Momentous Monday

Tiffany over at A Moment Cherished is now hosting
Momentous Monday, a chance for all of us to cherish everyday moments. Please check out her beautiful blog for more precious moments.

Yesterday afternoon I had completely given up on having something to write about this morning. Could it be? A whole week and not one moment stood out, no matter how small. My husband was gone to help his father and the Teen was at his dad's so I decided to take some to do some weeding while thinking this over.

And then I came across this:

A three-year-old air soft pellet. A memory of the pre-surly teen times with the boy.

One of the things that I loved about this house when we bought it three years ago was the yard. It's a nice sized yard and had very well-maintained landscaping, a pristine lawn, and beautiful mature trees. A single man lived here before us and clearly he had taken great care of the yard.

That first summer I strived to maintain. I fussed over the lawn and the gardens, trying to keep everything just so. Then the Teen (who was only 12 at the time) came home with an air soft gun and shot millions of little plastic pellets into the yard.

Dare I admit I was mad?

 At the time I was so concerned with having plastic pellets in the yard that I failed to enjoy the time with the boy. I was so focused on appearances that I forgot what was important.

I also forgot about that incident until today when I saw that single air soft pellet, still laying where it landed three years ago.

One boy, one tornado, and three dogs have changed things.

The lawn now has dog spots.

We now have a yard full of baby trees since the tornado two years ago claimed the mature ones.

There are weeds in the landscaping.

And air soft pellets are still everywhere.

I realized in that single moment today that life is lived here. Memories are being made in this home that will last a lot longer than a perfect yard. The weeds will grow back, but kids are only young once. The memories of air soft wars in the backyard will last a lifetime but the lawn will need to be mowed again next week.