A picture is worth 480 words

Oh the insights to be gained and tales to be told from one simple photo.

The colors are intoxicating. The gradient of the sky from horizon's baby soft hue to the deep royal blue above. The electric green of the grass, so refreshing after winter's beige. Yellow blooms and orange-brown dirt. Beautiful.

Oh, that dirt. Over the last few weeks, you could practically hear it soaking up every drop of rain that has fallen. And plenty of rain has indeed fallen by God's mercy. It waits for us, that precious spot of land. If all holds together, seeds will be planted on Monday.

The forsythia needs a haircut. That fella is huge. There are days I wish I knew more about caring for plants. What a blessing that this is one of many plants on our property that just can't die, no matter what I do to them.

And my boys. So very happy to be outside in the warmth of spring. Somehow, out here they don't need to fight. They are utterly free to run and tumble and explore and imagine and have no compulsion whatsoever to injure each other. Not the case indoors. And so I am thankful for this new season. And thankful for this outing, where not one single negative word was spoken.

Trey Isaiah is totally rocking the highwaters. Bless his heart, and I take full responsibility for it. Certainly it falls under a mother's job description to, when possible, protect her child from embarrassment. But come on, we are thisclose to shorts weather.

And Aden Levi. He is broad and strong, so very strong. Besides height, the size difference between him and Trey is becoming negligible. His body seems to be catching up to his opinion that he and Trey are the same age.

Here, obviously, we were hunting Easter eggs. In probably 20mph sustained winds. Which I remember doing last year as well.

We took turns, but in this photo Trey was the hider. Of course, he took complete charge of Aden's search, guiding Aden to where more eggs might be hidden, and then just completely taking over the hunt when Aden thought he was done, but Trey insisted there were more eggs to be found.

During this escapade, the three of us picked up four ticks. Tiniest things you've ever seen. And terribly foreboding about how the summer could go. Trey panics at the mere mention of ticks.

So there you go. The wordy photo.

And just because I can, a few more moments from our egg hunt, which turned into an egg race on the trailer, which turned into Aden trying to show Trey how much fun it is to hurl oneself off the side of the trailer, which Trey ended up backing out of, which of course happened just after my phone told me I couldn't take any more photos.