The family got down and dirty tonight.

We finally planted our garden out back.  Eight tomato plants, twelve pepper plants, two garlic plants, and two broccoli plants (Mario begged Jon to get the broccoli plants so he is on the hook for eating it if it actually grows).  Jon and I do not exactly have the greenest of thumbs so our fingers are all crossed that these plants actually produce some sort of  edible food for us.  Jon and I are dreaming of tomato and onion salad all summer.  When Jon used the tiller over the weekend, he found strawberries growing in our garden.  Strawberries!  The former owner of our home was a gardening nut and had all sorts of vegetables and herbs and I guess, fruits planted around the house.  Jon and I know the strawberry plants need some serious weeding but we have not quite got to that chore yet.  There really needs to be a robot invented that can smell out the weeds in your garden and flower beds and scorch them down to the Earth so that we would not have to manually do it every single week.  I can’t even tell what are weeds and what are flowers.  Half of the time I learn something is a weed, I am amazed because I found it to be just as gorgeous as a flower, and I only pull it if it is obviously strangling the flowers in its stead. 

Maria began the planting with us but soon tired of the activity and laid in the grass looking up at the sky.  Mario came out only after we ordered him off the computer (he is a Ben Ten fanatic).  However, once outside, he is a workhorse.  He wants to do as much physical labor as possible.  He begged to dig holes.  He planted plants and covered them with dirt.  He pulled weeds.  He told me how far down I should place the garlic plants and he scolded me when I did not hold the root up straight for him.  I see a gardener in the making. 

Being outside with the entire family made me happy.  No worries about homework (it was done) or running off to the store (it was done, too).  Just hanging out in our garden, getting our hands dirty and gazing at the couple of strawberries peeking out at us.