One Tired Girly

I've never had to take care of a yard by myself and after getting my first taste of doing all of the yard work on my own today, I kid you not when I say if my husband ever decides to ditch me for a younger woman, my lawn will be the size of a place mat (...or I will totally marry a gardener)! The things that are supposed to be growing in our yard are doing fairly well, but the weeds...holy guacamole! They are on steroids! Since my husband is away on business, I decided to tackle all of the work we didn't get to over the weekend so he wouldn't have to worry about it when he got home. I had no idea what I was in for!

As I enthusiastically got out our gardening equipment i.e. push mower, rake, wheel barrow, heavy gloves, big ol' clippers, I figured I'd "deforest" all the weeds out front and mow both the front and the back. I began my quest at 2 pm and by 4:30 even my dirt was dirty, I was soaked to the skin with sweat, had downed over a gallon of water, and while the front yard was mowed, I only managed the massive weed hostile take over of one, that's right just ONE flower bed up front (there are five total). I decided to call it a day before I had a heat stroke and put the tools away. I was just about to park the mower when I got a wild burst of energy and began to work on the back yard. About five lines of cut grass in, the mower died and honest to God I did NOT have the energy to crank that thing again. Even the thought of pulling the cord made me want to cry! I used what was left of my energy to push the mower into the garage, then slumped down in a chair on the back deck, defeated.

I have no skin on either of my heels (...how did I not notice that happening WHILE it was happening?), a gash on the side of my hand from a wayward dead tree limb that caught me as I pulled it out of an overgrown bush, the clothes I was wearing should be burned, and every single muscle in my body is sore (thank you GOD for Aleve)! I was completely unprepared for just how much time it takes to do stuff with growing stuff and make it look marginally "tame"! Who knew all that was so much WORK?! Tomorrow I'll do better, be more cognizant of what I can realistically accomplish by myself and try NOT to be disappointed if I don't get "finished" (although I'm beginning to realize that in truth gardening is never finished...ever!). I'll also be wearing flip flops. Besides a really great feeling of accomplishment, one of the best things about today is I'm so tired I should have zero trouble going to sleep! May all of your dreams be sweet ones and in them may your yards be WEED free!