Busyness and Blooms

This weekend was one of those glorious stretches of days where the weather is so lovely you are all but forced to spend as much time outside as possible, and in exchange for your time, you are rewarded with sun-kissed skin, the smell of fresh air that clings to your clothes, and the exhilarating exhaustion that comes when you are finally able to break out of the chrysalis of winter and stretch muscles and breathe deep in ways that haven't been possible for months.

In other words, just about perfect.

It started around 7:30 a.m. on Friday morning, when Josh and I started working on the playset we picked up from Wal-Mart last weekend. I referred to this as our very own marriage seminar, titled That Which Does Not Make You Want to Kill Each Other Only Makes You Stronger. This was the manual:

We worked pretty steadily and with surprisingly few arguments, and only hit a couple snafus. Nothing a quick trip to True Value or me actually grabbing the right bolts couldn't fix. Josh didn't even hit his self-imposed swearing limit--a success indeed.

Finishing up for Friday

The best part, of course, was seeing the girls' expressions when they got home. They knew we were going to put up the playset at some point, but they had no idea that some point was Friday. And they were so excited. (I stupidly met the girls at the car instead of waiting for them in the backyard, and as such missed getting a picture of Elaina's expression when she saw it for the first time. Ellie was dawdling with the dandelions in the front yard, so thankfully, at least I got hers.) It was well, well worth the money, time, and sunburnt shoulders I got from our work.

On Saturday, we spent a good amount of time at Picket Fence picking out the rest of our vegetables and a few pretties for the yard, visiting the fish pond, and hanging all over Miss Stephanie and her husband, Mr. Scott (I'm looking at you, Elaina and Ellie...). We stopped by Josh's folks' for a visit, ran through the drive-thru at McDonalds (parents of the year here), and then spent the rest of the afternoon outside. Josh and I finished putting the roof and picnic table on the playset, and then Josh spread out mulch while I attacked the dandelion/weed issue in our flowerbeds. 

First snack at the new picnic table

Finished product

Elaina and Ellie were happy to keep me company while I did this, especially after I found an earthworm in the soil. From that point on, Elaina and I had the following conversation roughly every 3 minutes:

E: Mama, did you find any more worms?
M: No sweetie, not yet. But as soon as I do, I'll yell for you to come see it, okay?
E: Okay. But don't forget. If you find another worm, I need to see it.
M: Okay, I will.
.....
E: Mama, did you find any more worms? Did you forget to tell me?

We had such a nice time that we forgot to get dinner ready and didn't go inside until 5:20--a glorious five hours after venturing out to finish the playset.

Yesterday, the weather was a little sketchier, and by the time we got home from church, it was raining. So we ate lunch at put on a movie, and halfway through Lilo and Stitch we decided it was dry enough to head outside. Elaina was thrilled; she'd been asking to go outside since she woke up. The girls played and Josh and I finished planting our garden: green beans, honey dew, patty pan and spaghetti squash, bell peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, and lots o' tomatoes. Then Josh planted some sweet corn and his new crab apple tree, and we noticed our cherry blossoms finally have blooms.

Elaina and the jonathan tree, which was about her size when we planted it

And today, before the storms blew through, we played outside again and saw more things coming to life.

Cherry blossom

Grow radishes, grow!

Baby broccoli

Teeny tiny apple blossoms

Strawberries

I don't know if it's because the winter was so endless and brutal this year, or because our gardens are more organized, or because we finally have something more substantial than a baby slide for the girls to play in in the back yard, but I don't know if I've ever loved spring more.