Home on the Range

This weekend was a "weekend warrior" kind of weekend. Yard work and house work was on the agenda. My dear sweet hubby worked H.A.R.D. on the landscaping in the front yard. Have you ever removed old bushes, mowed the lawn, trimmed the edges, pulled weeds, laid down fabric, planted new flowers and bark all in one day? It's a hard days work! I have a new appreciation for landscapers.

Anyway Oscar did such a great job. I only wish I would have taken before pictures so that you could see the difference. Gone are the ugly bushes of yesterday that hid my cozy front porch and suffocated my pretty Japanese Maple. Now lay my lovely azaleas, hydrangeas and lilacs enticing me for a nice rock in one of our chairs on the front porch.

We are almost done with the yard. We hired a landscaper to fix the debacle that was our backyard. That job required professionals. Of course, we forgot before and after shots for the backyard too.

Last week we planted our organic vegetable and herb garden. All that is left is a few yards of new sod, a little more weeding in the front and viola a whole new yard. There will be a celebration. I am so excited to enjoy our yard this summer!

Here are some pictures of Ozzie helping us pick out plants and flowers a few weekends ago at a local nursery and Home Depot. I'm pretty sure riding the carts was the highlight for him.

Who ever invented the car cart is a genius!

While Oscar worked in the yard, Ozzie and I stayed in and tried a new Rhubarb recipe for our pancakes. My gift to Oscar for his hard work was a yummy pancake breakfast. Pancakes are a favorite around these parts.

This was my first rhubarb recipe ever actually. Every Spring I see it at the market and think what do you do with that? Enter the blogosphere. I ran into rhubarb recipes all over the blogs. This one looks good but cobbler is not really my thing. Although I love me some Smitten Kitchen recipes so I'll probably still try it some day.

I decided to go with this one from Tea & Cookies which is actually a modified version of this one from Dana Treat. I'm really glad I did, it was a perfect pancake topping. The rhubarb was just a little tart so we didn't feel the sugar overload that can happen with blueberry or strawberry pancakes. And boy was this easy! When you are toting a 9 month old around on your hip {he's going through a slight separation anxiety phase} easy recipes are your favorite recipes. I will definitely try this again, I think I read somewhere that it's great over vanilla ice cream too. Yum.

Here's to home improvements and trying new foods!