It's turning out to be a nice day...

What better thing is there to do on Mother's Day than to go cicada hunting with my kids? Finley quickly got the hang of holding the jar, then knocking the bugs into it with her stick. Joe wasn't quite as brave, so I had to hold his jar for him while he hit at the cicada with his stick. Z was my personal bug spotter, just the right height to find the newly emerged cicadas hanging in the tall grass.

After we got tired of the hunt, over we went to the chicken coop where we dumped them inside and watched a feeding frenzy ensue. We are doing our part in Marshall County to reduce the magnitude of Cicada Brood XIX.

Here they come!

Z's First Ever Haircut

Today, I finally cut the mullet out of Z's hair.

Before:

After:

A Few Thoughts on Motherhood

There's nothing like Mother's Day to help point out how flawed I am as a mother. This week, as I was talking in an exasperated fashion to (also known as 'yelling at') Finley, I opened her backpack to find a Mother's day card she had made at school. Finley had carefully colored it various shades of green (my favorite color). Boy, did that make me feel lousy.

Joe, who up to this point is generally considered a well behaved child by those outside of the family, bit Finley (hard) on the arm. In Sunday School, of all places. He is a good kid, really. He just needs to learn how to handle frustration properly. Okay, so maybe I do, too.

But Mother's Day is coming, so I will try not to be too hard on myself, because my mom says I'm doing a good job.

Can you see it?

Asparagus! Today, I noticed the first two shoots have emerged from the roots I planted a few weeks ago. I would be lying if I said that when I planted them, I couldn't wait until the day I could harvest some... But really, I planted them because I wasn't sure that the asparagus my mother planted in her sad-looking soil would survive; and since she loves asparagus, I wanted some for her. Sure, I could handle a spear or two, but I honestly couldn't say that I would have been thrilled with a huge pile on my plate.

But then it was Easter, and Andi had asparagus roasted in butter, salt, pepper, and lemon zest. Wow. Suddenly, the two or three years I am supposed to wait until harvesting seems like a long, long time.