Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Time Off Work

Usually when my husband has an extra day off we tend to find somewhere to go, whether it is out to his parents' farm, or to a siblings' home or a day trip to see some site around our Land O' Lakes. But this past weekend, plans fell through and we stayed home working on various chores around the place.

Memorial Day found us all sleeping in way past our normal waking time. After leisurely eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and reading the paper, we decided on what project to work on first. Since it was nice and a possible chance of rain the next day, we decided to work on the outdoor project.

When we first moved into this parsonage, each summer I would see weeds growing on the back hill. It was rather unsightly. I kept thinking this would make a lovely flower bed, but with five young kids, three of whom under 2, I didn't have the time to get it done. But each year, I kept trying a little something, not sure exactly what was best to do. Finally, last fall, we figured out what to do. My sil was getting rid of day lilies. She graciously gave me a wheel-barrow full. That meant one day last fall, David and I dug and weeded and planted on that hill. Plus we then decided to do some better landscaping in the front of our home. So another whole day, and then some, we spent digging and planting in the front. Yes we were quite sore, but it looked great. And this spring it looks even nicer. With added flower boxes, I'm liking the way the front porch is shaping up.

Back to Memorial Day. The day lilies were coming up but so were the weeds and last year we ran out of time (and money) to put in the landscaping edging to make it easier to mow and keep weeds/grass out. Monday was the day to get to work. David and I began digging and edging around the bed. It went in easier than either of us thought and turned out decent which made for a successful day. :-) After the edging was in, we were tired, but began on the weed removal, enlisting child labor in the process. We tuckered out before all the weeds were removed, but there's always tomorrow right? Besides do you know how hard it is to tell grass from day lilies?

Here's the picture of before the weeding began and after. Behind me you can see the limbs we cut off a tree last fall, we burned that (did the boys have fun with that! they ran and picked up sticks all throughout the yard!) and are going to get rocks from my in-laws' farm and make a fire pit right there to enjoy.

After a delicious supper of grilled pork, much needed showers and baths, we all fell into bed exhausted that evening. The beauty of his extra day off was we could once again sleep long past the normal time in the morning. We took a morning walk after breakfast and found our way over to Kamp Dels. Nathan had some birthday money left he wanted to use to purchase some more Shleich knight figures. The walk was about 3 miles round trip and now I know the kids can handle the walk for our trips to the pool this summer.

The indoor project began after lunch (although there was still no rain). For the sake of the children (hmm, hmm), we sold our universal weight set, took the treadmill out to the garage for my mom to come get one day, and began converting the room into a play room. David had built a 6x8ft playhouse for Hannah's 4th or 5th birthday. It has been in the garage for the past year. But we cleaned up the concrete floor, bought some indoor/outdoor carpet (this room has been known to have water) and began to re-assemble the house. There is still more to do, like sorting through the toys, and this and that, but more or less it is done. The kids awoke this morning and were all excited to have the playhouse back up and able to be used once again. David and I are glad to be back to "work." ;-)

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