how to actually bring it to life. It isn’t always the physical things, though.
But he also grounds me in it.
Like recently, when I was fully in my “we should get a feeder calf” moment. I explained the research, the processes, and the requirements. He was originally on board, like he usually is, but then he came back later with the real-life list of pros and cons. Not to shut it down, but to slow it down enough so that I could see the full picture.
That balance matters more than I probably say out loud.
Because I can be all big ideas and “let’s do it” energy.
And he’s the steady… my steady… that turns that energy into things that actually hold up in real life. In our lives.
I try so hard to not that it for granted.
The building. The grounding. The way he makes space for my dreams and turns them into our dreams, but also makes sure they make sense when my shots to the moon actually land.
Leave a Reply