On Cleaning, Growing Tulips, Getting Dirty, Eating Smores, Watching Golf, and the Birthday Season

Typical of weekends, the particular one we just experienced came to a close before I could get my bearings.  Yesterday morning I woke amazed (and a little distressed) to find that I've been flung into another new week. 

Let me take a moment to catch up and share some recent happenings with you, stream-of-consciousness style.

1) House Rental Season (spring edition) is upon us.  As I've written before, as homeowners in a university town, we periodically rent our house to alumni who are visiting for a special event, like graduation, or football games, or in the case of this past weekend, an exhibition football game where the team breaks in half to play itself while over 70K fans, all of whom have been deprived of football since the fall, come to watch. 

Preparing for a rental entails extensive cleaning, which ultimately means that my house was gleaming.  (Note the use of past tense here.  We're once again back in our house with our three children, which automatically implies that surfaces no longer gleam.)

2) Things are growing.  On Sunday afternoon I strolled the yard on my daily tulip hunt.  Yep, they're coming.


3) Days of sunshine make you realize what you're missing when it rains.  Friends, we were spoiled this weekend with two days that epitomized what spring should be about: beautiful blue skies, warm sun, and light breezes.  Once we returned from the rental, the girls played in the yard and made a happy mess of themselves, which solidified our decision that it was high time to start a campfire in our fire pit and roast marshmallows.

I've come to the conclusion that one should never bring clean children to a campfire -- only dirty children -- as it's inevitable that marshmallow will end up smeared on somebody's clothes.  And face.  And in their hair.  And, in the case of my five-year-old, inside their ear, which really seems to demonstrate a special talent.


4) I appreciate Smores more each time I eat them.  This sentiment can stand alone without further explanation.

5) I love watching golf on television.  Don't judge.  Don't tell me it's boring and slow.  I already know that it's slow, and sometimes I need boring.  This weekend was the Masters, and I loved listening to the hushed announcers with their pleasing British and Scottish accents.  I loved watching the innovative camera angles as we're flown in an aerial view over Augusta National.  The lush greenness!  The azaleas!  The fact that Bubba Watson won the green jacket again!

Oh, yes, I can handle this kind of boring as a backdrop to my Sunday afternoon and evening.



6) There are three more weeks of the semester.  Four, if you're including finals week.  Not that I'm counting, but I have roughly 300 more pages of student essays, 56 more speeches, 66 student blogs, 33 final projects, and 56 final exams left to go. 

But I'm not counting.

7) The Kramer family birthday season is upon us.  My oldest daughter turns nine today.  Nine years old!  Obviously, this has unfolded day by day, yet a part of me is surprised by the fact that I've been mothering this long.  Another part of me feels every day of it, all 3,285 of them.  What a ride it has been.  What a blessing!

By this time next month, we'll have celebrated the birthday of my husband and my other two daughters, which means that I'm going to hang a "Happy Birthday" sign and leave it up for the next four weeks to account for this massed influx of spring births.  (Once and done decorating, my friends.)

Wishing you a glorious day!
____________________________________________________

Augusta National Golf Course pictures compliments of Robert Du Bois and Torrey Wiley, respectively (Flicrk.com)

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3 comments

  1. I love that in the midst of hectic busyness, you had some moments to really pause and enjoy.

    Since we live in a condo, I get my fire pit time on the weekends at the lake during the summer. I've been super excited for lake season to begin... I love a great s'more and fire roasted corn on the cob and hot dogs, and just plain old roasted marshmallows. I'm guessing my "clean eating" will take a back seat on the weekends this summer.

    4 weeks?! Does that mean you're done too? It must right, otherwise you wouldn't be counting... not that you're counting ; )

    Wishing you a lovely remainder of the week (and happy birthday to your daughter). Nine?! Wow!

    Blessings to you my friend.
    xoxo

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  2. Yes, I get to take a break after the semester ends, which is a massive blessing. And you're correct: I'm SO not counting. Not at all.

    Your summer weekends on the lake sound wonderful! Enjoy every single bite! :)

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  3. Your school workload makes me tired for you. And the entire process of getting a household to a gleaming status makes me tired for you. Finally, the idea of getting out marshmallows from an ear canal makes me really, really tired for you. So, you shouldn't be tired at all now. See what a good friend I am?
    Here is how we got through the winter months without being able to utilize a campfire, yet still get our Smores fix: http://www.dessertfortwo.com/2013/12/indoor-smores/#.U0_pyChBAso

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