July 6, 2014

Dude.  What happened to the last four months.

I'm going to pick up like I've been writing here all along, and sprinkle in the last four months' worth of pictures into each post.  I have zero time to even write this one, but I'm so giddy with excitement that Matt fixed my computer's ability to receive pics from my camera, that I can't not post!!

So happy Independence Day!!  I celebrated by...working!  Ergo, so did Matt.  He just didn't get paid.  But it was still a very fun weekend.  I only worked eight hours on the holiday ("only" - but really, eight hours IS like a half day when you're used to 12+)...AND I was put on call this morning AND was very far down the list of people to call in, so we enjoyed a serendipitous morning together. :)  Slept in, ate breakfast at Denny's, and some yard work. Some very fun yard work.

With my dad's help, Matt built two more raised beds for me this summer.  I bought seedlings from the Farmer's Market because I'm a cheater and won't grow things from seed.  I didn't get quite as exuberant as last year - I put in fewer plants, more bee-attracting flowers, and spaced it all farther apart.  Partly so it wouldn't get quite so Amazonian, and partly just to leave more space for playing and digging. :)

There are kid-sized garden tools scattered through each garden so they'll have a chance to dig.  This year we put in bell peppers, sugar snap peas, zucchini, butternut squash, beans, cukes, two types of tomatoes, and watermelon.

                                      

Lukie J. loves to use that red wagon as a water table!! He kept getting very upset with Molly for using it as her water bowl.

                                   

                                  

So the yard project today: renting a rototiller from Ace and tearing up the grass in the "cross" between the beds and laying down mulch in it.  This is what it looked like before:

 

Let me interrupt to snap a random pic of me and Luke while I made lunch. :)

Levi is THRILLED to do projects. He LOVES to work on his "farm."  I love when he crawls right on up into the garden beds to look at plants and pick snap peas and eat them straight off the vine.  We don't have these gardens to produce huge yields and feed the whole family; they're for fun, teaching, and life lessons.

Anyway, he felt very manly doing all this yard work with Papa. :) 

Luke loves it too.  Yes, by nap time they were covered with dirt from head to toe (and went to bed covered with dirt from head to toe).  Yes, they were barefoot.  And no, they had not taken a bath since Tuesday.  That's right, five days ago. (Matt did bathe them after naps.  Sweet!  Now they're set till Friday! haha) 

                                     

Luke is not nearly as into veggies as Levi has always been.  He took one bite of his snap pea and handed it to me. LOL

The project was completed about the same time I left for work (I was off for eight hours, but did have to work the remaining four - a "princess shift"), so I don't have pictures of the finished product yet, but I love it! Matt rocked it.  Not only is he quite handsome, but he's talented too. ;)

So all in all, it was a good weekend.  Aside from a foaming-at-the-mouth dog (in spite of a decent dose of downers), a horrified toddler, and our neighborhood sounding like a war zone.  I told Matt that next year we will spend the Fourth in a cabin in the woods far from anyone else in a state where fireworks are illegal.  Guess what?  I was serious.  Booked it today.  A beautiful cabin on five acres next to a stream in the Smoky Mountains.  And it was a steal (I don't think many people vacation in Tennessee in the middle of the hot, humid summer).  That, my friends, is what the natives call making lemonade. ;)