Summer: Tough on a Marriage

One of my friends recently asked me if I thought the season of raising small children was a hard season of marriage. I know she wasn't talking about nature's seasons, but you know what's a hard season for my marriage? Summer.
Here's why: summer is a great time for starting a project. Last summer it was a patio. It's a beautiful patio. But to make it, MrDartt had to spend weekend after weekend out in the front of our house, tearing up sod, leveling the ground, laying sand and then laying brick. One brick at a time. I was hugely pregnant at that time, so I was stuck hanging out alone inside with Big Boy, unable to help or contribute in any meaningful way.
This summer, it's the shed. MrDartt's friend bought a house that came complete with a shed. The friend didn't want the shed, and MrDartt offered to take it off his hands, all the while telling me, "This is great! We'll get a free shed and we can store some of the stuff from our garage in there!"
Well, guess what? The shed is not free. I'm not even counting the gas money we spent for MrDartt to make the one hour drive several times to go dismantle the shed and bring its parts to our house. But we had to pay for concrete for the footings, as well as enough wood to build a whole new house. There's plywood for the floor. There's two-by-fours for the walls. There's wood to fix the broken trusses. More plywood for the roof. Then we have to buy roofing material since all the shingles were thrown away. Plus, MrDartt is out there every weekend, building that darn shed. MrDartt's brother, Uncle S, has been over helping MrDartt with the shed. Slave labor, as a birthday gift to MrDartt, thanks to Uncle S's wife, Aunt L. At least this year, Big Boy is able to go out and play while they work on the shed, but now I'm relegated to watching Little Boy while they work on the shed, and I'm unable to contribute in any meaningful way. And I want to contribute, believe it or not.
At least MrDartt has conceded that we've saved only about $90 worth of siding materials, compared to what we'd have paid if we bought all the materials new ourselves.
I told MrDartt, no more big projects for at least two years.
We already know we need to relocate our wisteria to a place where it won't eat our siding, but that shouldn't be too big of a job if we wait until it's not in bloom.
So last night at dinner, he says, "There's just one more project I want to do."
Uh oh.
This is how it always starts.