It was hard to wake up this morning. No, I guess the WAKING up wasn’t hard, it was the STAYING awake that was the hard part. I got up and dressed without much ado, and then accompanied my three early-morning companions downstairs. They were SO cheerful and excited about this new day. They wanted to eat their breakfast right away, and all I could see were dirty dishes and a cluttered counter. I trudged around, picking up empty yogurt containers, dirty spoons, and all the while thinking that a nap sounded really good! Finally a little breakfast was served to my eager preschoolers. That freed me up to get coffee brewing. Maybe coffee would help!

A short time later, I was sitting on the couch, holding my nice hot mug of coffee, when Mike (age 3) asked me if we could go outside. I had already told him that HE could go outside, but now he was wanting me to go with him. I did not want to go outside. I really didn’t. I was quite comfortable right where I was. But then I remembered an earlier post on this site where I said that a wonderful thing to do in the morning is to spend time with little ones. Those words of advice were ringing in my ears, along with the incessant repeated requests from Mike of, “…can we, Mama? Will you go outside with me? Will you…?” Finally I heard myself saying, “Yes. I will. As soon as I finish my cup of coffee, then we’ll go.” He stood there silent for a moment as he processed this new information. Then he asked, “May I have a drink?” I half expected him to drain my cup for me, but I said “Yes, a LITTLE drink.”

Mike left me alone while I sipped my coffee. My mind wandered, I leafed through a cooking magazine looking for inspiration. Then that little voice came back again, “Mama, NOW will you go outside with me?” I came back to reality and looked down at my mug. Empty. Well, I guess that means it’s time to go. “Yes. Shall we take Judah with us?” Oh yes, definitely, Mike wanted Judah (age 1) to go along. So out we went. We started in the front yard, looking at the tulips blooming there. The dew glistened on them and they were so beautiful! The dog was barking, so Mike made sure to scold him and he hollered at the neighbor kids that Mac wouldn’t hurt them. Then we needed to roll up Mike’s jeans so they wouldn’t drag under his feet. Once the front yard was patrolled, we headed out to the back yard. I showed Mike the beautiful violets growing so delicately and beautifully all over the yard. And he noticed the dandelions with their bright yellow heads. Soon his fist was full of violets and he kept practicing the word, “This is a violet. Here’s another violet.”

On we went to examine the rose bush. I showed him the thorns and we felt them and talked about them. Next to the rose bush is the red raspberry patch. They have thorns too, but much smaller ones. These raspberries are from my grandparents’ patch, so I stood for a bit, looking at the small shoots coming up off the bigger plants, and imagining my grandmother carefully collecting some of these shoots to bring to me all the way from Michigan. She died when Isaac was a baby, eight years ago, and I still miss her so much. This raspberry patch is a gentle reminder of her life and ministry.

Now it was time for Mike to gleefully toss the violets and start picking long-stemmed dandelions. By now I was feeling quite invigorated and thinking I should grab my camera and capture some of these moments. I carried Judah back inside, put him in the high chair, asked Amelia (age 4) to give him a cracker, and headed back outside with my camera. Amelia was thoroughly engrossed in playing on the PBSkids website, so she was a good companion for Judah.

Mike was pleased to be the subject for my photography. He wasn’t totally cooperative, and not doubt took some perverse pleasure in dropping or picking the very flowers I was trying to photograph. But that’s ok. Our yard has plenty of violets and dandelions to go around!

As we were admiring the violets and dandelions, I wondered anew why the lawn-service companies are so intent on getting rid of them. Through the years that we’ve lived here, various folks have called with offers to make our yard perfect. But again and again we tell them that we don’t need a lawn service. I don’t even try to explain to them that we LIKE our weeds. God has sprinkled our lawn with beautiful flowers that I enjoy looking at and the children love to collect. Oh, I’m sure that if we lived in a neighborhood where we needed to keep up with a certain standard, we’d have to say goodbye to our little floral friends. But we live in an older neighborhood, with neighbors who allow us to be the wild, flower-loving people that we are. Not only that, but I’m afraid that the lawn-service people would also frown at our “Redwall” fortress being built out back, not to mention the big hole being dug for various adventures. The brick fire pit would probably have to go, and the landscape timbers leaning up against the defunct swing would no doubt be nixed. And on top of all that, who knows what those lawn chemicals would do to our little garden snakes that we love to catch and admire!

So, another day has begun. For better and for worse, wild flowers and tame, it’s here!

The walk outside was refreshing. I had a second cup of coffee while importing my photos into the computer (all 96 of them!). Mike leaned on me from one side, taking drinks of my coffee, while Amelia leaned on me from the other side, declaring that I had taken a lot of dandelion photos.

Then I realized that I had indeed practiced what I preached! Wow! Who would have thought it possible?

So if someone asks me what I did in school this morning, I’ll tell them that we started with a botany lesson for Mike while Amelia did her Spanish lesson. From there we studied photography and we had P.E. (Judah even participated by having snack time and doing his vocal exercises from the high chair.) All this while the three older kids were sleeping! Ha! They’d better watch out. I’m on a roll!