Simple Summer Day

Today was one of those days filled with sweet simplicity that only summer can bring. Despite the calendar,  summer weather usually doesn't start in the PNW until after the 4th of July.  Today, however,  was hot and clear.  It was exactly what we needed after a week of rain and the big P.

Yep.  Brian was diagnosed with Pneumonia last Saturday.  Brian living like an invalid for nearly a solid week was just plain weird.  My man is normally so active he has a hard time turning his brain off.  This week, instead,  was filled with a lot of mama/daughters mall days and movie nights so that daddy could rest in peace.  Thankfully he has been recovering quite quickly and has been up and around quite a bit the last two days.  Just in time for me to keep a few grams of sanity in tact.  Whew!

The sun came early today and we were ready.  Sunblock sprayed (and inhaled...anyone else worried about what's in that stuff, but too lazy to apply the "natural" sunblock that makes your kid look like a slippery albino monkey?  yeah, me neither...), shorts donned, salt waters buckled and out the door we went.   The girls to the back to play with their two cousins and I to the front to battle the weeds.

I don't know what has happened to me, but I am suddenly driven to do things like weed and trim and other yardy (yes, that's a technical term) stuff.  (Does that mean I'm getting old?  What's next?  A floppy hat and pink floral gardening clogs?  save me...)  Naturally I don't always answer this new found feeling, but today I did.  Maybe it was the weather.  Maybe it was the fact that one more minute inside our house could cause my brain to explode.  It doesn't matter.  I was outside and weeding and liking it. Stranger things have happened. Right?

Then one by one the kidlets drifted from the back to the front and they all ended up helping me.  It was like some sort of magical spell fell upon them.  My niece, Maudi, picked weeds and chatted about her ill-fated botany assignment (a cabbage gone awry) while even Eva (19 months) was picking up the yard debris and getting into the bucket 2 out of 5 times.  The whole front yard was weeded, trimmed and deadheaded before lunch and not a single complaint was spoken.

We all tumbled back into the back yard sticky and hot and proud of ourselves.  I made lunch and the kids decided to dig a hole that looked like they were trying to get to China.  Then.  It happened.  Daddy once again returned to full fledged hero status in one fell purple plastic swoop.

We were about to hook up last summer's sprinkler ball when he showed up with a purple plastic pool equipped with its VERY. OWN. SLIDE.  Elli couldn't stop squealing for nearly an hour as Brian set it up.  The rest of the day was peppered with "I can't believe my dreams came true."  If only we all could be so thrilled with $34.99 worth of purple plastic.

The rest of the day was spent breaking in both the new pool and the new swimsuits with a small trip to Target and some BBQ squeezed in.  It couldn't have been more normal nor more lovely.  I'm going to bed a very happy and blessed girl.

Sweet dreams, Poland.