Planning Ahead. . .

I moved to this lovely state one year ago. We pulled up the last day of September and the truck arrived on October first. When I try to remember just how our yard looked I have merely a vague memory. I remember thinking how lovely it was. It was, after all, October and there were trees and green shrubs still, and roses blooming in the side yard--which was a heck of a lot more than I could say for the plot of ground I had left behind.

My biggest anticipation was to see what popped up come spring. Would there be daffodils? Tulips? Maybe some hyacinths, or other lovely plants indigenous to this prolific state that I had yet to learn the names of?

Nope. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

I think I owned the only house in the area without something blooming--and weeds don't count. Although, all the fields nearby were blooming in carefree abandon with wildflowers. But not my yard.

So last week I went out and bought all of these:

And I planted them in bunches about my yard. So in addition to all the work we have put into our yard this summer, I WILL have spring flowers come May. . .maybe sooner. I can't wait.

The Saga of the Front Porch Rocker. . .

About five years ago I decided I needed rocking chairs on my front porch. It just makes the house feel homey, and gives you somewhere to sit.

It's the All American Dream. . .isn't it? The house, the front porch, the rocker. . .watching the world go by--or at least the neighbor's cat.

So anyway. I had my eye on these simple white rockers at Walmart because they were cheap (all others I had found where $150 or more) and they were cute. Every year I would say to my husband, "We should buy those rockers. They would be really cute on our porch."

He would put me off somehow, convinced that they might actually be tacky. Every year I would suggest we buy them and we'd go through it again. Or we'd say,"They won't fit in the car with all the kids, so we'll get them without the kids." Only we never did.

So this year the rockers show up a little fancier and cost more. And I still want them. So we watch and watch for them to go on sale. And I often remind Rob, "If we would have bought them last year we would have paid less." Summer ends. They never go on sale. They are almost out of them. We break down and buy them. We get home and discover they are missing essential hardware to put them together.

And our daughter looks at them and says, "Why did you get white? If you got black they would have matched the shutters."

Brilliant.

Why didn't I think of that? Then Rob sees they have nicer, simpler, better built rockers--in black--at Lowes. So we return the whites ones and after two trips to two Lowes we have two black rockers. AND, I love them.

A Little Yard Improvement. . .

I have lofty goals for my yard. But first I have the gargantuan task of reclaiming control of my yard. This included taking out a couple trees and bushes and some major weeding. Here are a couple successful areas so far.

My front yard:

From blocked by tree. . .

To Roots Spawned by Satan. . .

To lovely seeded grass (we hope)--after hours of torture.

My back corner was almost painless.

It went from this:

To this, with only weeding, rock picking and stepping stone placing. I just should have taken it's picture before leaves started falling on it!

Two down. . .oh so much more to do.

Tree House Update

We have slowly been working on the tree house all summer in between vacations and yard work and general pandemonium. We are nearing completion. Which is good now that school is starting tomorrow. At least it has a roof, so they can still play in the rain! Here is the most recent pic of our progress. . .