It’s always nice for us when the 4th of July falls near the beginning or end of the week. We don’t have any family in town, so if it is near a weekend, either we or they can make a 3 day weekend out of it and take a trip. This weekend, Jason’s mom and dad came to visit us.

They drove up yesterday, and brought A a sandbox as a gift for his first birthday. It is very nice. They even bought sand that feels like beach sand! WOW! I want to go play in there once the kids are in bed. K seems to have made more use of it than A has so far. A sat in it yesterday for a while and then started eating the sand. Once he got tired of that, he was tired of the sandbox. K, however, was happy to play in there all afternoon and again this morning for almost the entire morning.

Part of the reason that they stayed overnight is that we are still trying to do a few odds and ends jobs around our house, and sometimes those jobs are easier with a second set of hands. This morning, Jason and his dad worked on installing a fan in our main bathroom. This afternoon, they worked on building a compost bin. Jason found the plans for the bin on Lowe’s website, and I have to say it is much bigger, nicer, and sturdier than I anticipated. We will have to do some serious composting though with this thing.

Jason and his dad were only able to finish about half of the compost bin project. It said that it was a five hour project on the plans, but I think if I were helping, I could easily help them turn it into a ten or twenty hour project. Just think of the family togetherness that could result from that help! So, now the bin is in our garage with the rest of the lumber waiting to be finished. In fact, those things are right next to and on the cement pavers that we will be using in our next big project of re-landscaping the front of the house. That project may have to wait for our next long weekend…Labor Day!

Happy 4th of July!