Golly gee, I just can't make myself do anything today. I didn't have to babysit...which is good and bad. Good, because....well, (I'm just going to be totally honest even though it's probably already evident by some of my previous posts) I'm not all that crazy about babysitting. Bad, because my babysitting income was really helping out there for a while, when I was watching him 4 days a week and making an extra $15 every week for picking him up and bringing him to my house.

I went to bed last night with a headache and didn't sleep very well at all. Every time I woke up to switch positions, I realized that my bladder felt painfully full and my hips and back were aching.....not to mention, my headache was still there....dull, but there. Aching back and pelvis at 20 weeks???? I thought that kind of thing would come a little later....but I guess it shouldn't surprise me that a big lump of extra chub on my belly can throw things a little out of whack. The above pic is me yesterday, at 20w1d

I got up at 10:00 (I know, I know) and felt pretty decent. My Mother-in-law bought me a really nifty Black and Decker leaf blower/vac the other day and I was excited to get outside and conquer the sea of leaves that has become our yard. I was probably only out there for an hour before I gave up and came back inside to gulp down some water, clean up the kitchen, and eat some lunch. The thing I hate most about leaves is not necessarily raking them....it's bagging them. It's murder on a person's back. I need a compost bin or someplace to put the leaves because our po-dunk town doesn't have one of those cool trucks that come around in the Fall to suck up the piles of leaves that people blow out to the curb. That would be awesome. I attempted to blow some leaves into a pile, but they just flew all over because it's really windy today. I raked some into a pile and then sucked them into the bag attachment. I suppose it was handy enough, but emptying the bag into trashbags every 5 minutes got really tedious and frustrating. It condenses the leaves by shredding them up a little as they're sucked into the bag, so that's nice....but it would've been so much nicer if I would've had someplace to dump the leaves other than trashbags. I started dumping them into a pile in my side yard after a while, but with the wind and the storm that's supposed to come later, I doubt they'll stay there. By this time, my back was very sore, and the fact that all that work only yeilded a tiny corner of clean yard made me feel really discouraged. I decided that the blower/vac is definitely a handy tool....IF you use it for routine maintainence AS the leaves are falling through the fall months.....not AFTER they have all fallen and your yard is hopeless.

I would pay a professional lawn service a lot of money to come and take care of those leaves right about now. If I don't get them picked up before winter, they will stay there and get wet, compacted, and moldy....and then they'll be an even bigger mess in the spring. (I know, because that's what I had to deal with this past Spring) AND I DEFINITELY won't feel like cleaning up 20 bags worth of wet leaves this Spring with a newborn, so I don't know what else to do. DH wouldn't mind if we just left them there all year 'round to let them get nasty and out of control. I refuse to be so nonchalant about it because it's not a good idea to let piles of wet leaves lay around the foundation of our house...plus, it gives snakes a great place to hide (I know that from experience too), and makes mowing a billion times harder. Those huge trees out front are beautiful, but right now I wouldn't mind if someone came and chopped them down and paved my whole yard. :)

DH doesn't have the time to mess with the yard. Seriously. He hates yard work and I doubt that he would go out there and do anything even if he did have time....but right now, he is either at work, working on someone's computer, or doing website work for the church. He has very little free time, and I can't rightly expect him to get out there and clean up leaves with all he has on his plate.

Well, it is time for me to take a nap. I shouldn't be so tired, but man-o-man, I feel like I could sleep for 4 hours. (Yawn)

Labels: household chores, pregnancy whining