playing in the dirt

I've spent the last week with a cold ~ not quite the short, sweet kind either. I had fevers in the evening that were clear by morning. No reason not to got to work, right? Friday night was the first night with no fever. Woohoo ~ feeling like I was on the downhill slide of this. That is, until I spent the whole night coughing, not sleeping. I did finally fall asleep a few times once I moved myself to the couch so I wouldn't wake up Greg and the kids who were camping out on our floor. Little did I realize I was still keeping him up too. Anyway, I woke up Saturday with that unmistakable pressure that means only one thing...sinus infection. Greg was all set to work in the yard. He had to do some dirt moving into the tiered planters in the back yard. I asked if he wanted my help and he told me no, he didn't want me passing out back there. I procrastinated a little, then took myself to the doctor. Sinus infection confirmed. Antibiotics started.

I came home to find this going on.

Let me back up a minute. We have piles of dirt (that we paid good money for) in our backyard, waiting to be shoveled into various places in the backyard. We have tried to be diligent in keeping the kids off these piles because 1) flat piles are harder to deal with and 2) with the protective "crust" broken the dirt we paid for blows in the wind to the neighbor's house. They didn't pay for the dirt. Keeping the kids off these piles has been no easy task. The backyard is a very S-L-O-W project so they've been there for a while. Plus who doesn't want to play 'king of the mountain' now and again? So to see my children shoveling willy nilly in one of these piles caused panic. I calmly asked Greg if they were being helpful or a pain. He turned to see them shoveling and said they were being a huge help. Apparently, they'd taken over my job of filling the buckets to be taken to the higher tiers of planters. And they were doing a fine job and even somewhat quickly. So daddy found himself some little helpers! Unlike some jobs where they help for a little bit, then go screaming for the swing set, they stuck with this one for the long haul. They woke up bright and early Sunday morning to help shovel some more. Later in the day we went to the plant nursery to get plants for the highest tier with a gift certificate. They tried to help plant those, but digging in the highest tier is like digging through a rock. They got pooped and a little pissy. When I came home from the grocery store, they were showered, jammied, and watching t.v. while Greg finished.