Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

Strawberry Air~ the recipe can be found at the always-neglected food blog.

In complete concentration before doing a spoon trick.

{Pretty}

Living Room.  Dining Room.  Bathroom.  Kitchen.  By my bed.  By the girls' bed.  These are all the places that hold lilacs bouquets.  The bleeding heart droplets that grew after being tromped on and then "weeded" by Judah last year (before Matt weedwhacked them by mistake this year).  Adele's wispy blonde.  Rainbow rooted swiss chard.  A fairy forest of moss.

{Happy}

This weekend I will do something I have never done before.  I will hug and kiss my husband and children and then leave them for the first time ever.  For an overnight trip with my Mom and my sister down near Lancaster, PA.  My mom has adopted children who are my own childrens' ages so the three of us are quite in the 'thick of things', as they say, though Mom is more of a 'been there, done that, doing it again' sort and Elizabeth and I are not quite to the 'done that' stage yet.  I am very excited because, since we are all in thick of things, it is very rare indeed to be able to connect with one another in such a personal and undisturbed, undistracted sort of way.  It will be great.  Among words like 'Mom's Weekend Away'  are words like jacuzzi, Amish buggy ride, a visit with Mrs. Ort (an old grandmother-figure from our growing up days), dinner reservations, a visit with Oom Hans, Amish farmer's market... how can it not be amazing?  

I am nervous to leave my little family, though.  Will the children survive while I am gone?  Will Matt?  I hope I will be able to enjoy myself without worrying.  (Jacuzzi.)  That's better.  

{Funny}

See Judah in photos.  The end.

{Real}

The biggest planning that needs to be done for my weekend away is preparing food (because keeping the children alive ought to be enough for Matt) and finding a few yarny things to do in the car-ride (because I am SO not driving!)  When packing for one person (me), packing can happen five minutes before take-off.

Which is good because the garden needs to be tackled in the worst way.  As you can see from the above photo- the walkways of the garden grew dandelion carpets.  That photo was taken a few weeks ago- before the rain and before the amount of dandelions doubled.  (See Andrew photo above- that is what I am dealing with.)  I hauled into it yesterday cursing this whole hay mulch situation and pining for a tractor tiller/plower thingy.  Who cares if it disturbs the soil life?!  But I will get the walkways re-done and the garden finally planted even if it kills me.