Ramblings

Today it was pretty outside, so we decided to walk to the farmer's market together. You know, for some fun family outdoor time. It took us 45 minutes because incessant whining creates a lot of drag. Additionally, Kate has a styly new hat that is, indeed, adorable, but it's too big for her and keeps sliding down over her eyes. At one point on the walk, she ran smack into a mailbox. The sound was dreadful, but even as I picked her up and comforted her, I fought back mocking laughter. It's tough, you have to make sure everyone is really just fine before you can commence taunting when you're a parent. It's not like when we were kids.

Then it was time to hit the sto'! Our big time-saving plan was for Jeremiah to own the grocery store while I picked up some potting soil for today's big planting event (in our kitchen). This spurred still more whining (from the kids mostly).

Before I planted any seeds, I wanted to begin the prep work on my new shade bed, which I got all excited about last year, just before the interminable heat settled in and made me want to lay down and die until it was too cold to plant anything. So, I'm taking another go at it this year, and I'm excited. My nemesis, the ubiquitous English ivy, had overtaken the whole spot, which is larger than I remembered, so I dedicated my afternoon to that pitched battle. Jeremiah worked on moving the giant rocks that are piled up all around one of the dogwood trees. We've had that rock pile since we did the addition. Periodically, we move it to a new spot. I've been quietly throwing the littler rocks out in the trash, just a few each week in the barrel. No one will ever know!

The girls ran around in the yard with the dogs, as Jeremiah and I worked. Then our next door neighbors informed us that some maniac (my word) had clipped the corner while turning from Pharr on to East Lake, hitting the stop sign and overturning the fire hydrant. Water everywhere (and, as it turns out, not a drop to drink). When we determined that we didn't have water, the girls panicked, and immediately took up shovels and began digging a well. Their noble pursuit was derailed, however, when they began to turn up a lot of worms, which needed to be put together in a pile for later study. At last count, they'd displaced 17 worms. At one point I heard Sarah say "this one's so big and juicy...I just want to squish it!" I came to the worm's rescue before id got the best of Sarah.

After all that we were really hungry. I wasn't too worried about the water - the city showed up long before Kate and Sarah finished our new well and even though we have only a halfass dribble of water from our faucets now, I'm sure they'll have it fixed soon. We had to pause the yard work so there could be burgers. Jeremiah manned the grill while I tended the irresponsible and slightly scary conflagration we'd built in our chiminea using the branches from our Christmas tree (which had been sitting out there since New Year's day). It smelled wonderful, which is more than I can say for any of us. Not the best night for showering to be out of the question. I also found time to plant seeds with Sarah (Kate refused to assist).

So that's our day but, really, the only reason I even bothered to open the blog tonight was to show you pictures of Sarah's recent haircut. She went with Aunt Jo Jo to the salon yesterday, and while Joy had it hair done, it was decided that Sarah also needed a cut. Cute, right? Also, this picture of Kate was on my phone and I think it's cute too. It's hard to tell, but she's wearing that dangerous hat. It's a sort of chauffeur's cap and I keep expecting her to break out with "Chuck E's in Love" at any moment. I kind of wish she would.