An innocent little nap and poof! I’m a builder. Yes, it may sound like I was dreaming and although I have been reading about Solomon building the temple… I wasn’t dreaming……..
Several weekends ago, I took a little afternoon nap. While napping my husband thought that it would be a bit funny to snap a photo of his lovely wife sleeping her little heart out while he was also being overly productive and digging holes in our back yard. Now, we had not discussed digging holes in the yard so when he came in with the news of his hard work while I was snoozing, I found it quite amusing…. killing time digging holes when he could have been relaxing. It was during my laughing that he pulled out the enemy… the sleeping beauty photo (that’s me)… I began to listen to what he had to say at that point. Well, he thought I was listening but I was really trying to concoct a plan to get his phone away from him and delete the photo… During this time I thought I heard him say, “Blah, blah, blah, sleeping, blah, blah, blah, digging holes, blah, blah, blah, 4×4’s, blah, blah, blah, patio, blah, blah, blah, pergola.” I smiled, nodded in agreement and went to look at the holes in our yard. There they were… four two-foot deep holes at the edge of each corner of our patio. For years we have tried to cover our patio area with some sort of shade canopy but our backyard happens to be in a wind tunnel and after the first big storm of the season hits, the canopy flies away or at least bends to unrecognizable shapes. Apparently, what I agreed to while drifting in and out of photo deleting plans, was helping him build a pergola over our patio. I might as well have agreed to helping build the temple in Bible because I had to clue what he was talking about. I finally had to go look up the word pergola because I was getting the whole pergola/gondola thing way mixed up and couldn’t figure out how four posts would mean anything for a gondola other than a docking spot and then I couldn’t figure out how an Italian boat would add value to our home… or even shade.
Anyway, after hoping the idea would go away and trying to find a better way than building it ourselves… I gave up and gave in to what will now be always known as the “Pergola Project”. We borrowed a truck, bought the lumber, printed out free plans and went to work. Neither one of us knowing what we were doing began to measure, cut and level…. We were clueless except for the fact that we had faith in my husband’s pergola dream and the free online plans. As we were in the process of building, our neighbors, one by one, began gathering around. Now, we have Great (that is with a capital G) neighbors and didn’t mind their advice nor their company. No problem at all. 
The problem came to be when we found out something that created in us a whole new feeling of insecurity. Our neighbor had family visiting…. and it wasn’t just any family visiting…. it happened to be the brother-in-law… the brother-in-law who is a builder….not just any builder…. but a builder of really, really nice homes…. We had to up our standards right then and there. We couldn’t have him look out the door and laugh at the bumbling amateurs across the yard…. but, it was hopeless. We were bumbling amateurs and though we were following a plan we were also making it up as we went along. I’m thinking he was well entertained….
Well, with a few setbacks of rain and the end of daylight, the weekend project that we estimated taking about three weeks, actually only took one weekend. Who knew that we could do it? Well, I’m not going to give myself a pat on the back until a good windstorm goes through… if it stays grounded in cement then we can consider it a job well done.
So, I am vowing that naps, at least when my husband is home, are off limits. No more naps… not so much because I could have stopped the Pergola project but because I don’t want another photo taken of me while I sleep… by the way, the sleeping beauty photo is in deletion heaven and I am now looking up more building projects. I think I want a hot tub….. hmmm, maybe I should take a nap and see if my husband will level out the backyard so we can get started….
2 Chronicles 3
Solomon Builds the Temple
1 Then Solomon began to build the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah [j] the Jebusite, the place provided by David. 2 He began building on the second day of the second month in the fourth year of his reign.
The Prodygal Life 