I’m discovering that there are benefits to having a Feb. 15th fellow and a Good Friday girl. Both kids are thrilled that everyone around them gets in a bit of a silly, celebratory mood right around their birthdays, and they don’t ask for too much in the way of presents or desserts made specifically for them. I mean, when you can have an Easter egg hunt during the week of your birthday, why ask for much more? For months, Katherine looked forward to bringing treats to her classmates to share at the end of the school day on her birthday. I know that I’m going to miss these simple delights as the kids get older and more complicated.
The kids have reveled in turning 6 (Katherine) and 4 (Nathaniel) this spring, and they’ve been showing signs of increasing maturity. Katherine is unabashedly keen on reading and math at school, and she’s been working hard to not lose her temper, both at home and school. Nathaniel still doesn’t hear most of my instructions to him, but he is starting to show signs of independence, putting on/picking out his clothes and carrying his dishes to the sink after meals. These little shifts, plus ever-lengthening legs, have made it clear that we’re going to have different hiking and gardening and traveling experiences this year than we’ve had in the past. We’re thrilled!
Sydney has built himself a cold frame in which to start plants and flowers from seed, and thus far things are looking good.
Yes, this is an incubator for peppers, tomatoes, and flowers.
Many of our meals are now outside, particularly if they involve crumbly cornbread or hummus wraps.
Below our deck, Sydney has laid out a large garden, the skinny sections being our paths. We haven’t been able to dig a lot yet, given the incessant rain this spring, but the dark bed in the back right has some lettuce in it, and the one on its left contains strawberry plants. Off to the left of the picture is the real prize: a line of 16 blueberry bushes along the fence. We know we’ll be eating a lot of smoothies during Kentucky’s hot summers, so we want to make those drinks a bit more affordable.
Erin
Alan Schmierer
Some people will go great lengths to avoid mowing a lawn!
Hey! Sydney’s been mowing a lot already, particularly with all this rain. But we’ll both be glad to get that mowing down to a tiny fraction of what it currently is. Whew!