ehhh.

My old bones are a-creakin!
Today I decided to bite the bullet and attack the giant shrubs that were gradually taking over the front of our house. It was a beautiful day and I figured/hoped I could count on BabyCakes for a nice long nap, so I just went after them. This project has been hanging over my head for a WHILE. Every time I drove up to our house I felt like they were saying "Welcome home, oh mighty non-doer of things that need to be done! Per your request, we have continued to make your house look unkempt while you were away!" Part of the reason I had put it off so long was that because of the slope of our yard, some of the bushes were really tall and hard to trim/take-down-over-a-foot. That's just an excuse, though.
Anyway... I got started and almost immediately BigBoy's morning Star Wars playmate arrived home from an early dismissal day of school. YES. I had the front door open because the day was so nice (plus so I could hopefully hear BabyCakes if the baby monitor failed) and he just walked right on up to the the front porch calling for BigBoy. He was sooo helpful by just playing with him. He also helped me by taking the freshly trimmed branches to the curb for pick-up.
The whole thing took well over 2 hours. Ugh, I hate that it had gotten so bad but now it is better so I'm not going to beat myself up over it any more. There's still a lot to do this Spring but at least I got one thing checked off my to-do list. Next -- refinish teak table and chairs, stain porch floor and back deck with stairs, paint white exterior trim, spray-wash the house and driveway, take out the screens for washing, wash windows, replace mini-blinds with the white faux wood kind, and so on.

Ah home-ownership. It can be such a pain. At least I HAVE a home. A nice one, at that.
In a nice neighborhood around nice people.
In a nice town with nice schools.
In a nice state in a nice part of the absolute best country I could live in...
Bring on the "chores."