Ronnie and I have been married for 41 ½ years and I thank my Heavenly Father every day for blessing me with this good man! We’ve had our ups and downs, but thankfully we’ve become stronger through those.

Almost nineteen years ago, during one of the most difficult times in our marriage, we took a leap of faith and built our current home. It was one of the best choices we’ve ever made. We love our home, but we love our neighbors and neighborhood even more! Each day during the building process we would bring our camp chairs and look at the progress made each day. What we’ve discovered years later, is that we were not only building our home, but we were building and strengthening our marriage. Many marriages don’t survive building a home, but this is the second home we’ve built together, and we both admit we were a little sad when the process was done. That’s how much we absolutely loved this project – building our home and building our marriage. Ron made it easy as his only request was a three-car garage with the third bay going all the way to the back of the house and a smaller fourth garage door on the back of the house so he could park his lawn mower in it. I would show him the plans as they came together from the architect, and ask his opinions on colors, and all the other choices, and he would just say – “I trust you, whatever you like, I like.” Who says that and really means it?!?!?! Ronnie does.

In the last 41 ½ years we’ve grown a lot.

However, the past 19 years have been the hardest as we’ve weathered through a recession, family issues of every kind imaginable, and even some not imaginable, but we’ve held on to the things that matter most – God and each other.

While many of our neighbors were blessed to have landscaping companies design and install their yards, we didn’t have that luxury. We paid to have a lady come and help us with a landscape plan. This has been a long process, we’ve changed a lot of things from that original plan, and it may never be fully accomplished, but we continue to work on it consistently.

Ron is quite handy, especially with sprinkler systems. He installed the entire .55 acre lot of sprinklers pretty much on his own. We paid a wonderful man to come and grade our lot for proper drainage with his tractor, but we couldn’t afford sod or hydro-seed for grass, so we went to J & J Nursery and bought their top-of-the-line grass seed. It took a couple years to come in and to get rid of all the weeds, but Ronnie’s lawn is soft, lush and green.

So worth the wait! The week after Ronnie got the sprinklers working and the grass seed down, he broke his arm. What a blessing that didn’t happen any sooner! As his arm healed, we watched the little grass shoots begin to sprout, and before long we had actual grass!

We had our contractor leave two big mounds of dirt with plans to make two raised garden beds using paver blocks. Those dirt mounds were eyesores for many years! We tried to plant them with flowers, and that helped, but it was difficult to keep the weeds under control. Morning Glory is anything but glorious! A few years ago, we were finally able to pay someone to come and install the paver blocks around the front planter bed.

But the one in the back corner of the yard had to wait. During Covid, we were able to have “Wright’s Shed” in Kaysville, Utah come and install Ronnie’s dream shed.

I love it too! It looks like a little English Cottage back there. For the next five years it would patiently sit there surrounded by a patch a dirt.

Two years ago we had another landscaping company come and give us a bid to finish the other paver block planter in the back corner of the yard in addition to putting flagstone around the shed. The bid came back at $22,000! Yikes! Ron started researching the process to build it himself. He went and talked to the “Belgard Paver” people, and they talked him through the process.

A kind neighbor came with his tractor and helped dig the trench to set the blocks in. Ron and our son-in-law filled it with road base and it sat through the winter to settle.

Last year, six weeks after having a disc replaced in his neck, Ronnie and our son-in-law built that paver block planter, and it looks better than the one we had professionally done in the front yard!

All good things take time and patience.

That planter is now filled with beautiful Zinnias that we enjoy every day! A dream come true.

This summer we decided to tackle the flagstone around the shed.

Ron, our son-in-law, and a few incredible neighbors have put in many hours of hard labor preparing the site.

Moving dirt, taking out grass, setting Trex fence posts from “Bronco Fence,” and bringing loads and loads of sand and flagstone to the backyard.

Last Saturday, in 100-degree weather, Ron and I spent the entire day piecing flagstone rocks together like a puzzle with no picture to go from.

I haven’t worked that hard, been that dirty, or sweat that much in years!

At the end of the day, we both decided we had pushed our old, tired bodies a little too much, but it felt good to accomplish what we did. We still have a long way to go, and of course we don’t have near enough flagstone. But that’s ok too. We’ll have more delivered and this gives us time to rest before we hit it hard again.

You may wonder where I’m going with this story . . . I needed to tell the background to get to the point. In life, relationships are rarely easy. They take planning, preparation, and lots of hard work. But even more so, it takes a lot of sticking with it when the going gets hard.

After 19 years, our yard is finally starting to come together! We now love sitting outside on the back patio together each night enjoying the fruits of our labors.

The dreams we dreamed while building this home are coming to fruition, but those haven’t come quickly or easily. Marriages and relationships are the same way. We must continue to work on them, nurture them, repair them when necessary, and enjoy the journey along the way.

I don’t have all the answers, and truly Ronnie has the patience of Job with me even after 41 ½ years. But we love and support one another, and that makes the building process a lot more fun and filled with LIGHT! Not all relationships work out, and sadly is a part of life – but that is a topic for another day. For today, look for the relationships in your life that are worth fighting for. When each person does the hard work, and has a desire to bring LIGHT to the relationship, the sweetness of the journey is always brighter and worth it in the end.

Find a project to tackle with someone you love! Be sure to have fun in the process, even if the project is not fun or easy. Hug those you love a little tighter and a little longer and share with them how much they mean to you. Have a great week!

Love Ya, Les 😊

Life

Building Light Together