Look, Mom!

Here is a picture of my little guy mowing our very big lawn. Ethan was pretty excited (for about a day) about his newfound responsibilities. He kept telling me things he knows about mowing. I had no idea there were so many things you could know about mowing. As we pulled into the garage, he walked over to the mower telling me, "I know how to turn this on. You push on this and pull up on that. And then you lift this up when you want it to go." Well, this is information I'd like to remain in the dark about. But I'm happy for him...however, John asked him to mow again this week and he said, "No, thanks."

Okay. Are you all sick of park pictures? I just love taking them. I love taking Gertie to the park and she loves going there. This is her little friend Jaylee. I thought this picture was so cute. These girls are just weeks apart in age. Future best friends.

And here is my big project. We've had this section of our smaller, fenced in yard that the grass didn't grow so well under. It is very shaded, and the people that lived here before had a fountain or something back there that killed a bunch of grass.

So one day, I said to John, I'd like to mark that part of the yard off and turn it into a little play area for Gertie. I think it would look cool. Well, John and I historically don't do projects together very well. I think he thinks I get too bossy. i don't know what his problem is.?! Anyway, we tackled a smaller little rock garden a couple weeks ago. did I already blog about that? It turned out pretty nice, and I think it inspired us to go ahead with this one.

The people that lived here before left all kinds of stuff around--some of it was actually garbage--but some of it was this great field stone that I knew we could do something with. Then they also left about 15 or so of those stepping stone patio blocks. I still have other resources to tap into, but I'll need to work on ideas for a bit more.

The landscaping in the front of our house just looks horrible. The bushes are very overgrown, and they squish and bury other bushes that could look so pretty. We had hostas everywhere, but they were horribly placed. I knew I wanted them moved, but I just can't bring myself to dig things up for some reason. I hate that about myself, but I just worry I'll do it wrong, or I'll plant it in the wrong place.

John and I had made the border with field stone and placed the steps and laid down a bunch of mulch, I just needed to do the planting and finish the mulch.

So, enters my hero--my mother! She drove down on Saturday and I gave her a tour of the yard, telling her all my ideas, and she was telling me her ideas. We developed a plan and jumped in with four feet and four hands. I recall a gentleman walking by as we were digging up plant after plant from the front yard saying, "You're going to get rained on." Well, it was about twenty minutes later that we did get rained on. My mom said, "Don't worry about it. We're going to keep digging. " Then it started to hail! We were sopping wet. We ran into the garage. John and Gertie were standing in the doorway watching us. I'm sure she was thinking we were crazy. I know John was. But when the hail stopped after a few minutes, we headed right back out there. We dug holes. I was so happy and excited to see this project come together. I can't believe how happy those things make me.

John made us burgers for dinner. We changed out of our sopping wet clothes, ate quickly, and headed right back to it. We spread more mulch, placed some rocks, cleaned up the entire mess. We were exhausted. We could barely move. Mom read Gertie stories while I raced around trying to get everything settled for bed and then we hit the hot tub. It felt so good. I had such a good time doing that with my mom.

I can hear her saying, "Don't be careful. Don't be careful." I love watching her in the garden, because she isn't careful. She just digs it up, drops it in, steps on it a little, and moves on to the next one. My mom counted like 45 holes, including the digging up and the replanting. We were filthy and laughing and really having a great time. I am learning.

So, thanks, Mom. I love you! And I really appreciate your help.