Jelly Bean Tree

Okay. So I have a new goal. It's simple. Just one word.

Blog.

Yep. I've been...well...preoccupied. I could easily be blogging every other night, but I've chosen a different way to utilize my computer/personal time. Do you remember me confessing that I wrote a book? Well, I did. And it's quite done now. By 'quite done', I mean I'm in the final stages of getting it published. And by 'published', I mean self published via the internet for e-readers. After more denials than I care to admit from agents, I am trying something different. Anyhow, as this post isn't supposed to be about this, I'll just sum up by saying that I've spent my evenings getting it ready and decided it was more important than blogging. On to the real post now.

Abby is by far my most creative kid. She comes up with some really fun and strange ways to play or spend her time. Right around jelly bean season (Easter), Abby decided that she wanted to grow a jelly bean tree. She marches to the beat of her own drum, that girl. So I just smiled. What I didn't know at the time, was that she actually meant to accomplish this impossible feat. She went out and planted one white jelly bean in the yard. A couple of weeks went by and wouldn't you know it. A plant grew in that very exact place. When it came time to mow the yard, she reminded me not to mow over her Jelly Bean Tree. I smiled again and complied. What were the odds that a plant would actually grow in that same exact spot that she planted that jelly bean? It had to be winning-the-lottery odds. It grew. And it grew. And it grew...into a curly dock weed.

Abby and her Jelly Bean Tree.

"They smell like jelly beans, mom!"

She was convinced that those tiny seeds growing on top would turn into jelly beans and pop out one day. So in an attempt to support her wildly imaginative theory, I went along with it. Also, I needed to cut it down before those seeds spread across my whole yard. So I told her that if she lays out bowls under a Jelly Bean Tree, that legend says, when the first sun on a summer morning touches the plant, jelly bean fruit will fall.

Getting ready for the harvest.

She was super excited and she went out to place bowls under her tree. The next morning, she woke up and went out to find her magical surprise. Jelly beans! Some of them fell on the ground and were ruined. But her bowls had plenty of "fruit" in them and she gathered her booty up and ran inside to have a jelly bean breakfast. She even shared them with her brother! What a sweetie!

Her bounty of tasty fruits!

So Abby's Jelly Bean Tree was one of the most creative things she's done so far. The funniest part was when Josh realized that I kept not mowing down the giant weed in our yard. When he asked why and I explained it to him, I don't think I've ever seen him smile so wide at something so random. His only words were, "What were the odds of that?" Abby - that girl makes me smile. I will miss having her around all day when school starts. Yep. I truly will.