After a gorgeous, warm spring day full of hard, physical work, I trudge to the living room with the full intention of settling myself into that comfortable recliner of mine. I put my feet up and bury my nose in a good book for several peaceful moments. Just having relaxed, I hear some earth-shaking screams coming from the girls’ upstairs bedroom. I can hear their feet pounding on the floor, hopping from one bed to the next, and then more screaming. I get weak, imagining some huge, wild animal must have crawled from under their bed or, worse yet, a human predator. They are now screaming, “Mom!”
I quickly abandon my royal chair. My feet hit the floor, run to the kitchen to get the flyswatter (the only weapon I could think of), and head up the stairs. For some odd reason I figured I could kill a demon with a lowly flyswatter.
I find Emily swaddled in a blanket and Karah, always the practical one, pointing to a huge bug. “Please get it!” she cries. I suppress my giggles plus a little anger, and quickly shoo the June bug out the window. What a fuss over one little huge bug. I can’t believe my girls.
School is out! The first day they were at home all day, we decided to go to Glory Gardens, the awesome greenhouse a mile north of here. I biked and the children hitched Tony to the pony wagon. They all helped decide what flowers we wanted, and I appointed certain flower beds for each one to plant and take care of this summer. Jesse picked out flowers for a pot.
When we got home, Jesse promptly planted his flowers. The rest of us planted ours, coming up a few plants short. The three girls hitched Tony to the wagon again and went to buy what we still needed. We planted the last ones in the rain, well satisfied that the job was complete. I told the girls I’m sad we’re done already because I love going to the greenhouse, planting all we bought, being surrounded by green grass, warm spring breezes, and birds heartily singing their songs.
I hear a lot of ladies saying their rosebushes did not survive the harsh winter. I’ve been watching mine closely, but I do believe six of the seven will survive. The seventh one was a younger plant, probably not as deeply rooted as the older plants. Colleen gave me a red tea rose for Mother’s Day. Wayne gave me a yellow one… I think just because he loves me.
We all love roses and usually keep a fresh bouquet on the kitchen table all summer long. We have miniature roses too that make perfect mini bouquets to set by the sink window to cheer our day as we do our daily kitchen duties.
We always plant annual yellow daisies, annual blue salvias, and annual white alyssum to round out these bouquets.