Today I.....

Enjoyed this beautiful weather to the fullest extent. I *FINALLY* cleaned up the front part of the yard. Cleaned the side of the house, planted a few new plants, put some mulch down, cleaned out my flower beds to get ready for the new coming plants in the next couple of weeks. Swept like a crazy person every piece of dirt I could find. Threw stuff away and organized anything I could get my hands on. PHEW!! It feels so good. And best part, my front yard doesn't look like a crazy person lives here. Such a good feeling. The next big job I would like to do is get the front yard painted. Paint the trim work of the house including the brick foundation, all the wood around the windows, flower boxes, front door and shutters. Sick of the green. This house needs a new fresh look. I also want to figure out how to make the stairs to our home more inviting, put up a wooden fence on the side of the front portion of the house to cover the metal wire fence and lets not forget the planting. Might even add a few new window boxes this year. NICE!!

The *BIG* job is the backyard. That will be a huge weekend project that we are hoping to do in the next few weeks or so before the heat wave hits. After we cut down the trees back in October, we never really put them out for the trash to collect so they have just been sitting there in the backyard in piles. That will be our biggest job on top of raking, cleaning the porch, laying new grass seed, getting our waterfall/pond ready for the summer. And of course getting the whole backyard ready for new plants. The biggest job will be the playground area. I am going to be putting down mulch this year to cover the entire area. This is for two reasons, to add a little cushion for the kids while they are playing and too add some color to what usually is a dreary part of the backyard. With all the shade from our neighbors tree, there isn't much color in the back portion of our yard. We also will need to work on getting the fence up so our neighbors behind us can stop letting their dog come into our yard. It's driving me NUTS!!

It's after 8pm. I am totally wiped out. Between girl scouts, cleaning house and working on the yard, I am officially ready to hit the hay. Hoping for a good day tomorrow, might be able to get a few things done on the backyard.