The Beginning of a New Patio!

Yesterday, Peter worked on the patio and he finished a 6 x 6 foot patio right in front of the porch! I am so happy!!! I am also hoping that it will keep more dirt outside where it belongs! He worked all morning making the dirt level and sloping it away from the house and then he used premade brick forms to pour the concrete. You can see the forms in the pictures. Each form is 2x2. They are so easy to use. Just lay them down and then fill with concrete. Then pull up the form ten minutes later and it leaves the impresson of bricks!

It was so easy that when Peter went to work, I was confident enough to do three squares by myself!!! Laying the forms was the easy part and mixing concrete by hand in the wheelbarrow was the HARD part. It was a nice workout for my arms though!

We will continue and make a larger area for the children to ride bikes on. Our plan is to make a large rectangle and leave two flowerbeds in the middle of the patio, so it makes a little track for the children to ride around on, and also make it look pretty from the inside of the house.

While Peter and I worked on the last square together, I hurt my hand SOOOO bad. I was walking over to get some water to wet down the patio and in true Three Stooges form, I stepped on a rake. The rake handle came up so hard and hit my hand. I didn't see the rake and it was shocking!!! I started crying instantly and thought, "I'm going to Korea tonight to get a cast- it is definately broken." Peter was panicked too. I don't cry that easily and this time I was SOBBING! After icing it and calming myself down I am glad to report that I am fine, bruised, but fine! I am really fortunate that it hit between my pointer finger and thumb. (and that it didn't hit my face!) If it had hit more directly on a bone, I don't think that I would have been that fortunate! Thank you Lord!

I am so thankful for the patio too!