Easily Excitable

We always say fall is the busiest time of year. I think fall is busy, absolutely, but the silent assassin? 

It’s springtime. 

This spring, we’ve been slammed: it’s the busiest one I can remember. 

Here’s a little catch up on the past few weeks: 

School’s been off the charts. 

Spring’s always like drinking out of a fire hose. We just wrapped up state testing in 10th grade ELA, and it was a year-end sprint. We’re not done with content just yet, but the most stressful part is over. 

In 9th grade, we’re doing Romeo and Juliet, and surprisingly, the kids are all about it. 

Something about teenage angst is timeless, I guess??

This unit landed just after our yearly research essay. A few years ago, I started doing this project a little differently. I realized we were rushing at the cost of actually learning how to write. 

Therefore, I changed it up a little. 

Now, we break down this essay to its barest parts. We do one paragraph at a time. 

I teach, they write, I grade. 

Repeat. 

This makes for a writing marathon. 

Figuring it all together, I ended up grading 400ish paragraphs.

It’s a big undertaking, but I’ve grown to love this unit. The grading is an added stress, but the growth is a lot more apparent. 

We had our annual Family Reunion.

We had our fifth annual family reunion this year, and it was a blast, as always. 

There was a bouncy house. There were campers. There was an Easter egg hunt. 

There were more hugs than one could count. 

We’ve changed up the activities in the field day because many of our group are…wiser…than the rest of us: they’ve earned a few more gray hairs than the next generations. 

We started out with tug of war in Year 1, and it was a hilarious disaster. 

Children were trampled, and backs were seriously tweaked. 

Now, we do have volleyball, but we also have dance competitions, spelling contests, and relay races. 

No one had to go to the emergency room this year, so we all won. 

Now, Trey and I had to duck out for a bridal party for one of my best friends, so we did miss the field games, but we were able to stick around for the sitting-outside-and-enjoying-family-time portion of Saturday. It’s one of our favorite parts. 

This was an eventful time of the day, replete with backbend and toe-touching competitions, as well as mahjong. 

We all ran our mouths as much as possible. 

Sunday morning held breakfast and good-byes. This youngest generation loves family time, the farm, and getting to be together as much as we do. 

We are blessed. 

Spring break brought to-do lists

Spring break week was almost as busy as a typical teaching week.

The biggest ticket item was getting the house cleaned. 

That involved washing walls, dusting ceiling fans, and cleaning baseboards. I both steamed and mopped the floors. Between that, making phone calls, taking Boone to the vet and the groomer, and making a big trip to the dump, it was a full week. 

This season, the celebrations have been nonstop

We’ve attended an untold number of celebrations: birthday parties (both for children and adults alike), wedding showers, a wedding, baby showers, two fish frys, and even a fundraiser for one Mr. Danny Mathis. 

A season full of parties? We could do a lot worse.

There was one stretch where I got to see my best friends three weekends in a row. This doesn’t happen a whole lot, as busy as life is: seeing each other this much is almost as good as living right down the hall from one another in college. 

How great is this stage of life? 

I’ve planted the garden.

Duh. It’s only the highlight of every spring.

A couple of weekends ago, we had the heaviest and most exhausting planting day. After a morning of pickleball (I’ll get to that later), Trey cut grass, and I planted tomatoes. 

I planted around fifty. It just about took me down. By the end of the day, I had almost 30,000 steps. 

The pre-planting was the trickiest part. Before I could even put the tomatoes in the ground, I had to water the ground itself. 

Then, I had to corral the dogs. Next, I had to find my measuring sticks. After that, I had to dig the holes…then dig them deeper. 

Last, I had to clear out the excess grass from the patch. 

After an hour and a half of prepping? 

It made a lot more sense why it takes Daddy a year and some change to get anything done around the farm. It’s not the doing that necessarily takes so long.

It’s all that pre-doing that seems to really take the cake. 

The actual planting of the tomatoes? That took an hour, tops. 

Then, thank goodness, Trey watered the plants for me. That’s real love. 

By the end of the day, we could barely move. 

More on the garden:

We began with the pipe dream that we’d have a smaller garden this year. 

A few weeks in, and we’re back to the size we’ve been operating at every other year.

Big shocker there, right? 

We’re growing the aforementioned tomatoes, zucchini, yellow squash, cucumbers, and peppers of all types. 

And we’ve got my favorite pet project: herbs. 

There’s mint, basil, cilantro, parsley, and dill. 

Add all of these goodies to the potatoes, brussel sprouts (a massive fail), onions, and peas we planted in February. 

In all of our spare time, we’ve also gotten back into the outdoor sports. 

First came golf: we played over spring break. I shot in the 100s, and that was a generous score. Had Trey not edged my count a bit, I may well have been in the 150s. 

It wasn’t pretty, but we had a ball. 

Then, the past couple of weekends, we’ve caught up with the Duprees, and we’ve gotten in some games of pickleball. We’ve not played since Thanksgiving break, so there have been several moments when this wasn’t too pretty either. 

All the same and nonetheless? Yet again, we had a ball. 

This weekend, it’ll be a pretty calm one, all things considered. 

We have a relaxed Friday, and Saturday, I’ll be helping out with a wedding shower, then we have our annual Zay Day. 

A few years ago, Trey and I started a tradition wherein we take Zayden shopping for his birthday. 

Being that Zayden turned 11 a few weeks ago, this Saturday is the big day! 

Usually, he’s all about video games. Now, though, he’s requested we go to Dick’s Sporting Goods. He’s eyeing some sporting equipment, along with some new tackle for his fishing obsession. 

When I dropped by the house this morning before work, Zayden was already up and dressed, ready to show off his new fishing pole he got from Walmart. 

When I left? He was practicing casting it out in the yard. It was 7:05am. 

Spring is busy. 

But it’s a lot of fun, too. 

I spend every day with people I love, doing things I love. 

I am a blessed woman.