If it rained on the moon...and snails.

As I mentioned before, we purchased a home. Oddly, the backyard was completely unlandscaped. It looked like the moon...after a spring rain because the weeds were growing fast! I have employed a very focused young man (age 12) to pull weeds for a couple of bucks per plot. Each plot is a couple of fence posts by a couple of fence posts. Obviously, they are estimates. He is a stellar weed puller and no I won't tell you his name lest he get nabbed for your yard. It is difficult to find a really great weed puller. It is hot, dirty, mundane work. He gets the gold star.

I, too, am pulling weeds and spraying weeds with a homemade herbicide (1 qt vinegar, 1/4 c salt, 2 t dish soap) and mowing them down when the squirt bottle goes dry. We hung a clothesline so I had to make a dent in the weeds so I could hang out the diapers. Now we have several perfectly square dirt patches checkerboarded with amoeba shaped weedy parts. My goal is to let nothing flower. So far, we have filled 4 garbage cans with weeds!

When it is done, it should look like the moon - dirt...dust...perfect...until it rains again.

On an unrelated note, I am happy to share that we received some wonderful and generous gifts for Ren's first birthday. One of the funnier ones is the toy below:


What is it you ask? This is the classic rocking toy: Sandy the Snail (according to the tag - speaking of...Have you noticed that more toys come with a name so children don't have the simple joy of giving their new beloved thing a self imposed title?? What happened to: Look Jimmy, a new teddy bear, what will you name it? Jimmy thinks...he responds "Teddy". )

Back to the snail. Ren loves it. She tries to climb on and she sits on it, even rocks occasionally. It plays four songs: ABCs, 123's, Some random tune about rocking, and a Rainbow song. The Rainbow one is my current favorite and the one on repeat in my brain. The singer sounds fresh from the cruise ship lounge. I can see him, with a microphone in his hand, sun setting behind him on the ocean, "The colors of the raaaaainbooooooow are very good to knoooooooooooow. We see them eeeeeeeeeeverywhere you gooooooooooo."

Maybe another glass of wine will help.