A Return After Some Time
Today is March 9, 2026 and it's been a little while since I've written here. The days have been full, and sometimes when life gets complicated, writing slips behind everything else that needs attention.
Today ended up being a long, hardworking day for Eve and me.
After a day of tension between families, I wanted to stay diligent about doing the right thing and helping where I could. Eve's family has been working on landscaping around their house, and I offered to help.
Digging Through the Day
I spent most of the day at Eve's house digging out bushes that had died during the freeze and clearing their garden beds so they could lay fresh mulch later. It was a lot of pulling, digging, and hauling, but I didn't mind the work. Physical labor sometimes clears the mind better than anything else.
The day started a little uncomfortable. I know some things had been said about me to someone in Eve’s family—things I did not believe were fair—and at one point, I was not sure I would be welcome there.
But as the day went on, it seemed like some of that tension faded. We worked. We talked a little. And it felt like he might be warming up to me again. Maybe he's seeing for himself that I'm not the person others made me out to be.
After hours of work, he handed me $60. I hesitated but accepted it because I didn't know how to refuse without making things awkward. I didn't go there expecting to be paid. I went there to help.
If I had been doing that job as part of my landscaping business, I would have charged quite a bit more. Thinking about that makes the situation feel a little better—I still feel like I contributed a lot of unpaid effort.
He also knows I'm in a tight spot financially right now, so the money does help. Eve told me it should be taken as a compliment because he doesn't normally offer money to people who help him. I'm not entirely sure how to interpret it. Part of me wonders if he just didn't want it to look like I was doing favors for the family.
Maybe I'm overthinking it.
Helping at Home
Later in the day, Eve came over to my house to help with my mom's garden. The main reason we did that was to keep things balanced. My mom has been jealous that I spend so much time helping Eve and her family.
Truthfully, I don't enjoy doing specialized tasks for my mom very much. Appreciation isn't something that comes easily from her. Most of the time she finds something to criticize or a different way she thinks things should have been done. It's hard to feel good about helping when it often turns into feeling like you've done something wrong.
Still, we worked on the garden for a while.
That is why How to Stay Present When You Want to Escape connects to this day for me. A lot of the work was not only physical. It was learning how to stay steady in uncomfortable family dynamics without letting frustration decide who I became in the moment.
Finishing the Work
As evening approached, we went back to Eve's house for a little while. I did a bit more cleanup in the front yard while it was getting dark, trying to get as much yard waste down to the road as possible before pickup tomorrow.
While we were there, I noticed some old patterns starting to show back up. She had been doing really well for a while, so seeing things get harder again was discouraging. I do not want to turn that into judgment, but it did remind me how complicated change can be. It makes things harder when progress starts to slide backward.
Family Concerns
One of Eve’s children shared some feelings tonight too. She misses having her mom at home overnight. Because Eve spends a lot of nights at my house while we try to keep things on track, it's been hard on her.
Eve said she feels bad about that as well.
So tomorrow night we're planning for me to stay at their house instead. It feels like the right compromise.
Ending the Day
We eventually went back to my house. Eve had already planned ahead with me that tonight would just be about showering and relaxing together.
She's been in a lot of pain from all the yard work the last couple days, and honestly we were both exhausted. So just showered and laid down to rest for a while.
After a day full of digging, tension, family dynamics, and long conversations, a quiet ending felt like exactly what we needed.