The Weekend in Brief

Question: What happens when your husband goes and gets a triple load of mulch on Saturday morning?
Answer: You spend the rest of the weekend slaving in the yard.

I'm sure he didn't PLAN it that way, but that's how it kind of worked out. We needed to weed the front flower bed a little, clear out some winter debris, and mulch it good before the REAL weeds come up, and before planting season. Fine. But there was this old stump in the middle of it from a huge tree we took down 3 years ago. Previously, we'd been using it to rest a bird bath. This year, it looked rotten. Out came the axe. An hour or two later, it was gone. But we didn't have time to mulch. After all, Jonathan was out "helping", and Matthew was being an angel in his play-yard, and it was time for dinner.
Overnight into Sunday, SOMEONE had the brilliant idea to use some of the mulch on a patch of old weedy sod inside our pool fence. I mean, it needs to be cut with the lawn mower, it's a pain, it's weedy and unsightly, and gee, if we tore all that out and mulched it, wouldn't it look nice? Then this summer we could just stick planter boxes with flowers right on top of it, and our pool would look so much NICER! And really, it's the perfect time to tear out sod, because the ground was wet. (And guess what? All these arguments worked - Mark thought it was a great idea!) But then, he had an idea of his own....since we're tearing out sod, and since there are more stumps in the actual yard, why don't we tear them out, and then we'll use the sod to cover the holes? Brilliant! Our arms were sore from patting ourselves on the back.
So after church, and then after breakfast, out we went. Matthew took a 4 hour nap, so at least he was out of the equation for the day. Jonathan resumed "helping", but sometimes he ran inside to watch tv and get snacks. And Mark and I worked for...well, the whole afternoon - we didn't stop until starvation dragged us down. And we started to hear some babble on the baby monitor!
The nice thing? It got done. We were filthy. Our jackets will most likely never be the same, but hey, that's what yard work clothes are for, right? We took a huge step forward in making the yard look nice this summer, something that's been really neglected the past few years because we've got really little kids who don't cooperate when you need to mow something, or chop something or prune something. This is actually the first year we think we'll be able to do stuff and have them out in the yard with us and not really have to worry that they're going to take off, fall down a ravine, or get lost.
So welcome Spring, and with it, welcome the never-ending yard work, the never-ending dirt under the fingernails! Now if it would only get WARM.