Martha Monday--Mother's Day

Mother's Day is May 13, and I'm sure you've already lovingly made your dear mother a beautiful card, a darling scrapbook of your fondest memories and have a wide array of flowers (that you've grown from seed, obviously) ready to be picked on Sunday morning so they are at their absolutely freshest.

You did this, right?

You didn't?

HOW COULD YOU FORGET YOUR MOTHER LIKE THAT?!? AFTER ALL SHE'S DONE FOR YOU?

Just kidding.  As a mom, I'm a firm believer that while having a special day is nice, there's really no need to make a special fuss on Mother's Day.

I demand recognition of my hard work, sacrifice and dedication on a daily basis.  Just kidding! Sort of. Mostly. 95% kidding, okay?

Anyways, if you are in the mood to do something different from the usual card/flowers routine for your Mom this year, Martha has some great ideas. 

Is your Mom into movies and Hollywood glamour? This ticket stub sentiment would be perfect for her:

Better yet, have a family movie night in honor of Mom and be sure to let her pick the movie:

Is your Mom the crafty type? Give her a package with everything she needs to complete a craft.  Then, and this might be the most important part of the package, give her the TIME to do the craft. Seriously, go mow the lawn or do some laundry. Maybe clean the house.  Just sayin'.

But whatever you do, do not give your mother this:

Unless she specifically asked for a Big Ball necklace.  Seriously, Martha has a TON of great crafts on her site, but I just cannot get behind this.

In summary: for Mother's Day, a movie night or craft package is great.  Big Ball necklace? Not so much.

At least, not for this mom!  Happy Mother's Day!

Prep time

A huge part of the appeal for the Deluxe Gardening Package was the three hours of labor provided by ten members of the football team.  I had scheduled the team weeks in advance, and while they'd be doing a ton of heavy lifting around the yard, a lot had to be done before they could even get to work.  So the day before they arrived, the Big Guy and I got down to some serious business in our yard.

First, we rented a sod cutter.  I cut about two linear feet of sod, and then let my husband do the remaining 40 feet.  I'm a giver like that, you see.
 

Then, we busted out the tiller, which was my Mother's Day gift this year.  I tried to till up the big dirt hole (where we planned to put all of that newly cut sod) but quite frankly, I'm not very good at outdoor chores that involve machinery.  I'm much better with a plain old shovel.  And with that in mind, my husband also tilled up the big dirt hole. 

We briefly entertained the notion of laying the sod ourselves, but then we remembered "Hey! We have ten football players coming over tomorrow morning! Maybe we should let them handle this."  And so that's what we decided to do. 

While the hubs was breaking his back doing all the sod cutting and tilling in the back yard, I decided to make myself useful and tackle the bushes in the front.  Here's the before picture, as in 'before I got totally crazy and wigged out on these bushes':

And here's the after picture:

I cut down and removed all the juniper bushes, as well as the other bushes along the front sidewalk.  Those juniper bushes were tough!  I hated them to begin with, and I hate them even more now that I fully understand how difficult and scratchy they can be.  Damn you, juniper bushes!

I left the roots of all the bushes for the football team to dig out.  I also left the lilac bushes there, but only because I wanted to transplant a few of them to the side of the house.  The remaining ones will be trashed.

Finally, because I was worried that digging up the roots would leave huge holes in my front yard, I ordered four cubic yards of topsoil to fill them in. 

It seems strange that all this work had to be done BEFORE the football team arrived, but honestly, it had to happen.  My list of what I want the football team to accomplish is so long that they might not get everything done.  And if I added to that list all the stuff the hubs and I did to get ready for them, then nothing would get done.  As it is, I'm worried about time and weather.  I need everything to go smoothly so that when the team leaves, I'll be ready to put those plants in the ground.  Stay tuned!

Gifts for grandmas

This year, I'm having the Little Guy make Mother's Day gifts for the three grandmothers.  If this goes well, I hope to have him, and eventually Little Miss, make all family gifts for birthdays, holidays and special occasions throughout the year.  And when our family and friends are thrilled with their gifts from the kiddos, we'll open our own TMI Etsy shop and craft our way to two fully paid college educations, all before they reach middle school.

The Little Guy is painting clay pots, which we will fill with potted Gerbera daisies from Lowe's.  I wish I had thought of this project in February, then we could have grown herbs from seed rather than buying blooms at the store.  Oh well, there's always next year for that.

As far as painting projects for three-year-olds go, this went really well. The Little Guy was focused and there wasn't much mess. 

Little Miss looked rather bored and bummed to be left out of the craft project, so I gave her a purple crayon and a piece of paper so she could create her own Mother's Day masterpiece. 

Then, I left the room for one minute (it's not often I get to use the restroom without an audience, and I wasn't about to let this opportunity pass by!) and you can guess what happened:  Little Miss tossed the paper on the floor and proceeded to color her high chair tray.

When she got tired of coloring her high chair tray, she simply chewed on the crayon until she had purple teeth.   

It may be a while before that TMI Etsy store is up and running.  Happy Mother's Day!

Gift ideas for Mother's Day

Is your mom a Martha fan?  If so, there are some great deals to be had on Martha Stewart publications in time for Mother's Day. 

Get one year of Martha Stewart Living for $19.95.

Get ten issues of Whole Living for $10.00.

Get ten issues of Everyday Food for $10.00.

And to get this adorable front-page style coloring sheet, click here.

But don't stop the gift-giving with a magazine subscription. Seriously.

Is your Mom a fan of smelling awesome? Or a fan of gorgeous earrings?  Then compliment that magazine subscription gift with some lovely baubles and scents from Darling Clandestine.  Evonne sent me two new fragrances (Carny Wedding and Pyrotechnik) and I was blown away.

I am now the proud owner of eight fragrances in the Calliope Crash line. Before these arrived, I had them all arranged by my order of preference, which was an already difficult job. When Carny Wedding and Pyrotechnik got here, that comfortable and well-established order was totally disrupted. In fact, these two might have marched right into places #2 and #3.  That's how awesome they are.

So, if you were wondering to get Mom, or yourself, for Mother's Day, then I'm happy I could point you in the right direction:  a MS magazine subscription and fragrances from Darling Clandestine will thrill her for the entire year.  Have fun shopping!

Sand trap

For Mother's Day this year, I got a wheelbarrow. Don't worry ladies, I asked for one!

While purchasing the wheelbarrow, we got the Little Guy some garden tools in his size.  This serves two purposes: 1. he has something to use when we're working outdoors, and 2. slave labor in the event that he actually gets any work done. We got some new shovels for the adults in the TMI household, too.

And what are those shovels for, you ask?  What a great question! Why those shovels are so, in the event that we have the time/energy to work outside, we can begin ridding our backyard of this monstrous sand pit:

Isn't it disgusting?  The previous owners has an above-ground pool, which they took with them.  Now, we have a sand pit, and the tarp/burlap seperating the sand from the dirt below is disintegrating letting all kinds of weeds grow there.  It needs to come out and soon.  Hence, the wheelbarrow and shovels.  Getting this pit out of the backyard is the one thing I really, really want to accomplish this summer.  Wish us luck!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all: to my own Big Martha, to MOM2, and to all the wonderful grandmothers, aunts, sisters and friends in my life who care for and nurture everyone around them.

May you have a day that is relaxing, peaceful, creative, and filled with bon-bons. And twizzlers. And all-you-can-eat buffets where people wait on you and you don't have to do any of the clean-up. And a nap. We could all use a nap, right?

May you be showered with words and deeds that convey the utmost appreciation and respect for all that you do.

And as Martha would say, "Enjoy!"

Happy Mother's Day from all of us at TMI.

Okay, only I do the writing here, but the Big Guy, Little Guy and Barley feel the same way. Enjoy!