leaves, carrots, herbs, and busy days

1~ Sunday was quite the blustery day {isn’t that a great word?} so I started the fall yard work. I mean clean up. It’s just one of those things that you think you can get done in a couple hours, and then after four hours of work, it looked as if I barely even made a dent into the work. All I know is that my hands ache pretty bad now, but that I have several garden beds that are cleaned out for winter.

2~ Earlier in the week {or was it last week} the kids raked all those glorious leaves {which made their way to the compost site} into massive piles. Well, not impressive massive as if we had 56 year old maples in our yard, but impressive for our now, finally growing trees.

3~ Hannah caught Samuel working very hard to get those silver maple leaves into a pile. He had learned quite quickly that you need to get a nice pile and then you can run and jump into them.  Never fear, there will be many many more opportunities for Samuel to jump in leaves — we’ve got some trees that haven’t even turned yet. And yes, that means more yard work — unless we get another blustery day and those leaves are blown away.

4~ While cleaning up my veggie garden bed I dug out these beautiful carrots. Yes, I know that they aren’t long, and that is due to my incredibly hard clay soil that I’m blessed with. Over the years that we’ve lived here I’ve tilled it and worked in vermiculite and leaves in the fall. When I first grew carrots they ended up being maybe an inch around and quite fat. So the fact that they’re almost 4 inches is quite the accomplishment. Seriously, I need a well done here.

5~ For a bit I worked side by side with Gracie. At first she wasn’t too eager to spend some time in that impressive wind, but after a bit of working her mood shifted. We cut down some chamomile that was growing on the side yard. That is a hardy herb — every year it grows larger and larger and spreads more and more.  In fact, I finally figured out it was chamomile by the scent that wafted around me as I cut it and put it in the yard bags. Tips on how to dry? For next year…

6~ That reminds me of a message that I heard several years ago talking about herbs and the fragrance that they give up — and the question posed was, what’s your fragrance? It stuck with me and I can’t seem to work with herbs without pondering that very question.

7~ Side note, I think Little Tikes might want to consider me a spokesperson. I mean, come on, look at all of that plastic stuff in my yard. And the leaves the kids stuffed in the castle….

8~ And so, another Monday begins. Of course, I’m busy and the schedule is full. Ha haha — when am I not ever busy? But, I try to not look as being busy as something to sigh about but rather something that I’m blessed to have on my plate. Even though I’m quite tired by the end of the day I’d much rather have days that are full and yes, sometimes a bit crazy. I’m blessed through it all.

Have an excellent Monday. And if any of you happens to have an inside connection with Little Tikes let me know…..And if you haven’t entered my giveaway for the awesome dishmat {yes, seriously, I just said that} click HERE to pop on over and add your name.

linking with my pal Carissa