Digging

I have spent the last two days outside in the yard and the three days before that taking care of an extra kiddo.  All this to say my house is a PIT!  :)  Matt left this evening on the Men’s Retreat until Sunday, so it’s just us girls (and James of course!).  I have a feeling we’ll end up outside a little tomorrow, but I’m going to try to stay in some and do some homemakery things.  We have family birthdays to celebrate on Sunday, and it would be nice to not think about the house and just enjoy ourselves!

This past week was our third with Mr. Ray, and we’re getting on very well, I think!  We had him for three days in a row this week, and I could really feel everybody getting into the groove.  It’s funny, but the days that I have all four are actually smoother than the days when I just have the boys.  Ray LOVES the girls, but finds James awfully boring and kind of intrusive.  :)  I’m really looking forward to getting more and more into the groove with him.

Thursday was a treat for me as Ray was at home with his momma, and my girls were at school.  It was just James and me!  My mom was off as well, and we went to Sams with her new membership.  Mostly I took notes :) but I grabbed a few things, and James got a good Moby nap in.

That afternoon, Natalie’s wonderful teacher stopped by to drop of something we’d left at school (dirty diapers!).  Wasn’t that so sweet of her?!  Anyway, it was really nice outside, so we were spending some time in the front yard.

It wasn’t particularly sunny, but since James doesn’t get a lot of choice on what he looks at, I set up a colorful umbrella for him.

This child is always looking over her shoulder.  I’m a little worried she’s going to have to smack into something in order to cure her of that little habit!

So precious!!

It was a little breezy, but Natalie looks like she’s in a gale or something!

She’s so cute.

Then something came over me, and I began to garden like a fool for the next day and a half.

I didn’t take any “before” pictures mainly because they were THAT BAD, but also because I didn’t think about it before I started.

But I did find a few sort of before shots in the background of some recent pictures.  If you look at the top of this picture, you’ll see a very empty bed under our bedroom window, and the very top right shows the massive overgrowth of my killer rose vines.

The empty bed wasn’t actually empty, but it was very full of dead leaves, as you can see below!  (And underneath?  Lots of roots and plants I’m trying very hard to kill.)

My neatly pruned roses, complete with a fresh layer of pine bark mulch.

Another rose plant, and turning the corner are the new azaleas.  My mom was SO NICE to go to Lowe’s for me and pick up the plants, mulch and some pruning shears on Friday morning.  That would have been less than enjoyable with my three children, ya know?

I invited the girls out to take the “after” shots with me, but they thought we were out there to take pictures of them!

I managed to shoot around their gorgeous beauty.  :)

There are eleven little plants, and I really really hope I can keep them alive!  If I can manage not to kill them, they should be gorgeous next year!

This gardenia bush has been hanging on since we moved in (and for who knows how long before that), but I haven’t taken very good care of it.  Today I pruned it up a bit, turned the soil, and added some mulch.  We’ll see if it turns around this spring.  It’s looking sad.

And this rose plant (I call it my “Joanna Rose”) has never done well.  My grandma gave it to Joanna on her first birthday, so it really should be doing better after three years. (What?  THREE years?!)  I pruned it back, cleared out the leaves and junk, and added some mulch.  I’m vowing to keep it pruned and the area weeded.  We’ll see if it will get going this year or next.  It’s not in a super sunny spot, but I think roses are pretty resilient.  It may not thrive, but maybe it will do more than survive!

And lastly, a picture of some garbage.  :)  Look closely and you’ll see a banana peel and some coffee grounds, the first offerings for the compost!

I said lastly, but I didn’t mean it – the girls are so cute outside with the dirt and the leaves and the plants.
When I was digging my little compost hole, I pulled out an old, dead hibiscus (I think?) root clumpy thing.  Joanna “rescued” it from the discard pile and took it over to the slide structure to her “garden” underneath.  She added bits of dirt and debris to it all day.  It’s the kind of sweet that makes me want to cry, you know?

I think she’s going to be very helpful in reminding me to water the plants, not mention turning on the water and maybe even using the watering can.  I’m hoping I will keep up this desire to make my yard look presentable.  And I’m so excited about the possibility of the composting.  Wouldn’t it be cool to have some really rich soil, all while NOT throwing away garbage?!