When Trevor and I first bought our house, I spent the summer inside painting and organizing our nest. I completely ignored our yard until August... BIG mistake.
The next summer, I was much, much more dutiful in my yard tending. I changed a few things around the yard, I resurrected our crappy (literally - the previous owner had a big dog and multiple cats) grass and I planted tons of perennials.
For our third summer, I enjoyed yard work and took tender care of my little plants.
Then I had Simon.
We spent a lot of time in our back yard, Simon and I. We sat on our picnic blanket and watched the wind blow the leaves of our huge tree around. If I tried any yard work in his presence, his shrieks of despair convinced me to stop. Other then a few frantic weeding sprees and some disgruntled petunias, my yard was largely ignored.
Last summer, Simon slept every afternoon. Ideally, this would have been the perfect time for me to do yard work and, I did, on occasion. Usually, I just slept. My pregnancy with Claire and mornings with a demanding toddler took all my energy and I desperately needed my afternoon naps. This led to scraggly pansies and an outbreak of Creeping Charlie in both my front and back grass.
This year, I am taming the unruly! I have a great baby monitor and Claire is just going to get better at sleeping during the afternoons. (Hopefully, she'll get better at nights too so, I won't need to nap anymore either).
Look out, dandelions. Enjoy your last days, Creeping Charlie. Have one final foray, stinkweed. I am going to take my yard back!!!
Today, I finally got to my front yard. Ironically, when Trevor was cutting our grass earlier, our neighbour across the street complimented us on how cheerful and nice our yard was. (Thank the yellow tulips and the fact that Creeping Charlie can't be seen from across the street.) Thanks... I guess.
