James 1:27: My To Do List

So my To Do List:

Trim Bushes:

rhodadendum

lilac

butterfly bush

iris (cut back dead flowers)

peonies (cut back dead flowers)

Take 4 inches off the top of the 4 enormous bushes surrounding our house. That will inevitably look like a birthday cake because I can't reach the middle, so my brother has to help me with that. Who am I kidding, I can't even reach the top of one of them!!

Pull off new growth under Rose of Sharon (to make it more like a tree than a bush)

The Maple tree in the front yard because it hangs down too low. I already tried this, and it's going to be cut again because I just can't reach high enough. Yeah, yeah, I could get a ladder. Whatever, have you seen my list?

Whatever bush is done blossoming gets hacked.

Plant Flowers

24 petunias

2 Fuschias

2 Verbenas

6 Dusty Millers

Replant 5 double impatients (moving them to a different location)

6 Cucumbers

Replant entire bed of Hens and Chickens. Those things are like a knotted mess. I have to dig them all out and then replant them every 8 inches and throw the rest away (I'm selling them at the Tag Sale).

Miscellaneous

Pound stakes into the railroad ties

Clean out under the falling deck

Help Beep build something that will keep the deck from falling...still not sure what that is. My Dad and him just started talking shop and went way over my head with calculations and joyces (isn't that a chic's name?) and concrete and cement (which one is the mixture and which one is the dry bag?) and guns that shoot nails into concrete (didn't know such a thing existed).

Clean out gutters (ALWAYS my job. I used to have to climb the roof and hang over the side, face down to do that. Thank the Lord for vertigo as an excuse to avoid that!).

Oh yeah, the little thing called a TAG SALE - the whole reason (not the WHOLE reason, but the guise under which I am here).

Water the flowers EVERY day (yes, I forgot today).

Locate buried valve for watering system (Todd and I buried it under mulch thinking, who needs that?)

Add mulch where needed

Anyway, I'll be adding to my list, but it's good to have one because I don't want to have to ask every time I'm done with something. Now you know how Dad feels when he comes to my house or my sister's house. We used to have lists a mile long for him to do! He always accomplished them, so that's my goal too. Ticking off as many things - if not all the things I can. So here are some pictures of me trying to accomplish my tasks. As I was trying to hit the rod with the sledge hammer my Dad yelled out the window, "C'mon, HIT it!" I told him to shut up. :)

Lew is giving me the "Stupid American" look here because I was under the delapadated deck that is hanging on by a thread. I was cleaning out the old wood that we kept under there to keep dry for the fire place in case of an emergency. I have NEVER in my life seen so many different kinds of spiders. I've also NEVER in my life stayed that close to them. I've also NEVER in my life had so many crawling and falling on me. It was literally Hell. I told my mom to take pictures and show them to my Dad and say to him, "This is Erica proving her love for you by being under there with the spiders. I should have had my shirt my friend, Ellen gave me that says, "The only thing to fear is fear itself (and spiders)." So true! I kept screaming and then saying, "It's nothing, just a spider," because I didn't want to scare anyone. Meanwhile I was scared out of my WITS!!!! It was awful. My Dad just laughed!

You ask if Lew spends most of his time in a high chair...yeah, he does. This kid is going to weigh twice as much when we get back. He ate more than me at lunch today!! My Dad and Beep used to be in business together. It was a concrete business called Miller Brothers (Beep's brother was also in it). When it disbanded, my Dad has his business called, "Wendell's Concrete Service." I found some old hats the other day and we were wearing them when we had to mix concrete today using the cement in the bags and the water (learned something new - which is concrete and which is cement). This is the Littlest Worker for Wendell's Concrete Service:

Setting up the Concrete to go under the porch - see how it's falling?? It's not the angle of the camera, the porch is really tipped down towards the house.