I read something once about the good stuff being in the messy middle of the story. That the middle is where the learning, the struggles, the juicy bits really come to life.

Gotta say, living through the messy middle ain’t that much fun though 🙂

We’ve gone full-tilt into this deck repair / deck painting / headliner (ha!) project, and it feels a little like a groundhog day of sanding, fairing, sanding, painting, sanding, dodging thunderstorms, painting, dodging toddlers… etc

(Including redoing all of the little hatches on the cabintop… doesn’t seem too bad until you realize how multiplying every step by SIX really adds up fast!)

Squeezing in bits of time for fun (Hunting Island – the amazing state park that’s nearby – has opened again, so that’s been great), for toddler-wrangling and life stuff is a constant challenge, but one we continue to try to pursue…

We have managed to establish a mostly-daily family walk each morning, before the humidity is a total wet blanket and before the first meetings of the day drag us apart.

And we’re just continuing to imagine the myriad of ways this year might turn out.

Never mind turning our attention to what exactly it is we’re hoping to do with this lovely Brio II boat, other than quarantine and drill test holes in her deck core 🙂 (The knowledgeable amongst you can now offer, “more projects, of course!”)

A blank canvas is a beautiful thing, if just a little overwhelming.