The day of work rest. OK, it was a day of WORK. Here is how we spent our day. Michael finished painting the boys rooms.
A nice blue accent wall in Nicholas’ room. 
A delightful orange accent wall in Joshua’s room. 
Joshua and I headed outside to do some weeding. He will be helping me a lot for a week.
Look at how nice it looks without weeds. 
Here is the wheel barrow full of the weeds we broke our backs pulling out of the ground. 
And here is what is still left to do. Grab a tissue. It’s really sad. 
I’ve always hated weeds. Now more than ever. However it did give me a quick teaching moment with Joshua. Not that he listened. I was noticing that in the beginning he wasn’t working to get the root out. “If we don’t get all of the root out then the root keeps growing and weeds keep coming back. Weeds are a picture of sin sweetie. If we don’t ask/allow God to root out sin in our lives then it will only come back. Bigger and stronger than before.”
After a couple of hours my back ached so much that we stopped and we moved on to mowing. Michael was done with the painting and cleaning up so he joined us. Here’s how it went. Joshua on the riding lawn mower cutting the larger areas. Michael edging with the trimmer while I was pushing the regular lawn mower getting closer to things that Joshua couldn’t do. Here is the end result. (I was too sweaty to take pictures during the fun time)
Oh, by the way. We call this area of our property “The Shire”. We’re geeks. 
See the tree in the above picture? Cool looking isn’t it. See all that stuff in the bed around the tree? WEEDS! Some taller than me. AARRGHHH I’m drowning in a sea of weeds. By the time I get even half of them weeded they will be back.
About half of the trees in this whole are fruit trees. My job required getting under the trees as close to the trunks as possible. By the end I had knocked off plenty of apples, pears, plums, cherries and in the process got a lot of organic material stuck in my hair. It can get lost in there pretty easily.
It was a lot of work but it felt good. Plus I had to have burned a lot of calories. I really should have worn my heart rate monitor. I like the push lawn mower for that reason. Burn those calories. It’s my own version of a gym workout.
Anybody want to come down for a weed pulling party? Anybody? Anybody?
Karen
WOW!!! You guys have been busy. It looks really nice though….and besides what else would you be doing??? We can rest all we want when we are in heaven. In the meantime, we work. But seriously Michael and Karen, don’t forget to enjoy some down time once in awhile. And PLEASE, take care of your backs.
Weeds, glorious weeds…. so luscious and wholesome (Hum the tune…. Oliver Twist…Food, glorious food. Gosh… is it Oliver Twist? I’m tired from working in the garden myself….) Those weeds….grrrrrr…they never go away. I’m sorry to tell you this; but it is true. Someday we really will get our rest. Someday all things will be restored. I hope that we get to see what happens to the weeds on THAT DAY.
Like the paint colors – good job choosing, boyz. Love ya!
Love the geese, love the room colors, boys, and, WOW!! does the fruit orchard look great. I also love work, the accomplishment, now that I have the red blood cells I need!! Personally, I prefer Round-up, sometimes. You guys have accomplished so much in such a short time. I am so proud of you and happy for you and your new life you have chosen!!
Well, I still do not see my comment. So here goes. Karen, nice teaching moment. You will know if Joshua listened when he is around 40.
I’ll come weed. Can I bring my Round-up??
Waiting to hear about the goats.
Love, Mom, Karren and Grandma
Okay. So we can have the East Coast weed pulling party for those who don’t want to travel west of the Mississippi. Your property looks gorgeous. We are SO HAPPY for you. Lots of love.