Monday, May 5, 2008

The joy of.....

Springtime! Or almost summer, since that is how long it has taken for weather to warm up around here. But today was beautiful! It was 75 degrees and the boys and I headed straight outside as soon as I got home from work. (My poor darling husband, unfortunately, had been puking his guts out all day and went straight to bed.) I love to garden, and yes, even weed. I love the feel of dirt on my hands, the satisfaction of clearing a bed of weeds, and seeing something that I planted grow.

We started in the front yard, where I spent the better part of an hour weeding and chatting with my neighbor, Raelyn. I love living in a neighborhood and having neighbors and a place for my kids to run! Jacob has made friends with some of the neighbor kids - there are 5 of them so I'm not sure which ones. He climbs the apple tree in the back yard and chats with them over the fence. When he leaves to play with Austin or come inside you can hear them yelling "JACOB!!" at the top of their lungs for him to come back, and he just eats that up. Austin is so content to just wander the yard and check out everything. He loves to sit in my lap and weed with me, then wander off to check out a bug or a plant. As I have said before, Austin would live outside if you let him, he loves it that much.

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the backyard, which from my perspective is a jungle. It needs so much work but it is huge and has lots of room to run, ride the quad, play baseball, etc., so I try not to get too caught up in how much landscaping it needs. The kids don't seem to notice. I sat and pulled weeds and enjoyed the sun while watching them play. We have lived here almost a year and a half and I still have to pinch myself every time I get to tell my kids "go out in the yard and play!". After so many years in apartments it almost doesn't seem real, but I love it!