When we were looking for houses 12 years ago one of the things on our must have list was a big yard and lots of privacy. When the Realtor and I drove into this house’s driveway I was 98% sure that this was the one. A quick check that the house itself was in good shape and a peak at the huge tree filled back yard and I was 100% sure.

We’ve done a shit-ton of work on it over the last decade (I swear we JUST moved in!) but there is always more to do. The yard is a never ending slog of work. What the hell were we thinking? Our old house was on a good sized in-town corner lot. I gardened obsessively for the 5 years we lived there and wanted more when we moved. I got more than I ever bargained for here.

This front garden has been a thorn in my side almost from the first year. When we moved in there was a row of thorny trees and a few shrubs and some weedy ground cover. Then we remodeled and moved the garage and thus had to move the driveway a little. We had all the crap trees removed and planted better shrubs. Then a few years later our well burped and died and we had to have a new one drilled. This resulted in a huge mess and a lot of dead stuff in its wake.

The former owners had left a huge pile of landscaping bricks and I used the opportunity to put in a brick patio area where there had been lawn before. I did it all myself and even though it isn’t perfect I’m pretty proud of the results. I then planted perennials around the new well and we added a new maple tree.

It was all well and good except that the pumping of the new well brought up a bunch of new weeds and a ton of hard clay soil. I’ve been fighting those damn weeds ever since.

Last summer was a bad year for my yard and garden. With the store and all I just didn’t have the time, energy, or give a shitedness to keep up with the work involved. I just let it grow and go to seed.

This spring I did try to get a handle on it but gave up when the weather got hot. I managed to dig and move about half the hostas that had gotten out of control. We had a row of evergreens planted on both sides of the driveway and the woods cleared around them. I moved hostas to around the new trees on the north side.

A couple years ago I noticed a new oak tree growing in the middle of the bed and left it to mature. It is now a nice sized tree and I want to move all the thick hostas and other plants from around its base.

Today the weather was just perfectly fall like and I had Steve around to clean up after me so I went to town on the mess. I pulled and cut vines, weed trees and Jurassic era thistles until I couldn’t stand up anymore. I got about 2/3 done. I’m hoping I can get my old decrepit body out of bed tomorrow and finish it up.

Every cell in my body hurts right now. I’m not sure I’m going to be able to move for a month. Good thing I have the Snuggie to keep me comfy in my recliner while I watch my favorite episode of Supernatural from last season. (The Monster at the End of the Book)

I’m just trying to avoid house cleaning this morning. We are having one of our typical summer parties this evening so I really need to get to work but blogging, facebooking and general time wasting is so much more fun.

Steve had the news on this morning. It is actually still on in the living room and he is at Jewel buying food for tonight. I hadn’t been in there for at least 30 minutes when he left. Why did he leave it on? Anyway, I digress…While watching the news channel buffet that he subjects me to on weekend mornings there was this feature story. I’m sorry blame it on my rural roots but that is just plain awesome, I don’t care who you are. It also figures that a guy named Bob came up with this idea. It is a proven fact, guys named Bob are just full of awesome sauce. (My dad is named Bob, enough said. And this rule does not prove true for guys named Rob, Robb, Robby, Robert or Roberto.)

On facebook a new “friend” (I’ve never met her and have only read her blog and know she lives in the same town as me) posted a link to the NYT article where her blog, Mommy Wants Vodka (see now why I consider her a “friend”?) is mentioned. Once again I am on the cutting edge of the current zietgiest and not only does no one notice or care but someone else is out there doing it better than me. FML.

Well I guess I can’t avoid it any longer. I have to go vacuum up 358# of animal hair and wash all the floors. I’m feeling so sassy this morning that I think the toilets will get an extra swish of the ol’ toilet brush!

Yesterday I took Sarah to her babysitting job in Geneva and she was a little early. (She works for a local agency that holds a single-mothers support group at a church once a week. I figure seeing what young single mothers deal with on a weekly basis is about the best teen pregnancy prevention out there.) We walked around town and got some Starbucks to kill some time. We were sitting on a bench and I was absently watching a young mother with her adorable toddler walk down the other side of the street. The mom was pointing out things and the little girl was stopping and watching bugs and stuff like kids of that age tend to do. I looked away to say something to Sarah when suddenly my attention was drawn back to them as they reached the intersection. The little girl just dashed out into the cross-walk right in front of a minivan. I did that reflexive Mommy Gasp as the mother quickly grabbed her charge and whisked her to safety. Luckily it was a corner that even though it isn’t a 4-way stop most people approaching it from the non-stop direction at least slow down and the van stopped in plenty of time to avoid a tragedy.

That is just one small reason why I’m glad my girls aren’t that age anymore. If you hadn’t already figured it out, I am the mother of teens. Sarah will be 16 in early October so I am right in the meaty thick of teen-dom. Emma is 12 and is right on the cusp of the technically teen years but anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes with a 12 year old girl will know that it is all just a number. And guess what? It really isn’t all that bad. When babies are born and all through those wee years we mothers are constantly admonished to “enjoy it while it lasts” and “they grow up so fast” and “before you know it she will be a teenager *shudder*” etc. etc. While all that is true I must confess that many times I said to myself that I wish they would hurry up already and just grow up!

If I could slow the clock down now I would. I love these years. I enjoy being around teens (even other people’s teens! I know, right?) When the girls were younger I have to say I didn’t really like being around other people’s kids. I always did my duty volunteering in the church nursery and hosting play groups but I never enjoyed it. I don’t miss having a baby around. My now absent uterus never puckered when I saw a new baby. The end of my child-bearing years didn’t send me into a depressive tail-spin. (Lord knows I had enough other crap doing that for me!) But now I don’t mind being the house that hosts the pool parties, after-show cast parties, Girl Scout campouts and being the general hang out place. Teens are funny and very entertaining. Maybe because I can’t really remember much about being 5 but I certainly remember a lot about being 15 that I can just relate and understand them so much more. A few of the now teens that are hanging around I’ve know since they were in elementary school and it is really interesting to see who they are becoming. The boy who was obsessed with pandas has grown into a very polite young man with a smart sense of humor. The girl with the uncontrollable giggles and constant chatterbox has grown into a bit of an emo/goth girl with a heart of gold. The only ones that annoy me are the rude ones (luckily not many of those because my kids hate rude people as much as I do) and the ones that can’t communicate. I understand being shy, especially around someone’s parents for the first time, but if you’ve known me for 5 years and I speak to you and ask you polite questions at least try to answer me in complete sentences. But for the most part my kids’ friends are smart, funny, outgoing and friendly people that I enjoy having around. (Talk to me again in a year or two when they start dating, my opinion may change.)

Maybe it is just because I am inherently lazy but I’ve relished every step toward independence my children have taken. They now are expected to be able to feed themselves if necessary, do their own laundry, and put themselves to bed at a reasonable time. If they don’t they will be hungry, dirty and tired and it won’t be my damn fault and I don’t want to hear them bitch. (I confess I have failed with the housekeeping part of their upbringing and I apologize right here publicly to all their future college roommates, hotel maids and possible live in lovers.)

Sarah has her driver’s permit and will get her license in late October or early November. Am I worried? Am I nervous? Yes, I’m crazy but not insane. I know she is a good driver as far as young first time drivers go. She’s always been very mature and responsible. But she is inexperienced. Plus there is the added factor of the other stupid drivers on the road with her. I don’t know how many times around here that I’ve almost bit it because of other idiots doing stupid things. And either by the grace of God or my own fast reactions, I’ve avoided tragedy. All I can do is hope that she will have the same luck when she takes to the road alone.

I just look at it all like this. I was given a job by the universe when I was blessed with the job of being a Mother to these two precious girls. I put everything I had into it for over 16 years now. I started when I decided to try to get pregnant in the first place. I had very severe endometriosis and getting pregnant wasn’t a walk in the park for me. (It wasn’t even a simple roll in the hay but I won’t go there.) It took us about 3 years to get pregnant both times. I breastfed, read all the right books, bought organic cotton clothes when they were hard to find, used cloth diapers, read to them all the classics and then some, homeschooled Sarah until 2nd grade, balanced lessons and structured activities with down time so they could just be kids. I even limited tv time in the early years so much so that to this day neither of them are all that into wasting time watching tv. (Just try taking away their laptops though…) I had a job to do and I’m almost done with it. My ultimate responsibility was to grow responsible young adults that can function without me. They can think for themselves and take responsibility for their actions and the consequences. I’ve also cultivated a relationship with them so that over the years we have maintained mutual respect. That is why I don’t worry about them growing up and leaving me. That is what they are supposed to do.

Hopefully I won’t have to eat my words someday when one of them moves back in with me with her 3 year old twins and meth-addicted boyfriend while the other moves to the other side of the world and won’t come home for holidays because she feels that I didn’t love her enough and always preferred the dogs over her. But a mother does the best she can and hopes for the best.