There aren't words for the beauty of the weather this weekend. I have been itching to get outside in the garden but this darned cold weather has kept us indoors. The entire week I watched the forecast just holding my breath through the overcast rainy days in hopes that the weatherman was correct and that Saturday and Sunday would bring clear, blue skies and warm weather.
The weatherman didn't fail me.
I practically flew out of bed Saturday morning, pulled on my work clothes and hastily got everyone fed so that we could head outside to start the garden. Now lest I trick you into thinking that I am a gardening pro with an amazing green thumb, let me set the record straight--I am a gardening novice. Last year was my first big attempt at something other than tomatoes and basil. Maybe it was first timers luck or the magic of the Garden State, but whatever it was it fueled this fire inside of me for gardening and love for spending countless hours digging in the dirt.
Now last year when we planted, I had a newborn who slept peacefully through my digging, watering and weeding. This year, I have an extremely active one year old AND one in the oven ready to make an appearance this summer, so you might say that my energy level is waning daily. Gratefully, I have a hard working husband who loves me enough to help me do the heavy work. And work we did. We worked most of the day--I might have taken a break in there somewhere to get a massage and left the others to keep working. And I might have even felt a twinge of guilty about that, but not enough to keep me from going!
We even enlisted the kids to pick up rocks. While they weren't laboring, they were building a worm habitat, climbing trees and picking flowers {weeds}. They had their little imaginations going and their clothes filthy. When London woke up, I put him in some already dirty clothes and let him go to town in the freshly tilled dirt. Could there be a happier baby than one free to get filthy?
And this is where my motherhood has evolved. When I was a new mom with Claire, I hated cleaning up messes and went to great lengths to avoid them. Some things haven't changed, I
still hate cleaning up messes, but my attitude and perspective has changed a little. I have come to realize that reasonable messes are a part of exploring, learning and experiencing; and though it becomes work for me to take a break from whatever I am doing and haul a filthy kid up to the tub to wash the caked dirt from his toes, scrub paint from various surfaces, do extra laundry or help pick up paper shards from the carpet, their pure joy, learning and enjoyment has become worth it to me and almost easier in the long run.
I have tried to stop worrying about clean clothes, bumps, bruises, torn pants, messy hair and a little eaten dirt and I have to say it has made me happier. Plus I know that my kids are happier for it!
