Gettin' Down and Dirty

Actually, I started to title this one, "No magic bullet", because that is what the pediatrician said when I took daughters 2 and 3 yesterday. Let me start at the beginning...
Last week the baby was sick; high fever, a little vomiting, diarrhea and generally just lethargic. The doctor said it was a stomach virus. By Friday, daughter # 2 was displaying similar symptoms. This is the girl who normally is going strong long after all the other kids have dropped and she was barely able to get out of bed for the better part of the weekend. Come Tuesday morning, daughter # 3 awoke with the dreaded fever and daughter # 2 though better in some respects, was complaining of a very sore throat. Hoping to get some resolution, I bundled them off to the aforementioned doctor, where he ran a strep test on both (negatory) and basically told me how to treat # 3 if she comes down with the diarrhea. Don't get me wrong, I am not the type who wants an antibiotic for a cold, but I was hoping there would be something that could be treated and have a finite duration. Life is like that sometimes.
Anyway, I have been going a little stir crazy with the kids, the visiting mom-in-law, graduation, waiting for summer to officially begin (school's out next week). My very generous hubby redeemed some flyer mile things to get me some gift cards for a local home improvement store so I can dandy up my yard, so I headed over there to get some projects going. I love toting bags of mulch and stones. I brought home new sod and I can't wait to get out in the morning and start planting! I can bring an order to my yard that I just can't achieve inside the house. I sort of think of my plants like my children. I love to see them grow and thrive.
Luckily for me, I have a partner in crime where the yard is concerned. Number 2 son is helping me. He likes getting his hands dirty