all in a day's work...

before...the sandbox aka 'mud pit', on the west side of our house


our version of 'tilling' the soil... :)


twisting the dirt around!



after!!!






I'm a project-in-a-day kind of girl. If it's going to take longer than that, forget it... patience is not my virtue. Which is the reason I've been putting off starting something that I knew would be really fantastic if I could just actually *ahem* start it. A garden. Ahhh, sounds so...virtuous. And it took my dear sister-in-law to kind of hit me over the head and tell me it's really not that big of a deal. Of course, I had it all built up in my head...the construction, the water adaptor issues, the fencing, the constant upkeep and pruning...and going out of town?? forget it!! I'd have a garden to take care of for pete's sake!! haha...how silly. "Yes," she said, (ok, I'm paraphrasing) "there's some maintenance, yes there are a few things to do to get started, but it's not that hard so just do it and I'll help!!". Thanks, Jenn!! So with my confidence in full swing, I decided on Friday that this week was vacation and we were going to make the most of it. Time to get down and dirty.

So, after 2 trips to Lowe's, some frustrating but manageable sprinkler issues, a lot of digging, and too much mud being tracked in and out of my house all day, I am proud to say that we are the proud owners of our very own garden!! And it was a blast. The boys were ecstatic about playing in the dirt all day. Both so eager to help it was at times a little annoying :) And Shelbi was surprisingly easy because she had the whole backyard to entertain her! Besides the pooping her pants at Lowe's, the whole day was a rather wonderful experience. So far all we have planted are the three climbers along the back fence...raspberries, blueberries, and grapes (yum!!), but by the end of the week our garden should be full. Right now I have potato, green bean, watermelon, and carrot seeds... but will be getting a variety of starters with Mel on Wednesday. I can't wait!! When we were at Lowe's Christian told me, "Mom, I have a funny feeling about our garden..." Me: "you do??". Him: "Yeah...I think it's excitement!". So funny. That kid was the biggest help, too. He can work like it's nobody's business. And it must be done right, or not at all (he does NOT get that from me!). And Dyl was great...just out to have a good time. But once it gets a little boring, he's off to the next adventure. of course, he immediately bonded with our little seedlings, worrying about the poor 'babies' when the sprinklers busted on and flooded a portion of our hard work. But they were fine. Shelbi surprised me too, because she actually wasn't insistent on being right in the action. In fact, it took her awhile to really get in with us, so she played in the yard with her toys, and came over for visits; so much easier to get our work accomplished that way!! Lord knows she could have done a lot of damage had she been in the middle of things :) Anyway, I'm super duper excited about our little homestead. Christian even thought we should name it and put a sign up... however, my goal, at this point, is to just actually keep it alive!!