So much to do, so little time. However, with a few days of really nice weather and a little help from Mom and Dad, we knocked out some yard work in the past couple of weeks. Stuff we’ve accomplished:

• power washed the siding and shutters on the front of the house
• raked the front lawn (lots of dead grass and pine needles)
• tilled the front flower bed where the old tree and hedge used to be
• dug up weeds and grass in the bed alongside the driveway in preparation for grass seed
• transplanted some hostas and sedum
• assembled and filled two raised beds, planted vegetables and strawberries
• dug up all the diseased rose bushes
• mowed the lawn
• cut down some overgrown shrubbery

Whew! What to do next?

• rent a core aerator for the front lawn
• over seed the front lawn
• redraw the borders of the front flower bed and sow grass seed where necessary
• buy and plant boxwoods along the porch
• plant some annuals
• mulch everywhere
• sow some more spinach
• prepare soil for summer garden crops like tomatoes

Today, though, I’m not going to do anything in the garden but watch my little plants grow. See the little radishes peeping through?

I’m finally making good progress refinishing Miss Seven’s dresser, and I’d like to get it finished in time for her First Communion in nine days. It’s obviously not essential to the celebration–she just needs the extra storage for her clothes so that her room doesn’t look like someone tossed the contents of a laundry basket in the air and let them fall where they may. I’d also like to get the dresser out of the garage so we can park the other car there again. I need a convenient deadline, so First Communion it is.

Why yes, I am staining this dresser purple. (Sangria, actually.)