April 6

I ordered new seedlings for the hydroponic garden this afternoon, so it seemed logical that I start the process of clearing out the existing, mostly overgrown and underproductive plants. 

Isaac had already picked and chopped up some green onion for his nachos, and was actively bagging up the leftovers for later use when I got to work. As I started to wrangle with a particularly stubborn arugula vine, he asked if he could taste a leaf. So I handed him one, and he nibbled an edge. I'm not much on arugula in general --and the one in my garden is very, very spicy-- but he said he liked it, so I plucked leaves and flowers (because did you know the flowers are actually pretty tasty? The flavor is similar but much milder than the leaves) for him to bag up.

He also said he wanted to save some cilantro, so I trimmed several sections for him and put them on the counter. And then Brady appeared and asked if he could bag up parsley. And when he'd finished with that task, he sat down by the garden and pruned an entire large bowl's worth of lettuce. 

So thanks to their efforts, the fridge is now stocked with lots of greens. 

It's the first weekday of Spring Break and it's true that neither of them has any plans, but I was still pleased that they wanted to help with such a practical, arguably mundane task. They're good boys, and I'm thankful to be their mom.