Early Father's Day

As you probably know, Father's Day is coming up. Neither Tommy or my "love language" is gifts, so we don't usually make a huge deal out of these "Hallmark holidays." Technically, we have already gotten Tommy a Father's Day present. We needed a new grill (using the term, need, loosely), so Tommy picked one out and bought it. He does all of the grilling, so basically, his present was something that made him do work. :)

Tommy is the best partner I could have asked for in helping me raise the kids, so he deserves appreciation. Tommy has been on a business trip this week, so I decided to hide some of the septic tank covers for him by creating a flower bed. I know this is a random present, but those covers have been annoying Tommy since we moved here 9 years ago. Up until very recently, I have been a very lazy gardener, so a new flowerbed sounded like more work to me. Plus, I don't really notice stuff like that--I'm a pretty oblivious person.

Here are the results of my labor of love:

Before:

After:

My landscaping/gardening philosophy has been to wing it with the help of google and friendly people at Lowes and the Farmer's Market. Tommy will like the name of the climbing plants I bought for the arbor--Confederate Jasmine. I can't wait until they cover the whole thing. Eventually, I'd like to cover up that 3rd monstrosity, but it just wasn't in the budget for now.

The girls were very good for me while I spent three days on this project. Here's a picture of them in the sandbox while I worked.I have not read the above love language book, but I think my love language is words of praise, so hopefully Tommy will respond appropriately. ;)