The Fern & Other Casualties

I remember as a kid I would have to weed in our garden.  I was never very good at chores.  I always got too distracted with something, but weeding- there's no distraction there.  You're in the hot sun and there are things crawling all over you... things that make you go ICCCKKK!  Thankfully, I was usually involved with too many sporting events to have to do this regularly, but I still remember pulling out ivy from my Nana's front hill.  I also remember taking out every single star-thistle in the church parsonage on Wesley Lane.  We lived on Highland Drive and there we had blackberry bushes to pull out.  Now by 'we' I don't mean myself, my mom, my stepfather, my sister and my brother- that 'we' was mostly myself and Ric... at times.  Because weeding isn't bad enough, add to it the stickers and prickers of those stinkin bushes with the biggest roots ever... 

      I used to think I had done something awful for Mom to make me do that and I swore I would never weed again- I'd hire someone or just live where all the things that need to be done were mowing and weed-whacking.  Well, today, I proved that declaration wrong.  Not only did I weed for what seemed like forever, I also de-ferned my flower bed, pulling up a fuschia plant that had been swallowed up by said fern about a decade ago.  

Now, you must understand how this weeding and de-ferning went down.  Remember, Em is now 8 1/2 months old and Lani (Jabulani is her full name, it means 'rejoice' in Zulu) is a whole 7 weeks.  So, all three of us were out there, and Em and Lani had promised to help, although, after they looked at it, both seemed to poop out for naps.  When they woke up though, they were READY to play.  They were crawling and bounding all over the place.

When Em was first born, I used to look at those onesie's with comments printed on them like "Face it, it's time to call Grandma" and laugh at how silly they were.  After the girls' naps, however, I decided that I needed to make one of my own.  It would read:

Just say NO to dirt... and rocks, dog chew toys, ants, fern leaves, dirty shovels, sticks, dog food, grass, and, most importantly, say NO to the worms!  I was trying to picture

 how it would all fit on such a small piece of clothing, but then I realized that even with it on, that was no guarantee that my daughter's "help" wouldn't happen again.  Nothing makes you want to gag quite like seeing your daughter with a wiggling earthworm half hanging out of her smiling mouth.  Again, things that make you go ICCCKKK!  

Needless to say that after naps, there wasn't nearly as much weeding as there was, "Lani, NO," followed up with, "Emmerson Capri, NO!"  

Well, look on the bright side, at least the two know their names!!  That, and they are learning early how to be partners in crime.  But even with all the commotion,  the fern was successfully taken out, as were most of the weeds, and the only one worse for the wear was a toy trowel that I had been using... until I bent it beyond recognition.  Jake, thank you for donating your toy shovel to a good cause, if your daddy is reading this to you, I'm very sorry about that.