I am sitting on my back porch watching my sprinkler system water the yard. I notice that Brainy Bird’s new little potted garden that he planted today is in a perfect location to be watered by the sprinklers. It is too late in summer to be planting with any hope of a bumper crop, but the purpose isn’t to feed China. The purpose is for Brainy Bird to learn the basics of caring for a garden and demonstrate that he will be responsible for it before we plant a full sized garden in the backyard, which is what he is hoping to do.
The boys are inside playing Funky Barn on the Nintendo U. I hear them working together to add animals to their virtual farm. It is the first time that the video game system has been turned on today. They spent their morning putting together puzzles. Little Chirp put together a 100 piece Noah’s Arc floor puzzle, while Brainy Bird continued work on his new 1,000 piece Old Fashion Candy Shop puzzle. It took Little Chirp a long time to get his puzzle together, and at one point he quit mid-effort. I told him that we would do nothing else until he spent the time figuring it out. I had to send Big B upstairs to keep him from helping. Little Chirp is used to everyone telling him how to do everything; he is great at asking for help. He is terrible at figuring things out on his own. This summer we are working on developing his analytical skills and his independence. This morning’s lesson was a big success. Little Chirp was so excited when he finished his giant 100 piece floor puzzle all on his own. It took him more than 2 hours. He came into the study to get me, and says quietly, “come see.”
I followed him into the living room where he had assembled his puzzle, and I saw the look of excitement and sense of accomplishment in his eyes. He was so happy. I praised him, and he glowed even more. I then told him to run upstairs and tell Brainy Bird what he had done. Brainy Bird did an excellent job of acknowledging his little brother’s accomplishment, even though he himself was putting together 400+ piece puzzles at Little Chirp’s age in less time.
In the afternoon, the boys organized the game room closet, and re-discovered a whole bunch of games that they want to play next week while we are off. Then they worked together to plant Brainy Bird’s new little potted garden. I was impressed at how well they did this all by themselves.
While they worked on their garden, I worked to fix the sprinkler system. The control box went out, completely. It would not turn on at all. My mission was to wire up a new control box. I ran into a number of issues, and I could not get it working. We all went inside once the boys finished the garden. The grass is starting to die, while all of the other yards on the street are lush and green.
After dinner, when it was much cooler outside. Brainy Bird and I went back outside to try to turn on the sprinkler system manually. My neighbor was outside, and he said he did not think that it could be turned on manually. Instead, he took a look at my control box wiring. In less than 20 minutes, he had the sprinklers turning on. I got pretty excited when I heard the little buzz of sprinkler heads coming on by the other side of the house.
A great deal has happened since my last blog post. I am minus a few organs, and I have a whole new perspective on life. Something about sitting here at the end of a perfect day, listening to the boys play together and watching the sprinklers, which I fixed myself with the kind help of a neighbor, makes me very content.
I am extremely thankful for my life.