After a family breakfast my sweetheart and I wandered back outside and began tearing into our Blackberry bushes. We have had these bushes since moving in 6 years ago but being a city girl and not knowing anything except that they had 3 leaves on them I spent my first summer here killing them off because I thought they were poison ivy. Yep. A few years ago a bunch of the plants on the back corner side of the yard escaped my notice and actually managed to grow high enough for my Aunt to notice them and tell my new husband that they were in fact berry bushes and to let them grow. Since I spent the next 4 summers pregnant and ill or with a new born the bushes grew wild and unattended... until this year. We tore into them, we cut down and pulled out thorn trees taller than I am and trimmed out all of the dead brush, leaves and old plants. What a chore! My arms and hands are shredded and I was still pulling thorns out of my skin here and there early this morning. The kids weeded in the flower beds around the house and played in the yard while my husband and I tore into the bushes and then they helped us pick the Blackberries that were ready.
We gathered 3 big bowl full of juicy sweet berries. The kids were had a lot of fun picking the berries and Ammon's mouth and fingers were purple from snacking on so many of them. After lunch and the babies afternoon nap we all went back outside where my husband and I had started burying edging and spraying weeds.
The kids and I decided to take a break and splashed around in the swimming pool for a bit before I returned to yard work and YES I jumped into the pool in my shorts and t-shirt. One of the many bonuses of having my own backyard pool- I can swim in whatever I want! The kids had a blast swimming and splashing around while we finished up yard work.
As I went in to throw a few pizzas in the oven for dinner I reflected on the day up until that point and found myself feeling very satisfied and blessed. In reflection I find that my most joyous days are those that I spend working outside with my sweetheart. Some times we disagree on how things should be done or which projects should be taken on next but mainly we have found working together outside to be not only productive but to also a bonding experience for the two of us.
We have enjoyed helping to clean, care for and improve our home and land and have many projects and plans and daydreams for sunny days to come. We have also found our pool to be a huge source of fun for our family and have not regretted the investment that we made in it. We decided last summer after weighing the costs of a family pool membership, the gas expense in and out of town, the different needs of our teenage children versus our toddlers and after considering some of the social aspects of both a community pool versus having a pool of our own- pros and cons that a backyard pool was the best choice for our family. What a good decision we made!
I love working, resting or playing outback (in whatever I choose to be wearing) and watching my kids laugh, play and swim around together. I love being able to go out at whatever time of day we please- morning, evening, afternoon, night even... wearing whatever we want and playing in the water for as short or for as long a time as we want.
I love that we can picnic in our backyard and then jump back into the pool. I love that we can grab an ice cream out of the freezer and lay in the sun and then jump back into the pool. I love that when I was working like a dog and overheating in the sun doing yard work yesterday that my husband tossed me into the pool shorts, t-shirt and all!
Our life is blessed and joyful and I am so grateful for both the blessing of work and of play. I am grateful that this is something my sweetheart and I can do together and that we can share both with our children. I hope that it brings them the same feelings of gratitude and fulfillment that it brings to myself and to my Rick. HAPPY SUMMER DAYS!!!
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