A Weekend in the South

     Look how green everything is in North Carolina! The weather was picture-perfect for a visit to Claire and Daniel's. The plan was for Steve to help Daniel build a shed and Claire and I would work on the garden. On Saturday morning Steve and Daniel got started on the shed and Claire and I went to get mulch. Everyplace was bustling with busy people, including the landfill where we went to buy composted mulch. The guy at the landfill dumped way too much mulch on top of our truck. It was piled so high and so heavy that I thought the rear tires were going to burst. I was a bundle of nerves for the drive back to Claire's and I drove with my flashers on at 40 mph for the entire eleven miles. I was upset that the bulldozer guy would dump so much onto our truck like that. Of course we had to stop for bagels on the way home, having our priorities straight and all. Those bagels were worth every minute of stress I experienced while parked illegally in a truck I thought would hit the ground at any moment. After we got home and ate our bagels, we spread the entire load which took about six hours. Claire did the bulk of it.

     All day long, the children played in and out and around us. I "helped" by holding the baby a lot.  That evening Steve and I babysat while Claire and Daniel had a date night. I gave the children baths, bundled them in pajamas and read books at bedtime. They were asleep within minutes. It was a full, exhausting day in the very best possible way.