I had a very stressful day today. Wait. I take that back. I've had a very stressful summer. Like every other Child Care Provider out there, I dread summers. With all the older kids here (my own son included!) our nice little routine is just friggin' nuts. The bigger kids pick on the little ones. The little ones are on summer time, so naps are waaay to short. (Their nap time is my break time. I need that nap time!) The whining is triple and nonstop from all of them. After ten hours of "babysitting" every day (It's nothing like child care on the other months!) and reminding everyone to mind their manner's, all day looooooong....I am ready to run away from home. I know once fall arrives, I will once again love my job, but in the mean time I am searching for ways to relieve my stress. Today when the last kid walked out the door, I walked over to our lovely garden to try a little "weed therapy." Funny thing though....the "garden" is another MAJOR stress factor for me. Here. Let me show you what I mean. I walked over to the lovely garden and pulled a couple of little ol' weeds. Sorry the pictures are so weird in color. I used my phone camera. Decided to take pictures at the last minute and I was too dirty to walk through the house to get the camera. Pickin' weeds is a dirty job I tell ya!
Oh, wait. Did I say a couple? I meant 3,445!!
That's not even all of them.
Now tell me is that just nuts or what?
When Tim said he was going to put in a garden, I protested. I do not enjoy gardening. I think I mentioned once before on the subject of weeds, my brother and I. Every summer, my parents planted a 4,333 acre garden that my brother and I had the sole responsibility of weeding. I hate to weed. I don't even like vegetables, so there's no prize at the end of it for me either. Show me how to grow stained glass windows or rusty ol' junk out of dirt, and I'm your girl. But, peas and carrots...Ahhh.. No thanks. Well, Tim "promised" it would just be a "little" garden and he and Landon would take care of it. (I've heard that so many times, regarding so many things, I should have known better!!!) I gave in. He promptly installed a 4,333 acre garden that week! I was just sick, I tell ya. So every year, he gets out his ol' rusty rototiller and throws down some seeds. Then we sit back and watch the weeds grow sky high. Every year. This year, I had the day care kids throw down some seeds. I thought maybe I would be able to get them to do a little weeding. But, I forgot about the 110 degree Mn. summers and with four little ones that can't/won't sit still, and only three or four out of 6 or 7 big ones that aren't afraid of dirt, it just wasn't happening. So, sky high it was. Again. I didn't get a before picture, but close your eyes and start humming...."In the jungle....the mighty jungle...." and that's our garden.
But, without the magnificent beauty.
I also unearthed Landon's rock garden. Well, I guess that was a good place to put a rock garden as any. In the garden, Right? He also had a little wooden bridge thing going on in there too. That also came out. Along with a hammer and some kind of pole digger thing.
And a couple of buckets with plants in them. (I don't get that at all. Seriously.) And a big spoon.
Oh, yeah. There was also a tree in there. Did I mention the friggin' tree???
So we ended up with about four corn stalks and maybe three pumpkins. The strawberries and raspberries I didn't even bother with. They come back year after year. Weeds don't seem to bother them. I know there are still a lot of little weeds all over, but that's o.k. I wasn't getting nit picky. It just felt good to rip those old weeds out by the roots and toss them to the ground! My fingers are numb, my legs are throbbing and my back is sore, but I feel much better. I told Tim he was going to have to transplant those strawberries and raspberries somewhere else as come fall, that garden is history! I don't care if I have to hire someone to take away the big ol' train posts (or whatever they are) and level it to the ground. I'm planting grass this fall. Life is too darn short, and I'm not wasting anymore of my time in dirt. Yes, it helped relieve a little tension, but I think it would have been much easier on the ol' body just to drink a few cold ones and put my feet up. After the kids leave that is.
