Jalosky Weekly – Volume 10 – Gardening, Water Play, and Bird Nests

It’s the simple things in life that end up being the best. The smallest details can teach us the biggest lessons. For example, if a bird builds a nest on a very loose and easily shaken blind that frequently is in the path of high wind, you should probably take it down as soon as you notice it. A wise bird builds his nest upon a steady and firm object. It’s a shame that doesn’t rhyme.

I made it to volume 10 of Jalosky Weekly! If you’ve been following along our weekly adventures, thank you for continuing to stop by! Do me a favor and leave me a comment to let me know you’re reading along! And if you missed any of the volumes, you can go back here.

Gardening Birds Nest

The sun shone bright this week. We had many glorious and very warm days. In fact, it felt like the weather just kept on surprising us all week. We took a leisurely walk this week. We stopped to look at all of the blooming flowers and trees, picked dandelions at the park, ran around in the empty ball field while dodging deer droppings, tossed around some sticks, and drank lots and lots of water. The temps rose into the 80’s this week! Can you believe that? April sure has been weird.

Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest

Jonathan’s grandparents were in from out of town, visiting his mom in the hospital, and they stopped for a visit on their way back home. Alethea and Layla were THRILLED to see them in our home! The last time they were down here in PA, Alethea was only about 2 months old. We have gone to see them a few times up in New York, the most recent time being this past November. Alethea just loves them so much. She enjoys facetiming them on occasion and has asked when we can go to their house again, several times. Trying to explain a near 6 hour car ride to a 3 year old is tough. But we had a wonderful visit with them this week!

Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest

I decided to take the initiative and mow the lawn this week. Jonathan usually enjoys doing that, but he’s been quite busy lately and has been so tired in the evenings. So I did it. We have one of those “old fashioned” reel push mowers. It’s not old by any means though. We bought it when we moved in here because our property is so small, we figured there wasn’t much reason to buy a gas-powered mower. The only downside to a reel mower is that you have to do all the work. It doesn’t just move on its own while you walk, you really have to push it. Up hill. Down hill. Layla took a nap while I did that and Alethea ran around in the back yard with me.

Then, Alethea decided I was taking too long, so she decided to walk/run up the stairs alongside our house, and fell. She had already fallen once earlier in the week and scraped her knee. So she had bandaids on. She brushed this fall off though and just sat on the stairs until I finished.

Gardening Birds Nest

We got inside and I realized she was bleeding through her bandaids! She had two pretty big gashes in her knee. Poor girl didn’t even realize because of the bandaids she already had on. She did not enjoy the process of cleaning that up, and I didn’t have any bandaids big enough to cover both gashes. So I had to make a make shift bandaid. She thought that was great, but unfortunately, the gauze stuck to the cut and when she had to take it off for bedtime, it was very painful. So we switched back to regular bandaids at that point.

Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest

Layla got a new water table for her birthday and we’ve been dying to try it out! Jonathan got it all put together this week and the girls had a BLAST. So did I because they literally just stood there and played forever. I didn’t have to continually chase Layla all around the yard. It was so nice and relaxing for me and so much fun for them. Win. Win.

Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest

We took a spontaneous ice cream trip to Kerber’s Dairy one night. Alethea just wanted purple ice cream and Jonathan was thrilled because the only purple ice cream they had was Black Raspberry – his favorite. And she thinks it’s just delicious. Layla kept going back and forth between us all to get as many bites of ice cream as she could. Haha. I am partial to the Oreo Cheesecake ice cream that they make, and I also tried some of their Salty Caramel! It was SO YUMMY! The two flavors went really well together.

Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest

I did some gardening this week. I know it’s a little early, but this is more of an experiment to see if I can get some forget me nots to grow. I’ve never been successful. So I planted some in the back yard this time. Time will tell.

Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest

We spent all day on Saturday doing tasks around the house and playing outside. We washed and swept our cars out too and by the time we finished, it was time for dinner and I hadn’t made anything. Oops. So we decided to try out somewhere new! We headed down to Candy’s Corner Cafe in downtown Irwin. It was another one of the restaurants that opened during the pandemic. It looks so tiny on the outside but once you’re inside, it’s actually quite big! We enjoyed the food so much and will definitely return!

Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest

Layla has surprised us all and slept through every night this week. It has been glorious! Finally. I have very little faith that this will last much longer, but man, I have enjoyed not being startled awake every night. In fact, I didn’t even wake up at least twice this week when Jonathan got up to get ready for work. Slept right on through until he came to kiss me good morning and goodbye.

Gardening Birds Nest
Gardening Birds Nest

This week is not going to be quite as warm, but I hope we still have just as much fun outdoors!

Stay tuned for a fun new engagement on the blog tomorrow!

Love Deeply. Live Passionately.

Ellen

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Ellen Jalosky

Photography

White Oak, PA