Mondays are always hard (well, no duh!) especially when one forgets that she set a vibrating alarm on her watch and it goes off right on the dot. This alarm got me jumping out of bed this morning despite being sore all over. It put me in panic mode and I hate it.

I finally finished planting along the retaining wall in my backyard last night. Over the past two days, I’ve dug 15 holes in the horrible clay soil using only a trowel with assistance from a shovel. The only way to widen the hole was to scrape the trowel along the sides and let the dry hard soil fall away. My knees were buckling and my heart was pounding most of the time thanks to my fears of heights and falling. I felt like I was standing on a ledge the whole time.

I am now incredibly prepared to transform my front yard. Over the last few days, I purchased 20-some plants – flowers and shrubs – thanks to a 60% off sales at the nursery. Though these plants look like they’d seen better days, I have a feeling they’re just root bound (judging from their root balls) and tired of the horrible weather we’ve had this year.

Unfortunately, mom won’t let me kill the front lawn until I get the rocks delivered. I went online and asked for a quote last Friday but haven’t heard back. Hopefully, I’ll hear back soon.