I have all of these ideas for projects that I want to do around the yard, but most of them involve lifting heavy rocks, or digging out large chunks of weeds with a shovel.  I've tried some of them, but then I start breathing heavily and get all tired and I think maybe I should take it a little easier.  It's very aggravating being pregnant.  It makes you feel like you can't do anything for yourself.  I find I usually need to stop and tell myself I should wait for Mike to get home so he can help out with the heavy stuff or something.  Those of you who are reading this blog know me well enough to know that is totally against my character.  I am a very independent person by nature, and nothing aggravates me quite so much as having to step aside and let someone else take care of something that I am usually fully capable of doing myself.  Well, I've reined myself in to a certain extent, especially when I can feel my heart rate going up too high since I know that can be harmful to the baby.  Oh how I long to be back to my normal self again.  I'll have to wait another year and a half or so for that since it doesn't seem to happen while I'm nursing a baby.  It's almost funny because I can remember when I was pregnant with Nathan I had no idea what to expect postpartum, so I had this ridiculous idea in my head that as soon as the baby was out everything with my body would be pretty much normal again.  Hahah.  I know better now.  I'm not sure why nobody told me otherwise...  Perhaps I didn't ask, I don't really remember, but it seems that my mom at least would have tipped me off to the fact having had six children herself and being no stranger to the long road of postpartum "recovery."  I guess everyone is different, too.  It seems to take me longer than some.  I think a good way to look at it is, it took your body 9 months to get to the way it is when you deliver so it will take your body at least 9 months, maybe more, to get itself back to "normal"...or at least the new definition of normal after pregnancy and childbirth.  Someone told me that, maybe mom, and it makes sense to me.  Unfortunately, I am not a very patient person when it comes to things like that. 

So, I started this new project in the yard.  I am going to take some rocks that used to be around the fire pit and line some of our "landscaping" features with them.  It's going to look very nice when I am done.  I don't think the people that owned this property before us had it landscaped too badly, but it had too much time unattended during a very rainy summer.  Everything became weedy and grown up.  They also used smaller rocks than I would have to line the landscaping that I am going to fix with big rocks.  Anyway, We have done a lot of work in the yard since we moved in, and it is really coming along nicely.  Some things are going to take a little longer to fix than others.  There are areas that need to be seeded with new grass, and the flowers I planted in the front flower bed will probably take a year or so to establish themselves before they actually bloom.  The one thing they did a horrible job on is the fire pit.  It was hideous, but we are fixing that slowly.  Unfortunately, Nikita picked that area as her favorite spot to make messes all winter, and they are too wet and squishy to pick up so I guess they will just have to serve as good fertilizer for the new grass seed we will plant.  

We had frost again last night.  I really wanted to get the garden in this weekend, but I am afraid we will have to wait at least another week.  I can't trust the weather report because they consistently say it will only get down to 38 or something overnight, and then it gets down to 30 instead.  Our zucchini and bean plants are getting so big, they are more than ready to be transplanted.  The tomatoes need some more time, and so do the lettuce and herbs.  I am very excited, I think we will have a good zucchini harvest, and the beans should do well too assuming they don't get eaten by pests.  I already have plans for making zucchini bread with fresh zucchini!  My herbs are going to be in planters along our deck railing so I can grab fresh herbs whenever I need them while I'm grilling!  It's going to be great!  We are going to spread manure this weekend in the garden so at least it will be ready when we finally can plant.  I have to put up a fence to keep Nikita and a certain little boy from playing in it, but that shouldn't be too hard.  We have a bunch of leftover scrap wood from disassembling a set of steps that were randomly in our back yard when we bought the place.  They used to be the steps for the back door, but the people who lived here put a deck in instead, and they just set the steps down in the back yard near the fence.  I don't know why they didn't just disassemble them and use the wood.  Anyway, the skinny pieces that used to be part of the railing system are great for my little fence stakes, and also for tomato stakes when we plant our tomatoes.  There is also some wire mesh stuff that I am going to use for the fence.  Wait, steaks or stakes?  Something told me it isn't supposed to be steaks...  that sounds too much like a nice slab of beef :)  

Nathan's birthday is coming up!  I can't believe he is going to be two years old!  We are going to use some of our scrap wood to build him a sandbox.  It may be a sand and dirt box, actually.  Then we will get him some toys to play with in it.  I think he will love that!  I have this idea of sandboxes being dirty, nasty places where kids pee and puke and stuff, but I think that is more in a public sandbox.  We will build a lid to keep Nikita out when it isn't being used, so she won't be able to mess it up.  I never had a sandbox growing up, but we had an area underneath the pine trees that had pine needles and dirt that served almost the same purpose.  We used to play with tonka toys and little toy pickups and shovels in there.  I remember building roads and making construction zones.  It was great fun!  Hahah that just reminded me of raking little roads in the newly fallen leaves and riding our bikes around pretending to be in cars.  Having kids is the best, you get to go back and remember all of these fun things to do and it's almost like being a kid again yourself.  Nathan managed to get his shoes wet and muddy yesterday, so we went out in our bare feet and it was great.  Until now it has been too cold for it, but I think it's ok now.  We did stay in the front yard, though, even though we have Nikita's messes cleaned up, I prefer not to be surprised!  That reminds me, there is a big pile of moose poop in the front that I have to clean up.  Anyway, the neighbor came over and we were talking, and then I was laughing to myself wondering what she must be thinking of these crazy people in their bare feet.  Wow, this blog is super long...I think it's time to stop!  I'm so happy the weekend is almost here!