HGTV Cindy-Style

To continue our MI tradition of being out of town, Brian spent all of last week in Juarez Mexico on a mission trip. He went with people from church and they built from the ground-up a small home for a family of 4. It was an awesome experience. While he was gone my Mom came and stayed with me. Neither my mom nor I are ones to let the grass grow under our feet so we decided to tackle the big job of the landscaping around the parsonage. The landscaping had not been tended to in many years and was in serious need of an overhaul. Every time I walked outside and looked at it I was overwhelmed.

My Mom and I are often quite ambitious in our projects, and we especially like the opportunity for a big reveal when all our work is done (I guess it's from too much reality TV.) When I was in high school my Mom and I painted our entire Chicago bungalow while my Dad, Katie, and Mike were in Canada fishing. With Brian gone we had great motivation to finish before he returned. My Mom was awesome! She has such a knack for gardening and is so resourceful. We pretty much went non-stop for the week, and are very happy with the finished product. In fact, my Mom and I were finishing things up right until our company arrived on Saturday. Brian was truly impressed, and he and I are so excited to have a neat looking outside. We are so appreciative of her help. To cap off the weekend my Dad and Katie joined us for a surprise visit for Mother's Day. It was all just great!