sometimes I’m just uneven, despite being so Type A

We've been hoping to get Jules a new swingset. You know one of those fancy wooden climbing tower swingsets, with the clubhouse kinda things on top and maybe with a rock wall or ladder, and a picnic table or sandbox sorta thing underneath. We've researched and researched and found that these things range from $299 to $43,999 (and no, I'm not kidding about that last number). We really don't have the money for this right now, but we do have a toddler with a lot of extra energy and the days are getting warmer so needless to say I'm trying to be the *good* wife and not put too much pressure on.

Anyway, my husband the engineer has been contemplating just building our own to try to save some money. He's come home from work a few days with a variety of AutoCAD drawings of swingsets similar to the ones you'd see in this week's Lowe's or Toys 'R Us ads. He did this with our deck too. I can't tell you how many plans I saw for that deck.

Now what was I saying? Oh yeah. The swingset. Right. Well, we've been cleaning our backyard up in general in anticipation for a place to put such play equipment and for sunny spring days to come. We've gotten some hand-me-down deck furniture from my parents (which was a hand-me-down from my great aunt) and spruced it up with new cushions. We've been raking leaves and digging dirt to make the yard more level. We've dug a shallow ditch all around the deck to plant flowers. I'd like to stop right there and point out the proff. There's DIRT. Beneath my fingernails. GAH!



OK sorry. It's just that I hate dirt. I hate it underneath my nails. It's weird because lots of people like it. My mom included. I would rather have wallpaper glue (another story for another day) under my fingernails any day than dig in the dirt with my hands. But the sad thing is that I can appeciate beautiful landscaping; I just don't like to create it. I long for pretty shrubs and bushes in my yard; I just don't want to have to get my hands dirty while putting them there. I don't mind the work, just can't stand the dirt. Last year I planted six rose bushes with the help of my mom, dad, and husband. I planted tulip and hyacinth bulbs in the fall and they were right pretty blooming last weekend. See:



So yesterday it finally stopped raining long enough for us to finish the ditch around the deck, dig the holes, and plant the flowers. We put down that weed control fabricy stuff and planted the first round of plants. Today will be spent putting out mulch (if it doesn't rain AGAIN).

As I was setting out the plants to gauge the spacing of the holes we needed to dig, Jonathan was inside feeding the little girl some dinner. We started digging holes before he came back out. When he did finally make it back outside, we'd already dug about six or seven holes and it turns out they weren't completely even. He was irritated. He was like, "Whatever you think. Whatever you want is fine by me, Sugar." Then later it was, "Don't you want to line that one up with the middle?"

When he walked around the house a bit later I looked over at my mom and said, "If I'd given him three more minutes he would've had it drawn out in AutoCAD for us."

This afternoon I'm going to finish up around the deck (planting a few more flowers, spreading the mulch on top, and placing the stepping stones throughout). Then all that will be left to do is find a spot for the Creeping Jenny that I got from my friend (thanks Malika!), rake the rest of the leaves, and put mulch out where we think the swingset will go. Homemade swingset or not still to be determined.