Mother's Day Yardwork

I felt this overwhelming urge to tell you how I spent Mother's Day. (*everyone clicks away to something else*)

Joke's on you! I'm gonna keep writing anyway!

I always have this anxiety about my birthday and Mother's Day. Jeremy says "It's your day! Choose whatever you want to do!" but it's TOO MUCH PRESSURE. I want to do all of the following things simultaneously: 
1) NOTHING. That includes zero parenting. But I want to be around everyone. I want to watch them be parented in a relaxing setting. 
2) BIG! AMAZING! FUN! things with Jeremy and the girls that will take all day and likely be exhausting. 
3) Maybe have some alone time. Sue me. 
4) Have a leisurely day with Jeremy and the girls. Nothing big, just walks and playing and snuggling. 
5) Something productive that I have not been able to do with two monkeys attached to me.

Spoiler alert: You cannot do all these things simultaneously. So, I freak out and never plan anything. 

This year, I slept in, had breakfast and snuggles in bed, did two hours of back-breaking yardwork, went out to lunch, sat in the sun and talked to my mom on the phone, did two more hours of back-breaking yard work, ate a Jeremy-made dinner, snuggled with the girls, then got a backrub and a gin and tonic. Sure, I felt like I had been beat up at the end of the day, and I did have to run out and get a quick tetanus shot during naptime (HA HA HA OMG, kill me. My arm still hurts pretty badly.), but DANG it was a good day. And now I need to show you what my backyard looked like less than two years ago when we moved in and what it looks like now.

Sure, the before picture is pretty bad because I was pissed about closing issues and basically took it over my shoulder as I was walking back into the house on the day we got the keys, and the after picture shows almost nothing in bloom (there were supposed to be about one hundred more tulips and daffodils [no, really, I planted 150], but the squirrels and rabbits had a bad winter, so I can't be too mad.) and the trees looks much nicer with leaves, but LOOKIT:

When we moved in, I discovered that those flower beds were 80% Deadly Nightshade, 15% weird thorny vines, and 5% random crap. Well, shit, am I right?

I spent the first summer slowly digging stuff out and pruning things back, one weekend at a time, and then finally began salvaging non-poisonous and non-spiky plants, moving them to where they could better thrive, and filling the flower beds with plants I purchased and my mother and mother-in-law gave me. My mom helped me SO MUCH, taught me tons, and gave me a lot of what is there today. 

Yesterday I took out the last three huge, dead things things I needed to get out and dug out all the crazy roots, then I added a bajillion plants and bulbs.

In total, I have added:
-Lilac bushes
-Tiger Lilies
-Crocuses
-Tulips
-Daffodils
-Peonies
-Sedum
-Mums
-Hostas
-Trillium (found behind the garage)
-Hyacinths
-Zinnias
-Sweet William (salvaged from another bed)
-Sweet Peas
-English Daisies
-Gladiola
-Narcissum
-Irises
-Allium
-Fiddlehead ferns
-Rhododendron
-Bumble Bee Primrose
-Hibiscus

And that's just the back yard, not the front or side yards. I simply cannot wait to take a picture when everything is in bloom.

Oh, and on top of the satisfaction of getting all my major projects done in the front and back yards, I got to spend my day with my awesome husband and these two sweeties:

I hope you all had an awesome weekend, and I hope you think my backyard is amazing. ;)