21 February 2018

This was a long weekend because of the Presidents' Day holiday.  Saturday morning, Mr. Brown and Nut Brown went to a wetlands festival together, and Nut Brown came back talking about how he got to hold a live snake.  He enjoyed the one on one time with Mr. Brown a lot.  Rose Pink was invited to the temple with some friends, and ended up spending the whole day with them because there was a youth fireside that evening for a visiting Apostle as well. 


In the morning, I worked on moving a mountain of mulch and forwarding our plan to mulch most of the backyard.  We have made a surprisingly good start of it!  Bobo and Rosebud helped me by riding in the wheelbarrow and raking the mulch out while I shoveled the next load.  Bobo is quite a good worker when he settles into it. 


After lunch, Nut Brown did his chores while I moved some more mulch and then we went to the big library downtown.  I love this library for its hugeness!  Nut Brown was not as impressed as he expected to be.  I guess I talked it up a little too much.  It is fun to begin to explore a little more in Orlando though.  And I always love a library!  We accidentally stole some pencils that the kids were drawing with, but Nut Brown decided that we did need to take them back, so he returned them.  When we were checking out, the library employee was super friendly, and asked the kids to draw pictures for her.  I love it when people are friendly to my kids.


On Sunday, I was laying down on the couch with Mr. Brown (he was pretty low all weekend) and the kids came out and decided to pamper us by bringing us lemonade and then playing Labyrinth with me.  We had a fun time together.  Unexpected kindness is touching. 


Mr. Brown and Nut Brown went out for a Cub Scout hike on Monday morning.  While they were gone, the rest of us worked on getting the annual garden in and planted, thus increasing the number of things I have to water every day.  One of the benefits of having a well is that I can water without regard to cost!  My pecan trees have little leaves on them, which I find super exciting.  A friend also gave me some rosemary and chive seeds, so we planted those.  Down here rosemary is a perennial and Mr. Brown has dreams of a rosemary hedge.


After lunch on Monday, we went to the beach (except Mr. Brown).  We scoped out a new beach called Playalinda Beach, and it was super nice.  It's a good rocket launch vantage point, which is why it was chosen for this visit.  One of Rose Pink's friends from church came with us too.  We splashed in the waves, played in the sand, ran up and down the beach, ate snacks, absorbed the sunshine, and had a great time.  We had to leave before we were ready, and then the evening was a little hectic because everyone needed showers when we got home.  Still learning how to plan a trip to the beach!  It was lovely to go.  I am so glad that the beach will get to be part of my children's memories.  It was always important to me too.