Last night I was edging the lawn while Rylee was mowing.  I was doing lots of thinking while doing this.  I was admiring all the neighbor's lawns.   One lawn care company seems to have the monopoly on this street.  They come in once a week and do 75% of the street in an afternoon.  I was wondering if we should hire that company to do ours too. I was then brought back to a story from a lesson in the Marriage and Family relations class. 

Elder Loren C. Dunn of the Seventy relates, “While we were growing up in a small community, my father saw the need for my brother and me to learn the principle of work. As a result, he put us to work on a small farm on the edge of town where he had been raised. He ran the local newspaper, so he could not spend much time with us except early in the morning and in the evening. That was quite a responsibility for two young teenagers, and sometimes we made mistakes.

“Our small farm was surrounded by other farms, and one of the farmers went in to see my father one day to tell him the things he thought we were doing wrong. My father listened to him carefully and then said, ‘Jim, you don’t understand. You see, I’m raising boys and not cows.’ After my father’s death, Jim told us his story. How grateful I was for a father who decided to raise boys, and not cows. In spite of the mistakes, we learned how to work on that little farm, and I guess, although they didn’t say it in so many words, we always knew we were more important to Mother and Father than the cows or, for that matter, anything else”

I guess the Lord was reminding me that there are more important things in the world than having the world’s greenest, prettiest, most pristine lawn in the world.   Rylee and I got to spend some great time together caring for the yard.  She is learning the value of work and is able to see the reward of a job well done.  I'm raising girls, not beautiful lawns.

Last weekend we had a much needed garage sale.  We cleaned out closet, cabinets, under beds and the attic.  We found toys & clothes that out girls had outgrown.  We found items that we used in our last home, but haven't found need for them here.  We found items that were once treasures to us that we no longer have need for.

Marty asked me what I was going to spend the money on.  I toyed with a new dining room table or redoing the landscaping in the front yard.  Our dining table has suited us fine.  Besides, if I were to buy a new dining table, I should have sold the old one in the garage sale.  So the landscaping wins!

I am not a gardener.  I do NOT have a green thumb.  For this reason I knew that I needed to go low maintenance.  You will be able to see from the before pictures that I do a great job of killing things.  (In fairness we did just come out of a really harsh winter)  I chose to edge out the area with rounded bricks that match the house.  The mulch that I chose is recycled tires.  How cool is that!  This stuff is supposed to last a lifetime.  I am hoping that this will be a onetime deal.

So here's a shot of the before:

And an after:

A little close up of the shrubs.  You can see they were a little unruly and there are a ton of weeds coming up under them.

Now they are a little more cleaned up and no weeds to be found.  We laid a 20 year warranty weed barrier under the mulch so hopefully that will be the end of weeding for me.  (I'm sure I'll redo this again before 20 years, but the 20 year warranty was on sale for less than the 5 year warranty stuff)

This little area is what greeted our guests as they came to the house.  I'm amazed anyone would come visit us.  It's a scarier looking in the pictures than I remember it being.  Sorry to all my neighbors for having such an eye-sore of a yard.

Now everything is cleaned up and looks a lot cleaner.  I found this bench and just loved it.  I don't want to encourage my kids to play on it, but it looks so inviting to me.  The urn in the background will eventually get some greenery of some kind, but I just couldn't find anything that I really liked yesterday. 



I would say overall, this was money and time well spent.  It doesn't make me want to run and hide when I see my front entry.  Now if the grass will green up, we'll be in great shape!

This is on the first page of the YW personal progress book.  Since not everyone knows about the Personal Progress Program, I will give a brief outline.  It is our church's equivalent to the Eagle Scout, but for the young women of the church.  In order to earn the Young Women's Recognition Medallion, the girl must complete 6 experiences and 1 project (minimum of 10 hours each) in each of 8 values.  These values are:  Faith, Divine Nature, Individual Worth, Knowledge, Choice & Accountability,  Good Works, Integrity, and Virtue.

All three of my girls are diligently working on completing their goals.  Each year the girls that have completed their YW recognition in the previous year are recognized at a banquet.  In February, Addyson had all but 1 value project complete.  She determined that she would complete the last project in time to be recognized at the banquet. 

The project she chose was a cross stitch of Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee withersoever thou goest."  Addyson had never cross stitched before.  This was a new skill for her and a rusty skill for her mom.  She got into it and realized it was going to take her much longer than the 10 hours she had planned.  She diligently worked, and worked, and worked, until she finished her last stitch.  She stopped counting the hours after 25.  I am so proud of her perseverance.  She now has a new skill that she really loves doing.


She was indeed recognized at the banquet this past Saturday night.  She has not yet received her medallion at church.  She is waiting for the ward to get in the new medallions.  They were recently redesigned.  Here is the old design:

And the new design:

She loves the ruby and wants to wait to get a ruby.  As soon as they come in she will proudly wear her necklace every day. 

"Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies" Proverbs 31:10

I am so pleased to have a daughter that has lived her life in a manner that is exemplary and follows the example given to us by our Savior Jesus Christ.