Mother-in-Law Visit + Yardwork/Housework = Wonderful House

This past weekend was a good one. I was worried in my own way about Kathy, my mother-in-law, coming for a visit because I knew a lot of things needed to be done around the house in order for me to feel good about letting her in the door. Also, she has a lot of energy. She is constantly moving and doing things. I was trying to think of when I've really seen her relax and be lazy - I'd say NEVER :-) So very unlike me.

This weekend's visit was so that she could come up to our house and help with getting the front of the house's landscaping in order (done - almost complete). Me, not being the great work in the yard type of person, was a bit apprehensive about her visit and said to my husband that I would probably stick in house and do housework most of the time while he helped his mother. And, this is basically what happened.

Kathy arrived on Saturday morning around 11:00 a.m., her Highlander stuffed with pine nuggets, little bushes (not a fir, pine or evergreen to be seen - she had really listened to my disdain of such trees - hooray!), azalea plants, some pansies and garden tools. She was ready to go to work immediately. She edged and lined out three beds, planed the shrubs, azaleas, pansies (woo hoo - I actually helped plant a few of the pansies - mind you there were only about 8 of them - whew :-)) and artfully arranged the pine nuggets around all of the beds. This was all accomplished by about 6:00 p.m. Kathy and Jason did take a break around 2:30 where I provided them with hamburgers and hot dogs which I grilled and some french fries. Before heading to dinner we made a stop at the Home Depot for some more nuggets. By the time we arrived back home we were all ready for bed. Though we did watch a tv show before crashing. Kathy's mind going the whole time actually making lists of things that still needed to be done and what needed to be picked up on Sunday. I'm sure they were more tired then I, but I had done a bit of house work that day as well.

Up on Sunday by 9:30 (I know late for some people, but early for others (me)). I made us breakfast and then it was out in to the yard again for Jason and Kathy to spread more nuggets. Another quick trip to Home Depot and we were done at least for this weekend. We had a wonderful dinner with his mother and Aunt Maryanne to top things off.

The house is coming along. The front is looking nice. We still have a bit of work to do on the back - I'm thinking we can just deck a major portion of it - no? We have to be ready for our housewarming. Now, I just have to hope that I can keep the plants alive. I know it's weird to have all this worrying, but I'm not really good with this type of stuff. Though I was excited to help plant the pansies until I saw all the worms in the ground - yuk. I'm hoping that my veggie growing will be a success once I get the planters. We will see, we will see.

Tons of thanks to Kathy and can't wait for you to come back for a visit - perhaps we can teach you to just laze around :-)