We continue to become more and more connected to the weather around here. We’ve all probably reverted to those weather-related cliches whenever we don’t know what else to talk about.
“Heat ever going to let up?”
“It’s a hot one, huh?”
“Still calling for rain on Wednesday?”
These types of questions have become essential for us to ask, though, as we try to coordinate our hectic lives around the whims of Mother Nature. I think the best description of this summer’s weather is “Swamp Ass.” At least that has been my experience on our little hilltop.
Tomorrow’s weather is calling for up to 2 inches of rain. So, we’ll be up before 5:00 to beat the rain so that we can harvest this week’s bounty of flowers for our subscriptions, our wholesale orders, and our two upcoming weddings this weekend.
We had a big wedding this past weekend that took Audra and Maggie, our newest farmer-florist friend, over 40 man hours to design, deliver, and install. They really were stunning, and with the exception of some garden roses, they were all grown on our little farm. Because she’s been spending so many nights prepping for wedding work, I’ve been spending a lot more time as Mr. Mom. I’ve been doing most of the cleaning, cooking, laundry, and toddler entertaining. I’m not complaining at all, but I realized on Saturday that I might need to get out a little more. I made an appearance at a bachelor party for a family member on Saturday afternoon. Because Audra was busy installing her wedding flowers north of Chicago, I had our son with me. So I show up to this party where they had been engaging in a number of super manly activities. Playing bags, riding ATVs, shooting guns, smoking meat and eating it right off the bone, and probably like farting on each other. You know, man stuff. And for the record, I typically enjoy doing all of those things. [Let me clarify, I’m not pro-farting-on-other-dudes, but a solid thumbs up to everything else. I’m not even sure if dude farting is actually a thing.]
But on this particular Saturday I stroll up with my almost-three-year-old, a tiny hedgehog backpack on my back, and a sippy cup in my hand. After taking my kid behind a truck to change his diaper and chastise him for not peeing in the potty, just as I was walking back to the man convention with a urine-filled pull-up in my hand, I realized that this had to be the most emasculating experience of my life. And then, moments later, I accidentally announced that I had to “go potty” before I left to whoever was in earshot. I really was the perfect buzz kill.
Later that night I was on my hands and knees cleaning up legos and tractors and all the other toys that my son just HAD to drag out over the course of the day. My best friend and brother-in-law were on the deck having a drink, my sister was putting my son to bed, and I was folding blankets and organizing toys in the corner. Sure I wanted to be on the deck with the guys, but I had to stop and smile because I really can’t ask for much more than I have right now in this snapshot of my life.
Some days I’m on dishes duty, and then the next day I’m outside swinging a pickax for two hours as I clear out sunflower beds to prepare them for our final crop of the season. [See “Swamp Ass” reference above.] Like this weird farm of ours, I can be a whole lot of things at once and somehow it just works. I can be both matronly and manly. I can rock that hedgehog backpack, ya’ll.
Our lives are crazy messy, but we’re getting better and better at juggling all these priorities and still feeling like we have time for one another and have some semblance of balance to our existence. This week is shaping up to be one of the busiest of the season. So, I’d better go. I need to pack a drink and a snack for my kiddo in that trendy backpack of his. Maybe I’ll have a beer while I do it. Like I said, BALANCE.