For Mother's Day I Turned Into My Mother

Since Sunday was Mother's Day, Dave let me continue the "weekend of doing whatever I wanted to do." One of the things which I didn't want to do was wake up on Sunday to no power, but sadly, I didn't have much of a choice on that one. So we got dressed and headed off to Tim Horton's for breakfast.

 

And then after church, grocery shopping, and a quick pizza lunch, it was time to head outside and attack our yard. Happily (or sadly, depending on who you are), it really needed some work. First of all though, there was some laundry to hang, which as you well know, helped to make it an even better day for me :)

This sad little flower bed really needed some weeding, some pruning, and some flowers to brighten it up. While I did that, Dave set up our rain barrel. Whoo hoo!!!

 

Sad little flower bed before.

 

 

Happy little flower bed after. You can't really see the plants I planted, but in a couple of weeks this will look amazing. And yes, there will be yard tours this summer :)

garage bed before

This was the next spot to be attacked cared for. About halfway through dealing with this bed, I had to take a Coke break! It was amazingly gorgeous and sunny out with temperatures in the low 20s, in Celsius that is (low 70s F)! While the kids and I worked on this flower bed, Dave climbed on the roof to fix some drainpipes.

These are the only pictures I got with the kids this Mother's Day but they actually define us pretty well. A couple of weeks ago, Kelly of Kelly's Korner wrote a blog post on how she imagined things would go with kids versus the reality of how things actually do go with kids. And I have to say, gardening is one of those things that is just a lot more complicated with kids so I was kind of happy when Dave got off the roof and was able to entertain Rachel. Sam was a great hole digger though! After a bit of work, this bed ended up looking like this:

Again, it will be a lot more impressive once those flowers start to bloom. I also planted some English Daisies in this bed. They are perennials (meaning they come back every year) and the look of them just captivated me.

Then it was time for the front. I have had grand plans for the front but we just didn't have enough time to do everything I wanted to. Plus we didn't have enough plants so we'll have to go buy some more. Can you feel my sadness over this!?!?!

The front of our house before

While Dave and I were working on the bed in front of the porch, the kids wanted to walk to our friend's house, three doors down. I felt like it was a huge step to let them take that walk alone, although as Dave commented, "It's not like we're sending them to downtown Toronto on their own."

Dave nominated himself as my official hole digger for this one and since we put about fifty plants in there I was happy for the help. This bed doesn't get a lot of sun during the day since it's north facing so we put some shade loving plants in here.

I was so happy to be outside working in our yard for most of the afternoon. I loved that Sam and Rachel showed some interest in wanting to help. I remembered all the hours my mom spent working in our yard when I was little and I realized, that this Mother's Day I turned into my mom. She even hangs out her laundry in the summer. You know I must have learned it from somewhere :) Since my mom is pretty amazing, I hope I will continue to be just like her!