Weekly News, 05.23.23
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One of my daughter’s recent assignments for school was to enhance a space, then write about it. The idea was that we have wonderful opportunities to improve our lives, if we choose.
For example, organize your bedroom or closet, pot up a flower arrangement for an empty windowsill, or clean up and weed a spot in your yard, and see how it makes you and others feel.
We do a hybrid homeschool model, and this was one of our lessons to do at home. Hope chose to enhance our front porch by cleaning the furniture and planting some small pots with flowers. Time is a bit squeezed these days, and I was admittedly not thrilled about taking the time to help her. My mind was on the rest of my to-do list. Thankfully, I set aside my thoughts, and we made our porch look great together! We cleaned first, then found some small pots in the garage to plant up. We chose flowers from our early spring annuals that could take the cooler temps at the time. My front porch is one of my favorite, most restful places to be. And even though I felt rushed and impatient at first, I was so very glad that Hope inspired me to make it look beautiful.
Any chance I get, I grab a coffee, tea, or glass of wine, and sit in my comfy chair with my feet up. I appreciate the green of the trees and grass and admire the fragrant blooms on our tables, remembering with a smile how excited Hope was to work on this project and what she wrote:
“There are so many ways to improve the world around us. I chose to enhance a space by cleaning our porch. I’m going to make it look beautiful. Our porch makes me feel happy and relaxed. Now I can go out there and read my book, listen to the birds sing, and enjoy being outside in this space.”
Enhancing the world around us—our spaces and others’—takes some effort, but the results are so worth it. How will you make your spaces better, more useful and more beautiful this summer?
