Sore Wrists and Jello Arms

Howdy. These past couple of days have been so nice, I only wish I could be home all week to get some more work done outside! Yesterday we worked out in the yard all day....and I'm a bit sore today. My left hand is barely functioning due to my wrist being super sore from hauling around bags of mulch. And yesterday after we went inside and plopped down on the couch, both our arms and legs felt like Jello.

We weren't able to get much done on the walkway, since when we went into Menards on Saturday, they were completely sold out of the paver base we need to finish. So instead, we worked on the front porch and the flower beds.

I've been wanting to repaint the front porch floor for a while now. It hasn't been painted since right before I moved in, in 2010. Five years later, it's mostly chipped off and in need of another paint job. So I cleaned off the front porch floor and swept it. Then I scraped off all of the flaking paint I could with a paint scraper (It gave me flashbacks to our bedroom renovation). It's still not perfect, but I think it's the best it can be before paint.

Trent then went through with the power washer and washed the floor and siding in the front porch area. Then while I was working on other things, he filled in the crack with mortar between the porch and the house that was left when the foundation work was done.

While Trent was filling in the cracks with mortar, I was weeding and mulching. I pulled weeds and cleaned out all the leaves from the beds, then put down 10 fresh bags of mulch.  So, I'm a little stiff today, and my wrist is sore from lifting all of the mulch bags and carrying them around the yard! I suppose it was worth it, though. The flower beds look much cleaner. Although, the tree by the house is shedding some serious buds. And they all fall in the flower beds! Makes it kind of a pain to keep them nice-looking.

Super excited though that all of my flowers and plants are coming back again this year. Here's my hydrangea:

Maybe it will bloom this year?! There's still hope. My hostas are also coming in already:

And then there's our peony bush by the road! It looks like it will be blooming pretty soon...

There's also a second peony growing in the side yard:

I planted it a few years back, then we decided to move it away from the house because they attract quite a bit of insects. It never comes up very much but it is budding this year!

This week or next weekend I want to get the flowers all planted in the garden out back. Tonight it's a little chilly, but Trent's working out there raking up the dirt and getting it all level. Then we'll put down some weed fabric, and start planting my bulbs and seeds. Ready to see some flowers pop up this summer!