Countdown to Summer

Last year, if you'll recall, I did a lot of bitching and whining about our summer here being cut way short, with school ending in June and starting back in early August, due to a silly weather waiver. This year, since the waiver is no more, the kids are getting out earlier (May 23rd) since they started so early and then going back to normal start time the end of August with the rest of the state, so our summer break will be a little over 3 months long. 

I'm very much looking forward to three months of not having to deal with Dracen's early morning grumpy bear syndrome because sweet-Lord-in-heaven that child has really been testing my morning patience, which is barely there to begin with.  

He and Popaw plowed and planted his very own vegetable garden in our backyard Saturday morning.

Charlie plowed it up for him last spring and then Dracen got busy doing this-that-and-everything-else on weekends and never got it planted. Since he was just a toddler, he has loved helping his popaw in the  garden and now, at the age of 9 and a half, he has graduated to his very own.

I love seeing him get that excited over something besides watching marathons of Duck Dynasty and American Hoggers. Well, that isn't entirely fair. There's not much he loves more than playing baseball and hunting turkey.

Turkey hunting is something he just took up this year. He told me last night that the best way to wake him up in the mornings is to tell him we're going turkey hunting since he swears he springs right outta bed when Popaw wakes him for that. Somehow I don't think he'd buy that on a Monday morning so I haven't tried it...yet.

Devin spent his entire weekend, with the exception of church yesterday morning, upstairs in the bonus room watching Netflix and playing XBox. We barely seem him anymore. When he came down to put his laundry in the washer last night, it almost startled me because I nearly forgot someone else was in the house. 

I told Charlie he needs to take him to the shop and work him some this summer because he has strong tendencies toward sleeping past noon, couching it all day long, and staying up until ungodly hours of the night. Teenagers are another breed. But we were all there once. 

And this (and the seemingly long summer ahead) too shall pass...

Too quickly, no doubt. 

I sneaked and got a few shots of the garden-planting through the bedroom window with the zoom lens Charlie gave me for Christmas. I love that thing...

Makes me feel like a spy.

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do.  Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.  ~Alex Haley

One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides.  ~W.E. Johns

The best place to seek God is in a garden. You can dig for him there.  ~George Bernard Shaw

Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation.~Lois Wyse