Ahhh...

... the lovely sounds of spring. Birds chirping, a lawn being mowed, the crunch of wet grass underfoot.

I looked outside this weekend to see all sorts of birds flying around our yard looking for food. It seemed like a good time to make those pine-cone bird feeders. So we got out all the messy ingredients and smeared and dipped until there was sufficient amount of peanut butter and millet in just about every square inch of the dining room. Deciding to leave the mess until after we were done, we headed outside.


I got the ladder out to hang the bird feeders and hung them in just the right places that would be perfect for the birds to find. I reveled in the beauty of nature smiling sweetly to myself and watched the boys play.

Then Sawyer began crawling in the muddy grass and Ian started arguing with me because he wanted to climb the ladder. I was trying to ignore how cold, sticky, and sweaty I was becoming and tried to once again focus on those soon-to-be mama birds and the good deed we were doing. Sitting in the mud, Sawyer began eating twigs and, I was hoping, avoiding all the poop that the neighborhood animals usually leave in our backyard. Ian decided it would be fun to smack the new pine-cone feeders with a stick knocking all the bird seed on the ground all the while I was firmly asking him to stop so I could take a good picture to show how much fun we were having outside.


I decided the front tree needed one too so off we headed to the front, a muddy Sawyer in one arm and a rickety ladder in the other while holding the string of a goo-covered pine cone in my mouth. Ian thought it was funny to shake the ladder while I balanced on the top and I silently cursed a bird and it's chirpy little song as it flew by.

Finally... all the feeders were up and I sat down to catch my breath for a moment. Ian joined me on the porch while hitting everything in sight with a stick and I gave him the evil-eye warning him about swinging it too closely to my head. I tried not to think of the mess in the house or the muddy clothes of the boys wishing we were back inside.

Suddenly I saw a metal water hose sprayer he'd been playing with earlier flying through the air. And as these things seem to go... the only place it deemed worthy of landing was directly on the soft sweet forehead of Sawyer. *Whack.* His head flew back. There was blood. There was screaming. I rushed over to see how bad it was and to comfort him when Ian started crying. So I took both boys, screaming, back into the backyard, gathered the ladder and camera and headed inside. They were muddy and cold but I was worried about Sawyer so I forgot about the mud for awhile. Sawyer seemed fine so I comforted Ian. Then I spent the next hour cleaning up mud, peanut butter, and bird seed all the while thinking that those soon-to-be-mama birds better be really, really, grateful for all that food.


P.S. Sawyer was fine. He perked up soon after and even smiled a little in his sweet way when I took this picture.

PRINT THIS POST